In our continuation of the study of the book of Daniel we now come to, Daniel Chapter 9 Commentary: Daniel 9 Predicts Jesus’ Coming
Click here to go to the previous study – Prophecy of Daniel 8: The Cleansing of the Sanctuary Pt 2
Daniel Chapter 9 Commentary: Predicts Jesus’ Coming
Daniel 9:1-3: In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
Medo-Persia now rules the world. Daniel believes that the time is near for the Jews to be given their liberty to return to Jerusalem. Though he is himself a prophet of God, he humbly studies the prophecies of Jeremiah to learn what the Lord has said (Jeremiah 25:11, 12; 29:1, 10). “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Corinthians 14:32). No prophet can be too proud to study the Bible!
The time for the final deliverance of God’s people from this world of sin is just before us! Where are the Daniels of our day who are earnestly searching the Scriptures with fasting and humiliation, seeking God for light and guidance? Those who follow Daniel’s example will be taught of God through His Word, and by His Spirit. You are called to be among them.
Daniel’s Prayer in Daniel Chapter 9
Daniel 9:4, 5: And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments.
We too are living in a time when it seems that the church of Christ is thwarted and baffled on every side, as the Jews were troubled during their captivity in Babylon. It will not help for us to begin to accuse one another, “to smite” our fellow servants (Matthew 24:48-50) in fault-finding. Better let us do as Daniel did: though he was a man with whom even his enemies could find no fault, he took the sins of Israel upon himself, as it were, and confessed them as his sins. “We” have sinned, he says. “We” have done iniquity; “we” have rebelled.
We are told: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). By taking his people’s sins upon himself, Daniel was experiencing a repentance for the sins of others, as though they were his sins (he had not joined in their apostasy!).
This is the kind of repentance that Jesus experienced on our behalf. When He came to John the Baptist requesting baptism, John refused Him, for he knew that Jesus was sinless. But Jesus had to explain to him that He has come as “the Lamb of God” taking upon Himself the sins of the entire human race. He is to “be made sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
John was not permitted to baptize anyone except “for repentance.” This repentance that Jesus experienced on our behalf was corporate repentance—repenting for the sins of others, putting Himself in our place. As soon as we begin confessing “our” sin as Daniel did, realizing that the sin of others would be our sin but for the grace of Christ, revival, and refreshing of the Holy Spirit will sweep through God’s people. In verse 23 of this chapter we note that “at the beginning” of his supplication, the angel was sent to help him. Likewise, at the beginning of a heartbroken prayer of humble confession on our part, help will be sent to us.
Daniel 9:6-10: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou has driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
Prayer Of Confession Must Be Specific – Daniel Chapter 9 Commentary
The Lord is not pleased with a confession of sin which is not to the point. Merely for one to say “I have sinned” is not enough. The sinner must be specific, “confess that he hath sinned in that thing” (Leviticus 5:5). Then he can understand fully the nature of his sin or rebellion, and can repent truly.
Daniel understands the deep-dyed sin of rebellion that has ruined his people. Particularly he confesses how they have refused to listen to the prophets who warned them in the name of the Lord.
The “spirit of prophecy” is the “testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 19:10). To refuse, or to neglect, to listen to the prophets is to despise the word of Jesus. The ruin that befell ancient Israel in Daniel’s day is a pillar of fire still burning in the sky. It is an everlasting warning to every one of us, urging us today to heed and obey the messages of God’s true prophets. “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper” (2 Chronicles 20:20).
Daniel 9:11-14: Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
How often, when calamity or failure overtakes us, we are led to doubt God’s love and watchcare, or His faithfulness. Those who are always ready to blame other people for their troubles will usually try to blame God also!
When someone has passed from death unto life (1 John 3:14) he begins to look into his own heart and understand his own sin, rather than blame someone else. It is those who are blind spiritually who cannot see their own weakness and sin. The blind invariably fall into the ditch (Matthew 15:14). What a blessed gift to us is the Holy Spirit, whose first kind of work is to open our eyes to our own faults and sins, so that we can be healed (John 16:8).
Israel’s calamities did not lead Daniel to doubt God’s faithfulness, but strengthened his faith in God. He observed how the Lord “watched upon the evil and brought it upon us” (verse 14). If God is so faithful to bring upon His people the curses He has promised them in return for their unfaithfulness (read Deuteronomy 28:15-68 to see the prophecy to which Daniel referred), He will be no less faithful to bring upon them the blessings He has promised for their faithfulness! “There are more blessings in God’s curses than in man’s benedictions.”
Daniel 9:15-19: And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies, O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Daniel pleads a reason that at present moves only a few of God’s people to pray. Not for their own personal or selfish benefit, but that the Lord’s name may be honored and glorified before the world, Daniel pleads that the Lord may have mercy upon Jerusalem. Moses used the same argument in pleading for Israel (Numbers 14:11-19). As we near the end, this paradigm shift in motivation will more and more impress God’s people.
Daniel evidently thinks that the vision concerning the sanctuary (chapter 8:14) refers to the restoration of the old sanctuary service at Jerusalem at the end of 2300 literal days. Now the angel comes to instruct him clearly that the vision is for the latter days, not for his days long ago.
Notice Daniel’s concern for the Lord’s “sanctuary that is desolate.” The only part of the “vision” of chapter 8 that the angel had not explained was that part about the 2300 days when the sanctuary should be cleansed. Can the Lord refuse to answer such an earnest, humble prayer as this? Of course not! Help is on the way. Daniel’s questions will soon be answered. And don’t forget, the Lord loves you as much as He loved Daniel. He hears your prayers, too. The angel is as ready to explain it to you.
Daniel 9 Commentary: Angel Gabriel Comes Down In Answer To Daniel’s Prayer
Daniel 9:20-23: And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications, the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
Can we now have a doubt, that the Lord hears prayer? Does He notice the wants of His humble child? No sooner does Daniel’s prayer begin to ascend to heaven, than the command is issued to the mighty angel to “fly swiftly” to his help! There is no loitering in the “offices” of Heaven. “The first faint whisper of want by the child of God is instantly lodged upon the throne.” Swifter than an e-mail, the answer comes “as the appearance of a flash of lightning” (Ezekiel 1:14). Trembling child, have faith in God!
What made Daniel to be “greatly beloved”? Does God have some favorite people whom He loves more than others? No, for Christ gave His blood for all of us equally. He did something for the entire human race. He has redeemed us all. If He died to save the world, He has given the gift of salvation to the world—but it’s a gift that has to be received by faith. By His sacrifice on His cross, the Son of God has given the gift of justification to “every man,” but you can do like Esau did who “had” the “birthright” but” despised” it and “sold” it (Genesis 25:33, 34; Hebrews 12:16, 17). Paul makes clear that what Christ did for humanity was more than make them a mere “offer.” Five times in one short passage he declares that Christ gave us a “free gift” of justification (Romans 5:14-18).
Daniel believed this “Good News” and chose to respond. For him Christ’s legal justification became the experience of justification by faith. This is what made him obedient. What the angel says to Daniel, he says to you also. Besides, saying, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” say, “God so loved me. …”
Angel Gabriel Explains The Vision To Daniel
What “matter,” what “vision,” is the angel to explain to Daniel? It is a vision that Daniel has already received, for the angel commands him, “Understand the matter, and consider the vision.” Other than the vision of chapter 8, which the angel was never able to finish explaining to Daniel, because he fainted (Daniel 8:27). All had been satisfactorily explained at that time, except the strange word about the “two thousand three hundred days,” and the sanctuary being cleansed. The angel now begins where he left off in chapter 8, verse 26.
Daniel 9:24: Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
The word “determined” means in biblical Hebrew to be “cut off.” “Seventy weeks” are therefore cut off of the 2300 days, and are given to the Jews as their last opportunity, as a nation, for repentance.
Each week contains seven days; and 70 times 7 equals 490. Each day is a symbol of a year in Bible prophecy (see Ezekiel 4:6; Numbers 14:34); thus, we have 490 years “cut off of the 2300 years as a special opportunity for Daniel’s people. (The Hebrew clearly says “weeks,” and most scholars see literal years here, thus confirming the year-day application.)
During these 490 years, some wonderful things are to take place:
“to finish transgressions;”
“to make an end of sins;” and
“to make reconciliation for iniquity.”
God will give His people opportunity to fill up the cup of their iniquity, climaxing thousands of years of rebellion by their murder of the Son of God. But His death will not only complete their full measure of “transgressions;” it will “make an end of sins and make reconciliation for iniquity, “and bring in everlasting righteousness.” And the heavenly sanctuary, including the Most Holy Place, is to be “anointed” or consecrated by the inauguration of the true High Priest, Christ Himself.
The desire of every true Jewish woman was to be the mother of this Messiah. Whenever a baby boy was born, the relatives would gather hoping he might become the Savior. Now, at last, He was to come, “in the fulness of the time” (Galatians 4:4).
As the moon reflects the light of the glorious sun, so the sacrificial services of the Jewish temple reflected the glory of the redeeming work of Christ. But the offerings of animals were only a symbol, or a type. The Lamb of God must Himself come at the end of the 490 years. His blood “is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). His coming as Savior truly brings in “everlasting righteousness” to all who believe, and receive Him into their hearts.
How happy Daniel must have been to hear these blessed words of hope! The gospel is at last coming into its own. After so many long ages of darkness and bitter sin, wretched man is to have a mighty Hand extended to lift Him up from his pit of ruin. The reason why Jesus asked us especially to “read” Daniel “whoso readeth let him understand,” (Matthew 24:15) is that special insights to understand the gospel are embedded in Daniel.
Daniel Chapter 9 Predicts The Exact Year of Jesus Coming
Daniel 9:25: Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
Now we see the event which marks the beginning of both the 490 years and 2300 years together: “the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” at the end of the Jews’ captivity in Babylon. When did this “decree” go forth? Fortunately, this actual decree has been preserved for us in the wisdom of God. It is found in Ezra 7:11-26. This decree gives full and complete permission for the restoration of the city and the temple services. It is the only decree which fulfills the prophecy. The date when this decree was given was the year 457 B.C.
It is marvelous how the years prophesied by the angel are found to be exactly right in history. “Seven weeks,” or 49 years, were allotted to building the city and the wall. Exactly on time, 49 years later, brings us to the events of the 13th chapter of Nehemiah, when the city and the wall were re-built and the people consecrated. This would be the year 408 B.C.
Unto the coming of “Messiah the Prince,” or Christ, shall be a further sixty-two weeks, or sixty-nine weeks all together. Sixty-nine weeks of years is 483 years. In other words, Christ should make His appearance before Israel as the “anointed One” at His baptism exactly 483 years after the going forth of the commandment to rebuild and restore Jerusalem in 457 B.C. This is what the angel revealed to Daniel.
These 483 years end in the year 27 A.D. Luke tells us what happened in that year: “It came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art My beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:21,22).
Immediately after He began His ministry, Jesus began preaching boldly, “The gospel of the kingdom, and saying, The time is fulfilled” (Mark 1:14, 15). Surely Jesus was calling attention to this wonderful fulfillment of this time prophecy of Daniel 9:25! The long-looked-for Messiah had come. The people would have known if their pastors had been faithful in teaching them.
Daniel 9:26: And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
The Jews who sinned so grievously before being taken captive to Babylon did much worse than their fathers who had rejected and murdered the prophets of old. They “cut off,” murdered, the Messiah who had come to save them! “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). But He was not “cut off for Himself. He had no sin of His own. He died for others. He Himself did no sin, nothing worthy of death. Even the pagan Pilate said of Him, “I find no fault in Him at all.” He was cut off for our sins (Isaiah 53:8).
Gabriel precisely foretells the very time when the Messiah should be slain by the people. Notice the next verse:
Daniel 9:27: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
We have already considered sixty-nine weeks of the seventy. During the last week of seven years, the Messiah Himself and His apostles shall labor one last time to save the Jewish nation. In the midst of that “week” of seven years, Christ shall be lifted upon the cross as the sacrifice for sins, and “He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” In other words, the earthly services in the sanctuary were to come to an end (Hebrews 10:4-9).
Half of seven is three and one-half. Jesus’ ministry lasted for exactly three and one-half years, at the close of which He was crucified. This we can be sure of by a careful study of the four gospels. Evidence is clear that He was baptized in the autumn of 27 A.D., and was crucified at the time of His fourth Passover, an event which always comes in the spring. Reliable evidence places our Lord’s crucifixion in the spring of the year 31 A.D. A Roman Consul, Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, is reported to have written: “In the consulate of Tiberius Caesar Aug. V and Aelius Sejanus (A.D. 31) our Lord Jesus Christ suffered, on the 8th of the Calends of April (25th of March) when there happened such an eclipse of the sun as was never before or since.”
For the remainder of the seven years mercy still lingered over the hard-hearted Jewish nation. The Lord did not condemn them because they crucified the Son of God. But they finally condemned themselves because they refused to repent of that sin!
The Gospel Goes To The Gentiles – Daniel 9 Commentary
For three and one-half years more the apostles preached only to the Jews. Jesus Himself commanded them, “Go not unto the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:5,6). They were to be witnesses of Him first of all in Jerusalem and in all Judea (Acts 1:8), and only later to Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth. Thus He should “confirm the covenant with many for one week,” seven years.
Three and one-half years from the crucifixion (“the midst of the week”) bring us to the autumn of 34 A.D. In that year the Jewish nation finally and completely rejected the gracious appeal of the Holy Spirit, by murdering Stephen (Acts 7). They did not realize that what they were doing was a fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. Their 490 years of opportunity were “cut off.”
Heaven’s gracious call had been despised unto the last. So bitter is the sin of pride and unbelief. Henceforth we find the apostles declaring to the Jews, “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46).
Marvelous has been the work that the Holy Spirit of God has done among the “Gentiles” since that day. Among every “kindred, tongue and people,” the glad tidings of the Savior who came “to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,” is being proclaimed. But not forever will the door of mercy remain thus open. Soon the last opportunity will be offered to all the inhabitants of the earth. There will be a “consummation,” an “end thereof … with a flood.”
When Jesus was crucified, the great temple was forsaken by God forever. “Your house is left unto you desolate,” Jesus said, though the Jews realized it not. The veil that separated the most holy apartment from the holy apartment was rent from top to bottom by an unseen hand (Matthew 23:38; 27:51).
The “sacrifice and oblation” ceased with the offering once for all of the Lamb of God as the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, though the empty forms were carried on for a few more years by the unbelieving Jews. Finally, in 70 A.D., the “people of the prince that shall come,” the Roman soldiers, arrived and completely destroyed both the city of Jerusalem and the splendid Temple, and its end was “with a flood and … desolations.”
We are living in the sunset hour of our opportunity. Soon the work of judgment, represented by the “cleansing of the sanctuary,” will be forever completed. Soon the Lamb of God, who has become our Great High Priest and Intercessor in the heavenly sanctuary, will minister His blood for the cleansing and saving of the last repentant and believing human soul.
A little longer the Lord graciously waits, “is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9). Won’t you come to the Savior, while there is time? “Behold, now is the accepted time” (2 Corinthians 6:2). The very last page of the Bible emphasizes the invitation: “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).
No man, not even the angels in heaven, knows the day or the hour when the High Priest will complete His labor as Savior from sin (see Matthew 24:36). In that day, men will continue in their daily business as did the men of Noah’s day, and Lot’s day. “As in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:38, 39).
While I am writing these lines, while you are reading them, might come that solemn hour that fixes our eternal destiny. Shall we not pray that we may be “accounted worthy?” through Jesus Christ our Lord? (Luke 21:36).
Click here to go to the next study – Prophecy of Daniel chapter 10 Commentary: Why Prayers often Seem Unanswered.
