Daniel 9, starting with verse 24, verse 24 to 27. Please now give full attention. This is the word of God. Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, that should be 70 weeks. And then for 62 weeks, it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with the flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed, and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. and on the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. So far the reading of God’s word, may he add his blessing upon it now, and the preaching. Well, we have to remember the context and the setting of what’s going on as we enter this last portion of chapter nine, and you’ll recall that The context in the setting of this answer to Daniel’s prayer is the first half of chapter nine. And it was there, you’ll recall, that Daniel was reading and reflecting upon Jeremiah’s prophecy, that Israel would go into exile for 70 years, and Daniel was looking and longing for those 70 years to be finished. Pardon me, I need a few different glasses. So there’s these 70 years, right, that Daniel’s wanting and desiring and praying that the Lord would come and wrap up and bring his people back, restore Israel, restore the people to Israel, to the land and the reconstruction of the temple. And Daniel understands also the reason that God’s people are in exile in the first place, right? It’s a violation of that Mosaic law, that covenant made with Moses, that the people made with the Lord rather. And he also understands that in this law, covenant, the promise of restoration after the exile was promised as well when the people repented of their sins. Deuteronomy 30 verse three, Deuteronomy 33, says the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. And so Daniel prays for his and his people’s sins, for repentance for those sins, and he confesses sins, and for that result, the result of that, the restoration of Israel to the land and the reconstruction of the temple in that land. And this is the context of God’s answer to that prayer. Once again, verse 24, 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and profit, and to anoint the most holy place. And Gabriel says what? He says that 70 weeks or 77 is what it says literally. Many English Bibles translate that weeks because a week has seven days, right? But Gabriel says for 70 weeks, they are decreed about Israel and Jerusalem. And an appropriate question that we have to ask when we come across is to ask why 70 weeks? Why 70 weeks? Is this the first time that we encounter this inscription? Where does this come from? And remember, when we’re studying scripture, it’s good that we, when we encounter something, to be looking back and to be looking forward, right? Retrospectively and prospectively. And when do we find a seven in scripture, right? A creation, of course, the first time. God gave a seven-day week, right? Work for six and then rest on the seventh. And then as history goes forward, this actually works its way into Israel’s calendar, right? They work the land for six years and then they rest on the seventh, right? That’s the sabbatical year. Of course, that’s where we get the term when a teacher or a pastor takes a sabbatical, right? It’s time off. And this pattern of six years and then one rest year reflects that seven day work week, right? It echoes throughout as we go. And we also must remember is that within this pattern of sevens, right? Seven day work week, a seven year work cycle, Israel was also to observe, you’ll remember, a seven year work cycle for seven cycles. Remember that? Seven cycles. For 49 years, the seven year cycle, this was to be observed. And then at the end of that 49 years, the people were to observe, what do you remember? The year of Jubilee, right? The 50th year. And this is important for us to understand Daniel chapter nine in his prophecy of 70 weeks. When we do so, it helps us, it keeps us from disconnecting scripture, right? And we have to remember that the data of scripture are not like so many Legos loose in a box, but rather they build something, they link together, they fit gloriously in perfect harmony. They’re connected as a unit. We read about this in Leviticus chapter 25. It says this, you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years. so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you 49 years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the 10th day of the seventh month. On the day of atonement, you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land and you shall consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a year, a jubilee for you when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. And so you see this pattern laid out for us. Rest every seventh day, rest every seventh year. And on the 50th year, they were to celebrate a year of jubilee. And it was to be a year of liberty and restoration and freedom and rest from all their labors. If you were a slave, you were set free on that year. If you had sold your land, the land was returned to you. It was supposed to be a year of rest and celebration. And this is the history and reality of God’s people. And so when we come to Daniel 9, verse 24, it’s not the first time that this stuff comes up, right? We’ve encountered it before. It’s ingrained in the DNA of God’s people. Daniel here is asking and praying for the restoration of the people to the land and the reconstruction of that temple. It’s what he’s longing for and he prays. And that this would come about by the people’s obedience. That there would be no sin, that they would enable them to return to the land. And what does God say in answer to Daniel’s prayer? How does he answer him? Through Gabriel, that everything that has brought Israel into exile, their sin, their wickedness, God is saying in answer to that prayer, yes, these things will end. There will be no more sin. There will be an atonement for sin and righteousness will last forever. Daniel’s prayer is being answered, and God is telling him that the restoration of which Gabriel speaks would be permanent, would be permanent. Gabriel then gives him details about these things, the means and the timing about how this will take place. And he says that there will be a decree issued to rebuild Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple, and that there will be an anointed one, a Messiah that will come and will do this. Right? The word goes forth. It’s a decree. It’s a command. It’s a word. And that the period between the issuing of the decree and the coming of the anointed one will be seven weeks, right? Seven times seven, 49. I know math is hard. I gave it up when I got saved, but these numbers are important, right? We can grasp them if we pay attention. And we know what happens at the end of that 49th year. Remember, what was it? The year of Jubilee. And I don’t think we should take these years literally, but symbolically. Scripture often uses numbers symbolically. We all know this, right? Think of the Gospels. How many times should I forgive my brother? 70 times seven, right? It’s not limiting. It means always. Or in the Decalogue of the Ten Commandments, remember it says, that God shows steadfast love to a thousand generations for those who love me and keep my commandments, right? Not literal. He doesn’t stop after that generation, right? All those that love him and keep his commandments, he’ll show steadfast love to. The point is that after this period of time, the pattern that’s ingrained in scripture says what will follow, and that’s the Jubilee. And Gabriel tells Daniel in this that there will be a Jubilee period where the temple’s rebuilt and the people are back in the land, the Holy Land. And he says that this will come by an anointed one, the word Messiah. And we can learn about when this jubilee will occur from the book, the last book in the Old Testament canon, by the Hebrew ordering, the Chronicles, right? Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, chapter 36. And in speaking of Jerusalem’s capture and destruction, the chronicler says, and Daniel, of course, was one of these exiles about which this speaks. Chronicles says this, 2 Chronicles 36, 20. He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah. Until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths, all the days that it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years. Verse 22. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing. Right here it is, proclamation and decree, the word went out. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, a house, a temple is the same word, which is in Judah, whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him, let him go up, right? So 2 Chronicles is imperative, critical for us in understanding Daniel 9, particularly verse 25. The Chronicle says that to make up for the Sabbath years that were ignored and never observed, Israel was in captivity so that they could be restored. And it says that at the end of this 70-year exile, Cyrus decreed what? That Jerusalem and the temple be rebuilt. A tool in the hand of the Lord, right? And the first part of Daniel 9 chapter 25 is fulfilled when the decree of Cyrus, right, when he decrees the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Listen again, verse 25. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. This refers, of course, we just heard, to the decree of Cyrus. Well, how can that be, right? How can that be? How can we know this? It says an anointed, right, a Messiah. Isn’t that Christ? Cyrus is a Gentile. How can we know this? How can I say this? Well, if you’d like to turn or just listen, Isaiah 45, Isaiah 45 provides an answer for us. Isaiah 45 one says this, thus says the Lord, to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, and to subdue the nations before him, and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him, that gates may not be closed. Right? Let’s read verse, again, first part of verse one. Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, right? Isaiah is called Cyrus and anointed. and anointed. And Daniel 25 says he, Cyrus, gives the word, issues the decree, the command to return and to rebuild Jerusalem, the temple. And then following that 62 week period, in verse 26, it says, and after that 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. Right? So we see that there’s a total of 69 symbolic weeks, right? One, seven, and then 62. And in the last of the weeks, the seventh week, it says, an anointed one will be cut off. Who is this Messiah that Daniel sees and hears about in verse 26? Who is cut off? This Messiah, this anointed one, is none other than Jesus Christ. Daniel is told by Gabriel, that there is this symbolic 70 weeks, and it begins with the decree to rebuild this temple, this type, this shadow of Christ that’s found up in Cyrus. Cyrus is the one who rebuilds the temple in Jerusalem. But the period between the construction of Jerusalem and the temple and the coming of Christ, Daniel says, will be marked by what? By trouble. Daniel’s prayer is answered, and Jerusalem and the temple will be rebuilt by this Messiah, this anointed one, Cyrus. But it will be marked by trouble until when? Until the true, the final, the full Messiah comes in in that 70th week. But it’s in that final week that Daniel’s told that this Messiah will be cut off. And we know that in scripture, that to be cut off from the people of God means to what? To bear a curse. To be cut off is to bear a curse. And what we have here is a final jubilee, right? A final time of freedom and liberty in that final 70th week. And so you have in this period of 70 weeks that culminates in a final jubilee, and it’s Jesus Christ who was cut off for the sake of the people of God. Isaiah 53 says this, 5310. Listen to the connections here. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. This is the suffering servant prophecy. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. And out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. And by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many. This is what Daniel heard in the answer to his prayer, right? To put an end to sin, and number two, to atone for sin, and an everlasting righteousness. And Gabriel told Daniel that all of this will come through the work of the Messiah in that 70th week. Verse 27, regarding this Messiah, and he shall make a strong covenant with the many for one week, and for half a week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. Isaiah’s suffering servant, in Isaiah 53, it says that he will suffer for the many, for the transgressions of many. And it’s this many that the strong covenant is confirmed. There when it says, I will make a strong covenant, the word is confirm. It’s different than that word to make. We’ve talked about this before in the Old Testament. To make a covenant was to cut a covenant. Here it’s a different word. It means to confirm, as in a covenant that’s, confirm a covenant that’s already been made, an already made covenant. And this is none other than the fulfillment of the covenant of grace, the fulfillment of that, the new covenant, which is the death of Christ ratified and finalized. And we know that this puts an end to all sin. This is the full restoration, the full restoration. Not the partial restoration brought by Cyrus, not the bringing brought back from exile by Cyrus, but the one brought by Christ. We see this in verse 26 and 27. The fulfillment of this, right? Exile from captivity to sin, right? Notice that he also prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with the flood and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. We’ll see in the following weeks about the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem when the armies of Rome come in and do such a thing. But here we see that Christ is the final sacrifice. He is the one that brings about atonement for sin. And of course, we know that the temple is destroyed. Physically, in history, right? This happened in 70 AD with the invading Roman armies. But let’s not lose track of the big picture. This is indeed a difficult passage. The big picture is this. Daniel prays for restoration to Israel, to be back in the land, the rebuilding of the temple, and he receives an answer that the people of God would indeed be restored and the temple would be rebuilt after this symbolic 49 year period. and a year of jubilee comes. But this restoration will be marked by trouble and trial and it was. But more importantly what it’s saying here is that ultimately there will be a final jubilee after 10 jubilee cycles, 10 jubilee cycles, the final week, the 70th week, the final jubilee has come with the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who puts an end to all sacrifice once and for all. He is the one who is rebuilding the temple, even now, brothers and sisters, even now building that temple, just as Cyrus, an anointed of God, issued a decree that the temple be rebuilt And the captive set free, so Jesus, so too Christ, the anointed of God, the Messiah, who has begun to rebuild the temple, new Jerusalem, and is setting captives free right now. And as he sets you free, if you belong to him, right? This is a glorious thing indeed. And again, how do we know this? What are the connections that we can be sure and confident of what it is that we’re saying? Well, if you’d like to go to or listen, Luke 4, verse 18. Luke 4, 18 says this. Here we see how all of this is connected. And see how this pattern of Jubilee is connected, not only with the prophecy of Daniel, but especially with the work of Jesus Christ. Luke 4, we see that Christ is the fulfillment of this passage, starting in verse 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Christ is reading from the Isaiah passage that declares the Jubilee. And it goes on in verse 20, and he rolled up the scroll and he gave it back to the attendant and he sat down. and all the eyes and all the synagogue were fixed upon him. And he began to say to them, today, the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. It’s the work of Jesus Christ that brings about this final jubilee, brothers and sisters. And we know that just as Cyrus issued a decree to build the temple in Jerusalem, Christ issues a decree with the Great Commission to build the temple, and that Christ is the cornerstone of that temple. There’s so much here in this passage. You would not believe how much we have to leave out when we try to bring messages that are under three hours. There’s an incredible amount here. There’s so much glory to unfold. If only we were more familiar with God’s word. If only it fascinated us. If only it enthralled us and gripped us as it should. If only we would give ourselves to its teaching and its training as the Spirit works through that word into our hearts, we would be far more balanced and far less fearful, amen? We’d be far more stable and less obsessed and worried with wrong things about wrong things. Let us be Bible people, dear Christian. Let’s ask the Lord to teach us and to place a hunger for this in our hearts, right? His word, get into this word, let this word get into us. Looking at this passage of scripture, we should remember that in an answer to prayer, rather that this text in Daniel is an answer to a specific prayer in a specific situation. But on a macro level, what do we learn from this? We learn again that the Lord hears, the Lord hears, the Lord answers. Think of Daniel, he likely thought things would unfold faster and more permanently than they actually did. There were indeed immediate results, right, the decree from Cyrus to rebuild the temple, but we can’t help but feel Daniel’s disappointment that this temple was not the end, final temple, not the restoral to the great Solomonic temple to go forward into the Eschaton. Indeed, we know that it was like a tennis court in a football field compared to the original temple. And then when the people came back, they remembered the old one, they wept at its little size. Daniel’s disappointment that it would be a time marked with trouble. And we see, of course, that this prayer was completed fully in God’s timing with the coming and the promised coming of Christ. Daniel’s prayers were answered in ways that were far greater than Daniel could ever imagine. And for you and I even now, do we come with our earnest prayers to our Heavenly Father? Do we come with hope, trusting and knowing that He answers prayers, that He hears us, even if they’re answered in ways that we aren’t expecting, or maybe in ways that we’re not even wanting? Do we come? And even if that’s the case, do we come trusting, trusting that he is good and that he is for us as his children, and that he in all things will carry out all things for his greatest glory. May we indeed follow our Savior in his posture of prayer, remember the Lord in the garden. Not my will be done, but yours be done. Not my will, but yours be done. May we indeed rejoice at this prophecy of the 70 weeks, that the sacrifice of Christ has brought an end to sin, and brought the reign of righteousness. May we rejoice in the sacrifice of Christ that in that we have forever cleansing and forgiveness. May we indeed confess and repent that when we do so that we can know for certain that our sin had been dealt with in Christ fully and finally. And we can rejoice knowing that our captivity to sin is over and that the year of jubilee has come. As Christ has come and set the captives free, free from sin and guilt and wrath, may we realize, dear brothers and sisters, that we no longer have to bear the guilt and shame of our sin in light of the sacrifice of Christ, if we belong to him. The sacrifice of Christ, once and for all, no more constant sacrifices that don’t do the trick again and again and again, that need to be repeated. In Christ it is finished, it’s a wrap. and may we rejoice, never forgetting that those who belong to him, that indeed all of creation is close to the end, right? Daniel had a long time in front of him in this prophecy about the Messiah that was to come to consummate all things. But we, scripture says, are in the last hour, right? The last hour. We are in that final week, that final seven, right? And reflect upon this. Revelation 12 tells us about the death and resurrection of Christ. And after the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, the church is ushered into the wilderness, it says, for how long? Do you remember? For a time and times a half a time, right? That’s three and a half, that’s half of a week. And we read in the prophecy of Daniel 9, 27, that in the middle of the week, he would put an end to sacrifice. And in the book of Revelation, it talks about the last half of that week in which we, the church, now exist. Notice how short the time is. In why the New Testament, this is why it repeatedly says the time is near. The time is at hand. We’re in the last hour. This is because in the span of redemptive history, we’ve only got half a week to go. And how is it that that week will end? This week, how will it end? I wonder how much we reflect upon that, how much that drives our assurance and our confidence and our hope, right? Oh, how easy it is to let the things of this world and those things and the world’s things drown out final ultimate things that are all the more real. The week will end with what? With a blast of a trumpet. And with the new Jerusalem, the city temple descending out of the heavens when all things come to an end. And for those who are in Christ, with whom Christ has made a strong covenant, as Daniel says. The people of God will dwell with our triune Lord for all of eternity. May we take heart, brothers and sisters, that our covenant Lord is faithful to answer the prayers of his people. And may we remember that sometimes he does so in ways that don’t fall out according to our will. But may we remember that they will absolutely come to pass according to his perfect will, for he is good and he is for us. And we pray that he would conform our wills even more and evermore to his will. And let us look to Christ with faith, hope, and love, knowing that he has effectively dealt with sin, with our sin, once and for all. Oh, what jubilee freedom we have in Jesus, our Savior and our Lord. Let us rejoice in that now and always. Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we come again before you and we thank you We thank you for the year of Jubilee that has begun with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and that the captives have been indeed set free, even now free from bondage of sin, free from the dominion of death. We give you thanks, Lord, for this restoration, and we look forward to that completion of the restoration when every captive will be set free, and then we will enjoy the rest, that rest that comes, that final rest, the rest of knowing that after the work is completed, that sin will completely and finally be done away with, and that indeed righteousness will reign forever. Oh Lord, may it be. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and complete that final week in ushering that final eternal jubilee. We ask this all in Christ’s name. Amen.