An Outline of Daniel's Prayer (Daniel 9:1-4) | Adult Sunday School

Great, but this is one of my neat love chapters. All right, good deal. Oh, yeah.

Good morning. Yeah, it's really cool.

Like I just heard Nathel say, some of you act like you've never seen each other forever. Okay, we gotta turn this thing off.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Kootenai Community Church Adult Sunday School. We actually are going to start chapter nine today.

Thought it was never gonna happen, but it's going to. Let's open in prayer.

Father, again, we are grateful for your word. Through it, we are illuminated. We are taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this morning, we desire that more than anything else. You gave Daniel the opportunity to pray in this chapter and pray he did.

And Lord, I pray this morning is that prayer, that it would embolden our hearts to come to you in prayer every day for every need, but also for most importantly, to give back to you the praise, the glory, the acclamation, and the adoration that you deserve.

For that is most of what prayer is about. Well, thank you this morning that we can learn from these words through your

Holy Spirit, by your Holy Spirit, to give you glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So last week, we finished up chapter eight.

When Daniel was sick, wiped out from the vision that he was given.

This, today, we're going to start chapter nine. And I've got some introductory information here, but first, let's go ahead and read the chapter.

Daniel chapter nine. Now, this is one of the chapters that it has been my great delight and terror to go through, and to see that many commentators don't even comment on verses one through 22.

Let's see, is it, yeah, somewhere back there. About 23, because the 70 weeks vision comes in 24 through the end of the chapter.

And it is my contention, and I don't think these commentators would disagree with this, but it is my contention that every word of Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction, that we might have the tools to glorify

God in everything we do. And so we're gonna look at this prayer kind of in an outlined form this morning, and then we'll come back and we'll treat

Daniel as we've treated every book of the Bible in depth, verse by verse. But the first 19 verses are a marvelous, wonderful prayer of a man of God who was known to pray towards Jerusalem three times a day.

So let's read chapter nine. In the first year of Darius, the son of Hagiwaris of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the

Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the

Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments.

We have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from your by commandments and ordinances.

Moreover, we have not listened to thy servants, the prophets who spoke in thy name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land.

Righteousness belongs to thee, O Lord, but to us open shame as it is this day. To the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all

Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which thou hast driven them because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against thee.

Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers because we have sinned against thee.

To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness for we have rebelled against him, nor have we obeyed the voice of the

Lord our God to walk in his teachings which he set before us through his servants, the prophets. Indeed, all

Israel has transgressed thy law and turned aside, not obeying thy voice. So the curse has been poured out on us along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have sinned against him.

Thus he has confirmed his words which he had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us to bring on us great calamity, for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem.

As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the

Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to thy truth. Therefore the

Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all his deeds which he has done, but we have not obeyed his voice.

And now, O Lord our God, who has brought thy people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and has made a name for thyself, as it is this day we have sinned, we have been wicked.

O Lord, in accordance with all thy righteous acts, let now thine anger and thy wrath turn away from thy city,

Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people have become a reproach to all those around us.

So now, our God, listen to the prayer of thy servant and to his supplications. And for thy sake,

O Lord, let thy face shine on thy desolate sanctuary. O my God, incline thine ear and hear.

Open thine eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by thy name, for we are not presenting our supplications before thee on account of any merits of our own, mark that, but on account of thy great compassion.

O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and take action for thine own sake.

O my God, do not delay because thy city and thy people are called by thy name. Now, while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sins and the sin of my people,

Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man

Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision previously came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering.

And he gave me instruction and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding.

At the beginning of your supplications, the command was issue and I have come to tell you for you are highly esteemed.

So give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision. 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity and to bring an everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.

So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the

Prince, there will be seven weeks and 62 weeks. It will be built again with plaza and moat even in times of distress.

Then after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. And the people of the

Prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end will come with a flood. Even to the end, there will be war, desolations are determined.

And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to the sacrifice and grain offering and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate.

So as I mentioned, many commentators leap right to verse 24 because that's the really, if you will, exciting part of Daniel chapter nine.

It's been my contention and will be my contention that the prayer is just as exciting.

And I looked at it kind of as a pattern, not that I'm into, you know, legalistically telling you, here's how you must pray or you will never have an answer.

And then when you say, you have to say, bless God, amen at the end. And there will be three doves that will fly in the window and well, you know, you've seen all that stuff.

I mean, that's idiotic. But Daniel was a man who prayed faithfully towards Jerusalem three times a day.

He knew how to pray. He knew how important it was. And to my shame, as I read through this,

I thought, this is just not me. What is wrong with me? Daniel has some good insight into how to pray and some good insight on how to worship while you pray.

So it's important, as I pointed out earlier, to remember that every chapter, every word, and every sentence in scripture is of tremendous importance and value for insight and learning.

It would not, however, be too much to say that an understanding of the book of Daniel is an absolute necessity to understand previous and later prophecies in scripture.

The book of Daniel, I don't wanna go astray here, but it kind of christens, if you will, the scripture as being a marvelous book of prophecy, among many other important things.

We already know it to be, but when you read through Daniel and you see the prophecies that the

Lord gave him and how accurate they were and how particularly they came to fruition and how we know they will in the future even come to that same kind of fruition, it just is amazing and incredible.

The book of Daniel predicted many well -attested historical events, and as we have spoken before, critics have purposefully pretended, and there is no other word to describe this other than pretension.

There are stupidities to be described as pretension. They have pretended that the book of Daniel was a history book because it was too accurate.

We've talked about that before. The fact is it is one of the most incredible examples of predictive prophecy in the

Old Testament. This chapter has two main sections. At least, that's how I broke it down.

I read all kinds of breakdowns. This is mine. The first section would be the first 19 verses that made, and these are a prayer of Daniel, and that prayer comes as a result of something that happened to Daniel, something that he did, something that we should all be doing.

Now, this prayer was inspired by his discovery, and here it is, of the prediction Jeremiah made that the

Hebrew captivity would last 70 years. So Jeremiah prophesied the Babylonian captivity length.

In Jeremiah 25, eight through 13, we read, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words, behold,

I will send and take all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about, and I will utterly destroy them and make them a whore and a hissing and an everlasting desolation.

Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, and the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years.

Then it will be, when 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, declares the

Lord, for their iniquity and the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it an everlasting desolation. I will bring upon that land all my words which

I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

And then in chapter 29, verses 10 through 14, for thus says the Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to bring you back to this place, for I know the plans, and here is the context for this verse that is so butchered on the internet.

It's about the Babylonian captivity. Now God knows the plans he has for you, but how much time have you spent in Susa?

So this is the context, and this is what this verse actually means. I know the plans

I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare, to bring you back from the captivity, and not for a calamity, to give you a future and a hope.

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes, and will gather you from all the nations, from all the places where I have driven you, declares the

Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile. Now, when we exegete this chapter, we will see references in Daniel's prayer.

I'm not gonna do that this morning. It is such a cool prayer. It's the best book in the Bible. Wait a minute.

I thought that was 2 Corinthians. Well, we're not there now. He makes references in his prayer back to the

Jeremiah prophecy, again and again. So what do you think Daniel was doing that made him realize that the

Babylonian captivity was gonna be 70 years? What was he doing? He was reading the book, the book of Jeremiah.

He was reading the Bible, the Bible of the time. What a remarkable statement that is.

As I was studying this and thinking about my prayer life, how little time I often spend in Scripture while I'm praying.

Daniel, well, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm gonna steal my own thunder. Okay, so this chapter dates from 538

BC. We're gonna get a little context here. The Babylonian captivity commenced in 605 BC. So this puts

Daniel's vision or encounter with Gabriel, and there's two different opinions here.

This does sound more like an actual encounter rather than a vision, and I'll just leave that to your imagination.

Either way works fine, but I think he actually was talking, it wasn't a vision, he was talking to Gabriel.

But at any rate, puts this encounter or vision with Gabriel in this chapter at about 67 years from the beginning of the captivity.

The close of the captivity was very close at hand, and Daniel knew this as he read Jeremiah and prayed.

He understood this. Some of the later prophecies that depend on this chapter will include the

Lord Jesus Christ prophetic utterances in Matthew and Mark, and later in Daniel, and Matthew and Mark, which fixes

Israel's greatest trouble within the days of the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy.

So Daniel 9 .27, and he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering, and on the wing of abominations, will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction.

One that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes destruction. That's also kind of paraphrases some of what is said later and said before.

Mark 24, 15 through 22, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, let the reader understand.

Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things that are in his house.

Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak, but woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days, but pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on a

Sabbath, for then there will be a great tribulation such as not occurred since the beginning of the world until now nor ever will.

Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.

And then again in Mark 13, 14 through 20. But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be, let the reader understand, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

The one who was on the housetop must not go down or go in to get anything out of his house. And the one who was in the field must not turn back to get his coat, but woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days, but pray that it may not happen in the winter for those days will be a time of tribulation such as not occurred since the beginning of the creation which

God created until now and never will be. Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved, but for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he shortened those days.

A bit of housekeeping here. Those of you who heard me read through Daniel's prayer, you heard the words thine and thy, that's because I have the pre -1995

New American Standard, back when it was still pretty faithful to the real Bible. Somebody said amen.

Anyway, be that as it may. So finally, finally, we look through these prophecies in Daniel in two, seven, nine, and later 10, 11, and 12.

We look through these prophecies and one of the commentators put it this way. He said that Daniel is simply a revelation.

The book of Revelation is simply an expansion of Daniel's prophecy within the chronological framework as outlined by the same 70th week, which we will see later, which is divided into two equal periods, each extending from 1 ,260 days, or 42 months, or three and a half years.

Revelation 11, two, three. Leave out, leave, I gotta get close, folks. My eyes are not working like they used to.

Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations and they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months.

And I will grant authority to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1 ,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.

So that's kind of like a movie trailer that I just read there. Who are the witnesses? What are they, what's sackcloth and axes?

Well, we'll get there someday. Revelation 12, six. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God so that she would be nourished.

There she would be nourished for 1 ,260 days. Revelation 12, 14. So you can see these connections.

But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place where she was nourished for a time and times and a half a time.

For, let me rephrase that. For a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent.

And then finally, Revelation 13, five. There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words, speaking of the

Antichrist and blasphemies and authority to act for 42 months was given to him. So Daniel's prophecies basically give us the underpinning for what happens later in later prophecy and in revelation.

So the book of Daniel is also key to understanding, as I said, much of New Testament prophecy.

Daniel had grown old in the service of the kings of Babylon and Medo -Persia. He spent a great deal of time studying the books of the kingdom and of his people.

Histories, other histories, histories of the nations around, probably legal documents.

He was a great mind and he spent a lot of time studying. It was his reading of the prophecy of Jeremiah that prompted most of the events that are recorded in chapter nine, the prayer.

His prayer was most certainly prompted. It was prompted by the reading of that prophecy and knowing that his people had to repent and turn back to God for them to have a successful break from being the prisoners of Babylon.

He knows that the 70 years is nearing its end. So he prays to God for the city and for the people.

He knows it is noteworthy, however, that while he was praying, we'll see in verse 21, it indicates that he did not,

I don't think he finished his prayer. He was interrupted by Gabriel. Now, God doesn't ever interrupt something that needs to be continued.

So this was an appropriate interruption, by the way, who was there to help him understand more of the future. I just hit the button there, didn't

I? There we go. Understand more of the future. This may or may not, again, as I mentioned, have been a vision.

The language sounds more like an actual interaction than a vision, but it could have been. That's not important. So take that however you want.

I think it was an interaction with the angel Gabriel. So now, it's appropriate that it would be

Gabriel who would bring this information to Daniel regarding the first advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. He later would announce to Mary, the birth to Mary of the

Lord Jesus Christ. So this then from verse 24 to the end of the chapter is the second section of the book and comprises the prophecy of the 70 weeks.

With this in mind, we'll begin our study. We're gonna go back to some stuff we had before.

So Daniel 9 .1, in the first year of Darius, the son of Hagiwaris of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the

Chaldeans. So this would be the Darius from chapter six. So we're gonna go back, I'm going back in my notes to chapter six.

So as I pointed out back then, this is one of the most famous chapters in the Bible. It has been the subject of stories and movies et cetera, but, and the difficulty is up when

Daniel was began to first begin be exposited in the modern era, there was no

Darius. There was no Belshazzar. These names were unknown. And so many liberal critics assigned the book of Daniel as either spurious or from a later time.

And a lot of these answers, these questions were answered by discoveries in history. An interesting one is, note this, that in verse 28 of Daniel chapter six, look at the verse 28 of Daniel chapter six, if you will.

I don't wanna jump around too much, but Daniel 28, 628. So this

Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. So we have two names there.

Cyrus is in history. This Darius doesn't seem to be mentioned. The Septuagint translates verse 28 of this chapter to read that Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the

Persian. This seems to imply that a Median kingdom under Darius was followed by a

Persian kingdom under Cyrus. Extra biblical sources tell a different story. As we work our way through this, it must be remembered that the critics are building their arguments in this case upon silence.

The simple fact is that the Bible has the only reference to Darius and that does not make the Bible untrue.

It's a good, it's the word of God, but it's also a really good history book, a perfect history book. Even secular scholars recognize that the

Bible is a reliable record of ancient history, yet they are unwilling to give it any credence if they can't substantiate, as I said back then, everything seven weeks to Sunday.

As for some reason, the silence of other ancient text is used as an indictment of the biblical record.

It is always improper to build a theory or a doctrine upon silence, whether that theory is sacred or secular.

Walvard notes this in his commentary. He says, it must be emphasized that there is no established fact that contradicts a person by the name of Darius the

Mede reigning over Babylon if Darius is an alternate name for a known ruler. And it was common in those days for rulers to have several names.

The historian Wiseman, who does not look at this the way we do, explains these events based on his finds.

He says, Babylon was conquered by Ugaru, the governor of Gutium, who led the army of Cyrus and entered the city of Babylon on the night of Belshazzar's feast.

We remember Belshazzar's feast, the writing on the wall. Nabonidus, who was

Belshazzar's father, had fled Babylon the day before only to be captured and die later in exile.

When Babylon fell to Ugaru on October 12th, 539 BC, Cyrus himself had remained with troops at Opus and not until 18 days later,

October 30th, 539 BC, did he arrive in Babylon. He then appointed a man named

Gubaru. If you put an S there, we got a car. Gubaru, probably an alternate form of Ugaru.

Yeah, why would you name your kid that? Hey, people that are pregnant, don't, please.

Please, Bill, Jim, something, you know. He then appointed this guy.

Eight days after Cyrus arrived, Ugaru died. If this history of the events following Babylon's fall is correct, this man says, there is obviously, there's no room for Darius the

Mede to reign over Babylon. And this was the common thought a few hundred years ago and on into the early years of the last century.

So through time, the problem has been distilled down to three possibilities, three situations. The first view is that the

Bible is in error and whoever wrote it confused Darius the Mede with some other person. The second view is the second explanation is that Darius is the same as Gubaru, whom

Cyrus appointed to rule in Babylon until he could take the throne. And the third view is that Darius the

Mede is just another name for Cyrus. This is based upon the translation of Daniel 628, which renders it

Daniel proffered in the reign of Darius, even the reign of Cyrus the Persian. So it's at least evident to me as I did this study and we talked about it, it was how long ago was that?

That was a long time ago. We talked about this, that Darius the Mede was another name for Cyrus.

Those two men, it was a Medo -Persian reign and they often in history, this was done.

The Roman rulers had numerous names. Persian rulers had numerous names. So this was a common thing.

So that's, I wanted to bring us back up to speed on the fact that we're talking about the same Darius that we were talking about back in chapter six, in chapter five, in chapter six, excuse me.

So that Darius is who we are going to be discussing right now for the next few minutes.

So you see the succession up there. We have the reign of Cyrus and then

Cyrus too, Nabonidus and then remember under Nabonidus, Nabonidus departed to the main city and went to another city to construct a temple to the moon

God, because he thought he wasn't getting enough praise. And he left Belshazzar in charge in the capital.

And that's why Belshazzar was a name mentioned only in the Bible for many, many years until they found the

Babylonian Chronicle. So then we have, I guess I can look here.

Nabonidus, Belshazzar, Cyrus marches against the capital of Lydia, against Sardis, which is capital of Lydia.

Gobias takes Babylon without resistance, that's in Daniel five. And then Cyrus enters as the liberator from Nabonidus moon goddess, which we talked about.

Cyrus son succeeds and then extraneous information, the reign of Cambyses and Darius one, who is

Darius Hystaspis, Hystaspis, he comes to rule. That's not the Darius we're talking about.

We're talking about Darius the Mede, who is probably most likely also known as Cyrus. So this

Darius who was likely Cyrus or someone appointed by Cyrus was made king over the Chaldeans. Again, this would have been about 538, it would have been 538

BC. So this chapter occurs 13 years after Daniel's second vision in chapter eight.

Daniel is probably 82 years old here. And as mentioned, this is likely very close to the end of the seven year captivity in Babylon.

Further, the events of Belshazzar's feast in chapter five occur between chapters eight and nine.

Placing chapter six is not so easy. Walvard, I wrote this, Walvard guesses it this way.

It's a guess, I believe it's a good guess. It is not clear where chapter six fits into this order of events, but it may well have occurred in the first year of Darius's reign, either immediately before or immediately after the events of chapter nine.

If Daniel's experience at Belshazzar's feast as well as his deliverance from the lands had already been experienced, these significant events of the sovereignty and power of God may well have constituted a divine preparation for the tremendous revelation about to unfold.

Daniel would have been well served by these previous experiences to recognize the absolute sovereignty of the

God that was about to reveal this to him in chapter nine. He would have known that God, there was nothing that God could not do, including delivering him from lions.

That's an experiential thing, but even more importantly, giving him his own word that will predict the things that are coming in the future that would be for all time, for all readers, for all followers of Jehovah, of Yahweh.

The Ahasuerus mentioned here is likely the same Ahasuerus or Artaxerxes mentioned in Ezra chapter four, which says this, verses six and seven.

Now in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithridath, Tabil, and the rest of his colleagues wrote to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, and the text of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated from Aramaic.

And that would make sense. Aramaic was the language of the time. So to encapsulate verse one, we're talking about the same

Darius we were talking about in earlier chapters of Daniel, who is most likely the same as Cyrus or appointed.

In either event, this would have been the king that Daniel was talking about. Any comments or questions about verse one and the introduction?

Verse two, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books, the number of the years, which was revealed as the word of the

Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, for the completion of the destructions, excuse me, the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.

So that's kind of condensed because I couldn't figure out how to make it work any better, but there you go.

Hey, now you know what the trouble I'm having. The book spoken of here is most likely the sacred books of the

Jews at the time, which would have included any of the prophets who had written up to that time. Daniel would have had quite an access to quite a list of the

Hebrew. Now the canon hadn't been officially formed, but of the Hebrew sacred texts. Now this list includes, maybe necessarily or unnecessarily, it includes books like, where did

I see that? Judith and, but you see the asterisk, these are books that are apocrypha.

They're not scripture, apocryphal books. But Daniel would have had access to all of these particular writings up to and including second

Kings. So he would have had all the histories of the earlier Kings, and he would have had all of Jeremiah's writings.

He would have had Micah's writings. He would have had Isaiah's writings who predicted Cyrus would send

Jews back to restore the temple in Jerusalem. He would have had access to all this. And I believe, it's my opinion, this is just my opinion, sanctified opinion, that Daniel was a voracious reader.

And he would have studied these things. He didn't, I don't think he spent time playing

Nintendo. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But I think he was busy all the time.

He had plenty to do. He was a man of God, and God had him busy about a lot of things. So it's certain that Daniel knew about the prophecy in Isaiah about a

King when God would raise Cyrus, who would see to the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. During his reading, he ran across the prophecy of Jeremiah that we read earlier regarding the number of, the amount of time that the

Jews would spend in Babylonian captivity. That period would be 70 years. Another spot that it appears is on a blank page there.

At any rate, Jeremiah 25, 11 and 12. The whole land will be a desolation of horror and a horror, and these nations will serve the

King of Babylon 70 years. Then it will be when 70 years are completed, I will punish the

King of Babylon and that nation declares the Lord for their iniquity and the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it an everlasting desolation.

And then we read Jeremiah 29, 10. Maybe we didn't, I will read it now. For thus says the

Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to bring you back to this place.

I have a place for you. I have a, I have a, I have a, what was that? Now I'm having a brain, a brain lock, but yeah.

For I know the plans that I have you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity. This is the plan. This is the future and the hope that he has for the land at this time, bringing them back into Jerusalem, back into Israel.

So it's noteworthy, interesting enough, that the return took place 70 years after the captivity, the captivity started.

Duh, that's what God said. And the rebuilding of the temple, which occurred on a little bit different timeframe, took place 70 years after the desolation of the temple.

Walvard notes the predictability, the reliability and precision of this timing in his commentary. He says, what is intended accordingly in the statement in Daniel chapter nine, verse two, is that Daniel realized that the time was approaching when the children of Israel could return.

The 70 years of the captivity were about ended. Once the children of Israel were back on the land, they were providentially hindered from rebuilding the temple from the fulfilling the rebuilding of the temple until 70 years after the destruction of the temple had also elapsed.

So they returned 70 years from the date of their captivity and the temple was rebuilt 70 years from the date of its destruction.

Remarkable, absolutely remarkable. Any comments about verse two, verse three?

So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

Now I'm not going, yes, I couldn't hear you.

That will be the future. This is about what happened in, yeah.

So Daniel, it is apparent, he's asking if that wasn't a week of 40, a week of years. It is apparent from what

I can see that Daniel took the prophecy to mean 70 years. So it was 70 years from 538

BC to the date that the Jews returned from captivity and then from 586

BC when the temple was destroyed, it was 70 years before that began to be rebuilt. That was a period of actual 70 years.

The weeks of years come, we'll look at those in chapter nine, verses 24 and on, when we look at the 70 weeks prophecy.

What I'm talking about right now is just the prediction that Jeremiah made that you will be in captivity 70 years and you will return in 70 years and that it was fulfilled precisely, 70 years.

So I gave attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

I was going to say there, I don't recommend that you necessarily need to fast and put on sackcloth and ashes before you pray.

But I have discovered in my life, to my shame, that I don't come to prayer with a proper attitude many times.

I just pray. And there are times when that's important. But when you are sitting down in your time to spend time with God and his word and to pray, we should always be prepared.

We should prepare ourselves. We're about to read the word of God. Now, I'm not saying he's gonna speak to you out of the closet.

He's going to, his words are going to be illuminated for you by his Holy Spirit. And he will use that word in your life, in my life to change us.

But it's a remarkable thing. And I think some of what

Daniel does here can be a good Old Testament example for us as to how we should come to prayer.

So the proper attitude of a true devotee to Yahweh when seeking his favor was to fast, wear sackcloth and ashes.

You can if you want, if that's what is necessary to get you into the proper attitude. The important thing is where our heart is when we go to prayer before the

Lord. When we go to time in his word. All of these actions were common for the day when a genuine attitude of humility, contrition and supplication was present.

Here, Daniel says that he gave my attention. The word is that, the translation, the word for word translation is,

I set my face like flint. I set my face towards the

Lord God. That is, he gave deliberate action to begin praying about ending the captivity of Israel.

He took Jeremiah's prophecy of 70 years as a literal 70 years. He knew the dates and he knew how close to the end of the captivity he was.

He also knew that the proper attitude towards ending that captivity was an attitude of prayer and supplication.

Remember that this was the man who was nearly killed for his habit of praying three times a day towards Jerusalem, for his fidelity to prayer to Yahweh.

The Lord God here, the Lord God here is a translation of the word Adonai, meaning Lord, Master, Lord or Master.

Daniel was praying to the sovereign God of the world and more importantly, here the sovereign

God of his people of Israel. The words of his prayer will acknowledge God's Lordship.

In his statement here, he sets the tone for that. You'll notice also that he doesn't kick against the goads of captivity, if you will, in this prayer.

He doesn't whine and bellyache like I'm want to do. He states matter of factly what has gone on, how it demonstrates the character of the sovereign

God and what needs to occur. And he reminds God as if God needs reminding, but that's okay.

When we remind God of something, we're actually reminding ourselves. And that's a good thing, that's a good thing.

He spends time doing that. He doesn't kick, but he acknowledges what

God has done and then he seeks God's favor. And what we're going to see and I'm going to steal my own thunder here. He'll go through 15 verses before he ever asks for anything.

That's not me. Lord, I need this and I need it now. I have just been just excited and ashamed as I read through this.

It's going to change my prayer life. I'm going to be praying differently. I don't think I have sackcloth.

But I'm joking, but you know, it's talking about an attitude. Any comments or questions about verse three before we look at an introduction to the prayer?

I'm going to stop at verse four because the introduction, the outline is actually quite long. So verse four,

I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, alas, oh Lord, the great and awesome

God who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments. So a more cogent translation, if you would,

I'm not saying it's a bad one, but just as I was looking at it, I prayed to Yahweh my God is what he said.

As he here uses the personal name of God. This is the only chapter in the book of Daniel where he uses that personal name, but he uses it seven times, including the first time he uses it in verse two.

This is for the Jews, a special name for the covenant keeping God of Israel who hears a man or a woman when they pray.

And he hears them on the basis of his character, on the basis of his word, which is all tied together and on the basis of his sovereignty and ability to actually answer prayer.

The very first thing Daniel does is confess. And it starts with a statement of praise about his

God, who is the covenant keeping God. Interestingly enough, there are a number, a great number of people who have exegeted the book of Daniel only to ignore the non -prophetic passages

I mentioned earlier. Some deal only with the prophecies and leave much of Daniel untouched.

This fantastic prayer lasts 16 verses and it gives us an interesting pattern, if you will, to consider following.

I'm gonna give a general outline of it and we're gonna have to start that next week because the outline will take a bit of time here.

Yeah, quite a bit of time. So I guess the point I wanna make here to take away from this is that every, first of all, and we know this,

I know I'm preaching, if you will, to the choir. You are a good choir. Every word of God is worthy, is significant, is precious, is important, is life -changing in his hand.

Every text of scripture has a message to us today, not some weird obtuse message, but a message about who

God is and what he does and how he acts in people's lives. And prayer is a method,

I hate to use that word, but I'm not a real good thesaurus this morning. It's a method of tapping into giving

God the praise he deserves, the acknowledgment he deserves, and seeking his face for the difficulties we are facing.

And you are going to be facing difficulties, and you know this, every day of your life. I think

I don't pray enough. I've come to that conclusion, I don't pray enough. I pray a fair amount, and you know you've heard the word flare prayer, holy mackerel,

I burn the skies up with those. But at least for my regular prayer life, this is gonna change some things.

And I've read other prayer books. I just, I never really looked at prayer the same way until I looked at what

Daniel does here. He is a man of God. I don't purport to be that, but I would like to imitate him.

I would like us all to see that when we look at this prayer, it is worthy of imitation, not in its particulars, but in its attitude, and in how it lifts up Yahweh, and how it brings us before God, and how it seeks to honor him and to bring him glory, even in the answering of our prayers.

Daniel, you'll see, Daniel will want him to answer some prayers about Israel, but for God's glory.

Not just because they're in captivity and they're sick and tired of it, for God's glory. And that's a remarkable thing.

I'm gonna have to close there, but are there any comments or questions before we close? So next week, we will be in chapter nine, verse four, and we will actually skim, if you will, all the way to,

I don't like skimming, but in this case, I can do it, because I'm gonna come back and just dig into it, through about verse 19.

We will look at verses four through 19, and as a general outline of how prayer can look.

Let's pray. Father, I confess to you that my attitude of prayer has not always been a proper attitude.

It has been a prayer of seeking and a prayer of me, rather than a prayer of honoring, and glorifying, and uplifting, and praising you.

And I would seek to change that in my life by your grace, by your power, by your sovereignty. Thank you for this prayer of Daniel that we are about to look at.

Thank you for his faithfulness to you, to bring to us the prophetic word, but also other words that are just as important.

Words that will give us the ability, I hope, and I pray, to seek you further and better in prayer every day.

You know, Lord, this nation needs prayer. These people need prayer. But it is exactly what

Daniel says in his prayer that has caused the things that have come upon our nation. We no longer seek your face.

We no longer lift you up. We don't listen to you. We disobey. We rebel. And for those things, we confess.

But this morning, Father, thank you for this word, for this incredible foray into the concept and the idea of prayer.

Might it be something we can learn from and that we can, by your grace, use it to honor you.