An Outline of Daniel's Prayer (Daniel 9:1-4)

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Well, good morning, welcome to Kootenai Community Church Adult Sunday School We actually are going to start chapter 9 today.

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I thought it was never gonna happen, but it's going to Let's open in prayer

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

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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 as we look at that prayer

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That it would it would embolden our hearts to come to you in prayer every day for every need but also for most importantly

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To give back to you the praise the glory the acclamation and the adoration that you deserve

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

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Holy Spirit by your Holy Spirit to give you glory in Jesus name we pray so So last week we finished up chapter 8

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When Daniel was was sick Wiped out from the vision that he was given this today

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We're going to start chapter 9 and I've got some introductory information here. But first let's go ahead and read the chapter

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Daniel chapter 9 Now this is one of the chapters that it has been my great delight and terror terror to go through and To see that many commentators don't even comment on Verses 1 through 22, right?

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Let's see. Is it 12? 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

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And I don't think these commentators just 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

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The tools to glorify God and everything we do and so we're gonna look at this prayer Kind of in an outline form this morning

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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

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But the first 19 verses are a marvelous Wonderful prayer of a man of God who was known to pray towards Jerusalem three times today a day.

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So let's read chapter 9 in the first year of Darius the son of Hagiwaris of Median descent who was made king over the kingdom of the

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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

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Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem namely 70 years so I gave my attention to the

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Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes and I prayed to the

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Lord my God and confessed and said alas Oh Lord the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and lovingkindness for those who love him and keep his commandments

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

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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

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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

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Israel Those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which thou has driven them Because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against thee

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

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

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Lord our God to walk in his teachings Which he set before us through his servants the prophets indeed

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All Israel has transgressed thy law and turned aside not obeying thy voice

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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

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Thus he has confirmed his words Which he had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us to bring 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

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

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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

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Which he has done but we have not obeyed his voice And now oh Lord our God who has brought thy people

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Out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and has made a name for thyself as it is this day

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We have sinned we have been wicked Oh Lord in accordance with all thy righteous acts

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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

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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

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And for thy sake oh Lord let thy face shine on thy desolate sanctuary. Oh my

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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

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Supplications before thee on account of any merits of our own mark that but on account of thy great compassion

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Oh Lord hear oh Lord forgive. Oh Lord. Listen and take action for thine own sake

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Oh 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

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Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my

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God While I was still speaking in prayer Then the men the man Gabriel whom

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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 oh

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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

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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

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To make atonement for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place

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So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild jerusalem until messiah the prince

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There will be seven weeks and 62 weeks It will be built again with plaza and moat even in times of distress

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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 in the sanctuary

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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

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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

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Even until a complete destruction one that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate

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So as I mentioned Many commentators leap right to verse 24 Because that's the really if you will exciting part of daniel chapter 9 it's been my

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Contention. It will be my contention that the prayer Is just as exciting and I I looked at it kind of as a pattern not that i'm into You know legally legalistically telling you here's how you must pray or you will never have an answer

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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.

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I mean that's idiotic But daniel was a man who prayed faithfully towards jerusalem three times a day.

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

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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 to worship while you pray

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

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And learning it would be however 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

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I don't want to 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 you see the prophecies that he

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He uh, the lord gave him and how accurate they were and how particularly they they came out

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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

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And there is no other word to describe this other than pretension. There's stupidities to be described as pretension

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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

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It is the most it is one of the most incredible examples of predictive prophecy in the old testament This chapter has two main sections

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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 uh, and and these are a prayer of daniel

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And that prayer comes as a result of something that happened to daniel something that he did something that we should all be doing

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Now this prayer was inspired by his discovery and here it is Of the prediction jeremiah made that the hebrew captivity would would last 70 years

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So jeremiah prophesied the babylonian captivity length In jeremiah 25 8 through 13.

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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

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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

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And the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp This whole land will be a desolation and a horror and all and these nations will serve the king of babylon 70 years

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

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For their iniquity and and the land of the chaldeans and I will make it an everlasting desolation I will bring upon that land all my words which

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I have pronounced against it All that is written in this book Which jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations and then in verse in chapter 29 verses 10 through 14 for thus says the lord

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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

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For I know the plans and here is the context for this verse that is so butchered in on the internet.

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It's about the the babylonian captivity Now god knows the plans he has for you

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But how much time have you spent in susa? So this is the context and this is where this this is what this verse actually means

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I know the plans I have for you declares the lord plans for welfare what to bring you back from the captivity

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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

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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

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Will gather 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

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Now when we expose ex exegete this chapter We will see references in daniel's prayer.

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

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I thought that was second corinthians. Well, we're not there now He he 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 going to be 70 years.

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What was he doing? He was reading the book

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The book of jeremiah. He was reading the bible The bible of the time what a remarkable statement that is

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As I was studying this and thinking about my prayer life how little time I often spend

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In scripture while i'm praying daniel. Well, i'm getting ahead of myself. I'm going to steal my own thunder

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Okay, so this chapter Dates from 538 bc. We're going to get a little context here the babylonian captivity commenced in 605 bc

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So this puts daniel's vision or encounter with gabriel And and there's two different opinions here.

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This does sound more like an actual encounter rather than a vision But and i'll just leave that to your imagination either way works fine

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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

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The close of the captivity was very close at hand and daniel knew this as he read jeremiah and prayed he understood this

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But some of the later prophecies that depend on this chapter will include the lord jesus christ prophetic utterances in matthew and mark

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And later in daniel, uh And matthew and mark what fixes israel's greatest trouble within the days of the 70 70th week of daniel's prophecy

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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

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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

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Kind of paraphrases some some of what is said later and said before mark 24 15 through 22

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Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through daniel the prophet standing in the holy place

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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The one who is on the housetop must not go down Or go in to get anything out of his house and the one who is in the field must not turn back to get his coat

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But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days But pray that it might may not happen in the winter for those days will be a time of tribulation such as not occurred

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Since the beginning of the creation which god created until now and never will be Unless the lord had shortened those days.

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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.

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Those of you who heard me pray or read through daniel's prayer You heard the words thine and thy that's because I have the pre -1995 new american standard

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Back when it was still pretty faithful to the real bible Somebody said amen

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I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry Be that as it may So finally finally we we look through these prophecies in daniel in two seven nine and later ten twelve eleven and twelve

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

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Is simply an expansion of daniel's prophecy within the chronological framework as outlined by the same 70th week

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Which we will see later which is divided into two equal periods each extending from from 1260 days or 42 months or three and a half years revelation 11 2 3 leave out

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Leave I got to 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

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For it has been given to the nations and they will tread under the foot underfoot the holy city for 42 months And I will grant authority to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days clothed in sackcloth

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So that's kind of like a movie trailer That I just read there you who are the witnesses and what what are they?

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What's sackcloth and axes? Well, we'll get there someday revelation 12 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by god so that she would be nourished there

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She would be nourished for 1260 days revelation 12 14 so you can see these connections

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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 it.

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Let me rephrase that For a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent and then finally revelation 13 5

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It 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.

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So daniel's prophecies Basically give us the underpinning for what happens later in later prophecy and in revelation

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So the book of daniel is also key to understanding as I said much of new testament prophecy

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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

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Histories other histories histories of the nations around Probably legal documents. He was a great mind and he spent a lot of time studying

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It was his reading of the prophecy of jeremiah that prompted most of the events that the

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That are recorded in chapter 9 the prayer his prayer was most certainly prompted It was prompted by the reading of that prophecy and knowing that his people

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Had to repent and turn back to god for them to have a successful break from being the prisoners of babylon

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

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It is noteworthy however that while he was praying we'll see in verse 21 It indicates that he did not

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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So now it's appropriate that it would be gabriel who would bring this information to daniel regarding the first advent of the lord

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Jesus christ He later would announce to mary the birth to mary of the lord. Jesus christ.

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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

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With this in mind, we'll begin our study um We're going to 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

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Who was made king over the kingdom of the chaldeans? So this would be the darius from chapter 6.

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So we're going to go back i'm going back in my notes to chapter 6 So as I pointed out back then this is one of the most famous chapters in the bible um

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It has been the subject of stories and movies, etc. But and the difficulty is

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Up when daniel was was uh began to first begin be exposited in the modern modern era.

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There was no darius There was no belch. There was no belshazzar. There was these names were unknown and so many liberal critics assigned the book of daniel as either spurious

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Or for a lit from a later time and a lot of these answers these questions were answered by discoveries in history

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An interesting one is note this that in verse 28 Of daniel chapter 6 look at verse 28 of daniel chapter 6 if you will

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I don't want to jump around too much, but daniel 28 628 so this daniel

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Enjoyed success in the reign of darius and in the reign of cyrus the persian. So we have two names there

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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

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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

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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

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The simple fact is that the bible has the only reference to darius and that does not make the bible untrue

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It's a it's a good it's it's the word of god, but it's also a really good history book a perfect history book

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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

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

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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 contract in his his

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Commentary he says it must be emphasized that there is no established fact That contradicts a person by the name of darius the mead reigning over babylon

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If darius is an alternate name for a known ruler And it was common in those days for rulers to have several names

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The historian wiseman who does not look at this the way we do Explains these events based on his finds

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He says babylon was conquered by ugbaru the governor of gutiam Who led the army of cyrus and entered the city of babylon on the night of belshazzar's feast?

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We remember belshazzar's feast the writing on the wall nabonidus who was belshazzar's father

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Belshazzar Had fled babylon the day before only to be captured and die later in exile when babylon fell to ugbaru on october 12 539 bc

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Cyrus himself had remained with troops at opus and not until 18 days later october 30th 539 bc did he arrive in babylon?

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He then appointed a man named? gubaru If you put an s there, we got a car gubaru

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Probably an alternate form of ugbaru Yeah, why would you name your kid that Hey people that are pregnant don't please please bill jim something, you know

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He then appointed this guy eight days after cyrus arrived ugbaru died If this history of the events following babylon's fall is correct

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This man says there is obviously there's no room for darius the mead to reign over babylon. And this was the common thought

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A few 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.

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The first view is that the bible is in error And whoever wrote it confused darius the mead with some other person

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The second view is the second explanation is that darius is the same as gubaru

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Whom cyrus appointed to rule in babylon until he could take the throne and the third view

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Is that darius the mead is just another name for cyrus this is based upon the translation of daniel 628 which renders it

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Daniel profford in the reign of darius even the reign of cyrus the persian so it's it's

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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 mead was another name for cyrus

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Those two men it was a it was a middle persian Reign and they had this they often in history.

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This was done. The roman rulers had numerous names. Um, Persian rulers had numerous names.

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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

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That we were talking about back in chapter six in chapter five in chapter six, excuse me.

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So That darius is who we are going to be discussing right now in the next for the next few minutes so you see the you see the

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Secession up there. We have the reign of cyrus and then cyrus to nabonitis and then remember under nabonitis nabonitis departed the main city and went to another city to construct a temple to the moon

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God because he thought he wasn't getting enough praise and he left belshazzar in charge in the capital and that's why

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Belshazzar was a name mentioned only in the bible for many many years until they found the the babylonian chronicle so then we have

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I guess I can look here nabonitis belshazzar sorry cyrus marches against the capital of lydia

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Against sardis, which is capital of lydia gobias takes babylon without resistance That's in daniel 5 and then cyrus enters as the liberator from nabonitis moon goddess, which we talked about Cyrus son succeeds in the reign of and then extraneous information the reign of cambysias cambysias and darius one who is darius

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He comes to rule that's not the darius we're talking about we're talking about darius the mead

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Who was 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

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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 8

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Daniel is probably 82 years old here And as mentioned this is likely very close to the end of the 70 year captivity in babylon further the events

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Of belshazzar's feast in chapter 5 occur between chapters 8 and 9

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Placing chapter 6 is not so easy walvard. I I wrote this walvard guesses it this way.

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It's a guess. I believe it's a good guess It is not clear where chapter 6 fits into this order of events

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But it may well have occurred in the first year of darius's reign either immediately before or immediately after the events of chapter 9

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If daniel's experience at belshazzar's feast as well as his deliverance from the lions had already been experienced

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These significant events of the sovereignty and power of god may well have constituted a divine preparation

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For the tremendous revelation about to unfold daniel would have been Well served by these previous experiences to recognize the

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Absolute sovereignty of the god that was about to reveal this to him in chapter 9

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He would have known that god there was nothing that god could not do including delivering him from lions

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Um, that's a 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

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That would be for all time for all readers for all followers of jehovah of yahweh

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The azureus mentioned here is likely the same Ahasuerus or arta xerxes mentioned in ezra chapter 4

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Which says this verses 6 and 7 now in the reign of ahasuerus in the beginning of his reign

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They wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of judah and jerusalem And in the days of arta xerxes bishlam

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Mithridath tabil and the rest of his colleagues wrote to arta xerxes king of persia

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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 1 we're talking about the same darius

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We were talking about in earlier chapters of daniel who is most likely the same as cyrus or appointed

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In either event this would have been the king that daniel was talking about any comments or questions about verse 1 and the introduction verse 2

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In the first year of his reign I daniel observed in the books The number of year of the years which was revealed as the word of the lord to jeremiah the prophet

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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.

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But there you go Hey now, you know what the trouble i'm having The book spoken of here

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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

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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 um

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Maybe necessarily or unnecessarily it includes uh books like um, where did

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I see that judith and And and but you see the asterisk. These are books that are are

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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

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So he would have had all the histories of of the the earlier kings And he would have had all of jeremiah's writings.

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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

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He would have had access to all this and I believe it's my opinion. This is just my opinion sanctified opinion

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That daniel was a voracious reader And he would have he would have studied these things.

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He didn't 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.

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He had plenty to do He was a man of god and god had him busy about a lot of things So it's it's certain that daniel knew about the prophecy in isaiah

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About a king when god would raise cyrus who would see to the rebuilding of jerusalem in the temple during his reading

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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

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Another spot that it appears uh Is on a blank page there at any rate jeremiah 25 11 and 12 the whole land will be a desolation of horror

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And a horror and these nations will serve the king of babylon 70 years Then it will be when 70 years are completed.

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I will punish the king of babylon and that nation declares the lord For their iniquity and the and the land of the chaldeans and I will make it an everlasting destination desolation

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And then we read jeremiah 29 10 uh Maybe we didn't I will read it now uh

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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

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I Have a place for you. I have a I have a I have a 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.

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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

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

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

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Walvoord notes the predictable the reliability and precision of this timing in his commentary He says what is intended accordingly in the statement in daniel chapter 9 verse 2 is that daniel realized that the time was approaching

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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

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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

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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

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Any comments about verse 2 verse 3 So I gave my attention to the lord god to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes

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Now i'm not going. Yes I I couldn't hear you

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That will be the future this is about what happened in Yeah, so daniel it is apparent.

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He's asking if that wasn't a week of 14 a week of years Um, it is apparent to 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 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

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That was a period of actual 70 years the weeks of years come We'll look at those in chapter 9 verses 24 and on when we look at the the 70 weeks prophecy

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What i'm talking about right now is just the prediction that jeremiah made that you will be in captivity 70 years

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And you will return in 70 years and that it was fulfilled precisely 70 years

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So I gave attention to the lord god to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes

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I was going to say there. Um 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

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To my shame that I don't come to prayer with a proper attitude many times I just pray

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And and there are times when that's important But when when you are sitting down in your time to spend time with god in his word and to pray

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We should we should always be prepared. We should prepare ourselves We're about to read the word of god

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Now i'm not saying he's going to speak to you out of the closet He's going to his words are going to be illuminated for you by his holy spirit

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And he will use that word in your life in my life to change us but It's a remarkable thing and uh,

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I think some of what daniel does here can be a good Old testament example for us

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As to how we should come to prayer So the proper attitude of a devote of a true devotee to yahweh

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When seeking his favor was to fast wear sackcloth and axe ashes

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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 with in his word

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All of these actions were common for the day when a genuine attitude of humility contrition and supplication was present

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Here daniel says that he gave my attention The word is the word is that the translation?

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The word for word translation is he I set my face I like flint

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I set my face towards the lord god uh That is he gave deliberate action to begin praying about ending the captivity of israel

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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.

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

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Remember that this was the man who was nearly killed for his habit of praying three times a day towards jerusalem

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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

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Daniel was praying to the sovereign god of the world and more importantly here the sovereign god of his people of israel

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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

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If you will in this prayer, he doesn't whine and bellyache like i'm want to do

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He states matter of factly what has gone on how it? demonstrates the character of the sovereign god

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

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He reminds when we remind god of something. We're actually reminding ourselves And that's a good thing.

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That's a good thing. He spends time doing that He doesn't kick But he wrecked he acknowledges what god has done and then he seeks god's favor

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And what we're going to see and i'm going to steal my own thunder here He'll he'll he'll go through 15 verses before he ever asks for anything

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That's not me lord, I need this and I need it now I I've just been just Excited and and ashamed as I I read through this

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It's going to change my prayer life i'm going to be praying differently, uh, I don't think I have sackcloth and but uh

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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

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

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I prayed to the lord my god and confessed And said alas o lord

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The great and awesome god who keeps his covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments

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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,

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I prayed to yaweh My god is what he said as he here uses the personal name of god

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This is the only chapter in the book of daniel where he uses that personal name, but he uses it seven times

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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

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And he hears them on the basis of hidden his character on the basis of his word

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Which is all tied together and on the basis of his sovereignty and ability to actually answer prayer um

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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

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There are a number a great number of people who have exegeted the book of daniel only to ignore The non -prophetic passages

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I mentioned earlier some deal only with the prophecies and leave much of daniel untouched

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This fantastic prayer lasts 16 verses and it gives us an interesting pattern If you will to consider following i'm going to give a general outline of it and we're going to have to start that next week

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Because the outline will take a bit of time here Yeah, quite a bit of time so I guess the point

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I want to make here is to take away from this is that Every first of all and we know this.

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I know i'm preaching if you will to the choir. You are a good choir um every word of god

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Is is worthy is significant is precious is important Is life -changing in his hand

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It every text of scripture has a has a message to us today. Not not some weird

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Obtuse message but a message about who god is and what he does and how he acts in people's lives and and Prayer is a method.

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I hate to use that word, but I can't i'm not a real good thesaurus this morning It's a method of tapping into Giving god the praise he deserves the acknowledgements he deserves and seeking his face for the difficulties we are facing

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

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

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Holy mackerel. I burn the skies up with those But uh

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At least for my regular prayer life this is going to 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

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He is a man of god I don't purport to be that But I would like to imitate him.

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I would like us all to see that when we look at this prayer It is worthy of imitation Not in his 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

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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

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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.

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I'm going to have to close there. But are there any comments or questions before we before we close So next week we will be uh 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

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I I can do it because i'm going to come back and just Dig into it through about verse 19.

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We will we will look at verses 4 through 19 and As a general outline of how prayer can look let's pray father

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I confess to you that my attitude of prayer has not always been a proper attitude.

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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

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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.

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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.

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I hope and I pray To seek you further and better in prayer every day

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You know lord this nation needs prayer these people need prayer But it is exactly what daniel says in his in his prayer that has caused the things that have come upon our nation

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We no longer seek your face We no longer lift you up. We don't listen to you.

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We disobey we rebel And for those things we confess, but this morning father.

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Thank you for this word for this incredible foray into the concept and the idea of prayer