Sunday
Morning Bible Study
June
16, 2013
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved?
Play Mexico
Missions Video
Last week we began a chapter that started with Daniel praying for his
nation. While Daniel was praying,
something incredible took place …
9:20-23 Gabriel
Visits
:20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the
sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my
God,
:20 speaking – dabar
– to speak, declare, converse, command, promise, warn, threaten, sing
:20 praying – palal
– to intervene, interpose, pray
:20 confessing – yadah
– to throw, shoot, cast; (Hithpael) to confess (sin)
:20 presenting – naphal
– to fall, lie, be cast down, fail; (Hiphil) to cause to fall, fell, throw
down, knock out, lay prostrate
:20 supplication – techinnah
– favor, supplication, supplication for favor
:20 for the holy mountain of my
God
He is praying for Jerusalem.
:21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had
seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me
about the time of the evening offering.
:21 whom I had seen in the
vision at the beginning
Is this referring to the vision of Daniel
8, the Ram and the Goat?
:21 being caused to fly swiftly
The Hebrew phrase here (muy’af bi’af) could have two possible
translations based on whether the words are based on the words “to fly” (‘uf) or “to be weary” (ya’af).
The phrase contains two related words, which adds to the intensity –
something along the lines of either “flying he flew” (swift flight) or “weary
from weariness” (extreme weariness).
Some translations read like this, “came to me in my extreme weariness”
(NASB), while others translate the phrase “came
to me in swift flight” (ESV)
:21 reached me
Literally, “touched me”
:21 the time of the
evening offering
There were two daily burnt offerings that the Jews gave every day, a
morning and an evening offering.
The evening
offering began around 3:00 p.m.,
with the sacrifice of a perfect yearling lamb, which would be burnt on the
altar.
The time of the evening sacrifice was also a time of prayer.
Even though there had not been any sacrifices for years (47 years since the
destruction of the Temple),
Daniel still orients himself around this time of worship.
Lesson
Faithful in prayer
Daniel didn’t let his worship of God stop just because he was in
Babylon. He didn’t let it stop just
because the Temple
had been destroyed.
I think that sometimes I have a tendency to base my worship on what others
are doing around me.
If the musicians are playing badly, or if the people around me don’t care
about worship, I just might not worship either.
But in reality, worship is something that I do for God. It’s a “performance” by me before my Creator.
God is still on His throne and I am still His servant. So
I must worship. And pray.
:22 And he informed me,
and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you
skill to understand.
:23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have
come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider
the matter, and understand the vision:
:23 understand the
vision
The chapter began with Daniel studying Jeremiah’s prophecy that the captivity would last
for seventy years. Now Gabriel is going
to give Daniel a
little more insight into how “seventy” applies to the future of Israel.
:23 At the beginning of your
supplications
At the time that Daniel had started
praying, a command from God had gone out to give Daniel help, and now Gabriel
has arrived to give Daniel some answers.
Daniel’s two previous visions (Daniel
7 & 8) were primarily about the Gentile nations.
Daniel 7 was the four beasts, four
worldwide empires that would lead up to the end of time.
Daniel 8 was about two particular
Gentile empires (Persia and Greece) and their impact on Israel.
Yet at the beginning of this
chapter, we saw that Daniel’s particular focus is on Israel itself.
He has read in Jeremiah’s
prophecies that the captivity would last for seventy years. Daniel wants to know about what will follow
after that.
The answer will also involve the
number seventy.
:23 understand the vision
Which vision is Gabriel talking
about?
Is it a previous vision?
Is what he is about to say the
actual vision?
9:24-27 Seventy
Weeks
:24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for
iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and
prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
:24 Seventy
Israel’s number
There is some significance to the number seventy in the Bible.
When Jacob
brought his family down to Egypt in the days of Joseph’s famine, there were
seventy in Jacob’s family. (Gen. 46:27)
(Ge 46:26–27 NKJV) —26 All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from
his body, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons in all. 27
And the sons of Joseph who were born to
him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob who
went to Egypt were seventy.
There is an interesting phrase found in Deuteronomy that gives some
significance to the number seventy.
(Dt 32:8 NKJV) When the
Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, When He separated the sons
of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the children of
Israel.
God made some sort of divisions among the nations of the
world equal to the “number of the children of Israel”.
The division
that God made of the nations is found in Genesis 10 – called the “Table of
Nations”.
It’s the descendants that come from Noah’s three sons, the
people that will repopulate the world after the flood.
There are seventy nations listed.
God picked out these seventy divisions BEFORE there were seventy people
in Israel’s family.
When Moses was
leading the nation through the wilderness towards the Promised Land, he set up
a group of seventy elders who would help him handle judicial matters. (Num.
11:16)
(Nu 11:16 NKJV) So the Lord said to Moses: “Gather to Me
seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the
people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that
they may stand there with you.
The Sanhedrin was patterned after
this, consisting of seventy men plus the high priest.
Jeremiah said
the captivity would last for seventy years. (Jer. 29:10)
(Je 29:10 NKJV) For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed
at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you
to return to this place.
One of the reasons for the length of seventy years had to do with the
number of “Sabbath years” that Israel had not given to its land. (Lev.
26:34-35; 2Chr. 36:21).
(Le 26:34–35 NKJV) —34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies
desolate and you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest and
enjoy its sabbaths. 35 As long
as it lies desolate it shall rest— for the time it did not rest on your
sabbaths when you dwelt in it.
(2 Ch 36:21 NKJV) —21 to
fulfill the word of the Lord by
the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she
lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
Yet the number may also be related to the nation itself – seventy is
Israel’s number.
Jesus even sent
out a mission team of “seventy” disciples (Luke 10:1).
(Lk 10:1 NKJV) After these things
the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His
face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.
Who did they preach to? The nation of Israel.
:24 weeks
– shabuwa’ – seven, period of seven
(days or years)
The word “Sabbath”
is related to this word, the “Sabbath” being the seventh day of the week.
This is a group of “seven”. It might
be seven days (a week). Here we will see it is a
group of seven years.
Daniel is going
to be given insight into a particular group of seventy times seven years, or,
490 years.
Remember that one of the reasons the Jews were in Babylon had to do
with violating the Sabbath years.
A Sabbath year was to be celebrated every seven years.
It would have taken 490 years of breaking the Sabbath Year law to
accrue a penalty of 70 years in Babylon (490 / 7 = 70).
So again, it would be reasonable that we are talking about seventy
groups of seven years.
:24 For your people
What is Daniel’s “people”?
It’s the nation of Israel.
There are quite a few different ideas out there as to how to interpret some
of these end time prophecies. It’s a bit
simplistic of me to say this, but it’s very important that you understand that
when prophecies are given about Israel, they are meant for Israel. Confusion comes when you start saying that
God is no longer concerned about Israel and that all the promises for Israel
now belong to the church. Not so.
There are folks who will take some of the end times prophecies and come
up with very different conclusions than we do because they miss this simple
point.
They will say that the nation of Israel is no longer God’s chosen
people, and that the Gentile church has taken the place of Israel and therefore
all of the prophecies concerning Israel are now aimed at the church.
It’s this incorrect premise that will lead you into
incorrect conclusions such as a “post-tribulational rapture”, which believes
that the church will go through the coming horrible seven years of hell on
earth.
When this period of time is referred to as “Jacob’s
trouble” (Jer. 30:7), they will see the church as being the one going through
this period.
The seven year Tribulation period is the last of the
seventy weeks. It was not intended for
the Gentile church, but for the nation of Israel.
The Tribulation is known as the time of God’s “wrath”. (Rev. 6:17)
(Re 6:17 NKJV) For the great day of
His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Yet Paul wrote to the Gentile Thessalonians:
(1 Th 5:9 NKJV) For God did not
appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
:24 and for your
holy city
This is the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be a focus of this prophecy.
:24 To finish the transgression
finish – kala’ –
to restrict, restrain, withhold, shut up, keep back, refrain, forbid; (Piel) to finish
transgression – pesha–
transgression, rebellion
The phrase speaks of bringing to an end Israel’s sin of disobedience.
:24 To make an end of sins
make an end – chatham
– to seal, seal up, affix a seal
sins – chatta’ah –
sin, sinful
:24 To make reconciliation for iniquity
reconciliation – kaphar
– to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation, cover over with
pitch
iniquity – ‘avon –
perversity, depravity, iniquity, guilt or punishment of iniquity
:24 To finish the
transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for
iniquity
There will be six things accomplished for Israel when these 490 years have
run their course.
The first three
have to do with sin.
These items will have been accomplished by Jesus on the cross during these 490 years, and eventually applied to believing Jews
by the end of the 490 years.
The last three
have to do with God’s
kingdom.
They will be
accomplished when Jesus comes back.
The first three
phrases speak of how God would one day deal with the sin of Israel.
The Jewish High
Priest used to sprinkle blood once a year inside the Holy of Holies to “cover”
the sins of the nation
(Le 16:14 NKJV) He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it
with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy
seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.
But when Daniel is receiving this vision, there has been no sacrifice of
atonement for 47 years.
Jesus was the
perfect sacrifice. There is no longer a
need to bring any more sacrifices because He paid with one sacrifice for all
mankind, not just for Israel.
(Ro 3:25a NLT) For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made
right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his
blood.
(Heb 10:10 NLT) For God’s will was
for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for
all time.
For us who believe in Jesus now, these things are very real. He has paid for our sin.
For the nation of Israel, these things will be brought into focus by the
end of the seventy weeks when they turn to Jesus.
:24 To bring in
everlasting righteousness
bring in – bow’
– to go in, enter, come, go, come in
righteousness – tsedeq
– justice, rightness, righteousness
everlasting –
‘owlam – long duration, antiquity, futurity, for ever, ever, everlasting,
evermore, perpetual, old, ancient, world
This has not happened yet. But it will happen when
Jesus returns and sets up His kingdom:
(Je 23:5–6 NKJV) —5 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “That I will raise to David a
Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment
and righteousness in the earth. 6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel
will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE
LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
:24 To seal up
vision and prophecy
seal up – chatham
– to seal, seal up, affix a seal
This is the same word translated “make an end (of sins)”
vision – chazown
– vision
prophecy – nabiy’
– spokesman, speaker, prophet
This is speaking
about all prophecies being fulfilled. That has not happened yet.
:24 And to anoint
the Most Holy
to anoint
– mashach – to smear, anoint, spread
a liquid
This is the
root of the word “Messiah”, the “anointed one”.
Most Holy
– qodesh – apartness, holiness
The Hebrew repeats the word twice (qadosh
qadoshim)
It’s the same
phrase used to describe the “Holy of Holies” (or, “Most Holy”) (Ex. 26:33)
This could
refer to the reestablishing of the Holy of Holies after the antichrist
desecrates it.
It could also
refer to the anointing of Jesus as the Messiah by the Jews after He returns.
:24 Seventy weeks
Jesus used “seventy weeks” to teach on an important subject.
(Mt 18:21–35 NKJV) —21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how
often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus said to
him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
We often look at Peter has bragging on how much he might be willing to
forgive someone, and then Jesus takes Peter’s suggestion of forgiving someone
“seven” times and blows him away with saying it ought to be “seventy times
seven”.
Some people like to look at this and start counting how many times they’ve
forgiven someone, until they get to the number 490.
Others like to say that Jesus is just speaking of an incredibly large
number.
What if Jesus
is hinting at what we’ve looked at this morning – “seventy weeks”? What if Daniel’s vision is embedded in this
picture?
23 Therefore the kingdom
of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his
servants. 24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed
him ten thousand talents. 25 But as he was not able to pay, his master
commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and
that payment be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down before him,
saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 27 Then the master of
that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
This is a beautiful picture of the forgiveness that God offers to us. Ten thousand talents is an enormous sum,
today worth about $18
billion dollars.
It’s like size of the incredible forgiveness that God is telling Daniel
about.
750,000 pounds of
gold. With one pound of gold today being
worth about $25,000, this would be over $18 billion dollars.
It’s like the debt that our own sin carries with it. We could never repay.
Yet when we ask God for mercy, He is moved with compassion and forgives us.
28 “But that servant
went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii;
and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me
what you owe!’
A hundred denarii is worth about $7,000. A denarius is a day’s wage. Today’s average daily wage is about $70. This fellow owed the man $7,000. That’s a large sum, but nothing
compared to $18 billion.
29 So his fellow servant
fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I
will pay you all.’ 30 And he would not, but went and threw him
into prison till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellow servants saw what had
been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had
been done. 32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked
servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not
also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 34 And his master
was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was
due to him. 35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his
heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
We are like the first
servant who was forgiven $18 billion.
Lesson
Forgiveness
Where does the seventy weeks come in?
The seventy weeks are about God dealing with the enormity of sins of God’s
people Israel. God would take care of their sins through
their Messiah’s death.
Peter was Jewish. He too would have
his sins paid for by the Messiah, being forgiven a huge debt.
Peter ought to forgive others just as God will have
forgiven him.
Seventy weeks, 70 x 7 is about dealing with sin.
God has forgiven us much.
We must forgive others.
We need to
forgive others because God forgives us.
(Eph 4:32 NKJV) And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
even as God in Christ forgave you.
:25 “Know therefore
and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and
build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and
sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in
troublesome times.
:25 the command To
restore and build Jerusalem
Daniel is
receiving this prophecy in the year 538 BC.
We find the command
to rebuild the city of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 2, or more specifically, March 5,
444BC (94 years later)
(Ne 2:5 NKJV) And I said to the
king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your
sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that
I may rebuild it.”
:25 Until Messiah
the Prince
Messiah – mashiyach
– anointed, anointed one
the Prince – nagiyd
– leader, ruler, captain, prince
If you pay attention to what Gabriel is telling Daniel, he is telling Daniel when
the Messiah will show up, more than five hundred years before it will actually
occur.
:25 seven weeks and
sixty-two weeks
The entire
seventy weeks is broken up into three groups of weeks.
The first two groups contain seven and sixty-two weeks, which totals
sixty-nine weeks. There will be a third
group of one week, bringing the total to seventy.
The first group
of seven weeks refers to the forty-nine years it would take to actually rebuild Jerusalem.
Even though Nehemiah completed the city in 52 days, it would take many more
years for the rubble of the destroyed city to be taken away, adequate housing
to be finished, and the streets rebuilt.
The second group
of weeks, which brings the total weeks to sixty-nine, will end with the coming of the Messiah.
If you want to get exact in calculating this out, it works like this.
Daniel is working off a Babylonian calendar, which has 360 days in the
year.
69 weeks x 7
year x 360 days = 173,880 days.
If you start
with March 5, 444BC and add
173,880 days, you
will arrive at March 30, 33AD.
444 BC to 33 AD = 476 years x 365
days = 173,740 days. Add 116 days in
leap years and the difference between March 5 to March 30 (24 days), and you
come up with 173,880 days.
Smarter men than me (Harold W. Hoehner) have worked out the history of all
this, and this calculates out to be the Sunday that Jesus entered into the city
of Jerusalem, Palm
Sunday.
(For more details
see Harold W. Hoehner, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1977, and Alva J. McClain, Daniel’s
Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969.)
It was on this day that Jesus said,
(Lk 19:42 NKJV) saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things
that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
It was the Psalmist that wrote prophetically of Palm Sunday:
(Ps 118:22–25 NKJV) —22 The stone which
the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. 23 This was the Lord’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be
glad in it. 25 Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.
Lesson
There is a God
Gabriel told Daniel how long it would be from the decree until the Messiah
made His official presentation of Himself to the nation of Israel.
And more than five hundred years after the prophecy, it came to pass.
How do you know there is a God?
I think we can see proof of God’s
existence in the design of creation around us.
On Thursday we were looking at the intelligent design of birds in
flight. And there’s this …
Play Fibonacci
video clip
How do I know there is a God? How do
I know that the Bible really is God’s Word to us?
I think one of
the greatest things to point to is the fact that the Bible accurately speaks of
things in the future, and they come to pass.
This is just one of hundreds of prophecies that have come to pass exactly
like God said they would.
God Himself says:
(Is 46:9–10 NKJV) —9 Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there
is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end
from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet
done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’
:26 “And after
the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
:26 Messiah shall
be cut off
cut off – karath
– (Niphal) to be cut off; to be cut
down
The Messiah was
cut off when He died on the cross.
He didn’t die for Himself, but He died for the sins of the world.
When Jesus was
“cut off”, God’s time clock for the 70 weeks was put on “pause” with one “week”
to go.
:26 And the people
of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end
of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are
determined.
:26 the people of
the prince who is to come
This is
speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem,
which took place in 70 AD.
Daniel is told that it is to happen by “the people of the prince who is to
come”.
This “prince
who is to come” is the antichrist.
The city was destroyed by the Roman army, and we can assume that the Romans are the people of
the “prince who is to come”.
This fits pretty well with the prophecies of Daniel 2,7, where we talked
about a revived Roman empire in the last days,
an empire governed by the antichrist.
:27 Then he shall
confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He
shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations
shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is
determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”
:27 he shall
confirm a covenant
The “he” is the prince who is to
come, the antichrist.
We have now skipped into the near future, the time of the antichrist, when God’s stopwatch
starts up again.
The antichrist will enter into some sort of treaty (covenant) with Israel that will last for
one “week”, or, seven years.
:27 in the middle
of the week
This “week” is the final
week of these “70 weeks”, the “70th week”.
This is the
time we refer to as the “Tribulation”.
In the middle
of the “week”, or after 3 ½ years, the antichrist will stop the sacrifices in
the Temple, and do something “abominable” like calling himself “god” (2Th. 2:4), and that will
cause the Temple to become “desolate”, or forsaken by God.
(2 Th 2:4 NKJV) who opposes and
exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he
sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
In Daniel 8 we talked about an earlier “abomination of desolation”, which
took place before the time of Jesus. This was when Antiochus
Epiphanes sacrificed a pig to Jupiter in the Temple in Jerusalem.
Jesus said there
would be another abomination of desolation, and it would be a critical time for
the Jewish people.
(Mt 24:15–16 NKJV) —15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’
spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads,
let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
Note: For an “abomination of desolation” to take
place, there will need to be a Temple, something which has not been built, but
some Jews are preparing for.
Lesson
Are you ready?
If God was correct on the first 69 of the 70 weeks, do you think He’d be
accurate in predicting the final 70th week? The Tribulation is coming.
Believe me, you don’t want to be around on this planet when that 70th
week is happening. I believe that Jesus is
coming to take His church off this planet before that 70th week
starts.
(Mt 24:44 NKJV) Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an
hour you do not expect.
Are you ready for His return?
Today is the day to choose to follow Jesus.