Daniel 9 - Bible Study, Explanation, and Application
Daniel 9 Bible Study
TIMELINE:
The Book of Daniel opens in the 3rd year of the reign of King Jehoiakim, 606 BC. Daniel was a contemporary of Ezekiel in Babylon. Daniel was taken to Babylon about 14 years before Ezekiel was called by God to be a prophet (Ezekiel 1-2).
Daniel 1:21 informs us Daniel was in the palace of Babylon until the first year of King Cyrus (539 BC).
The vision recorded in Daniel 9 is dated to the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, 539 BC.
WHAT WE'VE STUDIED SO FAR IN DANIEL:
Daniel 1 – Daniel and his friends are taken to Babylon and educated for 3 years to work in the king’s court. Daniel requests to be exempted from eating the king’s food in order to keep God’s dietary laws.
Daniel 2 – Nebuchadnezzar has a dream about a great image made of 5 different materials. Daniel interprets the dream for him, telling him about an everlasting kingdom that God would set up in the latter days.
Daniel 3 – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s image of gold and were thrown into the fiery furnace. God miraculously saved them from the fire, and Nebuchadnezzar praised God and honored Him throughout the kingdom.
Daniel 4 – Nebuchadnezzar praised God as the Most High and the Eternal King. He recounted how God humbled him by turning him into an animal-like being that lived outside and ate grass like an ox.
Daniel 5 – The city of Babylon falls to the Medes and Persians after Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall at Belshazzar’s drunken feast.
Daniel 6 – Daniel’s enemies hatch a plot to prevent him from being promoted in the kingdom. Daniel is thrown into a den of lions, but God protects him and keeps the lions from killing him.
Daniel 7 – Daniel had a vision of 4 beasts that represented 4 nations. The Ancient of Days (God) and “one like a son of man” (Jesus) defeated the beasts and established a kingdom that would last forever.
Daniel 8 – Daniel had a vision about a ram and a goat. God revealed that the two animals represented the Medo-Persian Empire (ram) and the Greek Empire (goat).
OUTLINE:
DANIEL PRAYS FOR MERCY FOR HIS PEOPLE (9:1-19):
After reading the writings of the prophets, specifically Jeremiah, Daniel understood that his people, the Jews, were to be in exile and Jerusalem was to be in ruins for 70 years (Jer 25:11-12; Jer 29:10).
Daniel turned to God in prayer and repented for his people with sackcloth and fasting.
He acknowledged Judah’s rebellion and the shame it rightfully brought on the nation. He prayed, “To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You” (9:8).
He confessed that his people had broken God’s covenant and received the appropriate punishments.
“All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, refusing to obey Your voice” (9:11).
Daniel knew that Judah’s 70 year punishment was almost up, so he asked God to change His disposition towards Judah. He asked God to turn His wrath away from Jerusalem, not because they deserved it, but because God was a merciful God.
GABRIEL APPEARS TO DANIEL (9:20-23):
Gabriel, who spoke with Daniel in the vision recorded in chapter 8, appeared to Daniel again in response to his prayer. He came in “swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice” (9:21).
Gabriel told Daniel that he would give him “insight and understanding” because he was greatly loved by God.
70 WEEKS (9:24-27):
This is what Gabriel told Daniel.
Dan 9:24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
Dan 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.
Dan 9:27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
BIBLE COMPREHENSION:
While we don’t have time to examine the fulfillment of every detail of the prophecy. We will establish a starting point for further study.
God decreed 70 weeks to finish transgression, put an end to sin, and atone for iniquity (9:24).
Most interpreters see the fulfillment of this prophecy in the work of Jesus. And it seems very likely that this passage points to Jesus when you start doing the math.
Most interpreters take the 70 weeks (70 weeks with 7 days each) to refer to years… 70x7= 490 days or 490 years.
The 70 weeks were to be counted from the “going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem (9:25).
When exactly was this word/decree given?
One famous decree was given to Ezra by the king of Persia in 457 BC (mentioned in Ezra 1 and Ezra 9:9).
Esd 9:9 - For we are slaves. Yet our God has not forsaken us in our slavery, but has extended to us His steadfast love before the kings of Persia, to grant us some reviving to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us protection in Judea and Jerusalem.
The prophecy in Daniel 9 speaks of the arrival of an “anointed one” at the end of 69 weeks (9:26).
69 weeks x 7 = 483 days or 483 years
If the decree was given in 457 BC, and 483 years were to pass before the arrival of the “anointed one,” then the “anointed one” would be expected around 26 AD (457-483=-26). That so happens to be the exact year Jesus started His ministry.
