DANIEL 9

Daniel 9:1-2 Daniel is reading a scriptural passage and prays to God for enlightenment. This is a good pattern for us.

Daniel 9:3-19

v. 3 He starts out with praise. Again, this is a good example to follow. It is like the beginning of the Lord's Prayer: “Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”

vv .4-19 Skeptics say that the prayer was obviously added at a later date since it doesn't seem to have any relationship to Daniel's reading of Jeremiah. Comment? The reason seems to be obvious given the subject of Jeremiah's prophecy.

Daniel 9:20-23 Verse 23 is interesting. It implies that God started to answer Daniel's request before he even uttered it (God knows what we are asking for before we ask). What do we know about Gabriel? His role seems to be as a messenger since he announces the births of John the Baptist and Jesus in Luke's Gospel. Are there any other angels given by name in the Bible? Michael = a warrior angel and protector of Israel. Satan = accuser, prosecuting attorney. I Enoch also lists Raphael and Uriel.

Daniel 9:24-27 This prophecy seems to have confused three other OT writers, who tried to make sense out of it:

Jeremiah 25:11

a. The average lifetime of a person, three generations, or a time of “complete” punishment.

b. The time between Babylon's capture of Nineveh in 612 and the fall of Babylon in 539 = 73 years

c. The time between Jeremiah's original writing (606/5 BC) and the fall of Babylon in 539 = 67 years.

Zechariah 1:12 identifies it as the time between the destruction of the Temple in 587-6 and its rebuilding in 520-515 = 62-72 years.

II Chron. 36:20-22

a. Refers to the period between destruction of the temple in 587/6 and Cyrus' edict in 538, which is only 49 years.

b. But if 70 sabbath years are in mind, then that totals 490 years. This is almost exactly the time of the Monarchy during which the special sabbaths for the land were ignored. Thus, there were 70 years during which the land lay fallow during the exile, which made up for the sabbaths missed. It is this latter interpretation that Daniel takes up.

Daniel 9 interprets it as 70 weeks of years = 490 years. This may be 490 additional years, or may include the 70 years of exile. If the latter, then look at the further breakdown of time in Daniel 9:25-27:

a. Seven weeks = 49 years. From the beginning of Jeremiah's prophecy until first return under Cyrus (the anointed prince is either Cyrus or the high priest Joshua).

b. 62 weeks = 434 years. From the beginning of exile until the death of the pious high priest Onias III (an anointed one) in 171/2 BC under the reign of Antiochus IV (the prince).

c. One week = 7 years. Events under Antiochus IV. The temple worship abolishing was predicted to last 3 ½ years. In fact, it was a little over 3 years (164 BC).

The fact that even the various authors of the Bible were not sure how to interpret this chapter should cause us to hesitate when modern prophecy "experts" use it to predict the future or definitively state how the prophecy in current times.

We should be skeptical of those who claim that the Bible predicted, for example, when Jesus would be crucified, when the tribulation will begin, the time of Christ's second coming, or the establishment of the modern state of Israel.