So we pick up where we left Daniel. He is in prayer and is interrupted by Gabriel. Gabriel is one of only a couple of named angels and is therefore assumed to be a pretty important guy. Daniel recognises him from their previous encounter so is clearly not as afraid as he was the first time. God has chosen to deliver this message; not via a vision or a dream but by a physical being (human in appearance). This message is huge!
It’s worth noting too that message brought by the angel is not actually in response to Daniels prayer. The words which Daniel was saying do not appear to be that important as not only was he interrupted in middle of his flow but also the angel was dispatched with the message came as the prayer started. God was clearly more interested that it was Daniel that was talking to him and in his motives for doing so. Rather than the actual words he said.
Even from these few verses where find this interaction between Daniel and Gabriel there is so much that we can learn about prayer but that will have be a subject for another day. I will say though at this point I felt really quite inspired by Daniel. Daniel was a favorite of heaven (verse 23). We know that God loves us all but there do seem to be levels, which I imagine are based upon our level of devotion and the purity of our hearts. We see here that Daniel was “Greatly Loved” and was given this vision. This description is very similar to that of Mary when she too was visited by Gabriel; Mary was “Highly Favored”. And again similar to the description of John which was “The one who Jesus loved” and to whom was given the Revelation. That’s all an aside but what an aspiration to have; to be a favorite of heaven.
So on with the message itself. This is difficult to get your head around (understatement!). Daniel had understood, as we saw previously, the message in Jeremiah which basically said that the Jews seventy years of captivity was about to end. The message he receives now is far greater. Daniel had been praying for the release of the Jews and the resurrection of the Holy City but God answers him with more than he is able to ask or imagine.
The events of which he his told about are to take place in the next 490 years. These are the seventy ’sevens’. Not the seventy years as in Jeremiah’s prophecy but seventy weeks of years or seventy times seven years (please to have cleared that up *smile*) Apart from anything else, even though the ultimate end of Jerusalem was destruction, this shows how much more God likes to bless than to curse. The Jews had been captive for seventy years but God was now saying that they would be enjoying their land again for seven times that amount of time.
When these years started and stopped is open to debate. I’m not going to go into any great depth here, mainly because I don’t understand it myself, but the three times that are most popularly suggested as the end of the period are; 1. the death of Jesus, 2. the time when Paul first took the Gospel to the Gentiles, 3. the destruction of Jerusalem about 37 years after Christ’s death. You can do you own research and decide for yourself on that one.
Whatever the quibbles over these exact periods there are two things that this message has set out to achieve which we cannot ignore. Firstly the message is to encourage. The Jews had long been told to expect “the one who is coming” but were never told when they were to be expected. Now, while we can argue about the exact year, at least we had a time frame to expect him in. This is possibly why there were a number of people around at the time of Jesus claiming to be the Messiah. It also explains how the Magi knew what to look for when saw the sign in the sky. Secondly, it was to show beyond doubt that a time would come when it would be clear that if you hadn’t spotted the Messiah, you had missed Him. Those still waiting for one now are about 1500 years beyond even the latest estimates which this message refers to.
So, what does the message actually say? The very thing that Daniel is praying for is only touched upon briefly. Jerusalem will be restored quickly. Opposition will come but the city will be rebuilt. (Daniel 9: 25)
This is where things get really confusing. I’m not sure I totally understand the picture but here is what I have picked up. The Messiah (who we know to be Jesus) is going to put an end to the sacrifice. So there will no longer be a need to sacrifice for sins any more. Jesus has done it once, for all. That bit’s easy (ish). But verse 26, “..the people of the ruler..” (the ruler, or prince in some versions, is Jesus so his people are us, or the gentiles) “..will destroy the city and the sanctuary..”. Jerusalem was indeed destroyed by the Gentiles (specifically the Romans) and to this day has never been restored. The end was indeed a flood of violence and a very bloody war.
The sacrifice and offering were brought to an end because when all of this happened the families of the priests were decimated, and records destroyed. Now nobody (so it is said) can trace their roots back to Aaron.
The point that the Jews of Jesus day missed was that temple and the sacrifice etc were going to be destroyed because they were no longer going to be needed. Steven was martyred for pointing this out to them (Acts 6). Jesus was setting up a spiritual kingdom, not the earthly one that was to sweep away the Romans like the Jews had hoped.
So, I hope that was of some help, and at least made some sense.
Let the head scratching questions begin.
