Daniel 9 verses 1-19 contain that great prayer of Daniel, which we considered together last week, in which he prays repentance to the Lord. He has heard that the time of captivity, according to the prophet Jeremiah, is coming to an end, and this prompts him to confess the sins of the people to the Lord, crying out for mercy for the sake of God's own name. Now we will begin reading at verse 20 as we get the answer to that prayer. Daniel chapter 9, beginning at verse 20. While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me. in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy, a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore, consider the word. and understand the vision. 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, 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. 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. 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 abomination shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator." May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word. You may be seated. This evening we come to Daniel chapter 9 verses 20 through 27. And if this is a passage of which you are familiar with, you know there are many difficulties connected with it. If this is a passage you are not familiar with, upon the reading of it, you certainly know that there are many difficulties connected with this passage, meaning there are many, many questions that must be answered, at least many questions that are asked. on certain particulars of what this vision contains. What is it speaking of? Why is it presented in this way? I won't go into all of the different ways in which pastors and commentators have described this passage and its difficulty, but I will say this from the commentator Matthew Henry. He takes a different approach. Different approach. Acknowledging that there are some difficulties, he instead highlights this reality. He says, this passage contains the most illustrious prediction of Christ and gospel grace that is extent in all the Old Testament. Yes, there are many questions that are in this text that we will seek to answer, but what is found here as we come to an understanding of it, it is true that this passage really is a jewel in the crown of Old Testament revelation as it points us in unique ways to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The timing of it, which is unique to this passage, but also his purpose and his work. And here in Daniel are truly profound revelations from God through his angel Gabriel to his servant Daniel. All of this again in response to a prayer of Daniel to the Lord. that here, most clearly, in Daniel's book, we find the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ as presented. What Daniel is shown here, what he is told here, really anticipates what is accomplished fully in the New Testament by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And so what we find here, as difficult as it might be at first, is not something that should be a cause for discouragement. In fact, here is a passage of great encouragement as it points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And very simply, what I would summarize this passage, what I hope for us to see as we unpack it, is that Christ Himself was sent and has come to deal with the sins of His people. Christ Himself was sent and has come to deal with the sins of His people. That is what this passage predominantly focuses on and has in view. The completion of the sacrificial work of the Anointed One, the Messiah, to put an end to sin. And then some things that follow from that. But first, let us see the glorious setting of this vision. That's what's found there in verses 20 to 23. That's the introduction. That Daniel, in verses 20 to 23, he recapitulates. He says again what it is he's doing. He says that he is speaking and praying. He's confessing his sin and the sin of the people Israel and presenting his plea before the Lord. Verse 21, while I was speaking in prayer, The answer to his prayer comes. The simple and glorious truth that God answers prayer. And notice in this passage how swiftly that answer comes. That he's interrupted in the middle of his praying. The angel Gabriel appears to him and Gabriel says that he was in fact sent to him in swift flight He was sped upon His way to come and to speak to Daniel as He, in some sense, at last, has made this grand prayer of confession on behalf of the people, pleading with God, His covenant mercies, that He would be merciful and would be faithful to His promise to the prophet Jeremiah, that the people of God would be brought back from captivity. that they would once again be brought back to the promised land, that the time of 70 years of exile, as prophesied by Jeremiah, would be put to an end. Daniel praised these things, that the city of God, for the sake of God's name, would be restored. And Gabriel was sent to speak a word to Daniel. We read Luke chapter 1 particularly because the same angel Gabriel is in both passages. But he was the one privileged to announce the birth of John, the forerunner of the Christ. But he was the one chosen to speak to Mary, the coming birth of the promised Messiah, the Savior of His people. The same one who speaks to Daniel of things nearly 500 years in the future from Daniel is the same one that speaks of the beginning of the fulfillment of those things. The life and the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this angel appears to Daniel at the time of the evening sacrifice. Daniel, though deported for decades and decades, there is no ongoing evening sacrifices. Still remembering the time of the evening sacrifice in his prayer, Gabriel appears to him. And what did he come to do? Verses 22-23, he came to Daniel, this one that is said to have found favor in the eyes of the Lord. He came to give Daniel an understanding, an insight, for he is greatly loved. Similar language again to Mary, one who had found favor. To give to him this word, an understanding, the vision. What we should see is that Daniel prays that the captivity in Babylon would be undone, that the people of God would return to the land of promise, the city would be restored after these 70 years. But Daniel comes and he has a far more glorious answer. It's not merely something that's going to take place in the life of Daniel. It's not even something that's going to take place shortly after the life of Daniel ends. But we're talking generation after generation after generation, this vision of something that is in fact the answer to Daniel's prayer, but perhaps he does not at first know it. Daniel prays for the restoration of the people of God and their earthly dwelling. What Gabriel says to Daniel is, that will happen, but something far more glorious is promised. To deal with the sins of the people of God fully. And finally, this is the glorious setting of this vision. Let us now look at some of the important details. Some of the important details of the vision. Again, as you're most likely aware, the mere reading of the text shows us there is a lot here with many questions and a variety of interpretations. Some commentators count at least 15 important exegetical questions that have to be answered, and depending on how you answer them will will shade your understanding of the text as a whole. This evening, instead of merely presenting this view as opposed to that view, we're not going to have some sort of competition, as it were, here. I'm going to set forth what I believe to be the biblical meaning of the text. And then, as the Lord wills, we'll seek to answer some reasons why that is, and answer, perhaps, some common questions when they arise. But the first thing I want us to notice, and this is helpful for me and my own understanding, and I hope it's helpful for you, in verses 24 to 27, these 70 weeks that are spoken of here, these 70 periods of seven, they're spoken of in all four verses. So a way to orient yourself to the very text is verse 24 deals with this entire period of 70 periods of time, 77. In verse 25, that same period, it's not a separate period, but that same period is then divided into its first 69 sevens. In verse 26, we have a further description of the final seven in some what's called indefinite terms. And in verse 27, that final seven is given in more detail. It's not as if 24 leads to 25, leads to 26. No, it's describing the same events in a variety of perspectives, giving more details depending on where you are in the flow of the passage. That the text repeats itself, giving more details as it does. Of course, that first question is, what are these 77s? Daniel read in Jeremiah that there would be 70 years of exile, but the people are going to be brought back at the end of that literal 70 years. But it's as if Gabriel is saying, Daniel, that's just the beginning. You prayed for 70 years, but in fact it's going to be 70 times 7. He's shown another more glorious release. Not merely from physical Babylon, not merely from physical bondage, but in fact a greater relief of which Babylon was just a picture of. Not at the end of 70 years, but at the end of 70 weeks of years. Just to be clear on the math, which is not clear to me always, but we're not speaking here of 490 days. It's not 490 weeks. The word itself doesn't mean week, that's just a way in which we use it. Really, what is in view here is 490 years. Not 70 years, but 7 times 70 years. And at that time, At the end of 490 years, something significant is going to take place, as we will see throughout the text. But more detail. What is the timing of these things? In verse 25 he says, to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks." And then it speaks of 72 weeks and the temple being rebuilt. There is this decree that will be declared that is the beginning of the clock. A decree will be sent out of which the clock is to start ticking. That the people will return, Daniel. They will rebuild the temple, Daniel. The city will be restored, even in the midst of difficulty. And what was that decree? The difficulty of this text is that there are a couple of decrees that we could point to. That God decreed, even through Cyrus, that the people would return in 537 B.C. We follow that timeline though that brings us a bit short of 490 years to the intended goal. I take the decree to be that of Artaxerxes, a decree to go and to rebuild under and in the time of Ezra that the city will be remade. This decree will be sent, and that will be a foundation of which, a time in which it would be possible for Ezra to defend the city, defend the city against the neighbors that were trying to put a stop to the restoration of the city of God. And so by the end of those 49 years, in fact, the avenues, the moat, it assumes the walls will be built, were indeed completed. You can turn to the book of Ezra and Nehemiah that recount all of these events. How people sought to stop the work, but they persevered. And so the people of God were able to do that, which is spoken of even here to Daniel, that the city of God would be rebuilt. This is in fact an immediate and clear, genuine encouragement to Daniel. But he has been praying for this very thing, and the Lord through Gabriel says, yes, this will be the case. Jerusalem will be restored, and it will be restored despite considerable opposition. The band of people that go back to Jerusalem is weak. There will be official and unofficial threats against them as they do the work that God puts, but God promises it will be completed. But then immediately, the angel Gabriel speaks to Daniel of yet still future things for Daniel. Verse 26, he speaks of an anointed one. The anointed one will arrive, verse 26, and after the 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. Dear friends, what this text is pointing us to as we compare Scripture with Scripture, as we take into account the timing of the decree, and we count ahead those 490 years, this brings us right to Christ. It brings us right, not to the birth of Christ, but really to the anointing of Christ. That the baptism of Jesus is what I see these things being fulfilled in. That He is anointed of the Most Holy One for His prophetic and priestly ministry. And here it's not merely symbolic, it's not merely fullness, seventy times seven. Although it is that, but it's also literal. But here we have a clear prophecy for the first time in Scripture of when the promised Messiah will be upon the earth. But what he says is that this Messiah will be cut off. And here the language is not apparent in our English translations, but this is the vocabulary of, in fact, penal, violent death, similar to Leviticus. And here we're reminded of Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant. Suffering servant in Isaiah 53, the one that would be cut off from the land of the living for the transgressions of my people, he was stricken." This event for Daniel, almost 500 years in the future, you could say a true mystery to him, a kernel of this biblical truth so far ahead to him, but for us crystal clear. As we look back on the Gospels and we see these things perfectly and fully fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, that the Messiah would come and He would suffer and would be cut off, not for His own sins, but for the sins of His people. The Messiah, the Christ, would be crucified. Violently put to death to make atonement, not for His own sins. That's what's spoken of there in verse 26 as well as parts of verse 27, that he will make a strong covenant with many for one week and for one half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. We see that the city will be remade. We see that the Anointed One will arrive. We see also in these brief verses, the temple is promised to be destroyed once again. And in these short verses, Daniel is both shown that the temple is going to be restored, but then also he's shown again, but dear Daniel, the temple is going to be destroyed finally and fully. Yes, a redeemer would come. Yes, the Messiah will come. But Daniel, Jerusalem is going to once again be destroyed. Verse 26, an anointed one shall be cut off 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. We've been with us in our morning series in the book of Mark. We've seen this language of desolation. Yes, it's true, there's fulfillments of that in Antiochus and the years before Christ, but what Jesus does is He says there's going to be this great desolation still future for Him, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. That is what Daniel has in view here. that the cutting off, the execution of Messiah points to the cross of Christ, on which He gave Himself as the atoning sacrifice for sinners. And that this sacrifice, in fact, put an end to the need for further sacrifices. That the temple altar was no longer needed, which is why these things are connected. Messiah will come. It will be cut off and therefore the temple will be done away with. The people of the prince will come and destroy the city. So the abomination, as one commentator observes, the abomination that causes desolation is that forceful end of the Jewish worship system through the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Its end will come with a flood. When those Roman armies appeared under Titus, these things were fulfilled, putting an end to the temple system. And this was, we know on the one hand, the just punishment of those who rejected the Christ. Those ones in their human agency that put Him to death. It was the filling up of the measure of their iniquity. But also in God's providence, it was the means by which He put these things away that were no longer necessary. Because of the once for all sacrifice of sin of the Lord Jesus Christ, there was no longer a need for the blood of bulls and goats to be shed day by night by day by night. Christ died to take away, to fulfill that ceremonial law, to abolish that law of commandments Which is why, again, in verse 27, we see also that a new covenant was made. Verse 27, and He, who in the context, I believe, is referring to Christ. He, Christ, shall make a strong covenant with many for one week. And for, depending on your translation, I take it for not lasting for a week, but at the half of that week, He shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. It speaks here of Christ in this first half of the verse, and the second half, again, repeats itself, as we saw already, the destruction of the city. In the middle of that final week, Christ died for His people. He brought all sacrifice to an end. The Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ, would be God's Lamb who came to take away the sins of the world. As the author of Hebrews tells us, by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being set apart so that there is no longer any offering for sin. Of course, who are the many that are spoken of here that He has made a covenant with? hear the words of Christ in Mark chapter 14. Jesus spoke these words at the Last Supper with His disciples. This is my blood of this new covenant that is poured out for many for the remission of sins. In fact, many think that Christ Jesus had this very verse in Daniel on His mind when He again reminded His disciples of what it was He was doing. pointing back to Daniel and saying, dear disciples, this is being fulfilled in your very presence, in your very hearing. This is the new covenant in my blood that was promised so long ago. A sacrificial death, of which the Lord's Supper points us to as a sacrament and a sign and a seal, shows us that He shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease. These are the particular details that are at least necessary to try to come to grips with. To try to understand what Daniel is being shown in this glorious vision. What I want us to turn now is the overall purpose of the vision. The overall purpose of the vision. This evening, if you're feeling lost, I do apologize. It's a difficult text. I'd be happy to clarify more of this as I'm able to. But what you should see very clearly is that simple and overarching purpose of these verses. It's seen in verses 25 to 27, but I believe it is most clear in verse 24. Verse 24 gives us that grand purpose without the details to bog down our understanding. He tells us what will take place at the end of this time. What do we find? Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city. Six things are listed. To finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place." That's the purpose statement. That's what will take place as a result of the end of the 70 weeks. So what are these things? Well, Christ came to take away sin. He came to abolish it. To put an end to it. We know, as we study God's Word, sin is that great enemy. It is sin which separates us from the holy presence of God. It is sin that alienated from His comfortable presence there in the garden with the fall of Adam. Sin brought death and misery to all humanity. Sin is that great divider. Think of the context. It's sin that has brought the very people of God to captivity in the land of Babylon. It's sin that Daniel is confessing that God would be gracious to forgive. But sin must be dealt with. If God were to bring the people back, and we know this in the history of God's people, if God were simply to bring the people of God back to the city of Jerusalem and nothing else changed, where would the people of God be a few generations down the road? Because of their sin, they would be back into captivity. Sin had to be fully, and we would say here in the context, finally, it must be made to end. It must be dealt with. The sacrifices of the bulls and the goats, they were legitimately done and faithfully observed because God had commanded it, but they themselves could not atone for the sins of the people. They were pointing to something that yet still must come for the people of God. And that's what the angel Gabriel tells Daniel. 490 years, and an end of sin will be made. Christ undertakes this. For this purpose He came, to destroy the works of the devil. He came to, as he puts it, to finish transgression, to break the power of it, to bruise the head of the serpent as so long ago promised, that where sin and death reigned, righteousness and life through grace might reign, as Henry observes. That when He died, He said what? It is finished. Fully accomplished. Sin had been dealt that mortal blow. An end of sin had been made to abolish it, that it would not rise up in judgment, that we would no longer be able to be rightly accused, sinner, condemned. No, our sins have been dealt with in Christ. He came to make reconciliation for iniquity. That by His sacrifice, by Him being cut off, Penal, substitutionary atonement. The justice of God would be satisfied. Peace with God would be obtained. Christ as God-man together, as surety, would undertake these things. He is our peace. He is the atonement. He continues and He says that He came to bring an everlasting righteousness. Dear friends, we must know that God in His righteousness, His own holiness, His own justice, could have made an end of sin by what? By making an end of sinners. Righteously condemning them. But Christ was sent for another way. To put an end to sin and to bring righteousness. He came to die for our sins, but He lived so that we might be righteous in Him. Our faith in Christ, we are accounted as righteous in the sight of God, for He obeyed where we failed. We are all guilty before God and ourselves. We are rightly condemned. If not, the righteousness of another were given to us. And give thanks to the Lord, that is indeed what has happened. Christ is the Lord, our righteousness. Therefore, it's an eternal one. It's a satisfactory one. It's one that will not end. That by faith it is imputed to us for righteousness. And it is Christ, therefore it is everlasting. He continues and he speaks of the vision and the prophecy being sealed up. What is he speaking of here? Well, I do believe that he is speaking of here the fact that all of those prophecies of the Old Testament, all of those visions that had been shown, all of those promises that God had made, find their yes and their amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. that all of those things that Jesus Himself says, that you see Me in the Old Testament, and He took them and He showed them how all of the Scriptures spoke of Him. That's what He's getting at here. They're sealed up in the sense that Christ accomplished them, that He fulfilled them. All that was written in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, all of those things concerning the Messiah, they spoke of Jesus. And they're sealed up, they're fulfilled, they're finished. Jesus Christ is the very Word of God, and in Him all the promises of God receive their yes and their amen. They are sealed. This is one that is related to the completing of sin. Sin has been dealt with, therefore there is no longer a need for further revelation or prophecy. That which has been promised has been accomplished. He's filled the task, therefore it's sealed up. And finally, He came to anoint the Most Holy. There is debate here, is He talking about the temple? Is He talking about a person? In some sense it doesn't really matter whether we take it as the temple or the person, for Christ Himself declares He is the temple. that in Christ is the dwelling place of God. When we read the Most Holy, yes, it does refer to that Holy of Holies, that tabernacle, all that was consecrated to God. But Jesus says, that's Me. He tabernacled among us. He came to fulfill all that the Holy of Holies represented. It is through the flesh of Christ that we can enter in. So, John's Gospel records the words spoken by Jesus as our High Priest, Remember, for all of these things to be accomplished, the Messiah, as we saw already, must be cut off. It is by His death, a violent death, that these things would be done. Let's try to summarize these things. When Christ was on that cross, we're told that that veil of the temple was torn, showing that that way to God was open. It was through the torn flesh of Christ. The shedding of His own blood is the blood of the New Covenant. that fulfills and replaces the old, that God in Christ brought in this everlasting righteousness found only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Just a couple of brief points of application, some helpful applications from this vision. A couple of common questions that come. I don't know everyone's background here, whether you've thought about these things in this way before. That we can appeal to church history and say that this is the common understanding among God's people, that for generations this is how this passage has been understood, speaking of Christ and His fulfillment of these things. But perhaps it's not the most common way that these things are understood today. In a teaching called Dispensationalism, there is often inserted between the 69th and the 70th week a parenthesis, a pause, what they would call the church age. And so they see literally thousands of years between that 69th week and the 70th week. And it is true there's some room for differences of understanding, but this is one that goes too far. It's clear in this text. It's clear in the rest of Scripture. The coming of Christ and His work was not some plan B. It was not an accident. The rejection of Christ by the people was not the foiling of God's will. It wasn't the foiling of His plan A. No, Daniel here is predicting that the Messiah will be cut off, will be killed. So we cannot put this large gap between the two. We don't see this postponement of that 70th week as so many today find, but that is foreign, foreign to the history of the church and of the interpretation of it by God's people. What is clear? What is clear is this time. Here again is one of the most specific prophecies of the coming of Christ in all of Scripture. Yes, there were many promises that Christ would come. The patriarchs had this promise. In the garden, as they were forced to leave, they had a promise that one would come. Well, that's what it was. One would come. And the details were filled in. It would be of the house and lineage of David. We have more of a firm marker. But here we have the timing, really for the first time. And there can be legitimate disagreements on some very specific dates, again, whether it's Cyrus or Artaxerxes or whether it's merely symbolic. But we do find in the New Testament that people were expecting the coming of the Messiah because of the prophet Daniel. Whether you take it as exactly 490 years or whether you see it as a rough around 500 years, we see that there was an expectation that the time was near. Christ would be coming soon. This prediction should silence those who are still looking for the first coming of Christ. Whether you debate whether it was 490 years or 500 years or 550 years even, the language of the text doesn't permit us to go much beyond that. It's not 2,000 years late. By these words we're confirmed in our belief the Messiah has come and that one is Jesus. It was promised so long ago. There's two brief lessons. The first is the way that God answers prayer. Remember what Daniel prayed for? To forgive us of our sins, to restore the people of God to their earthly home, Jerusalem, and the city would be renewed and the temple restored. And God, through His prophet, through His angel Gabriel, He says, yes, yes, yes, that will be. But you're praying really too small, Daniel. What is needed is something much more glorious. The very Son of God will come. And He will come and He will not just continue the same old thing, but He will put an end to sin in a way that had been unseen for so many thousands of years. The fulfillment of that great first promise of the Gospel. Sin will be dealt with. Satan will be destroyed, so that the people of God will not just be right back where they were. Christ will come. He will send forth His Spirit. All of those promises and the prophets will come to be. God answers prayer in a way so much greater than we often expect Him to, and in ways that we don't even like sometimes. Daniel could have said, well, Lord, that's great, but that's a long time. That's a long time. I've been serving you now for 50, 60 years in Babylon. Why won't I get to experience this? But God sends His angel as a comfort to Daniel. Daniel was saved through Jesus and His death. And faith in Him, just as we are saved, in Jesus Christ. The faith is required for all of the people of God that the Messiah would come and be cut off. God's ultimate purpose was not merely a temple made with hands, not a holy place entered once a year, but that His Son would be the place in which we are to approach God, His sacrifice once for all. would be the means by which we are able to come to God through His flesh, approaching the very dwelling of God. We're told here, dear friends, Christ Himself came to deal with the sins of His people. Let us pray. Great Heavenly Father, we pray, O Lord, this night that you would give us insight and understanding of these truths, Lord. Many difficult things, many things that are hard to understand, but we pray, O Lord, that we would be able to discern them spiritually by the help of your Spirit. Give us insight and understanding in that Christ would be exalted in our hearts and that we would love Him all the more as a result of what we have heard here this night. We pray that You would bless us and be with us in these things. In Jesus' name, Amen.