Summary:

In the middle of Daniel’s 70th week, Michael will take a “stand” (v. 1) by booting Satan out of heaven (Rev. 12:7-12), causing “great wrath” (v. 12) on earth. Verse 1 says it will be the worst time ever, the “great tribulation” (Mt. 24:21). But Jews will be “delivered” (v. 1) or “saved out of it” (Jer. 30:7) by the Lord’s victory at the battle of Armageddon (Zech. 9:14-16).

But only Jews “written in the book” (Dan. 12:1), i.e., the book of life (Rev. 20:15), saved Jews. Unsaved Jews will fight and die on the side of the beast at Armageddon. The kingdom will then begin with a resurrection (Dan. 12:2). The Lord quotes this verse to say that the unsaved will rise to “damnation,” but Daniel 12:2 says they’ll rise to the resurrection of shame and eternal contempt because in the kingdom the “pit” of hell (Isa. 14:13) in the heart of the earth will be an open pit, and believing Jews will abhor men in hell (Isa. 66:23, 24). These resurrections will be separated by a thousand years (Rev. 20:4, 5 cf. 7, 11-15).

The “wise” (12:3) are soul-winners (Pr. 11:30) who’ll shine “as the firmament” (v. 3 cf. Gen. 1:14-16; Mt. 13:43).

The best way to define what it means to “shut up the words and seal the book” (Dan. 12:4) is to notice the Lord told John not to do that (Rev. 22:10) because the time was “at hand” for the things in his book to come to pass. That means Daniel was being told to shut and seal the book because the things he prophesied were not about to come to pass. But when they do, many will run to and fro increasing the knowledge of God (Mt. 24:14).

Once Gabriel finishes talking, Daniel sees an “other” angel in verse 5, standing by the “river” he saw in Daniel 10:4. He asked the Lord (v. 6 cf. 10:4 cf. Rev. 1:13-15) a question, exemplifying I Peter 1:10-12.

The One who “lives for ever” (Dan. 12:7) is God the Father (Deut. 32:36-40). The Lord swears by Him because He wants to be believed, and He knows men confirm things with oaths (Heb. 6:13). Here He swears the great tribulation will last no longer than three and a half years. During that time, the antichrist will scatter the holy people of Israel by persecuting them. At that time, God will have had enough, and will bring an “end” (v. 7) to the beast at the Lord’s coming.

When Daniel asked about the details of the Tribulation, the Lord reminded him the book was shut and sealed, so he wouldn’t live to see them, so he didn’t have to understand the details.

The word “tried” (Dan. 12:10) refers to the “fiery trial” that Jews heading into the Tribulation were enduring before the mystery interrupted it (I Pet. 4:12). Notice verse 10 says Jews are “purified” by obeying God’s command to believe and be baptized (I Pet. 1:22), and then “tried” by the Tribulation. Only the nation gets purified by the trial of the Tribulation (Zech. 13:8, 9). Once individual Jews are purified by faith, they will do what God says and endure to the end of the Tribulation without taking the mark of the beast. But un-saved Jews will “do wickedly” (Dan. 10:10 cf. Rev. 16:8-11).

1290 days (Dan. 12:11) is a 30-day difference from the 1260 days of the last half of Daniel’s 70th week. Daniel 9:27 says Antichrist’s abominations happen “in the midst” of the week, but here they are said to happen 1290 days before the end of the Tribulation. So many things are said to happen in the “midst” of the 70th week they’ll take 30 days to transpire.

1335 days (Dan. 12:12) is 75 days different from the 1260 days, suggesting that that’s how long Revelation 19:17-21 will take before the kingdom can begin. Finally, Daniel is told he’ll “rest” (12:13) in death (cf. Rev. 14:13), but rise from the dead someday and “stand” in the “lot” of his tribe in the Promised Land.

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: Michael Takes a Stand – Daniel 12:1-13

Summary:

Antichrist will do “according to his will” (v. 36),  but the Lord came to do His Father’s will (Jo. 6:38). He’ll exalt him-self over “every god,” including the ones Satan tempted Eve with (Gen. 3:5), the fallen angels.  She wanted to be like them because men are lower than angels (Ps. 8:4, 5) and she wasn’t satisfied with that.  Antichrist won’t be either (Ezek. 28:2), so he’ll exalt himself over the angels, just as Lucifer wanted to do (Isa. 14:13).  Those “stars” are angels (cf. Rev. 1:20).

“The God of gods” (v. 36) is the Father (Deut. 10:17).  We’re not told how Antichrist will “speak against” Him, but the only time we’re told anyone spoke against God and we’re told how, it was by saying He couldn’t protect His people (II Chron. 32:17).  That’s blasphemous (cf. Rev. 13:5)!

Antichrist will “prosper” (v. 36) or get rich (cf. Ps. 73:12) by controlling the world’s commerce with his mark (Rev. 13:16, 17).  God will be indignant about his words, and “accomplish” it when he finally puts an “end” to his blasphemy.

Since Antichrist will try to convince Jews he is their messiah, his “fathers” (Dan. 11:37) will be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (cf. Acts 3:13).  He won’t regard their God, nor “the desire of women.”  That’s Christ!  After the Lord told Eve her seed would bruise Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15), she began to desire to bear that seed.  And after God told Abraham a Jewish woman’s seed would bear Him, every Jewish woman desired Him.  Antichrist won’t regard Him, he’ll “magnify himself above all” (v. 37) by saying he is God (II Thes. 2:3, 4).

The word “forces” is used of military forces (Jer. 18:21; 40:7, 13).  So “the God of forces” is the Father, the head of heaven’s “armies” (Rev. 19:14).  He’ll probably honor Him by saying he won his military victories (Rev. 6:2) because the God of forces helped him.  Of course, verse 36 said he won’t regard the Father (v. 36), but he’ll have to honor Him “in his estate,” i.e., in his estate as king of Israel (cf. Esther 1:19).   But he’ll also honor a god that “his fathers knew not,” Baal.  Israel’s kings were always worshipping God and Baal (cf. I Ki. 16:31, 32).

He’ll worship Baal with gold and silver, etc. (v. 38), just as Jews did in the past (Hosea 2:8), in the “strong holds” of the governments of the earth.  He will increase their “glory” (their riches, as in Isaiah 61:6), by cutting them in on the profits from the religious system he’ll establish in Babylon.  That system will traffic in riches “and the souls of men” (Rev. 18:2-13), just as Rome did for centuries.  They’ll also “rule over many” as Rome did.  Babylon will be a political power as well as a religious power, just as Rome was.

Antichrist will divide “the land” (v. 39) of Israel among his 10 kings.  They will be kings of kingdoms in the Mideast (Ps. 83:1-8) who have always coveted Israel’s land.  He’ll make all those angry Arabs happy by giving them each a slice.  It will be a reverse of what God did when He divided the nations to Israel (Deut. 32:8) to rule over in the kingdom.

But Egypt isn’t mentioned in Psalm 83, so they don’t get a slice of Israel, so Egypt attacks Antichrist (Dan. 11:40), causing him to counterattack (v. 41).  He attacks Egypt from Syria, where he moved after selling Israel to his 10 allies.  So why would he also invade the “glorious land” of Israel?  Why turn on his allies?  It is because they burn his Babylon (Rev. 17:1-17).  So 10 of those “many countries” Antichrist is said to overcome in verse 41 will be his former allies.

But he won’t be able to overcome Moab (v. 41) because they will hide Jews from him (Isa. 16:3, 4), and the indication is that Edom and Ammon will too.  So God will “bless” them that bless the Jews (Gen. 12:3) by sparing them from him.

Those “tidings out of the east” (v. 44) will be the reports he’ll hear about those ships from Chittim (Europe) we saw in verse 30.  The tidings out of the north will come from Russia.  Many commentaries say the king of the north is the king of Russia, but there’s nothing north of Russia that could trouble Antichrist if he were king of Russia!

The two “seas” (Dan. 11:45) are the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean.  Jerusalem lies between them, and that’s where the beast will plant his throne (Ezek. 28:2), and that’s where he’ll be when he meets his “end” from the Lord (Joel 2:20-22).

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The King of the Tribulation Jungle – Daniel 11:36-45

Summary:

The king of the north in Syria will die (v. 19 cf. Ps. 37:35, 36) and be replaced by a king who will raise taxes “in the glory of the kingdom,” i.e., the “glorious kingdom” of Israel (cf. 11:16).  When you conquer a people, you don’t tax your own people (cf. Mt. 17:25, 26)!  His mysterious death is probably caused by Antichrist, whom Gabriel mentions in the next verse (v. 21).  He won’t kill him to become Syria’s next king, but to rise to prominence so he can become king of Israel, the kingdom he’ll obtain “by flatteries,” not murder.  We know Psalm 55:21 speaks of him because of what it says in verse 20.  He may use the type of flattery that a type of Antichrist used in II Samuel 15:2-6, and say to Israel, “It’s not good or right that the people of God should be taxed by Syria.  If an Assyrian like me were made king of Israel, I’d put a stop to it!”  But in the middle of the Tribulation, this Assyrian will “flood” Israel with armies since they refused the “soft waters” of Christ (Isa. 8:6-8).  But since Bible prophecy always jumps around in the timeline of history, in verse 23 Gabriel says he will first work “deceitfully” before he floods Israel with armies.  He can’t deceive the very elect, but he’ll deceive enough people to raise a “small people” of followers (cf. 8:9).  When he “peaceably” (v. 24) makes that covenant guaranteeing Israel’s peace, Jews will be so grateful they’ll give him the “fattest” lands in Israel.  Obtaining the kingdom of Israel peaceably is something verse 24 says his fathers were never able to do.  They obtained it by war (11:16).  He’ll “scatter” the “spoil” of the riches he takes from Israel among his fathers in Syria, then begin to forecast some devices against the strongholds (v. 24).  The dictionary says that means he’ll start scheming up schemes against the strongholds in Egypt to the south (v. 25), who will somehow be vastly rich in that day.  With that much money, Egypt will raise “a very great and mighty army.”  So how come they lose the war to Syria, who only has a “great” army?  Because the specific device Antichrist will forecast against the king of Egypt will be to get his trusted friends to kill him (v. 26).  Once he’s dead, his armies will “overflow” into the streets in the chaos that often follows a king’s assassination and “many” will be the “slain” in Egypt.  But we know the king of Egypt will just be reaping what he sowed, for in verse 27 Gabriel jumps back into his past to show that he was as sneaky as Antichrist!  They’ll sit at a “table” to discuss how to bring peace to the world, but “mischief” will be in their hearts (cf. Ps. 28:3).  No plan for world peace will “prosper” until the “end” when the Prince of Peace establishes His kingdom.  Before Antichrist leaves Egypt, he connives her king out of some of his “riches” that he’ll “return” to Syria with, but he’ll be back for more.  But he gets enough to do exploits, which is defined as something that makes you famous—like turning on a nation you promised to protect!  We know that’s the exploit he’ll do because verse 28 also says he’s tiring of the covenant he made promising to protect Israel.  “At the time appointed” (v. 29) —midTrib—he’ll go back to Egypt, but not like the former time when he went with a great army, and not like the latter time when he went sneakily to connive the king out of some riches.  When it says he’ll go “toward the south” instead of “toward the king of the south,” we know he’ll attack Egypt this time by conquering Israel to the south on his way.  It will start when ships from “Chittim” come against him.  Chittim is named after Kittim in Europe, where Japheth settled (Gen. 10:1-4).  When Balaam predicted this attack, he said Egypt will also attack “Eber” or Israel (Num. 24:24).  Wanting to protect Syria more than Israel, he’ll join Egypt in that attack on Israel.  His “intelligence” agents will find Jews willing to forsake the covenant (v. 30), and the ten kings who’ll side with him will take up arms for him (v. 31).  With Europe, plus 10 kingdoms, plus traitors in Israel siding with him, Israel won’t stand a chance.  That vast host will be given to Antichrist to take away the daily sacrifice (v. 31 cf. 8:12).  Saved Jews will do “exploits” of their own (v. 32), like the ones the Lord sent the 12 to do before the mystery interrupted all this, i.e., casting out devils and healing, etc., exploits that will make them as famous as they made the Lord.  They’ll also “instruct” or teach people what the Lord sent the 12 to teach (Mt. 28:20).  As they begin to “fall” God will “holpen” or help them (v. 34) by causing the earth to swallow up that “flood” of armies (Rev. 12:15, 16).  That’s when Antichrist’s persecution will go underground as he causes spies to “cleave” to the Jews (v. 34 cf. Rev. 2:9).  Israel will need the purging of verse 35, for not all the Jews doing those exploits will be saved (Heb. 6:4-6).

Summary:

You’re Not Gonna Believe Your Eyes… when you read Gabriel “strengthened” an unsaved king.  But he did it (11:1) to help him conquer Babylon, because Babylon conquered Israel (Gen. 12:3 cf. Jer. 51:11).  We’re not told how he strengthened him, but it was probably the same way God “strengthened” Gideon (Judges 7:10), by assuring him the battle was as good as won.  God revealed to Gideon how scared the Midianites were of Israel, and he probably revealed to Darius how scared Belshazzar was of him after Daniel told him he’d die that night in Daniel 5.

But why is Gabriel telling Daniel he strengthened Darius?  Because Daniel needed strengthening (cf. 10:8, 16, 17), and Gabriel will end this discussion with Daniel by telling him Israel’s battle was good as won (12:7).  So after telling Daniel the truth about how he strengthened Darius, he told him, “And now will I shew thee the truth” (Dan. 11:2).

Daniel was seeing this vision of Gabriel “in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia” (10:1), and here learns that Persia will have 3 more kings.  History says they were Ahasuerus, Artexerxes, and another Darius.  The “fourth” was Xerxes.  He did what verse 2 says and got the Persians stirred up against Greece.  So when they got a “mighty king” (v. 3) named Alexander, he conquered Persia, but was “broken” (v. 4) soon after he stood up, i.e., he died young

In Chapter 8, we saw that his 4 generals divided up his empire, as we see again here.  Normally, a dead king’s kingdom goes to his son, but Alexander’s kingdom didn’t go to “his posterity” because those four kings murdered his son.  And “his dominion” (his subjects) had no say in who took over either.  Those four generals just “plucked” it up.

Everything in Daniel 11:1-4 is past, and everything from verse 5 on is future.  That’s why some KJVs put a paragraph mark before v.5.  This prophecy was interrupted by the mystery.  The king of the south in Egypt in those days (Ptolemy) would have done the things in 11:5-45, but now another king will rise in Egypt to do them after the Rapture, just as John the Baptist would have been Elijah (Mal. 4:5, 6 cf. Mt. 17:10-13; Lu. 1:16, 17), but now another Elijah will have to come.

The details of Daniel 11:6 are inscrutable, but they’ll be clear when they happen (cf. Joel 2:28; Acts 2:4-17).  Saints then will be as filled with the Spirit as Peter was and will “know all things” (I Jo. 2:20, 27).  But we don’t have to understand this, for we’ll be raptured before it happens!

The daughter of the king of the south will raise up a son who will raise up an army to attack Syria to the north (Dan. 11:7). He’ll sack Syria and kill her king (v. 8, 9), angering his sons.  “One” of the sons will mass an army to counterattack Syria (v. 10), but Syria hears about it.  But her great multitude is given into the hands of the Egyptians (11).  This causes the king of Egypt to get cocky and conquer thousands more (v. 12), but we know he won’t be “strengthened” by his victory because Syria starts to threaten them again (v. 13), and the other nations of the Mideast join her (v. 14).  They’re called the robbers of Daniel’s people because they’ll sack Israel to finance their own war on Egypt.  They’ll be trying to “establish” the “vision” of Ezekiel 20:19 that predicts the fall of Egypt by Babylon, who will be in league with the Assyrian Antichrist (cf. Rev. 17, 18).  “Mounts” (Dan. 11:15) were dirt that was piled up outside city walls so armies could scale them (Isa. 29:3; Jer. 6:6).  That means either modern weapons will be gone by then (cf. Ezek. 39:9) or modern weapons will have ancient names, like Tomahawk missiles.  The king of Syria will conquer Egypt and stand in the “glorious land” of Israel (11:16), his real desire.  His “whole kingdom” (v. 17) will now include those other nations of the Mideast who won’t be able to “stand” against him, but his lust to conquer will cause him to look to the “isles” (v. 18).  With that kind of power, you’d think he’d be the Antichrist, but he comes along in Daniel 11:19-21.

Summary:

Daniel retired from his position as one of the king’s advisers in the first year of Cyrus (1:20, 21), but God still wanted him to act like a prophet here in the third year of Cyrus (10:1).  The reason he had to say the thing is true is that he was writing this years later and the thing hadn’t happened yet, and wouldn’t for a while because “the time appointed is long.”

Daniel was probably “mourning” (10:2, 3) because in the third year of Cyrus, work was stopped on the temple (Ezra 1:1-3 cf. 4:23, 24).  But if the Jews were released from captivity, why was Daniel hanging around a Babylonian river (v. 4)? Well, when God told him he’d stand in his tribe’s “lot” (12:13) after he rested in death and God raised him from the dead, he took that to mean he shouldn’t go home and stand in his lot now.  He should stay and minister to the many other Jews who’d gotten too comfy in Babylon to return to Israel.  They might have been unfaithful, but God was no longer mad at them now that they’d served their 70 year sentence.

Daniel 10:5, 6 shows a vision of Christ in Tribulation judgment (cf. Rev. 1:9-18).  The men with him didn’t see the vision but were probably frightened by the same light that frightened the men who were with Saul, who didn’t see his vision (Acts 22:7-9).

Daniel’s “comeliness” (v. 8) was his handsomeness, and the most comely thing about him was his holiness.  But one look of the Lord in judgment convinced him that his holiness was corrupt, and he deserved to be judged like anyone else.

We think the angel of Daniel 10:9-12 is Gabriel, since he spoke to Daniel earlier.  He came “for” Daniel’s words, i.e., on account of them.  Daniel had been praying and chastening himself (v. 12) with fasting (v. 3), so God sent Gabriel to answer his prayer.  But the prince of Persia held him up 21 days.  That had to be a fallen angelic prince, since no earthly prince could withstand an angel for 21 seconds!

He’s called the prince of Persia because there’s a Persia in heaven, as there is a Jerusalem in heaven (Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22).  God divided the world into 12 sections (Deut. 32:8) in Genesis 11:8, 9.  Those sections were obviously named after similarly named sections in heaven. Greece had a prince too (Dan. 10:20), as did Israel (v. 21).    All 24 princes are represented in heaven (Rev. 4:1-4).  Earth’s rulers are corrupt, and so are most of heaven’s (Eph. 6:12, 13).  The prince of Persia “withstood” an angel delivering a message from God to His people, and today we are to “withstand” (Eph. 6:13) fallen angels who try to keep God’s grace message from His people by withstanding us with “doctrines of devils” (I Tim. 4:1) that they inspire pastors to teach.

Gabriel had come to tell Daniel about the “last days” (Dan. 10:13), i.e., the last days of Israel in the Tribulation (Deut. 4:30, 31).  The vision made him “dumb” (Dan. 10:15), but an angel restored his speech (v. 16, 17).  Daniel calls him “my lord” out of respect (cf. Zech. 4:4), not because it was the Lord Jesus.  The angel “strengthened” Daniel (Dan. 10:18) by telling him how loved he was (v. 19) and that he had nothing to “fear” because he had come in “peace” (v. 19).

If you’re looking for spiritual strength, read Paul’s epistles to learn how loved you are in Christ (Eph. 1:7) and how you have nothing to fear because you have “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1) “through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20).  But be sure to use the strength you get from knowing these things to do what Daniel did and ask to be taught the Word (v. 19).

God didn’t strengthen David (Ps. 138:3) in some miraculous way that you don’t have access to.  He did it with His Word (v. 2).  That angel in Gethsemane didn’t strengthen the Lord in some miraculous way that a man who was God in the flesh didn’t have access to (Lu. 22:43).  He did it by quoting Scripture to Him!  And you can strengthen yourself and others too in the same way, if you learn the Word well enough to do it.

When Gabriel tells Daniel that he’s about to tell him what it says in the Scriptures (v. 21), and then tells him what it says in the Scriptures in Chapter 11, how did he do that if Daniel hadn’t written Chapter 11 yet?  This is an indication that God wrote the Bible before the creation of the world and then later spoke it through men.

Summary: 

The “troublous times” Gabriel tells Daniel would befall Jerusalem (v. 25) came when the Jews tried to obey the command to restore Jerusalem (Neh. 2:1-6; 4:1-3, 10; 6:1-3).  Gabriel also told Daniel it would take 7 weeks of years to restore it, then 62 more weeks of years until his Messiah came.  After that, Messiah would be “cut off” (v. 26) or killed (cf. Isa. 53:8), 5 days after, to be precise (Mt. 26:2 cf. Jo. 12:1, 12, 13).

But Gabriel added that He wouldn’t be killed “for Himself,” i.e., because of any wrong He’d done.  He was cut off for the sins of Isaiah’s people (Isa. 53:8).  We now know He was also cut off for us Gentiles.  But that’s not something Isaiah knew, or Daniel, or even the Lord Himself (Mt. 20:28) because it wasn’t testified until Paul (I Tim. 2:5, 6).

Then Antichrist’s “people” were supposed to destroy the city and temple (26), and would have if the mystery hadn’t interrupted this prophecy.  His people would have been the Assyrians, since he’ll be born in an Assyrian city (Neh. 1:11).  But if other nations rush to help Jerusalem, as they would to-day, he’ll need help.  And he’ll have it—those 10 kings who will side with him (Rev. 17:12).  Their kingdoms are the Gentiles the Lord said would destroy it (Lu. 21:24 cf. Rev. 11:2).

Unto the end of that war “desolations are determined.”  The word desolate means empty (cf. Isa. 5:9).  Antichrist will empty Jerusalem of the Jews who are supposed to live there.

But Gabriel wants Tribulation Jews who’ll be reading this to know that Antichrist will start out by looking like a friend to Israel (Dan. 9:27).  “The covenant” he’ll confirm with Israel will be the one where God vows to curse those who curse Israel (Gen. 12:1-3).  It will be known that he’ll have the military might to enforce this, so this covenant will bring peace to Israel, though it is not a “peace treaty,” as many teach.

Isaiah predicts that Tribulation Jews will be saying that this covenant with death and hell (Isa. 28:15-18), i.e., with the Antichrist (Rev. 6:8), will protect them from a coming scourge.  And the scourge they’ll be thinking of is the Antichrist.  You see, they’ll think he’s their Christ, the Christ who will protect them from the Antichrist.  They’ll fall for it because they expect their Christ will confirm the covenant (Isa. 42:1-6; 49:8).

But Isaiah says Antichrist will “disannul” the covenant, and Daniel 9:27 adds it will be in the midst of the 70^th week, the final 7 years before the kingdom (v. 24).  Notice the 70^th week doesn’t begin until “after” some things happen between the 69^th and 70^th week.  Why would God put a gap in the 70 week prophecy?  Two reasons.  First, to help Israel.

After they crucified the Lord, God wanted to cut Israel down, but He talked Him into giving them one more year (after His three-year ministry) to change their minds and receive Him (Lu. 13:6-9).  He made that request when He prayed, “Father, forgive them.”  The Father did, but the year ended when they stoned Stephen.  But Daniel’s timetable of 69 weeks worked out to the very day He rode into Jerusalem on the donkey.  In a timetable that precise, there was no room for another year in there if God hadn’t put a gap in the prophecy!

But with that gap, God could put all the years He wanted in there!  And He put 2,000 years in the gap to help us Gentiles with the dispensation of grace!  This age is a mystery (Eph. 3:2, 3), an unprophesied gap in the midst of the prophesied gap.  We know that up to a generation may pass after the Rapture before the 70^th week begins because the Lord told His generation they’d live to see it (Mt. 24:15-34), and only one year of that generation passed so far.

Why would Antichrist cause the sacrifices that he started up to “cease”?  After he declares himself God (II Thes. 2:3, 4), he’ll set up an idolatrous new system of worship of himself instead of Judaism (Rev. 13:14). The overspreading of abominations refers to the cherubim that “spread” their wings “over” the mercy seat (Ex. 37:1-9).  How will Antichrist make them an abomination?  God is supposed to sit there (Ps. 99:1).  If someone who is not God sits there, that makes it desolate (empty) of the One who’s supposed to sit there, and when that someone is Antichrist, it’s an abomination.  But the desolation God has determined will fall on him.

5:40).  So Gabriel is telling Daniel, “It will be 490 years until something happens to your people (Israel) and your city (Jerusalem).”

Then God will “finish the transgression.”  Transgressions are sins, but sins against a specific law (Rom. 4:15).  The transgression is the same one Isaiah spoke about (53:8).  The Lord died for all their transgressions, of course (v. 5), so the transgression must be the same one Isaiah said would cause the earth to fall and not rise from (24:20).  Since the earth will fall due to all her transgressions, Isaiah is summing up their transgressions as the transgression.  That means Gabriel is saying God will make an end of the sum total of all transgressions.  He’ll make an “end of sins” of any kind as well (Dan. 9:24).

But to do that, God will have to “make reconciliation for iniquity” first.  We need reconciliation because our sins separated us from Him when Adam fell (cf. Isa. 59:2).  But to make it, someone had to atone for it.  Israel’s priests made reconciliation with animals (II Chron. 29:23, 24) which were a type of the ultimate atonement Christ made (Rom. 5:11).

Paul says we have His atonement “now,” but the nation of Israel didn’t, so they had a “day of atonement” every year (Lev. 25:9).  But just as their feast of passover was a type of the ultimate passover (I Cor. 5:7), their day of atonement was a type of an ultimate one.  And just like the typical feast of day of atonement, it’ll come right after the feast of trumpets (Lev. 23:23-27).  The ultimate feast of trumpets will gather saved Jews into the kingdom (Mt. 24:31), and that’s when they’ll get their ultimate day of atonement (Rom. 11:26, 27).

Individual Jews were saved and had their sins atoned for (John 5:24; I Jo. 3:15, etc.) but they were part of “the commonwealth of Israel” (Eph. 2:12), so they needed an ultimate day of atonement as a nation.  And when that day comes, Gabriel says God will bring in the “everlasting righteousness” of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

That’s when God will “seal up the vision and prophecy.”  When Daniel was finished describing his visions about the kingdom in the book of Daniel, God told him to seal the book (12:9).  But when the kingdom he wrote about actually comes, all the visions about the kingdom will also be sealed up.  It almost happened 2,000 years ago (Mt. 4:17; Acts 3:24) but was interrupted by the mystery.

When it finally comes, God will “anoint the most holy,” i.e. the most holy place (Ex. 26:34).  Anointing was done with oil, a type of the Spirit (I Sam. 16:13).  When the temple is rebuilt in the kingdom, God will anoint it with His Spirit.

“Seventy” years wasn’t a number God picked out of a hat.  Israel’s history is divided up into four 490-year sections.  Daniel was standing at the end of the third one, and when he learned he was about to be released from captivity and allowed to return to Israel, he thought the kingdom would start.  God sent Gabriel to tell him that it would be another 490 years until the kingdom.

First he was told it would take 7 weeks to rebuild Jerusalem (Dan. 9:25), and then 62 more weeks until Messiah.  He was told to start counting the weeks of years when the command went forth to built the city (Neh. 2:1-8), not from the command to build the temple (Ezra 1:2, 3).  This works out to the day when the Lord rode the donkey into Jerusalem.

It works out if you don’t use our 365-days-a-year calendar, that is!  God taught the Jews to use a 360-days-a-year calendar with each month having 30 days (Compare Gen. 7:11, 12, 24; 8:3, 4 and see Rev. 11:2, 3).  It’s why the Lord spoke to the Jews about “this thy day” on that day (Lu. 19:42).

This is how the wise men knew it was time for Messiah to be born.  They knew that He’d be a priest (Zech. 6:13), and priests had to be 30 (Num. 4:1-3), so when they saw Balaam’s star (Num. 24:17) they compared Daniel 9’s timetable for His presentation to Israel and subtracted 30 years and knew it was time for His birth within 3 years.

Only the true God could have made a prophecy like this!

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The 70 Weeks of Daniel – Daniel 9:24-25

Summary:

The “evil” God brought on Israel (v. 14) isn’t the sinful kind.  It’s war, the opposite of peace (cf. Isa. 45:7).  When God’s people persisted in sinning against Him, He allowed Babylon to make war with them and conquer them.  Daniel said God was “righteous” to bring it (v. 14) because they’d sinned.

In bringing up their escape from Egyptian bondage (v. 15), Daniel was praying, “You got renown (i.e., fame, [Num. 16:2]) by ripping Israel out of the clutches of the most powerful king on earth (Neh. 9:7-10), and it will make Your name great again if You free us from Babylonian bondage.”  For 70 years, God looked like He couldn’t protect His own people from bondage, so Daniel is making a persuasive plea!

But God didn’t rip Israel from Babylon, He just quietly convinced her king to let them go.  How would that make His name great?  It takes more power to overcome human nature than the forces of nature.  When God did it, it got Him a greater name than the Red Sea crossing did (Jer. 16:14, 15).

In verse 14, Daniel admitted God was righteous to allow them to be enslaved when they disobeyed Him.  But in verse 16, he asks God to be just as righteous to release them according to “all” His righteousness, now that they’d served their 70 year sentence.  He wasn’t being irreverent in holding God to His Word.  God delights in being held to His Word!

Jerusalem is called God’s “holy mountain” (v. 16) because a mountain is a type of a kingdom (Isa. 65:25), and God’s kingdom was centered in Jerusalem, a city on a mountain (Mt. 5:14).  Israel’s sins had made the light of the world a “reproach” (v. 16), a laughingstock among the nations, as God predicted (I Ki. 9:6-9; Jer. 24:9).  Daniel was asking God to turn His anger away to get the Gentiles to stop reproaching them and start looking to them for spiritual light instead.

The “sanctuary” (v. 17) was the temple Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.  It had been lying in ruins for 70 years, but Daniel knew the way to get God to fix that was to ask Him to do it “for the Lord’s sake.”  They didn’t deserve to get their temple back, but God deserved to get His home back, of course!

But if they ignored the land’s sabbath 490 years, and God punished them with 70 years in captivity, that was justice.  But Daniel asked for “mercy” (v. 18) because if they got what they deserved they’d never have been released (Ezra 9:13).

Football fans know to “defer” (v. 19) means to put something off till later.  Daniel was asking God not to defer releasing them (cf. Ps. 102:12).

Daniel was confessing his sins because, even though the captivity was only supposed to last 70 years, getting released was contingent on confessing. This is a type of Tribulation saints who will know the Tribulation is only supposed to last 7 years, but release from Antichrist will depend on them con-fessing, which is why John wrote I Jo. 1:9 to them—not you!

God responded to Daniel’s prayer by sending Gabriel with an answer (v. 20, 21)—all because Daniel prayed “in truth” (Ps. 145:18).  The truth Daniel knew was that God would answer him if he confessed his sins.  But God won’t answer you if you pray for manna (Mt. 6:11) because rightly divided truth says we have to work for our bread in this dispensation.

Gabriel could “fly” (v. 21), but that’s no proof he had wings.  He had to fly across outer space to deliver messages from God (cf. Lu. 1:19), and there’s no air in space, so wings would be useless.  A seraph could fly to Daniel in heaven (Isa. 6:1-6) because there is air in heaven.

An “oblation” (v. 21) is just another word for an offering (cf. Lev. 3:1).  The Jews offered 3 a day, the last in the evening.

Daniel is said to be “greatly beloved” (v. 22, 23) because he was so sinless even his enemies couldn’t find sin in him (6:4).  John was the disciple Jesus loved, and God showed him the future too in Revelation.  God wants His beloved children to know the future, and we are “beloved” in Christ (Eph. 1:6), so God has given us a complete Bible, including some specific information about the future called the Rapture that neither Daniel nor John had.

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: A Necessary Evil – Daniel 9:14-23

Summary:

We know the “books” Daniel was reading (v. 2) were the books of the Bible, for he mentions the Book of Jeremiah. He may have been hearing from God directly in visions, but he still made time to read the Bible, even though he was busy “in the first year of Darius” (v. 1) being head over two presidents, 120 princes, and the entire kingdom of Babylon (5:31—6:2).  Shouldn’t you make time for it?  It gave Daniel the courage to face the lion’s den in the rest of Daniel 6, and it will give you courage in your life’s biggest challenge to faith too—and all your little daily challenges to faith as well!

Daniel had obviously been reading Jeremiah 25:8-12 and 29:10, where God said that Israel would be released from captivity in Babylon after 70 years, and 70 years were up!  He no doubt rejoiced, all because he knew exactly where he stood in the program of God. We do too! That’s what “right-ly dividing the word of truth” is all about! (II Tim. 2:15).

But if he was happy, why did he act sad (v. 3 cf. Esther 4:3), and begin to confess his sins (v. 4, 5)?  It was because he knew from another book of the Bible that Israel’s release wasn’t an automatic thing just because time was up.  They had to confess their sins (Lev. 26:27-42) and admit they deserved to have spent 70 years in bondage to Babylon’s king for ignoring God’s warnings in His Word, and His prophets (Dan. 9: 6).  That left God no choice but to do what He said and judge them 70 years.  He’d have been unrighteous if He didn’t, and as Daniel pointed out, righteousness belonged to Him (v. 7).

“Confusion of faces” means shamefacedness (cf. Ps. 44:15), so Daniel was saying, “God was righteous to judge us, and we should be ashamed of ourselves.”  When he mentions Jerusalem, Judah, and “all Israel” near and “far off,” that can’t mean Gentiles, for they didn’t need to be ashamed for breaking a law God never gave them.  But many believers teach that those “afar off” in Acts 2:39 are Gentiles because they think the Body of Christ, made up of Jews and Gentiles, began there, instead of later when God sent Paul to the Gentiles.  But if it did, we should preach the same “baptism for salvation” message that Peter preached there.  We know it didn’t, because Peter mentions a “promise” God made those afar off, and He never made any to Gentiles (Eph. 2:12)

“Seventy years” of captivity wasn’t an arbitrary number.  There were lots of ways Israel’s “fathers…rebelled” against God (Dan. 9:8, 9), but one specific way caused God to judge them exactly 70 years.  They were to let their farmland rest every 7^th year (Lev. 25:2-4; 26:33-35), but they ignored that law for 490 years, just like they ignored the prophets.

That means the punishment fit the crime perfectly.  God’s judgments always do!  When unbelievers say God is unrighteous to punish men in hell for eternity, that just shows they don’t know that a sin against an eternally holy God demands an eternal punishment.

The “curse” of Daniel 9:10, 11 is the last of five courses of curses God outlined in Leviticus 26, each one of which got more severe if they ignored the first judgments.  And they ignored them all, as they ignored the law and the prophets.

“Confirmeth” (Dan. 9:12) means to do what you say you will do.  God’s people in Israel said they’d obey all the law (Ex. 24:6, 7), but when they didn’t confirm their words by doing them (Deut. 27:26), God “fulfilled” or confirmed His Word by punishing them as He said He would.  And when He was faithful to His Word, I doubt they were singing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” But Daniel was, as was Jeremiah (Lam. 2:17).  The reason Jeremiah could say that, and then say “great is Thy faithfulness” (3:22, 23) is—as he points out there—because it was of God’s mercy that they weren’t consumed instead of enslaved for 70 years.

Daniel said the captivity was the worst thing that ever happened to anyone (9:12), and Ezekiel added it was the worst that that ever would happen to anyone (5:7-9).  So why’d the Lord say the Tribulation was (Mt. 24:15-21)?  The captivity was a type of the Tribulation, so many of the things said about it were types of the Tribulation, just as many things said about the fall of Babylon will have another fulfillment in Antichrist’s Babylon.  That’s why Daniel told the Jews to “turn” (9:13) or repent, just as John did (Mt. 3:2; 4:17).

A video of this sermon is available on YouTube: Daniel and the Book of Books – Daniel 9:1-14