Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Daniel 9:20
And while I [was] speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
20. whiles ] So Dan 9:21. See on Dan 5:2.
confessing ] Dan 9:4.
for the holy mountain of my God ] cf. Dan 9:16.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
20 23. Daniel’s prayer heard; and the angel Gabriel sent with the answer.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And whiles I was speaking … – In the very time when I was thus pleading.
For the holy mountain of my God – See the notes at Dan 9:16.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Dan 9:20-23
O Lord, hear.
Answer to Daniels Prayer
A believer might say to one who questioned the value of prayer, that God has authourised and commanded him to pray, with the express promise that the prayer of faith, offered up in the name of Christ, shall be heard and answered, and that he can safely leave it with God himself to provide fur the fulfilment of His promise, in perfect consistency with the immutability of His counsels. He is warranted also to maintain that prayer is most deeply concerned in the determination of all the purposes of Cod concerning His people; that every believing supplication that has been, or ever will be offered up, was as much the subject of the Divine foreknowledge as any ether action or event that was to take place in the moral world. The event for which Daniel had been praying, namely, the restoration of their captive brethren to their country and their privileges, had been the subject of many a prediction variously expressed, and of special promises frequently repeated Every circumstance conspired to give him the assurance that the event which he longed for was infallibly secured. Yet he gave himself to prayer, obviously with the conviction that, in order to give efficiency to all the subordinate causes that were conspiring to bring about that deliverance of Judah, there was required an immediate determination of the Divine mind–an act of the will of Him who speaks and it is done; who commandeth and all things stand fast. The prayer of the prophet formed an essential part of the plan by which God was graciously pleased to carry His purposes into execution. There was, indeed, suspended on it, so to speak, that act of the Divine will that was to give efficiency to every other agency whereby the desired event was to be brought about. Did we conceive of it as we ought to do–did we know what it is that constitutes the honour, and dignity, and blessedness of our nature, there is nothing in which we should consider ourselves more highly honoured, or more richly privileged, than in being permitted and encouraged to pray. Of the truths of these remarks, we have a very striking and instructive illustration in the passage before us. Of none was it ever more true than of Daniel, that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Yet, notwithstanding the honourable and distinguished place which had been assigned to Daniel among the servants of God, never did a soul breath its desires under a deeper sense of its own unworthiness than when he set his face unto the Lord God. And does not the experience of believers still bear witness to the same truth? Such is the honour which God vouchsafes to put upon His people when He gives them permission to pray; and such is the tendency of that honour to generate a spirit of humility and dependence on the part of those who enjoy it. Whether, therefore, we view prayer as glorifying God, by recognising His supremacy, and resolving our will into His; or whether we regard it as bringing us into that state which is the most salutary for ourselves, we are not without abundant encouragement to avail ourselves of this distinguished privilege. Our text furnishes other considerations calculated to excite us to frequent and earnest and persevering prayer. But the point to which I specially direct attention is the fact here stated by the angel, that at the beginning of Daniels supplication the commandment went forth, a fact which places in a very striking light the important place which the prayer of the prophet occupied, among the various means which God was pleased to employ, in effecting the deliverance of Judah. In as far as concerns the condescension of God, and the encouragement which He has given us to pray, our text virtually tells us that the blessing was in readiness–that it waited, so to speak, only to be applied for–and that its actualcommunication was suspended on the supplication of the prophet Nor was this a privilege confined to particular individuals as Daniel, or to special times like those in which he lived. It appears, from the whole tenor of the preceding context, that the immediate object of the prophets anxiety and concern was the redemption of his brethren from the bondage of Babylon; that he felt as if it were possible that there might still attach to them so much of their former impenitence and forgetfulness of God as would provoke Him to protract the period of their captivity; and that it would have been, in the prophets own estimation, a full and satisfying answer to his prayer had he simply received the assurance that Gods thoughts toward Judah were still thoughts of peace. But how exceedingly abundant, above all that he asked or had conceived, was the communication which was made to him in answer to his prayer! We cannot suppose that when he set his face unto the Lord God he anticipated the extent of the answer which was vouchsafed to him. If such, then, be the encouragements whereby we are excited to prayer, how shall we think, without humiliation and shame, of the disinclination which we may frequently have felt towards engaging in that holy exercise, and of the formality with which we have so often observed it? The habit of mind–preparedness for prayer–will not be cultivated from a mere sense of duty alone. Prayer is in truth the protection, the safeguard, of the Christian. (R. Gordon,D.D.)
The Power of Prayer
From this remarkable scene we learn several lessons in reference to prayer.
I. THAT PRAYER IS A LEGITIMATE AND EFFECTUAL METHOD OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MAN UPON EARTH AND THE WORLD OF SPIRITS.
II. THE RECEPTION AND RECOGNITION OF TRUE PRAYER ARE IMMEDIATE, ALTHOUGH THE ANSWER MAY BE DELAYED. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth.
III. THAT PRAYER SECURES FOR ITS OFFERER THE SERVICE OF THE GREATEST AND MOST EXALTED OF GODS SERVANTS.
IV. THAT PRAYER IS A VALUABLE AID IN THE STUDY OF DIVINE THINGS. I am now come forth to give thee knowledge and understanding.
V. THAT THE SUCCESS OF PRAYER DEPENDS UPON THE MORAL POSITION THE OFFERER OCCUPIES BEFORE GOD. For thou art greatly beloved. (J. H. Morgan.)
Daniels Devotions
Daniel was a man of high birth, of extraordinary talents, of singular tact in the-affairs of government, of strong magnanimity, of great generosity, and of singular sympathy. Three things respecting him are worthy of notice. He was a close theological student.
He was remarkable for his disinterestedness and public spirit. And he was distinguished by a spirit of prayer.
I. THE PROPHETS OCCUPATION AT THIS TIME. He was secluded from the bustle of business and the turmoil of Society, and engaged in meditation on the things of God, and in communion with his own heart While retirement is necessary on occasions for all men, it is especially necessary for those who are busily employed in the concerns of public life. There are two extremes into which it is possible for us to fall on this subject. There are two devotional employments in which Daniel was occupied.
1. Penitential confession of sin. This was both personal and relative.
2. Intercessory supplication.
II. THE SEASON AT WHICH DANIEL WAS THUS ENGAGED.
1. It was the evening hour.
2. It was a time when he was desiring and expecting a revival of the Church, and the return of the people of God.
III. THE SUCCESS WHICH FOLLOWED DANIELS DEVOTIONAL EMPLOYMENT.
1. The promptitude of the bestowment.
2. The messenger who conveyed the intelligence.
3. The nature of the communication which Daniel received through the instrumentality of this Heavenly messenger.
Partly it respected his own personal character. And partly he obtained clearer and much more copious views of the designs of God in reference to a fallen and ruined world. Learn, then, that humble and devotional prayer to God is one of the best means of ensuring clear views as to the prophecies of God, and clear views as to the prosperity of the Church in the latter days. (John Clayton, A.M.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
20. whiles I was speakingrepeatedin Da 9:21; emphaticallymarking that the answer was given before the prayer was completed, asGod promised (Isa 30:19; Isa 65:24;compare Ps 32:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And while I was speaking and praying,…. Speaking to God in prayer; for it seems his prayer was vocal, and not mental only:
and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel; Daniel, though so holy and good a man, was not without sin, and thought it his duty to confess it before the Lord; and which he did in the first place, and then the sin of his people; which is the way to succeed with the Lord for the application of pardoning grace, and the enjoyment of other mercies and blessings:
and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; for the temple, and the service of God in it; which was the first and principal thing that lay upon the heart of the prophet, and he was most importunate and solicitous for.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The granting of the prayer. – While Daniel was yet engaged in prayer ( , on account of the holy mountain, i.e., for it, see under Dan 9:16), an answer was already communicated to him; for the angel Gabriel came to him, and brought to him an explanation of the seventy years of Jeremiah, i.e., not as to their expiry, but what would happen after their completion for the city and the people of God. , the man Gabriel, refers, by the use of the definite article, back to Dan 8:15, where Gabriel appeared to him in the form of a man. This is expressly observed in the relative clause, “whom I saw,” etc. Regarding ( at the first, Dan 9:21) see under Dan 8:1. The differently interpreted words, , belong, from their position, to the relative clause, or specially to ( I had seen), not to , since no ground can be perceived for the placing of the adverbial idea before the verb. The translation of by (lxx), (Theodot.), cito volans (Vulg.), from which the church fathers concluded that the angels were winged, notwithstanding the fact that rabbis, as e.g., Jos. Jacchiades, and modern interpreters (Hv., v. Leng., Hitz.) maintain it, is without any foundation in the words, and was probably derived by the old translators from a confounding of with . means only wearied, to become tired, to weary oneself by exertion, in certain places, as e.g., Jer 2:24, by a long journey or course, but nowhere to run or to flee. , weariness – wearied in weariness, i.e., very wearied or tired. According to this interpretation, which the words alone admit of, the expression is applicable, not to the angel, whom as an unearthly being, we cannot speak of as being wearied, although, with Kranichfeld, one may think of the way from the dwelling-place of God, removed far from His sinful people, to this earth as very long. On the contrary, the words perfectly agree with the condition of Daniel described in Dan 8:17., 27, and Daniel mentions this circumstance, because Gabriel, at his former coming to him, not only helped to strengthen him, but also gave him understanding of the vision, which was to him hidden in darkness, so that his appearing again at once awakened joyful hope. , not he touched me, but he reached me, came forward to me. For this meaning of cf. 2Sa 5:8; Jon 3:6. “About the time of the evening sacrifice.” , properly meat-offering, here comprehending the sacrifice, as is often its meaning in the later Scriptures; cf. Mal 1:13; Mal 2:13; Mal 3:4. The time of the evening oblation was the time of evening prayer for the congregation.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Daniel’s Prayer Answered; The Answer to Daniel’s Prayer; The Coming of the Messiah; Destruction of Jerusalem Foretold. | B. C. 538. |
20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God; 21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. 23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. 24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
We have here the answer that was immediately sent to Daniel’s prayer, and it is a very memorable one, as it contains the most illustrious prediction of Christ and gospel-grace that is extant in all the Old Testament. If John Baptist was the morning-star, this was the day-break to the Sun of righteousness, the day-spring from on high. Here is,
I. The time when this answer was given.
1. It was while Daniel was at prayer. This he observed and laid a strong emphasis upon: While I was speaking (v. 20), yea, while I was speaking in prayer (v. 21), before he rose from his knees, and while there was yet more which he intended to say.
(1.) He mentions the two heads he chiefly insisted upon in prayer, and which perhaps he designed yet further to enlarge upon. [1.] He was confessing sin and lamenting that–“both my sin and the sin of my people Israel.” Daniel was a very great and good man, and yet he finds sin of his own to confess before God and is ready to confess it; for there is not a just man upon earth that does good and sins not, nor that sins and repents not. St. John puts himself into the number of those who deceive themselves if they say that they have no sin, and who therefore confess their sins, 1 John i. 8. Good men find it an ease to their consciences to pour out their complaints before the Lord against themselves; and that is confessing sin. He also confessed the sin of his people, and bewailed that. Those who are heartily concerned for the glory of God, the welfare of the church, and the souls of men, will mourn for the sins of others as well as for their own. [2.] He was making supplication before the Lord his God, and presenting it to him as an intercessor for Israel; and in this prayer his concern was for the holy mountain of his God, Mount Zion. The desolations of the sanctuary lay nearer his heart than those of the city and the land; and the repair of that, and the setting up of the public worship of God of Israel again, were the things he had in view, in the deliverance he was preparing for, more than re-establishment of their civil interests. Now,
(2.) While Daniel was thus employed, [1.] He had a grant made him of the mercy he prayed for. Note, God is very ready to hear prayer and to give an answer of peace. Now was fulfilled what God had spoken Isa. lxv. 24, While they are yet speaking, I will hear. Daniel grew very fervent in prayer, and his affections were very strong, Dan 9:18; Dan 9:19. And, while he was speaking with such fervour and ardency, the angel came to him with a gracious answer. God is well pleased with lively devotions. We cannot now expect that God should send us answers to our prayer by angels, but, if we pray with fervency for that which God has promised, we may by faith take the promise as an immediate answer to the prayer; for he is faithful that has promised. [2.] He had a discovery made to him of a far greater and more glorious redemption which God would work out for his church in the latter days. Note, Those that would be brought acquainted with Christ and his grace must be much in prayer.
2. It was about the time of the evening oblation, v. 21. The altar was in ruins, and there was no oblation offered upon it, but, it should seem, the pious Jews in their captivity were daily thoughtful of the time when it should have been offered, and at that hour were ready to weep at the remembrance of it, and desired and hoped that their prayer should be set forth before God as incense, and the lifting up of their hands, and their hearts with their hands, should be acceptable in his sight as the evening-sacrifice, Ps. cxli. 2. The evening oblation was a type of the great sacrifice which Christ was to offer in the evening of the world, and it was in the virtue of that sacrifice that Daniel’s prayer was accepted when he prayed for the Lord’s sake; and for the sake of that this glorious discovery of redeeming love was made to him. The Lamb opened the seals in the virtue of his own blood.
II. The messenger by whom this answer was sent. It was not given him in a dream, nor by a voice from heaven, but, for the greater certainty and solemnity of it, an angel was sent on purpose, appearing in a human shape, to give this answer to Daniel. Observe,
1. Who this angel, or messenger, was; it was the man Gabriel. If Michael the archangel be, as many suppose, no other than Jesus Christ, this Gabriel is the only created angel that is named in scripture. Gabriel signifies the mighty one of God; for the angels are great in power and might, 2 Pet. ii. 11. It was he whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning. Daniel heard him called by his name, and thence learned it (Dan. viii. 16); and, though then he trembled at his approach, yet he observed him so carefully that now he knew him again, knew him to be the same that he had seen at the beginning, and, being somewhat better acquainted with him, was not now so terrified at the sight of him as he had been at first. When this angel said to Zacharias, I am Gabriel (Luke i. 19), he intended thereby to put him in mind of this notice which he had given to Daniel of the Messiah’s coming when it was at a distance, for the confirming of his faith in the notice he was then about to give of it as at the door.
2. The instructions which this messenger received from the Father of lights to whom Daniel prayed (v. 23): At the beginning of thy supplications the word, the commandment, came forth from God. Notice was given to the angels in heaven of this counsel of God, which they were desirous to look into; and orders were given to Gabriel to go immediately and bring the notice of it to Daniel. By this it appears that it was not any thing which Daniel said that moved God, for the answer was given as he began to pray; but God was well pleased with his serious solemn address to the duty, and, in token of that, sent him this gracious message. Or perhaps it was at the beginning of Daniel’s supplications that Cyrus’s word, or commandment, went forth to restore and to build Jerusalem, that going forth spoken of v. 25. “The thing was done this very day; the proclamation of liberty to the Jews was signed this morning, just when thou wast praying for it;” and now, at the close of this fast-day, Daniel had notice of it, as, at the close of the day of atonement, the jubilee-trumpet sounded to proclaim liberty.
3. The haste he made to deliver his message: He was caused to fly swiftly, v. 21. Angels are winged messengers, quick in their motions, and delay not to execute the orders they receive; they run and return like a flash of lightning, Ezek. i. 14. But, it should seem, sometimes they are more expeditious than at other times, and make a quicker despatch, as here the angel was caused to fly swiftly; that is, he was ordered and he was enabled to fly swiftly. Angels do their work in obedience to divine command and in dependence upon divine strength. Though they excel in wisdom, they fly swifter or slower as God directs; and, though they excel in power, they fly but as God causes them to fly. Angels themselves are to us what he makes them to be; they are his ministers, and do his pleasure, Ps. ciii. 21.
4. The prefaces or introductions to his message. (1.) He touched him (v. 21), as before (ch. viii. 18), not to awaken him out of sleep as then, but to give him a hint to break off his prayer and to attend to that which he has to say in answer to it. Note, In order to the keeping up of our communion with God we must not only be forward to speak to God, but as forward to hear what he has to say to us; when we have prayed we must look up, must look after our prayers, must set ourselves upon our watch-tower. (2.) He talked with him (v. 22), talked familiarly with him, as one friend talks with another, that his terror might not make him afraid. He informed him on what errand he came, that he was sent from heaven on purpose with a kind message to him: “I have come to show thee (v. 23), to tell thee that which thou didst not know before.” He had shown him the troubles of the church under Antiochus, and the period of those troubles (ch. viii. 19); but now he has greater things to show him, for he that is faithful in a little shall be entrusted with more. “Nay, I have now come forth to give thee skill and understanding (v. 22), not only to show thee these things, but to make thee understand them.” (3.) He assured him that he was a favourite of Heaven, else he would not have had this intelligence sent him, and he must take it for a favour: “I have come to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved. Thou art a man of desires, acceptable to God, and whom he has a favour for.” Note, Though God loves all his children, yet there are some that are more than the rest greatly beloved. Christ had one disciple that lay in his bosom; and that beloved disciple was he that was entrusted with the prophetical visions of the New Testament, as Daniel was with those of the Old. For what greater token can there be of God’s favour to any man than for the secrets of the Lord to be with him? Abraham is the friend of God; and therefore Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Gen. xviii. 17. Note, Those may reckon themselves greatly beloved of God to whom, and in whom, he reveals his Son. Some observe that the title which this angel Gabriel gives to the Virgin Mary is much the same with this which he here gives to Daniel, as if he designed to put her in mind of it–Thou that art highly favoured; as Daniel, greatly beloved. (4.) He demands his serious attention to the discovery he was now about to make to him: Therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision, v. 23. This intimates that it was a thing well worthy of his regard, above any of the visions he had been before favoured with. Note, Those who would understand the things of God must consider them, must apply their minds to them, ponder upon them, and compare spiritual things with spiritual. The reason why we are so much in the dark concerning the revealed will of God, and mistake concerning it, is want of consideration. This vision both requires and deserves consideration.
III. The message itself. It was delivered with great solemnity, received no doubt with great attention, and recorded with great exactness; but in it, as is usual in prophecies, there are things dark and hard to be understood. Daniel, who understood by the book of the prophet Jeremiah the expiration of the seventy years of the captivity, is now honourably employed to make known to the church another more glorious release, which that was but a shadow of, at the end of another seventy, not years, but weeks of years. He prayed over that prophecy, and received this in answer to that prayer. He had prayed for his people and the holy city–that they might be released, that it might be rebuilt; but God answers him above what he was able to ask or think. God not only grants, but outdoes, the desires of those that fear him, Ps. xxi. 4.
1. The times here determined are somewhat hard to be understood. In general, it is seventy weeks, that is, seventy times seven years, which makes just 490 years. The great affairs that are yet to come concerning the people of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem, will lie within the compass of these years.
(1.) These years are thus described by weeks, [1.] In conformity to the prophetic style, which is, for the most part, abstruse, and out of the common road of speaking, that the things foretold might not lie too obvious. [2.] To put an honour upon the division of time into weeks, which is made purely by the sabbath day, and to signify that that should be perpetual. [3.] With reference to the seventy years of the captivity; as they had been so long kept out of the possession of their own land, so, being now restored to it they should seven times as long be kept in the possession of it. So much more does God delight in showing mercy than in punishing. The land had enjoyed its sabbaths, in a melancholy sense, seventy years, Lev. xxvi. 34. But now the people of the Lord shall, in a comfortable sense, enjoy their sabbaths seven times seventy years, and in them seventy sabbatical years, which makes ten jubilees. Such proportions are there in the disposals of Providence, that we might see and admire the wisdom of him who has determined the times before appointed.
(2.) The difficulties that arise about these seventy weeks are, [1.] Concerning the time when they commence and whence they are to be reckoned. They are here dated from the going forth of the commandments to restore and to build Jerusalem, v. 25. I should most incline to understand this of the edict of Cyrus mentioned Ezra i. 1, for by it the people were restored; and, though express mention be not made there of the building of Jerusalem, yet that is supposed in the building of the temple, and was foretold to be done by Cyrus, Isa. xliv. 28. He shall say to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built. That was, both in prophecy and in history, the most famous decree for the building of Jerusalem; nay, it should seem, this going forth of the commandment (which may as well be meant of God’s command concerning it as of Cyrus’s) is the same with that going forth of the commandment mentioned v. 23, which was at the beginning of Daniel’s supplications. And it looks very graceful that the seventy weeks should begin immediately upon the expiration of the seventy years. And there is nothing to be objected against this but that by this reckoning the Persian monarchy, from the taking of Babylon by Cyrus to Alexander’s conquest of Darius, lasted but 130 years; whereas, by the particular account given of the reigns of the Persian emperors, it is computed that it continued 230 years. So Thucydides, Xenophon, and others reckon. Those who fix it to that first edict set aside these computations of the heathen historians as uncertain and not to be relied upon. But others, willing to reconcile them, begin the 490 years, not at the edict of Cyrus (Ezra i. 1), but at the second edict for the building of Jerusalem, issued out by Darius Nothus above 100 years after, mentioned Ezra vi. Others fix on the seventh year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, who sent Ezra with a commission, Ezra vii. 8-12. The learned Mr. Poole, in his Latin Synopsis, has a vast and most elaborate collection of what has been said, pro and con, concerning the different beginnings of these weeks, with which the learned may entertain themselves. [2.] Concerning the termination of them; and here likewise interpreters are not agreed. Some make them to end at the death of Christ, and think the express words of this famous prophecy will warrant us to conclude that from this very hour when Gabriel spoke to Daniel, at the time of the evening oblation, to the hour when Christ died, which was towards evening too, it was exactly 490 years; and I am willing enough to be of that opinion. But others think, because it is said that in the midst of the weeks (that is, the last of the seventy weeks) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, they end three years and a half after the death of Christ, when the Jews having rejected the gospel, the apostles turned to the Gentiles. But those who make them to end precisely at the death of Christ read it thus, “He shall make strong the testament to the many; the last seven, or the last week, yea, half that seven, or half that week (namely, the latter half, the three years and a half which Christ spent in his public ministry), shall bring to an end sacrifice and oblation.” Others make these 490 years to end with the destruction of Jerusalem, about thirty-seven years after the death of Christ, because these seventy weeks are said to be determined upon the people of the Jews and the holy city; and much is said here concerning the destruction of the city and the sanctuary. [3.] Concerning the division of them into seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks, and one week; and the reason of this is as hard to account for as any thing else. In the first seven weeks, or forty-nine years, the temple and city were built; and in the last single week Christ preached his gospel, by which the Jewish economy was taken down, and the foundations were laid of the gospel city and temple, which were to be built upon the ruins of the former.
(3.) But, whatever uncertainty we may labour under concerning the exact fixing of these times, there is enough clear and certain to answer the two great ends of determining them. [1.] It did serve them to raise and support the expectations of believers. There were general promises of the coming of the Messiah made to the patriarchs; the preceding prophets had often spoken of him as one that should come, but never was the time fixed for his coming until now. And, though there might be so much doubt concerning the date of this reckoning that they could not ascertain the time just to a year, yet by the light of this prophecy they were directed about what time to expect him. And we find, accordingly, that when Christ came he was generally looked for as the consolation of Israel, and redemption in Jerusalem by him, Luk 2:25; Luk 2:38. There were those that for this reason thought the kingdom of God should immediately appear (Luke xix. 11), and some think it was this that brought a more than ordinary concourse of people to Jerusalem, Acts ii. 5. [2.] It does serve still to refute and silence the expectations of unbelievers, who will not own that Jesus is he who should come, but still look for another. This prediction should silence them, and will condemn them; for, reckon these seventy weeks from which of the commandments to build Jerusalem we please, it is certain that they have expired above 1500 years ago; so that the Jews are for ever without excuse, who will not own that the Messiah has come when they have gone so far beyond their utmost reckoning for his coming. But by this we are confirmed in our belief of the Messiah’s being come, and that our Jesus is he, that he came just at the time prefixed, a time worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance.
2. The events here foretold are more plain and easy to be understood, at least to us now. Observe what is here foretold,
(1.) Concerning the return of the Jews now speedily to their own land, and their settlement again there, which was the thing that Daniel now principally prayed for; and yet it is but briefly touched upon here in the answer to his prayer. Let this be a comfort to the pious Jews, that a commandment shall go forth to restore and to build Jerusalem, v. 25. And the commandment shall not be in vain; for though the times will be very troublous, and this good work will meet with great opposition, yet it shall be carried on, and brought to perfection at last. The street shall be built again, as spacious and splendid as ever it was, and the walls, even in troublous times. Note, as long as we are here in this world we must expect troublous times, upon some account or other. Even when we have joyous times we must rejoice with trembling; it is but a gleam, it is but a lucid interval of peace and prosperity; the clouds will return after the rain. When the Jews are restored in triumph to their own land, yet there they must expect troublous times, and prepare for them. But this is our comfort, that God will carry on his own work, will build up his Jerusalem, will beautify it, will fortify it, even in troublous times; nay, the troublousness of the times may by the grace of God contribute to the advancement of the church. The more it is afflicted the more it multiplies.
(2.) Concerning the Messiah and his undertaking. The carnal Jews looked for a Messiah that could deliver them from the Roman yoke and give them temporal power and wealth, whereas they were here told that the Messiah should come upon another errand, purely spiritual, and upon the account of which he should be the more welcome. [1.] Christ came to take away sin, and to abolish that. Sin had made a quarrel between God and man, had alienated men from God and provoked God against man; it was this that put dishonour upon God and brought misery upon mankind; this was the great mischief-maker. He that would do God a real service, and man a real kindness, must be the destruction of this. Christ undertakes to be so, and for this purpose he is manifested, to destroy the works of the devil. He does not say to finish your transgressions and your sins, but transgression and sin in general, for he is the propitiation not only for our sins, that are Jews, but for the sins of the whole world. He came, First, To finish transgression, to restrain it (so some), to break the power of it, to bruise the head of that serpent that had done so much mischief, to take away the usurped dominion of that tyrant, and to set up a kingdom of holiness and love in the hearts of men, upon the ruins of Satan’s kingdom there, that, where sin and death had reigned, righteousness and life through grace might reign. When he died he said, It is finished; sin has now had its death-wound given it, like Samson’s, Let me die with the Philistines. Animamque in vulnere ponit–He inflicts the wound and dies. Secondly, To make an end of sin, to abolish it, that it may not rise up in judgment against us, to obtain the pardon of it, that it may not be our ruin, to seal up sins (so the margin reads it), that they may not appear or break out against us, to accuse and condemn us, as, when Christ cast the devil into the bottomless pit, he set a seal upon him, Rev. xx. 3. When sin is pardoned it is sought for and not found, as that which is sealed up. Thirdly, To make reconciliation for iniquity, as by a sacrifice, to satisfy the justice of God and so to make peace and bring God and man together, not only as an arbitrator, or referee, who only brings the contending parties to a good understanding one of another, but as a surety, or undertaker, for us. He is not only the peace-maker, but the peace. He is the atonement. [2.] He came to bring in an everlasting righteousness. God might justly have made an end of the sin by making an end of the sinner; but Christ found out another way, and so made an end of sin as to save the sinner from it, by providing a righteousness for him. We are all guilty before God, and shall be condemned as guilty, if we have not a righteousness wherein to appear before him. Had we stood, our innocency would have been our righteousness, but, having fallen, we must have something else to plead; and Christ has provided us a plea. The merit of his sacrifice is our righteousness; with this we answer all the demands of the law; Christ has died, yea, rather, has risen again. Thus Christ is the Lord our righteousness, for he is made of God to us righteousness, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. By faith we apply this to ourselves and plead it with God, and our faith is imputed to us for righteousness,Rom 4:3; Rom 4:5. This is an everlasting righteousness, for Christ, who is our righteousness, and the prince of our peace, is the everlasting Father. It was from everlasting in the counsels of it and will be to everlasting in the consequences of it. The application of it was from the beginning, for Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; and it will be to the end, for he is able to save to the uttermost. It is of everlasting virtue (Heb. x. 12); it is the rock that follows us to Canaan. [3.] He came to seal up the vision and prophecy, all the prophetical visions of the Old Testament, which had reference to the Messiah. He sealed them up, that is, he accomplished them, answered to them to a tittle; all things that were written in the law, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning the Messiah, were fulfilled in him. Thus he confirmed the truth of them as well as his own mission. He sealed them up, that is, he put an end to that method of God’s discovering his mind and will, and took another course by completing the scripture-canon in the New Testament, which is the more sure word of prophecy than that by vision,2Pe 1:19; Heb 1:1. [4.] He came to anoint the most holy, that is, himself, the Holy One, who was anointed (that is, appointed to his work and qualified for it) by the Holy Ghost, that oil of gladness which he received without measure, above his fellows; or to anoint the gospel-church, his spiritual temple, or holy place, to sanctify and cleanse it, and appropriate it to himself (Eph. v. 26), or to consecrate for us a new and living way into the holiest, by his own blood (Heb. x. 20), as the sanctuary was anointed, Exod. xxx. 25, c. He is called Messiah (Dan 9:25Dan 9:26), which signifies Christ-Anointed (John i. 41), because he received the unction both for himself and for all that are his. [5.] In order to all this the Messiah must be cut off, must die a violent death, and so be cut off from the land of the living, as was foretold, Isa. liii. 8. Hence, when Paul preaches the death of Christ, he says that he preached nothing but what the prophet said should come,Act 26:22; Act 26:23. And thus it behoved Christ to suffer. He must be cut off, but not for himself–not for any sin of his own, but, as Caiaphas prophesied, he must die for the people, in our stead and for our good,–not for any advantage of his own (the glory he purchased for himself was no more than the glory he had before, Joh 17:4; Joh 17:5); no; it was to atone for our sins, and to purchase life for us, that he was cut off. [6.] He must confirm the covenant with many. He shall introduce a new covenant between God and man, a covenant of grace, since it had become impossible for us to be saved by a covenant of innocence. This covenant he shall confirm by his doctrine and miracles, by his death and resurrection, by the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper, which are the seals of the New Testament, assuring us that God is willing to accept us upon gospel-terms. His death made his testament of force, and enabled us to claim what is bequeathed by it. He confirmed it to the many, to the common people; the poor were evangelized, when the rulers and Pharisees believed not on him. Or, he confirmed it with many, with the Gentile world. The New Testament was not (like the Old) confined to the Jewish church, but was committed to all nations. Christ gave his life a ransom for many. [7.] He must cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. By offering himself a sacrifice once for all he shall put an end to all the Levitical sacrifices, shall supersede them and set them aside; when the substance comes the shadows shall be done away. He causes all the peace-offerings to cease when he has made peace by the blood of his cross, and by it confirmed the covenant of peace and reconciliation. By the preaching of his gospel to the world, with which the apostles were entrusted, he took men off from expecting remission by the blood of bulls and goats, and so caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease. The apostle in his epistle to the Hebrews shows what a better priesthood, altar, and sacrifice, we have now than they had under the law, as a reason why we should hold fast our profession.
(3.) Concerning the final destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish church and nation; and this follows immediately upon the cutting off of the Messiah, not only because it was the just punishment of those that put him to death, which was the sin that filled up the measure of their iniquity and brought ruin upon them, but because, as things were, it was necessary to the perfecting of one of the great intentions of his death. He died to take away the ceremonial law, quite to abolish that law of commandments, and to vacate the obligation of it. But the Jews would not be persuaded to quit it; still they kept it up with more zeal than ever; they would hear no talk of parting with it; they stoned Stephen (the first Christian martyr) for saying that Jesus should change the customs which Moses delivered them (Acts vi. 14); so that there was no way to abolish the Mosaic economy but by destroying the temple, and the holy city, and the Levitical priesthood, and that whole nation which so incurably doted on them. This was effectually done in less than forty years after the death of Christ, and it was a desolation that could never be repaired to this day. And this is it which is here largely foretold, that the Jews who returned out of captivity might not be overmuch lifted up with the rebuilding of their city and temple, because in process of time they would be finally destroyed, and not as now for seventy years only, but might rather rejoice in hope of the coming of the Messiah, and the setting up of his spiritual kingdom in the world, which should never be destroyed. Now, [1.] It is here foretold that the people of the prince that shall come shall be the instruments of this destruction, that is, the Roman armies, belonging to a monarchy yet to come (Christ is the prince that shall come, and they are employed by him in this service; they are his armies, Matt. xxii. 7), or the Gentiles (who, though now strangers, shall become the people of the Messiah) shall destroy the Jews. [2.] That the destruction shall be by war, and the end of that war shall be this desolation determined. The wars of the Jews with the Romans were by their own obstinacy made very long and very bloody, and they issued at length in the utter extirpation of that people. [3.] That the city and sanctuary shall in a particular manner be destroyed and laid quite waste. Titus the Roman general would fain have saved the temple, but his soldiers were so enraged against the Jews that he could not restrain them from burning it to the ground, that this prophecy might be fulfilled. [4.] That all the resistance that shall be made to this destruction shall be in vain: The end of it shall be with a flood. It shall be a deluge of destruction, like that which swept away the old world, and which there will be no making head against. [5.] That hereby the sacrifice and oblation shall be made to cease. And it must needs cease when the family of the priests was so extirpated, and the genealogies of it were so confounded, that (they say) there is no man in the world that can prove himself of the seed of Aaron. [6.] that there shall be an overspreading of abominations, a general corruption of the Jewish nation and an abounding of iniquity among them, for which it shall be made desolate, 1 Thess. ii. 16. Or it is rather to be understood of the armies of the Romans, which were abominable to the Jews (they could not endure them), which overspread the nation, and by which it was made desolate; for these are the words which Christ refers to, Matt. xxiv. 15, When you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel, stand in the holy place, then let those who shall be in Judea flee, which is explained Luke xxi. 20, When you shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies then flee. [7.] That the desolation shall be total and final: He shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, that is, he shall make it completely desolate. It is a desolation determined, and it will be accomplished to the utmost. And when it is made desolate, it should seem, there is something more determined that is to be poured upon the desolate (v. 27), and what should that be but the spirit of slumber (Rom 11:8; Rom 11:25), that blindness which has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in? And then all Israel shall be saved.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
GABRIEL EXPLAINS MEANING OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS
Verses 20-27:
Verse 20, 21 relate that as Daniel was speaking, before he had stopped praying, confessing his sins, the sins of his people, then interceding to the holy God for mercy on His people, Jerusalem, the holy mountain and sanctuary, the angel Gabriel came directly to him, Isa 30:19; Isa 65:24; Psa 32:5. The angel Gabriel came swiftly upon him, as on a former occasion, to give him help and information for his people then and in all following ages, Dan 8:16. He came as a messenger of help to minister to him and deliver him from deathly grief, Psa 34:7; Heb 1:14. He arrived in swift flight and touched Daniel at the end of a day of fervent prayer, about the time of the evening oblation or sacrifice, at the ninth hour, three o’clock in the afternoon, 1Ki 18:36.
Verse 22 asserts that the angel Gabriel, chief of God’s informing angelic band, talked with Daniel and certified that he had come forth (from the throne of God) to give or dole out to him skill and understanding for writing, speaking, and relating the will and purpose of God in him and his people Israel, as well as certain judgments upon their Gentile enemies. This indicates that the symbolic vision of chapter 8:16 had not yet been shut up, concluded or cut off, Dan 8:26.
Verse 23 relates that Gabriel established his own identity as a watching, listening, guarding angel, who looked on from the throne of God, Psa 34:7. He told Daniel that at the very beginning of his prayer the mandate (from God) came to him to come down to Daniel and make known to him that he was “greatly beloved” of God. In response God sent Gabriel to Daniel to cause him to understand more fully the meaning of the vision, Jas 1:5; Eze 23:6-12; Mat 24:15.
Verse 24 asserts that 70 weeks (more accurately years) seventy weeks of seven years each had been determined, in the purpose of God, upon the holy city and the people of Israel for six things, beginning with Artaxerxes:
1) To finish the transgression, to shut up or restrain it, to abolish it, Psa 51:9.
2) To make an end of sins, to hide it out of sight, to end, finish or complete its judgment, Job 9:7.
3) To make reconciliation for iniquity, to make an atonement (Heb kaphar) for iniquity of His people, Exo 29:33. To cover or overlay lawlessness, as a payment, Gen 6:14; Psa 32:1.
4) To bring in everlasting righteousness, or to restore reconciliation between God and man forever, Jer 23:5-6; Heb 9:12; Rev 14:6.
5) To seal up the vision and prophecy. To give time for the prophecy to be fulfilled, as a confirmation of its trustworthiness, 1Pe 1:20-21; Psa 119:160.
6) And to anoint the most Holy One, or to consecrate the most Holy One, Joh 1:41; and holy place; See Luke 4; Luke 18 fulfilling Isa 62:1.
This too alludes to our Lord’s consecration of the Holy Temple, after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes, and perhaps at His return to earth again, after the pollution by the antichrist, Jer 3:16-17; Eze 37:27-28; 2Th 2:4. The seventy weeks of years covered this period, with certain parenthesis, during which time national chastisement would be completed, the Son would come as the redeemer and establisher of His church, and ultimately the reestablishment of national Israel, and everlasting righteousness will be brought in, at His second coming, 2Th 1:6-10; Rev 19:16.
Verse 25 explains to Daniel that he and we are to know (recognize) and understand that from the going forth of the commandment (by the king of Persia, Ezr 6:14) to restore (refurbish) or reconstruct the city of Jerusalem, to the coming of the Messiah, the Prince of peace, (Psa 2:2; Mat 27:37; Mat 27:42; Isa 9:6) would be: 1) seven weeks (of years) or 49 years, based on the scriptural prophetic measure; Eze 4:6; Ezekiel , 2) sixty two weeks (of years) 434 years; and 3) one week of years. It was added, as an immediate hope for Israel, after 70 years that they had languished in Babylon and Persia, that they should rebuild the streets and walls of the Holy city, even in troublous times, under many hardships, as told by both Ezra and Nehemiah.
Verse 26 certifies that after the added 62 weeks of 434 more years the Messiah would be cut off, rejected, and crucified, Isa 53:8; Hos 2:23; Joh 11:49; But His being cut off will not be for, or in, His own behalf, to gain any earthly profit for himself. It is added that thereafter the prince or ruler of the people who should come (the Roman Emperor’s armed destroyers) would “destroy the sanctuary” that the Lord had cleansed, in which He had taught, Luk 19:43-44; Mat 24:2. This seems to have been fulfilled in the destruction of the city, temple, and holy place in A.D. 70, under Titus of Thespacia, the Roman General; After which the Jews were, by our Lord’s prophecy, dispersed among all nations, while the city should be and has been, trodden down of the Gentiles, “till the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled,” Luk 21:24.
It is added that the end thereof would be “with a flood” or devastation of the city, Mat 24:6-14. From then unto the end or completion of time, wars and desolations of dispersion judgment were determined or decreed upon “this people,” the Jews in particular, for their national rejection of the Messiah, for which they were cut off, Mat 23:37-39; Rom 11:15; Rom 11:25. See also flood judgments, Psa 90:5; Isa 8:7-8; Isa 28:18-22.
Verse 27 concludes the angel Gabriel’s instruction to Daniel, regarding the future of his people Israel, in relation to this vision, v. 20-23. The “he” who shall “confirm the covenant with many for one week,” or seven prophetic years, Eze 4:6, is the “prince that shall come to destroy the city and the sanctuary,” v. 26, (the antichrist), of whom Titus of Thespacia stood as a symbol. The “many” with whom he will make or “confirm the covenant” for the week of years or 7 years, refers to the people of Israel, in pledging to them the right to reestablish their morning and evening oblations or sacrifices that were taken away by Titus A.D. 70, which have never since been restored. They will be, only through Israel’s covenant with this “prince” or ruler, whom Israel will receive; Though they rejected the true Prince of peace; Jesus said. “Him ye will receive,” Joh 5:43.
Gabriel further explains that “in the midst of the week” (prophetic week of 7 years), at the end of 3Yz years, or 42 months, he “the prince” or ruler that shall come, the antichrist, “shall cause (by force) the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,” which he had promised in his 7 year covenant; But as a liar, deceiver, promisebreaker he ignores his promise at that time; Paul declares, that this person will even require that the Jewish people, all people, worship him as God, or be put to death, much as Nebuchadnezzar king of the first Gentile world Empire did; and as John describes the antichrist will do. See 2Th 2:3-12; Dan 3:4-8; Rev 13:4-8; Rev 13:12-18; Joh 5:43.
Note that the breaking of this covenant, made and kept for 3 1/2 years, is flaunted, disregarded, laid aside in the “midst of the week,” and “sacrifices and oblations” restored shall too be cause to cease by this son of perdition, the antichrist. This occurs about the same time that war breaks out in heaven and the devil and his accusers of the brethren are cast down, never permitted to approach the throne to accuse brethren on earth any more, Rev 12:7; Rev 12:9; Rev 12:12; Rev 12:14.
It is then asserted by Gabriel, to Daniel, that after this demon-like prince, the son of perdition, caused the Jewish worship of old to cease, after 31/2 years, there will be an “overspread of abominations,” a spreading demand that he be worshipped. This demand shall be so strong that “he shall make it desolate,” make totally desolate the ancient temple worship restored for a time (42 months). Such will remain, it is added “even until the consummation,” the end of the 70th, this last week of 7 years of judgment on Israel, which has been determined, Dan 9:24, “shall be poured out on the desolate or desolator,” even upon the antichrist as well as all Jews for that latter 3 1/2 years, who have not become believers, received the Messiah during the first 3 1/2 years of the week, as their morning and evening oblations were offered.
The 144,000 who were sealed against death, and will be protected from death during the Tribulation the Great, are those who became Jewish believers in the Christ, as the Messiah, and worshiped Him as saints, during the first 31/2 years of the 70th week, until the antichrist arose and demanded that they worship him, Revelation ch. 12, 13. They will refuse.
From this point, the midst of the 70th week, The Tribulation the Great is poured out on the earth. With this view, scripture seems more nearly to harmonize than with any other interpretation. It is also at or about the time of this (not appearance, but revelation of the real character of who the antichrist is) that Jesus will appear in the air to raise the righteous dead, rapture the church, and begin Hls judgment of rewards and be married to His bride; while The Tribulation the Great fury is being completed on earth. After or about the end of the 70th week Jesus will be revealed (not just appear), in power and great glory, with the saints, to defeat the man of sin, end The Tribulation the Great, receive the 144,000 living tribulation-surviving Jewish saints, Revelation 12 th ch., and become King of kings and Lord of lords over all the earth. For an harmony of this 70th week see this author’s book and charts on the Book of Revelation; 1Th 4:13-18; Heb 9:28; Rev 7:2-8; Rev 19:5-9; 2Th 1:6-10.
CHART II
WHAT HAPPENS? WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN?
Antichrist Appearance–“In own name,” Joh 5:43.
1) As “Little Horn,” Dan 7:8 (foreshadow).
2) “Little Horn” out of four notable ones, Dan 8:9-14.
3) “King of fierce countenance” stands up, reveals his wicked anti-God character. . .foreshadowing antichrist, Dan 8:23-27.
4) Division of 70th Week, Dan 9:27.
FIRST 3 Days (years):
1) Anti-christ enters with peaceful guile… confirms covenant for one week.
2) In midst or at end of 1st half of week, he causes sacrifice and oblations to cease
3) Spread of abominations make desolate temple of Jewish worship
4) He requires self-worship as God, for next 42 months, from this point on, 2Th 2:4-10; Revelation ch. 13.
LAST 3 Days (years):
1) About this time, in midst of the week, after Isreal has worshipped for 3 1/2 yrs. With oblations, and the church has witnessed, Jesus appears in the air to catch away the dead in Christ and rapture the church, those who look for Him, Rev 12:3-12; 1Th 4:13-18; Rev 19:5-9.
2) At the end of the latter half of the week, Jesus will come, in power and great glory, to be glorified in His saint, the church and admired in all them that believe, and he will begin His reign on earth, Luk 1:32-34; 2Th 1:10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
As to the translation, some take it as I do; others say “flying swiftly,” implying fatigue and alacrity. Some derive the word for “flying” from עוף, gnof, which signifies to fly, and they join it with its own participle, which is common Hebrew; others again think it derived from יעף, yegnef; signifying to fatigue, and then explain it metaphorically as flying hastily. (108)
Here Daniel begins to shew us that his prayers were by no means useless, nor yet without their fruit, as Gabriel was sent to elevate his mind with confidence, and to lighten his grief by consolation. He next sets him forth as a minister of the grace of God to the whole Church, to inspire the faithful with the hope of a speedy return to their country, and to encourage them to bear their afflictions until God should open a way for their return. Next, as to ourselves, we need not wonder at God’s refusing at times an answer to our prayers, because those who seem to pray far better than the rest scarcely possess a hundredth part of the zeal and fervor required. On comparing our method of prayer with this vehemence of the Prophet, surely we are in truth very far behind him; and it is by no means surprising, if, while the difference is so great, the success should be so dissimilar. And yet we may be assured that our prayers will never be in vain, if we follow the holy Prophet at even a long interval. If the limited amount of our faith hinders our prayers from emulating the Prophet’s zeal, yet God will nevertheless listen to them, so long as they are founded in faith and penitence. Daniel says, therefore, While I was as yet speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel First of all, we must notice how the Holy Spirit here purposely dictated to the Prophet, how God’s grace would be prepared for and extended to all the wretched who fly to it and implore it. The Prophet, therefore, shews why we are so destitute of help, for if pain occasions so much groaning, yet we never look up to God, from whom consolation is always to be sought in all evils. He thus exhorts us to the habit of prayer by saying his requests were heard. He does not bring forward any singular example, but, as I have already said, he pronounces generally that the prayers of those who seek God as a deliverer will never be either vain or unfruitful. I have shewn how our supplications do not always meet with either the same or equal attention, since our torpor requires God to differ in the help which he supplies. But in this way the Prophet teaches us how those who possess true faith and repentance, however slight, will never offer up their prayers to God in vain.
He next adds what is necessary to conciliate God’s favor, namely, that men should anticipate God’s judgment by condemning themselves. So he asserts, He confessed his sin and that of his people He does not speak here of one kind of sin, but under the word חטא, cheta, he comprehends all kinds of wickedness; as if he had said, when I was confessing myself as steeped in sin and drowned in iniquity, I confessed the same on behalf of my people. We must notice also the phrase, the sin of my people Israel He might have omitted this noun, but he wished to testify before God to the Church being guilty and without the slightest hope of absolution, unless God, whom they had so deservedly offended, was graciously pleased to reconcile them to himself. But the first clause is more worthy of notice, where Daniel relates the confession of his own sins before God. We know what Ezekiel says, or rather the Spirit speaking through his mouth. (Eze 14:14.) For God names the three most perfect characters which had then existed in the world, and includes Daniel among them, although he was then living. Although Daniel was an example of angelic justice, and is celebrated by so remarkable an honor, yet, if even he were before me, and were to entreat me for this state, I would not listen to him, but I would free him only on account of his own righteousness. As, therefore, God so extols his own Prophet, and raises him on high as if he were beyond all the pollution and vices of the world, where shall we find a man upon earth who can boast himself free from every stain and failing? Let the most perfect characters be brought before us — what a difference between them and Daniel! But even he confesses himself a sinner before God, and utterly renounces his own righteousness, and openly bears witness to his only hope of salvation being placed in the mere mercy of God. Hence Augustine with much wisdom often cites this passage against the followers of Pelagius and Celestius. We are well aware with what specious pretenses these heretics obscured God’s grace, when they argued that God’s sons ought not always to remain in prison, but to reach the goal. The doctrine indeed is passable enough, that the sons of God ought to be free from all fault, but where is such integrity really found? Augustine, therefore, with the greatest propriety, always replied to those triflers by shewing that no one ever existed so just in this world as not to need God’s mercy. For had there been such a character, surely the Lord, who alone is a fitting judge, could have found him. But he asserts his servant Daniel to be among the most perfect, if three only are taken from the beginning of the world. But as Daniel casts himself into the flock of sinners, not through any feigned pretense or humility, but when uttering the fullness of his mind before God, who shall now claim for himself greater sanctity than this? When, therefore, I confess my sins before the face of my God Here surely there is no fiction, whence it follows that those who pretend to this imaginary perfection are demons in human shape, as Castalio and other cynics, or rather dogs like him.
We must therefore cling to this principle: no man, even if semi-angelic, can approach God, unless he conciliates his favor by sincere and ingenuous confession of his sins, as in reality a criminal before God. This, then, is our righteousness, to confess ourselves guilty in order that God may gratuitously absolve us. These observations, too, respecting the Israelites concern us also, as we observe from the direction which Christ has given us to say, Forgive us our trespasses. (Mat 6:12; Luk 11:4.) For whom did Christ wish to use this petition? Surely all his disciples. If any one thinks that he has no need of this form of prayer, and this confession of sin, let him depart from the school of Christ, and enter into a herd of swine.
He now adds, Upon the mountain of the sanctuary of my God. Here the Prophet suggests another reason for his being heard, namely, his anxiety for the common welfare and safety of the Church. For whenever any one studies his own private interests, and is careless of his neighbor’s advantage, he is unworthy to obtain anything before God. If, therefore, we desire our prayers to be pleasing to God, and to produce useful fruit, let us learn to unite the whole body of the Church with us, and not only to regard what is expedient for ourselves, but what will tend to the common welfare of all the elect people. While, therefore, says he, I was yet speaking, and in the midst of my prayer It appears that Daniel prayed not only with his affections, but broke forth into some outward utterance. It is quite true that this word is often restricted to mental utterance; for even when a person does not use his tongue, he may be said to speak when he only thinks mentally within himself. But since Daniel said, When I was yet speaking in my prayer, he seems to have broken forth into some verbal utterance; for although the saints do not intend to pronounce anything orally, yet zeal seizes upon them, and words at times escape them. There is another reason also for this: we are naturally slow, and then the tongue aids the thoughts. For these reasons Daniel was enabled not only to conceive his prayers silently and mentally, but to utter them verbally and orally.
He next adds, Gabriel came; but I cannot complete my comments on this occurrence today.
(108) See Wintle’s clear and comprehensive note in loc. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
HOMILETICS
SECT. XXXI.PRAYER ANSWERED (Chap. Dan. 9:20-23)
The character ascribed to God by the Psalmist founded on absolute truth, and in accordance with the universal experience of the godly in all ages, Thou that hearest prayer. The promise, Call on me and I will answer thee, verified in believers both in the Old and New Testament times. Natural, if God stands to them in the relation of a father. Natural for a child to ask and a parent to bestow. The promise, Ask, and ye shall receive, never broken when the conditions are fulfilled. The constant experience of Daniel through his whole life in Babylon. Another distinguished instance to be added in his extreme old age. Concerning this last recorded answer to his prayers, related by himself, we notice
I. It was prompt and immediate. In his prayer Daniel had said, Hearken and do; defer not. Deep earnestness with difficulty brooks delay. Haste thee to help me; make no tarrying, O my God. Sir, come down ere my child die. So Daniel gives special emphasis to the fact that while he was yet speaking the answer to his prayer came. While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, &c.; yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, &c. (Dan. 9:20-21). So literally does God in His kindness fulfil His promise in regard to His childrens prayer, Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear (Isa. 65:24). Prayer and its answer not unfrequently simultaneous. Thus with Abrahams servant at the well (Gen. 24:12; Gen. 24:15). So Daniel is told by Gabriel [254] that at the very beginning of his supplication the command came forth from God that it should be answered, or the message given which Gabriel was to carry to him (Dan. 9:23). Nor had Gabriel delayed, although he only reached Daniel with the message at the time of the evening oblation, or three oclock in the afternoon. He had been caused to fly swiftly, and comes as one who had accomplished a lengthened journey (Dan. 9:21) [255]. Angels not ubiquitous or omnipresent. Their abode, and the place of the eternal throne before which they stand, apparently far distant from earth, which is but a speck in the Great Creators dominions. Answers to prayer may require time. The exact time of the answer reaching Daniel, however, wisely chosen. Daniels prayer and confession of sin must have their full expression. Delays often only apparent, and never denials.
[254] Gabriel. Some render the name, God is my champion; others, God will prevail; others, as Keil, the man of God, standing here with the adjunct (ha-ish), the man, with the definite article, as referring back to chap. Dan. 8:15, where Gabriel appeared as a man, (gebher), probably the first part of the name, a man, from (gabhar), to be strong, to prevail; hence expressive of strength, a strong one; hence also (gibbor), a mighty man, a hero (Isa. 9:7).
[255] Being caused to fly swiftly (Dan. 9:2). (muafbiaf). Calvin observes that some take the expression to mean flying swiftly, implying fatigue and alacrity, as if from (uph), to fly, having its participle connected with it; others derive it from (yaeph), to be fatigued, explaining it metaphorically, as flying hastily. The Sept renders it borne with speed ( ); Theodotion, flying; Vulg., flying swiftly; from which, observes Keil, the Church Fathers concluded that the angels were winged. So the E.V., which is also adopted by Hvernick, V. Lengerke, Hitzig, and some Rabbies. Keil maintains that this translation is without any foundation in the words, being probably derived by the old translators from a confounding of (yaeph) with (ooph); the former meaning only wearied, to become tired, to weary ones self by exertion, in certain cases by a long journey or course, as in Jer. 2:24; but nowhere to run or fly. He understands (yeaph), the noun, from , and translates the words, wearied in weariness, i.e., very wearied; applying them not to the angel, but to Daniel himself, as perfectly agreeing with his condition described in chap. Dan. 8:17; Dan. 8:27; Daniel now mentioning this circumstance, because Gabriel, at his former coming to him, not only helped to strengthen him, but also gave him understanding of the vision, so that his appearing again at once awakened joyful hope. He observes that we cannot speak of an angel who is an unearthly being as being wearied, although, with Kranichfeld, one may think of the way from the dwelling-place of God, removed far from His sinful people, to this earth as very long. He thinks also that the words, from their position, belong to the relative clause, or specially to (raithi), I had seen; no reason being perceivable for placing the adverbial clause before the verb.
II. Given through an angelic medium (Dan. 9:21). The angel here called the man Gabriel. Reference to Gabriels former appearance (chap. Dan. 8:16). Angels generally represented under a human form. Gabriels name especially connected with this fact. Denotes the man of God, or Gods champion or hero. Perhaps, God will prevail. The name indicative of strength, in which angels generally excel (Psa. 103:20). Angels often represented as warriors. The hosts or armies of Jehovah; the chariots of God. Gabriel especially employed in errands to men. His place to stand in the presence of God to receive His commission (Luk. 1:19). Had already appeared to Daniel at the beginning (chap. Dan. 8:16) [256], or at an earlier period. The name not found earlier in the Old Testament. Unknown to us to what extent angels are employed by God in answering our prayers. All of them ministering spirits sent forth to minister for the heirs of salvation (Heb. 1:14). Ministered even to Jesus, the Elder Brother, in His humiliation as one of us (Mat. 4:11; Luk. 22:43). Their ministry promised to both Head and members (Psa. 91:11-12). Hezekiah prays, and an angel destroys the host of the Assyrians. Cornelius prays, and an angel directs him to send for Peter. The Church at Jerusalem prays, and an angel opens the doors of Peters prison (Isaiah 37; Acts 10, 12.) Their agency no less real because invisible. At Elishas prayer his servants eyes were opened, and he saw the mountain where his master lived full of angelic chariots and horsemen (2Ki. 6:17). God in no want of agents in answering the prayers of His people.
[256] At the beginning (Dan. 9:21). (battekhillah), at the first, as in chap. Dan. 8:1; with the general signification, as Keil observes, of earlier, and synonymous with (barishonah), in the beginning, in Gen. 13:3; Gen. 41:21; Gen. 43:18; Gen. 43:20; Isa. 1:26.
III. The answer given in a different way from what Daniel probably expected. The thing asked by Daniel, that God would visit and restore Jerusalem and the Jews in mercy. The answer, a divine messenger sent to inform him of what should afterwards take place. That information included the restoration of Jerusalem, and a great deal besides. The information both doleful and delightful, enough to make Daniel weep, and yet greatly to rejoice. Prayer often answered in a way different from our expectation. Paul prayed for his way to be opened to visit Rome. God answered his prayer, and sent him there two years afterwards, but bound with a prisoners chain. By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation (Psa. 65:5).
IV. The answer far beyond the request. Daniel prayed only for the restoration of the holy mountain of his God (Dan. 9:20). God answers by the promise that not only should Jerusalem be restored, but Messiah Himself should at no very distant period appeara period expressly declaredwith the glorious benefits that should result from his Advent (Dan. 9:24-25). Thus God, in His kindness to His children, often far exceeds their prayers in the answers He sends them. Solomon asked for wisdom, and God in addition gave him power and riches beyond those of any other monarch. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, and in the riches of His love He often does so.
V. The answer a consequence of Daniels character. The answer given, according to Gabriels statement, because Daniel was a man greatly beloved (Dan. 9:23) [257]. Prayer answered from Gods own kindness and love, though not without regard to the character of the asker. The person accepted before the prayer is answered. The prayer of the wicked is abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the righteous is His delight. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. To receive Daniels answer to prayer we must possess Daniels character. Our prayers probably answered in proportion as we are greatly beloved. John, the beloved disciple, desired by Peter to ask the Lord who it was that should betray Him. The faith that brings answers to our prayers gives acceptance to our person. Faith, love, humility, and obedience the graces that make a man greatly beloved, and that secure answer to prayer. Whatsoever we ask, says the beloved disciple, the Daniel of the New Testament, as John was the Daniel of the Old, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. If ye abide in me, said the Master, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you (1Jn. 3:22; Joh. 15:7).
[257] Greatly beloved (Dan. 9:23). (khamoodhoth), desires, equivalent to (ish Khamoodhoth), a man of desires, in chap. Dan. 10:11; Dan. 10:19; meaning most desired or delighted in, or, as in the E.V., greatly beloved, from (khamadh), to desire or delight in; from which also the title given by the prophet to Messiah, the Desire of all nations, (khemdath kolgoim), Hag. 2:7. Keil observes that the expression in the text does not contain the reason for Gabriels coming in haste, but for the principal thought of the versethe going forth of the commandment or word of God immediately at the commencement of Daniels prayer.
From the whole observe
1. The blessedness of a truly godly life. Fellowship with God a leading element in such a life. Freedom in asking and readiness in bestowing included in such fellowship. Asking and receiving the privilege of children, and constantly realised in family life. Not less so among the children of God and in the household of faith.
2. The encouragement to persevere in prayer. Prayer offered according to Gods Word and for things according to His will sure, sooner or later, and in one way or other, to be answered. A parents ear never shut to his childrens cry, be the parent otherwise ever so wicked. And shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry day and night to Him continually, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily (Luk. 18:7-8). Daniel one example out of millions.
3. Gods love in giving His children much more than they ask. When He answers prayer, He gives heaped up and running over; and when He withholds the thing asked, it is only to give something better. Moses prayed to be taken over Jordan to Canaan; God instead takes him to the country of which Canaan was but a shadow. Paul asks for the removal of the thorn in the flesh; Christ instead gives him an assurance that was to comfort and strengthen him in all the trials, sufferings, and conflicts of his future life.
4. Precious grace that makes a sinful man to be one greatly beloved of God. Pauls testimony of himself and others, including Daniel, in their natural condition as the fallen children of Adam, apart from divine renewing grace, is, Foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another; Children of wrath even as others (Tit. 3:3; Eph. 2:3). How rich the love and how mighty the grace that out of such materials can form such characters as Paul, and John, and Daniel, men greatly beloved! God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (Eph. 2:4-5). He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory (1Sa. 2:8; Psa. 113:7-8).
HOMILETICS
SECT. XXXII.THE MAN GREATLY BELOVED (Chap. Dan. 9:23)
This remarkable and precious testimony borne to Daniel by the Angel Gabriel. The same thing done twice over in the next chapter by the same person, if not by one greater than he; the difference being that in the latter cases it is used as an epithet to Daniel, O man greatly beloved, and O Daniel, a man greatly beloved (chap. Dan. 10:11; Dan. 10:19). The expression may be viewed either as the ascription of a characterworthy to be greatly beloved, or as the declaration of a fact,actually so beloved. A man of desires (the literal marginal rendering of the word) is either one worthy of such desires or the actual object of them. The expression may also be viewed as indicating both what Daniel was in himself, very lovable or lovely, and what he was in relation to others, actually beloved. In the latter case, those by whom he was beloved were, in the first instance, the Divine Being Himself; then the angels, especially Gabriel, who speaks; then good men in general, including the spirits of the just made perfect, who were doubtless cognisant of Daniels character and worth. The testimony, in any case, expressive of Daniels moral excellence, as rendering him both lovely and lovable and actually beloved. It is remarkable as coming not from a man but from a celestial being, lovely and lovable himself, as a spotless and unfallen creature, and a correct judge of what is truly lovely and lovable, and well acquainted with the facts of the case as an angel of light. The text affords an occasion of gathering up and considering some of the points of Daniels character as brought to our view in the book before us, and as justifying the testimony borne in the text. Some of these are
1. His early piety. Piety in youth is especially lovely and attractive. This conspicuous in Daniel. Daniel still a youth when, though a captive in a foreign land and surrounded with temptations in a heathen and luxurious court, he resolved to deny himself the luxuries of the kings table, and to live upon beans and water, rather than do what he believed was contrary to the law of God. His amiability and sweetness of disposition were such as to gain for him the favour and attachment of the officer in the palace, under whose charge he and the other Jewish youths were placed. Daniel was still only a young man when, in a crisis of great danger to others as well as himself, he, in childlike confidence, carried the matter to the Lord, and obtained, through a divine communication vouchsafed to him, deliverance both for himself and the wise men of Babylon. Daniels piety in youth the foundation of his character and greatness as a man.
2. His steadfastness and perseverance in well-doing. Daniels piety, which began in youth, was retained to the end of a long life. Beloved while a young man by the chief of the eunuchs for his amiability and good behaviour, he receives the angelic testimony, when above fourscore, that he was still greatly beloved. From a youth of fourteen he had lived among idolaters and in a licentious court, yet his piety remained unshaken. More than once his religion brought him into danger of his life, but he remained the same. Neither the plots of enemies, nor the elevation of earthly greatness, nor the seductions of pleasure, nor the cares of statesmanship, were able to draw him from the paths of piety and virtue. In prosperity and adversity, in sunshine and storm, Daniel remained the same faithful servant of God and of the king, walking with his Maker and seeking the welfare of his fellow-men.
3. His consistency and symmetry of character. Daniels conduct was the same throughout, always in harmony with itself. Attentive to his duty to God, he was equally so in his duty to man. Faithful to his God, he is equally faithful to his king. His morality is no less conspicuous than his religion. He is fervent in spirit, but no less diligent in business. Regular and earnest in his closet, he is equally assiduous in his office. Studious in his Bible, as a man of business he is well acquainted with his books. His enemies can find no fault in him, and no ground of accusation with the king, but in the matter of his religion. He is favoured with revelations from Heaven and the visits of angels; yet no sooner are his visions withdrawn and his usual state of health recovered, than he returns to do the kings business. He is endowed, even while yet young, with a wisdom and understanding superior to that of all the wise men of Babylon, yet disclaims all merit and wisdom of his own as being greater than those of other men. He is tender and gentle, while bold and uncompromising in professing the truth and reproving sin. He is distressed as being the bearer of evil tidings to Nebuchadnezzar, yet fearlessly declares to the hardened Belshazzar both his sin and his doom.
4. His conscientiousness even in the smallest matters. This exhibited in his carefulness in regard to the law respecting forbidden meats, as also in his observance of his usual practice in his devotions, although at the risk of his life, when to have done otherwise would have appeared a want of faith in God and obedience to His will. He that is faithful in the least is faithful in much. The smallest duty, because a duty and the will of God, attended to by Daniel, as well as those of apparently a much more important character. Love will be obedient and seek to please in the least as well as in the greatest matters. Such conscientiousness a feature in the man greatly beloved, and a considerable part of what made him such.
5. His faith and confidence in God. Seen in early life in his proposal to put the desired change of diet to the proof, assured that God would answer prayer and honour obedience to his will. The same trust in God as the hearer of prayer exhibited in the matter of the kings dream. So afterwards Daniel went calmly to the lions den, believing in his God, and assured that he was safe in His keeping, whatever might be the result. Daniel enabled to walk in the steps of his father Abraham, and of that faith which gives glory to God. Nothing more pleasing to God, or likely to make a man greatly beloved of Him, than a simple, childlike, and unwavering trust. Jesus was pleased wherever he found faith in Himself. Daniels childlike faith made him, like Abraham, the friend of God.
6. His prayerfulness. From youth to old age Daniel characterised as a man of prayer. His whole life an example of the Apostles words, In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Prayer to God the natural fruit of faith in God. Prayer the element in which Daniel lived. Each life presents constant calls to prayer, and constant opportunities for it. No place where prayer is not needed, and none where it may not be made. Daniels prayers both regular and special. Daniel prayed in his closet, and prayed by the river-side. Had his stated prayer morning, evening, and at noon, and yet set himself to pray for a whole day with fasting and sackcloth. Prayed for himself, but with at least as much fervency for others. Had his whole days of prayer and fasting for his brethren, his country, and the cause of God. His prayerfulness well known to his heathen neighbours. This the charge brought against him, and that which all but cost him his life. Daniel prayed with a cruel death before him as its probable consequence. His prayerfulness the secret of all his other excellences, the key that unlocked to him the treasury of all spiritual blessings; brought and kept him in fellowship with the source and sum of all excellence, and so made him like Him; made him walk with God as a man with his friend, so that, like Moses, his face shone with the reflected glory. Prayer the continual source and supply of strength for every duty and every trial; not only for doing and suffering, but for doing and suffering in the right spirit. Makes Christs strength our own, and at all times sufficient for us. Daniel waited on the Lord, and so renewed his strength.
7. His amiableness of disposition and kindness to others. When God brought him into tender love with Ashpenaz, his superintendent in the palace at Babylon, it was doubtless by giving Daniel that which gendered such love. Daniels amiable spirit and loving demeanour such as to commend him to his superiors. Love in others towards us begotten by love and lovableness in ourselves. The amiableness of his disposition and tenderness of his spirit followed Daniel into mature age. Struck dumb and unable at once to declare to the king the unhappy import of his dream, he only does so when urged by his royal master, and then does it in the tenderest and most loving manner, while yet faithfully seeking the kings best interests. Daniel seemed to care for the imperilled lives of the wise men in Babylon more than his own; and on his deliverance from the death which his heathen enemies had devised, for him, he makes not the slightest reference to their cruelty and wickedness while declaring his innocence to the king.
8. His patriotism and concern for his countrys welfare. It was concern for his country that moved him to that day of solemn prayer and fasting which the chapter before us relates, and which brought Gabriel down with an answer and the testimony in the text. To an enlightened man the cause of his country will be bound up with the cause of God and of religion, as it can be well with the former only as it is so with the latter. This was especially the case with Daniel, whose country God had made and called His own, and whose city, Jerusalem, was Gods holy mountain, the city of the great King, who had chosen it for the place of His special worship. That country was now in desolation, and Jerusalem with its Temple was in ruins. Gods worship there had been brought to an end. Sin on the part of the people had brought the desolating foe that had put a stop to their solemn feasts. Provoked to anger by their continued rebellion and apostasy, the Lord had caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and had despised, in the indignation of His anger, the king and the priest. The Lord had cast off His altar; He had abhorred His sanctuary; He had given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces (Lam. 2:6-7). This was the burden that pressed upon the heart of the beloved prophet. The cause of his people, and with that the cause of God and of true religion, which was bound up with it, was his deep sorrow, and drove him to incessant prayer as the time of the promised deliverance drew nigh. He was concerned not only for his countrys peace, but for his peoples repentance, which must be at the foundation of it. It was this that led him, as a true patriot, to pour out his heart before God in the fervent prayer and deep humiliation here recorded.
9. His unselfishness. This sufficiently apparent from the last particular. In the remarkable prayer of this chapter, self is entirely forgotten in his concern for his brethren and his country. The same renunciation and forgetfulness of self conspicuous on many occasions. He associates with himself his three companions in the interpretation of the kings dream, first asking their participation in his prayers, and then giving the interpretation as if from them all conjointlyWe will tell the king his dream. He makes no mention of himself in relating the noble stand which his three companions made in the matter of the golden image, refraining from saying anything to account for his non-participation in their steadfast refusal to worship it, and leaving the entire honour of it to themselves. When Belshazzar holds out to him the promise of the highest reward he could bestow for the interpretation of the handwriting on the wall, his answer is, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards unto another; yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation (chap. Dan. 5:17). Dr. Pusey well remarks: A self-laudatory school has spoken much of the laudation, as they call it, of Daniel, as being unnatural, on our belief that he was the author of the book. To me certainly much more striking is his reticence about himself. At the very commencement of his remarkable course he distinctly renounces in the kings presence all claim to any superior wisdom or merit of his own in the interpretation of his dream, and ascribes it entirely to God, who wished to acquaint the king with its meaning. In like manner, all that he is obliged to relate in regard to his gifts and attainments, his answers to prayer and divine revelations, he ascribes to the same sourcethe free bounty of a gracious prayer-hearing God, who does what He will with His own. He giveth wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that have understanding. I thank Thee and praise Thee, O Thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of Thee (chap. Dan. 2:22-23).
In leaving the character of this man greatly beloved, we may remark with Dr. Cox: It is characteristic of Scripture biography to record the censurable actions of good men as well as their virtues and graces; the entire omission of the former, therefore, in the account of Daniel, naturally leads to the conclusion that he was a person of preeminent excellence. The same writer adds: The estimation in which Daniel was held by successive potentates, the public honours he received, the eminent rank he held, all fade into nothingness before the testimony from Heaven, a testimony founded on no external glory, but on a character invulnerable to reproaches, and formed of all the elements of pure religion. Nor in thinking of Daniels character, which entitled him to this high testimony, should we forget that he was only an Old Testament saint, living in what is called by the Apostle the ministration of the letter that killeth, instead of the ministration of the Spirit that succeeded it; the former, glorious as it was, having no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth, the glory of the dispensation of the Spirit in which it is our privilege to live (2Co. 3:6-10). If that inferior dispensation which possessed comparatively so little of the Spirit that renews and sanctifies, produced a character of such excellence as to merit this angelic testimony, to what moral excellence ought New Testament believers not to be able to attain? Daniel beheld God and His sanctifying truth only with the veil of Moses on his face, and yet attained to so much of his likeness. What may, what ought we not to attain to when the veil is done away in Christ, and when we, beholding with unveiled face, and reflecting, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, enjoy the privilege of being transformed into the same image from glory unto glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit? (2Co. 3:14; 2Co. 3:18, R.V.) The character of Daniel is portrayed in this book by the Holy Ghost for our imitation, even in these last days of the ministration of the Spirit; for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that the man of God might be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work (Rom. 15:4; 2Ti. 3:17). The present dispensation has produced many Daniels,its Fletchers, its Paysons, its MCheynes, its Pennyfathers, and multitudes besides, whose record is only on high. It will produce many more. It is the privilege both of the reader and the writer, by contemplating in the Word not merely the character of Daniel, but of Daniels Lord, to possess Daniels character, by possessing more and more of the character of Him from whom that eminent saint derived all his excellence; learning of the Master, who was meek and lowly in heart, and walking in the spirit and steps of Him who was holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners. For this, however, we must become one with that Master, united to Him as a branch is to the tree by a cordial acceptance of Him, surrender to Him, and trust in Him, as the provided Saviour for poor helpless sinners. Reader, may that be your happiness and mine!
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
c. REVELATION
TEXT: Dan. 9:20-27
20
And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God;
21
yea, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
22
And he instructed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee wisdom and understanding.
23
At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment went forth, and I am come to tell thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision.
24
Seventy weeks are decreed upon they people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.
25
Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the anointed one, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troublous times.
26
And after the threescore and two weeks shall the anointed one be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and even unto the end shall be war; desolations are determined.
27
And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate; and even unto the full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out upon the desolate.
QUERIES
a.
What are all the things God intends to complete by the end of seventy weeks?
b.
Who is the prince to be anointed after 69 weeks?
c.
Who is the prince whose people come to destroy the city?
PARAPHRASE
Even while I was praying and confessing my sin and the sins of my people, and desperately pleading with the Lord my God for Jerusalem, His Holy Mountain, His angel Gabriel appeared to me as a man (this is the messenger of God I had seen in the earlier vision) and flew swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice, and said to me, Daniel, I am here to reveal to you the plans of God for His people and to help you to understand what is to come to pass concerning them. The very moment you began praying, a decree was issued by God concerning all you have prayed and longed for. I am here to tell you what it isGod has greatly honored you for your trust and faith in Him and He desires that you know these things.
The Lord has commanded that, counting from the time of an edict to go forth and rebuild Jerusalem, seventy sevens shall transpire before all the glorious spiritual blessings of the Messianic age are fulfilled. There will be fulfilled at the end of this time such transgressions as will climax all transgressions, killing the Messiah; the power given to overcome sin; the work done of reconciling estranged sinners back to God; the imputation by grace of righteousness to sinful men; the accreditation of Gods predictions through His prophets by the fulfillment of their prophecies; and the anointing of a Most Holy Messiah. I want you to know that counting from the year in which the principal increment of your people return from their captivities to rebuild and restore Jerusalem, there shall be seven sevens and forty-two sevens (a total of sixty-nine sevens) before the Messiah is anointed. During this period Jerusalem will have to suffer many perilous times while she is rebuilding. Sometime after the sixty-nine sevens the anointed Messiah will be slain and buried as a pauper. As a consequence of the Holy City slaying its anointed One, the people of a foreign emperor will come and destroy the Holy City and the Holy Sanctuarythis also after the sixty-nine sevens. A flood of destruction shall come upon the Holy City which has slain its Messiah, and war and desolation shall continue to flood upon this city until its end. The anointed One shall cause a strong and everlasting covenant to be established with many for one seven. And actually it shall be in the middle of that seventieth seven that the Anointed One shall bring to an end the sacrifices and oblations of Old Covenant by His own efficacious death. And the foreign ruler whose people come to destroy the city, will utterly destroy the Holy Sanctuary of those who killed the Anointed One, because that Sanctuary has become an abomination in the eyes of God. And the wrath of God shall pour forth upon this City and Sanctuary, and their devastation shall continue until God determines it shall end.
COMMENT
Dan. 9:20-23 . . . WHILE I WAS SPEAKING IN PRAYER . . . THE MAN GABRIEL . . . INSTRUCTED ME . . . While he is in the very midst of his prayer, Daniel is approached by the angel Gabriel, come in human form, to deliver Gods answer to his prayer. The interesting thing about the answer is that it came before Daniel was through praying. Furthermore, the angel reported that Gods decree to accomplish what Daniel was praying for went forth at the very moment Daniel opened his mouth and began to pray! God knows what we have need of before we ask it. But God also knows that our greatest need is to ask for it! As long as a man is self-confident and self-dependent, he is in no position morally, intellectually or spiritually to receive. He only demands and spends whatever may come his way in goodness to confirm himself in his egotism. Repetitious prayers, like the heathens, are vain and useless, simply because they are used by men to support their own vanity, and are used to seek the blessings of God by meritious repetition of prayers and self-righteousness. Therefore, be assured that the things you pray for are no problem with God. He can give you exceeding abundantly above all you can possibly ask or think (cf. Eph. 3:20), if the power of utter, total, unreserved faith in Him abides in you. The problem is not what you needthe need is you resting on the Everlasting Arms.
Dan. 9:24 SEVENTY WEEKS ARE DECREED UPON THY PEOPLE . . . It would be difficult to exaggerate the significance of this passage (Dan. 9:24-27) in the teachings of Dispensationalists and Pre-millenialists! It is often appealed to as definite proof that the entire Church age is a parenthesis in the prophetic program. The Church age is supposed to occur between the events listed in Dan. 9:26 and the events listed in Dan. 9:27. The twenty-seventh verse of this chapter concerns the seventieth week which is supposed to be, according to Dispensationalists, the Millennium (or the 1000 years of Revelation 20).
We have found three excellent discussions of this so-called difficult passage (Prophecy And The Church, by Oswald T, Allis; The King Of Kings, by E. V. Zollars, a Restoration Reprint from College Press; and The Prophecy of Daniel, by Edward J. Young) from which we shall borrow in our comments on this section.
The word translated weeks is literally, sevens. It should be paraphrased, Sevensand in fact seventy of them are decreed . . . etc. The correct interpretation, however, in light of other key passages (Eze. 4:6, etc.) used to form the year-day theory is probably, Seventy weeks-of-years (i.e. 7 years 70) are decreed, etc. . . .
Thus these 490 years express in the form of Divine revelation that a definite period of time has been decreed for the accomplishment of all that which is necessary for the restoration of the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, which is a messianic term in itself. Within this definite period of time will be finished all the plan of Gods redemption of man which he made known through the prophets to the fathers through divers portions and divers manners, (cf. Heb. 1:1 ff).
a. Transgression would be finished: That is, the cup of iniquity of the Jewish people would be filled to the brim. They would reject the Messiah. The full height and depth of their iniquity was yet to be shown but would be shown within the 490 years. In putting the Messiah to death they reached the culmination of all their wickedness. No greater sin was possible. (Mat. 23:32; 1Th. 2:16).
b. In the death of the Messiah God will triumph over mans rebellion and give the power, judicial and experiential, to conquer sin. He will, by a sovereign decree of grace, punish all sin in His Son (2Co. 5:17 ff.), and offer to man a way (faith) to overcome his rebellion. All sin, even that done aforetime, was done away with in the death of Christ (cf. Rom. 3:21-26; Heb. 9:15-28).
c. To reconcile man to Gods will and way, God took the initiative and presented His Son as an atonement. Man hardened his heart toward Gods goodness and estranged himself from God. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son . . . and mans heart is broken and he is drawn to God by the love of the Son. (Col. 1:20-21).
d. The work of the Messiah would also bring in everlasting righteousness. There are two aspects of this righteousness; imputed righteousness, that is, the righteousness which God declares we have which we do not merit; and practiced righteousness, which we are promoted to do by faith and love in God as He reveals to us in His Book the way of righteous living. (Rom. 1:17; 1Ti. 6:18).
e. With the accomplishment of the work of the Messiah in fulfilling Gods prophesied plan of redemption, prophecy was confirmed, fulfilled, validated and thus sealed uppaid in full! (Act. 3:24; 1Pe. 1:10-11).
f. The anointing of the Messiah is to be accomplished during this period of time. The phrase occurs without the definite article and therefore means the anointing of a most holy thingnot place. Literally it should read, the anointing of holiness of holinesses. (Acts 1:38).
Allis, in Prophecy And The Church, indicates that there are points of agreement and points of difference between those who interpret the prophecy of the 70 weeks traditionally and those who interpret it dispensationally. Points of agreement are: (1) the 70 weeks represent weeks-of-years, a total of 490 years; (2) Only one period of weeks is described, as is proved by the fact that the subdivisions (7 + 62 + 1) when added together give a total of 70; (3) the anointed one, the prince (Dan. 9:25) and the anointed one (Dan. 9:26) are the same person, the Messiah; (4) The first 69 weeks or 483 years had their terminus in the period of the first advent; their fulfillment is long past. Now the points of difference revolve around two significant questions: (1) Have the great events described in Dan. 9:24 been fulfilled, or is their accomplishment still future?; (2) Is the 70th week past, or is it still to come?
Now the dispensationalists insist that all the events of Dan. 9:24 are still in the future. They say, for example, to make an end of sins means to eliminate moral evil completely from this world. The reason the dispensationalists must insist that Dan. 9:24 refers to the future is quite clear. If the fulfillment of the prophecy is still incomplete, and if the predictions relating to the 69 weeks had their fulfillment centuries ago, then the 70th week must be still future. Therefore, there must be an interval between the end of the 69th week and the beginning of the 70th week; and the entire Church age can be regarded as forming a parenthesis at this point.
So we must deal with the first difference now. Have the great events described in Dan. 9:24 been fulfilled, or is their accomplishment in the future? In the light of plain N.T. teaching we cannot abide the idea that these events are in the future! We must resist such an idea with vigor. The N.T., especially the treatise to the Hebrews, represents all these transactions (Dan. 9:24) as having been fulfilled at the first adventin the great climactic event of the plan of Gods redemption at Calvary. Jesus Christ was the perfect sacrifice, the one and only sacrifice, made for all time which is able to perfect for all time those who are being sanctified by it (Heb. 10:12-14). One should read the entire book of Hebrews, along with the book of Galatians, to understand that a return to Jewish law and Jewish sacrifices would be apostasy! Heb. 9:28 . . . so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Notice that at Christs second advent He is not going to deal with sin for sin has already been dealt with! Certainly the N.T. teaches that Christ is the end, the fulfillment, the anti-type the confirmation of all prophecy! If Corinthians Dan. 1:20, For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God. How more specific could it be stated that Christ is the goal of all the promises of God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Rev. 19:11). For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2Co. 5:21).
The traditional and in our opinion, the scriptural view is that all these events (Dan. 9:24) were fulfilled and completed in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ and the establishment of the church.
Dan. 9:25 KNOW THEREFORE . . . THAT FROM THE GOING FORTH OF THE COMMANDMENT . . . UNTO THE ANOINTED ONE . . . SHALL BE SEVEN WEEKS, AND THREESCORE AND TWO . . . We must clearly understand that the fact (based squarely upon N.T. teaching) that all the six items presented in Dan. 9:24 are Messianic settles the terminating point of the prophecy and the 70 weeks as well! The termination of the 70 sevens coincides then, not with the times of Antiochus, nor with the end of the present age, the second advent of Christ, but with His first advent! When Christ ascended into heaven and the Holy Spirit descended, there remained not one of the six items of Dan. 9:24 that was not fully accomplished.
Now, Dan. 9:25, we are told exactly how many years shall intervene between the return of the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem and the coming of the anointed One, the Messiah. That expiration of time shall total 69 weeks-of-years (69 7 = 483 years). This prophecy was fulfilled in a marvelously accurate way.
There are only four events that can be taken as answering to the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem. (1) The decree of Cyrus, 536 B.C., Ezr. 1:2-4. This was the decree for the building of the temple but did not include the authorization in restore the Jewish commonwealth. (2) The decree of Darius, 518 B.C., a decree for the further prosecution of the work permitted by Cyrus which seems to have been hindered. It was a repetition of the first decree, and did not authorize the re-establishment of the Jewish commonwealth. (3) The decree of Artaxerxes, 457 B.C. The seventh year are Artaxerxes was the year 457 B.C. and is confirmed by concurrent agreement of more than twenty eclipses. An exact copy of this decree is found in the seventh chapter of Ezra. It is written in Aramaic, which was spoken in Babylon at the time. The rest of the Book of Ezra is written in Hebrew. There is something very significant in the preservation of the original form of this decree, and when we see how much depends upon it, we may regard it as providential. By this decree permission was granted to Ezra to go up to Jerusalem, taking as many as he desired that were willing to go. It also was granted him unlimited treasure. It empowered him to ordain laws, set magistrates and judges who had authority to execute punishmentsconfiscation, banishment and even the infliction of the death penalty were included. In other words, Ezra was authorized to restore the commonwealth, and means were placed at his disposal to enable him to do so. (4) The fourth decree was given to Nehemiah 444 B.C. The purpose of Nehemiahs going was to assist in accomplishing the work undertaken by Ezra which was being retarded. He accomplished his mission in 52 days after arrived at Jerusalem (Neh. 6:15).
Now it is evident that the decree given to Ezra in 457 B.C. is the one authorizing the restoring and rebuilding of Jerusalem. Actually the three decrees (Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes) may really be regarded as one decree, that of Artaxerxes being the principal one in that his decree authorized the restoration of the Jewish commonwealth. It is so regarded by Ezra (cf. Ezr. 6:14). Therefore, the decree of Artaxerxes must be regarded as the one referred to by the angel in the words, from the going forth of the commanded, and fixes our date from which to reckon.
Reckoning from 457 B.C., the first 7 sevens (7 7, or 49 weeks-of-years) we should arrive at the date of 408 B.C. for the accomplishment of the restoration of the Jewish commonwealth. The date 408 B.C. accords accurately with historic facts. This was the time the work was completed! This restoration was accomplished in troublous times, as the Biblical record bears out (see Nehemiah, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, etc.).
Furthermore, if we reckon from 408 B.C., the next period of time, 62 sevens (62 7 weeks-of-years) or 434 years, we come down to the year 26 A.D. as the close of the second period. The close of this second period brings us to the Messiah (the prince) according to the prophecy. This was the 30th year of Christs life, since there is an error of four years in the calendar, as is well known. At this time (26 A.D.) Jesus began his public ministry (Luk. 3:23), when he was about 30 years of age. When Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan, the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended upon him, and a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son; in whom I am well pleased. Immediately Christ entered upon His work. He was now the Anointed One. Here the second period of the 70 weeks-of-years (the 434 years) ends.
Dan. 9:26-27 AND AFTER THE THREESCORE AND TWO WEEKS SHALL THE ANOINTED ONE BE CUT OFF . . . AND IN THE MIDST OF THE WEEK HE SHALL CAUSE THE SACRIFICE . . . TO CEASE . . . The third period of the 70 weeks-of-years consists of but one seven (or seven years). This is the long debated 70th week. The cutting off of the anointed one and his causing sacrifice and oblation to cease are coincidentaltherefore his cutting off is determined to be in the midst of the week (in the midst of the 70th week). This settles once for all that the 70th week is not waiting for Christs second advent!
Dispensationalists are fond of the illustration of a clock. The ticking clock, they tell us, represents Jewish time. The mystery parenthesis is time out. God only counts time in dealing with Israel, when the people are in the land, according to them. Some add to this the further specification, when they are governed by God. Neither of these requirements is met by the interval which they find here in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Consequently, the clock ceased to tick at the time of the triumphal entry. It will not tick again until that moment, still future, when God resumes His direct dealings with Israel (the Millennium). This will be when the Jews are once more in their own land. It will follow the rapture and be marked by the appearance of the (in some interpretations) resurrected Roman prince. So those of us who live now in the so-called Church age exist, as far as Gods time-clock is concerned, in a sort of suspended animation, while Gods time stands still.
It seems incredible that if the 69 weeks are exactly 483 consecutive years, exact to the very day, as dispensationalists admit, and if the 1 week is to be exactly 7 consecutive years, that an interval (a parenthesis) which is already more than 1900 years, nearly four times as long as the period covered by the prophecy, is to be introduced into this whole prophecy and be allowed to interrupt its fulfillment. It seems very much more plausible that since the 62 weeks are regarded as following directly on the 7, that the last week is to follow immediately on the 62.
There are two very serious objections to the Jewish time-clock theory. (1) Israel was still in the land for nearly 40 years after the death of Christ. In other words, Israel was still in the land for nearly 40 years (to 70 A.D.) after the clock stopped ticking! (2) And, if the clock could only tick when Israel was governed by God can we say this condition was really fulfilled at any time during the period of the 69 weeks? The times of the Gentiles are regarded by Dispensationalists as beginning with Nebuchadnezzars destruction of Jerusalem. This entire period, then, was distinctly not a period when Israel was governed by God. If the clock represents Jewish time, with Israel in the land and governed by God, how then could it tick at all during the entire period from 606 B.C. to 30 A.D.? What the Dispensationalists really have is a parenthesis (times of the Gentiles beginning with Nebuchadnezzar) within which they have placed another parenthesis (the so-called Church age). On Dispensational principles the one parenthesis is no more entitled to be called Jewish time than is the other. If the clock could tick during part of the times of the Gentiles, it could tick during the whole of it! If the clock stops ticking at 30 A.D., instead of 70 A.D., it does so quite arbitrarily. For Israel continued to be in their land and under foreign rulers during these 40 years (3070 A.D.), quite as much as from 457 B.C. to 30 A.D.
What then of the 70th week? To sum up so far, the 70th week follows immediately upon the 69th weekthere is no parenthesis. In the midst of the 70th week the anointed one is cut off. That much we know. His cutting off and His causing sacrifice and oblation to cease are one and the same thing. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, the law of Moses in its entirety was nailed to the cross with Him, for He fulfilled its penalty and its purpose (cf. Col. 2:13-15; 2Co. 3:7 ff; Eph. 2:13-16, etc.). The very emphatic argument of the whole book of Hebrews is that Christ, by His death, did abolish the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. (cf. Heb. 7:11; Heb. 8:13; Heb. 9:25-26; Heb. 10:8-9).
Christ was actually crucified in the middle of the last prophetic week, (in the midst of the 70th seven) or three and one-half years after the beginning of his public ministry, thus fulfilling this part of the prophecy to the letter.
Only the last half of the 70th seven (3 years) is left now to be accounted for. It is our opinion that the historic fact that for about three and one-half years after the death of Christ the gospel privileges were confined to the Jews by reason of providence, the prophecy that 490 years would be allotted to the Jews is finally fulfilled completely!
Some think the references in Dan. 9:26-27 to the people of the prince that shall come and destroy the city and the sanctuary . . . and desolations, and upon the wing of abominations shall come one that maketh desolate, etc. forces the termination of the 70th seven to be the terrible destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Emperor Titus Vespasian in 700 A.D. While we believe the statements quoted above from Dan. 9:26-27 do predict this Roman desolation of Jerusalem, we do not believe that it is necessary to find the termination of the 70th week in this destruction. This destruction of the city and the sanctuary was a consequence of the Jews cutting off their Messiah, but its accomplishment extends to a time beyond the strict limits of the 70th week. We quote in full from Prophecy and The Church, by Allis, pgs. 114115 where the difficulty with forcing the destruction of Jerusalem to be the termination of the 70th week is discussed thoroughly:
A difficulty with this interpretation is to be found in the fact that it does not clearly define the terminus of the 70th week. Unless the view is taken that in the midst of the week means in the second half of it, and even at the end of that half, the end is not definitely fixed. It seems very unlikely that if in the midst really meant at the end, it would have been described in this way. On the other hand if in the midst is taken in its natural sense, a half-week, or three and a half years, remains to be accounted for after the crucifixion. Many interpreters regard this as referring to the period of the founding of the Church and the preaching of the gospel exclusively to the Jews, a period ending with or about the time of the martyrdom of Stephen. Others hold that the period of three and a half years was graciously extended to some 35 years, to the date of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a reference to which is found in Dan. 9:26. Both of these explanations may be regarded as possible.
With regard to the claim that the prophecy extends to the date of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 it is to be noted that while the language of Dan. 9:26 may seem to favor this, it does not require it. Dan. 9:26 speaks of events which will come after the threescore and two weeks. Of these events it mentions first the cutting off of Messiah, which Dan. 9:27 describes as taking place in the midst of the week. Then it speaks of the destruction of the city and sanctuary and finally of an end or an end of war, which is a very indefinite expression. Dan. 9:27 declares that a covenant is to be made firm for one week, that in the midst of the week someone will cause sacrifice and oblation to cease. Then it goes on to speak of the coming of a desolator and of a full end. None of the predictions of desolation and vengeance contained in these verses can be regarded as so definitely included in the program outlined in Dan. 9:24 that we can assert with confidence that they must be regarded as fulfilled within the compass of the 70 weeks. They are consequences of the cutting off; they may be regarded as involved in it, but their accomplishment may extend, and if this interpretation is correct, clearly does extend beyond the strict limits of the 70 weeks, since the destruction of Jerusalem was much more than three and a half years after the crucifixion. But, in either case, the great climactic event of the last week was the crucifixion which took place in the midst of that week. So interpreted there can be no interval between the 69th and the 70th weeks.
There is no doubt that Jesus was predicting the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 A.D. when He quoted Daniels abomination of desolation in Mat. 24:15-28. This desolation was to pour forth upon this city and its devastation would continue until God determined it was ended. For a graphic account of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. read the Antiquities of Josephus. Josephus himself interprets the event as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel.
But what is the firm covenant with many to be made for one week by the anointed one? It means that during the brief period of His earthly ministry and the infancy of the church (while the gospel was just beginning to be preached to the Jews) Jesus fulfilled the terms of the ancient covenant made with the seed of Abraham (cf. Rom. 15:8), that He secured its benefits to many, (even the pouring out of the Spirit as prophesied by Joel), for the period up to the stoning of Stephen (or, if you prefer, perhaps in mercy until the time of the destruction of Jerusalemat which time the new covenant which was in fact only the full unfolding of the old covenant and made no distinction between Jew and Gentile, went fully into effect through the destruction of the temple and of Jewish national existence). (Heb. 8:13; Heb. 9:15).
Edward J. Youngs interpretation of the 70th seven is that the termination of the last week is indefinite. We quote from The Prophecy of Daniel, by Edward J. Young, pp. 220221.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(20) Whiles I was speaking.The answer to Daniels prayer. He had not even finished his prayer when the answer came. The angel Gabriel, whom he had seen (Dan. 8:16), comes to him, and reveals to him the mystery of the seventy weeks.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20, 21. The answer to the prayer comes even while the words are still upon his lips. For Gabriel see notes Dan 7:16; Dan 10:13.
Being caused to fly swiftly Some first-rate scholars (as, for example, Schultz, Alt – testament-lithe Theologie, 2:226) follow Furst in rendering this obscure phrase “gleaming in splendor.” It is better to refer it to Daniel rather than to Gabriel, and translate “being exhausted,” or, “being faint.” (Compare Dan 7:18; Dan 7:27; Dan 10:9.)
Touched me Or, “came near unto me” (R.V., margin). This was the meal (A.V., meat) offering which was made at sunset (Lev 2:14). For centuries, beginning at least as early as the Babylonian captivity, every true son of Israel had regular hours of daily prayer (of which this was one) in which he turned his face toward Jerusalem and presented his supplications unto God. (See note Dan 6:10.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before YHWH my God for the mountain of holiness of my God, yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly in weariness, touched me (or ‘reached me’) at about the time of the evening oblation. And he instructed me and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come to make you to make you wise in understanding.” ’
The first part of these verses summarises Daniel’s petition. He has been praying audibly, and confessing both his own sinfulness, and also the sinfulness of his people Israel. And secondly he has been praying audibly for the restoration of God’s mountain of holiness, for the establishment of a new Israel in a new temple and a new Jerusalem. To Daniel that was the ultimate hope. From there would spring forth the purposes of God for the future. It was only in chapter 12 that he recognised a greater hope, the resurrection of men to face God and receive either blessing or cursing. But like Isa 26:19 he probably saw that resurrection as resulting in a new life on this earth for the righteous, and like Isa 66:24 he probably saw the fate of the wicked as connected with the valley of Hinnom.
And then ‘the man Gabriel’ appeared, the same Gabriel that he had previously seen and before whom he had collapsed in awe. Called here a man because that was his appearance (Dan 8:15-17).
‘Being caused to fly in weariness.’ The idea here is that he was sent with such promptness and speed that had he really been a man it would have exhausted him. Daniel wants us to be aware of how quickly God had responded to his prayer (Dan 9:23).
‘Touched me about the time of the evening oblation.’ We are possibly to understand that Daniel had begun praying at first light and that he had prayed through the day. The evening oblation was the time of the evening offering which would have been offered before the light died if there had been a temple in Jerusalem. It was a time observed by the faithful in Israel for worship and prayer, because the sacrifice could no longer be offered. The verb ‘touched’ can also mean ‘reached’. Daniel’s aim may have been to remind us of Dan 8:18, where Gabriel had made him ready to receive the vision by touching him, or it may have been simply to give the time of arrival.
‘And he instructed me (or ‘made me to understand’) and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come to make you to make you wise in understanding.’ This sums up what will follow. Gabriel would instruct him in, and enable him to understand, the message that he had brought to him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gabriel’s Prophecy of Seventy Weeks of Years Dan 9:20-27 gives us one of the greatest passages in the Old Testament regarding end-time prophecy. In this passage, the angel Gabriel comes to Daniel during his time of prayer and tells him the time-line by which all future events regarding the nation of Israel will occur. Note that this time-line is designed to signify the national and spiritual redemption for the nation of Israel and not necessarily for the Church. We must wait for the New Testament writings in order to receive this time-line.
Scholars teach that the seventy-week period refers to four hundred ninety (490) years. Daniel’s vision divides this period of time into three parts: an initial period of forty-nine years, a second duration of four hundred thirty-four (434) years, and a final period of seven years.
Various Interpretations – Adam Clarke proposes this prophetic period began in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes ( 465 to 424 B.C. ) based on ancient historical accounts, which would be around 445 B.C. [113] Wallace says Daniel’s prophecy of Seventy Weeks gives us an accurate date for Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on March 30 of A.D. 33, and gives a similar date of 444 B.C.
[113] Adam Clarke says, “Abul Pharaje, in his history of the dynasties, says, that the seventy weeks of Daniel are to be dated from the twentieth year of Ardsheer Dirazdest, the Artaxerxes Longimanus of the Greeks, (called Bahman above,) and the same to whom Nehemiah was sakee, or cup-bearer. Other orientalists are of the same opinion. This shall be considered more at large when we come to the prophecy itself. Artaxerxes had the name of Longimanus, or Long-handed, from the great extent of his dominions.” See Adam Clarke, Daniel, in Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers Inc.), 1996, in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), “Introduction.”
“I find Hoehner’s analysis (in Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ) convincing: the prophetic clock began ticking on March 1, 444 BCE, when the decree to rebuild the walls was issued (during the time of Nehemiah). Then, it continued successively for 69 weeks of prophetic years (= 360 day years), that is, for 173,880 days. The end of the 69th week was March 30, 33 CE the very day Jesus made his “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem (on Palm Monday). What confirms this view is that in Jesus’ lament he speaks of eschatological judgment (which, in our hindsight, includes both the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE and Daniel’s 70th week that is, the tribulation) as does Daniel (Luk 19:43-44; Dan 9:26-27).” [114]
[114] Daniel B. Wallace, Luke: Introduction, Outline, and Argument, in Biblical Studies Foundation (Richardson, Texas: Biblical Studies Press, 1998) [on-line]; accessed 1 September 2000; available from http://www.bible.org; Internet.
Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Dan 9:24
“and to anoint the most Holy” – The phrase “most holy” is made up of one Hebrew word used twice ( ). The Hebrew word (H6944) means, “sacred,” and has the literal translation in Dan 9:24 of “sacred of sacred,” which is a Hebrew idiom. This phrase is translated “most sacred place” (Goldingay) [115] and refers to the inner sanctuary of the Temple where the Mercy Seat and Ark of the Covenant resided.
[115] John E. Goldingay, Daniel, in Word Biblical Commentary: 58 Volumes on CD-Rom, vol. 30, eds. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Inc., 2002), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), comments on Daniel 9:24.
The Hebrew phrase ( ) is used in reference to the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary where the Ark of the Covenant resided (Exo 26:33-34, 1Ki 6:16; 1Ki 7:50), as well as being used to refer to the articles and sacrifices of the Temple.
Exo 26:33-34, “And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy . And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place .”
1Ki 6:16, “And he built twenty cubits on the sides of the house, both the floor and the walls with boards of cedar: he even built them for it within, even for the oracle, even for the most holy place.”
1Ki 7:50, “And the bowls, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple.”
The burnt altar of sacrifice is called “most holy” (Exo 29:37; Exo 40:10), as well as the articles of the Tabernacle (Exo 30:26-29).
Exo 29:37, “Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy : whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.”
Exo 40:10, “And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most holy.”
The anointing of the Most Holy Place would refer to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ upon the mercy seat, an event that Ron Wyatt testifies literally took place as the blood of Jesus Christ ran down from the Cross, through the rocks that were rent, and onto the mercy seat located in a cave twenty-feet below. [116]
[116] Bill Fry, “The Ark of the Covenant Including the Crucifixion Site and Tomb of Christ,” [on-line]; accessed 8 November 2011; available from http://www.arkdiscovery.com/aoc-1.htm.
Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
Dan 9:25
[117] Otto Zckler, The Book of the Prophet Daniel, in Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, trans. James Strong (New York: Charles Scriber’s Sons, 1876), 213-214.
Regarding the coming of “the Messiah the Prince” after seven plus sixty two weeks (or 69 weeks), in which a seven-day week symbolizes seven years, sixty-nine weeks reflect 483 years. The Jewish year is made up of 360 days, while the Gregorian calendar consists of 365 days, which John Walvoord justifies the 360-day Jewish year by the 1,260 days (Rev 11:3; Rev 12:6), forty-two months (Rev 11:2; Rev 13:5), and time, times and half a time [3 years] (Dan 7:25; Dan 12:7) predictions in the Scriptures. [118] We know that 483 Jewish years equals 173,880 days, while 483 Roman years equal 176,295 days, so that 483 Jewish years are equivalent to 476 Roman years. If Daniel prophesied that Jesus would appear 476 Jewish years (476 Roman years) after the rebuilding of Jerusalem (445 B.C.), then the Messiah would need to appear in the year A.D. 31, which is approximately the year that Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan in order to make His public appearance to nation of Israel.
[118] John F. Walvoord, Every Prophecy of the Bible (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, c1990, 1999), 254.
The final week, or 7-year period, may refer to Jesus’ three-and-a-half years of public ministry and Passion and Resurrection, and the final three-and-a-half years may end at the time of the stoning of Stephen and the dispersing of the New Testament Church into the nations, which effectively brought an end to the role of the Jew nation in prophetic history until the period leading up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. [119]
[119] Bill Fry, “The Ark of the Covenant Including the Crucifixion Site and Tomb of Christ,” [on-line]; accessed 8 November 2011; available from http://www.arkdiscovery.com/aoc-1.htm.
Dan 9:26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Dan 9:26
Dan 9:26 “but not for himself” Comments – The Hebrew literally reads “and not to (for) him.” Thus, such a simple reading has resulted in a variety of translations and interpretations. Some understand this phrase to refer to His redemptive act on the Cross and reads, “but not for Himself.” Others understand this phrase to mean that the Messiah is not given rulership over the holy city at this time of His First Coming and translate it as “and the city and the holy place are not his.” [120]
[120] Albert Barnes, Daniel, in Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 1997), in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), comments on Daniel 9:26.
Dan 9:26 “and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” Comments – Many scholars believe that the “prince” refers to Titus, the son of Vespasian and “the people” would be the Romans. [121] We know that soon after the Messiah was cut off in A.D. 29 that the Romans under Titus came in A.D. 70 and destroyed the city of Jerusalem and killed millions of Jews. We may see this event as the fulfillment of “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” It takes place after the 62-week period is ended during an unspecified time in which the world is to wait for 2,000 years before the final week is to be fulfilled, which is the seven-year Tribulation Period.
[121] Adam Clarke, Daniel, in Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers Inc.), 1996, in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), notes on Daniel 9:26.
Dan 9:26 “and the end thereof shall be with a flood” Comments – This phrase attempts to describe the awesome event of the destruction of Jerusalem in which the Roman soldiers slaughtered millions of Jews.
Dan 9:26 “and unto the end of the war desolations are determined” Comments – Daniel’s final vision in chapters 10-12 will describe a series of wars and desolations that are determined against God’s people before the end of time comes.
Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Dan 9:27
[122] Adam Clarke, Daniel, in Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers Inc.), 1996, in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), notes on Daniel 9:27.
The Vulgate reads, “Et erit in templo abominatio,” or “And in the temple there shall be abomination.”
The LXX reads, “Kai epi to hieron bdelugma ton eremoseon,” or “And upon the temple there shall be the abomination of desolation.”
The Arabic, “And upon the sanctuary there shall be the abomination of ruin.”
This translation agrees with the events of the profaning of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanies in 167 B.C. as well as Jesus Christ’s prediction in Mat 24:15 during the End Times.
Mat 24:15, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)”
Dan 9:27 Comments – Dan 9:27 describes the work of the antichrist during the seven-year Tribulation period. He will usher in the seventieth week by making a peace treaty with many nations. But in the midst of this seven-year period he will come to the Temple in Jerusalem and defile it in much the same way as Antiochus Epiphanes did in 168 B.C. This time of defilement will continue until the end of the Tribulation Period. Paul refers to this individual as the “son of perdition” in 2Th 2:1-12. He will sit in the Temple of God exalt himself above God.
2Th 2:3-4, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Gabriel Comforts Daniel by the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks
v. 20. And whiles I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord, my God, v. 21. yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, v. 22. And he informed me and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding, v. 23. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, v. 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy Holy City, v. 25. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, v. 26. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, v. 27. And he,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Who this Gabriel was, is not so very plain, as for us positively to decide. Daniel calls him the man. Hence some have thought it was Christ. It should seem to be the same as appeared in after ages to Zacharias. Luk 1:19 . But whether Christ, or not, remains to be determined. One thing we certainly know, that our adorable Redeemer made frequent secret manifestations of himself, before his open display in substance of our flesh; as if to tell the Church, how much he longed for the time appointed, when he should come to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. I beg the Reader to make one observation more, upon what is said in those verses. It was about the time of the evening oblation, that is, three o’clock in the afternoon: the memorable hour in which Christ gave up the ghost. And it is well worthy the Reader’s as well as the Writer’s most diligent observation, that with an eye to this one great event, to which every type, and every sacrifice under the law had reference, and in which the whole had their fulfillment: all the evening sacrifices were at that very hour. Hence we read, that Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, that is, three o’clock in the afternoon, Act 3:1 . Pause, Reader! and consider how important must this one glorious offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all, have been in the eye of God the Father; when in his appointments of the Jewish sacrifices, the evening oblation, from the beginning, had the very hour of Christ’s death, as well as Christ’s sacrifice, set forth. Reader! shall not this hour, henceforth be peculiarly sacred to our meditations? Methinks, I would, if possible, never let it pass without arresting its fleeting moments to thoughts of Jesus! This I would say, as the clock strikes three, this was the solemn hour, in which, after darkness had covered the face of the earth, from the sixth to the ninth hour, Jesus, my adorable Lord, cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. Luk 23:44-46 . See Exo 29:41 ; 1Ki 18:36 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Dan 9:20 And whiles I [was] speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
Ver. 20. And whilst I was speaking and praying. ] When, haply, I had now new done; and yet not so done but that my heart was yet lifting and lifting, as a bell rope is oft hoising up after men have done ringing the bell.
And confessing my sins.
For the holy mountain of my God.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Dan 9:20-23
20Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, 21while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. 22He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. 23At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision.’
Dan 9:20 Notice all the PARTICIPLES, which basically refer to the same act.
1. speaking (Piel)
2. praying (Hithpael)
3. confessing (Hithpael)
4. presenting (Hiphil)
5. speaking (Piel, v. 21)
the holy mountain of my God This refers to Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem (Jerusalem was built on sevenhills), on which Solomon’s temple was built (cf. 2Ch 3:1). This was the same mountain on which Abraham offered Isaac (cf. Gen 22:2) and this same mountain was later a place where David offered a sacrifice to stop the judgment of God (cf. 2Sa 24:18-25; 1Ch 21:18-27).
Dan 9:21 then the man Gabriel This is a messenger angel. His name means man of God (BDB 150, cf. Dan 8:16). He is only one of two angels whose names are mentioned in the Bible, Gabriel and Michael.
in my extreme weariness Some commentators link this to the angel Gabriel who was wearied by his swift flight (Aramaism, BDB 419) and some see it as referring to Daniel’s weariness (cf. Dan 7:28; Dan 8:27; Dan 10:8-9; Dan 10:16-17). Since I do not think angels get tired, it probably refers to Daniel.
about the time of the evening offering Remember, the temple was destroyed. There were no offerings. The evening offering would have been about 3:00 p.m. Daniel kept the temple ritual alive by continuing his habit of prayer (cf. Dan 6:10)!
Dan 9:22 to give you insight and understanding The Hebrew word insight (BDB 968) is used in several senses.
1. positively of wisdom of Daniel in Dan 1:4; Dan 1:17; Dan 9:25
2. negatively of the craftiness of the little horn in Dan 8:25
3. negatively of unfaithful Israel in Dan 9:13
4. positively of restored Israel in Dan 11:33; Dan 11:35
5. positively of believers of the end-time period in Dan 12:3; Dan 12:10
The Hebrew term understanding (BDB 108) is used in Dan 1:20; Dan 8:15; Dan 9:22; Dan 10:1. Daniel was gifted by God and enabled by angelic interpreters to grasp the meaning of the symbolic visions. This particular explanation deals with the seventy years of Jeremiah’s prophecy from Dan 9:2.
The question I continue to ask in connection with the genre of both Daniel, Zechariah, and Revelation is, Did these authors receive a message from God and then structure it as apocalyptic literature or did they receive it as structured symbols? Could both be true? Does God suddenly change the form of revelation from prophetic models to apocalyptic models? I suppose I believe that these inspired human authors structured their messages in symbolic, dramatic, imaginative, figurative ways. The message is from God, but its presentation comes through inspired humans using different literary genres.
Dan 9:23 the command was issued This is literally, a word went out (BDB 422, KB 425, Qal PERFECT). It may have come from the powerful angel as in Dan 8:16 or from God (cf. Isa 45:23; Isa 55:11). Even before Daniel finished praying heaven had responded!
NASBfor you are highly esteemed
NKJV, NRSVfor you are greatly beloved
TEVHe loves you
NJBYou are a man specially chosen
The implied agent is God. This phrase is also used of Daniel in Dan 10:11; Dan 10:19. The Hebrew term (BDB 326) means a precious treasure (cf. Dan 11:38; Dan 11:43).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Dan 9:20-21
Dan 9:20 And whilesH5750 IH589 was speaking,H1696 and praying,H6419 and confessingH3034 my sinH2403 and the sinH2403 of my peopleH5971 Israel,H3478 and presentingH5307 my supplicationH8467 beforeH6440 the LORDH3068 my GodH430 forH5921 the holyH6944 mountainH2022 of my God;H430
Dan 9:21 Yea, whilesH5750 IH589 was speakingH1696 in prayer,H8605 even the manH376 Gabriel,H1403 whomH834 I had seenH7200 in the visionH2377 at the beginning,H8462 being caused to flyH3286 swiftly,H3288 touchedH5060 H413 me about the timeH6256 of the eveningH6153 oblation.H4503
Daniel and Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks
Daniel chapter 9 is probably one of the most disagreed upon chapters in all of the Bible. There is scarcely a word in it concerning the seventy week prophecy that is not disputed by somebody on either side of the spectrum of believers versus non-believers.
Millennialists interpret this chapter in support of their various doctrines. There are a number of millennial views to deal with, each having their own distinct belief structure all of which claim that Jesus Christ will return to earth some day and establish a literal thousand year reign. Millennialism at its core level is wrong. Jesus Christ is never going to return to earth to reign in a literal kingdom. Jesus Christ Himself taught a number of things regarding His kingdom which must be recognized as truth. A brief overview is in order for this study in light of the overwhelming abuse of Daniel chapter 9 in regards of millennial doctrine.
Jesus taught in Mat 16:28, “Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom”. Jesus referred to the kingdom that was coming as “his kingdom”. Jesus plainly stated that His kingdom was coming in the lifetimes of those who were in attendance at that particular time. One would scarce think it would be necessary to point out the fact to our millennial friends that at the time of this study, it is almost 2000 years since Jesus made that statement. All of the people who were standing there with Him at that time have been dead now for nearly twenty centuries. This leaves us with the following conclusion that must be drawn from the facts at hand. Either the kingdom of Christ is here, or Jesus Christ was mistaken when He stated what He did about the coming of His kingdom. The consequences for such a thing would discount Jesus Christ as being deity and would therefore attack the very foundation upon which we build our faith in Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God and therefore sharing in the nature of the divine godhead. Scripture absolutely identifies Jesus Christ as being God, (Heb 1:8), and so being, His nature is such that He cannot lie (Tit 1:5) therefore He cannot make a statement which is not the truth.
On at least one occasion, when being confronted by the Pharisees on “when the kingdom of God should come”, Jesus answered them with this statement, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luk 17:20-21). Jesus told them the kingdom would not be something that would be seen, or observed. Nobody will be able to point to His kingdom and say, “there is the kingdom of God”. He then told them the kingdom was within them, meaning it is a spiritual kingdom and not a physical one.
When standing before Pilate on the night of His betrayal, Jesus made this statement, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence” (Joh 18:36). Jesus referred to the kingdom as “my kingdom” and He said it was not of this world. This complements His teaching to the Pharisees that His kingdom was not physical but spiritual in nature. Then in a later statement to Pilate at this same hearing Jesus said, “Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world”. So we know from the mouth of Jesus that; (1) His kingdom was coming within the lifetimes of some He taught; (2) His kingdom was spiritual and not physical; (3) and Jesus Christ came to earth to be a king.
There is plenty of evidence in scripture that supports the existence of Christ’s kingdom in the first century. Paul taught the Col 1:13 that they had been translated [paste tense], “into the kingdom of His dear Son”. The Hebrew writer referred to himself and his readers as “receiving [present tense], a kingdom” That means it is happening now, not some distant time thousands of years later. When John wrote the Revelation, he affirmed himself to be “in the kingdom” of Jesus Christ (Rev 1:9). One cannot be “receiving”, and “translated into” and then “in” a kingdom that does not exist. A kingdom cannot function without a king and a king without a kingdom is not a king. Jesus Christ who came to earth to be a king therefore is ruling over His spiritual kingdom right now.
The millennialists have got it all wrong, so their understanding of Daniel is completely at odds with clear teachings of Jesus as recorded in the inspired text. Their entire template for their beliefs is wrong before they even approach Daniel chapter 9. The only way they can get the elements of the seventy weeks prophecy to fit their model is to force it into a mold that the text doesn’t support. If millennialism were true, then many of the things Jesus and other inspired writers taught cannot be reconciled and are therefore not the truth and we know that God’s word is truth. Jesus Christ is absolutely returning to earth, but it is not to set up an earthly kingdom. Jesus rejected the offer of being an earthly king when the Israelites tried to make Him one by force, (Joh 6:15). 2Pe 3:10 reads, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” The next time Jesus comes to earth will be the end of the existence of earth. “there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust” (Act 24:15). “The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (Joh 5:28-29).
Dan 9:20-21
“And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation”
Interestingly it is noted here that Daniel was speaking his prayer out loud. We know from earlier writings of Daniel that he was devoted to regular prayer. It was this devotion to daily prayer that the Chaldeans used to trick Darius into throwing him to the lions. There cannot be enough said to emphasize the significance of regular prayer to God and speaking one’s prayers out loud is without question an acceptable means of communication with our creator.
“Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer”
Daniel was not finished praying when Gabriel arrived with his divine message. We will never know this side of paradise what else Daniel may have said in his petition to God. However, what we do have recorded of the prayer fulfilled all of God’s conditions for the ending of the captivity according to the prophets.
“even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning”
Daniel identified Gabriel as the same being that visited him with a diving message at the first of his visions. Daniel’s first vision recorded for us was the vision of the four kingdoms recorded in chapter 7 which came to him during the first year of king Belsazzar. During that vision, Daniel said he came near to one of the heavenly beings which resembled a man in form and asked him to explain the interpretation of the vision he had just seen. Gabriel was mentioned by name in the second vision which occurred in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar. It appears that the identity of the one Daniel was speaking to in his first vision could possibly have been Gabriel. We cannot be sure, but it makes for some interesting speculation.
The King James Version rendering of this text makes it appear as if Gabriel was a man. He was not a physical flesh and blood man. This translation of the text does not reflect the most accurate meaning of what was being recorded. The Greek word for “man” in the text has also been translated as “one” and “person” in the KJV. Young’s Literal Translation renders this passage thus: “yea, while I am speaking in prayer, then that one Gabriel, whom I had seen in vision at the commencement”. While I do not want this study to be an endorsement as to the accuracy of Young’s Literal Translation, I do believe this is a more accurate rendering of this particular text.
Gabriel was certainly not a man in the flesh and blood form we understand a man to be. He appears in the New Testament as the angel of the annunciation to Zacharias of the birth of John the Baptist, and to Mary of the birth of Jesus (Luk 1:19; Luk 1:26). When he identified himself to Zacharias he said, “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God”. Obviously Gabriel was of enough ranking among the heavenly beings that he was in the position to receive his orders directly from the person of God Himself. This certainly suggests that Gabriel was an angel of a high ranking station in the heavenly realm. Gabriel was positively identified as an angel in the text of Luk 1:19 and again in Luk 1:26, “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth”. We have every reason to conclude that the Gabriel of Luke and of Daniel are one and the same beings. Therefore the translation of the text as the “man Gabriel” cannot be the most accurate rendering in view of the fact that it does not fit the facts we know from inspiration.
“being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation”
The Greek word rendered as “swiftly” carries the meaning of being fatigued or utterly exhausted. Based on a study of the original language, I feel the New American Standard Updated (NASU), is probably the more accurate rendering of what Daniel meant, “came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering”
We learned from Daniel in chapter 6 and verse 10 that he was in the habit of kneeling upon his knees and praying toward Jerusalem three times a day. This evening oblation was obviously his third daily prayer ritual which he took part in regularly for his entire life.
“touched me”
According to Daniel, Gabriel touched him. This was no ordinary vision, rather this was a literal, in person, visitation of the angel Gabriel the same way he visited Zechariah and Mary a few centuries later to announce the arrival of the Messiah. Daniel specifically mentioned that Gabriel touched him, thereby indicating that this was a heavenly visit from a real angel.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
whiles: Dan 10:2, Psa 32:5, Psa 145:18, Isa 58:9, Isa 65:24, Act 4:31, Act 10:30, Act 10:31
confessing: Dan 9:4, Ecc 7:20, Isa 6:5, Rom 3:23, Jam 3:2, 1Jo 1:8-10
for: Dan 9:16, Psa 137:5, Psa 137:6, Isa 56:7, Isa 62:6, Isa 62:7, Zec 8:3, Rev 21:2, Rev 21:10
Reciprocal: Gen 24:15 – before 1Ki 1:22 – General 2Ki 19:20 – I have heard 2Ch 7:1 – when Solomon 2Ch 20:14 – Then upon Ezr 10:1 – when Ezra Neh 1:6 – confess Neh 9:2 – confessed Psa 7:1 – O Pro 18:12 – and Pro 28:13 – whoso Isa 37:21 – Whereas Dan 10:12 – from Joe 2:1 – in my Zep 3:11 – because of my holy Eph 6:18 – supplication Jam 5:16 – The effectual
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Dan 9:20. My sin and the sin of my people Is explained at verse 4, Roly mountain of my Ood is a figurative reference to the nation of God whose capital city was Jerusalem which was in ruins at the time the prophet was offering this prayer.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Dan 9:20-21. And while I was speaking and praying, &c. We have here the answer that was immediately sent to Daniels prayer, and it is a very remarkable one; as it contains the most illustrious prediction of Christ, and gospel grace, that is extant in any part of the Old Testament. Daniel here observes, and lays a great emphasis on, the time when this answer was given; While I was speaking, says he, Dan 9:20, yea, while I was speaking in prayer, Dan 9:21. Before he rose from his knees, and while there was yet more which he intended to say if the answer was not given. He mentions the two heads which he chiefly insisted on in prayer, and which, perhaps, he designed yet further to enlarge upon. 1st, He was confessing sin, his own sin, and the sin of his people Israel. 2d, He was making supplication before the Lord his God, and presenting petitions to him as an intercessor for Israel. Now while Daniel was thus employed, he had both a grant made him of the mercy he prayed for, and had a discovery communicated of a far greater and more glorious redemption, which God could work out for his church in the latter days. He further observes, that as this answer was given him at the very moment when he was requesting it, and before he had concluded his petitions, so it was about the time of the evening oblation The altar was in ruins, and there was no oblation offered upon it; but, it seems, the pious Jews, in their captivity, daily thought of the times when it should have been offered, and at those hours endeavoured to set forth before God their prayers as incense, and the lifting up of their hands as a morning or evening sacrifice, Psa 141:2. The evening oblation was a type of the great sacrifice which Christ was to offer in the evening of the world; and it was in virtue of that sacrifice that Daniels prayer was accepted, and this glorious discovery of redeeming love was made to him: the Lamb opened the seals of prophecy in the virtue of his own blood, Rev 5:5.
Daniel informs us here also by whom this answer was sent. It was not communicated to him in a dream, or by a voice from heaven; but, for the greater certainty and solemnity of it, an angel was sent from heaven to bring it to him. The man Gabriel That is, the angel Gabriel, appearing in a human shape, whom I had seen in the beginning Or, before, see Dan 8:16; being caused to fly swiftly An expression used to signify the haste he made to bring Daniel an answer to his prayer. Angels are winged messengers, quick in their motions, and delay not a moment to execute the orders they receive. But, it would seem, that at some times they are directed to use more expedition, and make a quicker despatch than at others, as, it appears, was the case with Gabriel now; touched me Probably to infuse additional strength and courage into him, that he might be perfectly recollected, have the proper use and exercise of all his faculties at this important season, and might at once understand and retain a perfect remembrance of the whole message which the angel was commissioned to bring him from God.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Dan 9:20-26. The explanation of Jeremiahs prophecy.
Dan 9:21. being caused to fly swiftly: the meaning of the original is obscure; mg, gives an alternative rendering, being sore wearied, but neither translation is satisfactory. If fly swiftly is correct, this is the earliest reference to the later popular conception that angels possess wings.
Dan 9:24. seventy weeks: this phrase gives the new principle upon which Jeremiahs prophecy is to be reinterpreted. The 70 years are to be regarded as 70 weeks of years, i.e. 490 years. This verse describes in general terms what is to happen during this period.seal up: confirm or ratify.anoint the most holy: it is doubtful whether this phrase is masculine or neuter (cf. mg.). Driver thinks that it refers to the Temple or altar.
Dan 9:25. from the going forth: i.e. from the utterance of the commandment by Jeremiah.unto the anointed one: scholars are divided as to the person referred to in this phrase. Driver favours Cyrus, who is called the anointed in Isa 45:1. Charles thinks it refers to Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, the first high priest after the restoration (Ezr 3:2).threescore and two weeks: this verse should undoubtedly be connected with the following clause as in RV, and not with the preceding sentence as in AV. It means weeks of years, i.e. 434 years.with street and moat: many scholars accept an emendation which enables us to translate, with square and street. Jerusalem is to be rebuilt on a larger scale and with broader streets than before.
Dan 9:26. the anointed one be cut off: the meaning of this phrase is far from clear, but most modern scholars think it refers to Onias III, who, in 175 B.C., was deposed from the high priesthood by Antiochus Epiphanes (p. 523).shall have nothing: this is, as Charles says, a questionable reading of an uncertain text. As the words stand, they mean that Onias, after his deprivation, was left in abject poverty.the people of the prince: refers to the soldiers of Antiochus.his end: i.e. the death of Antiochus. Charles translates, The end shall be with a flood, and connects with the following verse, making these words introduce the events of the last week.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
4. God’s response to Daniel’s prayer 9:20-23
God began responding to Daniel’s prayer as soon as he began praying (cf. Dan 9:19; Luk 11:10-13). Clearly, the prayer recorded in the preceding verses is only a summary of what the prophet prayed, since he prayed long and hard (Dan 9:21).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Daniel again saw Gabriel, whom he had met previously (Dan 8:16). He was obviously an angel. The description "the man Gabriel" is a play on words and probably means "the servant, the strong one of the strong God." The Hebrew word ish (man) often appears as a description of a servant. [Note: Leupold, p. 400.]
"Note that the term ha’is (’the man’) does not signify ’man’ in contradistinction to angels or other spiritual powers residing in heaven; that would have been ’adam or ’enos in Hebrew. It rather indicates that this mighty archangel had appeared in a humanlike form and had spoken to Daniel intelligibly as one man speaks to another [cf. Luk 24:4; Act 1:10]." [Note: Archer, "Daniel," p. 111.]
Evidently Daniel had become weary because of his praying and fasting. The time of the evening offering was 3:00 p.m. The Jews were not able to offer the regular morning and evening sacrifices after the Babylonians destroyed their temple. However, pious Jews such as Daniel still prayed at these customary times (cf. Dan 6:10).