Daniel 9 and What it Means.

Daniel 9 and What it Means.
Thursday, October 22, 2020 by Zachary J. Hunter

Daniel 9 and What it Means

By Zachary Hunter

Prophetic words that I have been reading have been saying how important certain chapters are in this season, so I began reading them. Today was Daniel 9; I have read it before, but I didn’t appreciate the importance of this chapter. Today I want to share what I have learned or what stood out to me during my reading.

The first thing I noticed is that Daniel is a learned man and has read the scriptures. He himself says this and specifically mentions the prophetic words of Jeremiah. Because of this Daniel knew that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. He also knew it was their own fault for their sin. I believe this stood out to me because all too often we blame God for our problems or circumstances instead of our own self-made evil.

Daniel does not do this but instead assigns the blame where it belongs and begins to repent for it. He pleads with God in prayer and fasting, wearing sackcloth and ashes. In his prayer he acknowledges Israel’s guilt, and that God was righteous. He goes on to confirm that God is fulfilling what He said He would do through the prophets. Daniel even includes that God is fulfilling punishments and curses that God had spoken through Moses. He repents for these things and says that he does not do so out of righteousness, for Israel was not found to be righteous but because God is a god of mercy.

After this prayer, the Archangel Gabriel appears before Daniel. Daniel refers to him as, “Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision,” leading me to believe Gabriel had taken on the form of a man for this conversation. A similar thing had happened to Lot in Sodom earlier in the Old Testament. Gabriel told him that he was bring a word of insight and understanding. Gabriel also tells Daniel that the word had gone out as soon as he had begun to pray and that Daniel was being told because he was highly esteemed. High praise indeed!

This leads to the greatest part of the chapter in my opinion; the seventy ‘sevens’. Each ‘seven’ is seven years and they start after the word is given to Daniel. First is seven ‘sevens’, or 49 years total in which Jerusalem will begin to be rebuilt though in troubled times. This comes to pass as Ezra takes a large group of exiles back to Jerusalem and begins to rebuild the temple. The complete restoration of Jerusalem was not completed until Nehemiah.

After this we have another 62 ‘sevens’ or 434 years. At this point the Anointed One will be put to death. From the timeline I have looked up I believe this was speaking of Jesus’ death. I knew that some of the Old Testament prophets had known of Jesus’ coming but usually it was Isiah. This was the first time I had heard that Daniel had been given a word about it. We are now through the first 69 ‘sevens’, one left to go.

This last one is the doozy of the group for it has not happened yet! The final seven is where one, known as ‘the ruler’ will confirm a covenant for a ‘seven’. Daniel goes on to write that in the middle of that seven the ruler will put an end to sacrifice and offering and will set up an abomination in the temple, This will cause desolation until the end that is decreed for the ruler is poured out on him. Clearly this word is speaking of the Tribulation and the reign of the anti-Christ. All this told to Daniel well before the word of Revelations had come to John.

The last thing I want to touch on is what 70 ‘sevens’ means. Seven is a significant number in the spirt, the number of perfection. It gets used so many times in the Bible by God. In this case what Daniel was told is that “Seventy ‘sevens’[c] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish[d] transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.” Now we know that this set of sevens is nothing less than the ultimate cleansing of sin among His people and the Earth.

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