►Thursday, Feb 20, 2014||END TIME SERIES Part Nine►Daniel 9
(2) MEANING: Daniel's Intercessory Prayer & The Seventy Sevens.
God's Word, Vision, Dreams, Prophecies Promises Are YES & AMEN.
V1-2: We learned about the reasons/sins that led the people of Judah into exile (Seehttps://www.facebook.com/
But their return was not goin' to be automatic; a diligent person had to intercede on behalf of the people. Daniel was the right man; he searched the Scriptures, prayed & fasted unto God in the 1st year of King Darius, when Babylonian Empire had fallen & Medo-Persian had risen, exactly the 70yrs the prophets prophesied. IT IS SO PAINFUL THAT MANY PEOPLE KNOW ISRAEL'S MOVEMENT FROM EGYPT TO CANAAN; BUT THEY DON' KNOW ISRAEL'S MOVEMENT FROM BABYLON TO JERUSALEM (God willing, we shall look at this topic some day to come). Daniel was a student of Scriptures, that was why he could humbly approach God for their deliverance.
V3-19 described how Daniel approached God, when he got to know that God had prophesied abt their return. In fact, he could have gone to bed because God would do it Himself. That would have been laziness on Daniel's part. Because he knew Scriptures, though God had promised to send them back after the 70yrs, the people were to pray to God before the prophecy would be activated (Ezekiel 36:36). If U recall, in Chapter 6, we were told Daniel prayed 3 times a day but we were not told what he prayed for, or about. But here in Chapter 9, we're told what he prayed for, even at old age, about 87yrs to 90yrs....
1. He humbled himself, wore sackcloth, sat in ashes, fasted & prayed.
2. He Worshiped God, stressed on how God Kept His Covenant & how He showed mercy to those who obeyed His Laws. 3. He saw himself as part of the problem. Daniel didn't justify himself. Though Daniel came into exile in his ''Teens'' and served God diligently even when he was old man (about 87yrs & 90yrs), he still didn't consider himself as RIGHTEOUS. He didn't point his fingers at others Daniel prayed & fasted according to Isaiah 58, so no wonder God listened to him. God has taught me this lesson: IF U DON' WANT PRIDE & SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS TO DESTROY U, IF U WANT YOUR PRAYERS & FASTING TO BE HEARD, SEE YOURSELF AS A SINNER & IT'S BY THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST WHICH GOD CLOTHES US WITH, THAT MAKES US RIGHTEOUS. IF GOD REMOVES THAT CLOTH FROM US (When We backslide & Move Away from God's Canopy), THE DEVIL CAN PIN POINT OUR SINS. Anyone, No matter how spiritual he is, who justifies & sees himself as ''righteous'' is as sinful as the Pharisee who was praying in the Temple, boasting. And anyone, no matter his spirituality, who humbles himself & considers himself as a sinner before God, is as righteous as the Tax Collector who was also praying in the Temple. Daniel said ''We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments..'' (V5). He prayed for forgiveness of his personal sins, that of his forefathers & his countrymen (who of course compromised on their faith in God in Babylon). Dear reader, have U been saved? Praise God. But that is not enough, pray for the restoration of Christians who have fallen; let's pray for the salvation of Israel, our family members, countrymen, friends & even enemies. Hell & the Lake of Fire are not places where we should wish for even our worst enemy. Let's pray that God rest. God doesn't want anybody to die & go to Hell, so as His followers, we should have same spirit to pray, fast & preach the gospel.
V20-23: God heard Daniel's prayer & sent Angel Gabriel to bring the Answerl; To give him insight & understanding. We shall see why Angel Gabriel kept long in delivering God's answer to Daniel's Prayer in Chapter 10.
V24: It will take the Jews seventy sevens (i.e. 70weeks, or 490 days, which Biblically is 490yrs) for them to FINISH SINNING. The Angel again said Christ would come and perform six things: He'll (1) Finish with Transgression--Deal with rebellion which started by Lucifer, now Devil. (2) Put an end to sin--Giving to His Children Victory Over Sin (3) atone for wickedness--He did that on the Cross (4) everlasting righteousness--Not part time righteousness/up-and-down holiness; but Perfect holiness Given to the Church bu Christ through His own righteousness. Our Righteousness is Christ (5) seal up vision and prophecy--To Fulfill All Visions & Prophecies. Christ is THE EPITOME OF ALL VISIONS & PROPHECY (6) anoint the most holy--Christ was to take all sins to the Cross in His Body and upon satisfying the Holy Wrath/Anger of God on the Cross, we can have ASSESS to the Most Holiest section of the Temple that was severed from the other parts with a Veil. When Christ died, the veil tore.
V25&26: Rebuilding Jerusalem & the Temple that Nebuchadnezzar burned would meet opposition (Sanbalat & Tobais) Nehemíah 2:19. From the time a decree was issued for the Jews to go to Jerusalem to REBUILD the Temple (in Nehemiah's time in 445BC) TO the Time that Jesus Christ Comes, there were to be 7Weeks/49Yrs (Seven Sevens) plus 434Wks/434yrs (Sixty Two Sevens) WHICH IS EQUAL TO 483yrs from the issue of the decree for the Rebuilding of the Temple. So to know when Christ was to die, 483-445 will give us 38AD. But because in the Old Testament, the days were counted as 360 in a year with each month counted as 30days, the 38AD would reduce if we are to use our current calendar. So to avoid ambiguity, we can say that Christ was Crucified in between 38AD & 29AD. The lesson we are to learn is that; God gave a message to Angel Gabriel to deliver to Daniel that the Messiah would come & at an appointed time, He would be crucified and will not leave any material possessions behind. ''The people of the ruler who will come, the Romans, will destroy the city, Jerusalem, and the sanctuary, the Temple (This happened in 70AD). Then we're given a cue as to things that would happen: (1) end will come like a flood (2) War will continue until the end & (3) desolations have been decreed. Israel became a nation again in 1948; very prophetic. The desolation also symbolize what the Anti-Christ would do in the end times. Read below.
V27: talks about the Anti-Christ; he will confirm/establish a covenant with many people for 7years (one 'seven'). But half way through (when it is 3 & half years), he will break the covenant, stop sacrifice and offering; he will set up his throne in Jerusalem and in the temple and demand worship (that is the abomination that causes desolation). This was what Jesus was referring to when He said in Matthew 24:15 ''“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand. When this happens, Dear Reader, if U are alive, Know that CHRIST'S COMING IS FEW INCHES AWAY. Praise God.
IN CONCLUSION:
God, through vision, showed Abraham how his descendants would be exiled for 400yrs in Egypt & would bring them back (Genesis 15:12-17). It HAPPENED: God used Moses as instrument & when Egyptians' sins had piled up so high, and Pharaoh had been so rebellious, God punished them by burying them in the Red Sea & sent Israelites back to Canaan.
''Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.'' (Ecclesiastes 8:11). Because God is so merciful, not wanting anyone to perish, He delays His Justice & Does Not Punish us Instantly. But instead of men/sinners to repent, they rather become stiff-necked, rebellious & worsen their plight. But I can I assure U that, when the sins pile up to the brim, when men crosses the land, God visits with punishment.
In Genesis 18:20, when God had given Sodom & Gomorrah several years to repent but had failed to repent; when their sins had piled up to the brim, God punished them with sulfur & brimstone.
Again, because the Jews rejected The Messiah & their leaders told Pilate that Jesus' Blood should be on them--for they falsely accused Jesus & crucified him in place of Barabas--God's judgement was to fall on them. It was for this reason that Jesus, when entering Jerusalem, prophesied that Jerusalem would be trampled upon & be destroyed. So abt 37yrs to 40yrs after Christ's death (abt 70 A.D.), the Romans invaded Jerusalem & destroyed the Temple.
IF U & I DO NOT REPENT & LIVE FOR CHRIST TILL DEATH OR HE COMES, WE CAN BE REST ASSURED OF A SEVERE PUNISHMENT; FOR HE WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN, MUCH IS EXPECTED. WE'VE BEEN GIVEN MUCH (INFORMATION & GRACE), GOD EXPECTS MUCH FROM US. MAY HE BE OUR HELP...AMEN
If God permits, we shall move to Daniel Chapter 10 on Saturday, Feb 22, 2014. (NB: U have read a lot about what God has been teaching us regarding End Time Events BUT I HAVE CAREFULLY STAYED OUT OF PREDICTING THE DATE ON WHICH CHRIST IS COMING. Pls, U must do same. U can talk about the signs preceding the 2nd Coming of Christ, But NEVER EVER FIX A DATE. Thank U).
--Samuel Kwasi Forkuo
ALL GLORY TO GOD
http://goo.gl/E6oXQO
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