STUDIES IN THE BOOK OF DANIEL

January 25, 2022

Daniel’s Confession and Prayer for Jerusalem—Gabriel Comforts him by the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. Dan. 9:1-27

“Israel, and the salvation by Messiah promised to it, are the subject of revelation. Israel had naturally expected salvation at the end of the captivity. Daniel is therefore told that, after the seventy years of the captivity, seventy times seven must elapse, and that even then Messiah would not come in glory, as the Jews might through misunderstanding expect from the earlier prophets, but by dying would put away sin. This ninth chapter, consisting of Messianic prophecy, stands between the two visions of the Old Testament Antichrist, to comfort ‘the wise.’ In the interval between Antiochus and Christ no further revelation was needed; therefore, as in the first part of the book so in the second, Christ and Antichrist in connection are the theme.” Fausset A. R.

  1. Daniel’s confession and prayers for Jerusalem. Dan. 9:1-19.
  2. Dan. 9:1. If Daniel was approximately 15 when he went into captivity, he would have been about 81 years old at the time of this vision. The name Ahasuerus was probably a Persian royal title rather than a personal name. It refers to an ancestor of Cyrus the Great or Governor Gubaru, not Ahasuerus (485-465 B.C.), the king mentioned in the book of Esther (Est 1:1). HCSB STUDY BIBLE
  3. Dan. 9:2. Understood by books. Ps. 119:99, 100, Act. 8: 30, 3134, 1Ti. 4:13, 1Pet. 1:10–12, 2Pet. 1:19–21. The desire to read and understand the simplicity of Christian doctrine in general to the childlike spirit” JFB have a yearning desire for,” or “longing after,” a natural impulse for the word of God.
  4.  The word of God came to Jeremiah. Jer. 25 :11, 12; 27:7; 29:10, Zec. 7:5. the desolations of Jerusalem. Ps. 74 :3–7 ; 79:1. “Although the book of Jeremiah was completed only a generation before the events described in Daniel 9, Daniel already recognized it as Scripture. Jeremiah predicted that the desolation of Jerusalem would endure for 70 years (Jer 25:11-13; 29:10). Daniel calculated that since the first captives had been taken to Babylon in 605 b.c., the 70 years were nearly complete.” HCSB STUDY BIBLE
  5. Dan. 9:3-19. “Daniel’s prayer was with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes, three customary ways to express sorrow and contrition (Ezr 8:23, Est 4:1,3,16; Jonah 3:5-6). In this section Daniel prayed to the Lord, using the Hebrew name Yahweh (translated ” Lord” in English) …The name Yahweh was associated with the covenant-keeping nature of the God of Israel (Ex 6:2-8).” HCSB STUDY BIBLE. “In
  6. “Daniel’s prayer for the nation he confessed his own sin, using the pronoun we throughout…If any Israelite was righteous, it was Daniel; and yet he confessed his sinfulness and need for God’s forgiveness. Instead of looking for others to blame, first examine yourself and confess your own sins to God. Lam. 3:39-41
  7. Daniel knew how to pray. He prayed with complete surrender to God and with complete openness to what God was saying to him…Talk to God with openness, vulnerability, and honesty, and be ready for God’s reply.” Fausset A. R. continues