DANIEL 9 and 10

Daniel's Prayer And The Divine Revelation

By Johnny Tatum

The purpose of studying Daniel 9 and 10 is to know how Daniel kept getting more hidden knowledge, including when Messiah will come, when Messiah will be cut off, and when Jerusalem will be destroyed.

PART 1: BACKGROUND TO DANIEL'S PRAYER

 

REMARKABLE PROOFS CONTAINED IN DANIEL 9

PROOF THE BIBLE IS SUPERNATURAL

If you want to prove the Bible is supernatural and you can go to only one place in the Bible, then go to Daniel 9. Know that the Bible presents inexhaustible proof throughout all of its pages. However, I believe this is the best place to show the Bible is supernatural.

PROOF THE BIBLE SHOWS PREDICTED PROPHECY

If you want to prove the Bible shows predicted prophecy, then Daniel 9 is a great place to go. In one chapter (Daniel 9) and in three verses (verses 24-26), it shows the prediction of the very day Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) would ride into Jerusalem and present Himself as the King.

Notice: This prophecy was made 500 years prior to the day it occurred!

PROOF MESSIAH HAS ALREADY COME

There is something else remarkable about Daniel 9 — it is absolute proof Messiah has already come. We know He has come, because there are hundreds of places within the Old Testament that present prophecy about Messiah; and Messiah (Christ) Jesus fulfilled them all.

Question: Who Do You Say Isaiah 53 Is Talking About?

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face he was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs he Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, And He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:1-12)

Unbelieving Jews [who do not believe Messiah has already come to earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth] try to reason away most Messianic prophecies, including Daniel 9, which already have been fulfilled. For example:

Isaiah 53 shouts Messiah, Yeshua — Christ Jesus!

And anybody with an open mind will agree.

Many times unbelieving Jews will attempt to reason that fact by saying In Isaiah 53— the Person is the nation of Israel -and- His sufferings are the sufferings that the Jews have undergone in the Land. However, Isaiah 53 specifically shows:

The suffering Servant is distinct from His people.

One can try to reason around Isaiah 53, but he cannot with Daniel 9. It is absolute proof—

Messiah came before 70 A.D.

 

CONTEXT OF DANIEL 9

Daniel has been seeing visions about the future, including the statue, the high tree, the four beasts, and the ram, goat and small horn.

Daniel gives a sweep of history beginning with his time under the Babylonian Empire and continuing all the way through the Medo-Persian Empire. He predicts the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire (Phase I) and the Roman Empire (Phase II), which we are seeing develop today.

Daniel did not ask the Lord God for a sweep of world events, because that is not what was on his mind. Undoubtedly, he was thinking You still have not answered my question. Daniel was trying to find out:

 

Question: Based on Jewish thought, what was distinctive about the visions of the great world empires that Daniel had been getting?

  1. The empires were all Gentiles.

    2. Daniel had to be wondering—

    Will God ever turn back to the sons of Israel?

    Daniel knew there had long been prophesied a coming Jewish Kingdom, so he had to ask—

    Where does a coming Jewish Kingdom fit in with all of these coming Gentile empires?

  2. The prophecies of Jeremiah showed the captivity was to last 70 years:

This whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (Jeremiah 25:11)

and 70 years had gone by. From our perspective, we can dovetail (fit well together) everything; certainly, Daniel could not. He had to be asking—

How do I reconcile all of these Gentile empires — to the end of the age— with a coming Jewish Kingdom?

and—

Where do the sons of Israel going back to the Land fit in?

Daniel needed to know more personal, specific information, and he was given it.

 

PURPOSE OF DANIEL'S PRAYER

The purpose of Daniel's prayer was not to soften the Lord God or to get Him in the mood to talk. Daniel did not have to persuade the Lord God to tell him something, because He was already speaking to Daniel. The purpose of Daniel's prayer was—

To make sure Daniel could hear the Lord God speaking.

 

Illustration:

TUNING IN

If we want to watch something on the television on the American Broadcasting Channel (ABC), we would not call the ABC Corporation in New York City and beg them to start broadcasting. Instead, we would turn on the television and tune it to channel ABC.

Picture: That is one way to look at prayer and God speaking to the redeemed (biblical believers) — they do not beg Him to speak, because the Lord God is speaking.

The purpose of the believer's prayer is:

To make sure they are on the correct channel

Biblical believers already have a set (a spirit), have the antenna (Holy Spirit), and are in fellowship [because of the Cross]. The only thing they need to do is tune into the correct channel.

 

Daniel is praying to get tuned into the correct channel. Specifically, he wants to know:

 

 

Father God, thank You for giving us Daniel 9 and 10. Thank You for the remarkable proofs contained therein that show us the Bible is supernatural, that prophecies have been, and will be, fulfilled and, most importantly, that Messiah came from heaven to earth as the suffering Servant and as King.

Help us to get tuned into the correct channel, so like Daniel, we can understand what Your Holy Spirit is saying to us.

Father God, would You please give us an attitude of expectancy to know more about who You are as we study Daniel 9 and 10?

We pray for these things in the name of Messiah Yeshua — Christ Jesus. Amen.

 

Next:

Daniel 9 and 10, Part 2: DANIEL'S PRAYER OF CONFESSION FOR UNDERSTANDING

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We express our deepest appreciation to Mitchell and Dawn Kolodin for their excellent work in transcribing and editing this entire Daniel study.

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