Psalm 66

The song “I Need You” was released on January 22, 2021 and has been described in one review as a song that, “brings radical joy to the moment.”  The review, written by Aarya Kaushik for The Harvard Crimson heralds Jon Batiste’s “I Need You” as a song arriving, “In a time of such extreme social isolation, it is a beacon of hope, heralding a brighter future.” 

Jon Batiste grew up in a Catholic home surrounded by Jazz and the “Batiste musical dynasty.” In a recent interview, Batiste shared that he, “believes that we are all divine beings with something unique to offer the world.”[1]  His band, who performs as the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, is named, Stay Human, after the spirit and tone of Batiste’s vision of the arts and music. 

Batiste was listed in the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 music list (celebrating the top young entrepreneurs) and was named Grand Marshal of the Endyminon Parade in New Orleans, in his home state of Louisiana.  He was also awarded the American Jazz Museum Lifetime Achievement Award, the ASCAP Humanitarian Award, and the Movado Future Legend Award.  What some may not know, is that Batiste played a significant role in Pixar’s animated hit movie Soul, which is about a middle-school band teacher, Joe Gardner, whose passion and dream to perform as a Jazz musician never panned out.  The voice of Joe Gardner was voiced by Jamie Foxx, but it was Batiste’s fingers and hands on the piano that were animated for the film.  Batiste, along with Trent Rexnor and Atticus Ross, won an Academy Award for Best Original Score which made for Batiste being the second black composer to receive the award. 

Jon Batiste believes that music has the power to bring people together as well as speak into the brokenness of our world.  Batiste said of his jazz album, Meditations, released with guitarist Cory Wong in 2019, that fit the immediate needs of a world in pain (I listened to this album while writing this sermon manuscript).  For the world that we find ourselves in today, Batiste, said of his latest album, WE ARE (that features “I Need You”): “… music has always been something that has had all of the different purposes of our life and our community and our healing and our unspoken pain — and the transmission of messages and the raising awareness of a condition of a people. It’s always been in the music; we’re just being reintroduced to it in a different cultural context.”[2]  The context Batiste was referring to is the injustices protested by so many in our nation and the world amid the coronavirus pandemic; he believes that the part he can play in helping people come together for the good of our world is through the medium of music.  Here is what Batiste said about his part in our world:

The music I’ve been making is a way to light a way to the truth of who we are and reintroduce us to the depth of who we are. Our ancestors knew so much; sometimes we forget that in such a commodified capitalistic society, where the intention is to make money. There are greater intentions we’ve harbored in our ideal state over the last centuries. We’ve had great and wise people who have shown us that our intention and our humanity are higher than we sometimes exhibit. All these relationships have really faltered and gotten to our lower vibration frequencies in the current era. That song, Relationships, I will pray people meditate on and find a way to reconnect those relationships.[3]

Since the debut of the music video “I Need You”, it has received over 13 million views.  In Batiste’s words, serves as, “a vibe cleanse” that brings the vibes back like a warm hug after 2020.”[4]  Of the songs in this sermon series, it is the happiest and most energetic video.  The song and video remind me of the final verses in Malachi that describe a time when God will vindicate his people by removing the oppressive power of a cursed world: “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and al

Psalm 25

Alecia Beth Moore was born September 8, 1979 and grew up in Doylestown, PA and took on her stage name, Pink, when she was only 14 years old.  Her parents separated when she was 9 years old and she lived with her mother, who she had a terrible relationship with during her teen years.  The day that her father left, Moore wrote a poem that she later released as a song titled Family Portrait when she was 21; it peaked in the top 20 in both the U.K. and the U.S.  I think the lyrics are both heartbreaking and telling:

Momma please stop cryin’, I can’t stand the soundYour pain is painful and its tearin’ me downI hear glasses breakin’ as I sit up in my bedI told dad you didn’t mean those nasty things youSaid

You fight about money, bout me and my brotherAnd this I come home to, this is my shelterIt ain’t easy growin up in World War IIINever knowin what love could be, you’ll seeI don’t want love to destroy me like it has doneMy family

Moore said of her relationship with her mother that it was terrible during her teenage years.  Her mom was a single parent who worked full-time as an ER nurse while she attended school at night.  Moore said that she and her older brother essentially raised themselves during those years; she also notes that they, “…didn’t grow up with money.  No one was famous in my family.”[1]      

From an early age, Moore was naturally gifted in writing, singing, and performing.  When she was only 14 years old, she was already performing in Philadelphia clubs and embraced her stage name Pink.  Two years later, LaFace Records offered Pink a solo recording contract.  And by the year 2000, Pink’s debut studio album, Can’t Take Me Home reached double-platinum that included two songs in the Billboard Hot 100 top ten songs: “There You Go” and “Most Girls.”  Since her debut album, Pink has released 8 studio albums with 15 of those songs toping 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and four of those songs were at #1. 

Pink met her husband, Carey Hart, who is a former professional freestyle motocross competitor and the first motorcyclist to perform a back flip on a 250cc motorcycle, during a competition; Hart is featured in Pink’s “All I Know So Far.”  The two split in 2003, but were married in 2006 after getting back together.  In 2008 the two separated for 11 months, but have been back together ever since.  Their daughter, Willow, was born in 2011 and their son Jameson was born in 2016.  It is important to Pink and her husband that their family stay together even while she is on tour, so they do all that they can to do just that.

Sometime in March of 2020, both Pink and her son, Jameson (who was 3 at the time) had COVID-19.  Pink described that time while watching her son try to recover: “There have been many nights where I cried, and I have never prayed more in my life…. At one point I heard myself saying, ‘I thought they promised us our kids would be OK.’”  While also suffering from COVID, Pink, who also suffers from asthma, that she had to be on nebulizers for the first time in 30 years.[2]

While suffering from COVID, Pink rewrote her will thinking that she might not survive the virus.  She called a friend and asked her to tell Willow how much she loved her.  She also thought that as a parent, what was she really leaving for her kids?  She asked herself, “What am I teaching my kids?  Will they make it in this crazy world? What do I need to tell them if this is the last time I get to tell them anything?”  As she reflected on her life and her children, Pink believes that people can create the world that you want to live in.  Her experience with covid, was the catalyst for writing “All I Know So Far.” 

The song and music video received critical acclaim.  The video received more than 4 million its first week after debuting on May 7, 2021, and currently it has received over 14 million views.  The song is based on Pink’s life and career and serves as advise from the lessons she has learned over the

Psalm 4

Justin Bieber is considered the prince of pop as well as the king of teen pop and is worth an estimated $285 million dollars.  He was discovered after his mother posted some of his songs on YouTube and by the time he was only fifteen years old, he had his first #1 hit with the debut of his song, “One Time.”  Bieber’s three most popular songs of the more than 70 he has recorded include “Baby” (2010), “Despacito” (2017), and “Sorry” (2015).  His song “Baby” was featured on his first album and has had a stunning 2.5 billion views on YouTube.  Justin Bieber was featured in Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s popular song” Despacito in 2017 and is on the short list of songs for remaining on the Top Billboard Charts for 16 weeks.  His 2015 song titled, “Sorry” was a #1 hit on the charts for three weeks and has received 3 billion views on YouTube; the song serves as an apology from Bieber to his fans.  Here is what he said of his most popular song to date:

“I just want to let people know that for a while I feel like I lost my purpose and I’m gaining it back… and I feel like it’s so important that everyone finds their purpose… so basically my message is that no matter how far you feel away from who you were, or who you think you were, or whether you’re lost, there’s always room to grow and always room to find your purpose.”

I share Bieber’s explanation of the message of his song to highlight the tension, struggles, and temptations that he faced as a child popstar who continues to experience a stardom not unlike some of the greats before him.  What you may not know is that Justin Bieber grew up under the influence of the Church.  In numerous interviews throughout his music career, Bieber attested to his faith in Jesus, but with the growth of his fame, he also struggled with practicing what he said he believed. 

After reaching an all-time low at the age of 19, he was on a path of self-destruction and if it were not for the role of Judah Smith and other Christians who demonstrated what it looked like to follow Jesus and how that should affect your relationships, he would be in a very different place than where he is at today.  Listen to what Bieber said of the dark season that led to him fully committing to following Jesus with his life:

“I was just living in this shame, living in all this sort of stuff in my past and I wasn’t able to move on,” he said. “… [Now] the way I look at my relationship with God and with Jesus is I’m not trying to earn God’s love by doing good things. God has already loved me for who I am, before I did anything to earn and deserve it. It’s a free gift by accepting Jesus and just giving your life to Him. 

“And what He did is the gift – the forgiveness is the thing that we look at and, you know, ‘I’m going to worship You, God, because You gave me something so good.’ And so you live that life of like, ‘I don’t want to cheat on my wife, not because it’s the right thing to do but because I don’t want to hurt her.’ See the difference there?”[1]

Bieber described his salvation in the following way: “Jesus found me in my dirt and pulled me out.”  There is much more to Bieber’s story of how he came to genuine faith in Jesus, but one thing is sure, there has been a remarkable change in his life since the day he discovered that his faith in Jesus meant that he must follow Jesus.  It is Bieber’s faith in Jesus and his relationship with his wife, Hailey Baldwin that leads me to his song, “Holy.” 

According to Bieber, “Holy” is a love letter to his wife and how faith brought them together.  In the video, which stars Ryan Destiny as Bieber’s love interest, the music video is really about the love he and Hailey share that is strengthened by their faith in Jesus.  The two dated briefly in 2015, but ran into each other in June 2018 at a Christian conference not long after Bieber had recommitted his life to following Jesus.  They were engaged a month later and were married in September of that same year, a

Daniel 12:1-13

We started our sermon series in Daniel right around Valentine’s Day; and by the conclusion of this sermon, I will have preached 21 sermons on a book that has helped me work through my own anxieties concerning all that has happened, is happening, and will happen in my life and the world I live in. 

I started preparing for this series on Daniel last August while on vacation in Idaho.  My hope was that when I finished the series, we would find ourselves in a somewhat more normal and stable world then it was before the pandemic.  If anything, it seems like things have gotten more bizarre than normal.  In fact, I am not even sure what normal means anymore. 

Regardless of how you may feel things are going in our world, it is the same problem that has existed for thousands of years with a different dress; what was true of the age in which Daniel lived is true today.  I said when we started our series in Daniel that there was a physical empire known as Babylon, but there is a more ominous force at work in our world today and that is the Spirit of Babylon.  The Spirit of Babylon is the spirit of the age.  The Spirit of the Age is what Paul wrote of in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:1–5a).

In many respects, I think the emotions Daniel experienced throughout his lifetime as he watched and experienced the world around him violently change is like ours today.  The difference between Daniel’s world and ours is that with every passing generation, the spirit of the age seems more brash than the age that preceded it.  It has been true of every generation that the world is a place full of people who are lovers of self and money, who are proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, undisciplined, brutal, lovers of evil, treacherous, reckless, conceited, hedonistic, and who are repulsed by a God who hates sin.  The apostle John admonished the Church with these words:

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” (1 John 2:15–18)

I said throughout this sermon series that all of history is moving in one direction with purpose.  The theme of Daniel can be summed up in the way Daniel responded to Nebuchadnezzar’s dream God had given him about the future: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might.  He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings…” (Dan. 2:20-21).  This theme is heard again in Daniel 4:34-35 with the king’s description of God: “…for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:34–35).  After Daniel was rescued by God from the jaws of hungry lions, another pagan king said of the God of Daniel: “…for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end.  He

Daniel 11:36-45

How will the world end?  Who is the antichrist?  When will Jesus come back again?  These are three questions that Christians have been asking for centuries. 

There have also been all kinds of predictions for the way the world will end.  Who can forget Y2K and the fear that all computers would shut down once we crossed the threshold of a new century known as the year 2000.  Harold Camping, the president of the Family Radio Network, predicted that on May 21, 2011 the world would come to an end.  Hundreds of his followers sold everything so that they could hit the road to proselytize as many as possible into doing likewise.  When May 21st proved once again that the radio personality was wrong, Camping pushed the apocalypse back to October 21, 2011.  He apologized, retried, and then later died.  Jehovah Witnesses and the Watch Tower society have made at least seven end time predictions that never panned out.  

Some of the top contenders for the antichrist have been an emperor of Rome known as Nero who was suspected for being as such for obvious reasons (he was one of the most ruthless persecutors of the Church).  Napoleon was thought by many to be the possible antichrist due to his remarkable rise to power and lack of interest in religion.  An all-time popular contender for being the antichrist, in the view of protestants, was and continues to be the Pope.  Another group of contenders for the title of antichrist are the American Presidents such as FDR, JFK, Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.  Some of you may remember the man who shot up the white house in 2011.  The man who shot at the White House was Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, he shot at the White House because he believed himself to be Jesus and President Barack Obama the antichrist.  I think the latest candidate is Bill Gates.

One of the weirdest doomsday stories I read about was that of Prophet Hen of Leeds who appeared in England in 1806.  What was her claim to fame that made her so popular and swayed countless hundreds of Christians?  It was the eggs she supposedly laid that were inscribed with the message: “Christ is coming.”  It was later discovered that the eggs were not prophetic but the work of the hen’s owner who wrote the messages on the eggs in corrosive ink before reinserting them into the hen’s body.   

So what about Daniel 11:36-45?  Who are these verses describing?  I believe the answer is twofold; I believe that in part, these verses describe the life of Antiochus IV and the life of a future ruler more horrible and violent than Antiochus IV.  I am not going to lie, these verses are understood by most commentators as difficult, but those same commentators agree that it seems that these verses are describing the antichrist who is to come.

The Antichrist will Exalt Himself as a God (vv. 36-39)

Permit me to explain why I, along with other conservative Bible scholars believe that these verses shift from describing Antiochus IV to a future evil king.  Verses 36-38 easily describe the life of Antiochus who, as I have mentioned last week, serves as a prototype of the Antichrist who is to come.  Antiochus IV also identified with the name Epiphanes, which means “God Manifest” in Greek.  He, like the future antichrist, identified himself as a god.  The difference between these two men is that the one who is coming will identify as a god above every god.  Regarding the gods of his fathers (v. 37), Antiochus worshiped Zeus and even believed himself to be the incarnation of Zeus, which was a departure from the gods that his forefathers worshiped.  However, the evil king who is coming will worship his own power and military might.  This is what I believe is meant by verse 37-38, “He shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all.  He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these.  A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor.”

The departure from describing Antiochus IV t

Daniel 11:2-45

People do weird things during pandemics or other national crises; one thing that we do is stockpile.  The top items that people cleared off the shelves were fruit and vegetable seeds, dumbbells, treadmills, yeast, gaming consoles, facemasks, and booze.  Some other items that people confessed to purchasing because of the pandemic that I found to be a bit strange, include:

Canned Quail Eggs in WaterAnti-aging face masksRoller SkatesScented CandlesToilet PaperA Bidet for the bathroom

Regarding the stockpiling of toilet paper, PLOS ONE found from their study: “Given that stockpiling is objectively unrelated to saving lives or jobs during a health crisis, this finding supports the notion that toilet paper functions as a purely subjective symbol of safety…”[1] Perhaps the purchasing of bidets during the pandemic was in response to the shortage of toilet paper. 

Of the many reasons people may stockpile or make weird purchases during a pandemic, I suspect that the biggest reason is the desire to be prepared for the unknown.  To be honest with you, one of my motivations in choosing to preach through the book of Daniel is that I needed to be reminded that regardless of the craziness of the day and age we live in, that it is not without purpose or design.  Daniel reminds me that God is working and moving to dispel the darkness of our world, but before he does, two things will remain true until that day comes: Kings and kingdoms will come and go, and that darker days are still to come. 

Daniel chapter 11 is the most precise prophetic chapters in the Bible regarding its detail to human history that was still the future for Daniel.  This is the reason why any person who does not believe the Bible to be a supernatural book ordained by God cannot accept that the book of Daniel was written any time before Antiochus IV.   Because Daniel already addressed the rise of Persia, Greece, and Rome in previous chapters, I will spend most of our time on verses 20-35.  However, I do want highlight for you how precise this chapter is concerning what was coming that was yet in the future of Daniel’s day. 

Kings and Kingdoms Will Come and Go (vv. 2-20)

In verses 3-5, we are given a detailed description of the rise of Alexander the Great and the later division of his empire among four generals after his untimely death in 323 BC.  Notice the detail in these verses:

Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these. “Then the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority.” (Daniel 11:3–5)

One of the most striking sections of chapter 11 in terms of their prophetic and pinpoint accuracy is found in verses 6-9, which serve to describe the events that led to the eventual rise of Antiochus IV who would set up an idol of Zeus and sacrifice a pig in the Temple where Hebrews worshiped God.  Consider the detail of these verses:

After some years they shall make an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the strength of her arm, and he and his arm shall not endure, but she shall be given up, and her attendants, he who fathered her, and he who supported her in those times.

And from a branch from her roots one shall arise in his place. He shall come against the army and enter the fortress of the king of the north, and he shall deal with them and shall prevail. He shall also carry off to Egypt their gods with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold, and for some years he shall refrain from attacking the king of the north. Then the l

Daniel 10:1 – 11:1

What I am about to say is serious, it is real, and it may seem scary to some of you.  From the opening pages of the Bible to its final chapter is a story about a grand and glorious God who rescues and saves lost sinners.  In the first two chapters, it begins with a beautiful creation that includes the creation of man and woman in the image of God; in the final two chapters of the Bible in Revelation, it concludes with a glorious recreation that includes all human beings of all ethnicities whose sins have been forgiven through the substitutionary death of Jesus in place of sinners and His victorious resurrection from the grave.  However, sandwiched between those first two chapters of Genesis and the final two chapters of Revelation is also a depiction of a war, not between nations, but a war on a cosmic scale between God and Satan. 

Throughout the book of Daniel, we have seen glimpses of the spiritual war that wages beyond our physical sight, but it is not until we come to Daniel 10 that the curtain is pulled back just enough for us to peer into a world that is very real, and a world that we are very much a part of.  The Bible has a lot to say about the spiritual war we find our selves in.  Permit me to share with you just three passages:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:10–13)

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…” (2 Corinthians 10:3–5)

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” (1 Peter 5:8–9)

The War is Not Only Spiritual

Let me just say at the start that not everything that we struggle with is demonic, angelic, or directly related to the cosmic war we find ourselves to be a part of.  We are told in the first two verses that it was the third year of Cyrus when Daniel experienced what we read in this chapter.  To set the context here, it was about three years earlier that Daniel prayed his prayer of repentance in Daniel 9.  Within the span of three years leading up to Daniel 10, Cyrus decreed to permit Jews to return to Jerusalem for the purpose of rebuilding it.  The year after that, the Jews who returned began to offer sacrifices in Jerusalem.  In Cyrus’ third year, Daniel was about 90 years old.  The thing that Daniel longed for since he was a teenager was no longer a possibility; there was no way he could make the long, grueling trip to participate in the rebuilding of Jerusalem or to worship in the temple Ezra would rebuild.  How hard do you think it must have been for Daniel to hear about the rebuilding of his city Jerusalem, knowing that he would never be able to enjoy it while alive? 

The second thing we learn about the context of Daniel 10 is that Daniel was, “mourning for three weeks.”  While mourning, he fasted from delicacies, meat, and wine; he also refrained from applying lotion or oils on his body to be more comfortable in the extremely dry climate he lived.  What is even more significant is that he did this during Passover week, for the, “twenty-fourth day of the first month” was 10 days after Passover.  Why did Daniel mo

Jeremiah 17:5-10

The post “The Perfect Cure” appeared first on Meadowbrooke Church.

Daniel 9:20-27

One theologian said of Daniel 9:24-27, “The prophetic message Gabriel brought from the throne of God to Daniel is perhaps the most important not only in the Book of Daniel, but in the whole Bible.”[1]  Commentators have said that Daniel 9:24-27 is “…the ‘key’ to prophetic interpretation. Others have called it the ‘backbone’ of prophecy.[2]  Yet, Daniel 9:24-27 is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult passages to deal with in the Bible.  The early church father Jerome, wrote of the meaning of Daniel 9:24-27, “Because it is unsafe to pass judgment on the opinions of the great teachers of the church and to set one above the another, I shall simply repeat the view of each and leave it to the reader’s judgment as to whose explanation ought to be followed.”[3]  Jerome listed 9 different views, I am only going to share with you the main 4 that exist today.

The Four Major Views of Daniel 9:24-27

Daniel Akin, in his commentary on Daniel, offers the best summary of each of the four views I have seen:

View 1.  The seventy weeks are literal years that run from either 605 or 586 BC to the reign of Antiochus (Epiphanes) in 167-164 BC…. This is a view usually advocated by more liberal scholars.  This is called the Critical Scholarship View.

View 2. The seventy weeks are symbolic periods of time that begins with the reign of the Persian King, Cyrus, to Jesus as the King of kings.  At the end of the 69 weeks, Jesus was born then cut off when he was crucified.  The destruction of the of the city and Temple happened in 70 AD, which mark the end of the seventieth week.  This is called the Historical Messianic View.

View 3.  Like the Historical Messianic View, this view understands the seventy weeks to start with Cyrus and culminate to the life of Jesus, but the only difference is that the seventieth weeks also includes the second coming of Christ and the defeat of both the Antichrist and Satan.  This is called the Symbolic View.

View 4.  The last major view, which is one I used to hold to, understand the 490 years to be literal years with a gap between the 69th and 70th weeks.  That gap represents the age of Christ’s Church and the final week in Daniel’s prophesy is still yet in the future and will last seven years that will involve the antichrist and his destruction with the second coming of Christ.  This is called the Dispensational or Future Fulfilment View. 

The Future Fulfilment View interprets the seventieth week as not only future, but the prince is not the Messiah, but the antichrist who will not only destroy the “city and sanctuary” but will make a covenant with Israel that he will break three and a half years later.  According to those who hold to the Future fulfilment View, the prince will cut off the priestly system in Israel, he will have an idol set up in the temple, and then the end will come. 

What I Believe Daniel 9:24-27 is Saying…

Now I would like to share why I no longer hold to the Futurist View.  The purpose of the seventy-sevens is to move all of history to the culmination of God’s Kingdom when, “…the saints of the Most High shall receive and possess forever, forever, and ever” (Dan. 7:18).  The way that God will do this is by first finishing the transgression.  What transgression?  The transgression of Israel’s violation and breaking of God’s covenant (Exodus 19-24) that eventually ended in their exile under God’s judgment (Deut. 28:63-68), however, exile was never God’s permanent plan for Israel (see Deut. 30:1-10).  The plan was always for a deliver to be born from out of Israel who would come from the tribe of Judah.  This is what Daniel wanted and what he prayed for in Daniel 9:3-19.  However, there was so much more that God had in store for his people.

The end of the exile (the transgression) was just the tip of God’s redemptive Iceberg.  The exile had to come to an end so that God’s promises of a deliver could come into the world as the Prince of peace (Isa. 9:6-7),

Daniel 9:20-27

Have you ever heard of the year of Jubilee?  The year of Jubilee is an important and sacred year that God commanded his people, Israel, to observe every seven cycles of seven, which was 49 years.  Every seven years there was to be a year’s rest for the land of Israel, but every 50th year was to be a year of rest and redemption.  The year of Jubilee required that all prisoners, all captives, all debts be released and forgiven, and any property that was lost was to be returned to its original owner(s).  Here is what God commanded Israel to do every 50th year:

You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field. (Leviticus 25:8–12)

Imagine the freedom you would experience if all your debts were immediately forgiven.  Imagine the freedom of those in prison or those held captive would experience when released from captivity with a clean slate to begin a life liberated from their past.  How often do you think Israel observed the year of Jubilee?  We have no evidence that Israel ever celebrated it.  

Last week we looked at Daniel’s prayer in verses 1-19.  Daniel prayed because of what he read in Jeremiah 25, which states: “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.  Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land and everlasting waste” (vv. 11-12).  It was shortly after the death Belshazzar and the transfer of power to the Medo-Persian Empire that Daniel read these prophetic words, so he pleaded with God by appealing to his promises to restore what was lost after his people turn from their sins:

And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. (Deuteronomy 30:1–3)

Daniel concluded his prayer with these words: “O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name” (Daniel 9:18–19).  What Daniel failed to see, because he was incapable of seeing it is that God’s providence was infinitely greater than his perception of his current circumstances. 

Daniel Prayed for What He Could Perceive (vv. 20-23)

What put Daniel on his face before God was the righteousness of God in light of his sin and the sins of Israel.  Recognizing that God is Yahweh who is faithful, Daniel pleaded with him as Adonai (the Sovereign One) who is great and awesome.  What this means is that Daniel approached God with the understanding that he is, “good in infinite measure,