Sunday - The Cleansing of The Sanctuary
Each Jew clearly understood the meaning of the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary. It occurred on the Day of Atonement, which was the day of judgment. Although Daniel understood the concept of the cleansing of the sanctuary and the judgment, he was confused about these 2300 days. At the end of Daniel 8, Daniel fainted and exclaimed, “I was astonished by the vision, but no one understood it” (Dan. 8:27, NKJV). That is, the vision of the 2,300 days. The next chapter, Daniel 9, records the angel Gabriel coming to explain to Daniel the 2,300-day prophecy. “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand“ (Dan. 9:22, NKJV).
Monday - The 2,300 Days and The End Time
In Daniel 8, Gabriel begins his explanation of the 2,300-day prophecy. He names the ram as representing Media-Persia and the male goat as representing Greece (Dan. 8:20, 21). Though not named, as were the two powers before it, the next entity, the little horn, is obviously Rome (Dan. 8:9, 23, 24). He then depicts a kind of religio-political phase of Rome, which would “cast down the truth to the ground” (Dan. 8:10-12, 25) and interfere with Christ’s heavenly ministry (Dan. 8:10-12). The cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8:14, the climax of the chapter, is God’s answer to the challenge of earthly and religious powers that have attempted to usurp the authority of God. It is part of God’s divine solution to the sin problem.
Tuesday - The Angel's Instruction to Daniel
The angel plainly instructed Daniel to “consider the matter, and understand the vision” (Dan. 9:23, NKJV). What matter, and what vision? Because there is no vision recorded in Daniel 9, the angel Gabriel must be speaking of the portion of the vision in Daniel 8 that the prophet did not understand — the vision of the 2,300 days (Dan. 8:27). The first portion of this prophecy relates to God’s people, the Jews. “Seventy weeks are determined for your people” — the Jewish nation (Dan. 9:24, NKJV). In Bible prophecy, one prophetic day equals one literal prophetic year (Ezek. 4:6, Num. 14:34). One of the ways we can be certain that the day-year principle of prophecy applies here is that when we use it in Daniel’s prophecy, each event on the time line comes out perfectly. If we apply this principle, 70 weeks are composed of 490 days. Since one prophetic day equals one literal year, 490 days are 490 literal years. Gabriel tells Daniel that 490 years are “cut off” (the literal meaning of the Hebrew word chathak, sometimes translated “determined”). Cut off from what?
Wednesday - The Messiah 'Cut Off'
In Daniel 9:27, we read that in the middle of the week, the last seven years, Christ would “bring an end to sacrifice and offering.” In the middle of this seventieth week, in A.D. 31, Christ confirmed the everlasting covenant with His blood by dying on the cross, and the sacrificial system lost any and all prophetic significance. These prophecies reveal that Christ, the Messiah, would be crucified and cause the sacrificial system to cease its prophetic importance in the spring of A.D. 31. These predictions were fulfilled in every detail. Exactly at Passover, when the high priest was offering the Passover lamb, Christ was sacrificed for us.
Thursday - The Year 1844
The first 490 years apply to the first Advent of the Messiah and ended in A.D. 34. Subtracting 490 years from 2,300 years leaves us with 1810 years. These next 1810 years apply to God’s people. If we begin at A.D. 34 and we add 1810 years, we come to A.D. 1844. In the light of the cleansing or restoration of the truth about the sanctuary and heaven’s end-time judgment, God makes His final appeal to all humanity in Revelation 14:6, 7 to respond to His love, accept His grace, and live godly, obedient lives.
(This is taken directly from the SDA Sabbath School Lesson Quarterly Q2 2023, Lesson 6. Please access the full lesson here)
