Courageous Living: Faith Lessons from Daniel


08/17/2003 - Daniel's Famous Last Words



This morning we conclude our summer series called Courageous Living: Faith Lessons from Daniel.   It's been a powerful series that's challenged us to live out our faith courageously before an unbelieving world, to put God first and honor him above all else.

This summer I've been thinking a lot about that verse in 1 Samuel 2:30 where the Lord says, "Those who honor me, I will honor." Throughout the book of Daniel we've seen how God kept his word and honored Daniel as well as his friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego for taking courageous stands for him.  And he'll do the same for you and me because that promise is still in the book.

I've titled today's teaching "Daniel's Famous Last Words." So if you have a Bible meet me at Daniel 9:20-27. This week I discovered some famous last words of well-known people that I thought were too good not to share with you.

Before she was burned at the stake in 1431, 19 year-old Joan of Arc said, "Hold the cross high so I may see it through the flames." That's called courageous dying!

On January 14, 1957, Humphrey Bogart, the actor, said something a little different before his death, "I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis."

In 1977, just before he collapsed after a round of golf in Spain Bing Crosby said, "That was a great game of golf, fellers." Not a bad way to go, dying on the golf course.

A sad statement came from the lips of artist Leonardo da Vinci, just before he passed away in 1519, "I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have." That's scary.

Here's a few of my favorites.  Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., the actor, died on December 12, 1939, and his last words were, "I've never felt better."

The writer, Oscar Wilde, died in 1900 with these famous last words, "Either the wallpaper goes, or I do."

And now my most favorite.  Right before he was executed in the electric chair in New York, George Appel said, "Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel."

Those are some famous last words.  And the words of Daniel that we're going to look at today are also famous. But they're not actually the last words he ever spoke.  Those aren't recorded in Scripture.  But they are the most famous words he spoke about the last days.  And so in that sense they are Daniel's famous last words on history.

Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest scientists of all time, once said that we could stake the whole truth of Christianity on the words we are going to look at today.  Others have called them the "backbone of prophecy." A prophecy made by Daniel that predicted the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, more than 500 years before he was born. A prophecy that also tells us about a terrible time of tribulation that is still yet to come.

Before we look at Daniel 9, let's just do a quick review. All summer long we've seen that Daniel was a remarkable individual. He was Jewish prophet who was taken captive, as a teenager, by the Babylonians.  He was forced from his homeland in Israel and marched 800 miles to the city of Babylon. Babylon still exists as a city in the modern day country of Iraq.

Nebuchadnezzar was king when Daniel was taken captive over 500 years before Christ and Babylon was the most powerful empire in the world. At that time God was using Babylon as a tool to discipline the nation of Israel because they had failed to keep God's commands.

God had warned his people in Deuteronomy 28 that if Israel failed to keep his commands they would be disciplined.  And the specific command that Israel failed to keep was the command to give the land a rest every seven years.

You see the Israelites were farmers and their whole economy was based on working the land, growing wheat and grapes and olives. But in Leviticus 25, God commanded his people to give the land a break every seventh year.  For six years they could sow and plant, reap and gather, but on the seventh year they were to park their John Deere tractors and take a year vacation to enjoy their family, their friends and their God. That's where we get the concept of a sabbatical. Give the land a break, take a year off and trust God to take care of you.  Sounds good to me.

But Israel never did it.  Because of their greed and lack of faith the people missed seventy sabbatical years.  For 490 years they didn't give the land a rest. So God said, "That's it!  I'm taking you out of the land for seventy years, one year for every sabbatical year you violated (70 x 7 = 490).  And I'm going to give the land a break." And God used the nation of Babylon to take his people out of the land and into captivity.  And Daniel was one of them.

Now remember the number 70, it's significant in this prophecy. Seventy sabbatical years were violated. And so for seventy years Israel was sentenced to captivity in Babylon. Now by the time we get to Daniel 9, Daniel's an old man, in his 80's, but he's still reading the Bible. He's reading the words of another prophet, his contemporary, the prophet Jeremiah.

Look at Daniel 9:2, in the first year of his reign (Darius), I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.

We know exactly what passage Daniel was reading. He was reading Jeremiah 29:10-11, This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

So Daniel gets all pumped up because he realizes that the seventy years are almost over and he asks God to keep his promise and to end this captivity and to take them back to their homeland. And in verse 3 he launches into one of the most authentic, humble, beautiful prayers in all of Scripture. That comes to climax in verse 19 where he says, O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name."

And while he's pleading with God to fulfill his promise, God drops on him one of the most amazing prophecies in the Bible. 

Look at verses 20-23, While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill--21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. 23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision."

And the vision that God gives Daniel has to do with his plans to give Israel a hope and a future.  Will the nation of Israel survive?  That's one of the most relevant questions in the world right now. The answer is, "Yes.   Absolutely!"  Did Babylon survive?  No.  How many Babylonians do you know?  But God has a hope and future for his people Israel and he wanted Daniel and us to know that.

So in the verses to follow God reveals to Daniel what's going to happen to his people, Israel, and to his city Jerusalem in the future, specifically in a period of 70 x 7 years or 490 years yet to come. In my Bible this section, starting with verse 20, is subtitled seventy sevens.  Some refer to it as Daniel's Seventy Weeks.  Because in some versions the word seven is translated "weeks."  A week in this context is not seven days, but seven years. God wanted Daniel to know what the future held for his nation and his city in the next 490 years.

Now let's walk through this prophecy together and unfold what God revealed. Look at verse 24, "Seventy 'sevens' (some versions read 'weeks') are decreed for your people (Israel) and your holy city (Jerusalem) to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy."

God is saying that, within the period of seventy seven's, or 490 years yet to come, six things will happen.  The first three things have to do with the removal of sin. Transgression, sin and wickedness will be atoned for and now we know that that was accomplished by Jesus' death on the cross. And the last three things have to do with the blessings of the coming Messiah to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up or fulfill vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

Now in verse 25, God goes on to tell Daniel when to start counting those 490 years until the coming of Messiah.  Look at verse 25, "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble."

This 490 year period, Daniel is told, will begin when a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.  And according to Old Testament history that decree was issued by King Artaxerxes, the King of Persia, in Nehemiah 2.  And history tells us the exact day that decree was issued. It was the first day of the Jewish month of Nisan in 444 BC or according to our calendar, March 5, 444 BC. That's when this countdown to Messiah begins.

Now in verse 25, we see that the seventy sevens are divided up into seven sevens, sixty-two sevens and then in verse 27 one final seven. What's that about?  Well, the first seven seven's or 49 years refer to the time it took to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, complete with residential streets and a trench or a moat for defense around the city.  The sixty-two sevens refer to time from the completion of the city of Jerusalem until the coming of the Anointed One, the Messiah, Jesus.

Now this is where it gets amazing.  Hang with me here.  I'm not a math whiz and I don't expect you to be either. But I do know that seven plus sixty-two equals 69. Sixty-nine times seven years equals 483 years. Now in the Bible a year was equal to 360 days, not 365 days. They used a lunar calendar.  So counting days from the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed one would come, God says, would be 69 x 7 x 360 = 173,880 days.

Back in the 1800's a British scholar by the name of Robert Anderson wrote a book called The Coming Prince . His book was so significant that he was knighted for his work and became Sir Robert Anderson.  And in his book he did the math.  He started with March 5, 444 BC. the day of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and he added 173,880 days and you know where he ended up? At March 30, AD 33.  And using some well documented calculations he discovered that that was the very day that Jesus was presented to the nation as the Messiah, the Anointed One.  That was the day of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the day we call Palm Sunday.

Did Jesus know the prophecy of Daniel 9?  You bet he did.  Listen to what he said on Palm Sunday.  In Luke 19:41 we read, As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42  and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this very day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

Jesus, the Anointed One, fulfilled Daniel's prophecy to the very day, but Israel missed it, which is why Jesus wept over the city. And as a result, Daniel 9:26 says, the Anointed One was cut off. And that cutting off is a reference to the crucifixion of Jesus, which happened less than a week after that triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Look at verse 26, "After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed."

Not only was Messiah cut off and crucified, but the city, Jerusalem, and the sanctuary, the Temple, was destroyed.  That's exactly why Jesus said what he did in Luke 19 because he was thinking of Daniel 9:26.  And in AD 70 the Romans under the leadership of General Titus sacked the city and leveled the sanctuary.

See Daniel wanted to know what would happen to his people, Israel, and his city, Jerusalem.  Would they survive? And he got more information than he bargained for. They would survive.  Messiah would come 483 years to the very day after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. But Messiah would be rejected and cut off and the city and the Temple would be leveled and war, all kinds of war, would continue until the end of history.  Today Israel is still at war.  And it all happened exactly as God said it would.

That's what would happen during the first 69 weeks, the first 483 years, but what about the 70th week, the last period of seven years? What going to happen then?  Well, that week is still yet to come.  That period of seven years is called the Tribulation period, often referred to as the 70th week of Daniel.  And we can trust it to be fulfilled just as accurately as the events of the first 69 weeks.

Right now, we're in the church age, because God is primarily working in the world through his church.  But when Jesus returns at the rapture the church age will end and the 70th week of Daniel will begin.

Look at verse 27,  "He (refers to the ruler who will come in verse 26 or the Anti-Christ) will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him."

In this one verse, Daniel gives us some very specific details about what will happen during that seven year period known as the Tribulation. The 70th week of Daniel's prophecy will begin when a man known as the Anti-Christ or in other places as the Beast, signs a covenant, a treaty, to protect Israel for seven years.  As part of that treaty he will allow the Jews to rebuild their Temple and re-establish their worship and sacrificial system, a project that's already well underway.  He'll start out as a great friend of the nation of Israel. And everyone will applaud him.

But his friendship will be short lived.  It will last only three and one-half years, because in the middle of those seven years, he will put an abrupt end to sacrifice and offering.  And in a prominent portion of that rebuilt Jewish Temple in Jerusalem he will set up the abomination that causes desolation, Daniel says.  Jesus talked about the abomination of desolation in Matthew 24 and he said when you see it head for the hills because the end is near.

Listen to Jesus talk about this passage in Matthew 24:15-16, 21-22, "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel--let the reader understand-- 16  then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 21  For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now--and never to be equaled again. 22 If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened."

What is the abomination of desolation?  Most scholars believe it's an image, a statue of the Anti-Christ, that he erects in the Temple and demands to be worshiped, like the image Nebuchadnezzar set up and demanded to be worshiped. And when that happens the Great Tribulation, the last half, of the Tribulation begins and all hell breaks loose on earth until the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Jesus knew this prophecy of Daniel by heart. It's the foundation for our understanding of the coming Tribulation.  It starts when the treaty of protection for Israel is signed by the Anti-Christ and it's midway point is signaled when the Anti-Christ breaks that treaty, erects his image in the Temple and demands to be worshiped.

That's the passage that Sir Isaac Newton said was enough to convince him that Christianity was true.  And we can trust its accuracy about the events of the 70th week the same way history records the accuracy of the events of the first 69 weeks.

Israel has a future and a hope.  Israel will survive.  But dark days are coming, the details of which are filled in by Jesus in Matthew 24 and by John in the book of Revelation.  "Days," Jesus said, "that if they had not been cut short, no one would survive."

You don't want to be around when all that happens.  And if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you won't be around. Because, I believe, the rapture of the church will come first and believers will be taken out of this world before that 70th week of horror.  But if you're not sure where you stand with God this morning I want to invite you to come up after the service and talk with me or one of our elders so we can help you know for sure that you're part of God's family, part of God's church and he'll take care of you.

So those are Daniel's famous last words.  Words that Jesus fulfilled. Words that Jesus knew well.  Words that lay out the future yet to be fulfilled for God's people. Count on it.  They will come true.  I don't know about you, but if I'm going to live courageously for God I need to know it's all true.  And passages like Daniel 9 convince me it is. Are you?