[0:00] All right, good morning again. I thought I'd introduce myself, BK, just in case you might forget who I am. I have the pleasure of serving as the pastor here, in case you do not know me.
[0:14] We are in the middle of a series on the life of Christ. And if you've been with us the last couple of weeks, you understand that in the life of Christ, we are now in the Passion Week.
[0:27] The Passion Week. This is the week, also known as the Holy Week, the week that Jesus completely reveals himself to his people, and they crucify him.
[0:44] More specifically, we are on the day. It's a Sunday. It is the day known as the Triumphal Entry. And I want to go deeper into this day, and I want you to turn with me to the book of Daniel, chapter 9.
[1:01] Book of Daniel, chapter 9. Yes, you're right, the book. It's in the Old Testament. What does the book of Daniel have to do with the Triumphal Entry?
[1:15] My response to you is everything. We are going to be what I have come to understand and know, is that Daniel chapter 9 is probably one of the most important passages in all of our Old Testament.
[1:35] It is the chapter which gives us understanding of our past and gives us hope for our future. It is the one that sheds light on what is to come and what has already happened.
[1:50] So this is what I want to spend time with you today, is understanding the significance of Daniel, chapter 9, so that we may understand this in the life of Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ means to us, and to understand Daniel, chapter 9, also explains to us revelation when the king comes back.
[2:13] Amen? It is the one that fills in the gap our understanding of these things. Quick quiz here, all right? I'm going to give you a few quizzes. Who has studied the 70 weeks of Daniel?
[2:28] All right, we're going to have some fun. I grew up in a church that always kind of talked about the 70 weeks, and I never really understood the significance. I knew the significance, but I didn't understand the significance.
[2:41] And the last couple of months, just as I've been doing my study, I've just come to appreciate deeper and deeper the understanding of such things. And what's really interesting is, I was just thinking about thanking you for giving me the opportunity to study these things, that you guys value God's word and his truth, and that you actually give us time as pastors to study and dive deep.
[3:06] And one of my philosophies of ministry is that I have this opportunity, and you guys don't, like to study 10, 20, 30 hours a week.
[3:18] You do not have that opportunity to do that, whereas you have given me that blessing. In no time do I ever want you to come here, and I want you to feel like you're ripped off. And when I go through, I'm seeing these insights, and I want you to have these too.
[3:35] So it's kind of interesting. I only thought I was going to spend one Sunday on the triumphal entry. But as I start looking at the prophecies and what the Bible has taught on it, I'm just blown away more and more by Jesus Christ.
[3:50] And it's a remarkable chapter, and we're going to be covering this over the next two Sundays, if you can believe it, maybe three, who knows.
[4:02] But I think it's absolutely imperative that you guys really understand these things. And a lot of you guys might have said, hey, I've gone my whole Christian life. I didn't know these things. I didn't understand these things. I'm okay. You know what?
[4:13] That's great. But I guarantee you, when you get in here and you understand, my hope and prayer is that you'll come to a deeper love and understanding which leads to greater worship of Jesus.
[4:25] So thank you for giving me that opportunity to do so, so that I can bless you guys with His Word. So just to give you a quick recap, it is the triumphal entry.
[4:36] It is a Sunday morning. Yes? Yes? Oh, thank you, Mary. So it's a Sunday.
[4:51] It's a triumphal entry. So we understand it's a Sunday morning. It's in Israel. It's in Jerusalem. It's one day after the Sabbath. And as we learned last Sunday, it's two days after Jesus Christ traveled with that caravan.
[5:05] Remember? We looked at Luke chapter 17 all the way to 19. And all those events that happen in those chapters occurs as Jesus travels from Galilee all the way to Jerusalem.
[5:18] So we're having video and sound problems today that tells us Satan doesn't want this message going out, right? I don't know. Okay. Anyway, so Jesus is arriving in Jerusalem.
[5:30] About four weeks earlier, he healed Lazarus. And John tells us that the people are continuing to teach on Lazarus.
[5:40] And they're telling everybody what Jesus did. So by the time Jesus enters into Jerusalem, it is to great fanfare. It is to a tumultuous arrival.
[5:50] It's a massive event in the life of Israel to that time. Jesus is literally the talk of the town. The Gospel of Matthew tells us like it shook Jerusalem.
[6:03] It was such an incredible event. And I wish there were words that could better describe how important that would have been. And it was the Sunday that all of Jerusalem broke out in praise that Jesus Christ was the rightful Messiah.
[6:25] Right? And we're going to look at a little bit of that today. I mentioned several weeks ago that three prophecies were fulfilled on that morning that Jesus came in.
[6:35] The first prophecy I told you about was Zechariah 9.9. And it predicted that the Messiah would not come on a great steed, like he's leading an army, but he would come on a donkey.
[6:51] The foal of a donkey, in fact. John 12.15 says, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.
[7:03] That Jesus did not come in grandeur and splendor, but he came in humility. And we're going to connect this humility. It's going to fit into this Daniel 9 and what happens next.
[7:16] And it's amazing how these prophecies all fulfill together. So anyway, we're going to get there. So he's coming in in this humble colt. And how does Jesus appear in Revelation?
[7:28] He's coming on that war steed, right? So there's this thing that God is doing. It's so amazing. But he's entering into the city, demonstrating his humility.
[7:42] The second prophecy that is fulfilled is, we actually read it today in Psalm 18. And I'm going to read to you Luke's rendition. I have the overhead ready for you guys to read along with me.
[7:55] So if you're online, you guys can actually switch to your TV or your cameras. You can actually see it, believe it or not. But anyway, Luke 19, verse 37 to 40.
[8:05] Trust me when I read this. It says, The gospel of Matthew records it.
[8:34] Mark records it this way. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.
[8:47] Hosanna in the highest. And John, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. What is significance about what they were saying?
[9:01] Well, in verse 39, the Pharisees of Luke 19 respond to Jesus. And it says, Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, rebuke your disciples.
[9:16] Get them to stop saying those words. What does that do? That tells us there is a significance to the words that the people were shouting out at Jesus.
[9:28] Jesus. These men knew the significance of what the people were saying. And they're essentially saying in that place, Hey, Jesus, we get your popular guy. But you can't really mean that you're the Messiah.
[9:41] You can't really mean that they're saying this. And if we go to, and I'll just remind you of Psalm 118, what I read to you in verses 21 to 26.
[9:54] It says, I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
[10:06] This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
[10:20] Save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord, we pray, give us success. And here it is, Psalm 118, verse 26. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
[10:33] We bless you from the house of the Lord. For them to be shouting those words to Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy that was told in Psalm 118, that this is what the people would shout when Jesus came, because he was the expected Messiah.
[10:52] Jesus' response in verse 40 of Luke 19 to the Pharisees, I tell you, if the people were silent, the very stones would cry out.
[11:04] This tells us what a momentous event this is in the time of history, that even if all our voices were silent, God would have had the rocks, the trees, and the earth itself cry out that this is our salvation.
[11:23] Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen? This is a big day. This is a big day. All right.
[11:34] The third prophecy, which is where I'm going with this in this sermon, in the next sermon, is found in 118 of Psalm. It's verse 26.
[11:47] It is the verse that says, this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Who's ever sang that song? Right? A few of you, right?
[11:57] This is the day. Okay, I'm glad you guys know it, that I don't have to sing it. But when we sing that song, we're generally celebrating that the Lord has made this day, and we celebrate it, and it's a cause for us to be joyful in every day, right?
[12:14] Well, guess what? We got that theology all wrong. The psalmist is actually talking about one specific day in all of man's history.
[12:26] Guess which day it is. It is this day, the triumphal entry day. It is the day that God reveals the Messiah, the one who he promised to save his people with.
[12:39] It is this one specific day. Now, why is that, right? This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
[12:51] Save us, we pray, O Lord. Now, what I want to argue for you today, the next coming days, is that this day just wasn't an occurrence of any day.
[13:02] The psalmist is not talking about Jesus arriving on just a Sunday or a specific day of the week or a month or even a day of the season or even a day that Jesus just so happened to enter Jerusalem on a foal of a donkey.
[13:20] I want to argue for you, and I believe I can do so convincingly over the next several Sundays, that the day that they were speaking of was actually a Sunday, March 30th, A.D. 33.
[13:36] And we're going to go through, and this is what the prophecies tell us, that this is the day that we can get there. In the next couple of weeks, I want to explain that to you. This is what we've been working to.
[13:48] But this demonstrates to us why this is the day that Jesus had to enter Jerusalem. This was the day Jesus needed to be getting, the reason he healed Lazarus in such a way that would create the talk of the town.
[14:05] Why Jesus went up to Galilee and came down with the caravan to create the excitement as he went into Israel. This is the day.
[14:18] All right. Let's us understand Daniel. Yes, when I say Daniel, I'm talking about Daniel from the lion's den. The Daniel who we know many of the stories about, right?
[14:29] Remember he's got three friends, Mishael, Shadrach, and Amandigo, right? Remember those guys? We've all heard. If you've been in Sunday school, you grew up in church, you've looked at the Daniel stories, right? Those were his three friends, wouldn't bow down.
[14:42] The king throws them in the furnace, and he heats the furnace so high that the people who go to throw them in die because the heat is so great. But God spares them.
[14:53] They live. The book of Daniel covers the stories of how Daniel was so faithful to God that he resolved not to eat the food that was offered to him to demonstrate that God could keep him strong with his foods.
[15:08] We know Daniel is this man who had absolute integrity, and he rose to fame when King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, and he asked his wise people to tell him what the dream meant.
[15:22] And he was smart enough to say, I'm not going to tell you the dream. You need to tell me what the dream is and what it means if you're so good. And Daniel, out of everyone else in the kingdom, was able to do that. He's an incredible man.
[15:35] And although the book of Daniel portrays Daniel as a man who had great love for God, he was a man who had great courage and great faith, and through his faithfulness, he finds favor not only with gods but with foreign kings.
[15:50] This book is far greater important than simply who Daniel is. When I speak the word prophecy, sometimes we think of it as simply predicting the future.
[16:07] But I believe it's so much more. That Daniel 9 is the chapter that makes the history of God's people make sense and makes the future of God's people make sense.
[16:20] That's how big I think this chapter is to us. Daniel demonstrates for us that we are or who we are to put our faith in.
[16:32] But it also models for us our failures as mankind as we respond to God. Now, obviously I've only been here for four years and I haven't been able to teach you everything in the Bible yet.
[16:48] But before we truly understand Daniel 9, we need to understand the history of God's people. So this morning, I thought I would take the time to share the history of God's people that if you grew up outside of the church, you would have a good handle on the Old Testament by the end of today.
[17:11] That is my goal for you. And we're going to learn about three specific covenants that God made with His people. Are you guys familiar with the covenants, right?
[17:22] We have the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and in between those is known as the Mosaic covenant. And I know this sounds all very theological, and it is, but I want to make it so simple that you can understand it and your kids would understand it.
[17:40] It's very important that we do. So as we all know, the book of Genesis begins with the story of creation, how we came to be. By the time we get to Genesis chapter 11, chapter 12, we are introduced to this man named Abraham.
[17:57] And this is the formation of a covenant. Now, remember, a covenant is a promise, okay? And what we're looking at is the promises that God makes to the Jews, mankind at that time.
[18:14] So feel free to turn with me to these texts if you want. The first one is in Genesis chapter 12. It'd be great if you did. I actually had these printed up on the overhead, but my overhead was so big it blew the projector.
[18:27] So if you look with me or turn with me in your telephones to Genesis chapter 12, imagine what someone would be thinking like, I don't know, 20 years ago when I'd said, turn to Genesis 12 on your telephone.
[18:41] What in the world is he talking about, right? You guys remember you could dial into the prayer? You guys remember having a prayer line you could just dial in and hear prayers? No, you guys don't remember rotary phones?
[18:52] Okay, sorry. Murray, it's just me and you, buddy. Anyway, technologies. All right, so we're in Genesis chapter 12. And basically, this is happening about 2000 BC, give or take a few decades.
[19:06] And God is calling this man named Abraham out of the land of Ur. And the land of Ur is Mesopotamia, which is modern day Iraq, right? That's where the Tigris and Euphrates, that used, today it's a desert.
[19:20] And the reason why it's a desert is the people have stopped the flow of the water in that land. But it was an exceptionally fertile, beautiful part of the land.
[19:31] And that's why mankind congregated in that area. But God asked this man, Abraham, to come out with his family and settle in the land of Canaan.
[19:43] And when he does, God makes a promise to Abraham. And this is found in Genesis 12, verses 1 to 3. It says, Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.
[20:02] And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
[20:13] I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you will I curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
[20:25] All right, so what we are having there is known as the Abrahamic covenant. And God is making a promise to Abraham. When you come to the land of Canaan, there's going to be three aspects.
[20:41] He promises him land. I am going to give you land. And in fact, Genesis 13 says that he will give Abraham and his people a land that will last eternally.
[20:53] Okay? Number two, the promise is that he will have many descendants. Many people will come after him. That's the second element of the Abrahamic covenant.
[21:06] And the third promise is of blessing and redemption. that God would bless and redeem the descendants of Abraham.
[21:18] So, we know as we've been going through the life of David, or Jesus, sorry, remember when we get to those situations where Jesus is encountering the Pharisees and they believe they're saved because they are the seed of Abraham?
[21:34] You guys with me? This is what they're hoping on. And the sign of that blessing was circumcision. That you were of Abraham. So, that's why the Jews from that time on would circumcise their sons on the eighth day after they were born.
[21:51] It's a sign that they were of the Jewish nation. Alright? So, that is the first thing that, the first covenant that God does.
[22:03] So, this is somewhere around 2000. So, if you remember your Sunday school stories, Abraham has a son named Isaac, then he has a son named Jacob, and Jacob has 12 sons, and one of his sons is named Joseph.
[22:19] Joseph, hated by his brothers and sold into slavery, goes to Egypt. While he's in Egypt, God blesses him, and he gets put in an important position in the kingdom of Egypt, and a great famine comes upon the land.
[22:39] His old family comes to Egypt seeking food. Joseph reveals himself. There's this reconciliation with his father Jacob, and the Jews begin living in Egypt.
[22:55] The Jews live in Egypt for 400 years. The text tells us that the pharaohs forgot who Joseph was and started to use God's people as slaves.
[23:08] Okay? So, this is the story that happens in Genesis near the end. We read this. Then, God raises a man named Moses.
[23:21] This is about 1500 B.C., and we know the story of Moses. God brings these plagues on Egypt. God forces Pharaoh to release his people, and guess where they're going back?
[23:36] They're going back to Canaan, the promised land that God had promised the seed of Abraham at that point probably about 500 years before.
[23:47] So, now, he's in the wilderness, and if you turn with me to Exodus 19, we have the development of what is known as the Mosaic Covenant.
[24:00] This is a promise that is made to Moses, but what's interesting about this promise is there's conditions, and it's conditions on how God's people respond to what God's given them.
[24:15] All right? The first covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, there was no conditions. All right? And this is important for us to understand when we come to understanding Jesus and everything that happens.
[24:29] So, the first covenant, Abrahamic Covenant, there is no conditions. The second one, if you read with me Exodus 19, 4-6, it says, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.
[24:45] This is God talking. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.
[25:01] And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.
[25:14] So, Israel was given to mankind as a gift to demonstrate how loving great God is. Right?
[25:25] So, they were to go into the land, the promised land, the land of Canaan, modern day Israel, and they were to demonstrate, when it says holy, it doesn't mean perfection.
[25:36] We always think of that word holy. We've talked about that. It means to live apart, to be set apart for a specific function. And Israel was to be set apart as a nation unto God, that the whole world could testify that, wow, their God is something else.
[25:55] Right? And, sadly, we know the story. They moved into Canaan, and along the way, compromise happened.
[26:10] They allowed other gods to be worshipped in the land when God told them they had to clear the land of false worship. They didn't do it. And then, they started following after those other gods.
[26:24] What would happen is they'd get into trouble and they would cry out to God. And remember, we read the book of Judges. It tells us about these specific people that God raised up. Remember, Samson, Gideon, Deborah.
[26:36] There's all these different stories that God uses these different Judges people at times to reveal His people. He saves them from their horrible sin, and guess what happens?
[26:47] They fall right back into it, right? And, it's like this spiraling effect. It just keeps going on. Salvation falling flat, salvation falling flat.
[27:00] So, the people cry out and they say, hey, hey, hey, I know, we know what will help us. Give us a king. Give us a king. Because at that time, God lived in a tent.
[27:11] And, that is where they had the temple was this tent and move along with God's people. Now, it's in Jerusalem and all the people said, you know what, every other nation, you know why they're so strong is they have a king.
[27:23] They have a human man that we know represents God. If we could only have one of those kind of guys. So, God says, all right, I'll give you one of these guys. And guess what, man?
[27:33] First thing he says, he's going to tax you. Right? He's going to tax you. He's going to take your kids and he's going to make them for war. He's going to take your property. He's going to make you do what you want. Do you guys still want him?
[27:43] And all the people said, yes, we still want him because it will help us. So, the first person they name is a guy named Saul because he was taller, handsomer than the rest. Saul, Saul is, starts off worshiping God as a disaster.
[27:57] Then God raises this man named David. A man after God's own heart. And David makes war on God's enemies. He increases Israel.
[28:10] It becomes a mighty nation. And one of the things that David wants to do is he wants to build a temple. He believes, he says, you know, Lord, you've been just living in this temple.
[28:24] I want to build for you a mighty place for you. And God around 1000 BC makes a covenant with David.
[28:34] And if you turn with me to 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles 17. 1 Chronicles 17. So, if you're with me, we've covered over 1000 years now, right?
[28:47] So, if Abraham is around the year 2000, Moses is around 1500, David is around 1000 BC. I'll start in verse 7 of 1 Chronicles 17.
[29:06] And what I'm doing for you is we see through these covenants, we're essentially seeing the entire Old Testament. This is the story of God's people. Verse 7. Now, therefore, thus, shall you say to my servant David.
[29:20] And what he's doing is God speaking to Nathan, who's the prophet. Okay? Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture from following the sheep.
[29:32] Remember, he was a shepherd boy. He was the eighth son. He was a nobody. And God saying, I took you from the pasture from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel.
[29:45] And I have been with you wherever you have gone. and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.
[29:57] What I promise, right? We're still talking about David. Even non-Christians know who David is. In verse 9. verse 10. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them that you may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more.
[30:19] And violent men shall waste them no more as formerly from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will subdue all your enemies.
[30:31] moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.
[30:53] He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. Verse 13, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
[31:08] I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.
[31:23] So we go back to the Abrahamic covenant, three promises, right? The first one was the land. The second one, many descendants, and three that there would be blessings and redemption through his seed.
[31:37] The Mosaic covenant was essentially if you obey me, you will have good success. How did they do? Not so great.
[31:49] So God raises this other man named David, and there's these essential elements, and this is the Davidic covenant. One, God reaffirms the promise of the land that God made to Abraham.
[32:04] So that land, and notice he says, there will be peace, you will have it, you will not be disturbed. The second element is, your son will build a temple, which we know Solomon will go on to build a temple.
[32:18] And then, God goes beyond Solomon, he says, your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever, which we know is Jesus Christ.
[32:33] Amen? So when we read in Psalm 18, and the people are on the day of the triumphal entry, and they're singing out Hosanna, the God of David, the Son of David, that is what they're referring to, this covenant.
[32:48] Now what's interesting about this covenant, it is, a promise that God makes, and it has nothing to do with David. This is God's promise to man.
[33:02] So before we find our way back to Daniel, now a lot of you guys, you might come from a different church background, and you might believe there's other covenants contained in the pages of Scripture, and some do, some people have heard the covenant of works, the covenant of grace, theologians talk about these covenants.
[33:24] I don't subscribe to those, and I'll tell you why. It's because I only feel comfortable calling a covenant of God that the Bible calls a covenant of God. You with me?
[33:36] Those are the covenants that are clearly set in Scripture. If God, I really believe if God wanted us to understand those other promises that God's made as a covenant between his people, he would have called it that, but I really believe he didn't.
[33:48] But these are the three main covenants that he promises he's making to God's people. So, like I said, before we get back to Daniel, we know that David has a son named Solomon, and Solomon builds the temple.
[34:04] Solomon rules for 40 years. He dies. His son is made king. His son, guess what he does? He puts too many taxes on God's people.
[34:17] There's a rebellion, and all of a sudden, there's a split in the land. Israel, where Galilee is, becomes the northern kingdom, and Judea and Jerusalem in the southern part becomes the southern kingdom.
[34:33] And they war and bicker for hundreds of years. And finally, in 732, this is about 200 years after Solomon dies, God brings in Assyria, and he wipes out the people.
[34:53] They come in and they just take the people away. That was the land where 10 tribes of Israel lived. We don't know what happened to those people. They're gone, diaspora to the world, never to return again to our knowledge.
[35:09] And about 150 years later, it's 605 BC. Babylon is the world's dominant power. They are ruled by a man named King Nebuchadnezzar.
[35:23] And he actually gives, he puts a king in Israel that's supposed to be a vassal kingdom, right? Like, you guys are going to do our will.
[35:35] Every opportunity that king has to throw off the yoke of Babylon he takes. First one is 605 BC. King Nebuchadnezzar comes in, bashes down the gates, and he takes 10,000 Jews.
[35:47] And he takes them to Babylon. And the way Babylon worked in those days is they'd take the brightest of the young people. One of those 10,000 people was a man named Daniel.
[35:59] Just a child. These would have been the people that were taken from the aristocracy. These would have been from the educated type of people, the wealthy professionals and craftsmen.
[36:11] So, this is the first deportation. 588 BC, Israel messes around with Babylon. In comes Nebuchadnezzar, another deportation, and Israel resists again, and then Nebuchadnezzar's had enough.
[36:29] He goes in, absolutely destroys Jerusalem, and he absolutely destroys the temple and takes all the riches of the temple that were meant for God's people.
[36:42] King Nebuchadnezzar takes. Israel is no more. They're destitute. They are nothing.
[36:55] Why did this happen? Jeremiah 29, 19 says, it is because you did not pay attention to my words, declared the Lord, that I persistently sent to you my servants, the prophets, but you would not listen.
[37:17] God knew his people were slipping away, and God kept sending these prophets. You know what they did to the prophets? killed them. Many of the prophets they killed.
[37:28] If the king did not like what the prophet would say, the king would kill them. So now we find ourselves in Daniel 9. So please look at Daniel 9 with me this morning.
[37:46] You guys understanding that up to now? Any questions? Going from the Abrahamic covenant to the Mosaic covenant to the Davidic covenant in the history of Israel, right?
[37:57] We just pretty much covered the Old Testament unto Daniel. Those were the major events and what happened. So here we are, Daniel chapter 9 verse 1.
[38:10] In the first year of Darius, the son of Aserus, by descent to Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.
[38:21] The Chaldeans are the Babylonians. So the Babylonians are no longer the world power. Persia, the Mede Persian Empire. And we're going to learn the way the Persians work is much different than the Babylonians.
[38:36] Babylonians go into a country, take all their valuables and people and take them and keep them. Persians will do something very different. So we're about 550 BC, 560.
[38:47] We know that Jeremiah predicted that God's people would be in exile for 70 years. So we're at the tail end of that exile.
[38:59] It says, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, so he had the words of Jeremiah who prophesied during that time.
[39:15] And it said it would be 70 years. Must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years. So like I said, the Jews at this point had been in captivity probably about 50, 60 years.
[39:34] Daniel knows the exile is for 70 years. The question is, what next God?
[39:48] What next? Now, just to understand the significance of such a situation, I want you to put yourself in Daniel's shoes.
[40:00] And I know you can't do that, but I'm going to, and I think we're going to be able to relate to some of these aspects. First of all, we know that Daniel was a good godly man, always been a godly man.
[40:13] His parents probably taught him in the ways of the Lord. Yet he lived in a kingdom named Israel where the king was wicked. The king hated God, but yet it's God's people who suffer.
[40:29] Right? You follow God in his ways, yet it's you who get deported to this foreign land. God's people who would have to do this.
[40:42] They'd strip these young people of their families. They would actually give them new names. So they stripped them of their heritage. They were not allowed to speak their own language.
[40:52] You had to speak that country's language. You would have to adopt the country's customs. and then you were supposed to follow that country's religion.
[41:04] So you're stripped of your family, your name, your language, your heritage, your customs. And because you're in Babylon, you have no temple to worship at.
[41:15] All visible signs of your kingdom that existed from Moses are no longer there. What do you have?
[41:27] where do you draw your hope from? The promises. The covenants is where you would derive your hope from.
[41:43] You would know that God made a promise to Abraham. You would know that God made a promise to David. And they were unconditional promises.
[41:57] promises. So you know somehow God was going to save you. What's interesting about the Mosaic covenant is that the people didn't do a very good job keeping those promises, did they?
[42:17] That's what got them in the mess. Which makes you wonder if there'll be a time, will there'll be one who can fulfill all the elements of the Mosaic covenant.
[42:29] The one who can fulfill the law. Right? Precursor to Jesus Christ. But here is Daniel and the only thing he has is these promises.
[42:45] He has no home, no land, no people, and you certainly don't have any blessings of God to speak of what now. This is the story of Daniel chapter 9.
[42:59] These are all the elements that are happening at the moment that Daniel 9 happens. So understand, to understand Daniel 9, you need to understand the promises of God.
[43:11] You need to understand that even in his judgment, God is true to his word. You might look to God and say, how could God do such horrible things?
[43:23] And you've heard people, right? I don't like the Old Testament. I don't want to look at the Old Testament because God was such a cruel God. I love the God of the New Testament. That God, he was kind of this angry, crusty, old guy.
[43:38] When you understand the covenants and the times, this is over thousands of years that God continually reaches out to his people over and over and over again and they continue to slap his hands and ignore him.
[43:53] The question is, why didn't God do it earlier? Why didn't God just wipe these people off the earth and say, let's start again, again? Why?
[44:03] Because he made a promise right after Noah. Rainbow, I would never do that to you again. So we're going to go about it this way. Why didn't God keep sending prophet after prophet after prophet to his people?
[44:16] He did. What did we do? We killed them. So probably the right question to ask is, how could man, who received so much blessing and love from God, disobey himself?
[44:34] Why would man ever rebel against God? God? God, I will be to God. God, I will be to make sense out of Israel's paths.
[44:50] How does he do it? With a prayer. Look at Daniel 9, verse 3. God, I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
[45:19] Daniel 9 represents the tragic consequences of man's response to God's promises, but demonstrates to us how good God is to his word, to his people.
[45:46] So next week, we're going to look at Daniel's Humber prayer, we're going to look at God's wondrous response to Daniel, and we're going to see the promise of our redemption seen in the prophecy of the Daniel and the 70 weeks.
[46:12] Let's pray. Father, when I go over this history, one wonders, as G.K.
[46:26] Chesterton once wrote, why, oh, why did God ever choose the Jews? The answer is, because the Jews are us.
[46:39] That there is this God who lives on high, who has a great love for his people, and he makes promises to these people despite the people's actions.
[46:52] Father, when we look at the testimonies that's before us in the pages of these scriptures, we see the plight of all mankind. Lost, destitute, rebellious, stubborn.
[47:10] We even think forward to this life of Christ series. how many times did Jesus do nothing but good? His teachings were amazing.
[47:23] They marveled at his teachings. They saw the works of his hands. He healed people with a simple word. He made people right so much so that a city shook.
[47:41] an acceptance of the king. Yet as we know, four days later, they yell, crucify him, crucify him.
[48:00] Where are we to find hope in our own lives? Father, we know we've lived those lives. We've been rebellious.
[48:11] We've been stupid. We've seen God bring your wisdom through his word, through preachers, through friends, through our parents, through our teachers, through our Sunday school teachers. Yet we all continue to resist.
[48:31] And what's so amazing about you, God, is you know this and you sent your son Jesus to die a death we could not die. After living a life we could not live. So that we could live with the peace that you have set out before us.
[48:47] And that peace is described in Daniel chapter nine. Of what you will eventually do in you accomplishing your promises to us.
[49:01] Father, I don't know any of the hardships that people are going through. But you have indeed given us promises. You promise us an eternal home. You promise us that there will be no sin, there will be no tears, there will be no pain, there will be no agony.
[49:21] That we will truly find perfect peace with you alone. That we will be able to and want to worship you every single moment of every single day.
[49:33] That we would not have divided hearts or divided minds, but we would be singularly focused to you. And as we understand these promises of Father, we know that we have a role and that role is to expand your kingdom by testifying to you.
[49:52] To testify what you are going to do. And I pray that even just through this little series, this little segue in Daniel, it will give us a better understanding on how to share the gospel.
[50:08] On how for us to understand the gospel. And how that we might too call people to a wonderful, blessed relationship with you.
[50:23] God, you are good, you are strong, and I pray that just as we make our way through this series, that we would find our own personal application in your wonderful truth and what you have done for us.
[50:39] May you augment our worship and deepen our love for you. In God's name we pray, amen. My homework assignment to you this week, I pray that you will do your devotions in Daniel chapter nine.
[50:53] read it. Take in his prayer. It is an amazing prayer that we will cover next week, but then we will see the wonderful freedom he gives us through that.
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[51:29] And where are they going tolive