From our Sunday service on July 6, 2025, Daniel 9. This is part 9 of our Daniel series. Watch the full message: The Seventy Weeks – Daniel Series #9 on YouTube.
Please turn to Daniel chapter 9. We’re continuing our series through the prophecy section of the book of Daniel. Last week we saw Daniel receive a vision of the ram and the goat, which foretold the future conflict between the nations of Persia and Macedonia. From that, didn’t we learn that when God says he’s going to do something, he does it?
Today we’re going to learn an extension of that thought. We jump eleven years forward from where we were last week, as Daniel receives his next vision from the Lord. The lesson is very clear: God wants you to know that he does not delay on his promises.
Daniel Understands the Books
Verse 1 tells us a little about the date of this writing.
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
Daniel 9:1
You know by now that the prophecy section of Daniel comes in a different order than the narrative section. The narrative has been taking place earlier in the timeline than the first chapter of the prophecy section. Today we’re back to where we were in Daniel chapter 6, the exact same time frame, so this chapter follows right after the last chapter of narrative that we have.
In my Daniel 6 message I talked about how some people confuse this Darius with one of the Persian kings. The text tells us he’s not the same person. He is “of the seed of the Medes.” The Darius we’re familiar with from history, Darius I, was Persian by descent, not a Mede. If you forgot who this Darius was, go back on YouTube and watch the Daniel 6 message.
Why is his first year significant? Because it’s the first time the prophecy of Jeremiah begins to be fulfilled. Because of their sin, God had promised his people seventy years of exile, and at the end of the seventy years he would bring them back to Israel. Those seventy years are quickly coming due, and Daniel knows it. So today Daniel is pondering God’s promises when this vision arrives.
In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Daniel 9:2
What I like about the prophecy section of Daniel is that it gives us the context in which God gave each vision, not just the vision itself. That context is why today’s passage has such a strong application for our lives as believers.
Here we see Daniel doing some Bible study. “The books” are the books of Scripture. Back in Daniel chapter 1 I mentioned how the prophet Jeremiah wrote inspired words and sent them off to the Babylonian captives. He told them to pray for the nation in which they were in exile, because when it prospered, they would prosper. Don’t mourn your exile, he said. Get married, have children, raise them in the way of the Lord, and enjoy God in your difficult circumstances.
Daniel has been in Babylon for sixty-some years, following Jeremiah’s words faithfully. Now he is in his scrolls, reading the prophet, and he understands that the seventy years are nearly complete. He specifically remembers Jeremiah 25.
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. … And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
Jeremiah 25:8–9, 11–12
We see a prophetic timeline here. Israel was sinning. Nebuchadnezzar would take them and punish them for their sins. After seventy years, Babylon would be conquered and the people would return to the land.
Where is Daniel in that timeline? At the end of it. Babylon has fallen to the Medes and Persians. He has seen the promise fulfilled so far, yet the people haven’t returned home. So he is waiting on God’s timing, and he wants to prepare his heart to receive God’s promises. Israel would begin returning just three years from this prayer, in 536 BC.
A Prayer of Confession
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
Daniel 9:3–6
This is a very passionate prayer. Daniel’s heart aches for his people. Remember, he was just a teenage boy when he was hauled off from Jerusalem to Babylon. He knew seventy years awaited him and that he would be very old before he saw his people return. He remembers what Israel was like when the exile began. If they are going home, he reasons, their hearts need to be right. He doesn’t want another generation to face the same difficulty his generation faced.
So Daniel takes the role of an intercessor and repents on behalf of his nation. He may never have been unfaithful to God himself. Does the Bible record anything he did wrong? No, which is rare. Think of all the stories where people trip up, yet Daniel never does. Still, he identifies so closely with his brothers and sisters that he takes their failures personally.
Notice that he sought God “by prayer and supplications.” Prayer is communication with God, and supplications are requests. He also fasted and put on sackcloth and ashes, the most extreme expression of grief in their time. He is saying, “I am so passionate about bringing my nation back to God that I’m not going to eat. I want God to grab my nation’s heart.” He wants them brought home, not only to a land flowing with milk and honey, but to a renewed dependence on God.
And he begins with praise: God is the one “keeping the covenant and mercy.” We haven’t been faithful, Daniel says, but you have. In Deuteronomy 28, God promised to bless Israel if they followed him and curse them if they abandoned him. Daniel says that though we have been cursed for abandoning you, you kept your promise, and I praise you for it.
Doesn’t that take perspective? “God, thank you for your judgment. You didn’t change your character just because I sinned. You said you would correct me and bring me home, and you allowed this difficulty to attach my heart to you.” Sometimes we get mad at God for allowing us to be corrected for our sins. We should praise him instead. He is doing what he said. The Bible says that whom the Lord loves, he corrects.
We also learn that even when we aren’t the ones committing the sin, believers should stand in the gap and pray for our nation. Many people in America don’t believe in God, live sinful lives, and even blaspheme his name. And some sin is done even in his very name. We ought to step up as intercessors and say, “Lord, prepare the hearts of this nation. Let them learn the lesson the easy way and not the hard way. Have them repent so they can inherit your blessings.”
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
Daniel 9:7–8
“Confusion of faces” means being ashamed in the face. Daniel is saying that the punishment God gave, and the embarrassment we wear for rejecting him, is well deserved. Once again he does not blame God for the hardship. “That’s on us.”
Notice also the word “trespass.” Its root carries the same idea as our word “betray.” A trespass is a betrayal. God told us the guidelines to follow and the standard to apply, and when we didn’t follow them, we stabbed him in the back. That shame is ours to carry.
It is on our kings and princes, the leaders who were supposed to lead us in the right direction. Look at the line of kings and you’ll see how many of them were wicked, lifting up foreign idols and blaspheming God’s name. And it is on our fathers. A lot of the problems in any nation would be solved if fathers and mothers didn’t fail to raise their children in the way of the Lord. We talked not long ago about choosing to love your kids so much that you don’t discipline them, because you want to be the cool parent. Israel’s parents chose to be favored by their children rather than to teach them right from wrong. They didn’t say, “No, as a family we won’t take part in worshiping foreign idols, or exploiting the poor, or being prideful and boastful.” And because the parents didn’t stay in the Word, their children fell away.
Romans 3:4 carries a similar idea, and Daniel pretty much nailed this New Testament lesson before it was written.
…yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Romans 3:4
Ask people if they’re a good person and about 95 percent will say yes. Let God be true and every man a liar: that isn’t so. We are probably not good people every day of the week, but we like to give ourselves credit. If you justify yourself, you will not overcome when you are judged. If you want to survive judgment, hold yourself accountable. If you don’t, God will.
Had Israel held themselves accountable, God would not have sent them into exile. If they had seen their sin as David did with Bathsheba and said, “Lord, forgive me, I repent,” Israel could have been in a totally different situation. Instead they doubled down and said, “It was the right choice. God, you were wrong and I was right.” Don’t do that. Let God be true and every man a liar. Confess your sins and avoid the judgment.
Mercy in the Midst of Judgment
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
Daniel 9:9–11
This is an odd thing to say after being judged. The natural human instinct is to say, “God, you took from me. You’re not merciful.” But the Bible says whom the Lord loves, he corrects, and that is mercy. Rather than letting you continue in sin and self-destruction for your whole life, God says, “I’m going to wake you up and bring you back.”
Daniel recognizes that seventy years is nothing compared to Israel living in sin for thousands of years. Their sins were awful: worshiping false idols, sacrificing their children, living with no protection of God over family or nation. Wouldn’t seventy years in Babylon followed by coming home under God’s protection be better than staying home with none? Daniel even says it could have been longer. And he is going to see them return in his lifetime. Moses didn’t even have that. Moses saw the promised land but didn’t get to go in. Daniel gets to go home.
He also praises God for warning them. God gave them time and time again to repent before he sent them into exile, and today he will give you time and time again to repent before he allows judgment into your life. If we got what we deserved for every little white lie, we’d live miserable lives. But God is merciful and gracious, and he understands that we are dust. He is not a cruel tyrant. He is a merciful judge, more interested in our transformation than our punishment.
And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
Daniel 9:12–14
Daniel doubles down: God is just in punishment because Israel was warned repeatedly and did not listen. And even in this evil, God was not distant. “The Lord watched upon the evil.” Even in judgment he was overseeing it. Judgment never overstepped. God kept it in check: “No, that’s too much. Don’t allow that. Yes, that’s deserved.” Even in the hardest difficulties, God did not abandon them. He was with them every step of the way.
And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
Daniel 9:15–16
Here the tone shifts. Daniel has been saying, “We deserve this punishment,” and now he says, “Turn it away.” Isn’t that a little hypocritical? No, because he is praying within the will of the Lord. If he were asking God to break the seventy-year promise, that would be hypocritical. But Daniel is saying, “I’ve been faithful in this foreign nation for decades, and I’ve remembered your promise all this time. So remember your promise, and prepare our hearts to receive it.”
He calls back to Egypt, where God brought them out “with a mighty hand,” a strong hand. That story happened hundreds of years ago and we still talk about it. Daniel is asking God to make this return something our children will talk about for generations: when you bring revival and worship starts again, make the nations praise your name.
And why? Because “thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.” For years people have mocked God’s name because of Israel’s shortcomings, and Daniel realizes that isn’t fair to God. It isn’t fair today either, when people call themselves Christians and don’t stand on the principles Jesus spoke about. So when you bring us home, Daniel says, don’t leave us the way we are. Make us who we should be, so that your name is glorified in us and not condemned.
Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Daniel 9:17–19
Daniel calls on God to defend his reputation. The temple exists to worship him, so shine on it for your sake. Jerusalem holds your name, so make it shine with your reputation. And note the basis of his request: “We don’t present our supplications before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies.” I don’t think we deserve to go back. We’re where we deserve to be. But God, you deserve better.
This is for us. “God, I don’t deserve to be recognized as righteous, but make me righteous so that you are recognized as righteous. Don’t bless me because of my righteousness. Bless me so that you can be praised. Your name has been slandered through my sins. Transform me so that your name can be praised.” And “defer not” means don’t delay. “Don’t delay to renew me, because I need it so I can represent you the way I should.”
A Christian’s righteousness is not our own. It is Jesus Christ’s. We didn’t die on the cross for our sins. He did. So when we carry the name Christian, it shouldn’t be so people think we’re good Christians. It should be so they think Jesus is a good Christ. If we drag that name through the mud, that’s a shame. But if we carry it, follow the teachings of Christ and lift up our neighbor, and they see Christ in us, then that name is a beautiful thing.
Gabriel Arrives
And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
Daniel 9:20–23
Something massive just happened, and there’s a lot here about prayer. Last chapter Gabriel appeared in a vision. Here it implies he is not in a vision anymore. He is right there in real life, and that is a big deal.
He was “caused to fly swiftly.” As I understand it, that Hebrew phrase is vague and can be taken two ways, and one carries the idea of exhaustion. The picture is that he came quickly because Daniel was worn out spiritually, his heart weak from prayer, and Gabriel was sent to encourage him and answer his prayer.
Gabriel says, “At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth.” The second Daniel began to pray, God had already answered. We may have spent fifteen minutes on Daniel’s prayer, and during that whole time God had already answered what Daniel was going to pray. It just took that long for the answer to arrive.
Gabriel also says, “Thou art greatly beloved.” Another way to translate that is that God saw Daniel as precious. Daniel had been faithful his whole life. Three times a day he opened his window, faced Jerusalem, and prayed for his people. And God looked down and said, “This is my precious child.” Christian, wouldn’t you want God to say that about you?
The application is that we often feel God hasn’t answered our prayers. We pray and pray and feel there’s no answer. But God has probably already answered. His answers don’t delay. It’s either yes, no, or later, and sometimes it just takes a while for the answer to get to us. So be patient. God does not delay.
The Seventy Weeks
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Daniel 9:24–27
This is the end of the chapter. Gabriel doesn’t explain every detail, but he tells Daniel generally what will happen with Israel. Seventy weeks are “determined.” As I understand it, the Hebrew word means literally to engrave, to mark out. God is saying, “I have a plan for your people, and I’ve already marked out the timeline for how your prayers will be answered.” And it’s about Jesus Christ. Daniel gets news that the Messiah is coming, and in a very specific timeline.
These are prophetic weeks, seventy sets of seven years, which makes 490 years. How cool would that be as Daniel, near the end of your life? You’ve asked God to bring the people back and transform them, and he says, “I have the answer, it’s coming in 490 years, it’s all planned and marked down. There will be a Messiah, and he will transform your land just as you prayed.”
The prophecy splits into two sets: seven weeks, which is 49 years, and sixty-two weeks, which is 434 years. In the first set, the temple and the city are rebuilt. In Daniel’s own lifetime he would see the exiles returning home, and plans being made under King Cyrus to rebuild the temple, the walls, and the city of Jerusalem. When that process begins, the timeline for the Messiah starts, and God sets up the dominoes throughout history to prepare the world for him. It’s a long journey, but every one of those years is there for a purpose. So you have the first seven weeks, then weeks 8 through 69, in which things are set up for the Messiah. Then you get to week 70, and that’s where people disagree.
Two Ways of Reading the Seventieth Week
I’ll be the first to admit that my interpretation is a little different from the majority interpretation, but I believe mine is correct. There are two interpretations, and both date back to about 200 AD.
The more common one is the futurist interpretation. Futurists believe the last week represents the tribulation period, and they put a gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. That isn’t what I hold, because the text doesn’t tell us about a gap. In fact the text splits the timeline in two, at seven and sixty-two, and if it had meant another gap, why doesn’t it split off one more week after it? When I read the Bible, I want to read what’s there, not what’s missing. The first person in history I could find who held the gap belief was Hippolytus, a pastor of the Roman church, who said the final week was still to come during the tribulation of the antichrist.
My view is the preterist view: all seventy weeks have been completed, and they’re not attached to the prophecy in Revelation. Revelation is to be understood as separate from Daniel 9. Around 200 AD, Clement, the pastor of the church of Alexandria, stated that the seventy weeks were completed historically when Titus, son of Vespasian, came and destroyed the temple. The time of Cyrus, king of Persia, starts the clock, and when the war with Titus ends, the clock ends. Why read a gap when the Bible tells us there’s none? It’s seven and sixty-two, not sixty-nine and one.
As I laid it out, one week is about Jesus’s ministry, and the seventieth week is the seven-year war between Rome and Israel. The last thing Israel did as a nation happens over a conveniently seven-year span, and in the middle of that war the temple was destroyed by Titus. If the sacrifices were going to cease in the last week, I’d say that’s as good a time as any.
Jesus himself points us there in Matthew 24. He looks at the temple and says not one stone will stand on another, and his disciples ask, “When is the temple going to be destroyed?”
…the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet…
Matthew 24:15
If the question was when the temple would be destroyed, and the answer is the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, then the most natural conclusion is that the seventy weeks are completed, because that’s the answer Jesus himself gives. Matthew, Mark and Luke all connect the desolation with the destruction of the temple after Jesus says not one stone will be left on another. Other early church leaders back this understanding in their commentaries: Clement, Augustine in 430, and Cyril in 444.
Prophecy works like a chain. Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years, in its fulfillment, sets up the seventy weeks. At the end of Daniel’s seventy weeks, Christ sets up a new prophecy about the antichrist, and that sets up the eventual book of Revelation. Prophecy builds on itself, and while it’s connected, it isn’t all talking about the same thing. The timeline would be seventy years of captivity, then seven weeks of rebuilding, which is 49 literal years, then sixty-two weeks, and the last week begins with the baptism of Jesus and ends with the end of the Israel-Rome war.
I held the futurist view until I went to Bible college and started studying it for myself. When a teacher told me about it, I thought, “Wait, why do we read a gap?” Daniel 9:24 tells us what has to happen, so let’s look at each thing and see from Scripture that it has been fulfilled.
The Prophetic Checklist
First, “to finish the transgression.” Israel’s rebellion would culminate in the rejection of Christ.
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
1 Thessalonians 2:14–16
Paul says they have filled up their sins, finished their transgression, and because of it salvation has come to the Gentiles. The Bible says sin has to be fulfilled before judgment comes. The iniquity of the Amorites had to be full before Israel could enter the promised land. Here Israel’s sin needed to be full, in rejecting the Messiah, and Paul says they’ve done it and the wrath has come. We can mark that off.
Second, “to make an end of sins.” This is Jesus’s death on the cross.
For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Hebrews 9:26
Jesus made an end of sin. Sin’s power has been shackled, and through faith in Jesus Christ we can be freed from it. Israel’s sins are complete, and Jesus has covered them all.
Third, “to make reconciliation for iniquity.” That is what was done on the cross. When Jesus was on the cross, he exchanged his righteousness for our salvation.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18–19
Reconciliation, the payment for sin, is complete. Mark it off the prophetic list.
Fourth, “to bring in everlasting righteousness.” This was completed when Christ brought righteousness to those who believe.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
Romans 3:21–22
Righteousness doesn’t come by man’s power. It comes by the power and transforming work of Jesus Christ. Mark it off the checklist.
Fifth, “to seal up the vision and prophecy.” Christ fulfilled the law and the prophets.
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luke 24:44
The book is closed. I also take it that the prophecy was sealed in the sense that no more Scripture is to be given. By the end of the Israel-Rome war the last book of our Scriptures, Revelation, had been written. I would say Revelation was the sealing of prophecy for the rest of time. All the prophecies about Jesus were complete. God has not given us any new Scripture, and we shouldn’t be looking for anything else. Once that was done, all the plans he had laid out were completed and the next step would be the end times.
Sixth, “to anoint the most holy.” That is the holy of holies, the place in the temple where the Spirit of God was to dwell. From the Old Testament standpoint, this was completed when Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, anointed believers as the new temple we call the church.
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:5
The new temple has been anointed. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was given to those who believe, and the Bible says we are the temple of God. The new most holy place was anointed by the Spirit of Christ. Everything on the prophetic checklist came to pass.
God Does Not Delay
Why was this so important to be done in seventy weeks? Because Daniel wanted to know, “God, when are you going to solve the problem of Israel? When will your people be righteous?” And God answered: 490 years, and I’ll solve it. But the answer wasn’t what Daniel expected. The people were not going to make themselves righteous. God himself would come and make his people righteous. Jesus would die on a cross and give his righteousness, and then the problem would be solved. It was completed, sealed and done in the first century.
Daniel’s prayer reminds us that God does not delay his promises. He fulfills them exactly as he says he will. Daniel understood this through the writings of Jeremiah and responded with prayer, confession, and intercession for his people. His example shows us how to respond when we have to wait.
The seventy weeks also remind us of the precision of God’s plans. He carefully worked out our redemption throughout human history. From the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the coming and cutting off of the Messiah, every moment unfolded according to his perfect timing. Jesus’s death, resurrection, and the birth of the church were not random events that just happened one day. They were God’s promises, spoken centuries before through his prophets.
We have a sovereign God who keeps his word. Just as he did not delay in responding to Daniel’s prayer, he has not delayed in his promises to us. Some answers may feel a long way off, but as we learn from Daniel, the answer may already be on its way. So like Daniel, let’s seek God in prayer, trust his timing, and find confidence in his truth. God is never late, and he is always faithful. God wants you to know that he does not delay his promises. So will you wait patiently for them to arrive?
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