Future sacrifire mp312/17/2023 ![]() Look back at verse 2 of chapter 9: “In the first year of the reign of Cyrus” – or Darius, the son of Ahasuerus – “I Daniel understood by books the number of the years” – he was reading in the Old Testament Canon – “concerning which the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.” And since Daniel was in the first deportation, he’s very concerned that the seventy years is fast coming to an end for Daniel had been exposed to the writings of Jeremiah. In fact, some believe from the first deportation, it’s in the sixty-ninth year. And Israel has been captive, or Judah has been captive, nearly seventy years by now. Some scholars believe it’s about 537 B.C. So Daniel is still prime minister in a foreign land. Interestingly enough, Daniel again, because of the prowess of his nature, because of the character of his life, because of the impact he had made on society, maintained his position in the Empire, even though the structure of the Empire changed. They have endured the Babylonian Empire and the fall of the Babylonian Empire, and they are now living under the power of the Medo-Persians. And so we find then, at this particular time, that the people of God had been in captivity for nearly seventy years. And the king by the name of Darius, whom I believe is the same as Cyrus – Darius being a title rather than a name – is in power. And for one year the Medes and the Persians have been in power. The Babylonian Empire has, however, been defeated. And so Daniel, at this particular time in chapter 9, is the prime minister. Even though he was a Jew in exile, his quality caused him to reach the very highest place in the land. Now Daniel, who was taken captive, because of the amazing commitment to God that he had, and because of the marvelous quality of his character, had risen to become the prime minister of Babylon. Babylon was the first great Gentile world empire of which there would be four: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. So the nation of Judah, the people of God, had been captive in the land of Babylon. Among them, a young man named Daniel, and his three friends: Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah, who became known as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Babylonian terms. Nebuchadnezzar came, first of all, in about 605, or 606, and he carried away the young men of the nobles and the princes. There were a series of three deportations. The southern kingdom of Judah, the southern half of the divided kingdom, has also been taken into captivity, this by the nation Babylon. So Israel, at this particular time, is out of existence as such – that is the northern kingdom. Israel had been taken into a form of captivity, and they were dispersed and never really returned. You remember that after the reign of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was divided into two parts: the northern kingdom, known as Israel the southern kingdom known as Judah. Now let me remind you of the scene a little bit as we approach the ninth chapter of Daniel, because it’s been a few months since we talked about this, and you may need some refreshing. We’re going to take our time so that you can understand the fullness of all the Spirit of God is saying. And you’ll see as it begins to unfold.įrankly, I want to tell you at the beginning, we’re not going to get through the whole thing tonight it’s just too rich, there’s too much in it. We could stake the truth of Christianity on this prophecy alone. In fact, Sir Isaac Newton once said, quote: “We could stake the truth of Christianity on this prophecy alone, made five centuries before Christ.” End quote. It is in the mind of some writers the single greatest defense of the divine authorship of Scripture. In fact, this afternoon, I spent a couple of hours just reading through another paper dealing with the intricacies of the prophecy of this particular text just to fill my mind with even more of the wonderful things that the Spirit of God has given us here.Īs we come to chapter 9, verses 20 through 27, we come to the most marvelous, exact, amazing prophecy in all of the Bible. What a great week it’s been for me in the adventure of this tremendous, tremendous chapter. And we got through the first nineteen verses before we went away, and we’re going to pick it right up there for our Bible study tonight. Tonight, I want to draw your attention back to the ninth chapter of Daniel, where we left off three months ago.
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