Daniel 9:20 - Meaning and Application

We have here the answer that came immediately to Daniel’s prayer, and it is a remarkable one. It includes the clearest prediction of Christ and gospel grace found in the Old Testament. If John the Baptist was the morning star, this was the first light before the Sun of righteousness, the dawn from on high.

Here is the time when this answer came. It came while Daniel was still praying. He noticed this and stressed it strongly: “While I was speaking” (Daniel 9:20), and even, “while I was speaking in prayer” (Daniel 9:21). He had not yet risen from his knees, and he still had more to say.

He mentions the two main things he had been praying about, and perhaps still meant to expand on. First, he was confessing sin and mourning over it, both his own sin and the sin of his people Israel. Daniel was a great and godly man, yet he still found sin in himself to confess before God, and he was ready to do it. There is no righteous person on earth who does good and never sins, or sins and never repents. John includes himself among those who deceive themselves if they say they have no sin, and so must confess their sins (1 John 1:8).

Good people find relief in pouring out their complaints before the Lord against themselves, and that is part of confessing sin. Daniel also confessed the sins of his people and grieved over them. Those who truly care about God’s glory, the good of the church, and the salvation of others will mourn over other people’s sins as well as their own.

Second, he was asking the Lord his God for help, and serving as an intercessor for Israel. In this prayer, his concern was for the holy mountain of God, Mount Zion. The ruin of the sanctuary was closer to his heart than the ruin of the city or the land. He cared more about the rebuilding of worship and the return of Israel’s public service to God than about their civil recovery.

While Daniel was praying in this way, he received the mercy he asked for. God is very ready to hear prayer and give a peaceful answer. This fulfilled what God had said in Isaiah 65:24, “Before they call, I will answer.” Daniel was growing very earnest in prayer, with strong feelings and deep desire (Daniel 9:18, 19). While he was speaking with that kind of urgency, the angel came to him with a gracious answer. God is pleased with heartfelt prayer.

We cannot now expect God to send angels to answer our prayers, but if we pray earnestly for what God has promised, we may take his promise by faith as an immediate answer. He is faithful who promised.

Daniel also received a vision of a far greater and more glorious rescue that God would bring for his church in later days. Those who want to know Christ and his grace must spend much time in prayer.

This happened about the time of the evening offering (Daniel 9:21). The altar was in ruins, and no offering was being made on it. Still, the faithful Jews in exile seem to have kept daily in mind the time when it should have been offered. At that hour, they were ready to weep over it and to pray that their prayer might rise before God like incense, and that the lifting up of their hands, and hearts with their hands, might be accepted like the evening sacrifice (Psalm 141:2).

The evening offering pointed ahead to the great sacrifice Christ would offer in the evening of the world. It was because of that sacrifice that Daniel’s prayer was accepted when he prayed for the Lord’s sake. For that same reason, this glorious message about redeeming love was given to him. The Lamb opened the seals by virtue of his own blood.

The messenger who brought this answer was not sent in a dream or by a voice from heaven. For greater certainty and solemnity, an angel was sent on purpose, appearing in human form to give Daniel the answer. This angel was Gabriel. If Michael the archangel is, as many think, no one other than Jesus Christ, then Gabriel is the only created angel named in Scripture. Gabriel means “the mighty one of God,” fitting for angels, who are great in power and strength (2 Peter 2:11).

Daniel had seen this same angel before in a vision at the beginning. He heard him called by name and learned it then (Daniel 8:16). Though Daniel had trembled at the angel’s approach before, he had now seen him well enough to recognize him again. Being somewhat more familiar with him, he was not as frightened this time. When the angel later told Zacharias, “I am Gabriel” (Luke 1:19), he likely meant to remind him of this earlier message about the Messiah’s coming when it was still far off, to strengthen his faith in the message he was now about to give, when that coming was near.

The angel also came by direct command from the Father of lights, to whom Daniel prayed (Daniel 9:23). At the very beginning of Daniel’s prayer, the word, the command, went out from God. Notice was given in heaven to the angels about this purpose of God, which they longed to understand, and Gabriel was ordered to go at once and bring the message to Daniel. This shows that Daniel did not move God by something he said, since the answer came as soon as he began to pray. Rather, God was pleased with his serious and reverent approach to prayer, and showed that pleasure by sending him this gracious message.

It may also mean that at the beginning of Daniel’s prayer, Cyrus’s command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem went out, the command mentioned in Daniel 9:25. If so, then the matter was completed that very day. The proclamation of freedom for the Jews was signed that morning, just as Daniel was praying for it. Now, at the close of this day of fasting, Daniel was told of it, just as, at the close of the day of atonement, the jubilee trumpet sounded to announce liberty.

The angel came quickly. He was “caused to fly swiftly” (Daniel 9:21). Angels are winged messengers, quick to do what they are sent to do. They run and return like lightning (Ezekiel 1:14). Yet it seems they are sometimes faster than at other times, and here Gabriel was caused to fly swiftly. That is, he was ordered to do so, and enabled to do so.

Angels work in obedience to God’s command and depend on his power. Though they are wise, they move only as God directs them. Though they are powerful, they fly only as God causes them to fly. To us, angels are whatever God makes them to be, his servants who do his will (Psalm 103:21).

The angel first prepared Daniel for the message. He touched him (Daniel 9:21), as he had before (Daniel 8:18), not to wake him from sleep this time, but to signal that Daniel should stop praying and listen to God’s answer. To keep close fellowship with God, we must not only be ready to speak to him, but also ready to hear from him. After we pray, we should look up, wait, and keep watch for his reply.

The angel then spoke with him in a familiar way (Daniel 9:22), like one friend speaking to another, so Daniel would not be frightened. He explained why he had come. He had been sent from heaven on purpose with a kind message: “I have come to tell you what you did not know before” (Daniel 9:23). He had already shown Daniel the troubles under Antiochus, the Syrian ruler, and the time when those troubles would end (Daniel 8:19). But now he was bringing greater things, because faithfulness in little leads to greater trust.

He also told Daniel that he was especially dear to God. “I have come to show you, for you are greatly loved” means that Daniel was a man God favored and delighted in. God loves all his children, but some are described as “greatly beloved” in a special way. Christ had one disciple who leaned on his breast, John, and that same beloved disciple was given the visions of the New Testament, just as Daniel was given the visions of the Old. What greater sign of God’s favor can there be than this, that he shares his secrets with someone? Abraham was called God’s friend, and for that reason God said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Genesis 18:17). Those may rightly count themselves greatly beloved whom God teaches about his Son and works in them by his grace. Some have noticed that the angel Gabriel uses a very similar phrase for the Virgin Mary, “highly favored,” as if to remind her of Daniel’s honor.

The angel then called for Daniel’s full attention: “Therefore understand the matter and consider the vision” (Daniel 9:23). This shows that what was about to be revealed was especially worthy of careful thought, even more than the visions Daniel had seen before. Those who want to understand God’s things must think about them, weigh them, and compare one part of Scripture with another. We are often confused about God’s revealed will because we do not stop to consider it. This vision both needs and deserves careful thought.

The message itself was delivered with great solemnity and recorded with great care, though, as with other prophecies, it contains things that are hard to understand. Daniel had learned from Jeremiah that the seventy years of captivity were ending, and now God honored him by showing the church a greater release, one that the former deliverance only pointed to. This new deliverance would come after another seventy, not years, but weeks of years. Daniel prayed about Jeremiah’s prophecy, and God answered him through this revelation. He had prayed for his people and the holy city, asking that they be released and rebuilt, and God answered beyond what he could ask or imagine. God does more than simply grant the requests of those who fear him; he exceeds them (Psalm 21:4).

The time spoken of here is difficult, but the general meaning is clear. It is seventy weeks, that is, seventy sevens of years, or 490 years. The great events yet to come for the people of Israel and the city of Jerusalem would take place within that time. The years are described as weeks for several reasons. First, it fits the style of prophecy, which often speaks in a veiled and unusual way so the future is not too plain at once. Second, it gives honor to the division of time into weeks, which comes from the Sabbath day, and shows that this order of time would continue. Third, it connects with the seventy years of captivity. As they had been kept from their land for so long, so now, after their return, they would remain in it seven times as long. God takes far greater delight in showing mercy than in punishing. The land had enjoyed its sabbaths, in a sad sense, for seventy years (Leviticus 26:34). Now the Lord’s people would enjoy their sabbaths, in a happy sense, for seven times seventy years, including seventy sabbatical years, which makes ten jubilees. In this way, Providence displays wise patterns that should lead us to admire the One who appoints the times and seasons.

One difficulty is when these seventy weeks begin and from what point they are counted. The text says they begin “from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:25). The most natural understanding is the decree of Cyrus mentioned in Ezra 1:1, because by that decree the people were restored. Although that decree does not spell out the rebuilding of Jerusalem in so many words, the rebuilding of the temple includes it, and Isaiah had foretold that Cyrus would say to Jerusalem, “You shall be built” (Isaiah 44:28). That was the most notable decree, both in prophecy and in history, for the restoration of Jerusalem. It also seems fitting that the seventy weeks should begin right when the seventy years ended.

The main objection to this view is that, if the count begins with Cyrus’s decree, the Persian empire would have lasted only 130 years from Babylon’s fall to Alexander’s victory over Darius. But other historical accounts give it about 230 years. Writers such as Thucydides and Xenophon are often cited for that longer reckoning. Those who start the seventy weeks with Cyrus’s first decree set aside those heathen historians as uncertain. Others try to make the accounts agree by beginning the 490 years not with Cyrus’s decree in Ezra 1:1, but with a later decree under Darius Nothus, more than 100 years afterward, mentioned in Ezra 6. Others place the starting point in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Mnemon, who sent Ezra with authority (Ezra 7:8-12).

Poole, in his Latin Synopsis, has gathered a very large and careful collection of what has been said, for and against, about the different starting points of these weeks. Learned readers can study those arguments for themselves. As for the ending of the weeks, interpreters also disagree. Some say they end at Christ’s death, and think the prophecy’s wording supports that view. From the very hour Gabriel spoke to Daniel, at the time of the evening sacrifice, to the hour when Christ died, also toward evening, it was exactly 490 years. I am quite willing to accept that view.

Others think the words, “in the middle of the week,” meaning the last of the seventy weeks, point to the sacrifice and offering ending three and a half years after Christ’s death. On that view, when the Jews rejected the gospel, the apostles turned to the Gentiles. Those who place the end at Christ’s death read the passage like this: “He will confirm the covenant with the many, and the last seven, or the last week, yes, half of that seven, or half of that week, meaning the latter half, the three and a half years of Christ’s public ministry, will bring sacrifice and offering to an end.” Others place the end of these 490 years at the destruction of Jerusalem, about thirty-seven years after Christ’s death. They do this because the seventy weeks are said to be appointed for the Jewish people and the holy city, and much in the passage concerns the destruction of the city and the sanctuary.

The division into seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and one week is also hard to explain. In the first seven weeks, or forty-nine years, the temple and city were rebuilt. In the last single week, Christ preached the gospel, and through that the Jewish system was brought down. At the same time, the groundwork was laid for the gospel city and temple, which were to be built on the ruins of the former.

Whatever uncertainty we may have about the exact dates, enough is clear to serve the two main purposes of fixing them. First, this prophecy helped raise and support the faith and hope of believers. The patriarchs had received general promises of the Messiah’s coming, and earlier prophets had often spoken of him as one who would come. But until now, no time had been fixed for his coming. Even if the exact year could not be settled from this prophecy, it still gave believers a clear season to watch for him. And that is what happened. When Christ came, he was widely expected as the consolation of Israel and the one who would bring redemption to Jerusalem (Luk 2:25, Luk 2:38). Some thought this was why the kingdom of God would appear at once (Luk 19:11), and some believe it also drew an unusual crowd to Jerusalem (Act 2:5).

Second, this prophecy still silences unbelieving Jews who refuse to admit that Jesus is the promised one and still wait for another. This prediction should silence and condemn them, because no matter where one starts counting the seventy weeks, they ended more than 1,500 years ago. So the Jews have no excuse for refusing to confess that the Messiah has come, when they are so far beyond the latest time they could reasonably expect him. At the same time, we are strengthened in our faith that the Messiah has come, and that our Jesus is he. He came exactly at the appointed time, a time that should be remembered forever.

The events foretold here are, at least to us now, easier to understand. Notice what is predicted. First, the Jews would soon return to their own land and settle there again, which was Daniel’s chief concern in prayer. Yet this is mentioned only briefly in the answer. Let this be a comfort to faithful Jews, that a command will go out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (Dan 9:25). That command will not fail. The work will face great opposition, and the times will be very troubled, but it will be carried through and finished at last. The street will be built again, wide and glorious as before, and the walls will be raised even in troubled times.

As long as we live in this world, we must expect troubled times in one form or another. Even in happy seasons, we must rejoice with caution. Peace and prosperity are only brief clearings in the sky, and the clouds will come back after the rain. So even when the Jews are restored to their land in triumph, they should still expect trouble and prepare for it. Yet here is our comfort: God will continue his own work. He will build up his Jerusalem, beautify it, and strengthen it, even in troubled times. Indeed, trouble itself may, by God’s grace, help the church grow. The more it is afflicted, the more it multiplies.

Second, the passage speaks of the Messiah and his work. The fleshly-minded Jews expected a Messiah who would free them from Rome and give them money and power. But they were told here that the Messiah would come for a different purpose, one that was purely spiritual, and for that reason he should be more welcome. Christ came to take away sin and destroy it. Sin had created the quarrel between God and man. It had turned people away from God and stirred God’s holy anger against them. It dishonored God and brought misery on mankind. It was the great source of evil. Anyone who would truly serve God and bless people must deal with sin. Christ does this, and for this reason he appears, to destroy the works of the devil.

He does not say he will finish “your” transgressions and sins, but transgression and sin in general, because he is the atoning sacrifice, that is, the one who turns away God’s wrath, not only for the sins of Jews but for the sins of the whole world. He came, first, to finish transgression, meaning to restrain it, as some explain it, to break its power, to crush the head of that serpent that had done so much harm, to remove the stolen rule of that tyrant, and to set up a kingdom of holiness and love in human hearts, in place of Satan’s kingdom. Where sin and death had ruled, righteousness and life through grace were to rule instead. When he died, he said, “It is finished.” Sin had then received its death wound, like Samson’s last blow, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He strikes the wound and dies.

Second, he came to put an end to sin. He would abolish it so it could no longer rise up against us in judgment. He would obtain pardon for it, so it would not become our ruin. The margin says “seal up sins,” meaning they are hidden away so they cannot appear, accuse, and condemn us. When Christ cast the devil into the bottomless pit, he put a seal on him (Revelation 20:3). In the same way, when sin is forgiven, it is searched for and not found, like something sealed up.

Third, he came to make peace for iniquity, that is, for sin and guilt. He did this by sacrifice, satisfying God’s justice and bringing God and man together again. He is more than an arbitrator who helps two sides agree. He is also a surety, one who takes responsibility for us. He is not only the peacemaker, he is peace itself. He is the atonement, the one through whom sins are covered and forgiven.

He also came to bring in an everlasting righteousness. God could have ended sin by ending the sinner, but Christ found another way. He ended sin in a way that saves the sinner by providing righteousness for him. We are all guilty before God, and without righteousness we will be condemned. If Adam had kept his innocence, that would have been his righteousness. But since we have fallen, we need another righteousness to stand before God, and Christ has provided it.

The merit of Christ’s sacrifice is our righteousness. By it we answer every demand of God’s law. Christ has died, yes, and even more, he has risen again. So Christ is the Lord our righteousness, because God has made him our righteousness, so that in him we may become the righteousness of God. By faith we apply this to ourselves and plead it before God, and faith is counted to us as righteousness (Romans 4:3, Romans 4:5). This righteousness is everlasting, because Christ, who is our righteousness and the prince of peace, is the everlasting Father. It was everlasting in God’s plan, and it will last forever in its results. Its use reaches back to the beginning, because Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It will last to the end, because he is able to save completely (Hebrews 10:12). It is the rock that follows us to Canaan.

He also came to seal up the vision and prophecy, all the Old Testament prophecies that pointed to the Messiah. He sealed them up by fulfilling them, answering them exactly, down to the smallest detail. Everything written in the law, the prophets, and the psalms about the Messiah was fulfilled in him. This confirmed the truth of those prophecies and also confirmed his own mission. He sealed them up in another sense too, by bringing to an end that earlier way of God revealing his will through visions. Then he opened a new way by completing the Bible canon in the New Testament, which is a more sure word of prophecy than visions (2 Peter 1:19; Hebrews 1:1).

He also came to anoint the most holy. This can mean himself, the Holy One, who was anointed, that is, appointed and fitted for his work by the Holy Spirit, the oil of joy he received without limit, above all others. Or it can mean the gospel church, his spiritual temple, which he anoints to sanctify and cleanse, and to set apart for himself (Ephesians 5:26). It can also mean that he consecrates for us a new and living way into the holiest place by his own blood (Hebrews 10:20), as the sanctuary was anointed (Exodus 30:25). He is called Messiah in Daniel 9:25-26, which means Christ, or Anointed One (John 1:41), because he received this anointing for himself and for all who belong to him.

To bring all this about, the Messiah had to be cut off. He had to die a violent death and be cut off from the land of the living, as Isaiah foretold (Isaiah 53:8). So when Paul preached Christ’s death, he said he taught nothing except what the prophets had said would happen (Acts 26:22-23). Christ had to suffer. He was cut off, but not for himself. He did not die for any sin of his own. As Caiaphas prophesied, he died for the people, in our place and for our good, not for his own benefit, since the glory he gained was the glory he already had with the Father (John 17:4-5). He died to make atonement for our sins and to purchase life for us.

He also had to confirm the covenant with many. He would bring in a new covenant between God and man, a covenant of grace, because it was no longer possible for us to be saved by a covenant of innocence. He confirmed this covenant by his teaching and miracles, by his death and resurrection, and by baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which are the signs of the New Testament and assure us that God is willing to receive us on gospel terms. His death gave his testament full force and made it possible for us to claim what he left us. He confirmed it with many, with the common people, since the poor heard the gospel, even when the rulers and Pharisees refused to believe. Or it may mean he confirmed it with many among the Gentiles, since the New Testament was not limited to the Jewish church like the old one was, but was given to all nations. Christ gave his life as a ransom for many.

He must also cause sacrifice and offering to cease. By offering himself once for all, he put an end to the Levitical sacrifices, that is, the sacrifices tied to the law of Moses. He replaced them and set them aside. When the true substance came, the shadows had to pass away. He ends the peace offerings when he makes peace by the blood of his cross and confirms the covenant of peace and reconciliation. Through the preaching of his gospel, which he gave to the apostles, he turned people away from expecting forgiveness through the blood of bulls and goats, and so he caused sacrifice and offering to cease. The letter to the Hebrews shows that we now have a better priesthood, altar, and sacrifice than the law provided, and this should strengthen us to hold fast our faith.

This also leads to the final destruction of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish church and nation. That destruction followed right after the Messiah was cut off, partly because it was the just punishment for those who put him to death. Their sin filled up the measure of their guilt and brought ruin on them. It was also necessary to complete one great purpose of his death. He died to take away the ceremonial law, to abolish that whole system of commands, and to cancel its binding power.

But the Jews would not give it up. They clung to it even more strongly than before and would hear of nothing else. They stoned Stephen, the first Christian martyr, because he said Jesus would change the customs Moses had given them (Acts 6:14). So there was no way to abolish the Mosaic system except by destroying the temple, the holy city, the Levitical priesthood, and the whole nation that was so stubbornly attached to them. This was fully done within less than forty years after Christ’s death, and the desolation has never been repaired to this day.

This is what was foretold here in a fuller way: the Jews who returned from captivity were not to become too proud of rebuilding their city and temple. However great that work seemed, it would not last forever. In time, the city would be destroyed completely, and not just for seventy years as before. They should rather rejoice in hope of the coming of the Messiah, the promised Savior, and the setting up of his spiritual kingdom in the world, a kingdom that would never be destroyed.

The prophecy says that the people of the coming prince would be the tools of this destruction. That is, the Roman armies, part of a kingdom yet to rise, would do it. Christ is the prince who shall come, and these armies are used in his service, as his armies (Matthew 22:7). Or, the Gentiles, who were now outside the covenant but would become the Messiah’s people, would destroy the Jews.

It would also be done by war, and the end of that war would be complete ruin. The Jewish wars with Rome were made long and bloody by the stubbornness of the Jews, and they finally ended in the total ruin of that nation.

The city and the sanctuary would be destroyed in a special way. Titus, the Roman general, wanted to save the temple, but his soldiers were so angry with the Jews that he could not stop them from burning it down. In this way the prophecy was fulfilled.

Any resistance to this destruction would fail. “The end of it shall be with a flood.” That means it would be like a great flood of ruin, like the old world was swept away, and nothing could stand against it.

This destruction would also bring an end to sacrifice and offering. That had to happen when the priestly family was so ruined, and its family records were so confused, that, as people say, no one in the world can prove that he is from Aaron’s line. Aaron was the first high priest, and his descendants served in the temple.

There would also be an overspreading of abominations, meaning a spreading of wickedness and hated things. This may mean the general corruption of the Jewish nation, with sin growing among them, for which they would be left desolate (Thessalonians 2:16). Or it may better refer to the Roman armies, which were hateful to the Jews and spread over the land, leaving it desolate. These are the words Christ refers to in Matthew 24:15, when he speaks of “the abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place. He explains it in Luke 21:20, where he says that when Jerusalem is surrounded by armies, then they should flee.

The desolation would be total and final. “He shall make it desolate, even until the consummation” means he would make it completely desolate. It is a destruction firmly determined, and it will be carried out fully. And when that desolation comes, there seems to be something further appointed for the desolate people in Daniel 9:27. What could that be but the spirit of sleep and dullness, that blindness that has come upon Israel until the full number of the Gentiles comes in (Romans 11:8, Romans 11:25)? And then all Israel will be saved.