What can we learn from Daniel's reading from Jeremiah What do we learn about God What do we learn about interpretation 522 - 10-4

1 Chronicles 12:32 “And of the Sons of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” would be a good description of Daniel.

Think of how today with the Internet, satellite TV and every possible form of instant communication, it is fairly easy to be Sons of Issachar should we desire to be. Compare that to the time of Daniel. All he could rely upon was the rare hand written scrolls. I find it interesting that he had access to these scrolls in Babylon. Or perhaps as a very astute teenager he could see the coming exiled to Babylon and may have researched the relevant scrolls in advance. In any event Daniel was very aware of Jeremiah 29:10, “For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.”

Knowing that the end of the exile of the southern kingdom was coming to an end, Daniel, ever the prayer warrior, prayed, Daniel 9:3 “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:” What followed was “The interrupted prayer of Daniel.”

Daniel 9:24 is a reiteration by Gabriel of the 70 weeks that were determined upon Daniel’s people to finish their transgressions, etc.

Daniel 9:25 was the amazing messianic prophecy of the time interval from when Nehemiah was given the authority to rebuild Jerusalem until Jesus would enter Jerusalem riding on a colt in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he [is] just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

Daniel 9:26 dealt with the crucifixion of Christ who died not for himself but for all of us as well as with the prince that would come in the final days. Daniel 9:27 would confirm a covenant with the people for a week of days and in the middle of the covenant would commit the abomination of desolation in the temple.

In His the Mount of Olives discourse Jesus warned the Jews of the end days and to flee when the abomination of desolation occurred. Matthew 24:15-17 “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand: Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house…..”

There is an interruption of nearly two thousand years to date buried within Daniel 9:26 as we wait for the “Fullness of the Gentiles to come in”. As for interpretation of God’s word and to quote CM, “God says what He means and means what He says.