SEVENTY WEEKS OF SEVENS
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Opening Prayer
Father, as I come to your Word today, I thank you for its power to change me, to enable me to overcome my struggles and walk faithfully with you.
Read DANIEL 9:20–27
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Seventy “Sevens”
20 While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill— 21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. 23 As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision:
24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”
Reflect
How much does your ancestry and its cultural traditions impact your faith walk?
Two of the fitting burdens of prayer are confession of sin and seeking the well-being and welfare of the church. I was brought up in and culturally immersed in a sub-Saharan African culture. I was aware of the deep mystical attachment to the supernatural world through the spirits of our ancestors. In my youthful naivety, I believed that these things ceased to have any effects upon me when I came to faith in Christ. I now know better. This is a daily battleground for me and all my people. Daily, I pray for the day when we will worship the Lord unencumbered by traces of cultural sinfulness.
When Daniel speaks of the ‘time of the evening sacrifice’ (v. 21), he reveals a deeply felt yearning for what had been lost in the exile. He is undoubtedly reminded of the sin and corruption of the nation, the reasons that led to its punishment and dispersion. These things occupied him as he poured out his soul in prayer for Israel. The answer to his prayer came by special delivery. The angel Gabriel assured him of God’s love and desire for him to be filled with the knowledge of the Word of God.
I find passages of Scripture whose interpretation depends on unraveling mathematics quite threatening. However, the prominence of sevens suggests that in the fullness of time, God’s plans will be established. The allusions to sabbaths and jubilees speak of freedom and salvation. Even though Antiochus Epiphanes may kill the high priest in Jerusalem and desecrate the holy place, the ‘abomination that causes desolation’ (v. 27), he, too, will get his just deserts. These words of Daniel speak of intermediate and ultimate salvation, all bound up in God’s timing.
Apply
Delve into your cultural upbringing, in secular life, and the church, and seek out areas of your identity that may hinder your growth in Christ.
Closing prayer
Jesus, I am grateful you have called me to follow you. Please help me serve you in any way you choose, trusting that you are using me for your glory, no matter the circumstance.
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