SERMON TITLE: God’s Anointed One
TEXT: Daniel 9:20-27 (NLT)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 7-28-24
Watch the sermon here
Take notes here
As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And if you’re worshiping with us for the first time — are joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.
We’re continuing our series in the book of Daniel — looking at what it means to live in exile. And we’re in the last half of the book — a section full of visions, dreams, symbols, angels, beasts, and other confusing sorts of details. And the last half of chapter nine — which we’ll be in today — is a transitional section that takes place while Daniel is praying. We looked at most of Daniel’s prayer last week — and now we come to an angelic answer to his prayer.
We’re in Daniel chapter nine — beginning in verse twenty.
Daniel 9:20–27 (NLT)
20 I went on praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, pleading with the Lord my God for Jerusalem, his holy mountain. 21 As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He explained to me, “Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. 23 The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God. Listen carefully so that you can understand the meaning of your vision. 24 “A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. 25 Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler — the Anointed One — comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times. 26 “After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. 27 The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven, but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.”
As a pastor and preacher, I have the privilege of much of my work is focused on studying God’s Word. Part of my study includes reading commentaries — scholarly works on books of the Bible. I bring this up because — when you read what commentaries have to say about the last few verses of Daniel chapter nine — you enter into — what one scholar has called, “a bewildering maze.” (Sidney Greidanus)
Another Bible scholar calls the history of the exegesis — or interpretation — of the seventy weeks — in our verses — a “dismal swamp of Old Testament criticism.” (James Montgomery) While another calls the last four verses of our chapter, “the most difficult text in the book [of Daniel].” (Joyce Baldwin)
For example, back in the year 400 AD, Jerome — an early church historian — mentions nine conflicting interpretations of our verses by “the great teachers of the church” of his day and left it up to the reader to decide which interpretation was best. That’s way back in 400 AD. Long before dispensationalism, higher criticism, and other interpretative lenses were thrown into the mix adding their own paths to the “bewildering maze.”
With that said — there’s something in our verses that isn’t bewildering — isn’t confusing — but is something all followers of Jesus can agree on. Our verses tell us that — from this point in history of when Daniel is praying — the future death of God’s Anointed One will appear to accomplish nothing. Yet — from our point in history — we know that the death of God’s Anointed One — which did happen — accomplished salvation for his people. What looked like a failure — the death of Jesus Christ — was the ultimate victory.
The key verse of our text is verse twenty-six which states…
Daniel 9:26 (NLT)
26 “After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end.
Again — in the bewildering maze — which is our verses — one thing can be agreed upon: Jesus Christ is the Anointed One mentioned in verse twenty-six. He is God’s Anointed One who will be killed and his death will appear to have accomplished nothing. Yet — as we discover in the New Testament — the death of Jesus Christ was the means by which God secured salvation for his people. For — the death of God’s Anointed One — has guaranteed our victory over Satan, sin, death, and Hell — his sacrificial death assures us that — all who turn to him in faith — have eternal life. A life which — for one glorious eternal day — will no longer be lived in exile — but will be lived in the presence of our God in the New Heavens and New Earth — the eternal Promised Land.
So — though we may encounter many twists and turns in this bewildering maze of verses — we know where we’re headed — we know our final destination — and we have confidence that we will arrive at the end of this maze of living in exile: eternal life will be ours and will be the outcome for all who believe in Jesus Christ — God’s Anointed One — who did die — but his death was not in vain — for his death accomplished our salvation.
So let’s return to our verses and begin by looking at the end of Daniel’s prayer and some encouragement we find in the angel’s words to him. We’re back in verse twenty.
Daniel 9:20–23 (NLT)
20 I went on praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, pleading with the Lord my God for Jerusalem, his holy mountain. 21 As I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came swiftly to me at the time of the evening sacrifice. 22 He explained to me, “Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. 23 The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God. Listen carefully so that you can understand the meaning of your vision.
Daniel finishes his prayer that we looked at last week. A prayer confessing both his personal sin and the corporate sin of his people. And the angel Gabriel visits Daniel — again — to give him additional insight and understanding because — if you remember from chapter eight — when Gabriel had explained to Daniel the meaning of his second vision…
Daniel 8:27 (NLT)
27 Then I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for several days. Afterward I got up and performed my duties for the king, but I was greatly troubled by the vision and could not understand it.
Even with Gabriel’s help — there was still much that Daniel didn’t understand about his vision of the end. So — as he’s praying — God commands Gabriel to go back to Daniel to help him better understand all that’s to come in the future. And Gabriel says something to Daniel that I don’t want us to miss or quickly pass by. Before he further explains the vision — Gabriel tells Daniel, “Daniel, you are very precious to God.”
Other Bible translations say, “You are greatly loved.” (ESV)
“You are of great value in God’s sight.” (NET)
“You are a previous treasure.” (KJV)
“You are highly esteemed.” (NIV)
“You are much loved.” (MSG)
So as we turn to the angel’s words about the future — may we all keep this in mind. For there’s hope being offered to us as we live in this land of exile — hope when we understand what it means to be…
“Greatly loved by God. To be of great value in his sight. To be his precious treasure. To know that we are highly esteemed by him. And much loved.” Don’t get so lost in this bewildering maze that you lose sight of these words of life and hope — which are yours — if you believe in God’s Anointed One — Jesus Christ.
Now let’s turn to Gabriel’s explanation. We’re in verse twenty-four.
Daniel 9:24–27 (NLT)
24 “A period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. 25 Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a ruler — the Anointed One — comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, despite the perilous times. 26 “After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood, and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end. 27 The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven, but after half this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offerings. And as a climax to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration, until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him.”
It’s important to remember that Daniel’s prayer began because he was reading the words of the prophet Jeremiah. And — while he was reading — he realized the seventy years of captivity and exile were nearing its end. So the promised return to their homeland is approaching — but here’s the problem: Returning to their homeland isn’t going to fix what caused God’s people to be sent into exile in the first place.
Why were they sent into exile?
Because of their rebellion, sin, and disobedience towards God and his commands. They thought they knew better than him — so they did their own thing. They mistook God’s patience with them as approval of their sinful ways. Yet God so loves us that — like a good parent — he disciplines those he loves — thus into exile they were sent.
So their real issue — is their rebellious hearts. And — from what we’ve seen in Daniel — and what we know due to the rest of the Bible — living in exile hasn’t changed their hearts. For their — and our — sinful, rebellious hearts to be changed — something other than a return from exile is needed. An act of God much more awesome and powerful in demonstrating his grace and love towards his people — as well as his anger and judgment of sin — was needed. And this — this much more awesome and powerful act of God — would be accomplished in the death of his Anointed One.
And this truth tells us what these four verses of Daniel chapter nine are meant to do. They’re not in our Bible to create end times debates among Christians — but are recorded to inspire faithful perseverance among God’s people as we live in exile. A faithful perseverance fueled by the encouragement found in the promise that God’s Anointed One will die — but his death will not be in vain. Instead — it will be the most glorious act in all of history. And this assures us — and encourages us — and ignites our faithfulness while we live in exile because — these words shout to us that God’s plan of salvation and rescue of his people is far greater than anything this land of exile can throw at us. And I say this knowing that some of us have had experiences that seem to have come straight from hell while in this land of exile. But even these experiences — as painful as they are — are nothing compared to our promised rescue — a rescue leading to eternal life with the One who loves us and gave his life for us.
And we know that this is the point of our verses. For — as one commentator states — “While the precise timing of [the] rescue is the subject of much debate, the nature of the rescue is not. If we will start with trying to understand “what” is predicted before we debate “when” each detail will occur, then we will gain the hope that this passage is really designed to impart.” (Bryan Chapell)
And what does the angel say will happen? He tells us that the event to come — the death of God’s Anointed One — will result in the “end of the rebellion of God’s people” and it will “put an end to sin.” The death of God’s Anointed One will “atone for iniquity” and “bring in everlasting righteousness.” His death will “confirm the prophetic vision” and “anoint a most holy place or — as in some Bible translations — “anoint God’s Most Holy One.” This is what we’re told will happen.
Thus — while we may not understand all that Gabriel says to Daniel — especially some of the details as to when some of these events will take place — what is clear — what isn’t debatable — what is meant to have our attention — is that there’s much in our verses that point forward to the ministry of Jesus — God’s Anointed One — who came to live and to die as the atoning sacrifice for God’s people.
Now — at this point — I assume that some of you are still wanting to know, “But — Josh — can’t you say something about when this will all happen? What about the seventy weeks?” This takes us back to something I said a few weeks ago about the literal interpretation of Scripture. If we take the seventy weeks literally — well — then what does seventy weeks mean? It means seventy weeks. Seventy weeks of Sunday through Saturday — seventy sets of seven days — which equals four hundred and ninety days. That would be the literal interpretation of the seventy weeks.
But here’s a rather boggling secret: No one takes the seventy weeks literally! Meaning — regardless of your view of the end times — these seventy weeks are interpreted to mean something other than seventy literal weeks — thus the “bewildering maze” description because — the issue now becomes how to interpret the seventy weeks and — if this was clear — we’d only have on interpretation — but we don’t.
So what are some ways of interpreting the seventy weeks? And — let me reiterate — this is why the what of our verses is so much more important than the when. The what we’re certain of — the when — not so much.
One option is to interpret each week as seven years — so a day equals one year. What’s the grounds for this non-literal interpretation? There are none — at least not biblically. Some appeal to Daniel having just read from Jeremiah about seventy years of captivity and use that to go from weeks to years — though it doesn’t justify making each day of the week equal to one year. Others appeal to the book of Leviticus where — in verse eight of chapter twenty-five we read…
Leviticus 25:8 (ESV)
8 “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years.
The context of this verse is about the year of Jubilee. A recurring calendar event given to the Israelites where property is restored to those who had sold it — a year of no planting or harvesting to sell what the land produces. Instead — this year of Jubilee — was a year to be set aside as holy to the Lord. Now — this is a beautiful event the Israelites were to remember and practice — but is this verse in Leviticus meant to teach us how to interpret the seventy weeks mentioned in our verses in Daniel? It doesn’t seem likely.
But — for those who interpret the days as years — resulting in four hundred and ninety years — now they have a new maze to solve: When did these four hundred and ninety years take place? How do these years — and all that’s predicted to happen in Daniel’s vision — overlap with actual history?
For example, we know that the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70AD — so that’s an anchor point in history and of Gabriel’s explanation to Daniel. We also have Jesus’ words about this specific historical event. For instance, Jesus said to his disciples…
Luke 21:20 (ESV)
20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.
Additionally, one day…
Matthew 24:1–2 (NLT)
1 As Jesus was leaving the Temple grounds, his disciples pointed out to him the various Temple buildings. 2 But he responded, “Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”
So Jesus makes it clear that the destruction of the Temple is going to happen and it’s going to be a significant sign for his followers — a prophetic maker of sorts. Jesus’ use of the word desolation is to remind us of what’s said in the book of Daniel in these visions.
That being said, scholars have tried to place the four hundred and ninety year timeline — using the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70AD as an anchor — with no success of other events — like Jesus’ death or the return of the exiles from Babylon — lining up to the timeline compared to when they actually happened in history. How events played out in history just doesn’t line up with the four hundred and ninety year timeline.
Now — some — because of this timeline dilemma — say there’s a “parentheses” between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week. This is a hidden — or non-literal, if we take the angel at his word — amount of time — that goes on for who knows how long — until the seventieth week begins. And this is quite the way to solve the timeline dilemma. “Since we can’t get any of these historical events to line up with our timeline — here’s what we’re gonna do — let’s just say there’s a gap between the sixty-ninth and seventieth week — that’ll fix our problem.” I’ll leave it up to you to decide if the gap is a justified way to interpret Gabriel’s words.
Now —all of these bewildering twists and turns and hidden years leads one scholar to write, “One wonders why so many commentators use such literalistic interpretations and are at such pains to make the dates exactly fit known history. That’s not the nature of prophecy, let alone the nature of apocalyptic literature. One of the characteristics of apocalyptic literature is that it frequently uses numbers as symbols. The number 70 × 7 consists of standard symbolic numbers. The number 7 in the Old Testament is the number of completion [or] perfection. The symbolic use of the number 7 goes back to God creating the cosmos in 7 days, “and indeed, it was very good” (Gen 1:31). Daniel has already used this symbolic number (Daniel 3:19 and 4:16). The number 10 is the number of fullness: think of the 10 plagues God showered on Egypt and the 10 commandments he gave Israel at Mount Sinai. Now 70 weeks is 7 × 10 × 7 (days), which is a complete, full period of time. How long is this? Long enough, according to verse 24, “to finish the transgression …, to bring in everlasting righteousness.…” In other words, long enough to bring in the perfect kingdom of God.” (Sidney Greidanus)
So — with all of that — let me repeat something I said earlier to help us get out of the bewildering maze: While we may not understand all that Gabriel says to Daniel — especially regarding the details as to when some of these events will take place — what is clear — what isn’t debatable — is that there’s much in our verses that point us to the ministry of Jesus — God’s Anointed One — who came to earth to live — and give his life — as the atoning sacrifice for God’s people.
This is the Good News — what’s called the gospel. The story behind all of the other stories and visions and prophecies and timelines in the Bible. Jesus came to give his life as a sacrifice for our sins. Or — as the author of Hebrews puts it.
Hebrews 9:11–15 (NLT)
11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood — not the blood of goats and calves — he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. 13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
The first covenant was a covenant of works — but the new covenant is a covenant of grace. A covenant where Christ — God’s Anointed One — fulfilled the covenant of works on our behalf — for he perfectly obeyed God’s law as our substitute. Yet — he also died in our place — as the substitute for our sins — for we’ve all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Yet his death — as you’ve heard me say again and again today — was not in vain. For his death was the seal of his victory over Satan, sin, death, and hell. A victory Jesus joyfully gives to all who turn to him in faith and receive his sacrifice as the payment for their sin.
And to all who receive this Good News — all who respond to Jesus in faith — are promised eternal life. A life where we will forever praise God’s Anointed One. A life of praise and gratefulness captured in these words.
Revelation 5:9–10 (NLT)
9 And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the earth.”
May the death of God’s Anointed One — on your behalf — make these words sweet to your ears, assuring to your mind, comforting to your soul, and the reason for your gratefulness to your God.
May Jesus’ death remind you that…“You are greatly loved.” (ESV)
May his sacrifice assure you that…“You are of great value in God’s sight.” (NET)
May God’s love for you — in sending his Anointed One — to live and die in your place — make sweet to your soul his words to you.
“You are my precious treasure.” (KJV)
“You are highly esteemed.” (NIV)
And “I love you very much.” (MSG)
Let’s pray together.
Heavenly Father, thank you for greatly loving us. For considering us to be of great value in your sight. For calling us your precious treasure.
What undeserved honor. What privileges we’ve done nothing to earn. Yet what assurance and hope that is ours.
Holy Spirit, may you make these words of promise more real to us — more comforting to us — more of our focus so that we live faithfully in this land of exile because we know that we are loved and considered of great value by our God. Our belief is often so weak and fragile — so we need your strength so these words of hope sink deep down into our souls.
And — Jesus — these words of life are ours because of your sacrifice as God’s Anointed One on a cross nearly two thousand years ago. A death that was viewed by many as your defeat — was not only your victory — but our victory as well. It was a sacrifice of love planned long before any of us ever existed. It was an act guaranteeing that every word you’ve promised to your people will come true — including the promise of your glorious and victorious return.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — forgive us for being more interested in when these things will take place than we are about who you are and what’s been accomplished on our behalf in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And may you draw many to faith today — drawing them away from their sin and rebellion — drawing them away from the hopelessness of this land of exile — as you draw them into your love and forgiveness — into your family — into a saving relationship with you. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
May the life and death of God’s Anointed One — on your behalf — assure you that you are greatly loved. Are of great value in God’s sight. That you are his precious treasure. Highly esteemed. And are much loved. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
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