(Daniel 9:1-3 RSV)ĭaniel tells us that he prayed this prayer in the first year of King Darius, the general who had captured the city of Babylon. Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by birth a Mede, who became king over the realm of the Chaldeans - in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years which according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. As the account tells us in the opening verses, he is reading the Scriptures to find out what God is going to do. His great career behind him, he is looking back over his lifetime now. He had served through many changes of dynasty in the kingdom of Babylon, having been the virtual prime minister of the kingdom under three successive kings. At this time, Daniel was an old man, nearing ninety years of age. This section is tied in with a great prophetic passage, but it comes in answer to a marvelous prayer that Daniel prayed. Now continuing our series on prayer from the Old Testament, let us turn to a passage which deals with the prophet Daniel himself, and what God revealed to him. Only after you understand the movements of God as revealed in the rest of Scripture do you ever begin to really understand something of what the predictive passages are saying. This book was filled with all kinds of charts, diagrams and depictions of how God was going to work, all of these very fearfully and wonderfully made! I devoured it, but I have since had to regurgitate most of it and reconsider it in the light of other Scriptures.

When I was a young Christian, in my early twenties, I was handed a great big volume called Dispensational Truth, by Clarence Larkin. It is a natural tendency, I suppose, but it is a weakening thing, because prophetic matters are really a kind of a graduate course in theology, not the beginning course. It is really too bad that Christians - especially young Christians - get so caught up with prophetic matters. Everybody gets excited when you turn to this book. Daniel is the great book on prophecy, on the end days, on the man of sin, the antichrist, on what is going to happen when Russia invades Israel, etc.

When you mention the book of Daniel to most Christians, they prick up their ears because they think you are going to talk about prophecy.

Timetable of daniel 9 simple chart