4. So Righteous - Faithfulness in Exile [Daniel] - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

welcome to door folk it's good to have you guys here this is our Sunday gathering that wasn't already apparent to you and this is what we do together we gather every week as if people of Jesus it's a habit that we have and it's a habit Jesus's followers have head for millennia now no matter what's happened since the last Sunday gathering on the matter our own stories or what's gone on in the world we believe ultimately that there is good news we're celebrating about the story of our world amen amen so that's why that's why we're here this is the time where we opened up the scriptures together we learn but ultimately we get ourselves ready for the most important thing that we do which is to enter into worship and renew our devotion to Jesus and take the bread in the cup together so super good to have you guys here if your visitor here today hi you're a great person I'm sure and my name is Tim if I didn't say that yes and one of the pastor's here it's great to have you guys here we have in our Sunday gatherings been exploring what book of the Bible for the last couple months a book of daniel and we're actually going to close that down next sunday and move into new territory that i'm excited about but won't tell you about till next week just because you know it's not a movie it's not like there's plot tension here so i have to create some in some way so anyway i come back next week and you'll hear we're going to do for the rest of summer in our sunday gatherings but we are closing down the book of daniel and we're going to consider today daniel chapter 9 it's one of the most beautiful prayers of confession any oh there you are that's could see much better now one of the most beautiful prayers of confession in the whole bible the book of daniel this this whole book this whole series what we've been focusing on the main point of the book is telling the story of these four israelites one in particular especially named daniel and these are israelites you'll remember they've been exiled from their home from Jerusalem they've been taken into captivity to a faraway land and they're struggling now for the rest of their lives to be faithful to their true identity into their God in a foreign land and so every week we've been exploring how this book speaks to God's people anytime anywhere where God's people are a minority where there's a trying to be faithful to your God lands you in the position of a minority and everyone else around you thinks that you're stupid and that what you believe is stupid in that your way of life is stupid and difficult it's hard to live like that intention and and what daniel has showed us and his friends is interesting because you know they were recruited to serve in Babylon but what they didn't do to be faithful to their God is go run away and start a monastery in the desert or as they like they kept their positions serving in the government of Babylon they learned the language they took on the dress of the Babylonian today they participated in Babylonian culture but then there came these moments right these these line in the sand type moments where now I can't give in to that pressure of Babylonian culture that would be compromised for me to giving my allegiance to the God of Israel and so I had to do with food and worshipping the Empire and praying to the king as a god they said no it is super like risky and difficult for them so that's the main theme of this book now one one thing we haven't talked about yet in this book so far is why and how Daniel and his friends are sitting in exile we know they were taken captive but like why how did that happen and and what why did it happen and how does Daniel view his his circumstances so here's what we've been using kind of the Bible project we use the video on first week and then the poster of the whole book that you'll see up here and if that seems overwhelming to you that's because it is because the book is overwhelming but so you can kind of see the overall picture here it starts in the upper left daniel was taken captive along with a whole bunch of other is nowise from Jerusalem up there then they were recruited to serve in Babylon and then we had a whole bunch of stories in the middle here the makeup the testing and the dreams of the king and so on and if all these stories about Daniel and the friends trying to be faithful to God in very difficult circumstances and last week we came to a transition point in the story chapter 7 there was the super beast with the horn right there and that was a dream that he had that's a symbol Babylon and the kingdoms of this world that are super violent and horrible but they're going to face their downfall one day and the super beast is going to be destroyed and God's going to exalt his faithful people and that's the dream and the hope that keeps Daniel afloat so that's the shape of the book so far and today we're talking about Daniel chapter 9 his prayer so let's zoom in here yeah okay alright so how how and why did Daniel end up where he is in exile we know that it happened but you just kind of have to know the storyline of the Old Testament like the Book of Daniel doesn't really tell you why it happened it just assumes that you know and so if you know the story of Israel in you know rough format from the Old Testament God redeems them out of slavery in Egypt and the Exodus story you've probably seen the movie if you haven't read the story and then he brings them to the foot of a mountain remember the name of the mountain Mount Sinai well Flo how's the starting block you guys practice there you go I do this probably ever once or twice a month you know you would think you okay anyway so Mount Sinai and their God enters into a covenant agreement with the people of Israel that they're going to live by the terms of this covenant to become as priests to the nation's God says so they'll show the nation's the character of the God of Israel and what are the first 10 terms of the agreement remember what do we call those they're famous in our culture call them as Ten Commandments but they're the first terms and then there's over 600 more you shouldn't do them in the rest of the first books of the Bible and so on a scale of 1 to 10 as is agrees they sign us up to this agreement and then they go into the promised land on a scale of one to ten ten being stellar zero being less than stellar how does Israel do in keeping the terms of the Covenant zero less than stellar right uh four I mean the storyline goes for four centuries for four hundred years you have a nation of people and the story from the perspective of the storyteller in the biblical story is that they just utter fail utter fail complete rebellion and abandoning the cut terms of the Covenant so so the God of Israel puts up with this for four centuries it's a really long time it's a long time I and and eventually God orchestrates Israel's downfall because of their rebellion for four centuries and that's what lands Daniel and his friends in Babylon the king of Babylon comes and God allows him to take the city and you were he takes captive just put yourself in that scenario on the last right there it's so foreign to most of us but I think how many humans throughout human history this is their life story they were living happily in their home with family and friends and the land that they loved and then an invading army comes decimates everything kills all these people that you love and care about and you're left alive as a captive and you're taking in Chains on this long ride across the desert and you're transplanted into a refugee camp in this new land where you don't want to be there but this is where you are now in the different culture different language and then even more so daniel was part of the royal family and so he gets recruited to serve in the kingdom of babylon which is just like just the worst of the worst and so here's daniel he finds themselves in a horrible horrific life situation now Daniel himself good guy bad guy good guy good guy I mean have we seen Daniel really fail at all in any of the stories in the book that has his name he's a good guy do you know how rare this is in the Bible right how we end up with children's books full of like portraying biblical characters as models of behavior that you should be like you know how that happens it happens by whitewashing them and leaving out almost all the stories up the Bible about how horrible most of the people in the Bible actually are are you with me most of the characters in the Bible are terribly inconsistent and morally compromised people you only get children's books by taking all of that out but not Daniel you can make a great children's book and many have been made about Daniel is a good guy because he is a really good guy so so - stop stop and put yourself sympathetically in in his life you you're you've been this faithful as it's possible to be to the god of this room and yet you are sitting in Babylon through no fault of your own it's actually because of the prolonged failure and rebellion and moral compromise of your parents your grandparents your great-grandparents your great-grandparents who gave in and they worship the gods of Canaan and they were unfaithful to the God of Israel that's why you're sitting in Babylon your faithful isn't it come is their fault and you're the one who's sitting here in Babylon and whose wife is horrible because of this are you with me here that's the scenario how do you feel about your life if you're Daniel you wake up after one decade in Babylon after two decades in Babylon and every day is like a battle trying to be faithful in a foreign land and if you can get yourself imaginative Lilly right in in Daniels shoes try and imagine how easy it would be for him to start feeling bitter yeah if you were Daniel how how easy would it be to start throwing a monthly pity party for your life and why you're sitting here because of somebody else's in your family's stupid decision right and it would be very easy for Daniel to begin to foster this mindset he's a good guy he hasn't done anything wrong and it would be very easy for him to adopt this kind of righteous martyr mentality wouldn't it of like of this victim mentality of I here I am and like my whole family's screwed up and like there it's because of them that I've landed here are you with me when when God's people are a faithful minority there's this tricky line you have to walk because the books telling us to be faithful to our God while we're in a foreign land but at the same time there's this temptation of a mindset to start to put that starts to come out in the lives of God's faithful few because it'd be very easy for you to start to see yourselves as morally superior right to everybody who came before you I'd be very easy for God's faithful few to look out at the dominant culture and to be like to hell in a handbasket with all of you you know and are you with me here okay in fact can you can you think of any other times and places in history where there are religious people who identify themselves as the faithful remnant and they look out at the dominant culture to hell in a handbasket and they think that they themselves are the voice of truth and speak for God alone mmm I will are you with me like how many times through and and what's the dominant trends that the tone and the attitude of people with that mindset tend to pick up and how they communicate to the world at large I mean to end and you can sympathize with it we would wouldn't blame Daniel if he became angry accusatory blaming everybody else right if he if he created distance between well here I am trying to do the right thing and this becomes the US and them kind of thing are you with me this is like that it's a mindset they can very easily form in God's face full few people and so what we're going to see is we turn to this prayer and Daniel today it's exactly that's exactly not the mindset that he adopts it's precisely the opposite and I think that his prayer gets us into the psychology and that the spiritual heart of what it means to try and be faithful to God in Babylon in exile but without ever distancing themselves from the culture that is that is against them are you with me here Daniel chapter 9 let's dive in it will keep this image up here because one thing to reference so in the first year of Darius the son of Xerxes who in case you were wondering was a mead by descent he was made ruler over the Babylonian Kingdom in the first year of his reign I Daniel understood from the scriptures according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the Prophet that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years so I turned to the Lord God I pleaded with him in prayer and petition in fasting in sackcloth and in ashes okay now if your true Bible geek those little dates and the chronology the first year so and so that all like triggers stuff you get you salivate and get excited when you read those kinds of things in the Bible so but here's why it's significant is that by the chronology is you've been following through the book Daniel was captured and taken to Babylon when he was a young man we don't know precisely somewhere in his late teens early twenties and what this little notice Clues us into is the fact that we're now some fifty years into the Exile which is why he's in a gray silvery hair by chapter 9 here in the drawing he's been he's been sitting in exile 50 years that's a very difficult situation to find yourself and so he begins wandering of course like how long gonna last how long is God gonna let disco heaven and so he opened up his Bible looking for answers and lo and behold he discovers part of an answer in what's book of the Bible is he go to did Jeremiah and he learns from Jeremiah that the desolation of Jerusalem was going to last how long 70 70 years where did he read that well let's just read it ourselves he's reading in Jeremiah chapter 25 this is the Lord speaking to Israel through Jeremiah therefore the Lord says this Israel because you've not listened to my words I'm going to summon all the peoples of the north's and my servant Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against the surrounding nations I'll completely destroy them meaning the king of Babylon will and the king of Babylon is right now an agent of God's justice or judgment I'll completely destroy them making them in everlasting ruin the whole country will become a desolate wasteland these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years so Daniels you know decades and decades in to this he reads this chapter of Jeremiah and why would you be feeling you're now in your 60s in Babylon and you know if you if seventy years is up within 15-20 years or so you could you could go back to Jerusalem couldn't you you might make it back in your wheelchair yeah but with a cane or something but are you with me here this fostering hope for Daniel Dan is realizing like oh my gosh that's right the God of Israel said this would last forever says this has an endpoint he connects it to 70 years Daniel could go back within his own lifetime and so what that does is it motivates him to do something verse 4 and so I prayed to the Lord my god and I was like I prayed to the Lord my God and I confessed so just get back into our little Imagi t'v scenario here what you could have very easily imagined Daniel doing is saying 70 years finally this is over she how did I end up here again man my ancestors were lame finally I can get back to the city I love like it could be the pity party but what he actually does is really surprising what he does is confess and as we're going to see confession is about publicly opening up to public view to God's view the sin and the evil and the wrongdoing that I've participated in and we read that we're like wait a minute I what did Daniel do you know he's like really one of the faithful few but but somehow and his mind said the way he's processed this whole series of events doesn't feel that way he's ready to confess here's what I want to do this is one of the most beautiful prayers of confession in the Bible I just want to read it in its entirety because it's awesome we'll read it and then reflect on just a couple things going on in the Prairie with me verse 4 Lord the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his Commandments we have sinned and have done wrong we've been wicked and have rebelled we've turned away from your commands and your laws we have not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our Kings our Prince's our ancestors to all the people of the land Oh Lord you are righteous but today we are covered with shame the people of Judah the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel both near and far in all of the countries where you scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you we are Kings our Prince's our ancestors were covered with shame Lord because we have sinned against you the Lord our God he's merciful he's forgiving even though we rebelled against him we haven't obeyed the Lord our God we haven't kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets all Israel transgressed your law and turned away refusing to obey you therefore the curses and the sworn judgments written in the law of Moses the servant of God they were poured out upon us because we sinned against you you fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers bringing upon us great disaster under all of heaven nothing's ever been done like what's been done to Jerusalem just as it's written in the law of Moses all this disaster has come upon us and yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth the Lord didn't hesitate to bring the disaster on us for the Lord our God is righteous in everything that he does and yet we haven't obeyed him so now Lord our God who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day we have sinned we have done wrong so Lord in keeping with all of your righteous act turn away from your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem your city your holy hill our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us and so now our God hear the prayers and petitions of your servant for your own sake Lord look with favor on your desolate sanctuary give ear our God listen open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your name we're not making requests of you because we are but because of your grave mercy Lord listen Lord forgive Lord here and do something for your sake my god don't delay because of your city and because of your people who bear your name Hyden whoa so much going on here about the art and the spiritual practice of confession a zillion cool things here I just want to talk about two two things one is there's something at the heartbeat of this prayer is Daniels view of God's character and it's and it's that that shapes something about his character in how he says the prayer and these two things together get us inside the mindset of why Daniel doesn't view himself as this victim martyr there's one main thing that he emphasizes about God's character in this prayer he repeated it over and over and over again particularly four times it's a word they repeated four times if you caught it something about God's character well what did he emphasize if I got the character righteous did you catch that four times he brought up righteousness and if you missed them here they all are he began in the early part of the prayer Lord you are righteous and which is why today we we are people or leaders or kings we're the ones in the wrong so we're the ashamed ones we're the ones who bailed on you and if failed to be faithful and so because of that the Lord brought disaster on us because he's righteous but then later in the prayer look at what he does here he says Lord in keeping with your righteous actions fully set up above now I'm asking you because you're righteous to forgive not because we're righteous but because you're merciful Lord listen Lord forgive here you go now there's something I just want to stop here and unpack this this is so profound this aspect of God's character the Daniell Council on and explores here and it's precisely because he gets this about God's character it's what makes him humble instead of proud when he looks at his ancestors it's because of God's righteousness that Daniel doesn't take on this victim martyr complex and through a pity party but it causes him to Humble himself who has sinned according to Daniel's prayer we would include he includes himself what's that about because he's grasped something right here okay so here you go you can count on me to always teach you Hebrew words that you'll never need to know in your day-to-day life or maybe you've actually lived by them I'll let you be the judge of that so but I think this interesting and important the Hebrew word for righteous or righteous Ness anyone take a crack at it Sebek said 'ok yeah the TS is one letter in hebrew ascetic civic and there's a few other variations but that's the core that's the core word right there now righteous this is one of those words in English I mean how does anybody use the word other than religious people anymore are you with me how many of you used it in conversation at work the last week you know we should really yeah form a partnership with them they're so righteous or whatever you know on my neighbor is really he bowed my lawn you so righteous you know we don't write you with me so it's a religious word in in English and it's almost like what does it even mean I think for most of us it probably means something in English modern English as a morally good person what do you think yeah we weave majority in the room a morally good person but you could also use the word nice or decent or good what's that cool yes well cool cool people can be means the and jerk so so righteous what's happening here this word occurs all over the Bible and actually has a really really precise profound meaning once you wrap your your head around it the transforms what it means when you say out loud that God is the god is righteous maybe a visual illustration might help something actually from my parents record collection that my how Billa straight I couldn't find a lot of moments for humor in this message so I took every chance I can get this is actually I uh this is a record vinyl in my parents collection I grew up with this image and I know the Righteous Brothers mostly it was in their younger days you know the hit song remember this song you've lost that loving feeling you've uh anyway um so this is a reunion album in there retired years the hair the denim all of it anyway so I don't know if that's righteous to you they apparently think that they're righteous but anyway okay alright so don't think that what what's happening here let's let's try it let's go back to the definition of righteous okay let me distraction all of us okay so here's at its core here's what this word means it's a word that describes someone's character not in and of themselves it describes someone's characters that you see demonstrated by how they treat other people in their relationships it's a relationship word you can be a good person I just by yourself you can't be righteous by yourself the only way you know a person is righteous is by how they treat people and righteousness it's a standard of being in right relationship so an example I think will bring clarity so let's say you've got a guy and this guy let's say he's in a series of relationships one of them is that he's a husband and that he's a father so you know he displays his righteousness that character trait by behaving towards his wife and towards his kids in what kinds of behavior well faithfulness being committed being present but loving right like parenting being involved those are the kinds of behaviors that are right for that kind of relationship now let's say that our person is also an entrepreneur and so he started a business or something and he's employed a whole bunch of people and so how is that person righteous towards their employees not by snuggling up with them at bedtime and reading stories to them although that is how he's righteous towards his children that's not how he's righteous towards isn't what kinds of behaviors make a righteous person towards like a like a business owner so it's going to be somebody who who creates a great work environment clear job descriptions fair wages are you with me those are the behaviors that are proper to a right relationship there and then let's say that our person also like lives in a neighborhood and so he hasn't you have a neighbor so what does it mean that he's righteous towards his neighbor it means that he gives them you know they make them cookies at Christmastime and so on and mows their lawn for them when they lawnmower breaks and so on are you with me the behavior will change depending on what the type of relationship is but the overall trait is that in all different kinds of relationships this person we have this phrase in English we don't use it very much to do right by somebody you guys use that phrase it's not normal English but do you know what it means to do right by somebody you get it on an intuitive level do you know what that phrase means it means I'm in a relationship with you and my behavior I'm doing right about you let's set it aesthetic so so here's what daniel says he says Lord you displayed setec which causes us to be ashamed so you've been faithful and done right by us Israel after all you rescued us at the slavery and brought us into and even though we didn't deserve it and what have we done towards you yeah for for centuries who you know we totally violated and broke the agreement that we made with you your tete ik were not static then look what he goes on to say he says Lord you brought disaster upon us because you're acidic so God has done right by Israel by bringing disaster on them for 400 years of breaking covenant what does that mean well look at the kind of setec this is this is not dad or parent or employer or neighbor setec this is judge setec so let's say someone you go out from the gathering here you go out to the parking lot and your car's gone and the windows smashed there's glass on the ground and you're like to hang it what's happened to me finally and so whatever let's say like three weeks later your car shows up and they catch the person who did it and it all comes down to a court hearing and so you come to court and there's the person who you know broke into your car and stole it and drove it into a ditch or something I don't know and so listen here's the judge and if all the evidence is very clear and this is the person if the judge stands up there and says man you know you were probably just having a bad day oh dear criminal and you know we all have heartbreak sometimes so just you know 200 bucks and off with you you know is that setec has that judge done right by you has that judge done right by the whole community by allowing that person to go out with hardly any consequences no it's not Civic so for a judge to show stetic actually means bringing serious consequences on evil and on destructive behavior that is right the judge is doing right by you the victim right by the whole community by the law are you with me here so that's why Daniel can say Jerusalem was destroyed because God is righteous it actually wouldn't be good on God's part if he just let Jerusalem continue in what it was doing without any accountability or justice and so now we're into the psychology of like why Daniel isn't going to have a pity party here he actually views the destruction of jury venire even though it ripped apart his own life he recognizes that the people of Jerusalem had it coming but it's actually right that God brought justice on their evil and destructive behavior are you with me here but that's not the end of God's righteousness and this is might seem abstract but it's really it's really powerful and it's this last use of righteousness here because he says listen Lord so just like you were righteous up above to bring justice I'm also asking you now because you're righteous to forgive us not because we're righteous I'm asking because you are the kind of God who does right by people you you brought consequences on our evil and now because you do right by people forgive us do you see that right there so God's righteousness compels him to to bring justice but God's righteousness also apparently compels him to forgive and to restore and right here we're at a crossroads if you have a conception of the god of Christianity that the basic storyline is that he made the world and he made humans and he issued a bunch of commands and you better do this or else I'm going to roast you if that's your basic view of the God of the Bible I would I would just really really urge you to actually read the Bible and what you'll discover is a god that's very very different than that what you discover is a God who gives this incredibly strange and wonderful world full of potential to the stewardship and of human beings and he tells us upfront like here's how this is going to work well for you here's how this is not going to work well for you and what I mean Israel had four centuries of running their ship into the ground how long has humanity has hull been doing that well kind of debate about that was but they're just on a theological level okay how long has humanity been running our ship into the ground as far back as we can possibly tell and so what is God's supposed to do with this well the way the story of the Bible works is that God brings consequences on human evil but he always does so matched and in tandem with a promise that he calls his covenant his covenant promises and it's connected to this random guy named Abraham that God says even though I bring consequences to keep human evil in check God says Genesis 12 his ultimate purpose is to bring blessing to his enemies and to restore and to forgive his world that we have ruined hurry with me that's the story of the Bible and so if the God of the Bible only ever roasted us for doing horrible things he would not be righteous because God's made a promise that no matter what happens he's going to bless and restore and heal his world not at the expense of his justice because of it are you listening this is the story of the Bible the Jesus sees himself apart of and it's very similar is very similar to up parenting which is just my life right now it's like constantly think of parenting images but it's really true you know I live with these two little cavemen as I call them and you know you'll often see them running around in between services breaking stuff and so you know let's say we're at home and and one of them behaves like a beast a little jungle beast to each other or something which they do regularly so I've got to come in and regulate this so am i righteous towards them as a dad if I just sit back and they like one of them hits another and steals their Legos and calls them a name and I do nothing is am I can I say that I'm righteous as a dad no I'm not doing right by them because because they're going to grow up thinking like oh this is a perfectly fine way to treat people so of course it's not fine so I have to work and just guess the work decree this say environment were they experience consequences for their destructive behavior and that is righteous that's bringing justice its naming destructive ways of being a human and making them accountable for it and there being consequences however is my only role as a parent to bring the hammer of justice no because what to be a healthy human being what I also need to help teach them is that when they've ruptured and broken a relationship between them like there's a way forward there's consequences and then there's a way forward through the healing of that relationship and this is about teaching them how to forgive how to like confess to each other and then ask for forgiveness and then I accept your apology and saying them with actually looking into my eyes what I say it not going rekt if your apology like I got you know like that like that is off if I'm a dad can I say that I'm doing right by my children if I don't ever help them restore their relationship No so somehow both of these are in Daniels head the God is righteous by by letting us sit in the mess that we've made for ourselves but God isn't fully righteous until he does something to deal with and restore to heal into blessed you see that right there he says it you're righteous for bringing disaster on us now because you're righteous forgive us and if you don't forgive and help us restore and figure this out then you you haven't kept your promise God which means you're not righteous you haven't done right do you see this here this is so profound God's righteousness is his justice and his mercy because he promised that this is what he would do and they done they aren't a contradiction to each other they actually work they work perfectly together just like it doesn't parenting and it's that view this very rich view of God's righteousness his right relationship and doing right by his people that's what that's the character trait of God that reshapes the character of Daniel this is dancing in the prayer that we noticed whose sin is he confessing ours IV just we've sinned we've done wrong then you're like wait a minute no Daniel I haven't seen that at all and there's some before the beauty right the rich profound beauty of God's righteousness that no matter what he always does right by his relationships with that does it humbles Daniel even though he could be tempted to throw a pity party and view himself as morally superior and creates this us in them distance between his ancestors and between himself and Babylon would be like to hell with all of them that's exactly not what he does when he sees the beauty and perfection and generosity of God's character he it humbles him and he views himself as a participant in this huge mess that he's a part of and he may have contributed to it in a way that's different than the kings of Israel or whatever the people who sacrificed their children in Jerusalem and all these horrible things that happened in Jerusalem that he never did but yet before the goodness and generosity of God's righteousness he steps back and he just humbles themselves and he's just it's our mess are you with me here so so profound the faithful remnant of God here's how you know that someone has truly got grasp God's righteousness that they're humble that they don't view themselves as better than other people and even though they're trying to be faithful to God in a foreign land they never never point the finger accuse blame make themselves look better than the infidel or the Sentry with me here a true grasp of God's character humbles God's people and so it doesn't matter the Daniel didn't sacrifice his children in Jerusalem or if he never worshiped an idol he steps in line with his whole ancestry and he says we've sinned we are participants in contributors into the horror of this world it reminds me of a person in the New Testament one of the most faithful obvious has followers in the New Testament his name's Paul perhaps you've heard of him and near the end of his life he can write a letter to his protege Timothy and and say to him you know I'm sure I've done all the stuff and he'll plant a lot of churches but you need to remember Timothy I'm the remember what he says I'm the worst sinner you've ever met in your life and you just like Paul really you know she should Beth were he that where am I Hama scale you know but that and it's not that he hates himself is that he's grasped the profound beauty of God's righteousness and it humbled it humbled him hi guys did I wish I could land the plane right there but let's finish the chapter what is god's response to this prayer verse 20 now while I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill I was still in prayer and Gabriel the man I had seen in the earlier vision he's referring to chapter 8 it's this human-like angelic figure that came to him in these dreams he came to me in Swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice and he instructed me and said Daniel I've come to give you inside an understanding as soon as you began to pray a word went out which I've come to tell you for you're highly esteemed therefore consider this word and understand the vision seventy sevens are decreed for your people and for your holy city to finish transgression to put an end to sin to atone for wickedness to bring in everlasting setec righteousness and to seal up vision see and to anoint the most holy place all clear remember what Daniel doing he's sitting here reading The Book of Jeremiah hoping that the Exile is almost over because Jeremiah said it would last seventy years and then he praised this prayers like yes we sinned against you he humbles himself we ruined it so bad please forgive us the 70 years is almost up and Daniel hopes that this exile missed painful experience has dealt with Israel sin once and for all and then what he hears in response to his prayer did the 70 years do it apparently not because it's not 70 anymore it's 77 now some of your translations have the word weeks they're 70 weeks the Hebrew word for week is the same word for seven the number seven because it's seven-day cycle so this is a multiplication you thought it was 70 years but actually I'm telling you it's 77 quick math on the spot I'm horrible at this kind of thing 490 yeah 490 bummer if you're Daniel how do you feel about your life right now you thought you could go back to Jerusalem in the wheelchair no it's not going to happen neither are your kids or your grandkids or your grandkids 490 here's here's the but here's the point has this exile to Jerusalem has this fully dealt with Israel's transgression sin and evil did this 70 year and this horrible as horrible as it is did it fully atone for Israel's sin is this the way that eternal setec eternal righteousness is going to be created no the story is not over apparently the the distortion of humanity and the brokenness and sin of Israel runs so deep that this Exile to Babylon is just the first leg of a much longer experience of God's judgement it's not good news if you're Daniel here's where it goes from here know and understand this from the time that the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One the ruler comes there will be seven seven how many's at seven times seven forty-nine and sixty-two sevens that's a whopper that's so good but add the seven sevens and the sixty-two sevens and you get 483 years then it Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and a trench but in times of trouble and then after the sixty-two sevens The Anointed One will be cut off or put to death and then will have nothing and then the people of the ruler who will come to destroy the city and the sanctuary the end will come like a flood war will continue until the end desolations have been decreed and he that's the ruler of the bad guys will come and confirm a covenant with the many for one seven but then in the middle of that seven he's going to put an end to sacrifice and offering and up the temple he's going to set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end is decreed that's poured out on him Daniel chapter 9 all clear so I pray I'll pray now that's there's like 11 of you in the room who this is actually what you want me to talk the most about and I'm not going to do that to your disappointment sorry so does this very complex very complex passage of Biblical prophecy here's what everybody agrees on has the 70 years fully dealt with Israel sin and transgression no there's a longer period of time that's going to come and near the end of that period of time the 490 an anointed one will come word Messiah and he will be cut off die and then connected with that is a really bad guy this ruler and you'll recognize him is the mega super beast horn King guy from chapter 7 in chapter 8 and there's going to be this some sort of faceoff and then the Anointed One will die and then Jerusalem is going to be destroyed in the temple in some way and this is a part of the long story of how God is going to put an end to sin and finish transgression and atone for Israel's evil I guess then everybody agrees on that there are some people who think it was fulfilled in these events about 150 years before Jesus in a Syrian king named Antiochus who came to Jerusalem conquered it assassinated the high priest who was also called The Anointed One and that was fulfilled then there are some people who think that it was still yet to be fulfilled that it will be fulfilled one day when Jesus returns and he'll set up a kingdom in Jerusalem and Antichrist and Left Behind novels and that whole deal right so there's that view and both of these views have a real problem with the number setup of 490 because the number doesn't really work for this view the number really doesn't work for this view because last I counted were going on 2500 years since Daniel and the promise was made not 490 even there's ways that people who have this view get over that hurdle but so on alright then there's none of you how you you're enjoying this so then there's another view all right in the middle that says the number scheme and the way this works out most likely refers to Jesus himself when he came as the anointed one and that we're referring here to his own death by crucifixion and then the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the numbers even don't work perfectly for that one but they work better than these other to flip a coin flip a coin so smart people hold all these views they all have Jesus my hunch is that this view has the most going for it and I could be wrong about that but I don't think I am but there you go what everybody agrees on the shelve all that right now let's just go to the bottom line we'll land the plane here what everybody agrees on is that what Daniel 9 is pointing to is the brokenness and sin of Israel runs so deep the just the Exile to Babylon didn't deal with the heart of the problem there's still something left that God's righteousness his eternal righteousness needs to do or accomplish to fully finish transgression to put an end to sin and to fully cover over in atone for Israel's evil are you with me there's some act yet to be done from Daniels point of view regards righteous justice this is God is good he has to expose and name all the screwed up stuff that's inside of us and that we do if he's not righteous if he doesn't do that but at the same time God's righteousness is his promise and his commitment to rescue and bring blessing and to show mercy into and to forgive that's also his righteousness and Daniel 9 saying there's something yet to happen in the future where God's justice and mercy where his righteousness will meet perfectly together and deal with evil tell me what greater projection could you be looking for in the Book of Daniel than the moment of the cross are you with me the cross is precisely the moment where what's what's inside of humanity gets exposed right historically we're talking about Jesus being falsely accused and executed by one of the most the most sophisticated justice system that the world had ever known and that's not only just the Jesus was an innocent man he was a man who was known for only doing good to people and yet one of the most ancient religious traditions in the world and one of the most sophisticated justice traditions in the whole world in human history ends up nailing the Son of God to the cross in that moment in history if you really grasp what's happening there it's not some distant thing that happened 2,000 years ago in its event that exposes all of us and its event that reveal of God's righteousness and like Daniel it should it should humble all of us I didn't nail Jesus to the cross but if I truly grasp the beauty of God's righteousness like Daniel I come to the cross and I recognize I'm responsible too I'm a contributor just like you are and just like the Romans were just like the Roman the Jewish high priests were we're all contributors to why this world is the way that it is what happened in Florida last night none of us were there but we are a part of the human condition we're part of it and we're no better we're no worse we're just broken human beings and the only hope that we have is God's righteousness that he will name what's wrong with us and he'll deal with our evil in a way that doesn't destroy us but that saves us amen and this is good news that we hope for and so what what happens in the cross is God names and deals with our evil and he shoulders it himself he actually absorbs it into himself so that he can give to us as a gift his own life and forgiveness and mercy this is the good news of the Cross and it's what allows a community of Jesus's followers sitting in Portland to pray for the tragedy of what happens in Florida and and to fully own and recognize that and yet still leave the building today believing that there's good news for our world amen and it's not because we are righteous and it's not because somehow we're better it's because God is righteous which means he's just and he's committed to restoring and to healing our world so I don't know where this lands you of today as we think about the last seven days since we were together and took the Bresnik up we all have ways that we failed we all have ways that we've been inconsistent and that we were compromised as followers of Jesus and these are all ways that we've contributed to the world and the way that it is and the right response is to confess and as we come to take the bread and the cup we announce the good news that God has judged our wrongdoing and he's offered us his love and forgiveness in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus when we close in a word of Prayer you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 56min 1sec (3361 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 19 2017