I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.
Today, I am reading and commenting on Daniel 9-10.
When, during his studies of scripture, Daniel discovered that God had promised that the Exile would only last 70 years, he began praying. Daniel did not “claim” God’s promised redemption. He pleaded for it. He acknowledged that his people deserved what God had done to them and that they did not deserve God’s help. Daniel’s prayer stands in stark contrast to what some preach today. Despite reading in the prophecies of Jeremiah that God had promised to end the Exile after 70 years, Daniel begged God to fulfill this promise despite the fact that he and the rest of the Jewish people did not deserve it. Daniel asked God to fulfill His promise and use the Jewish people to bring honor to His name. Daniel provides us with a model to humbly request that God do what He has said that He will do. We do not have the ability or right to demand anything from God, not even the things He has promised to do.
In response to his prayer, Daniel received a vision in which a messenger from God spoke to him. Then sometime later, Daniel had a second vision of a messenger also recounted in today’s passage. In both visions numbers are symbolically used regarding time. In the first vision the messenger tells Daniel that things will happen in “sets of seven” (I believe that seven is used as a noun in the original language). This use of seven as a noun for a unit of time is both symbolic and intentionally ambiguous. Additionally, there is the symbolic disconnect between the period of seventy sevens which is mentioned and the seven sevens plus sixty-two sevens (for a total of 69 sevens). As I read this, I am unsure if the seventy sevens comes before the seven sevens plus sixty-two sevens or if they are the same (with one seven difference between them which is not accounted for). In the second vision, the messenger was delayed for 21 days. Twenty one is three sets of seven. Three and seven are both highly significant numbers in Judaism. Every time I read this passage I am struck by the symbolism, but I am not sure what to make of it.