Daniel 9:11-14

Daniel 9
The Seventy Weeks Prophecy

Daniel's prayer
God's judgement
Daniel 9:11-14

Do you think things happen casually, or causally?

Those two words seem almost identical, but the little change of position in the "s" and the "u" makes them almost opposite. "Casually" means "by chance", and if you believe things happen by chance, then you believe in "casualism"; that means a universe that functions randomly. On the other side, "causalism" means that there is "cause-efect" in every event, that there's a "why" behind everything. Then you believe in "causality", the kind of belief that have made some people to scientists and inventors, researchers and detectives, philosophers and theologians, all the seekers of the "why". 

Causality is evident in the word of God spoken by the prophet Amos:

"You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth;

therefore I will punish you for all your sins.

Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?

Does a lion roar in the thicket when it has no prey?

Does it growl in its den when it has caught nothing?

Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground when no bait is there?

Does a trap spring up from the ground if it has not caught anything?

When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?

When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?

Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

The lion has roared - who will not fear?

The Sovereign Lord has spoken - who can but prophesy?"

Amos 3:2-8

"Nothing happens without a cause", is the message of Amos in verses 2-6, and "every cause will have its effect", in verse 8. Salvation and eternal death occur because of some cause as well. It's called "faith". Jesus Christ our Lord said, 

"Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son"

John 3:18

When you realize that nothing "just happens", then these words of the prophet Daniel praying to the Lord become somehow clear: 

Daniel 9:11-14

"All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, 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 did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him"

The original Hebrew text sounds like this:

"Vekhól Yisraél aberú et toratékha, vesór lebiltí shemóa bekolékha. Vatitákh alénu haalá vehashebuá ashér ketubá betorát Moshé ébed-ha-Elohím, ki khatánu lo. Vayákem et-debaráv ashér dibér alénu, veal-shofeténu ashér shefatúnu, lehabí alénu raá gedolá. Ashér lo-neestá tákhat kol-hashamáyim kaashér neestá biYrushaláyim. Kaashér ketúb betorát Moshé, et kol-haraá hazót báa alénu, veló-hilínu et-pené Yahweh Elohénu, lashúb meavonénu ulehashkíl baamitékha. Vayiskód Yahweh al-haraá, vayebiéha alénu. Ki-tzadík Yahweh Elohénu al-kol-maasáv ashér asá, veló shamánu vekoló" 

As the previous passage, Daniel 9:7-10, even when non-literal (because the Hebrew poetical language has been interpreted) the rendering to English is a truthful one to the original. 

Daniel's prayer takes place many years after the fall of Jerusalem, invaded and desolated by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia. The prophet confesses the sin of transgression, namely that Israel "refused to obey" God, as the cause of Jerusalem's desolation. In this same chapter, in verse 5, he says what he means with that disobedience, "we have turned away from your commands and laws". 

Which laws?

In Deuteronomy 4:5-7 Moses is telling Israel:

"See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it.  Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'  What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?"

God's law and God's covenant with Israel, given to Moses in mount Sinai, were intended not only to teach Israel how to follow God, but to make Israel a light to the nations, an instrument of salvation in an otherwise pagan and idolatrous world. Instead, Israel was deceived by the evil one and changed the true God for idols, which caused them to be invaded by Assyria and Babylonia. A temporary restoration would take place, when the Persian kings Cyrus and Artaxerxes allowed them to come back and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, as we read in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. But they sinned again and were delivered in the hands of the Seleucid Greeks, Romans, Medieval (Sasanid) Persians, Muslim Arabs, Christian Crusaders, Egyptian Mamluks, Ottoman Turks and the British Empire. Only in 1948 was Israel declared a free state again. 

Why should we care that much about Israel's history? Isn't it just past? Shouldn't we forget the past? 

The word of God says in Romans 15:4, 

"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope"

It means that everything written has some instruction for us, that God speaks to us through history, as you can find in the message corresponding to Daniel 5:18-19 in this blog. And because Israel as a nation, society and culture, was born from a covenant with God - given through Moses - and Christianity was also born from a covenant with God, brought by Jesus Christ the Son of God, failing to its covenant with God has caused many miseries to the Jewish people, and the same thing has happened with the Church. God is righteous, and sin have consequences. 

When Israel came out of their slavery in Egypt, they had seen the powerful hand of God acting on their behalf, in the plagues that came upon the Egyptians, the miraculous intervention of God hindering the Egyptian army so that they couldn't stop Israel, the opening of the Red Sea and the death of the Egyptian army trying to follow Israel through the same way. Nevertheless, when they confronted new challenges in their march through the desert, their faith began to fail, rebellion and sin arouse, and they refused to fulfil God's will - entering and occupying the promised land. That caused a whole generation to wander in the desert for forty years until all of the unbelievers died. Only Joshua and Caleb were spared because their faith in God. 

Under Joshua's lead, they occupied the promised land. But that task was badly done in some places, and left enemies that would haunt the Hebrews for centuries. After Joshua, the period of the judges began, and a cycle of backsliding-defeat-repentance-new judge-liberation took place until the times of Samuel, the last judge who would anoint king Saul. Even when he began in the power of the Spirit of God and won some victories for Israel, Saul was disobedient to the Lord and was rejected, being followed by king David. It was king David who consolidated the kingdom and established Jerusalem as its capital, leaving a properly ordered kingdom to his son Solomon, who reigned in a kind of "golden age" of Israel. But idolatry came back, causing the division between Israel and Judah, and the invasion of all powers we named before. 

The church has no different history in that regard. Two centuries of persecution by the Roman Empire, the lost of huge territories to the Muslim invaders, constant divisions because of doctrinal issues - sometimes leading to wars - and the rising of an Atheist-Jesus hating-Bible hating-Antisemite system are some of the results of the disobedience of Christians. The difference is that Israel's history is mostly in the Bible, preached and understood by most believers after the principle we saw in Romans 15:4, whereas the church's history is made of different kinds if people with different approaches, leading to very different conclusions, and leaving us in the "moral relativism" terrain were we are now, associated with the "multicultural society". 

When God delivered us from Roman persecutions, the church's response was to marry the state in an unholy union that God never commanded. When God gave the church peace, the church's response was to fight for supreme power and finally divide itself, leaving the scene set to lose huge Christian territories to the Muslim invaders. When God gave us Luther, Calvin and others with the message, "back to the Scriptures", the church's response was a new division that ended in the 30 years war. God gave us strong spiritual revivals, but most of the church didn't partake in them. God gave us awesome prophetical revelations about Israel, but most of the church remained antisemitic, stubbornly attached to the denial of Israel in God's plan. And God has revealed to us the things to come before Jesus' Second Coming, yet most of the church denies it and follows the Atheists who will obey the Antichrist in the last times.  

Shall we continue exasperating God as Israel and the church have done for centuries? Shall we conform our lives to lies, following the dictates of this world? Shall we substitute the Word of God for all human inventions that call good for evil and evil for good? 

Or shall we hear God's voice? 

Our salvation depends on that. If you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, or if you are backsliding, He's willing to receive you - or receive you back - and pardon your sins. Receive Him as your Lord and Savior! 

In the love of Christ, your brother

Israel Leonard

PS. Jesus is coming soon!