THE SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL - Introduction

Daniel 9:24
[24]Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Lord willing, we're taking the subject of Daniel's Seventy of Weeks. And towards the end we will be able to talk about the abomination of desolation, our last signs of the end time in the previous article.
We're speaking on Daniel in captivity and Gabriel flying in to instruct him about the future. While Daniel was in prayer, Gabriel, the Angel, come in to instruct him. Let me lay some foundation about this cricial topic that has been misinterpreted by many teachers.

The prophecy of the 70 years in Babylon was given by prophet Jeremiah which Daniel got to know about reading the prophetic book. 

Jeremiah 25:8-11
25:8 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words,
25:9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
25:10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
25:11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
25:12 And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their
iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
25:13 And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.

Daniel 9:1-3
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
2 In the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 
3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.I prayed unto the LORD... God, and made my confessions,... (And on and on it goes, until now we get to the 20th verse.)

He was inspired by what he reads in the prophetic book and he sought the face of the Lord, and the prophecy of the 70 weeks was given to him in addition. He was seeking God because of the 70 years but God spoke to him about another 70 weeks which is commonly being referred to as The Seventy weeks of Daniel.

Now, the prophet Daniel had been in Babylon for sixty-eight years. He went into captivity in B.C. 606. And when the vision came to him was--was B.C. 538; 538 from 606 leaves 68. Sixty-eight years he had been in Babylon amongst heathens and still had the victory. 
But he had been in the very midst with nobody but three companions, and them in different parts of the kingdom. But Daniel standing alone with God held the victory for sixty-eight years. But sixty- eight years he had kept the victory and was undefiled before God without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, without the Blood of Jesus Christ to make intercessions for him, with only the blood of bulls and goats and heifers which he had to offer secretly, because of the heathen traditions of that land. They'd been taken down there. Jeremiah prophesied of them that they were going down.

Now, he had begin to see that the time was getting close, just as we are today that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is very close. Daniel begin to understand, he said, by the reading of books. And I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that should be accomplished seventy years in... desolation of Jerusalem.

Daniel, yet an alien, yet ousted from his people, ousted from his church, without one church service, without any church to go to, without any hymns to be sang but what he sang himself, in the midst of all of this, still held onto what that prophet said. 
No church to go to, nobody to fellowship with; everybody went to heathen temples; everybody worshipped their idols. No Christian songs, nobody believed the same thing he did, and in sixty- eight years, from a young man of about twelve, fourteen years old when he was taken down there, he held true to God and understood by Jeremiah's prophet that the days were almost accomplished. 

And if Daniel, the prophet of the Lord, could consult Jeremiah's books and bring him to such a place that even Israel coming out, all of them alive, was coming out of Babylon to go back to the homeland would cause him to fast with sackcloth and ashes, how much more ought it to do to the Church of the Living God to know that time is fading out and shall be no more, and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the great Millennium ready to set in? How can we spend wasteless time gambling, swimming holes on Sundays, no time for the Lord. Just run down, if the pastor speaks on something or other you don't like, you get up and go out. And if the if the church holds too long, why, you're dissatisfied. Look at our condition. Look what we're doing. Compare our lives with that prophet. One man in a complete kingdom with no church to go to and none nowhere else to go to... It was tore down and burned down. His city, his people was captive. Sixty-eight years, he had two years left.
So when he begin to read in the book and see that the time was drawing nigh to fulfill--be fulfilled, he went to God in prayer to find out about it.

To be continue!!!