Click above to watch video.
OR
Click below to play audio and read along.
Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I suppose all of us have had ‘defining moment’ experiences in our lives. For several days we’ve been following the life story of a remarkable man named Daniel who lived a very strategic life at an important time in world history. Daniel’s life had many ‘defining moments’ which we’ve looked at closely and today we’ll finish with one final, great event.
Yesterday we concluded the remarkable story of Daniel’s survival from the lion’s den and the proclamation King Darius wrote and sent throughout the empire as a result of his conclusion that Daniel’s God was the supreme god over all gods worshiped anywhere in the world. (Daniel 6) The final verse of Daniel 6 is significant: “So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius the Mede and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.” (Daniel 6:28)
Let’s not conclude that the word “prospered” here means that Daniel became a wealthy man, although he probably did. Rather, here Daniel wants all readers to know that God’s protection of Jewish Daniel living in Babylon and God’s anointing of Daniel with wisdom, through more than 70 years of advising the kings of Babylon and Persia, was in Daniel’s view, a blessed and very prosperous life with remarkable global and historical significance.
The remainder of the book of Daniel is very fascinating to say the least and has filled volumes and conferences as people have studied the prophetic visions and messages God gave to Daniel, much of which is yet future even for us living in 2025! We’ll not take the time now to dig deeply into Daniel chapters 7-12 but let me please point out the very interesting timeline of WHEN Daniel received these messages from God.
* Daniel 7:1 says: “In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream…” You’ll recall Belshazzar was the final king of Babylon, the one who was shocked by the disembodied handwriting words on the palace wall which only Daniel was able to read and explain. (Daniel 5) By Daniel’s description he received this dream from God in 553bc, Belshazzar’s first year, which would have been almost exactly 50 years since Daniel was brought as a young captive to Babylon.
* Daniel 8:1 says “In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I Daniel had a vision…” This great vision would have been received by Daniel in the year 550bc.
* Daniel 10:1 says: “In the third year of Cyrus King of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel. Its meaning was true, and it concerned a great war…” This vision came to Daniel in the year 536bc, three years after the Persians conquered Babylon. This vision was so complex it required three chapters (Daniel 10,11,12) for Daniel to explain the angelic process of receiving it and the details of this remarkable, great vision, much of which is yet future.
And finally, Daniel 9:1 says: “In the first year of Darius the Mede who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom – 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 70 years. So, I turned to the LORD God and pleaded with Him in prayer and petition, in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes…”
Now this is very significant as we conclude our nearly 80-year journey with Daniel because not only is Daniel 9 one of the greatest prayers recorded in the Bible, but the last part of Daniel 9 describes 70 ‘sevens’ which has captivated Bible scholars for centuries.
But what I’d like us to consider today is God’s miracle accomplishing one of the greatest events in the history of Israel, which flows out of those words of Daniel 9:1-3. Perhaps you remember a few days ago we looked at a letter which the prophet Jeremiah had written from Jerusalem to the Jewish captives exiled in Babylon, a few years before Jerusalem was finally conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586bc.
That famous letter is in our Bible as Jeremiah chapter 29 in which Jeremiah, led by the Holy Spirit, proclaimed that after 70 years God would return the Jewish captives to rebuild and re-inhabit Jerusalem! Daniel evidently had received or read a copy of that letter and after much prayer and some calculation Daniel realized those 70 years were nearly completed!
Daniel also evidently had a copy of the prophet Isaiah’s scrolls which had been written about 150 years earlier. As Daniel read Isaiah 44 and 45, I’m sure the Holy Spirit stirred deeply in Daniel! Look at these words my friends and imagine how Daniel’s heart must have been stunned: This is what the LORD says – Your Redeemer who formed you in the womb: ‘I am the LORD, the Maker of all things…who carries out the words of His servants and fulfills the predictions of His messengers...who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd and will accomplish all the I please; He will say of Jerusalem ‘Let it be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundations be laid.” (Isaiah 44:24-28)
Yes, my friends, God predicted through Isaiah, more than 150 years BEFORE Cyrus the Persian emperor conquered Babylon and placed Darius as king over it, that King Cyrus would allow the Jewish captives to return to Jerusalem! He would send them to rebuild and re-inhabit that destroyed city, Jerusalem! Furthermore, Cyrus would urge them to rebuild the Temple of the God of Israel in Jerusalem!
For Daniel, as he put Isaiah 44,45 and Jeremiah 29 together, and realized that he, Daniel, was now one of the most revered wise men in Babylonia, now part of the Persian empire, and that King Cyrus was the emperor of the Persian empire, it must have taken his breath away! He was living the fulfillment of God’s prophecy made so many years before!
History tells us that King Cyrus was a benevolent emperor and as the Persian empire conquered smaller kingdoms the captives held in those kingdoms were often given permission by Cyrus to return to their homelands. In 539bc when Babylon was conquered by King Darius on behalf of King Cyrus, very soon thereafter King Cyrus issued the edict which is recorded for us in 2 Chronicles 36:23 & Ezra 1:1-4 “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me [Cyrus] all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of His people among you may go up and may the LORD their God be with them…”
While we have no specific record of the conversation, I believe as Daniel prayed his Daniel 9 prayer, God guided Daniel to speak with King Darius and request an audience with King Cyrus to explain that the Almighty God of Israel had led Isaiah, 150 years before, to actually name Cyrus as the king God would use to return the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple of God there!
The fulfillment of that miracle is the remarkable story of the book of Ezra! Ezra 1&2 tell us that nearly 50,000 Jewish captives packed up their belongings and trekked back from Babylon to the ruins of Jerusalem, and the temple, and very soon began rebuilding.
Ezra 3-5 explain that other people had moved in while the Jews had been in captivity, so there was great resistance opposing the Jews in their rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple. But Ezra 6:14-18 declares that this ‘Second Temple’ was built on the very same Jerusalem Temple mount, on almost exactly the same foundation as the first Temple and was completed and dedicated in 515bc! That Temple, with some refurbishing by King Herod about 500 years later, is the one Jesus and His disciples visited often!
Now pause a moment and let that sink into your heart and mind, my friends! Consider the magnificent SOVEREIGNTY of God, the strategicness of God in coordinating world events, over centuries, and leading the lives of people committed to following God obediently, like Daniel. We need to worship our great, sovereign God and I’ll meet you here again tomorrow!
Today’s Scriptures: Daniel 9:1-3; Jeremiah 29; Isaiah 44.
Choose below to read or listen.
Daniel 9:1-3
 |  |
Jeremiah 29
| |
Isaiah 44
| |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.