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     As soon as you [Daniel] began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision: “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.” Dan. 9:23-24

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:25-27

Dear Lord Jesus, every time I read certain prophetic sections of the Old Testament, like this one in Daniel, I get flashbacks of big charts, bombastic preachers, and a bevy of fears. As a young believer in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I was convinced ours was the terminal generation.

Surely you were going to come back within a few years. The political climate was perfect for the last of the last antichrists to emerge. All things 666 were eschewed—credit cards, phone numbers, driver’s licenses. The truth is, we gave the antichrist more credit than Satan himself. The egregious truth is, some of us spent more time fearing the antichrist than really getting to know you, the Christ!

Lord Jesus, I grieve that, back then, I didn’t know how to look for you in all the Scriptures, and therefore in all of history and life. You who’ve given me more than seventy times seven worth of forgiveness (Matt. 18:22) are best qualified to help me understand Daniel’s “seventy sevens”, and every other prophecy, simple or complex.

Whatever else is going on in this portion of Daniel, this I know for sure: Jesus, only you will one day put an end to all sin. Only in you can perfect and complete atonement for sin be found. Lord Jesus, only you will one day usher in a world of everlasting righteousness—the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1-5).

Only you could “seal up vision and prophecy,” because you’re the last Word from God the Father (Heb. 1:1-2) and the “yes and amen” to all of God’s promises (2 Cor. 1:20). Only you could fulfill every symbol and stick of furniture in the Holy of Holies and make a way for us to enter there (Heb. 10:19-22).

Only you, are the antitype to every type in the Bible and the substance answering to every shadow. Indeed, all of history is bound up with your commitment to redeem your Bride from the nations, and to make all things new. Hallelujah, many times over!

Only you, Lord Jesus, are worthy of our adoration, affection, attention, and allegiance—only you! So very Amen I pray, in your most glorious and gracious name.

 

 

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