“…the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing…” (v26)

   Here was Daniel distraught and frustrated under the reign of a corrupt ruler, doing all he knew to support this pagan enemy that God, because this is what God had commanded the captives to live, have kids, and support for 70 years (Jeremiah 25).  The man of God was at the end of his rope…when would this all end?  How much longer before God’s people and Holy place would be restored in Jerusalem?!?!

   And, as he prayed, the answer came…well it probably wasn’t what Daniel had expected. (And with God it seldom goes the way we might expect – it is always much farther reaching.)  God gives Daniel a general timetable of 70 weeks (70 x 7).  A general term used for approximated times as if to say when the time is “just right”… and mixed with this answer seems to be a window to the even more important and distant future of the sacrifice of Jesus (v24) and the end of all time.  Yes the people would return, yes the Temple would be restored, but there would be something more!

   How often is it that I want specific answers to my selfish and shortsighted prayers?  God reminds me in this passage again; it’s as if I can hear Him saying, “Trust me, walk with me, listen and learn, and let ME take care of the future.”  So I’ll just keep walking in faithful obedience, and leave the grand details of History in the hands of the Father of History!

Father in Heaven, I will trust YOU, I will obey, I will wait.  Amen.