Daniel 9: The Temple at the Heart of God's Plan

Introduction

After a long break, the Assemblée Évangélique de Strasbourg is resuming its Bible study in the book of Daniel. The study had stopped at the end of chapter 9. Before going further, the preacher wants to pause on a notion he finds essential when reading chapters 9 and 10: the temple.

Why Daniel? Because, together with Revelation, it is one of the two great apocalyptic books of the Bible. It speaks of the end times and the return of Christ. We often know it through Sunday school stories, the furnace or the lions' den, but "there is more to Daniel than that."

This study answers a simple question: what place does the temple hold in Daniel 9, and why is it tied to the Messiah and to the end times? It ends with a walk through the history of the temple, from the tabernacle to the present tensions around the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Outline of the Message

1. Daniel, a Book of Hope Where Christ Has the Victory

The book has two parts. Chapters 1 to 6, mostly in Aramaic, tell the events Daniel and his companions lived through at the court of Babylon. Chapters 7 to 12, mostly in Hebrew, report his visions about the future and about the conflict between the nations and the people of God.
Daniel writes in exile in Babylon. The Aramaic was certainly addressed to the people of Babylon as well, and the Hebrew to the Jewish people.
These visions can be frightening, but "if God gave us these books in the apocalyptic style, it is not to scare us." They are there to give hope in the face of wars, crises and persecution.
What awaits us is "God's total victory and our deliverance with Christ, the conqueror." The nations do not win. Jesus Christ wins, and he returns in glory.
The theme of the book: God is sovereign. He will judge the nations but reward the saints. In the lions' den as in the furnace, "God is sovereign."
The statue of Daniel 2 and the beasts of Daniel 7 speak of the times of the Gentiles, the time when Israel lives under the oppression of the nations.
Four parts, four beasts, four empires: the Babylonian empire, the Medo-Persian empire, the Greek empire and the Roman empire. These empires are already past.
Each time, the last empire points to one particular king: the horn, the indescribable beast, the "king of fierce face, and understanding dark sentences" of Daniel 8. This is the antichrist, the total and final opposition to God at the end of time.
For a time he dominates. But in the end, "he will be broken without hand" (Daniel 8:25). "Each time, we have to remember that it is Christ who has the victory."

2. Daniel 9: The Temple at the Center of Daniel's Prayer

The chapter has two parts: Daniel's prayer, his repentance and his plea for the people (verses 1 to 19), then the oracle of the angel Gabriel about the seventy weeks (verses 20 to 27).
The word "week" means a period of seven. It has to be understood as seventy periods of seven years.
The preacher recalls the timeline from the previous session: starting from the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem in 445 BC, seven weeks (49 years) lead to the completion of the walls, then sixty-two weeks (434 years) lead to the coming of the Messiah. After that come the Messiah cut off, the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70, the times of the Gentiles whose length is unknown, and finally the last week: seven years of tribulation.
In his prayer, Daniel asks that God's anger and wrath "be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain," and that God "cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate" (Daniel 9:16-17). The holy mountain is the mount where the temple stood.
In verse 20, he presents his supplication "for the holy mountain of my God." What he hopes for is God's presence, his dwelling place. "This is truly the heart of his prayer."

3. The Temple in the Heart of God

The temple is not important only to Daniel. In Ezra 1:1-3, Yahweh stirs up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, who declares: "he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem."
In Haggai 1:2-8, the people who have returned to Jerusalem say that "the time hasn't yet come" to rebuild the house of Yahweh. They build their own houses, work and plant, but nothing bears fruit: "You have sown much, and bring in little."
Why? "Because they neglected what God wanted most, this temple." God tells them: "Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified," says Yahweh.

4. The Messiah and the Temple, Almost Inseparable

In verse 24, the seventy weeks are set, among other purposes, "to anoint the most holy." The most holy is the holiest place, but one can also see the Lord in it. "Is he talking about the Messiah or is he talking about the temple?" Both are central.
Jesus will equate the temple with his body (John 2:19-21). The Messiah and the temple are linked.
Daniel draws a parallel: when the temple is restored, the Messiah comes (verse 25); when the Messiah is cut off, the people of a leader who will come destroy the city and the sanctuary (verse 26).
In verse 27, for half of the week, the desolator, the antichrist, puts an end to sacrifice and offering. When he touches what belongs to worship, ruin falls on him: Christ returns and destroys him "with a breath."
For these verses to be fulfilled, a temple is needed: "without a temple, there is no offering or sacrifice." Today there is no sacrifice in Israel, because there is no temple.
Jesus speaks of "the abomination of desolation" standing "in the holy place" (Matthew 24:15). Paul speaks of the lawless man who "sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). The Greek word naos refers to a specific building, not the temple as a whole: the sanctuary, a place where not everyone was allowed to go.
The image is of a king coming to sit on his throne in the place of God's presence. The preacher concludes: given the link between the two, this temple is necessary for Christ's return.

5. A Third Temple? A Divided Jewish Society

Today there is no temple in Jerusalem, but there is a plan for a temple.
"In reality, everyone would like there to be a temple." But the important word is "rebuild." Religious Zionists want to rebuild it. The ultra-Orthodox, the Haredim, oppose it: for them, "it is not men who must rebuild the temple, it is the Messiah himself."
For some of them, the State of Israel itself has no foundation, because it was founded by human decrees. Some do not even return to Israel, because they are waiting for the Messiah to do it.
This division creates tensions: the ultra-Orthodox refuse military service while Israel is in conflict, and most of the men spend their days studying without working, supported by the State. The preacher saw them during a visit to Israel.
There is also a third part of society, the secular, for whom the temple has little to do with their lives.

6. The History of the Temple, from the Tabernacle to Herod

Before the temple, there was the tabernacle, the tent of meeting: the court, the altar, the basin for washing, the holy place and, at the very back, the most holy place. A "mobile pre-temple," which could be taken apart, for a people wandering forty years in the desert.
David wanted to build a house for God, but God wanted a temple of peace (2 Samuel 7:10-13). David was a king of war. It was his son Solomon who built it, and his name recalls shalom, peace.
The first temple was built around 960 BC and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586: it lasted 374 years. It was built on Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1), where Abraham was to sacrifice his son Isaac.
The second temple, rebuilt under Zerubbabel when the exiles returned, is "the temple of the second chance." The people had sinned and been judged, "but God did not leave his people like that." When the people repent, there is restoration.
Yet the elders who had seen the first temple wept loudly as they watched the foundations being laid (Ezra 3:12). It was less glorious, but above all, the cloud, the glory of God that had filled Solomon's temple, was no longer there.
The restoration is partial, because Jesus had to come: "The true temple of God is Jesus Christ and then the Church." God no longer lives in a building of stone.
Herod razes and entirely rebuilds this temple. He wants a luxurious building that pleases people, in a touristy, Hellenized Jerusalem, and in this way seeks the goodwill of the Jewish leaders.
The temple, which was meant to be a gathering place where the nations would come to worship God, becomes a place of division and commerce rather than prayer, which will hurt Jesus.

7. God, Lord of Times, and the Temple Mount Today

In AD 70, Titus orders that the temple not be destroyed. Yet, according to the historian Flavius Josephus, a soldier throws a lit torch without orders, and the temple catches fire.
Josephus notes that the second temple was destroyed in the same month and on the same day as the first, burned by the Babylonians. "Coincidence or not? No." We see the hand of God, "master of time, master of men." "God does nothing by chance."
Later, the emperor Hadrian builds a temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount and renames Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina. The revolt of Simon Bar Kokhba, proclaimed Messiah by Rabbi Akiba, fails: 985 towns destroyed and 580,000 Jews killed, according to the figures cited.
The temple of Jupiter becomes a church until the 6th century. In the 7th century, Jerusalem is taken by the Muslim Arabs, who build the Dome of the Rock in 691.
Then come 1948, the birth of the State of Israel, and 1967 and the Six-Day War: Jerusalem is unified, but the Temple Mount remains under Muslim authority. This is where many want to build the third temple, and it is a place of constant tension.
The preacher raises one last question for the next study: historical and archaeological research suggests that this place "may not be the right place."

Key Takeaways

The apocalyptic books are not there to frighten: they show that God is sovereign and that Christ has the final victory.
In Daniel 9, the temple is at the heart of Daniel's prayer, because it represents the presence of God.
The Messiah and the temple are linked: when the temple is restored, the Messiah comes; when the Messiah is cut off, the temple is destroyed.
The end of Daniel 9 assumes a temple where sacrifice will be interrupted, which Jesus and Paul confirm.
The true temple of God is Jesus Christ, then the Church: God no longer lives in a building of stone.

Personal Application

When you look at the news and the conflicts of the world, do you stop at fear, or do you remember that God is sovereign?
Like Daniel, what is at the heart of your prayers: your needs, or the presence of God?
Like the people in Haggai's day, is there an area where you have said "the time hasn't yet come" to what God asks of you?
The second temple was the temple of the second chance. Where do you need to believe that God restores the one who repents?
If the true temple of God is Jesus Christ and then the Church, how does that change the way you live in God's presence this week?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the temple so important in Daniel 9?

When Daniel prays, he asks God to cause his face to shine on his desolate sanctuary, and he presents his supplication for the holy mountain of his God (Daniel 9:17-20). The temple represents the presence of God, his dwelling place: it is the heart of his prayer. Gabriel's oracle about the seventy weeks then ties the temple to the coming of the Messiah.

What link does Daniel 9 make between the Messiah and the temple?

The text sets the two in parallel: when Jerusalem and the temple are rebuilt, the Messiah comes (verse 25); when the Messiah is cut off, the city and the sanctuary are destroyed (verse 26). In verse 24, the expression "anoint the most holy" can bring to mind the temple as well as the Messiah. Jesus, for his part, would later equate the temple with his body.

Is a temple needed for the end of Daniel 9 to be fulfilled?

According to the study, yes. In verse 27, the desolator puts an end to sacrifice and offering. But without a temple, there is neither sacrifice nor offering, and today there is none in Israel. Jesus (Matthew 24:15) and Paul (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) also speak of the holy place and of the temple of God where the adversary will come to sit.