Deeper Reflection
God both answered and did not answer Daniel’s prayer, in that He responded to his prayer – even before he finished praying (vv.20-21), but He did not grant Daniel’s request.Daniel asked God to “take action” and “not delay” in bringing the suffering of His people to an end (v.19), since their exile had reached the “seventy years”, which marked “the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem” (v.2). But, instead of the divine action that Daniel asked God for, God gave him His divine agenda: A vision – which consists of a “bewildering combination”¹² of the number “seven” (vv.24, 25, 27). The vision was “Seventy sevens/weeks¹³ have been decreed for your people and your holy city” (v.24). In the context, the “seventy sevens” is related to the “seventy years” (v. 2). In Scripture, the number “seven” symbolises completeness and perfection. “Seventy sevens” “represent a full measure of time”¹⁴ . The suffering of God’s people would not end in the “seventy years”, but “it will last for seventy sevens” – “the complete and perfect time that God determines”¹⁵ .It does happen that when we ask God to deliver us from troubles, the divine answer is harder and longer trials. It is like when we ask God for a loaf, He gives us a stone instead (Matt 7:9). It can be hard to accept that. But we must learn to believe and trust in God for His agenda behind His answer. But like Daniel, we need insight and understanding from God to discern His agenda (vv.22-23). This requires prayerful reflection with Scripture and patient waiting on God.

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¹² Gordon Wong, Faithful to the End: The Message of Daniel for Life in the Real World (Genesis, 2006), 134 ¹³ “Seventy ‘sevens’” (NIV); “seventy weeks” (KJV, NASB, ESV); “A period of seventy sets of seven” (NLT) ¹⁴ Robert B. Chisholm Jr., Handbook on the Prophets (Baker Academic, 2002), 317 ¹⁵ Gordon Wong, 134