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Guest (Male): Coming up today on Light on the Hill.

James Kaddis: I think one of the most powerful lessons that we can learn, especially considering the fact that Daniel is about to receive one of the most incredible, one of the most powerful, one of the most significant Bible prophecies ever given in human history. Uh it's pretty important to note that all of that started by the condition of reading the word and knowing what the word says. Obviously, knowing the history of his nation as it relates to the word of God, and then he finds himself in a place where he says, you know what, Lord, what do I do?

Because I know that the 70 years are up. How should I now live? And the parallel that we can draw for today is I think we need to have the same attitude. I think we need to pray the same way to the Lord. I think we need to be aware of these things in the same way that Jeremiah was aware.

Guest (Male): I have found the peace only comes from you. I have found the joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Light on the Hill. Pastor James Kaddis is in Daniel chapter 9 and we're talking about prayer today. How to be effective in our prayer lives just as Daniel was. We all have room for growth in this area. We know we should pray but don't do it nearly enough. Sometimes our prayers are also way off track. Today, Pastor James encourages a prayer life that is motivated by the word of God and grounded in the will of God.

James Kaddis: So um Daniel 9 is um is a really really critical passage for a lot of reasons. And um I know that there's a lot of time that gets spent focused on the side that I always get excited about not you know the part that I always just think is really remarkable in terms of the prophetic side and so on and so forth. But um uh this passage is also an important passage to be able to understand so many of the parallels that exist between the current time that we live today and of course the time of Daniel.

And it's interesting because Daniel found himself on the heel end of something pretty wild happening. You know Daniel lost his country and the reason why he did lose his country was not because of what Nebuchadnezzar did to take it away. It had nothing to do with anything with respect to any of the military failures of the nation or anything like that. The reason why the country was actually taken away simply centered upon the righteous of the nation took their eyes off the Lord. And they chose to ignore the voice of God. And in ignoring the voice of God, God did what he's good at doing and God disciplined his people.

And he disciplined um his nation. And there's a lot that goes into this. And I think that there's probably some things uh that you will already hear in terms of understanding the history of what led up to this point. And I'm sure that some of this is going to sound very redundant in the sense that there's um uh probably a lot you're going to hear as we lead up to this very moment. But I do think it's critical because if you don't understand this, you're not going to appreciate the value of what's being communicated. So let's just jump into the first verse and we'll talk about this.

By the time we get to verse two, it's going to force us to get into some of the history here because this is of course very misunderstood uh by a lot. And And often times I would just simply say blown past. Uh a lot of people will blow past the first 19 verses of Daniel chapter 9 and we'll actually focus on them for the purpose of what we're actually doing today. And I think it's pretty critical to see. So let's let's take a look at this verse one. It says this. It says in the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

Now a couple of things that I should just point out right off the bat and that is the fact that we've already had this conversation on multiple occasions. But I'm just going to remind you of some of the things you already know. First and foremost, if we are talking about uh the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, then who were what the the year that we're talking about here is very likely 538. That's probably what we're talking about. We may be talking about 537 depending on how you interpret one event during the reign uh of uh Darius of the Medo-Persian Empire.

But the reality of it is we're probably talking somewhere at around 538 You could actually argue um as uh late as 535. But But I'm saying here that um we are undoubtedly at least a year before the 70 years is up. So I'm guessing that we're probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 537 536. But here's the thing that has to be understood because this is very important what's taking place. As he's reading this, the greatest indicator of the timing that we have doesn't even center around the rule of Darius because you there's some confusion that can come up especially because of the introduction of the word Ahasuerus.

It can become a little tricky. But we definitely know that what we are doing is we are approaching or or at for that part um 535 or something centering around 535. Now at the time that Daniel is praying this, we could be a year into this or we could be approaching that time. We might very well even be in that time. But that's important to know. Now here's why. Because look what he says. He says that in the first year of his reign, I understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, the prophet that he would do what?

That he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Now the argument tends to be, is he talking about the fact that the 70 years have just finished or is he talking about the fact that the 70 years are about to be finished? My guess is he's probably talking about the fact that the 70 years um are about to be finished if not already finished. We're right at that time. It's not like he's praying this 5 years in advance. It's not like he 's praying this uh 3 years in advance. He's pretty much right at the edge of this actually happening if not in the middle of it.

And that's an important fact to be able to know. So what are we talking about? Well, a couple things you need to know right away. First of all, he is reading the prophet Jeremiah, okay? He's telling us that. He's reading the book of Jeremiah. And what he's actually reading is he's reading Jeremiah chapter 29 which by the way I should probably point this out. Most people when they actually read through Jeremiah 29 um they always read through Jeremiah 29 11 but they don't read the previous verse, okay? Which is probably something that I should point out.

And it's very likely that he's also quoting Jeremiah 25 as well. So let's go over there um uh really quickly cuz it's important. Let's go to 25 and we'll go to verse 11 of chapter 25 and it says this. Actually we'll start at verse 10 of chapter 25. He says, moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride and the sound of millstones and the light of the candles. In other words, I'm going to take them away from happiness and joy to a place of slavery.

And look what he says. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon. Notice this key into this 70 years, okay? So he's very likely reading that. It's very very important. And he says in verse 12, and it shall come to pass when 70 years are accomplished that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity and the land of the Chaldeans and will make it a perpetual desolations. Actually this is really interesting because I just got my answer on the dating of this.

He is undoubtedly reading this in 5 uh 35. Undoubtedly he 's reading it in 5 35. That's That's interesting. Um he has to be reading it in 5 35 for a lot of reasons. But anyway, I can get into that later. Make no mistake about it. You can change your notes. It's definitely 5 35. I'm looking at something that I didn't even read um or that I didn't even see. So let's look at 29. Let's skip down to Jeremiah 29 and it says this. It says in verse 10 Jeremiah 29 it says, for thus saith the Lord that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place.

And then that's of course where you get into the passage everyone likes to quote. I know the thoughts uh towards you thoughts anyway. Everybody knows that passage but uh interesting to see that. Okay, so let's stop and pause and let's get into a little bit of a history lesson because it's really important to be able to see this. And it's one that shouldn't be ignored, okay? So obviously we all know what happened uh during the time that Israel grew under the reign of David and grew under the reign of Solomon. You guys um have heard the story.

I've talked about it on numerous occasions. We know um all the details behind that. Of course Solomon has a son and his son's name is Rehoboam. Rehoboam is the last king to rule over all of Israel as a unified nation. At the time that Rehoboam is ruling, he gets approached by a person by the name of Jeroboam who goes to him and basically says, listen, I represent the 10 tribes to the north of you. And we all uh agree to the fact that you have mistreated us, that we've been treated terribly, that things have not been good because of your father.

Your father's taxed us too much. Your father's created so much liability for us. Your father has hurt us on so many level. He's taken our children away for his military. He's done so many things and it's been difficult. And all we're asking is that you uh Rehoboam just loosen the belt a little bit. That's all we're asking. Just literally take off a little bit of pressure. And of course Rehoboam says, you know what, that's a good point. What we'll do is uh I'll stop and I'll think about your proposal and consider it uh very closely and then we'll come up with a conclusion as into what we uh what we'll do.

So Jeroboam goes his merry way and Rehoboam sits down with his advisors and he asks for wisdom. Now the first group of people that he goes to are uh by far some of the wisest men that ever lived in Israel. How do we know that? Because the wisest king that ever lived leaned in on these people to advise him through matters of the kingdom which means they had to be have been very very wise people. Remember Solomon was the wisest king who had ever lived. And if you are some of the men who are advising the wisest king that ever lived, you are probably among some of the wisest men that have ever lived.

So he goes to these men and he says, hey, what do we do about this? And the men tell Rehoboam, hey, listen, uh look they've got a point. Uh your dad was pretty hard on everybody and the reality of it is if you just give them a little bit of what they're asking for, they'll be loyal to you forever. Don't worry about it. Just do it. It's not going to be of any detriment to you. Just uh go ahead and do it and you'll actually be a winner as a result of it. Of course he then goes to his counselors that are a bunch of uh my guess is probably a a bunch of drunken morons that are just like him and basically say, hey, what do you think of this?

And these young kids are like, no, that's weakness. You'll just show them weakness. What you need to do is you need to tell them that you're going to be harder on them because they've just asked. Well, huge mistake. And then of course what ended up happening was he said that and then there was a significant split. And of course as a result, you had 10 nations that go to the north. And of course the remaining nations often times referred to as the southern kingdom of Judah remained to the south. And of course Jerusalem always was the capital uh and has always been the capital of Israel.

Now this is important to note and that is the fact that all the kings that ruled over the northern kingdom of Israel were all ungodly kings. Not a single one of them were godly kings. Not a single one of them were righteous. Not a single one of them were good people. Not one of them. They all hated God. They all chose not to serve God. They all chose to basically go behind the true and living God's back and they led their nation into paganism which by the way I should also note this was not a dynasty that was built upon these kings because there were many many many families that ruled over the northern kingdom of Israel.

None of them uh under the auspice of a single family. When you go to the southern kingdom of Judah, all the kings that ruled the southern king of Judah came from the bloodline of king David. Not all of them were righteous kings but at least a good solid eight or nine of them were actually really good kings. And at least uh seven of them finished well and were actually righteous kings. Now that's the direct reason why the southern kingdom lasted close to 200 years longer than the northern kingdom. But there was one message that God continued to give to the people.

And he said this and he made it very clear from the time that he created them. He said, look, I want you to listen to this. You are to work 6 days and on the seventh day I want you to rest. It's very important that you rest on the seventh day. The Sabbath was critical. It was a symbol of the uh covenant that was made and one that was a critical one, one that was very important, one that cannot be forgotten. And so the idea here is God said as a symbol of the covenant that I made, I'll be your God and I'll take care of you and um you uh will be uh my children.

You'll worship me and I will give you the protection and the help and the strength that you need. And it was a pretty good arrangement. And of course the symbol of that covenant was the Sabbath. It was the Sabbath day. Of course it's very interesting because this is where it gets really cool and something that I wish we could practice today. Something that I wish we could actually have. I think that I would take advantage of it. I would like to think I wouldn't be greedy but I would just really take advantage of it. And so God said, here's the deal.

You want I want you to work for 6 years and on the seventh year I want you to give it a rest. Now can you imagine what that would have felt like to have a whole year off? I think that would be absolutely incredible to work 6 years and in the seventh year you do nothing. You literally have a whole year off. I would be working as hard as I physically can in that first 6 years and I would enjoy all of it so that I could earn my seventh year that's off and free. That would be pretty awesome.

And that's what God said. He says you're going to work 7 years. I literally will give you the or 6 years I'll give you the seventh year off. Now this is what he would do. On the sixth year, what God would do is he would allow the people to experience the benefit of reaping triple the crop that they normally reaped. So if they had a large crop on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth year, then by the time it was the sixth year it'd be three times what that big crop was. And the reason why that would be the case was because one of those years would be enough for of course the seventh year.

The um the other one or the the you know the year that was the vacation year, the other year would be for the year that they would have to plant the crop because of course they would miss what that was. And then of course the other year would be for um that first year when they actually did the harvest. So so keep this in mind. If you got enough for 3 years, it covered you for year six. It covered you for year seven and it covered you for year eight because year eight you would not be able to actually have the benefit of a crop because you started working again that year.

And obviously the benefit of the crop that you would have um experienced would have been the result of the work that you did on year eight because you couldn't work on year seven. Makes sense? Now here's the idea. God told the people, you do this. Every seventh year you rest. You are to give the land a rest. You owe that to me. The land needs to be rested cuz it needs to replenish itself. You must not farm. Well, the Jews didn't listen. And what they actually did was they worked 6 years. On the sixth year they got three times the crop.

And so what they did was the 2 years of extra crop that they got, they took those 2 years and they sold 2 years worth, made a whole bunch of money, pocketed the money and then farmed the land the seventh year. And they did this every single year for a period of 490 years. Now you do the math. By the time they approached the 490th year, God through Jeremiah says, you've been ripping me off. You owe me for taking advantage of the land. You did not give the land the Sabbath. So as a result, I am going to demand that you pay me back by giving me 70 years and I'm going to use Nebuchadnezzar to make sure you give me 70 years.

I'm going to make sure that he is the one that is actually ruling over Babylon for 70 years. Now some people will argue well Nebuchadnezzar didn't rule over Babylon for that whole period of time. Well, he technically did because it was the son of Nebuchadnezzar who then ruled as well. So it was Nebuchadnezzar's family in essence. God did what he said he was going to do and God was not wrong about it. So here's a situation you find yourself in. You find yourself in a situation where Daniel sees the writing on the wall. He knows exactly what's happening.

And now the 70 years are finished. The 70 years are up and he is sitting in the first year of king Darius recognizing that God is just basically going to return the Jews back to Israel. God recognizes or Daniel recognizes that God is going to keep his promise. Now a couple thing that I should note here. Number one, Daniel makes a recognition based on Bible prophecy. He reads what the prophet writes. He knows because he's counting the years and he understands it and he knows it as a surefire way. He knows that he knows that he knows that he knows that he is at that year.

He knows the year is going to be restored, that he's going to go back. And so knowing what he knows in Bible prophecy, he's now motivated to go to the Lord and say, God, what's next? What do I do? I think that's pretty heavy because I think one of the most powerful lessons that we can learn, especially considering the fact that Daniel is about to receive one of the most incredible, one of the most powerful, one of the most significant Bible prophecies ever given in human history. Uh it's pretty important to note that all of that started by the condition of reading the word and knowing what the word says.

Obviously, knowing the history of his nation as it relates to the word of God and then he finds himself in a place where he says, you know what, Lord, what do I do? Because I know that the 70 years are up. How should I now live? And the parallel that we can draw for today is I think we need to have the same attitude. I think we need to pray the same way to the Lord. I think we need to be aware of these things in the same way that uh Jeremiah was aware, that we are reading the words of the prophets.

We're reading what God's word tells us. We know what to expect in these last days. We're seeing the signs of the times around us. We're looking at everything that's happening in the day in which we live and we see the opportunity that God is giving us to act upon something that we know prophetically is going to happen. And more than ever we should be in a place as the body of Christ where we're going before the Lord and we're praying and we're seeking him. And I think it's kind of astounding the fact that we constantly are asking people to pray and yet so many people choose not to do it.

The least attended of all of the Bible studies that we have on Sunday night is when we ask people to come in pray on the last uh Sunday night of the month. It's almost like people say, well, I'll come for the Bible study but I don't want to be here for the prayer part when in reality the prayer part is perhaps one of the most important times that we can ever have. And in case many of you guys didn't notice, our Sunday nights are dedicated to prophetic books. Sunday nights are dedicated to Bible prophecy. And I think that it's always fitting that if we're studying Bible prophecy and we know the things that are coming and we have an understanding of how God's prophetic hand moves in our lives today, we should like Daniel be motivated to a time of prayer.

We should be people who are constantly showing up and seeking to pray. We should be people who are saying, okay, Lord, here's the opportunity you've given us. We know what your word says. We know what's coming. We know it's around the corner. We should be in prayer. And folks, if you haven't been watching uh so much of what we've been seeing in the Middle East, you uh are in for a real surprise because so much of what we're seeing is very obviously moving in the direction that we read about in Bible prophecy. Specifically, we're reading a lot of the formulation necessary to see the type of things that we would see in uh Ezekiel 38.

We're actually beginning to see a part of what may be Isaiah 11 where we may be looking at a part of what's in Zephaniah in the very beginning of Zephaniah but more significantly and more importantly, we're watching the world of the final Antichrist formulate right in front of our eyes. We are looking at a Revelation 13 economy just literally materialize in front of us.

Guest (Male): As we see Bible prophecy materialize in front of us, we should be driven to prayer. Thanks for joining us today for Light on the Hill. We're in the middle of a study in the book of Daniel. Pastor James Kaddis will be right back. If you joined us late or you just want to hear this again or even share this with someone you know, visit lightonthehillradio.com or oneplace.com. You'll also find us on most podcast platforms. Light on the Hill is listener supported. Simply put, it's the generosity of our listeners that really helps us remain on stations like this one across the country.

You can give through the website at lightonthehillradio.com or through our Light on the Hill app. As this study in Daniel continues, you may have a question or two about the end times. Perhaps you're in need of prayer or have a comment you'd like to share with Pastor James. There's a place to contact us at our website lightonthehillradio.com. Let's get back into this study and learn why we should be praying in these last days.

James Kaddis: God is going to do what he says he's going to do and we should be paying attention. And the world that we're living in right now, we are watching Bible prophecy materialize in front of us. How much more should we be driven to prayer? Right? How much more should we be a people that say, Lord, I'm going to listen to what you have to say because I know what what you have to say is real and it's valuable and it's actionable. And Lord, I want to come to you and I want to act upon the very things that you're telling me.

So Daniel does this. He sees the prophet Jeremiah. He's reading this after he's watched everything come to fruition. He saw Jeremiah warn the people that they were going to be taken into captivity for 70 years. He saw Jeremiah say that many years before it happened. He was the one that was taken away into captivity in 605. He was part of that first group when that happened. Remember Nebuchadnezzar came in to take away um the southern kingdom to bring them into uh captivity. The first siege that he did this was in 605 BC. The second siege that he did this And by the way that was the siege that Daniel was taken away in.

And that's the siege at the time clock started. So he comes in 605 BC which means by 535 BC this has to have happened. God has to have given them Babylon back. So again, the first of these sieges happened in 605 BC. The second of these sieges happens in 595 BC which would have been the siege that um uh Ezekiel was taken away in. And of course the last one is the ninth of of 5 uh 86 BC in which the time that we know that Nebuchadnezzar came in and killed a half million men, women and children, destroyed their lives.

And of course what Jeremiah saw there caused him to lament. And he writes his lamentations down. That's where we get the book of lamentations. So kind of interesting to see this whole process. Uh certainly Daniel is reading through all of this. He knows that the time is up. He knows what's going on and now he's going to the Lord and he's saying, Lord, how do I do this? I want to be a part of the repatriation of my nation. I want to I want to understand what's next. I want to know what the vision is.

I want to see what's going on. And it's interesting because he goes to the Lord and he asks God for insight as into what to do next and he gets something that he didn't even bargain for because God does answer his prayer but what God gives him is about the future of his nation long after the time that he's looking about. He gets an answer from God about the future of his nation that touches into the time of king Herod and then eventually after that time touches into a time that we have yet to see, that we will see.

So it's interesting because this is the passage that we get what's known as the 70th week of Daniel or the 70 weeks of Daniel and we'll go over that a lot of that next week.

Guest (Male): We'll see how Bible prophecy will save our lives and country right here tomorrow on Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis. This program is listener supported and brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.

Guest (Male): I have found the peace only comes from you. I have found the joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.