Approaching the Terminal of History - Daniel 9

Daniel 9: Approaching the Terminal of History

 

Big Idea: Daniel models how to read, pray, and trust God’s Word as history moves toward the great fulfilment of all God’s promises in Jesus.

 

Aim: Learn from Daniel how to read and pray God’s Word faithfully, trust his control of history, and live ready for Christ’s return.

 

1.            Daniel - A model reader of God’s word (vv. 1-2)

 

 

 

2.            Daniel - A model prayer from God’s word (vv. 3-19)

 

 

 

3.            Daniel - A model truster in God’s plan (vv. 20-27)

 

 

 

Questions for us:

1. How would you describe the feeling of hearing the announcement that the train is approaching your stop? What do you do when you hear that?

2. Daniel learned from the book of Jeremiah that the next stop on the line of history was the restoration of Jerusalem. What does God’s Word say about:

• Where we are now on the journey of history?
• What is coming up next?

3. What does Daniel’s example teach us about how to approach God’s word?

4. Can you think of examples of how the Bible has given you perspective or comfort by describing the time we are living in and what is to come?

5. Daniel’s first response after reading God’s word was to pray. Are reading the Bible and prayer connected for you? How could you grow in responding to God’s word with prayer?

6. Daniel’s prayer looks:

• Down to God’s character
• In to his sin
• Up to God’s glory
• Around to God’s people

Why are all of these aspects of prayer essential? Which do you find most difficult and how might you grow in that area?

7. God, through Gabriel, reveals to Daniel that there are more stations to come on the line of history. How does God’s control over and plan for history comfort you?

8.  In verse 24 Daniel glimpses the destination – what does this tell us about where God’s promises are focused?

9. If all the events of this prophecy have now come to pass in Jesus life, death, resurrection and then the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD – what should that tell us about the era we are living in now?

10. ‘The train of history is approaching its final destination.’ What would it look like for you this week if you shaped your life around this reality?