Daniel-The Sad Message

By Mary Vee
Daniel 9

From Daniel's Journal

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My name is Daniel. I am a prophet of God and a prisoner in the land of Babylon with many other Jews.

King Belshazzar was murdered. The new ruler is Darius the Mede. I and the other Jewish captives have lived in Babylon serving the Babylonians for sixty-three years. I pray each day that we can go back to our homeland, Judah.

I guess I had hoped Darius the Mede would choose to set us free.

I fully understand why we are here. Words written by Jeremiah the prophet have been passed from hand to hand for all the Jews here in Babylon to read.

Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe saw that the words came to us. As is our custom, each person gathered around his friends and neighbors, read the words then gave them to those who had not seen them yet. 

Recently a servant delivered the message to me. It said, God had told Jeremiah that we would be prisoners for seventy years. I had to sit down after reading those words. We had another seven years to go before God would allow us to return to Jerusalem. 

These seven more years would end the punishment for what we had done. In the past. But what about the things we have done against God's commands while here in Babylon? Would our time as captives come to an end or not?

My heart sank. I couldn't eat. 

I had long ago read of Job's trials. His stories were told here not long ago. (Scroll down to see them or search in the search bar for his story). How he prayed for his children and loved them so much he offered sacrifices for the things they had done wrong--sins he knew and didn't know about. 

The only way we as a nation of Jews would return to our homeland, farm our land, raise our families where our fathers raised us, and have the freedom to worship the Almighty God is to confess and pray for forgiveness.

Since I am kept apart from the other Jewish prisoners as a servant of the king here in the palace, I have no choice, but to do as Job did.

So I bowed my knees and faced my prayer window.

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1. Who was the new king?
2. What happened to King Belshazzar? (look back at the last Bible story for this answer).
3. What words did Daniel receive and read?
4. What was the sad message?
5. What did the people need to do?