1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans

2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

— Daniel 9:1-3

to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

— 2 Chronicles 36:21

Then the angel of the LORD said, ‘O LORD of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these seventy years?’

— Zechariah 1:12

“Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?”

— Zechariah 7:5

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

Daniel had seen much in his long life. Most importantly, he had witnessed God’s undeterred faithfulness even when His people remained stubbornly idolatrous and staunchly rebellious. God intended the exile to draw His people closer rather than distance them from Him. This is the crux of Daniel’s prayer.

Regardless of whom he served-whether Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, or Darius (who could have been Cyrus or a general of the king) -Daniel steadfastly studied Scripture and prayed to the one true God. Though the scriptural canon was not yet complete, Daniel studied, understood, and trusted what had been written and what he knew. He recalled the writings of Jeremiah, who prophesied that Jerusalem would be destroyed and God’s people would be exiled for 70 years.’ Zechariah later echoed this truth.