A Deeper Exile

GREETING ONE ANOTHER:

  • Take some time as a group to gather and socialize.

PRAYING TOGETHER:

Consider focusing opening prayer on VCC and/or community needs such as:

  • Pray & fast for God’s name to be hallowed, his kingdom to come, and his will to be done in our lives.

  • Pray for our faith to be strengthened and endurance built during this COVID trial.

  • Pray for the well-being of our congregation (spiritual, emotional, physical).

REVIEW QUESTION

How have you seen God’s power at work in your life this past week? Where has God’s grace empowered you to approach a situation differently?

STARTER QUESTION

The year is 539 BC. The Babylonian empire has just fallen and conquered by Persia. It is a tumultuous time -- a time of political upheaval, national chaos, disruption, and anxiety. What does Daniel do at such a time?

IN THE BOOK

Below there are three different types of questions, so we encourage you to seek a balance if possible. In addition, there is a Leader Study Notes section for further study!

  1. The Understanding questions are designed to refresh your group's memory about the text. These can be answered fairly briefly without a need for longer discussion.

  2. Application questions are structured to draw out the ways the text, as preached, calls us to live. You should make a strong effort in your group to point people to Scripture as they’re discussing these.

  3. We’ve built out Personal Sharing questions that connect with the sermon, but make a more conscious effort to allow the members of your group to know each other better. These help to build a sense of trust by giving people a chance to share their lived experiences.

We pray that as you consider which of these questions work best for your group that God blesses your time together so that the Word of Christ “dwells in you more richly” and you become “knit together in love” as a community.

Daniel's Prayer

READ: Daniel 9:1-19

UNDERSTANDING:

What prompts Daniel’s prayer?

How would you summarize Daniel’s prayer in three or four bullets?

APPLICATION:

Why does Daniel include confession of sin if God has already promised to bring his people back in 70 years?

How does Daniel’s prayer inform our own praying in heart attitude, content, and focus?

PERSONAL SHARING:

Do you use any framework for prayer that you’ve found helpful? if so, share it with the group.

What do prayers of confession and repentance look like in your life?

Gabriel Shows Up

READ: Daniel 9:20-23

UNDERSTANDING:

What’s the significance of Gabriel appearing to Daniel again? What message does he bring?

APPLICATION:

How is this short transition in the story an example of God’s encouragement to us?

PERSONAL SHARING:

Do you have any examples from your life about how God may have already been answering your prayer(s) before you knew it?

Vision of Seventy Weeks

READ: Daniel 9:24-27

UNDERSTANDING:

What are the three segments that make up the “seventy weeks?” [See Leader Notes]

Do you think this is the answer to prayer Daniel was expecting? Why or why not?

APPLICATION:

Pastor Heath - “We need more than to be released from exile in Babylon; we need Babylon to be removed from our hearts.”

v. 24 - What are the five outcomes that come about during the last (70th) week of the vision? [See Leader Notes]

What do these items represent? When do they occur? [See Leader Notes]

PERSONAL SHARING:

In this passage, God promises to rebuild Jerusalem. How has hope in God’s promises for the future brought you encouragement in the present moment?

The work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is like open-heart surgery. How have you responded to His working in your life?

How should we live in light of God’s provision of salvation and return from the deeper exile?

LEADER STUDY NOTES:

Daniel 9 Overview

Daniel’s vision of the seventy weeks is more than assuring Israel that their time of exile is almost over. The vision points beyond the end of the Babylonian captivity to the end of a DEEPER EXILE, brought about by bringing salvation to the whole world through God’s anointed Messiah, and the end of mankind’s exile from God due to sin and rebellion. It lays the foundation for the extension of God’s salvation and kingdom to the whole world.

What are the three segments that make up the “seventy weeks?”

  • Seven weeks (7 x 7 = 49 yrs) … “from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there should be seven weeks” - People return and rebuild Jerusalem (see Nehemiah). Then rebuild the temple (see Ezra).

  • Sixty-two weeks (62 x 7 = 434 yrs) … “Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time” - But the people keep rebelling (see later prophets), and are persecuted (Greeks, Antiochus, 400 yrs between OT & NT).

  • One week (7 yrs) - Culminating events and results of God’s seventy-week prophecy and redemptive plan

What are the five outcomes that come about during the last (70th) week of the vision?

  • “To finish the transgression” - Release us from sin

  • “To put an end to sin and to atone for iniquity” - Bring forgiveness by his blood, dying for us

  • “To bring in everlasting righteousness” - Give us his righteousness through his Spirit

  • “To seal both vision and prophet” - Showing Daniel and all the prophets/scripture as true

  • “To anoint a most holy place/one” - He is the anointed holy one who makes his people holy, his people in whom he dwells

What do these items represent? When do they occur?

This list is a way of describing the salvation that goes beyond release from exile in Babylon and addresses the need for salvation from the deeper exile from God because of our sin and rebellion. These are the results that come from the coming of Jesus and his ministry. Jesus is the ultimate Jubilee, the one who rids us of all our debts, the one who frees us from our deep heart slavery to sin, who returns to us our inheritance of God’s presence, and who gives us rest from all our vain and destructive striving.

ONE ANOTHERING:

Whether you are meeting together or not, check in with one another to make sure that everyone is cared for and has what they need. Does someone in your group need help with grocery shopping, childcare, or caring for themselves? Keep a list of the ways you can provide care as a comGroup.

Remember that the Benevolence Ministry is a resource for our comGroups.

  • How can we love or serve one another this week?