God's plans always exceed our Prayers

 Read Daniel 9.

When the Babylonian empire fell, Daniel turned to the Scriptures.  He read again the words of the prophet Jeremiah regarding the time when God would restore Israel.

"For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile."  (Jeremiah 29:10-14)

Daniel realized that the seventy years was coming to a close and now God would act.  God's call to seek Him moved the prophet to pray a prayer of national intercession.  He confessed the sins of the people for not listening to God's word and rebelling against Him.  He pled for mercy, forgiveness, and for the LORD not to delay in acting on behalf of His people.  That is all Daniel could see from the Scriptures he had.  What he could not see was much more that God intended to do in the future.  Therefore, God responded to Daniel's prayer by sending the angel Gabriel.

Gabriel did not speak of the seventy years but seventy sevens (not weeks), or 490 years.  In Hebrew it is a play on words.  469 of those years have been literally fulfilled in history.  It is the 70th week (7 years) that has not happened yet.  Revelation describes the time of Tribulation as a 7 year period.  The descriptions of that time by Jesus and in Revelation confirm those future events as foretold in the book of Daniel.  We are now living in the gap between "an anointed one shall be cut off" (v.26, the crucifixion of Messiah) and when the Tribulation will begin.  The Apostle Paul explained it this way: "...a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." (Romans 11:25b)

In the meantime, we may be assured of two things:
1. God will keep His promises to His ancient people.
2. He will be faithful to us today and for eternity.