Here is the direct link to this week's study:

http://www.ssnet.org/qrtrly/eng/06c/

This is the Sabbath afternoon part of this week's study:

Memory Text: "We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments" (Daniel 9:5).

Before continuing here, make sure you understand the charts we've looked at the past few weeks. They form an immovable foundation for where we are going next. The crucial point that should be understood now is that the judgment scene in Daniel 7 and the cleansing of the sanctuary in Daniel 8 are the same event and that this event takes place sometime after the 1,260-year period that depicted a phase of papal persecution of the saints.

Meanwhile, considering the time frame for this event, the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, what's the only possible sanctuary that's being cleansed here, the one on earth or the one in heaven (see Matt. 24:2; Luke 21:6; Heb. 8:1, 2)? The answer is obvious.

Finally, look at what the Lord has used to frame the important teaching of the cleansing of the sanctuary—and that's massive world empires, things as immovable, unchangeable, and verifiable as are possible in this world. The Lord isn't asking us to base our faith on sketchy, shadowy things; instead, He's framing these great truths around world history, as firm a foundation as possible. God, obviously, wants us to believe these truths; that's why He makes it easy for us to do just that.

This week we now move to Daniel 9, the final link in this amazing sequence of prophecy and history.

Friday's section contains some interesting information as follows:

Further Study: Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, pp. 345-347; Prophets and Kings, pp. 553-556.

Daniel 8 ends with the mareh of the 2,300 days not explained. Gabriel, the same angel interpreter in Daniel 8, appears in Daniel 9 and tells him to understand the mareh.

The only mareh Daniel didn't understand was the mareh of 8:14 and 8:26, which was a time prophecy. Then, immediately after telling him to understand the mareh, a time prophecy, what does Gabriel give Daniel? Another time prophecy.

No wonder Adventists see a powerful link between the two chapters and two prophecies. We're not alone either. The following quote comes from an Orthodox Jewish commentary on the book of Daniel.

Below is the extract on the phrase "consider the mareh" in Daniel 9:23, though this commentary translates it "gain understanding of the vision." What do these Jews do with the 70-week prophecy?

"This refers to Daniel's vision in chapter 8 in which the part which disturbed him so (v. 14) is characterized in vs. 16-26 as a mareh."—Daniel, Art Scroll Tanach Series (Brooklyn, New York: Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 1988), p. 258.

Thus, these Orthodox Jews do with the 70-week prophecy exactly what we do: that is, they link it to the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14.