ADVENT DEVOTIONAL | Day 19 | An End to Sin

READ
Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.
Daniel 9:24

REFLECT
We sing every Advent, “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel.” It’s a song shaped by a longing for God to act mercifully and gently to rescue His people. That longing is exactly what we hear in Daniel 9. Israel is in exile, living with the consequences of their sin, wondering how long restoration will take. Into that moment, God gives Daniel a promise with remarkable clarity and assurance.

Daniel 9:24 outlines God’s redemptive plan: sin would be dealt with, guilt removed, righteousness established, and God’s saving purposes brought to completion. This promise looks forward to a time when transgression would be finished, atonement made, and everlasting righteousness brought in. In other words, God was promising not just political restoration, but spiritual renewal, something far deeper than a return from exile.

The New Testament shows us that this promise finds its fulfillment in Jesus. At His first coming, Jesus deals with sin through His death and resurrection. He makes atonement, brings forgiveness, and inaugurates the righteousness Daniel spoke of. Christmas marks the beginning of that fulfillment, the moment when God steps into history to accomplish what His people could never do for themselves.

And still, like Daniel, we wait. Sin has been defeated, yet its shadows linger. Righteousness has been inaugurated, yet not fully revealed. Advent teaches us to wait with hope, trusting the God who keeps His word. What Daniel longed for has begun in Christ, and one day it will be completed when Jesus returns and all things are made new.

Until that day, may we continue to sing, “O come, O come, Emmanuel.” He has come, and He will come again.

RESPOND

• Spend time in confession before God, bringing into the light the brokenness you recognize in your own heart and in the world around you.

• Take a moment Pastor David’s rendition of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” let the song guide your prayer, thanking God that He did not leave sin unanswered, but sent Jesus to make atonement, extend forgiveness, and begin the work of restoring all things (VIDEO LINK)