While Daniel is still praying, someone stands before him—a person whom he immediately recognizes. The last part of Daniel’s prayer is an intense plea for the restoration of Jerusalem and the temple. The striking thing is that the Lord interrupts Daniel’s prayer. Even before Daniel has said amen,
God’s answer is already being sent to him. It is the angel Gabriel whom he sees. We have met Gabriel earlier in Daniel 8. At that time Daniel fell to the ground, unconscious. Gabriel then helped him to get back on his feet and explained to him in the name of God what he had seen before; see Daniel 8:15–19.
Gabriel, who later also announces Christ’s birth to Mary, appears as God’s messenger to Daniel now.
God’s answer comes while Daniel is still praying around the time of the evening sacrifice. That is striking information. It means that Daniel is praying at approximately three o’clock in the afternoon. It may seem strange to speak of an evening sacrifice while it is still in the afternoon. We should remember that with Israel the day was counted from six o’clock in the evening until six o’clock in the evening the next day. So when it is three o’clock in the afternoon, you are already close to the last hours of that day. The set morning and evening sacrifices were to show how the whole day was determined by the sacrifices to God, by his atonement. Without reconciliation with God, the beginning and end of a day cannot be right.
The morning and evening sacrifices were in fact no longer offered in the time of Daniel because the temple was in ruins. Even though the sacrifices were no longer brought, the times for those sacrifices were still of special significance. Daniel thus shows that he realizes that his prayer to God can reach him only through reconciliation with him. Only through the sacrifice of Christ is our prayer answered. It is Christ who, at the time of the evening sacrifice, hung on the cross and cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Christ’s sacrifice also sanctifies our imperfect prayers.
21 while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice.