Daniel's Heartfelt Prayer
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Daniel
The Book of the
Prophet Daniel
“But you, Daniel, shut up
the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.”
Daniel
12:4
Chapter 9:1-19 Daniel's Heartfelt Prayer
1. In the first year of Darius the son
of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—
2. in the first year of his reign, I,
Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word
of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the
desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
Timewise,
we are going back to within a year after the Persian conquest of Babylon. We
are coming up on a very important and joyful year for God´s people. It is
between 539 and 538 B.C. and the Judean captivity in Babylon began in 606 B.C.,
about 68 years earlier.
Why
is this so important? It is because Daniel is living within three years of the
fulfillment of a prophecy made by Jeremiah. Daniel has been studying the
Scriptures and that practice in itself is worthy of our consideration. Men of
God, who long to know the Lord’s plan and what He is bringing to pass in their
day, should be students of Scripture. God reveals His will through the Scriptures!
Let
us go to Jeremiah and remember the situation, when Israel was being threatened
by a Babylonian invasion. Up until recently before that time, Israel was, for
the most part, in denial, but now it had become crystal clear that Babylon
indeed was going to take Jerusalem. God commanded Jeremiah to put a yoke-bar on
his neck to symbolize the coming captivity, not only for Israel, but also for
Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon (Jer.27:2,3).
A
prophet named Hananiah took the yoke off Jeremiah and broke it, declaring that
the Lord would break Nebuchadnezzar’s hold on all those nations within two
years. Jeremiah said that he was making the people trust in a lie, because the
true prophets had prophesied war, famine and pestilence. A true prophet will
help the people confront truth, while a false prophet will try to please the
people, telling them what they want to hear (Jer.28:1-8,10). This has always
been the case with optimism, positive speaking and thinking. These false principles
continue today and A. W. Tozer called them heresy. See http://calltocommitment.blogspot.com.es/2017/07/positiveness-modern-heresy.html.
Just
as the judgment of insanity upon Nebuchadnezzar would need a period of seven
full years to bring the king into submission to heavenly rule, so Jeremiah had
prophesied that Israel would remain in disciplinary captivity for 70 years
(Jer.25:11-12; Jer.29:10). Just as the people, who loved truth in Jeremiah’s
day, so Daniel readily believed it in his day. That time was happily drawing to
a close.
Please
notice that the prophecy is clearly literal. There is no question to ask concerning
the meaning of 70 years. There was nothing to interpret concerning the advent
of the Messiah either. “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son (Is.7:14)… O Bethlehem…
from you shall come for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth
is from of old, from ancient days (Mic.5:2)… He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our
iniquities (Is.53:5).” And there
will be nothing to interpret concerning this prophecy: “An angel… seized… the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand
years… The souls of those who had been beheaded… came to life and reigned with
Christ for a thousand years” (Rev.20:1,2,4).
Towards
the end of this same chapter that we have open before us, Daniel has some
things to prophesy, which will have literal fulfillment at the first, and just
before the second, coming of Christ.
3. Then I turned my face to the Lord
God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and
ashes.
4. I prayed to the LORD my God and made
confession, saying, "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant
and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,
5. we have sinned and done wrong and
acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and
rules.
6. We have not listened to your
servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and
our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7. To you, O Lord, belongs
righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those
who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of
the treachery that they have committed against you.
8.
To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to
our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against
you.
9. To the Lord our God belong mercy and
forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him
10. and have not obeyed the voice of the
LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the
prophets.
11. All Israel has transgressed your law
and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are
written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us,
because we have sinned against him.
12. He has confirmed his words, which he
spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a
great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything
like what has been done against Jerusalem.
13. As it is written in the Law of
Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor
of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your
truth.
14. Therefore the LORD has kept ready
the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in
all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice.
Upon
discovering Jeremiah’s prophecy and the closeness to its completion, Daniel
turns to prayer. Before we study that prayer, I think we need to ask the
question, as to why prayer is necessary in this case. Why pray about something
that will surely take place, because God has given His word? I would answer
that the will of God is accompanied by the prayers of His people. According to
Paul: “All the promises of God find
their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God
for his glory,” (2 Co.1:20). God gives his promises as yes… that is, they are positively meant to be surely fulfilled. To
the glory of God, we pronounce an amen to
His promise… that is, we believe that His promise is absolutely authoritative
and so we confirm it, as far as we are concerned, and that faith brings glory
to God.
God
has said that Israel will be freed after 70 years of captivity… He said yes! Daniel said amen, in total compliance with the promise of God, by going to
prayer. That is what it means to pray, according to the will of God. The
promises do not negate prayer, they encourage and incite us to pray. Because He
has promised, we know that He will surely hear us.
There
is business that must be taken care of and that business is what put the Jews
in this situation in the first place. It is their sin. They cannot be released,
until that problem has been resolved. Daniel came to God by faith, pleading
that the problem be resolved through His mercy.
He turns to the Lord for the answer.
He
outwardly demonstrates the seriousness of his heart, because of his awareness
of the awfulness of sin and the awe of the holy nature of God. He comes with
fasting and in sackcloth and ashes. He is humbling himself, seriously and remorsefully
confronting the dilemma by desperate prayer. The time is drawing near and
something must happen. No business in his governmental position could compare
to the extremely important business that he was conducting before God. He was
involved, body and soul.
Theology
always comes into real, effective prayer. The God that Daniel approaches is
Lord, and He is great and awesome. How can we pray with any confidence, if we
don’t know these things? He is faithful; He “keeps covenant and steadfast
love”. Those, who turn to the Lord in prayer are those, who love Him, and
demonstrate their love by obedience. The principle never changes; Jesus said, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them,
he it is who loves me… I will love him and manifest myself to him” (Jn.14:21).
He
is heart-sick for the sins of his people and in his confession, he does not
exclude himself from that sin. The pronoun is we… we have sinned. His prayer is desperate, because he is deeply
impressed with sin, as everyone must be, if he is seeking forgiveness. “We have
sinned… done wrong… acted wickedly… rebelled”, turning away from Your
commandments. He not only confessed the evil deeds, but also, he confessed
turning a deaf ear to His servants, the prophets.
God
is righteous and we are not; He is right and we are wrong. As David said, “So that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment” (Ps.51:4). You will never get anywhere with
God, if you have Him on trial, through a humanistic mentality, justifying
yourself and blaming Him. “To us, O Lord, belongs open shame.”
Daniel’s
hope is not in human righteousness, that is, in justifying ourselves, but in
the mercy and forgiveness of God. This is spiritual principle throughout the
Bible. Nowhere does it teach that we can rely on our goodness or in the value
of our good deeds. He looks at the guilt of the people from every angle and
includes every person… men of Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem, our kings, our
princes, our fathers, all Israel. Through it all, he justifies God and gives Him
glory. It is very much like Paul’s argument in Romans 3:10-18 (citing Psalms 14:1-3, and other texts).
God
is righteous, not only in what He has commanded, but also in carrying out His
sentence against Israel. He is right in His law and He is right in the sentence
that He has determined for every transgression of the law.
15. And now, O Lord our God, who brought
your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name
for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16. "O Lord, according to all your
righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city
Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our
fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are
around us.
17. Now therefore, O our God, listen to
the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O
Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.
18. O my God, incline your ear and hear.
Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your
name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness,
but because of your great mercy.
19. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O
Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because
your city and your people are called by your name."
As
many prophets and apostles before and after him, Daniel remembered Israel’s
deliverance out of Egypt, which God worked on their behalf. This milestone from
their early history was written indelibly in the memory of every true
Israelite. In it, God revealed His heart of compassion for his suffering nation
of slaves, as well as demonstrating His awesome power in freeing them from the
most powerful ruler of that time and destroying his formidable army. The Lord’s
fame spread throughout the earth and brought fear upon all His enemies. His
purpose was to bring them into the Promised Land and now, it was His purpose,
to bring them back to that land.
All
of the biblical characters in the Old Testament and the New, along with all
true Christians throughout church history, were well aware of God’s wrath. They
saw it as a righteous manifestation against sin. Only because of the humanistic
mentality of our day, do we see evangelicals taken aback by a reference to it,
and some leaders these days would like to eliminate it from public preaching.
However, Daniel was not so ignorant of this holy attribute in the nature of God
and begs Him to turn from his anger. Because the surrounding nations had
observed its devastating effect upon the people, they had lost respect for the
Jews.
Prayer
warriors knew how to wrestle with God, by bringing before Him the worthiness of
His own name. Daniel was already doing this, when he spoke of His people
becoming a byword among their neighbors. It was more than a bargaining point;
Daniel was jealous of everything that might reflect against God’s glory. For
the same reason, he pointed to the abandoned temple and the city, which was
called by His name. “For your own sake, O Lord,” Daniel prays in verse 17 and
19, this slander must be brought to an end.
Daniel
coveted the face of God to shine again upon the sanctuary. This was a plea for
spiritual revival and many times throughout history, God’s people have been
reduced to prayer. Their situation had overwhelmed them, they had no strength
against the forces that mounted up against them, and prayer was their last and
only recourse. With the flame of their testimony flickering and about to die, with their young people abandoning the
congregation and wandering into the world, staring in the face of defeat,
wounded soldiers cried out to the Captain of the Lord’s Hosts to come down,
strengthen them, heal them, and lead them against the foe.
He
has always responded to their cry and Daniel, as well, will meet a heavenly
messenger, who will come in response to his prayer. Hear his repeated pleas for
an audience! “O Lord, hear; O
Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not!”
Above
all that we might learn from Daniel’s prayer, we must catch a basic and
essential spiritual principle, found in the following statement: “For we do not
present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your
great mercy.” We must never expect an answer from God, because of any
worthiness on our part. An attitude of self-righteousness or self-justification
is fatal in the presence of a holy God. As the publican, who could not lift his
eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, so our one hope is in the mercy of God.
This
is a model prayer for a New Testament people. There is nothing outdated about
it. If we intend that our words should reach heaven, this must become our
prayer. It can only proceed from a heavy, burdened heart, and it must be
thoroughly cleansed from all pretense and hypocrisy. I remember a member of a
Lutheran Church, who came to the door of his pastor, where I was staying. He no
sooner got inside the door, when he cried out, “I am not pretending! I need
salvation!” O Lord, O Lord, give us that kind of sincere, simple heart!
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