The Book of Daniel, Daniel’s Prayer for Deliverance (Continued), Daniel 9:1-19 - Lesson 35

We continue today with our study of chapter nine of the book of Daniel.

Much of this chapter records the prayer of Daniel for forgiveness of his people and for their deliverance from foreign control and their return to the pleasant land of Israel.

This land was a special land, a land which enjoyed a unique covenant with God, the only nation who had such a covenant.

This covenant was a covenant of blessings and cursings for God promised to bless His people if they kept His covenant but they were to be cursed if they rejected and disobeyed his law.

Inherent in obedience to God’s word is blessing, but also inherent in disobedience to God’s word is cursing.

God has so built this order into his creation and it is proven over and over again in his word and in the experience of everyone on this planet.

A very prominent part of the curse was the warning of captivity and exile to a foreign land.

But also as a part of His promise was Israel’s restoration, if they repented and once again intended to keep the covenant.

We can read of this in Leviticus 26:27-28, 32-35, and 38-45

Leviticus 26:27-28, And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;  Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

32-35 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.  Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.  As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

This was the warning for disobedience and we can read in 2 Chronicles 36:15-23, the historical account of the result of the disobedience that the children of Israel chose.

Solomon understood that the Israelites would bring upon themselves the curse and be taken captive by foreign nations and prayed that when they turned to God in repentance that God would deliver them and return them to the pleasant land.

We can read of this in 1 Kings 8:46-53,  If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;  Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;  And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:  Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,  And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:  For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:  That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.  For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.

This prayer of Daniel in chapter nine contains much the same petition as Solomon’s prayer of the eighth chapter of 1 Kings and seems to be the corporate prayer of repentance for the children in captivity.

Solomon’s prayer is before the fact of captivity and Daniel’s prayer is during the fact of captivity.

Daniel’s prayer is the result of his knowledge of the prophecy of Jeremiah.

Daniel 9:2,3,  In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.  And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

Jeremiah, like all the prophets came to Israel with a message of judgment.

People do not like messages of judgment, thinking instead that all things will improve for them regardless of their disobedience to the law of God.

Jeremiah had come warning the Jews that the judgment of God was coming and it would come by the hand of the Babylonians and include a 70 year captivity.

When it came, the false prophets tried to assure the people it would not be for that long, hence it will not be as bad as Jeremiah tells.

Included in Jeremiah’s prophesy was the fact that after the 70 years of captivity ended the Babylonians would be punished for their hardness toward the Jews, and second, the Jews would return to Israel where they would rebuild the temple.

But we find here in chapter 9 Babylon had been judged, and the time for the return of the Jews was drawing near.

Since the judgment according to Jeremiah was over Daniel could now pray for his people.

Daniel 9:4-15,  And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.  O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.  O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.  To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;  Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.  Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.  And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.  As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.  Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.  And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

Daniel comes to God in this prayer not only representing himself but he expresses repentance and confession of sin for all of his fellow Jews.

He fills his prayer with words describing sin in its various forms, iniquity, wickedness, rebellion, turning aside.

There is no couching of terms wishing to make himself or his people look good.

There is no image making or hypocrisy presented in this prayer.

He readily admits that all the judgments that they have been judged were righteous judgments.

He admits they had not listened to the prophets, he admits to their continuous trespass and the rightness of their captivity.

His prayer is replete with references to God’s standard by which judgment is exercised.

He knows his nation’s faults for he knows the Word of God as spoken by the prophets and recorded in the Scriptures.

He talks of God’s commandments, he talks of God’s ordinances, his teachings and his law and his truth.

Daniel fully understands the "why" of the captivity, for God promised the curse which came upon the Jews because they broke God’s covenant that he made with them at Mount Sinai.

Daniel understood the majesty of God by knowing His divine attributes and as a result of that knowledge he knew fully the depth of his own sin and the sin of his people.

Daniel portrays Israel’s sins in contrast to the character of God.

His prayer includes the phrase "the great and dreadful God", the God who keeps His covenant and shows mercy.

He sees God, not only as showing righteousness, mercy and forgiveness, but actually owning these qualities.

They belong to Him and therefore can only be obtained from God.

We get righteousness, mercy and forgiveness from no one but God.

Daniel’s corporate prayer of confession of sin was exactly the right thing to do for Daniel knew of the covenant relationship and the requirement for confession and repentance that was written in the law of Moses.

Leviticus 26:40-42,  If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:  Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

After confessing and repenting of his and his nation’s sin Daniel’s prayer turns to a impassioned prayer of petition.

Daniel 9:16-19,  O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.  O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.  O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

In the beginning of this prayer Daniel asked for nothing for it was a prayer of confession and repentance, agreeing fully with God’s judgment as righteous on such a sinful, wicked and rebellious people.

But now Daniel turns to asking God to fulfill his promises according to the scripture.

Daniel understood that the 70 years of captivity prophesied by Jeremiah had been fulfilled and that now Israel could be restored.

Just as Daniel’s confession fulfilled the Old Testament requirements for restoration, so did Daniel’s petition.

He asked for that which God had promised through the Law and the Prophets.

We are to notice that Daniel’s prayer is centered on God.

Most of it is focused on God’s righteousness with less on Daniel’s sin or even Daniel’s needs.

Daniel focused his petition on God’s purposes and His glory.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

So many times in our prayers we focus on our own wills to be done and our own needs to be met, but not so in Daniel’s prayer.

Daniel prayed in accordance with God’s character.

He did not ask for anything outside of God’s promises nor did he ask for a shortening of the period of cursing, that is, a shortening of the 70 years.

Daniel appealed to God to act in accordance with His mercy and compassion, and His love for His people and His chosen place.

Daniel’s request is for God to act in His own best interest and in furtherance of His glory.

He did not see God as being there for Him but he saw himself as being there for God.

It is not our will be done but God’s will be done.

God’s creation in all its forms including man is for His glory and Daniel’s prayer recognized that.

Daniel’s petition is not for God to act in the way that best "meets man’s needs" but rather for God to act in His own best interest.

When WE act in our own best interest, it is almost always at the expense of others.

But when God acts in His own best interest, it is always for the good of His own.

Daniel therefore petitions God to act for His sake. He petitions God to deliver His people and the temple not for any glory for Daniel’s sake but for God’s sake and His alone.

He pleaded for grace, mercy, and compassion knowing that anything that was to come from God was not deserved nor did it result from any merit on Daniel’s part or on the part of God’s people.

Basically Daniel’s prayer can be boiled down into this.

He knew God’s word and prayed that it be carried out.

He knew God intended to end this 70 years of captivity and in time establish his kingdom on the earth.

Daniel simply was saying amen to all God was to do.