Daniel's Prayer for his People
Notes
Transcript
As you all know, I am not a seminary taught pastor. I rely on the words found in the Bible and our good Lord to guide me, disciple me, and work through me using the Power of the Holy spirit.
The reason i am making this disclaimer is… I want us to try and return to some normalcy, so we will continue our study of Daniel. and our text will be out of Daniel 9:1-19. Daniel can be a very difficult book to read and understand.
So to do this in the best possible way, we will take an expositional approach to this great chapter.
1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans—
2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
3 So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
It would be easy for most bible reader to skim over the first 21 or so verses of this chapter as a person could find the content to not be filled with the same excitement as the rest of Daniels writings, but I assure you that would be a mistake, As we have seen from the rest of the book thus far, Daniel is not organized in Chronological order.
The opening verse of this chapter sets us in about the same time frames as the Den on Lions in Chapter 6, around the year 538 B.C. its possible Daniel was thrown into the Den a few months after he recieved this vision
2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
This second verse tells us that Daniel had access to some of the old testament writings namely Jeremiah, because the verse reads (read the vs again). as we can see scripture says books, so it can be deduced that Daniel had access to an assortment of old testament wirings.
This vs is key to us today, as it applies to every believer, If you take into consideration that Daniel did not receive the direct revelation of the completion of the desolation of 70 years. instead it was revealed to him through the work God did in another prophet, the prophet Jeremiah.
10 ‘Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
11 ‘This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Why is this important?
Why is this important?
If we take into consideration that God reveals to each of us His will, not through personal revelation but mostly by being revealed to us through the work He had already done in His servants in the Bible, than we get this picture of how God primarily communicates to us in the same way he communicated this to Daniel… Through the written word.
As we move on to see what vs 3 has for us, I want you to keep this in your mind. That God works the same way with us today, He has already revealed His truths, it is up to believers to find these truths and understand them through the power of the Holy Spirit. we should not expect special revelations from God, since He has already done the work and revealed the truths.
3 So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
If we take into consideration that the 70 years were almost up as the desolation began around 607 B.C. and it was now around 538, you would have thought that Daniel would have been celebrating , that is because Daniel new the warning the Jeremiah gave in chapter 25, that explained why this was coming to Jerusalem in the first place, and Daniel feared that the Jew had not learned from thier past mistakes. Lets read through Jeremiah 25
1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),
2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.
4 “And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear,
5 saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell on the land which the Lord has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever;
6 and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.’
7 “Yet you have not listened to Me,” declares the Lord, “in order that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.
8 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words,
9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.
10 ‘Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
11 ‘This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
So as we see, this revalation that Jeremiah is speaking, has struck fear into Daniel as he knows that through this 70 years of desolation the Jews continued on thier ways, falling before falls gods and worshipping idols. Daniel feared that they had not learned their lesson, as we see in the following verses of Daniel
4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,
5 we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.
6 “Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.
7 “Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You.
8 “Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.
9 “To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him;
10 nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets.
11 “Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him.
12 “Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem.
13 “As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth.
14 “Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.
15 “And now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for Yourself, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have been wicked.
16 “O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us.
Daniel has set out on a please for God’s favor and forgiveness, no doubt the jews, when hearing that their turmoil was nearing the end would have been in celebration at the fact the the 70 years was almost up. But Daniel is crying out to God on behalf of everyone, not just himself , he is taking blame for everyone.
as we continue reading is cry out of acknowledgment turns to a plea of mercy.
17 “So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary.
18 “O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion.
19 “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
Most of us begin our apology by trying to put the blame on other people, not Daniel. He acknowledges that they do not deserve forgiveness, but pleads with God to show mercy,.
What should we take from this?
What should we take from this?
It would be wise, not seek a special revelation from God, rather learn from the truth that He has already shared, found in the Bible today.
God keeps His promise, We should learn from His promise so that we keep from being in a perpetual trial.
We must earnestly and honestly go before God and admit our mistakes, not blame others.
We will pick this up next week and see what God’s response is to the humble servant Daniel.