Daniel 9 Prayer for the Nation
Daniel • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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How appropriate it is that we would end up in Daniel chapter 9 just a few days before the election. The prayer in the first part of this chapter is one of the greatest examples of prayer in the Bible. I believe what is needed most right now in our country is heartfelt, sincere prayer like the one offered by Daniel in our passage today. Without any other introduction, let’s turn to our passage for today and dig in.
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.
Daniel is prayerfully reading scripture (not the Bible, but sacred Hebrew writings) - books that he believed was a word given from the Lord to Jeremiah. As he reads, he realizes that he is living in a time that Jeremiah prophesied would happen...
10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.
Daniel and others were taken captive by Babylon in 605 B.C. The city of Jerusalem and much of the nation of Israel was taken over by the Babylonians at that time. Daniel has this revelation in 538 B.C. 67 years later. He realizes that if the word to Jeremiah was correct, this time of captivity was coming to an end. Daniel was on the verge of seeing prophecy fulfilled in his own lifetime. Here is his reaction to this reality:
3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
Daniel doesn’t take the prophecy for granted. He seeks God’s face and is in earnest prayer for his people. This is not a casual time of prayer, nor is a singular prayer time. The image of fasting and sackcloth and ashes is one that would transpire over days, weeks, months and likely more than a year. After all, Daniel is only 67 years into the 70 prophecy.
He seeks God by prayer - we need to seek God on behalf of our country. We need Him to intervene and show us how to influence our culture for Him.
He also pleas for mercy - Our country needs mercy. If the judgement of God came on our country today, woe be to us. Selfishness, pride, hatred, untruths…and so much more describe what is happening in our world today.
Daniel’s turn to God is not just a result of the prophecy, but a realization of the reason for the exile to Babylon. Let’s keep reading
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,
First Daniel starts by recognizing who God is. He praises Him first and foremost. If you look through scripture to the times people have prayed, most, if not all of them, start with praise for the God our Lord.
Daniel mentions God’s faithfulness to keep his covenants. This is a foreshadowing of Daniel’s desire for God to keep His promise in returning His people to Jerusalem.
Then Daniel begins to confess. Our personal prayer life should hold lots of personal confession. I believe it is during confession that we begin to shed our layers of flesh and allow the Spirit room to change us.
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.
Notice he uses the word ‘we’ instead of they. Daniel may have chosen to follow after God and remain faithful, but he also recognizes that he is part of a larger nation that has done these things. He cannot and does not separate himself from his people.
There are 6 specific things that Daniel confesses on behalf of God’s people:
We have sinned
We have done wrong
We acted wickedly
We rebelled
We turned aside from commandments and rules
We have not listened.
What an all inclusive list. I so appreciate Daniels desire to confess it all. He leaves no room for any doubt that God’s people were in the wrong nor does he let anyone off the hook. Kings, princes, fathers and ALL people of the land knew better. The prophets warned them and yet they chose to continue down that path.
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.
In contrast to God’s righteousness, there is nothing but shame for Israel because of their lack of following after God’s ways.
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.
Regardless of what they did, God is still merciful. They deserved much worse than exile, and yet GOd still promised them that he would remember them and they would return to the promised land. Again Daniel leaves no room for excuses. We would do well to take note of this. Confession time is not the time to make excuses. Daniel does not make any here.
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.
Daniel mentions the Law of Moses and a curse…Let me read a few portions of that for you:
15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
36 “The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone.
41 You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.
49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,
50 a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.
51 It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
52 “They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you.
Any of this sound familiar? It was familiar to Daniel and the prophecy from Jeremiah opened his eyes to see the sin of his people. The sin of his nation and he does not make an excuse, he confesses it to God.
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.
Preach it Daniel. Parents say this to their kids - there is a natural consequence to our actions. For the nation of Israel, it was no different. God promised them protection and well being if they would just follow His commands. If not, disaster. Daniel accepts this consequence on behalf of his countrymen. On behalf of the nation of Israel, he confesses. He also acknowledges that God was right in bringing this disaster down on them. He alone is righteous. He has given the path of success and Daniel says: “yet we have not obeyed him.”
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.
This is the conclusion of his confession. He again recognizes the greatness of God and then contrasts the sin of his people. In no uncertain terms: “We have sinned, we have done wrong.”
I find it interesting that Daniel does not single out any particular sin above another. I am sure it would have been easy for Daniel to confess those sins he had no issue with. Instead, Daniel’s confession is around being disobedient to God’s word and not heading the warnings of the prophets. Here is his list again:
We have sinned
We have done wrong
We acted wickedly
We rebelled
We turned aside from commandments and rules
We have not listened.
Nothing specific on what commandments and rules, nothing about what so and so did wrong or how that person across town rebelled. Daniel keeps it general, but speaks to all the different areas the nation of Israel fell short and frankly how our country falls short.
We got one verse, verse 4 on praise. Daniel then spends the next 11 verses confessing the sins of Israel. In verse 16 he transitions to the petition portion of his prayer.
I don’t know about you, but this prayer from Daniel is challenging me to be more direct with my time of confession.
Let’s read his petition:
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.
Daniel asks that God begin to forgive the sins of the past, but that is only possible with the confession done just before. Daniel recognizes the laughing stock Israel has become because they forsook following God’s commands. The very thing that made them special, they cast aside for their selfish desires. They cast God and his commands aside and now they were an object of scorn. Their only hope is to come back to him.
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.
He petitions God to restore his people and his city Jerusalem and the temple to it’s former glory in order that God might get the glory. We have a tendency to pray for comfort and peace, but we are doing so out of selfishness…we don’t like being uncomfortable. Daniel is not praying for comfort, although comfort and peace is a side product. Daniel is praying for the glory of the Lord to be restored though the praise and worship of his people.
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.
I just need to read that last sentence again...
I can remember times in my life where I did not pray because I was deep in sin. I felt like I couldn’t approach God and even talk to him, much less ask him for something. We must understand that no matter how good we feel about our “righteousness”...
6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
At the same time, we have to approach the throne with repentant hearts and confess it all to him. There is this struggle, in me at least, where I know I’m a filthy sinner, but at the same time I am as clean and white as snow because of Jesus. It’s a constant battle to not take grace for granted, but to also have a proper level of remorse for sin.
Daniel threads that line here. He confesses and confesses and then states that his pleas are because of God’s mercy, not because of Daniel’s righteousness.
Lastly Daniel ends like this:
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.”
O Lord, O Lord, O Lord. God is the Lord here, not Daniel, but Daniel is desperate for God to move. But he is not desperate for deliverance and restoration of the people, he is desperate for God’s glory to be manifest in his people and in the city of Jerusalem. He is desperate for the restoration of God and Lord over the nation of Israel.
We should be desperate for that in the US. We should want to see God high and lifted up, not because it would make our lives easier, but because that is what God deserves. God alone deserves our worship not so we can get something, but so that we can offer something.
I’d like to spend the rest of our time praying - praying like Daniel for our country.
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