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In Daniel 9 Daniel is praying earnestly about God bringing Israel back to their land of Judea. He knew the 70-years captivity by the Babylonians he read about in Jeremiah was almost up. In a few more years King Cyrus would proclaim the Jews return to Judah to rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. Now Daniel is praying and interceding before God for his people because of all their sins. One author described Daniel’s prayer as “one of the most remarkable in the pages of Holy Writ.” Another commentator wrote, “No other portion of the Bible breathes with more pure devotion or has greater spiritual content than this prayer of Daniel.”
Daniel loved his God. Daniel loved his nation Israel. And Daniel loved his land of Judea, Jerusalem, and the temple. He knew God had promised Israel this land through Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. He also knew God had warned Israel in the law in Leviticus 26 if they turn away from God He would send them into captivity, which is exactly what God did. But now the time has come for Cyrus to issue a decree to return to the land.
2 Chronicles 36:22-23, Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 23 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.'”
Daniel is excited about all this, but he is also in deep distress because he knows the hearts of his people are still far from God. So he prays and confesses the sins of the people. In a sense he is like Christ interceding for us. Romans 8:34 says Christ intercedes for us at the right hand of God. Of course, Christ has no sin. As our representative at the Father’s right hand interceding for us, giving us the mercy and grace we need, we are secure in our salvation. Hebrews 7:25 says Jesus is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for us.
In a similar way, Israel has Daniel, a man at the top of Persian government who loves them dearly and is praying his heart out for them, making intercession for them. Let’s join Daniel in verse 12-23 as he continues to seek God with all his heart and mind and soul. We’ll divide these verses into four parts as Daniel bases his prayer on four great truths about his God.
GOD KEEPS HIS WORD
Daniel 9:11-14, 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.
Daniel freely and fully acknowledges Israel got exactly what she deserved. When God warns over and over and we continue to reject His truth and His warnings, He’ll confirm His words. They may have complained about their captivity, “Why is this happening to me,” but God gave them plenty of warning. He’s not like parents who warn their child, “If you do that one more time you’re going to get a spanking.” The child does it again. “I told you, if you do it one more time.” “Didn’t I tell you?”
God keeps His Word. Verse 12 says, “He has confirmed His words.” He told them what the curse and oath were in the book of Leviticus. He warned them and He kept ready this calamity (vs. 14). Then at the right time He brought it out, like keeping your instrument of discipline ready to apply to the seat of learning.
Leviticus 26:33-35, ‘You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste. 34 ‘Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 35 ‘All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.
This is exactly what He did. No one can plead an excuse when God clearly warns. God told Adam, “In the day you eat of it, you will surely die.” What was Satan’s lie? “You surely will not die.” But they ate and died, first spiritually and later physically, because God always keeps His Word.
God always does the right thing and exactly what He says. Think about the coming tribulation period. Who believes what the book of Revelation warns the world about? Those seven bowl judgments in chapter 16 – agonizing sores, people seared by intense heat, men gnawing on their tongues because of the deep darkness around them, and 100-pound hailstones falling from the sky. But the world will not repent. They simply ignore all God’s warnings or explain them away. Daniel says He “kept ready” the calamity! He had it in His pocket and at the right time, He brought the wicked Babylonians over to Jerusalem to lay siege for two and one-half years and devastate the city and the temple and march those disobedient Jews off into captivity. God keeps His word, folks.
We need to hear this today. Our view of God is too human. We don’t see Him as a righteous God, but rather as an indulgent parent. What if He keeps His warnings about eternal punishment in the lake of fire? He has given us plenty of warning, plenty of Bibles. We have plenty of evidence all around us (Romans 1:20). Count on it, God always confirms and keeps His Word, either of blessing or of cursing. Israel got His curse and they still didn’t repent.
GOD DISCIPLINES HIS PEOPLE
The second truth is that God is involved with His people and disciplines them. Maybe you’re going through a hard time. You aren’t under God’s judgment, but He does discipline His own people. Hebrews 12:7 says you should endure hardship as discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons and daughters. Remember, whatever is happening in your life is God at work. Don’t divorce God from what you’re going through. God is working right now through the circumstances and people in your life. Hebrews 12:5 says, “Don’t ignore or regard lightly what God is doing in your life.” And “Don’t lose heart or faint.” Learn from God’s discipline, but don’t lose heart, because He only disciplines those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:6). He judges His enemies; He disciplines His sons and daughters to help them grow.
Daniel knows God is disciplining His people whom He saved out of Egypt to be His own.
Daniel 9:15-17, 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. 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.
Daniel goes back to the greatest display of God’s power in Israel’s history: their exodus from Egypt. With a mighty hand He brought them out of that nation, through the Red Sea, and eventually into the Promised Land. The Exodus was the great standard of God’s power, of what He is able to do for His people. For us it’s the empty tomb, the power of the resurrection to remember God’s love for us! The power of the risen Savior to regenerate hearts and make us new creatures in Him!
Now, God has the power to turn His anger and wrath away from His city, “Your city, Jerusalem.” Now, “For your sake, for your glory, though we have sinned dreadfully, listen to my prayer,” cries Daniel, “and again for your sake, that your glory might be seen among the nations – let your face shine on your desolate sanctuary.” What a beautiful prayer! This is like the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6:25, “The LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you.”
There’s the temple in Jerusalem, in total disgrace. There’s the very place where the sacrifices were brought every day, symbolic of the final sacrifice of Jesus Christ who bore God’s wrath against our sin. Daniel cries out, “Let your wrath turn away and let your face shine on Jerusalem.” Daniel is begging God to radiate favor and blessing and goodness on the temple.
We can pray the same thing for our church or God’s people in our own nation. “Lord, we’ve been unfaithful, worldly, loving pleasures more than God. Let us seek You. Let your face of blessing shine on us like the sun shining on the earth on a fresh spring morning. Nourish us with the sunshine of your grace and mercy, that we might glorify You more and more in our spiritual lives.”
And notice in verse 17, “For Your sake,” not for ours. Isaiah 48:11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.” O Lord God, renew us for Your sake, for Your glory. It’s not we who matter; it is God who matters. Daniel’s motives were so utterly God-glorifying. Surely one of the marks of healthy spiritual growth is to desire God to work in us and use us for this one reason: that we might glorify our Father who is in heaven! “For Your sake, shine on us.”
GOD HAS COMPASSION ON HIS PEOPLE
Daniel 9:18-19, “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.”
Here we are looking into the depths of Daniel’s heart. He’s not “saying” his prayers here. He’s praying. Just listen to him. He’s not putting it on, either, trying to impress people. He’s in the deepest fervency of communing with his God. He is begging, imploring, beseeching. “Lord, turn your ear to my prayer and hear!” Imagine Jesus interceding for you and imploring the Father to listen to your prayer, and asking God to give you the mercy you need for your sins and the grace you need for carrying out His will. “Open your eyes,” begs Daniel, “and see what a mess we’re in. Your city, the city that bears your name, that you gave to us through David as the center of worship, where the temple should be, it’s all in total ruin.”
Daniel adds, “Not on account of any merits of our own.” Not by works of righteousness which we have done because we don’t have any works of righteousness. We don’t have a treasury of merit to claim. Our only basis of appeal to God is His great compassion, His love, His grace, His mercy. This is always true! We add nothing. We’re saved by grace alone, justified by faith alone, all by Christ alone. We don’t bring us to God; He brings us to God. He holds our spiritual hand and brings us right into the very presence of our loving, merciful, grace-giving Father.
1 Peter 3:18, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
George Whitefield preached his last sermon on September 29, 1770, in Exeter, New Hampshire, one day before he died. Whitefield preached the free grace of God for sinners. One listener described the event to the press: “He was speaking of the inefficiency of works to merit salvation, and suddenly cried out in a tone of thunder, ‘Works! works! A man gets to heaven by works! I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand.'”
That’s exactly what Daniel is saying in verse 18. We’re not asking because of our merit, but because of Your compassion. And not just a little or some compassion, but Your great compassion that is able to redeem and restore us as Your people. God loves His people.
Listen to Daniel in verse 19. Here is a heart that is burning, melting, fervent, and aflame with the greatest spiritual passion imaginable. “O Lord, hear, forgive, listen, take action, for Your sake.” Why? Because Jerusalem and Israel are only who they are because God called them; they are God’s special people. Your city. Your people. God called them. God loved them. God can save them.
See that plea, “take action,” in verse 19? Do what You do. What would you like your God to do? Save the lost? Especially our loved ones, right? Flood our hearts with greater and greater devotion like Daniel. Make our witness as a church undeniable. Bless our church with great hunger and thirst for God and His Word, like Daniel. Imagine a church filled with Daniels, with hearts ablaze with love for our Savior. May we be a people so in love with our Lord and His Word that those around us will notice and want to know Him too.
Shortly after Daniel’s prayer, Cyrus proclaimed the return of Israel to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and restore worship. He even sent all the gold and silver treasures the Babylonians had stripped out of the temple 70 years earlier. But there’s one more truth about this amazing prayer.
GOD ANSWERS THE PRAYERS OF HIS PEOPLE
Daniel 9:20-23, Now while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God in behalf of the holy mountain of my God, 21 while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. 22 He gave me instruction and talked with me and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. 23 “At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision.
Right while Daniel is praying he gets interrupted by a man, actually an angel, Gabriel, the special angel for Israel. He didn’t say, “Excuse me, Daniel, I’ll wait till you’re done praying!” No, Daniel quit talking and started listening. That phrase “in my extreme weariness” is translated by the ESV “in swift flight.” The Hebrew is unclear, but I like “in swift flight.” It’s like God ordered Gabriel, “Hurry, Gabriel, get down there to My servant Daniel.” How fast do angels speed through space from heaven to earth? It takes eight minutes and 20 seconds for light to get from the sun to earth. Isaiah says before they call I will answer.
But Gabriel’s speed isn’t really the issue (except for us speed-loving guys). The whole issue here is Daniel’s been praying about this immediate fulfillment of the seventy years and confessing Israel’s sin, but Gabriel has a much greater message as we move into verse 24. He’s going to talk about a stretch of time called the 70 weeks of Daniel which will take us to both the first and the second coming of Christ. But this is as far as we go today. We have some powerful and amazing prophetic truths coming up, probably the most concentrated prophetic truth in the entire Old Testament. We’ll need God to help us “give heed…and gain understanding!”
In verse 23, Gabriel says of Daniel, “You are highly esteemed.” What a tribute. But if you are in Christ, let me assure you, you too are highly esteemed by God. You are a co-heir with Christ, He is your older brother, you are called a saint in Christ, and you are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So remember that God keeps His word, He disciplines His people, He has compassion on His people, and He answers the prayers of His people.