Daniel 9: 1 – 23
Who’s Up For An All Night Prayer Session?
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You. 8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly! 16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 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 do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” 20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision:
As you know Daniel was taken to the nation of Babylon as a young man. With the Lord’s protection and blessing Daniel made the best of this forced enslavement. With God’s amazing favor Daniel attained power, prestige, and prosperity in this foreign nation.
Back in his home country things were not going very well. The nation was overrun by the Babylonian army and the Temple was destroyed. Only a few of the citizens were left alive. If the Israelites were not killed they were sent away from their land as captives.
Daniel prays over the situation of Jerusalem and passionately declares the undeserving of Israel and expresses his hope in the mercy and forgiveness of God. He pleads for the restoration of Jerusalem. His prayer reveals the powerful influence of Jeremiah’s writings on him. In his prophecy of God’s judgment for Israel sins we read in chapter 25, “25 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 (which 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, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. 4 And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ 7 Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the LORD, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. 8 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the LORD, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth 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 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation. 13 So I will bring on that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all the nations. 14 (For many nations and great kings shall be served by them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands.)’”
The Holy Father is going to send Gabriel to tell Daniel that there are yet ‘seventy sevens’ before the final purposes of God can be brought about.
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
We have a problem right off the bat here in this chapter. Many of you may be wondering, ‘what problem?’ However, for those of you who are studious of your biblical history might have a problem with the Babylonian king. The leader of the Persian Empire was a man by the name of Cyrus. He is the one who conquered Babylonian. If that be so, then why do we read of the king as Darius?
Many skeptics of our Precious Holy El Shaddai – God Amighty’s – word like to argue that the Scripture is not accurate. However, if you are willing to take the time you find out that everything our Great Holy Spirit recorded is accurate.
The nation that conquered the Babylonian Empire was composed of two nations – The Medo-Persian Empire. Cyrus was the chief leader. When he conquered the city of Babylon he still had more battles to fight. Without taking time to go in a lot of detail you can investigate this fact on your own. He left in charge of the city and ruler was he was out and about still fighting Darius the Mede. Please note the statement ‘Was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans.’ ‘Was made.’ He was acting as an under-king to the ruler of the whole empire.
3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
He ‘set his face’, suggests firm intention and perseverance. Daniel had great faith in believing The Lord God and what He had promised. He believed that if the Lord said it, then it would happen. Note the signs of repentance and humility, fasting, sackcloth and ashes. He was really in earnest
4 And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You. 8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly! 16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 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 do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
Note that Daniel, with all his experiences of Jehovah Elyon – The Lord Most High - does not approach God lightly. Sometimes we fail to recognize the awe and reverence we should have when we approach Him. ‘The great and dreadful God,’ the powerful and awesome One Who had allowed His city and temple to be destroyed because of men’s sin.
When you watch some sporting events have you ever noticed some guys pointing to the sky when they do something special, like scoring a touch down? I heard one local professional quarterback that had gone around the church circuit professing that he was a Christian refer to our Great Adoni Yahweh as the ‘Big Man Upstairs’. That bothers me to hear that. I think someone needs to pull this guy aside and challenge him to see if he really does know Who he is referring to.
The words ‘Who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him and keep his Commandments’ was derived from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 7, “9 “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
Daniel’s hope lay in the fact that God was the covenant God, and would thus respond in mercy towards those who were faithful to His covenant. The word for ‘mercy’ indicates ‘covenant love’. God responds in covenant love towards those who obey the covenant commandments, not because they earn it, but because by it they reveal that they are His.
In verse 5 Daniel identifies himself with his people. Note the multiplying of words to express sinfulness; ‘wandered from the right way’, ‘behaved unrighteous’, ‘falling short of God’s requirements’, ‘doing wickedly by following that which was positively known to be wrong’, ‘acting in rebellion against God’, and a ‘deliberate turning aside from His Law as revealed in the Scriptures’. Yet he no doubt felt its truth about himself deeply. None are more conscious of sin than the truly righteous.
I see here a good reason why Daniel was loved so much by our Holy Sovereign Master.
You can see in verse 6 that Daniel acknowledged that the Israelites had added to their sins in that they had refused to listen to the words of the true prophets, who had spoken in Adoni Yahweh’s Name. All were involved in this, from the king downwards.
In verse 7 Daniel says the right things that we all need to take to heart. It wasn’t just the Israelites who were mistreating our Holy Ruler, we all still do in one way or another. Here Daniel first acknowledges that God has been totally righteous in all His dealings with Israel. No blame could be set at His door. He had done all, and more than all, of what could have been expected. But His people, on the other hand, could only avoid His gaze in confusion, for they had failed Him utterly. The Hebrew is succint, ‘to You, honor; to us, dishonor’.
In verse 8 Daniel repeats his confession that they can only be ashamed before God. The princes were the heads of the tribes, ‘The fathers’, the heads of sub-tribes and family groups. All were responsible for guiding the behavior of the people.
We can all note that he declares in verses 9 and 10 that El Shaddai – Almighty God, Is the compassionate and forgiving One. This is literally ‘compassions and forgiveness’s’. The thought is of God’s continual acts of compassion and forgiveness, resulting from the fact of His compassion and His willingness to forgive.
Had it not been for His compassion and forgiveness they would have been totally destroyed, for they had rebelled against Him, they had not obeyed His voice, and they had not walked in His laws which had been fully explained to them by God’s servants the prophets. They were thus without excuse.
We can apply the same idea to ourselves. Before we point the finger at Israel we must look at our own lives.
We see Daniel now relates what has happened to what they deserved should happen.
In verse 11 he points back to the written Law. Remember his reference to Deuteronomy earlier. They have broken God’s Law. And they have also refused to listen to the voice of God through His prophets. That is why they have been cursed, as indeed God had warned them that they would be.
We see from verse 12 that what has happened to Jerusalem has in fact been a confirmation of the word of God. By His judgment He has demonstrated that He is a God Who does what He promises, and carries out what He says He will do. That is why this great evil has come on them.
If we were only thinking of the destruction of Jerusalem this would be a forgivable exaggeration. For other great cities have also been destroyed and razed to the ground. But Daniel was thinking of more. He was also thinking of what Jerusalem had meant as the city of God, as God’s earthly dwelling place. It was the most sacred city of all. Thus, for it to be destroyed, was a crime beyond telling. And they had enjoyed it and had lost it all. As the old saying goes, ‘You never know what you lost, until it is gone.’
We understand that in verses 13 and 14 Daniel acknowledged that all that had come on Israel was exactly what had been promised in God’s covenant. He also acknowledged that they could have turned from their sin and sought God’s favor, but had failed to do so. They had refused to receive discernment and understanding through His truth. Thus our Holy Lord had Himself seen all that they had done and had brought His judgment on them, something revealed in the evils that they faced. And he summed up the situation by acknowledging that our Great God was righteous in all that He had done and does, and that Israel’s fate was simply due to their own disobedience.
We need to point out that it was not a question of the Israelites earning their deliverance. Deliverance requires the favor and mercy of God, but it would always be available if they sought Him in repentance. But nevertheless, without an obedient response, there could be no deliverance. Responsive faith and obedience always go together.
I was told a good thing to do is to pray the Scriptures. Our Holy Creator does not need His Memory enlightened. No, but like we see here from Daniel, he reminds God that by His great and powerful deliverance from Egypt He had established what He was, He had ‘made for Himself a Name’ which had continued to this day. He admitted that in themselves they deserved nothing. They had sinned and done wickedly. But He asked God to reveal the righteousness that all good men knew that He had, by turning His anger away from Jerusalem His city, from His holy mountain so that the reproach of non-Israelites round about, in what they said about The Only True and Everlasting God, might be shown to be false. Thus it was to be for the sake of His own holy Name, not for the sake of His totally undeserving people, who had brought this judgment on Jerusalem.
Daniel’s ending of his prayer in verses 17 and 18 bring out the feelings of the faithful among the exiles about Jerusalem and the Sanctuary. All their thoughts were centered on them, and their restoration, as though God’s purposes could not go on without them. They felt that until Jerusalem and the Sanctuary were restored God’s name would not be vindicated, nor would Israel be able to rise again, and the thought tore at their hearts. Now, however, Daniel pleads with God on behalf of the sanctuary and the city. And he does it, not on the basis of the people’s deserving, but on the basis of His mercy. He asks Him to hear his pleading and let His face shine on the sanctuary which was desolate, and to turn His eyes on the situation of Jerusalem. To ‘let His face shine on’ means to again accept it and restore it and make it His earthly dwelling place, and he is sure that once God takes a good look at Jerusalem and its devastation He will be moved for His own name’s sake to act on its behalf. His hope lies fully in the mercy of God.
Please look again at verses 19 and 20. Daniel’s prayer was becoming more fervent. His pleading increased, ‘hear, forgive, listen, act, do not put off’. His desperation is apparent. He would not take no for an answer, for he was deeply concerned for God’s reputation. The Lord must act for His own name’s sake, for the vindication of His name by restoring the city and the people which were called by His name.
We read in the book of 1 Peter chapter 3 this in verse 12, “For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.” Even though Daniel’s thoughts and prayer was concerned for the city and the temple, God’s concern was for greater things. His vision far exceeded that of Daniel’s prayer request. The city and temple were secondary, indeed would eventually be put out of the way. What mattered was the final fulfillment of history in the establishing of the Rule of God in righteousness. And graciously He recognized that that was indeed the end that Daniel really intended without fully understanding it. He would grant him the greater blessing.
20 Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering. 22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill to understand.
We are possibly to understand that Daniel had begun praying at first light and that he had prayed through the day. The evening oblation was the time of the evening offering which would have been offered before the light died if there had been a temple in Jerusalem. It was a time observed by the faithful in Israel for worship and prayer, because the sacrifice could no longer be offered.
23 At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision
Here we learn the vital lesson that God’s response is prompt and not dependent on the volume of our prayers, as our Lord Jesus Himself would make clear We read in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6, “7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
Daniel had not wasted his time. It had brought him nearer to God. Now he would learn what God was going to do in the future. His prayer had been the final touch to the prayers of all the faithful throughout the world. And he was to hear, and consider and understand.
We will end here so that we can take a good look in our next study at the 70 weeks and other major listings of prophecy.
