DANIEL 9 - A PRAYER AND A PROPHECY
There are two themes in this chapter - prayer and prophecy. The setting of the narrative is in the reign of King Darius of the Chaldeans. Daniel was a thinking person and he began to wonder what lay ahead for his nation, and as he did this, he revealed the kind of man he was. He offers a useful model for us to follow. We see first he was:
A MAN OF THE WORD
In his desire to discover God’s purposes for his beloved people Israel, we find Daniel poring over what he describes as "the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet" (2). This is significant. Daniel was a man well versed in visions and their interpretation, but they were periodic happenings, the timing of which were not under his control. When he wanted some guidance from the Lord, he did not wait until a vision came. No, he went to the divine source already available to him, the word of the Lord. Daniel’s life was moulded by the revelation of God as it had been committed to writing in "the Scriptures".
Daniel’s conduct from when we first met him as a young man exiled from his homeland was measured against the law of Moses regarding the dietary laws to be kept by the people God had set apart for his service. The written word of God was especially precious to him now that he was in Babylon, deprived of the temple worship. It must have been a cruel stroke to be cut off from this means of grace, because its ritual and teaching and sacrifice had been the means of bringing them into the presence of God. But God had not left the exiles without a means of access into his living presence.
The exiles discovered to their great joy that the books, or perhaps I should say "the scrolls", of the law and prophets were an equal place of encounter with the living God. As they listened or read, in groups or even alone, they found themselves listening to the same living voice as their prophets and priests had so often claimed to hear and bring them. Why was this? It is because the inspiration of the Spirit of God which first brought the Scriptures into being lives on, and when they are approached in reverence and trust, the same Spirit makes them alive and relevant in the current situation.
This is why we are encouraged to read the Bible every day, to feed our souls with the living bread. We can thank God that our "books" are much more complete and clear in their witness to him than were those that Daniel had before him in Babylon. Visions, of course, are not to be despised. On the other hand we must be careful as they may seem to offer more excitement and reality and current relevance than the written word of God. In charismatic circles it often manifests itself in "pictures" formed in the mind which are seen as a form of prophecy. They can be helpful in receiving a word from the Lord, but Daniel’s experience and example show us that the Scriptures are a more excellent and certain way. The New Testament teaches that visions and prophecies must always be subjected to the standard of the Scriptures.
Daniel’s particular concern was that the exile of the Jews in Babylon was now in its seventh decade and he remembered Jeremiah’s prophecy that the exile was to last for seventy years. The nation of Judah had refused to listen to God’s repeated warnings of continuing in their sinful ways. As a consequence, Jeremiah had to pronounce a verdict: " Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: I will summon ... my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon ... I will completely destroy. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland ... and will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years" (24:8-11).
As the date for return seemed to be getting nearer, Daniel was concerned to know more. What was the starting date of the seventy years? He wanted to calculate the end date because Jeremiah had gone on to say, “When the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation ... for their guilt" (12). This prophecy had indeed been fulfilled - Nebuchadnezzar had swept over Judah and devastated the country and seventy years later, Babylon itself had suffered in turn at the hands of the Medes and Persians. Daniel’s problem was that God’s people were still in captivity and he was longing for the end of "the desolation of Jerusalem" (2).
The thing that troubled Daniel was that there was no sign of any repentance on the part of the exiled Jews: in fact, far from turning to God, the other exiled prophet, Ezekiel, complained that the people’s hearts were hardened and in rebellion against God (2:3,4). The deliverance of God’s people and their promised restoration to their own land seemed as remote as ever. The written word of the Lord was the starting place for Daniel’s encounter with his God, and then we learn that Daniel was also:
A MAN OF PRAYER
He tells us that after he had studied the Scriptures, "So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer" (3). Daniel had a deep concern for his people, fearing that their provocation of God might have the effect of prolonging the period of "the desolation of Jerusalem" and consequently their captivity. Daniel turned his face towards the Lord in earnest prayer and supplication. His prayer was not an off-the-cuff response to a situation. No, it was something which was planned and premeditated.
Although the recorded prayer is a matter of a few minutes, he had prepared himself by devoting time to studying the Scriptures and in aligning himself to God’s will, as he wrote, "in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes" (3). He realised the gravity of the situation and he was fully conscious of the impenitence and unbelief of the people. If his prayer was to prevail, he had to show God that his concern was serious.
The prayer that follows is one of the most profound prayers recorded in the Scriptures. The immediate question of the date of the end of the exile is forgotten as Daniel becomes aware of the presence of God. He addresses his prayer to his Lord, "the great and awesome God" (4). The presence of God means the presence of holiness, in face of which people always feel sinful. Isaiah had the same experience, and he could but cry out, “Woe is me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty" (6:5). This tells us that confession is a characteristic of true prayer.
Daniel’s prayer contains a deep awareness of shame. The reading of the books made him feel acutely the burden and shame that his people had treated God with such willfulness and disobedience. But he did not pin the blame on where it to a large extent lay, with the sinful people, but he identified himself with his brethren. He did not cry, "They have sinned ...", but he says "we have sinned and done wrong ... we have not listened to your servants your prophets ... we have not kept the laws" (5,6 and 10). His burning concern is not mainly for himself but for the whole community.
This characteristic of identification is seen in all the great intercessory prayers of the Old Testament. Moses called on God to forgive the backslidden Israelites, adding, "but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written" (Exodus 32:31). Nehemiah also identified himself in his prayer of confession, "I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself ... have committed against you" (1:6). We too need to be sensitive to the sins that abound in those who are the people of God, the Church, and in the world around, that we may in all humbleness confess these before God. We need that same passion and concern for men and women who are living without God; to be delivered from being self-centred people; and to have the same heart as Jesus had when he cried over the lost city of Jerusalem.
I read a helpful definition of prayer: "It is co-operation with God for the fulfillment of his will. When we pray we don’t alter God’s mind: we discover what his purpose is and we enter into it by prayer and our prayer becomes the channel through which the Lord fulfils his purpose." Sometimes we many not feel like praying, but if we turn to the Scriptures like Daniel did, we can make the prayers of Scripture our own, and try to hear the living voice of God giving us the same promises and invitations as he gave to the biblical saints. After all, they were but men and women "just like us" (James 5 :17). The Lord Jesus himself nourished his prayer life through the confessions and petitions and thanksgivings of the life of the people of Israel - he is the greatest example we could ever have. I have often found a blessing in reading carefully prepared prayers and making them my own; this is a positive side of liturgy.
Daniel did not make excuses for himself and his people. He frankly acknowledged the wrongdoing. It was not a matter of ignorance but a deliberate turning away from God. But Daniel refused to regard their cause as hopeless and earnestly pleaded for mercy on the ground of God’s righteousness. God’s gracious dealings with his people in the past are appealed to as the ground why he should do it again. "For your sake, O Lord," Daniel appealed, "look with favour on your sanctuary ... see the desolation of the city that bears your Name" (17,18). It was an intense prayer, full of emotion, not for the satisfaction of Daniel’s needs, but for the honour and reputation of his God.
Daniel had prayed that God would not delay and while he was still praying, the answer came. God had declared to Isaiah, "Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear" (65:24). This proves that God delights to be approached in prayer and it is his joy to respond, in this case, immediately. It was the time of day when the evening offering would have been made in the temple. Because of Israel’s sin and the destruction of the temple no sacrifices were being offered, but yet Daniel’s prayers are accepted. Why? Because in them God finds a sacrifice which pleases him better.
While Daniel was still praying he was approached by the angel Gabriel with the word that his prayers had been heard and an answer was on its way. He was given the reason, "For you are highly esteemed" or as the A V puts it so beautifully, "greatly beloved" (23). We may have no visible angel to give us a sense of personal acceptance, but we have the Lord Jesus who has replaced all sacrifices and has given us his name to plead. He is our worthiness; we can ask the Father to see us through his merits.
If we belong to him we are beloved, and we can ask with confidence that we will be heard. If we ask what he wills for us, our prayers are bound to be heard. We have two great statements of Jesus to claim: "I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father." "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." (John 14:13; 15:7). How and when God answers is for God to decide, but we are assured that he will do so. Daniel was indeed a man of prayer and as such he was well fitted as:
A MAN OF PROPHECY
Daniel’s query on Jeremiah’s prophecy of the seventy years was one of arithmetic and God answered him in a remarkable way. The angel Gabriel appears with a fully prepared lesson on the secret of the dates, periods and movements of future history. The answer given to Daniel has been called the "prophecy of the seventy weeks". It was an answer which has given rise to many interpretations that it may well be that God’s purpose was to assure his people of the future, without wishing them to become too preoccupied with precise calendar matters. The mind of man, however, is too inquisitive to let the matter rest there! Dogmatism here is quite out of order and what follows is an indication only of what the vision really means.
Consider what Gabriel said to Daniel: "Seventy sevens are decreed for your people and the holy city" (24). This is widely taken to mean "seventy weeks of years" - in other words, with a week being seven days, seventy of seven day weeks equals 490 years. This period, Gabriel said, was decreed "to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy" (24). This clearly covers a lot of ground, far more than the liberation of Israel from Babylon. It was a challenge to Daniel to lift his eyes from only the next step in the earthly pilgrimage, to more distant and important events which would affect the whole world and the end of the age.
This enlargement of Jeremiah’s prophecy did not cancel out his specific prophecy that the exile was to be for seventy years - in fact it lasted about that period of time, but Gabriel’s word to Daniel was designed to enlarge his vision of God’s purposes for the Church age. It is quite possible that the new number given to him of seventy times seven is an approximate number. When Jesus was asked by Peter, should he forgive his brother up to seven times? Jesus replied, "No - until seventy times seven!" He did not mean this literally, but was simply using a current expression to indicate a big number.
The important and interesting question is what is to be achieved in this period of "seventy weeks of years". The first part of the description of the period is "to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness" (24) can be seen as a portrayal of the coming Messiah. It certainly fits in beautifully with what happened through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. That would seem to be its deepest meaning. He, indeed, is the one who came to this Earth to be made sin for us, to atone for our sin, and to open up a way for us to return to the presence of God the Father through his righteousness. The coming of Jesus is certainly the climax of God’s revelation of himself to mankind, "to seal up the vision and prophecy", and the coming of the Holy Spirit on our Lord at his baptism and later to the Church can be seen as "to anoint the most holy" (24).
Gabriel went on tell Daniel of two main phases within the seventy weeks of years - a long period of 69 weeks: 7 plus 62, making 483 years running "From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until the Anointed One comes" (25). Many attempts have been made to work out an exact scheme of dates, but the end date is defined as when "the Anointed One will be cut off" (26). This surely refers to Calvary.
Then finally, there is the matter of the last week. This clearly is a time of great turmoil. There are puzzling references to the destruction of "the city and sanctuary ... war ... and desolations" (26). There is also a reference to "the middle of the seven" when an evil ruler will "put an end to sacrifice and offering ... and set up an abomination that causes desolation" (27). Some biblical scholars believe they have identified the fulfillment of this prophecy before the first coming of Christ, as far back as the wicked Antiochus Epiphanes who persecuted the Jews in the second century, while others believe it awaits the seven years prior to our Lord’s Second Coming, being the time of the "Great Tribulation" (Rev 11:3).
It is quite possible that there are partial fulfillments which anticipate the ultimate fulfillment of God’s purposes. God alone knows the true interpretation. But we do know that victory will come for righteousness because Gabriel told Daniel that the evil ruler would only be allowed to continue "until the end that is decreed is poured out on him" (27). We can thank God that Daniel proved to be faithful as a man of the Word, of Prayer and of Prophecy, and pray that we too will be like him until our Lord comes or calls us to himself.
