The Book of Daniel, Daniel’s Prayer for Deliverance, Daniel 9:1-19 - Lesson 34

We move into chapter nine of our study of the book of Daniel and our first view of this chapter reveals that it takes place in the first year of Darius the son the Ahasuerus, a king of the Medes.

We first met this king at the end of chapter five when he vanquished the Babylonian king, Belshazzar, who was given a message of judgment from God in the form of handwriting on the wall.

Darius was the king who confined Daniel to the lion’s den in response to the wicked conspirator’s who convinced him to pass a law prohibiting the asking of any petition to any god or man other than him for 30 days.

Darius had a deep affection for Daniel and was pleased that God had kept the mouths of the lions closed for the night.

In chapters 7 and 8, chapters where Daniel was given two visions of end times, we were returned to the time of Belshazzar.

And now in chapter nine we see a return to the time of Darius of the Medes.

Darius will be king for only a short time and then Cyrus, the king who allowed the Jews to return to their land, will come on the scene.

So it is near the time of the end of the captivity for the prophets had foretold of this time to be of a duration of seventy years.

Daniel knew the scriptures and knew this time to be near.

It is interesting to note that Daniel had spent most of his life in this foreign land and in that time had spent his life in service to the kings of the land.

He was a powerful man and you would think his roots in Babylon would be deep.

But his heart still longed for the pleasant land for there seems to be in the heart of the Jew a unique connection with the land of his fathers that others of the world do not have.

Our nation is the melting pot of the world and people who come to our land, or at least their children soon forget the land from whence they’ve come.

But not so with Daniel nor with the Jew.

There is a built in longing for the land of their fathers and this chapter is one where that longing is deeply expressed by the means of prayer.

There is in this prayer an understanding of Daniel that he speaks for the people of Israel, for he not only prays for himself but speaks to God using the corporate words "we" and "us" in his petition.

We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, we have rebelled, we have departed from thy precepts and thy judgments, nor have we hearkened unto the prophets.

Daniel knew the times, and the times were right for an answer to his prayer which meant the return of his people to the land.

And with this return there was always an expectation of deliverance with an understanding that God had great plans for his people Israel.

I think it is clear that Daniel’s prayer included the culmination of these plans, for he looked forward to the coming of the promised Messiah.

When reading this prayer of chapter nine it is clear that Daniel is looking forward to the time when all things are made right and God’s kingdom is ushered in.

He looked to a deliverance whereby the Great Prophet that the prophets had foretold would come.

An answer to Daniel’s prayer comes, but certainly the answer that came was unexpected.

God sent Gabriel, His angel, to give Daniel understanding and insight into visions that he had already received but did not fully understand.

Prophecy is progressive and the prophecy that is given in chapter nine does not stand alone but augments that which already had been given.

Remember the vision of chapter seven concerned the four world kingdoms ending in the destruction of the little horn who blasphemes God.

Chapter eight concerns two of those kingdoms with another little horn closer to Daniel’s time but with a conclusion resembling the horn of chapter seven.

Both visions indicated great time periods for God’s plans to unfold.

Daniel’s heart, as with most hearts that are after God, desired for things to unfold at a faster rate.

But we are to remember, as we are told in Psalm 90:4, that a thousand years in God’s sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

Based upon this truth, in God’s sight, it has been only two and one half days since Daniel lived.

So God answers Daniel’s prayer by providing him a timeline by which Daniel is assured that God’s plan will unfold as God plans, not necessarily in accordance with the prayers of his people.

Our prayers are not going to push God to alter these plans!

God wanted Daniel to understand the relationship between Israel’s soon return to the land, in relationship to God’s promise to restore His people and establish His kingdom on the earth.

God wanted Daniel to know that Israel’s imminent return to the land was not the coming of the kingdom of God.

And in addition, there is for the first time in Daniel, an introduction to a suffering and dying Messiah.

The Messiah through whom God will provide forgiveness of sin and though whom the kingdom of God will come and by whom the kingdom will be directed.

Let us now read Chapter Nine.

Daniel 9:1-27,  In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;  In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.  And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:  And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;  We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:  Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.  O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.  O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.  To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;  Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.  Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.  And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.  As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.  Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.   O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.  Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.  O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.  O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.  And whiles 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 for the holy mountain of my God;  Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.  And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.  At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.  Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.  Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.  And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.  And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

As is Daniel’s pattern in the book, he introduces this Chapter by giving us a time indicator so we may know where he is in relation to the 70 year captivity.

Darius is king, which means the Babylonian empire has ended and the Medo-Persian empire is now in power.

The events of chapter nine must have taken place at least 12 years after he had received his vision of chapter 8 which took place in the third year of Belshazzar who reigned for another 12 years until he was killed by Darius.

This is also most likely the same time that the events of chapter six take place, the chapter where we learned of Daniel’s rise to power and position and his overnight stay in the den of the lions.

This is also near the time of the end of the prophesied captivity for Daniel well knew that 70 years had been prescribed.

Daniel was of the very special nation of Israel for his was the only nation with whom God had covenanted.

This covenant was a covenant of blessings and cursings for He promised to bless His people if they kept His covenant and curse them if they rejected and disobeyed his law.

Inherent in obedience to God’s word is blessing, but also inherent in disobedience to God’s word is cursing.

This is also the pattern that parents are to have with their children for it is a pattern that is underpinned by love.

Blessings which are given in spite of disobedience, which is common today, is not an act of love for it is opposed to God’s order of things.

God has so built this order into his creation and it is proven over and over again in his word and in the experience of everyone on this planet.

A very prominent part of the curse was the warning of captivity and exile to a foreign land

But also as a part of His promise was Israel’s restoration, if they repented and once again intended to keep the covenant.

We can read of this in Leviticus 26:27-28, 32-35, and 38-45

Leviticus 26:27-28,  And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.  And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.  Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

38-45 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.  If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;  And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:  Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.  The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.  And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.  But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.

This was the warning and we can read in 2 Chronicles 36:15-23, the historical account of the result of the disobedience that the children of Israel chose.

Solomon understood that the Israelites would bring upon themselves the curse and be taken captive by foreign nations and prayed that when they turned to God in repentance that God would deliver them and return them to the pleasant land.

1 Kings 8:46-53,  If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;  Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;  And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:  Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:  For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:  That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.  For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.

This prayer of Daniel in chapter nine contains much the same petition as Solomon’s prayer of 1 Kings 8:46-53 and seems to be the corporate prayer of repentance for the children in captivity.