Standing in the Gap Part 3: God's Mercy and Our Engagement
Standing in the Gap • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
The world in which Daniel was born into and lived in was one of rebellion to God. His people had sinned, committed iniquity, and transgressed the commandments of the LORD. Over the past two Sunday we have looked at the world that Daniel lived in and the events that had lead to the exile and burden that was on Daniel’s heart to repent of the sins that he and his people were responsible for. He put himself in the gap. Ezekiel 22:30 “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.” Daniel had been in the Word of God (Jeremiah) and knew that the 70 years of exile were nearly completed, but also realized that his people had never repented of the sins that had gotten them exiled. He was the intercessor for his people in that gap. His prayer is one of repentance for the rebellion that Israel had done. He continues to acknowledges his sin and the sins of the past, before his final pleas in the final words of the prayer. As we have been going through this prayer, have you put yourself in Daniel’s shoes? Will you be one of the people who will stand in the gap on your knees in prayer for this world in which we live? Will you acknowledge your sin and put yourself in the midst of those of the past and present that have turned from God to be their intercessor?
Verses 11-12
Verses 11-12
Daniel has already began his prayer with adoration of God’s name and who God is. He moved into confession of the sins of his people while using imagery from Deuteronomy about how Israel had not kept the commandments, but that God had kept His Word. God always keeps His word. We pick back up in the final two verses we looked at last week.
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. 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.
All of Israel (not just the northern Kingdom or the Southern Kingdom of Judah) all Israel had not obeyed God’s voice. Therefore the oath that we looked at last week. The blessings and the curses of Deuteronomy that Moses had given them from God was poured out on them, because of the sin! God kept His promises. God keeps His words. What God said had happened! When God says He will do something He will.
Verses 13-15
Verses 13-15
“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. 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. 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!
We did not read or respond to Moses. All this has happened to Israel/Judah, because it was written. It was told to them over and over and over again.
How often do we/do I who multiple copies of the Word of God not listen or respond to the Word of God? Israel had limited copies we have multiple copies, yet we still so often not respond or respond correct.
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Daniel says it was all told to us by Moses and the prophets had told kings (King Josiah responded) God is going to kick you out of the land. Yet, even after being kicked out of the land they still had not repented. That is a hard heart. Daniel in his prayer says “yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.”
Daniel is seeing this in his life as well. He has not repented for anything he might have done in this regard! He puts himself in the WE! He is part of the collective.
We have not made our prayer...
Turn from our iniquities (Repentance) --- Turning.
They had not repented before the exile happened and they had not while in exile for nearly 7 decades! Daniel is starting the process. He is in the gap and making intercession for his people.
Tok Pisin word for repentance.
God kept His word as Daniel has said before. He kept His promise.
Jeremiah 1:14 “Then the Lord said to me: “Out of the north calamity shall break forth On all the inhabitants of the land.”
Jeremiah 6:19 “Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people— The fruit of their thoughts, Because they have not heeded My words Nor My law, but rejected it.”
This all happened!
LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does. He is right! In everything He does! God kept His word. He is right, Israel is wrong.
Then Daniel goes back to history. He goes back to the Exodus
The New King James Version Chapter 9
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
You are the One who took Your people out of the Egypt with a mighty hand! You made Yourself a name.
Jeremiah 32:20 “You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day, and in Israel and among other men; and You have made Yourself a name, as it is this day.”
God’s name was known!
Joshua 2:9–11 “and said to the men: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.”
God’s name and His reputation was known among the nations!
When you pray do you pray back the works of God in your own life? God in the past you did, fill in the blank in my life. Daniel is remembering God’s faithfulness in the past and then acknowledges his sin once again.
1 Corinthians 10:6
WE HAVE SINNED! WE HAVE DONE WICKEDLY
Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.
Verses 16-17
Verses 16-17
“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. 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.
Then we have see a change from WE to I. We have sinned, but I pray. He is standing in the gap. He is interceding on behalf of his people.
Let Your anger
Let Your fury
Let both of these be turned away from Jerusalem (Your City—called by Your name)
Let them be turned away from the Temple Mount (Your Mountain)
The sins and iniquities made the land stink! Your people are a reproach!
Your people are a mockery and an object of ridicule to all the nations around them.
You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.
Are we as believers in Jesus Christ living double standards? Does our walk and talk line up? Israel was to be light among the Gentiles, and that light was being dimmed.
Isaiah 42:6–7 ““I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.”
Isaiah 60:3 “The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.”
Now ultimately this was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but the nation was to be a light to the rest of the nations around them.
We are to be a light of Jesus Christ.
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Acts 13:47 “For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ””
Are we being a light for Jesus or is our light being dimmed?
Daniel pleads with God to hear his prayer. The prayer of a servant of God!
Hear the prayer. Hear the supplication.
Daniel has gone from Adoration to Confession and now he making his supplication. His request. That God’s face would shine back upon Jerusalem and the Temple! It is desolate. Bring it back to life! It is similar to the prayer of the High Priest that is given in Numbers.
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’
These are his pleas and prayers for God’s mercy! pleas for mercy! These are pleas for God’s name sake!
Daniel 18-19
Daniel 18-19
Then we get to the final lines of his prayer. A powerful plea for God to answer this prayer.
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. 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.”
O my God:
Incline Your ear and hear: Listen to this prayer that I am praying and the word of my mouth, the thoughts, the motives of my heart.
Open Your eyes and see: Pay attention to what is happening to the City which is called by Your name!
Psalm 25:11 “For Your name’s sake, O Lord, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.”
Psalm 106:7–9 “Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, But rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea. Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, That He might make His mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; So He led them through the depths, As through the wilderness.”
You saved our people from Egypt FOR YOUR NAME SAKE!
Daniel turns back from using I to WE. We are not praying and pleading before God because of our righteous deeds.
Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”
We don’t have any righteousness. All righteousness we as believers have is because of Jesus Christ! Not of ourselves. Daniel’s pleads and prayers are not because of his righteous acts nor of any person, but because of God great mercies.
Considering those words were written by Jeremiah as he watched Jerusalem burn 70 years earlier. God is still merciful.
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.
For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
Daniel is pleading with God for His mercy and forgiveness as he begins his last statement!
Daniel 9:19 “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.””
LORD! HEAR! LORD FORGIVE!
LORD LISTEN AND ACT!
DON’T WAIT! Do it for Your own name sake! For Jerusalem and for Israel who have been called by Your name!
Wow! What a prayer and what a conclusion of that prayer.
When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Daniel might have been thinking of these verses from the dedication of temple when God was once again looking back to Deuteronomy and the oath that the people had taken.
Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans Our Lord’s Prayer
Though in many respects we have been disobedient and ungrateful children, yet we beg you, compassionate Father, to forgive us our offenses. We know we are guilty in your book, with debts we can never repay. But please forgive those debts, even as we forgive others—even those who have offended and injured us. We ask for the same kind of pardon we are willing to extend to others.
God Answered Daniel’s Prayer: His Mercy is shown
God Answered Daniel’s Prayer: His Mercy is shown
In Daniel 9:20–21 “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, 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.”
When Daniel was praying God sent the angel Gabriel who gives Daniel a look at the future of Israel. Daniel would not see Jerusalem again (that we are aware of), yet his prayer would be directly answered by the return of exiles to the land in Ezra and Nehemiah. God’s mercy is shown in Him keeping His promise and keeping His Word. As I mentioned last week, God keeps His promises. Daniel in his prayer of confession mentioned several times how God had kept His word. Then specifically in Nehemiah chapters 8 and 9 we have a direct result of Daniel’s prayer with Ezra reading the Torah and the people responding.
Nehemiah 8:5–6 “And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. Then all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”
Nehemiah 8:8 “So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading.”
Then there is confession and worship.
Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God.
I would encourage you to read through these chapters to see God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer that most likely happened after his death. Many of the prayers we pray in this regard may never be answered in our lifetime, yet we should still pray them.
Conclusion/Application/Challenge
Conclusion/Application/Challenge
Slide: Now What? How will each of us respond?
As we come to the conclusion of this sermon series we need to look back and look forward. We have read and heard the Word of Lord over these past three weeks. We have seen the world which Jeremiah and Daniel lived in and the parallels with the world in which we live in. We have seen the power of the Word of God to impact and change lives as it did for Daniel when reading Jeremiah. God wants us to confess and repent of our sins and the sins of the past and present. We have also seen the power of prayer. We have seen God’s mercy as a response to Daniel’s prayer and then the future response and engagement of the people Israel as a result of those prayers.
We have to take an honest, hard look at why we are seeing this trajectory now. Many have noted that the decline of Christian values can be attributed to a reactive, angry, disengaged, and politically motivated Christian culture that has sought to assert itself in order to win a culture war that was destined to be lost. We have the best news in the world, but often we have communicated it as the right news instead of the good news. Many times, we have preferred to be right instead of loving, and lost our reputation in the process.
Christians today are faced with at least three ways to respond: (1) assimilate the secular culture, (2) isolate from the secular culture, or (3) engage the secular culture. In light of the gospel, the only choice for the Christ follower is to engage.
Slide
So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.
Will you stand in the gap?