Daniel 9:1-19

Good evening church family!! If you are visiting with us, welcome! It is wonderful to be here, to share with you what God has shown me in the preparation of this sermon. We will be in the first 19 verses Daniel chapter 9 tonight.

And I’ll have just 2 points for you this evening.

Does God’s Word drive you to prayer?

And:

Are your prayers intentional?

We begin tonight with Daniel back in Darius’ first year of reign as ruler over Babylon. So, this was after the account of Shadrac, Meshach, and Abednego, after Nebuchadnezzar and the account of the golden image, and just after the inscription on the wall that Daniel interpreted for King Belshazzar that we read about in Chapter 5. If you remember, just after Daniel told King Belshazzar that God had numbered the days of his kingdom, that he was found weighed, measured, and found wanting, and that the kingdom was to be divided and given to the Medes and Persians, Belshazzar was killed and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of 62

and given that Daniel was exiled to Babylon in 605 B.C. puts Daniel at between 82-84 yrs old and about the time that the Satraps convinced Darius to issue and edict and enforce a decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days except Darius shall be thrown into the lions’ den. They did this because they knew of Daniel’s faith and he prayed openly for all to see.

So, here we are back in chapter 6, so to speak, we’re in chapter 9. And Daniel is reading from the Word of God in the book of Jeremiah. And he, Daniel, discovers something. According to Jeremiah’s prophecy, the time left for the Israelites to remain in captivity is less than 4 yrs. Can any of you relate to “seeing the light at the end of a tunnel?” So to speak. Maybe it's a loan payment, or a mortgage, maybe it’s high school!! Maybe it’s a countdown to a long awaited vacation. Ahh!! 4 more years!! 3 more years!! 2 more years!! 3 more months! 2 more days!! Whatever it is. But, when Daniel reads from God’s Word, as we will see, he doesn’t just see this 4 yrs as a “light at the end of tunnel”. He sees it as an opportunity to go to God in prayer. Do we do that? Do we look at Scripture and go to God with what we just read? Every piece of scripture points to Christ in some way. Do we see that and let Scripture drive our prayers?

Or do we go to God in prayer in our quiet time because “it’s just what we do”. “Check the next box.” “Read the bible, check” Prayer: “check”. … or do we let God’s Word speak to us, and drive our prayers, and let the Holy Spirit lead us, so that we can apply what we just read, maybe just learned. If you learn something in your quiet time, and we all should, we should know that God didn’t just give us that knowledge so we can have more knowledge, He gave us that so we can apply it to our lives.

So please, stand with me if you are able as I read today’s text, and then I’ll open us up in prayer.

In the first year of Darius, who was the son of Ahasuerus, was a Mede by birth, and was ruler over the kingdom of the Chaldeans - in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be 70. So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: Ah, Lord - the great and awe inspiring God who keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments - we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from Your commandments and ordinances. We have not listened to Your servants, the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, fathers, and all the people of the land. Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but this day public shame belongs to us: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel - those who are near and those who are far, in all the countries where You have dispersed them because of the disloyalty they have shown toward You. LORD, public shame belongs to us, our kings, our leaders, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord our God, though we have rebelled against Him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by following His instructions that He set before us through His servants the prophets.

(11) All Israel has broken Your law and turned away, refusing to obey You. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against Him. He has carried out His words that He spoke against us and against our rulers by bringing on us so great a disaster that nothing like what has been done to Jerusalem has ever been done under all of heaven. Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not appeased the LORD our God by turning from our injustice and paying attention to Your truth. So the LORD kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all He has done. But we have not obeyed Him. Now, Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and made Your name renowned as it is this day, we have sinned, we have acted wickedly. Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, may Your anger and wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the injustices of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become an object of ridicule to all those around us.

(17) Therefore, our God, hear the prayer and the petitions of Your servant. Show Your favor to Your desolate sanctuary for the Lord’s sake. Listen, my God, and hear. Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city called by Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You based on our righteous acts, but based on Your abundant compassion. Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, listen and act! My God, for Your own sake, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.

Thank you, you may be seated.

**Prayer**

Our first point tonight is: Does God’s Word drive you to prayer? Let’s read verse 2 together again…... “in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books according to the Word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be 70.” Let’s stop there for a moment. The Israelites were exiled to Babylon for 70 yrs because of their idolatry and disobedience to God’s commands. One such command is found in Leviticus 25. Starting in verse 1 we read: “The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, ‘speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.” Moving ahead to Leviticus 26 we read starting in verse 33; “But I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword to chase after you. So your land will become desolate, and your cities will become ruins. Then the land will make up for its Sabbath years during the time it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and make up for its Sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate, it will have the rest it did not have during your Sabbaths when you lived there.” The Israelites did not follow God’s commands and so the land was owed 70 years of a sabbath rest. Moses wrote both the command and the consequence of disobedience back in Leviticus. And in 2 Chronicles 36:21 we read: “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests, all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jerimiah.”

So, as Daniel was reading from the book of Jeremiah, he learned of this promise from God during his quiet time. We must first see that Daniel recognizes the book of Jeremiah as the word of the LORD. Capital L-O-R-D. The personal name of God. YHWH. And then that the promise that the number of years in captivity would be 70. Now through my study I found that there are two overlapping 70 yr periods prophesied in scripture. One is calculated from the fall of Jerusalem to the rebuilding of the temple 587-516. This is mentioned in Zechariah 1:12 and 7:5. Most commentaries agree that the Exile of the 1st Israelites to Babylon to 1st return which was 605 to 536 is what Jeremiah was referring to.This 70 year time period can be found in 2 Chron 36:22, which we just read, and also in Ezra.

So, Daniel read from Jeremiah either chapter 25 or 29 that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be 70. Jeremiah 25:11-12 read: “This whole land will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years. When the 70 yrs are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation - this is the LORD’s declaration”. And Jeremiah 29:10-14 says: “For this is what the LORD says; “When 70 years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm My promise concerning you to restore you to this place. For I know the plans I have for you - this is the LORD’s declaration - plans to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you - the LORD’s declaration - and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you- the LORD’s declaration. I will restore you to the place I deported you from.” Directly following this, Daniel turns his attention to God and seeks Him by prayer and petitions. As we will see here in a minute, Daniel’s prayer is for God to fulfill what God already said He was going to do.

But first, the text, depending on the translation of your Bible, says that he understood, or learned, or perceived, or discerned that the number of years would be 70. He came to an understanding of or recognized something in God’s Word. And that 70 years was about to come to an end in less than 4 yrs. So what is Daniel’s response? Does he say: OK, God is sovereign, we’ll just wait it out. Almost there. Light at the end of the tunnel. No! He prayed for God to do his will anyway. And this wasn’t just a one or two minute prayer after his daily devotions like many of us do, myself included. This was intentional. Scripture says that he “turned his attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petitions” or depending on your translations: he turned his face to the Lord or he “set his face to the Lord” or gave his attention to the Lord.

But, this Hebrew word translated ‘turned’ or ‘set’ or “gave”, ..… in the original Hebrew language it was to give the idea of Completely handing over something, entrusting with, or ….. …..“Bestowing” and the word “face” or “attention”.. it can also be translated “Presence” or “person”. Do you understand what Bestowed means? To give….. in Honor. The original audience would have understood this verse to mean that: Daniel Bestowed his presence to God. Daniel uses the word Elohim there, meaning our plural, triune, God. Daniel Bestowed his presence to Adonai Elohim….Lord God. He said: I am Yours, this is your time, not mine. I give you myself, hear me Lord, hear my prayer. But I am giving You this time. I am giving you myself …….and my prayer. His posture was probably similar if not just like what we see in Chapter 6, with himself kneeling, facing toward Jerusalem in his upper room with the window open three times a day. Now, as Steven mentioned just 10 days ago in his sermon last Sunday, and if you missed it, I encourage you to go back and watch it, you don’t have to pray this way. We should pray continually, throughout the day. I pray throughout the day, on my 1 mile drive to work, While I’m at work, whenever…..but you know what happens a lot. I get distracted. I start a prayer at work and then I’ll hear the machine making a sound its not supposed to, or someone will come up to me to ask me a question. Or I’ll be driving and I’ll see something that causes me to take my focus off of that prayer. But this time of prayer was something that was set aside for God. This …..prayer, this……. quiet time with God, was anything but a “check the box”, let’s move on with life. It wasn’t an….OK, I said my prayer, now I can get dinner going, or head off to work, or I think I finished my prayer before I dozed off. This was meaningful. It was intentional. It reminds me of what Steven said last month about a pastor who said his quiet time involved going into the presence of the LORD, Getting alone with the LORD, getting into God’s Word, and then leaves when he feels like God is done. When he feels like God has spoken whatever it is He wanted to say.. If it's 30 minutes, it's 30 minutes. If it's 4 hrs, it's 4hrs. Do you remember that? My question for you as we close our first point is: “ Do we bestow our presence to God in our prayers”, and say: “God, this is your time, not mine?” That is meaningful and intentional! How many of us do that!!??

Which brings us to our 2nd point. Are your prayers intentional?

If we look at the second part of verse three we see that he sought God by prayer and petitions with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. This gives an example of what “intentional” prayer can look like. Daniel fasted, he abstained from food… he put on sackcloth, which was an itchy animal skin garment and ashes, both to show repentance, and being humbled. We read about Sackcloth and ashes throughout the Old Testament. One place in particular is in 1 Kings chapter 21 after Ahab heard the prophetic words from Elijah we read that:.....”he tore his clothes, put sackcloth over his body, and fasted. He lay down in sackcloth and walked around subdued. Then the word came to Elijah; “have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? I will not bring the disaster during his lifetime, because he has humbled himself before Me.” In a similar manner, as far as intentional prayers, we are reminded of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane when He knelt down and prayed to God: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.” As many of us know, He prayed so intently that Scripture tells us He sweat drops of blood. That shows intentionality. Luke 5: 15-16 says: “But the news about Him spread even more, and large crowds would come together to hear Him and to be healed of their illnesses. Yet He often withdrew to deserted places and prayed.” Pastor Paul Washer referenced this passage once and said that we often “slip away” from life to what we enjoy doing. We may “slip away” to go fishing or “slip away” to go to the mall. Jesus “slipped away” to enter into the Father’s presence without distractions. Do we see prayer like that? Not as an obligation or a “check the box”, but something we WANT to do. Something we ENJOY doing!!

Going back to Daniel’s prayer.

Daniel begins his prayer with addressing: LORD my God. Remember when we see “LORD” in all caps that is YHWH the personal name of God: This verse reads: “I prayed to YHWH my Elohim, the great and mighty Adonai.”

He begins with adoration: “Verse 4(A):

Ah, Lord, the great and awe inspiring God who keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments. The start to his prayer echoes Deuteronomy 7:9. “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations”,

Daniel then moves on in his prayer by confessing(C) and by including himself in the sins of Israel, saying “We” have sinned. Daniel knew that even though all the positive attributes he displayed in his life, that we read about in this book, he was also a sinner.

Verse 5 & 6: “WE have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from Your commandments and ordinances. WE have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, fathers, and all the people of the land.” ….. Who hasn’t….. WE!... Don't miss this!! …Daniel includes himself in the prayer to God. We may read through the book of Daniel, and see this amazing, God fearing, man… but Daniel sees himself as the sinful man he is. He continues this terminology throughout: saying “Public shame belongs to US, and WE have not obeyed the voice of the LORD. In verse 11 he writes… “All Israel has broken Your law and turned away, refusing to obey You.” …. You get the point. He confesses that he is no better than anyone else, and is not above needing God’s grace.

Moving ahead to verse 14 & 15 we start to see his prayer shifts to an understanding of God’s righteousness… and he is sure to include what God has done for His people…..”So the LORD kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for the LORD our God(YHWH our Elohim) is righteous in all He has done. But we have not obeyed Him.

“Now Lord our God(Adonai our Elohim), who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and made Your name renowned as it is this day, we have sinned, we have acted wickedly.” He understands that God is Just and Righteous and doesn’t hesitate to pray that to God.

And in verse 16 we see this this shift to supplication, or petition, “Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, may Your anger and wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the injustices of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become an object of ridicule to all those around us.” I am reminded of David’s plea with God to bring an end to his own suffering in Psalm 6: “LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger; do not discipline me in Your wrath. Be gracious to me, LORD, for I am weak; heal me, LORD, for my bones are shaking”….. We see his prayer… his petition… not only for those in Babylon…. but for everyone. As we read back in verse 7: “...those who are near and those who are far, in all the countries where You have dispersed them…” As we look at Daniel’s prayer, we can see the prayer model A.C.T.S. laid out before us. Steven mentioned this as well last Sunday.

This prayer model is one that we can use in our prayer life now …Adoration…Confession….Thanksgiving….and Supplication.

Moving on to verse 17, we see that it starts with the word “therefore”. Have you ever heard the phrase…. when you see the word “therefore” ask yourself what’s it there for?.... It’s important to connect the following verses to the preceding ones whenever you see this in Scripture. Yes! We have sinned! Yes! We have turned away from your commands. Public shame belongs to us. Compassion and forgiveness belongs to You, the Lord our God. Your people have become an object of ridicule to all those around us. Therefore! Because of all of these things just mentioned in the prayer.. Hear the prayer and the petitions of Your servant. Show Your favor to Your desolate sanctuary for the Lord’s sake. Listen, my God and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolation and the city called by Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You based on our righteous acts, but based on Your abundant compassion.”

His plea is for God to act on what He has already promised. He asks God to not delay in what He already promised.

God’s sovereignty should not cause us to suppress our prayers. Let me say that again..God’s sovereignty should not cause us to suppress our prayers. It should encourage us to pray to Him. He wants to hear from us!!

We end tonight with verse 19: “Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, listen and act! My God, for Your own sake, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name. Again if we look to Psalm 6 we see David plea something similar in verse 4: “Turn, LORD! Rescue me; save me because of Your faithful love.”

Application

Church, do we let God’s Word drive our prayers?…..Do we allow God the time He needs to speak to us in our quiet time? Or do we simply check the box? This preparation has been convicting for me. I always thought my prayers were intentional. I try not to just pray for co-workers, but try to be intentional with a specific persons and/or request. I try not to just pray for ‘the lost’, in general, but I try to take to God a specific country or person or situation. After really looking into just how intentional prayer was meant to be…. How we are meant to bestow our presence to God for as long as it takes for Him to speak what He wants to us……. Many times I’ve been checking the box and didn’t even realize it. As we come to a close I ask that you reflect on your own prayer life. Maybe you’ve never turned to God, never trusted in Him to direct your life. I encourage you, don’t leave here with questions or doubts. Know that there is a God who loves you, and desires a relationship with you. And if you are a believer here tonight. Get into His Word. Dig into it. Apply it to your life and let it change you. Let His Word not only drive you TO prayer, but let God’s Word drive our prayers as well.

Let’s close in prayer.