Keys to Unlocking Power in Prayer Daniel 9:1-19
Notes
Transcript
Handout
As we begin this morning, please turn in your copies of God’s Word to Daniel chapter 9. We will be reading verses 1-19 shortly, so please have these verses marked and ready for that time.
Daniel is, perhaps, the most unique individual in all of the Old Testament. There are 12 chapters and 357 verses in the Book of Daniel, 12 chapters and 357 and this book records close to 70 years of his life. It records how he was taken captive to a foreign land as a young teenage, which is where he remained for the rest of his life. And from the very first chapter and throughout he faces challenge after challenge. False accusation after false accusation. He faced enemies in the upper echelons of government, who lied about him, who watched his every move, who sought multiple times to have him put to death. And in all of this, Scripture does not record a single sin. NOT ONE!
He ascended to the highest levels of not one, but two major pagan world empires, Babylon and Medo-Persia. Ascending to positions that, to the best of what we see in recorded history, were never sought by him. In fact in some ways you could say that his deep devotion to God and to his faith, should have ended his chances of attaining his lofty status. Yet it didn’t.
You would be hard pressed to find any other man or woman in the Old Testament who is more worthy of following, worthy of imitating, more worthy of studying to find out what it was that made him tick. What characteristics did he posses that enabled him to stand strong no matter the opposition? To stand strong even in the face of death? Where did he get his unparalleled wisdom?
Well the first 19 verses of Daniel chapter 9, provide for us a vivd display, a ultra-high definition display of one of the most important characteristics in the life of Daniel, that set him apart, and this characteristic is one you and I are capable of taking hold of as well.
But before we look at those verses, let me lay the ground work for the entire 19th chapter of Daniel.
In preaching through Daniel chapter 9, John MacArthur states the following;
“Most people who, when they go to study Daniel chapter 9, go directly to the seventy weeks’ prophecy. How, that there is a prophecy that from the rebuilding of the city to the coming of Messiah will be a certain period of time, and following that, there will be another seven-year period of time, and then the Messiah, the prince, will come; and then the great messianic prophecy occupies the attention of most of people who study the ninth chapter of Daniel. But that’s unfortunate, in a way, because that’s only the answer to the prayer, and the prayer is the main thrust of the chapter. In fact, there is twice as much attention, in verse numbers, given to the prayer as there is to its answer. Prophecy is important, but it cannot substitute for prayer. God never calls us to be so speculative or so attached to the future that we lose sight of the present. That’s the essence of the significance of the prayer.” (John MacArthur”Elements of True Prayer-Part 1-May 18, 1980)
So, before we look at the 70 Weeks of Daniel chapter 9, we will spend some time looking at his prayer, because in looking at this prayer, we are given a prescription, of sorts, of what it is that makes effective intercessory prayer.
For those who are not quite sure of what intercessory prayer is, intercessory prayer is what we do every Sunday at the end of our morning service. After our closing hymn, the live feed to our service ends, and we spend time in intercessory prayer, which simply put is the act of praying to God on behalf of another individual, group, or situation. And if you’re anything like me, you want our time of intercessory prayer to be affective.
With that, would you please stand, in honor of the reading of God’s Word?
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the Word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking Him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying,
“O Lord, the great and awesome God, Who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from Your commandments and rules. 6 We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which You have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. 8 To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You.
9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him 10 and have not obeyed the Voice of the Lord our God by walking in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, refusing to obey Your Voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against Him.
12 He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by Your truth.
14 Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that He has done, and 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 have made a Name for Yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteous acts, let Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a byword among all who are around us.
17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for Your own sake, O Lord, make your Face to shine upon Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear. Open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by Your Name. For we do not present our pleas before You because of our righteousness, but because of Your great mercy. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your city and Your people are called by Your Name.”
May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.
Now, before we dive into these verses, let’s go before the Lord in prayer.
Our most gracious and loving heavenly Father,
With humble hearts we approach Your throne this morning. We are able to approach Your throne because You are a God of mercy and justice. How thankful we are that You are not solely a God of justice, for if that were so, each and every one of us would be headed for hell with no hope.
But For The Cross of Christ, Father, in Your great love, Your mercy flows, flows in a crimson stream from the Cross of Calvary. For upon that cross Alas and Did My Savior Bleed. Upon that cross Jesus Paid it All! Through that crimson flow The Cross Has Spoken, spoken so powerfully that its declaration echoes all the way back to the fall in The Garden of Eden. Spoken so powerfully that it will reverberate throughout all eternity.
Father, we come to You today, bringing nothing to the table, except broken sin stained lives. Seeking Your mercy, seeking Your love, seeking Your Face. We Turn Our Eyes Upon Jesus, looking full in His wonderful Face, that the things of earth would grow strangely dim, things like our sin, things like our pain and suffering, things like the loss we face, the tragedies we deal with, that all else would grow strangely dim in the light of Your glory and grace.
Father we come to You today having no defense, for our guilt runs to deep. As we sang earlier, The best of our works, the best of our works, THE BEST OF OUR WORKS pierced You Hand and Your feet! Jesus, Your Mercy is all of my plea! Jesus, Your Mercy is all of my boast, Jesus, Your Mercy is all of my rest, Jesus, Your Mercy is all of my joy. And it is with those thoughts planted firmly in our minds we say Praise the King Who bore my sin, took my place when I stood condemned, we sing of a treasure no pow’r can destroy, Jesus Your mercy is all of my joy!
And now Father, we hold in our hands Your Word, Your infallible Word, Your unchanging Word. We ask that You would speak to us this morning in a transformative way, and we ask this in the Name of Jesus our Savior, Amen
Before we look at some of the keys to unlocking power in our prayer, lets take a few moments and look at some of what led up to the prayer of Daniel.
The first thing we see is the,
The “When” of the Prayer. Vs. 1
Daniel writes;
Daniel 9:1 “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—”
You may recall from our first look at this individual, there is a lot of discussions on who exactly is Darius the Mede. Was Darius his actual name, or was it more of a title. The truth is, Darius can be both. In fact there are some instances in history and in Scripture where Darius is a name, and other places in history and Scripture where it is more of a title, but in this instance, I believe it is more of a title. Early on in biblical history, Darius functioned as a royal title or throne name rather than just a personal given name. It appears that later on, it actually became as much of a name as a title.
It is my believe that the Darius the Mede mentioned here and in chapter 6, is Cyrus the Great, the first of the Medo-Persian rulers. Now perhaps some of you are thinking; “Wait a second, you said that Cyrus the Great was from the Persian Empire, but verse 1 states that Darius was “by decent a Mede”. So what gives? And you are correct, he was from the Persian Empire. But keep in mind both his mother and his grandfather on his mothers side were Mede’s. So he was both Persian and at the same time a by decent a Mede.
But before Daniel writes of Darius, he identifies the year. He writes In the first year of Darius. Which is very interesting, this was quite the year for Daniel. To begin with, historians link Daniel 5:31 to Daniel 6:1. As it the events were consecutive.
In Daniel 5 we read the biblical account of King Belshazzar and his major banquet where he thumbed his nose at the one true God, the God of Daniel. Then he saw, very literally, the handwriting on the wall! That very night Babylon was overthrown and he was killed. Interestingly, Daniel moved from the upper echelon of leadership in the Babylonian Empire to the upper echelon of leadership in the Medo-Persian Empire, under Cyrus the Great. So, not only was Babylon conquered that year, but in that same year Daniel was welcomed into the highest levels of the government in this new empire, and no long afterwards he was thrown into the lions den. Which leads me to a question;
Do you recall why Daniel was thrown into the lions den?
Well to begin with, it was jealousy. Other high ranking officials were jealous of Daniel, this exile who was now a high ranking official alongside them! So they plotted against him. The problem they were faced with was, they couldn’t find a single fault in him, none! In fact they said;
“Daniel 6:5”
… “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”
So in the end, Daniel was thrown into the lions den because He was a man of prayer. Which leads us to the first key to unlocking power in prayer as we see it in Daniel.
Daniel Was Unswervingly Devoted to Prayer. Vs. 1 & Daniel 6
The challenge Daniel faced in chapter 6 was, does he continue to pray to the God of heaven, even though doing so put his life in danger. And as we all know, the answer was a resounding “Yes”! You see Daniel had an unswerving devotion to prayer. This unswerving devotion to prayer didn’t end with his rescue from the lions den, in fact it never ended.
We will talk a little more about this unswerving devotion a little later this morning, but for now, let’s look at the next key that unlocked power in Daniel’s prayer;
Daniel’s Prayer was Rooted in Scripture. Vs. 2
Look at verse 2, what do we see there? Daniel 9:2 “in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.”
Daniel states “I… perceived in the books … according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet”
When Daniel writes “I perceived in the books” what do you think he was referring to in referencing the books?
(Scripture, as in the very Word of God.)
In other words, his prayer was deeply rooted in Scripture. But there is something else I want to make sure we don’t miss. Daniel equates the words of Jeremiah the prophet as authoritative and as from God Himself. In other words, the prophecies of Jeremiah were already considered by Daniel to b God’s Word. There are biblical skeptics in the world who like to say that Scripture, particularly what we know as the Old Testament, was never fully agreed upon until well after the days of Jesus. Their claims are completely false, we clearly see here that Daniel is already looking to Jeremiahs prophecies as authoritative, equating them as the very words of God.
This leads us to the next key we see in the power behind Daniels prayer;
Daniel Took God at His Word. Vs. 2; Jer. 25:11-12; Jer. 29:10
Evidently, as we have already seen, Daniel was spending times studying the truths of God’s Word, and specifically, what prophetic book was he spending his time in? (Jeremiah)
Chances are Daniel was studying 1 of 2 passage, or perhaps both. The first being Jeremiah 25:11-12. Hold your place in Daniel 9 and go back a few pages to Jeremiah 25 verses 11 & 12.
Jeremiah writes; Jeremiah 25:11–12 “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.”
Now move forward a couple pages to chapter 29. What do we read in verse 10? Jeremiah 29:10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”
So in both of these passages Jeremiah clearly states that their captivity will last 70 years. This leads me to a question;
Why 70 Years? Lev. 25:1-6 & 20-21; 2 Chron. 36:21
Was this 70 years just some random number God came up with, or was there something else to it?
To answer this question, turn back in your copies of God’s word to Leviticus 25. We will first look at verses 1-5 and then verses 20 & 21. We read in verses 1-5; Leviticus 25:1–5 “The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.”
Here we see God speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai instructing him and the Nation of Israel that upon entering the Promised Land, they were to plant crops for 6 years and not plant the 7th year. This was called The Sabbath Rest of the Land and it was a test of the peoples trust in the Lord. Similar to what they were experiencing at the time with the Manna from God. Remember, on the 6th day they were to collect enough manna that day for 2 days, for the 6th and the 7th because there would be no manna from God on the 7th. Of course this leads us to anther question.
How were they to survive that 7th year if they didn’t plant crops?
Looking ahead in chapter 25 of Leviticus to verses 20 & 21. What do we see there? Leviticus 25:20–21 “And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ 21 I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years.”
Here we see God anticipating there question and providing an answer before they even asked the question. Which is not at all uncommon in Scripture! He is, after all, all knowing!
What I find interesting here is, you’d have thought that when they experienced bumper crops that 6th year, they’d have taken the hint, praised and honored God and let the land rest on the 7th year. Unfortunately they didn’t do that, or at least rarely did, as a result, the promised bumper crops stopped coming because that huge crop was conditional on them obeying God’s command.
There obedience to God was short lived and rare, and best we can tell ended in the days of King Saul. Let me show you why many biblical scholars have settled on their Sabbath rest of the land stopping for good during the reign of King Saul. We will do so by counting back from the time they were taken captive, and we do this based on what we read in 2 Chronicles 36:21 where we read;
“to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”
This passage was written after the people of Judah returned to Jerusalem, which was yet in the future for Daniel. The author, or I should say penman, as God was the true Author, the penman was likely Ezra, and he was explaining to the returned exiles one of the reasons they were taken into captivity in the first place, and specifically why God settled on 70 years.
They refused to obey God’s command on giving the land a Sabbath rest, so God determined He Himself would give the land the required rest, while at the same time disciplining the people for their refusal to obey.
Are you ready for a little math?
How frequently were they to obey the Sabbath Rest of the Land?
Sabbath Rest of the Land: Every 7th year.
How many years did Jeremiah, speaking as God’s ordained spokesman, tell the people they would be in captivity?
Jeremiah prophesied 70 years of captivity.
Ok, let’s do the math;
7 X 70 = 490.
7 times 70 = 490 years.
Hypothetically, lets begin our calculation based on the year Daniel was taken captive. Truthfully, we don’t know if we should count back from his captivity in 605 BC, or the next captivity 8 years later in 597 BC-which was when the prophet Ezekiel was taken into captivity, or in 587-586 BC when the city of Jerusalem was completely destroyed. We could actually use any of those dates to begin our count backward for the 490 year figure. But in our hypothetical we will use 605 BC when Daniel was taken captive.
605 + 490 = 1095 BC.
Why do we count up from 605 BC? (Because before Christ everything counted down, from high to low, because history revolves around Jesus! Or at least it used to. If your are my age or older, we were raised with BC, meaning Before Christ and AD which stands for Anno Domini, which is latin for The Year of Our Lord. Its now been changed to BCE Before Common Era and CE, Common Era. But we all know that history still revolves around Jesus, no matter what changes they make!
At any rate, we settle on 1095 BC, which is the date most biblical scholars agree on as the first year of King Saul's Reign.
Lets end here this morning.
So far we have looked at 3 of the keys we see in Daniel that unlocked power in his prayer. You and I would do well to follow his lead. The keys are;
Daniel Was Unswervingly Devoted to Prayer. Even when faced with life or death circumstances, Daniel remained unswervingly devoted to prayer. In fact it is highly likely that during those times he was even more devoted to prayer. Next
Daniel’s Prayer was Rooted in Scripture. Daniel studied Scripture and his prayers were almost always rooted by what he read on those pages. What a valuable lesson for us!
Daniel Took God at His Word. If God said it, Daniel believed it, period, end of sentence! Let’s follow Daniels pattern and take God at His Word.
Let’s close our time this morning in prayer.
