Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

Background to the Passage.

This event occurred shortly after chapter 5 and probably near the time of chapter 6 and the lion’s den.

Daniel was around 80 years old and was reading from the book of Jeremiah.

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.

13 I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.

(Jere 25:11–13, Cf 29:10).

Since captivity began in 605 BC, the end of seventy years of captivity would be around 536 BC.

If Daniel was 12 or 13 when he went into captivity, and he is now about 80, he would only have a few more years until the seventy years is complete.

Josephus wrote that Cyrus was shown the following passage in Isaiah, and as a result desired to fulfill that prophecy.

“Who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose'; saying of Jerusalem, 'She shall be built,' and of the temple, 'Your foundation shall be laid'” ().

It appears that this passage played a part in Cyrus freeing the Jews from captivity to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild Jerusalem, the walls, and the temple.

A simple outline of Daniel’s prayer.

(1) Daniel humbles himself as he prays (9:3-4).

(2) The sins of Israel are acknowledged (9:5-6).

(3) God’s character is acknowledged (throughout).

(4) The divine, just punishment for sins is accepted (9:7-14).

(5) Deliverance is requested (9:15-19).

Balanced view of sin and grace.

Having read through Daniel’s prayer, we notice that much of it is an acknowledgment of Israel’s sinfulness and a plea for God to be merciful.

As we wrestle with the truths concerning our sin and God’s mercy, we can error in two ways.

First, we can error by focusing singularly on our sinfulness and fail to ever get to the hope that is found in Christ.

It is most definitely true that we are sinful, but we must never communicate that without offering hope.

Secondly, we can error by ignoring our sinfulness and focusing on just the grace of God and freedom in Christ.

There is a problem with this approach.

While it is more pleasant, our immense appreciation for God’s grace only comes through an understanding of our sinfulness.

Paul wrestled with both these realities in and 8. Paul writes in , “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

We could err and focus our thoughts on how wretched we are, but this would be a travesty, for Paul continues by writing, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” ( ESV).

Paul desired that we move on from the shame and guilt that come in our failure to meet up to the law and instead look to the hope that is found in Christ.

So then, I desire that we get to the hope that we find in Christ, but ...

Purpose Statement.

We will only fully appreciate God’s grace once we have wrestled with the reality of our sinfulness.

We are devastatingly sinful (9:4-6).

Their sin was his sin.

As I consider the following verse, I see a quality in Daniel’s prayer that is probably atypical.

Daniel includes himself as he admits the guilt of his nation.

“We have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules”().

I am most amazed by the complete selflessness of Daniel in this prayer.

He does not attempt to exclude himself from the rest of sinful Israel.

He accepts the plight of Israel as his own.

He is as concerned if not more concerned for others than he is for himself.

Most of us would probably agree that we live in a self-centered culture.

Many argue that narcissism is at epidemic highs in this social media and selfie driven culture.

We struggle to acknowledge anything negative about ourselves, let alone acknowledging having any part in the weaknesses and sins of others.

Added to this, for believers, is our New Testament perception of a more personalized faith and individualized relationship with God.

As a result we may at times find ourselves content with our own spiritual strength and be dismissive of Christian brothers and sisters around us.

We may hurt for them and pray for them, but we don’t necessarily feel any sense of duty or obligation for their sin and brokenness.

Daniel prays to God concerning the sinfulness of his entire nation.

And even though Daniel would not be characterized by the sin of his nation, he included himself as he says, ‘we have sinned.”

Of course we cannot repent for someone else, and we have a different relationship with each other than the Israelites did with one another.

Still, we ought to be concerned about the sin we see in each other’s lives and claim some responsibility in fighting it with them.

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” ().

Our sin is multifaceted.

In verse 5, Daniel uses a number of words to describe sin, and in so doing offers a multifaceted look at our sin.

He begins with the generic and all-encompassing term, sin.

We sinned (missed the mark).

Sin is the reverse of accomplishing the task of reflecting the character of God.

One aspect of glorifying God is that we reflect His character or communicable attributes.

Anything that falls short of accurately reflecting the communicable character of God is sin.

In summary, sin is missing the mark of true godliness.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” ().

Done wrong (twisted and distorted truth).

The nuance we find in this word is that in our sin, we twist or distort the truth.

There as well seems to be an awareness and purposefulness in this type of sin.

The term for “done wrong” seems to deal with the sins of commission.

With these sins there is a purposeful or planned affront to the character or laws of God.

It is this twisting and distorting of truth that we see in the garden with Satan and Eve.

Both of them took God’s words and twisted them to mean something slightly different than what he actually said.

This kind of distortion is what Peter warns against in , “There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.”

Acted wickedly.

As a result of twisting the truth, they have acted wickedly.

The term used here intensifies the grip of sin by viewing the sin as a lifestyle or habit.

It is not that Israel just struggled and at times they sinned and committed iniquity.

They were habitually sinning.

Their lifestyle was characterized by outright sin.

The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament describes this wickedness as “the negative behavior of evil thoughts, words and deeds, a behavior not only contrary to God’s character, but also hostile to the community and which at the same time betrays the inner disharmony and unrest of a man . . .

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Rebelled.

They were rebellious.

They had revolted from the commands of God and they were living consistently in wickedness.

“Whether the rebellion is being spoken of positively or negatively, it is, obvious that what is meant by the term is rebellion in the sense of an attempt to nullify or abrogate a covenant on the part of the vassal.”[2]

In this case, Israel didn’t want to keep up to the expectations God had for them in their covenant relationship.

They rejected his law and ignored his commands.

We do the same thing.

The Word of God directs us as to how we ought to live, and we often don’t really care for those commands and guidelines.

We would prefer to do life our own way.

In so doing, we rebel against the commands of God.

Turning aside.

This term summarizes Israel’s incremental departure from God and the truth.

Over time, Israel slowly turned from God to the point of completely abandoning the truth.

Once we have twisted the truth, resulting in a lifestyle that no longer reflects an appropriate relationship with God, we find ourselves on a different path.

We’ve turned away from walking with God and we find ourselves in a different place, on a different course, a different trajectory.

Rejection of God’s Spokesman.

At these points, God graciously reached out to Israel and called them back to a healthy relationship with him.

He sent prophets to direct them and offer steps to restoration.

They rejected these prophets.