Daniel 9.7-Daniel Acknowledges God's Righteousness in Disciplining Unfaithful Israel
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday October 22, 2013
Daniel: Daniel 9:7-Daniel Acknowledges God’s Righteousness in Disciplining Unfaithful Israel
Lesson # 262
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 9:1.
Daniel 9:1 During Darius’ first year, Ahasuerus’ son, who was from Median descent, who was made king over the Chaldeans’ kingdom- 2 during the first year of his reign, I myself, Daniel understood by means of the scrolls the specific number of years which the word of the Lord communicated to Jeremiah the prophet for completing devastating Jerusalem-seventy years. 3 Therefore, I devoted my full attention to my Lord, the one and only God by repeatedly presenting prayer request in the form of pleas for mercy while fasting with sackcloth as well as ashes. 4 Indeed, I caused myself to enter into prayer to the Lord my God. Specifically, I caused myself to enter into confession and said, “O my Lord, the one and only God, the Great One yes the Awesome One, who is faithful to His covenant because of His unconditional love on behalf of those who love Him, namely on behalf of those who conscientiously observe His commands, 5 we have sinned, thus we have done wrong so that we have been condemned as guilty because we have rebelled. Specifically we have deviated from Your commands, that is, from Your laws. 6 Furthermore, to our own detriment, we never paid attention to Your servants, the prophets who spoke by Your authority to and for the benefit of our kings as well as our leaders and in addition our ancestors, yes, to and for the benefit of all the people belonging to the land.” (Author’s translation)
Daniel 9:7 “Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You.” (NASB95)
“Righteousness” is the noun ṣeḏā·qā(h) (צְדָקָה) (tsed-aw-kaw´), which refers to an attribute of God which describes His relationship to both Israel and the Gentiles.
The word refers to God’s perfect integrity in that His character is perfectly sound, perfectly adhering to His own perfect holy standards and what He promises to men.
It describes God as always fulfilling His covenantal obligations with regards to Israel which stands in stark contrast with Israel’s failure to meet her covenantal obligations with regards to God.
This noun refers to the Trinity’s perfect integrity in that their character is upright, honest, perfectly whole, undiminished, sound, unimpaired and in perfect condition.
It signifies the Trinity’s perfect virtue in that their character is perfect moral excellence, goodness, and their conduct is conformed perfectly to their own perfect holy standards and what they have promised to men or group of people like Israel and the church.
“Belongs to You” expresses the fact that righteousness belongs to the God of Israel or in other words, Daniel is saying that “You are righteous.”
“O Lord” is expressing the sovereignty authority over Israel and all of creation and expresses the personal covenant relationship between Daniel and the God of Israel.
“But to us open shame, as it is this day” is presenting a contrast between God’s covenantal faithfulness and Israel’s unfaithfulness and describing the status or condition of Israel’s exilic community in Babylon as being publicly disgraced.
“To the men of Judah” refers to the southern kingdom of Israel indicating that it was to the detriment or to the disgrace of the Judean people that they were publicly disgraced as a result of being exiled to Babylon.
“The inhabitants of Jerusalem” indicates that it was to the detriment or to the disgrace of the Jerusalem’s inhabitants that they were publicly disgraced as a result of being exiled to Babylon.
“All Israel” refers to the northern kingdom of Israel which were carried off by the Assyrians in 721 B.C. indicating that it was to the detriment or to the disgrace of all Israel that they were publicly disgraced as a result of being carried off by Assyrian in 721 B.C.
“Those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them” describes those in the northern and southern kingdom of Israel who were exiled.
God forcibly drove the Judean people, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel out of the land He settled them in after delivering them from slavery in Egypt.
God judged both the northern and southern kingdoms by employing the Assyrians and the Babylonians to violently remove the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel from the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
“Because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You” presents the reason why God drove throughout the world the northern and southern kingdoms as well as Jerusalem’s inhabitants.
Both the northern and southern kingdom as well as the inhabitants of Jerusalem violated their legal obligation to the covenant they made with God.
Daniel 9:7 “You are righteous my Lord but we are publicly disgraced as is the case this very day. To the detriment of the Judean people as well as to the detriment of Jerusalem’s inhabitants likewise to the detriment of all Israel, those nearby as well as those far way in all the countries where You have driven them because of their unfaithfulness which they perpetrated against You.” (My translation)
Daniel continues his intercessory prayer to the God of Israel on behalf of Israel by acknowledging that God is righteous and by acknowledging that God is righteous, Daniel is clearing God of any guilt with regards to His relationship with Israel.
He is acknowledging that God has been faithful since He always did right by the Israelites and always kept His covenantal obligations in His relationship with Israel.
In contrast to God, Daniel acknowledges Israel’s unfaithfulness with regards to their covenantal obligations with God.
Daniel says that Israel is publicly disgraced during the time he offered up this prayer to God for Israel.
This public disgrace refers to the Assyrian exile of the northern kingdom in 721 B.C. as well as the Babylonian exile of the southern kingdom in 605, 597 and 586 B.C.
Daniel defines who the “we” is in the phrase “we are publicly disgraced as is the case this very day.”
The first group he identifies is the southern kingdom, which includes the Judean people and Jerusalem’s inhabitants.
Then he mentions the northern kingdom by the phrase “all Israel.”
The northern kingdom was exiled to Assyria and the southern kingdom was exiled to Babylon.
So we can see that in verse 5, Daniel indicts Israel according to their status in society or position in society whereas here in verse 7, he indicts them according to the geographical region they lived in before they were exiled.
Daniel then identifies covenantal unfaithfulness as the reason why both the northern and southern kingdom were disgraced when he offered up this intercessory prayer to God for Israel.
They had been habitually disobedient to the various prohibitions and commands in the Mosaic Law.
So therefore, here in Daniel 9:7, Daniel is telling God and the reader that God was justified in disciplining the northern and southern kingdoms for their disobedience to their covenantal responsibilities.
He acknowledged to God on behalf of Israel that Israel had been justly disciplined by God and exiled throughout the Middle East.
They had justly suffered the covenant curses threatened by God through Moses.
The fact that God did severely discipline the northern and southern kingdoms demonstrated God’s righteousness in the sense that He acted according to His perfect holy standards.
God was righteous in His dealings with the northern and southern kingdoms because by disciplining them through exiling them to Assyria and Babylon, He did what His holy standards required.
They were unrepentant in their disobedience, thus God acted according to what His perfect holy standards required, namely judgment.
Daniel is acknowledging to God that He was in the right and Israel was completely wrong.
Israel was unfaithful and not God.
Paul echoes this in Romans 9-11 which records him defending God’s righteousness in relation to Israel.
In this passage the apostle teaches the Roman Christians that God was faithful and Israel was unfaithful as demonstrated by her rejection of her Messiah, Jesus Christ.
We must remember God extended grace to the nation which expressed His attribute of love.
He demonstrated His love by over and over again sending the prophets to communicate a message from Him that He will judge them if they are unrepentant but would forgive them if they did repent.
He sent these prophets over and over again to turn back Israel to Himself but the majority rejected their message and thus God.
Thus, God disciplined the nation.
So what made Israel’s disgrace so much more shameful is that she rejected God’s compassionate appeals for her to repent.
Undoubtedly when Daniel was offering up his prayer to God he was thinking about Leviticus 26:14-39 and Deuteronomy 28:15-58.
In the latter, God gives Israel two options, namely blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience.