Daniel 9.8-Israel's Kings, Leaders and Ancestors are Publicly Disgrace Because Israel Sinned Against God
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday October 23, 2013
Daniel: Daniel 9:8-Israel’s Kings, Leaders and Ancestors Are Publicly Disgraced Because Israel Sinned Against God
Lesson # 263
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. 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.” (Author’s translation)
Daniel 9:8 “Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You.” (NASB95)
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Daniel is employing the figure of “asyndeton” in order to emphasize Daniel’s statement here in verse 8 that Israel’s kings, leaders and fathers are publicly disgraced because Israel unrepentantly sinned against God.
Daniel uses this figure to express the solemn nature of this statement that he made to the Lord.
The Spirit wants the reader to dwell upon this statement that every class including the aristocracy in Israel was disciplined by God and suffered public disgrace by being exiled to Babylon or Assyria.
“Open shame belongs to us” describes the status or condition of Israel’s kings, leaders and fathers as being humiliated, publicly disgraced, or publicly put to shame because of being exiled to Assyria or Babylon.
“Us” expresses the fact that Daniel is identifying himself with the nation of Israel in order to intercede on her behalf with God.
“O Lord” is the proper noun Yahweh (יהוה) (yeh-ho-vaw´), which is the personal name of God emphasizing that He is the redeemer of mankind and is used in His relationship to His covenants or contracts with men.
This term is the covenant-keeping personal name of God used in connection with man’s salvation and emphasizing the personal relationship that Daniel had with the Lord.
The word is thus emphasizing the “immanency” of God meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of men.
Daniel is using this name to identify to the reader that he wants God to intervene on behalf of the nation of Israel.
“Our kings” is used with reference to the kings of Israel throughout her history up to the Babylon invasions in 605, 597 and 586 B.C.
“Our princes” is referring to both political and military leaders of the nation of Israel throughout her history up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C.
“Our fathers” is referring to those generations of Jews who also rebelled against God but lived before the generation in Israel which was sent into exile by Nebuchadnezzar.
This word refers to the northern kingdom which was exiled in the Assyrian invasion in 721 B.C. as well as the southern kingdom which was exiled to Babylon during the years 605, 597 and 586 B.C.
“Because we have sinned against You” presents the reason why Israel’s kings, leaders and ancestors were publicly disgraced by being exiled to Assyria and Babylon.
The nation of Israel sinned against God in the sense that they were guilty of disobeying the various commands and prohibitions in the law which was given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
This causal clause refers to the corporate sin of the nation of Israel in the sense that they were guilty as a corporate unit of disobeying the various commands and prohibitions in the Mosaic Law, which constituted sin against God and violating His perfect holy standards.
Daniel 9:8 “We are publicly disgraced Lord, to the detriment of our kings, to the detriment of our leaders as well as to the detriment of our ancestors because we have sinned against You.” (My translation)
Daniel emphasizes with the reader and God that every aspect of Israelite society including the aristocracy deserved the discipline they received from God because they all unrepentantly sinned against God.
They were publicly disgraced by being exiled to Assyria and Babylon because they unrepentantly sinned against God.
In other words, they were volitionally responsible.
They were exiled because of their own rebellion and apostasy.
They were to blame for their mess they were in and not God who by sending the prophets was attempting to prevent this calamity from happening to them.
Therefore, we can see that here in Daniel 9:5-8, Daniel vindicated God and his indicting and charging his fellow countrymen with a crime of being adulterous in their relationship with the Lord.
God was completely justified in severely disciplining both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel by sending them all into exile in Assyria and Babylon.
The word “unrepentant” means that Israel did not confess their sins to be restored to fellowship and did not obey God to maintain that fellowship.
Those who were disciplined were in apostasy and were habitually out of fellowship with God.
All believers including Daniel sin.
However the difference between Daniel and his fellow countrymen is that when he sinned, he confessed it to be restored to fellowship with God and then he obeyed God to maintain that fellowship.
This was an habitual activity on the part of Daniel.
His fellow countrymen had no respect for God like Daniel and did not imitate his example.
Daniel 9:5-8 teaches that God is the judge of all nations including Israel.
It also reveals that He is not only sovereign over the nations but also Israel, His chosen people.
God is not only sovereign over the nations including Israel raising up insignificant nations and tribes like Israel to superpower status but He also judges nations like Israel by handing them over to other nations (cf. Daniel 2:21; Isaiah 40:15, 17).
God uses evil nations to destroy other evil nations.
Thus, God uses evil against itself.
God used evil idolatrous nations like Assyria and Babylon in order to judge Israel who like these two nations was evil and an idolatrous nation.