Daniel 9.15-Daniel Confesses to the Lord That Israel Has Sinned and Acted Wickedly Toward Him
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday November 12, 2013
Daniel: Daniel 9:15-Daniel Confesses to the Lord That Israel Has Sinned and Acted Wickedly Toward Him
Lesson # 270
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 away in all the countries where You have driven them because of their unfaithfulness which they perpetrated against You. 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. 9 My Lord, our God is merciful as well as forgiving even though we have rebelled against Him. 10 Specifically, to our own detriment, we never paid attention to the Lord, our God’s voice by living by means of His laws which He gave in our presence through His servants, the prophets. 11 Indeed, all Israel has transgressed Your law. In other words, they deviated to their own detriment by never paying attention to Your voice. Consequently, the sworn judgment was poured out against us, which was written in the law given to Moses, the servant of the one and only God because we have sinned against Him. 12 Specifically, He carried out His words which He spoke against us as well as against our rulers who ruled us by causing a great disaster to take place against us, which has never taken place under all heaven like what has taken place against Jerusalem. 13 As what is written in the law given to Moses, all this disaster has taken place against us. However, we never sought the Lord’s favor, our God by turning from our iniquity followed by giving heed to His truth. 14 Therefore, the Lord was vigilant concerning this promised disaster in order to cause it take place against us because the Lord, our God is righteous with regards to all His actions, which He has performed. However, to our own detriment, we never paid attention to His voice.” (My translation)
Daniel 9:15 “And now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for Yourself, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have been wicked.” (NASB95)
“And now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand” advances upon and intensifies the previous statement in verse 14 that Israel never paid attention to God’s voice, which was heard through Moses and the Prophets.
It expresses the fact that the unrepentant disobedience of Israel which led to their deportation to Babylon was continuing up to the very moment that Daniel confessed the sin of Israel to God during this intercessory prayer for the remnant in Babylon.
“O Lord” is composed of the noun ʾǎḏō·nāy (אֲדֹנָי) (ad-o-noy´), “Lord” which is modified by the first person singular pronominal suffix ʾǎnî (אֲנִי) (an-ee), which is not translated.
The noun ʾǎḏō·nāy means “Lord” referring to the God of Israel expressing His sovereign authority over Israel and all of creation and that Daniel views himself as inferior and subordinate to the God of Israel.
The noun is modified by the first person singular pronominal suffix ʾǎnî, which means “my” since it is functioning as a possessive personal referring of course to Daniel and expresses the personal covenant relationship between Daniel and the God of Israel.
“Our God” is expressing the fact that he is identifying himself with the nation of Israel in order to intercede on her behalf with God.
“With a mighty hand” is referring to the exercise of the God of Israel’s omnipotence.
“And have made a name for Yourself” presents the result of the previous statement that the Lord caused His people Israel to be brought out from Egypt by means of great power.
“As it is this day” is referring to the point in history when Daniel was offering up this intercessory prayer to the God of Israel on behalf of the Jewish exiles in Babylon in 539 B.C.
“We have sinned” refers to the nation of Israel sinning against God in the sense that they were guilty of disobeying the various commands and prohibitions in the law which were given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
“We” is expressing the fact that Daniel was identifying with his fellow countrymen as though he were personally responsible for sinning against God, which he was not.
“We have been wicked” denotes that Israel violated God’s holy standards by disobeying His laws which reflect these holy standards so that they were chargeable with a crime and deserving of punishment from God.
Daniel 9:15 “Indeed, now my Lord, our God who caused Your people to be brought out from Egypt by means of great power so that You made a name for Yourself as to this day, we have sinned, we have acted wickedly.” (My translation)
The statements “we have sinned, we have acted wickedly” in verse 15 are connected to the last statement in verse 14.
These statements are not connected to the relative pronoun clause “who caused Your people to be brought out from Egypt by means of great power so that You made a name for Yourself as to this day.”
Therefore, the advancement and intensification is that Daniel goes from acknowledging to God that Israel never paid attention to His voice to presenting the implication of this acknowledgement, namely that Israel sinned and acted wickedly by never paying attention to His voice.
Daniel describes his God, who is the God of Israel as causing His people Israel to be brought out from Egypt by means of great power so that He made a name for Himself which endured up to the time Daniel offered up this intercessory prayer for the Jewish exiles.
The reason for this relative pronoun clause is that he is appealing to God to once again demonstrate His great power by causing the Jewish exiles in Babylon to be brought back to the land, which He promised to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
In fact, the prepositional phrase “by means of great power” b ḥǎzā·qā(h)ʹ yāḏʹ (בְּיָ֣ד חֲזָקָ֔ה) in Daniel 9:15 also appears in Exodus 3:19, 13:9, Deuteronomy 5:15, 6:21, 7:8, 9:26 and 26:8 where it is used of the exercise of God’s omnipotence in bringing the Israelites out from Egypt.
It also appears in Ezekiel 20:33-34 for the exercise of God’s omnipotence in bringing the Israelites to the land of Israel from the various nations in which they were scattered because of God’s judgment of the nation.
In the same way God was glorified by delivering the Israelites out from Egypt, so Daniel is requesting that God do this again by delivering the Jewish exiles from Babylon and bringing them back to the land of Israel.
In other words, Daniel appeals to God’s deliverance from Egypt in the past as a backdrop for the future restoration of the Jewish exiles in Babylon to the land of Israel.
Daniel’s intercessory prayer on behalf of the Jewish exiles in Babylon is imitating Moses’ intercessory prayer on behalf of the idolatrous Exodus generation (Exodus 32).
Like Moses, Daniel is very humble since like Moses, Daniel’s intercessory prayer reveals great humility in that his ultimate objective for delivering Israel was the glorification of God.
It revealed Daniel’s deep humility in that he put the children of Israel ahead of himself.
The intercessory prayer of Daniel revealed his deep humility in that it revealed the depth of his knowledge of the Lord’s character and His ways.
Thus, humility is a prerequisite for a productive and effective intercessory prayer ministry.
A humble person can pray effectively for others since He knows the Lord and His ways, he puts others ahead of himself and his ultimate objective is the glory of God.
The intercessory prayer of Daniel was according to the will of God since his prayer was answered because it appealed to the glory of God.
God’s will is to be glorified and He is glorified by extending mercy and forgiveness to those who have disobeyed and rebelled against Him.
Thus the intercessory prayer of Daniel on behalf of Israel appealed to the will of God since by forgiving the Jewish exiles in Babylon and bringing them back from exile to the land of Israel and demonstrating unconditional love towards Israel, His glory would be manifested to Israel, and the nations throughout the entire world.
Intercessory prayer for others is an expression of the love of God and thus by praying for his fellow Jews, Daniel was expressing the love of God.
Realizing the gravity of having broken their covenant relationship with the Lord, Daniel engages in intercessory prayer and fasted.
He was in close, intimate fellowship with the Lord at this time and accepted the prophecy of Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10-14 as an invitation to personally identify with his people and plead their cause in prayer.
True spiritual leaders are willing to identify with and serve the people they lead.