Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Pray

According to Lifeway, spring starts next Sunday, and we will begin our studies in first and second Thessalonians.

If you do not have a copy of the quarterly or would like a digital copy just let me know and Josh or myself will get that to you before next week.

Understand the Context

Today’s passage in Chapter 9 tells us what happen before receiving the third of four visions recorded in the last chapters of Daniel.

Many materials and commentaries have been written about the vision but not nearly as much on the prayer that led up to it.

The first three verses of the chapter give us most of the context we need to begin to understand the reason for this prayer.

Even though Daniel had been exiled for many years by this time his devotion to the things of God had not dwindled.

He was still reading and studying the prophets which in turn prompted the prayer.

He did not just pray, but also changed his routine to mourn over the sin that convicted him while reading.

He was encouraged however that the time of exile was nearly over because of the promises of God that he read in the prophet’s writings (Jer 25:11-12; 29:10) and now comes before God to request He act on those truths.

Explore the Text

Daniel tells us that this prayer is one of confession, yet the beginning of the prayer itself are words of adoration and praise.

If you have done any bible studies with materials written about prayer you probably have come across the acrostic of ACTS - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, & Supplication.

Daniel’s prayer today follows this pattern fairly well, even though the overall theme is mostly about confession.

The confession is not a moralistic, autobiographical catalogue of sins—individual infractions of a legal code—but a confession of the underlying sinfulness that engulfs all mankind and separates us from the holy God.

God is even to be praised for His judgments, by which He awakens repentance (e.g., Ps. 51:4).

So one is not surprised to find praises in penitential contexts, and vice versa (1 Kings 8:33ff.;

Neh.

9:2ff.;

Dan.

9:4ff.).[Vine’s

Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words]

If you look at the verse, in most English Bibles the word Lord at the beginning of the verse and the one at the beginning of the prayer are printed differently.

Several materials pointed out that the first printed in all caps, is God’s covenant name sometimes printed as Yahweh.

This chapter is the only place that this particular name of God is used in Daniel, which is appropriate as that is what the prophet eventually bases his request upon, God’s faithfulness to keep His covenant promises.

Daniel calls God “great and awesome.”

Awesome is one of those words that was overused in the 80’s and makes the modern rendering of “awe inspiring” less meaningful.

The Hebrew word used is more often translated as “feared” which helps bring back the original meaning.

When we take time to stop and think about the vastness and holiness of God, we begin to see just how little of either we are and His greatness overwhelms us, makes us afraid to be in His presence, and we are awestruck when He says “come, I want to hear what you want to say.”

The prophet then acknowledges that God’s “steadfast” love or faithful love is directed toward “those who love” Him.

Two different words for love used here.

Of course, the first love which is of God is stronger and unwavering.

The second is emotional and fickle.

One bible dictionary even listed a definition as “to like.”

The stipulation that Daniel makes though is for those who love and “keep his commandments.”

Jesus had a similar declaration to his disciples (John 14:15).

Thankfully, God’s love toward us is not based on how well we are able to “keep his commandments” and forgiveness is readily available when we do not.

Verse 5 begins Daniel’s confessional part of the prayer.

This is the first of the seven different words that Daniel uses to describe the sin of his people and himself.

Although Daniel had been faithful and unwavering in his devotion to God and His principles throughout the book, he includes himself in all the sins of the people which he is confessing and uses “we” ten times in today’s passage.

As I studied this week, the word studies were a basic overview of hamartiology- or study of sin.

The biblical concept of sin comes from a study of words used in both Testaments for sin.

The terms are numerous, compared to the words for grace in the Bible.

Only three words are needed to express grace (chen and chesed in the Old Testament and charis in the New).

By contrast, there are at least eight basic words for sin in the Old Testament and a dozen in the New.

[Ryrie, Charles Caldwell]

Eight basic words for sin in the Old Testament

[Ryrie, Charles Caldwell.

Basic Theology: A Popular Systematic Guide to Understanding Biblical Truth]

bad, calamity (Genesis 38:7; Dan 9:12-14) 7451.

רַע‎ raʿ

wickedness (Exodus 2:13;Dan 9:5, 15) 7563.

רָשָׁע‎ rāšāʿ

guilt (Hosea 4:15) 816.

אָשַׁם‎ ʾāšam, אָשֵׁם‎ āšēm

sin (Exodus 20:20, Dan 9:5) 2398.

חֶטְאָה‎ ḥeṭʾāh, חָטָא‎ ḥāṭa

iniquity (I Samuel 3:13; Dan 9:13,16) 5771.

עָוֹן‎ ʿāwōn

err, to sin unintentionally (Isaiah 28:7) 7686.

שָׁגָה‎ šag̱āh

wander away (Ezekiel 48:11) 8582.

תָּעָה‎ tāʿāh

transgression, rebellion (I Kings 8:50).

6588.

פֶּשַׁע‎ pešaʿ

Daniel in our passage today uses 3 more.

rebel (Gen 14:4; Dan 9:5) 4775.

מָרַד‎ māraḏ

treachery, breach of faith (Lev 5:15, Dan 9:7) 4604.

מַעַל‎ maʿal

transgressed (Dan 9:11) 5674.

עָבַר‎ ʿāḇar

Daniel starts his confession with the word most often used in the Hebrew Bible to convey sin.

The word is translated in our passage all four times as “sinned” (Dan 9:5, 8, 11, 15).

The basic meaning of this verb is illustrated in Judg.

20:16: There were 700 left-handed Benjamite soldiers who “could sling stones at a hair breadth, and not miss.”

The meaning is extended in Prov.

19:2: “He who makes haste with his feet misses the way” (rsv, niv, kjv nasb, “sinneth”) [Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words]

Next Daniel acknowledge that he and the people have “acted wickedly”.

In the simple stem, this verb means to be or to become guilty.

[The complete word study dictionary: Old Testament].

If the sin is us missing the mark, this is the judge declaring how far off the mark we are.

Then confession is made for the people rebelling and “turning aside”.

These terms are linked in their context and sentence structure which entwines their meanings together.

The word translated as rebelled usually describes the activity of resisting authority, whether against the Lord (Num.

14:9; Dan.

9:9) or against human kings (Gen.

14:4; Neh.

2:19) [The complete word study dictionary: Old Testament].

This is different than the one of the primary words of sin translated used later in the chapter (Dan 9:24) as the finishing of the “transgression” requiring the seventy weeks of exile.

There it is referring to the final penalty of sin being paid for by the Anointed One.

But Daniel is using the word to denote the intentional resistance to God’s authority and how it had continued for the 490 years requiring the exile for which he was praying to end.

It is no coincidence that the first three verbs in this verse parallel those in Solomon’s prayer when he dedicated the temple to Yahweh, because the wise king stipulated that should his people go into exile, and there repent, they should say, “We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly.”

(1 Kgs.

8:47) [Understanding the Bible Commentary Series.]

Not only does Daniel confess the sins that the people made against God’s written laws, but also against those He sent to speak His words of truth to the people and the leaders.

The word listen is translated as hear in Deut 6:4 and is the word used as a reference to that foundational Hebrew passage; shema.

In our passage the modifying adverb before it puts in the negative.