Daniels Prayer

HBI - As we seek reconciliation with God we must come to the understanding that we need to seek Him in the word of God, through praying through His word and through repentance which leads to deliverance. Prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord.

Intro

The hope for faithfulness in a hostile world. we can have the hope to remain faithful when all seems lost. Daniel had seen a lot of what the end of time was going to look like. It would have been hard for Him to take. With the result of the sin of the people being captivity, confession and repentance was in order. You see we are being told that Jesus is coming back again and we are going to be given one last chance to turn to Him in the meantime. so what is needed is confession, repentance and we can receive deliverance.

But I think we have run to far from the idea of confession. it is a concept that we have run from. About the time that Luther broke off from the Catholic church things started to change. They had taken confession of sin to far one way and over time we have gone in the complete opposite direction. A worship Pastor named Glen Packiam figured this out when He became disillusioned by the songs that where being sung in church that didn't really mean anything. He wanted to tell the story of the gospel through the music sung in church.

Some Christians, however, want to do away with confession. They want everyone to know that God has already forgiven us for everything, so there is no need to ask for forgiveness. In one sense, this is true: God freely offered us forgiveness in Christ. We do not confess because God is withholding forgiveness; we confess because we have been holding onto our own self-determination and self-reliance. Like a person with tightly closed fists, unable to receive a gift, we too easily cling to our own efforts instead of welcoming God’s grace into our lives. Confession is a way to let go. It brings us to the place where we finally admit that our hands are empty. It is in this place that Christ becomes our portion. We do not confess our sin because we hope to find a gracious God; we confess our sin because we know that God is gracious.

Confession is the tension in the story that we’ve been missing. What is the rescue scene without the crisis point that necessitates rescue in the first place? Can you appreciate the relief if you didn’t know the anxiety? Can you celebrate grace without having been brought to your knees? However, confession cannot been thrown into the service like an ingredient in a Crock-Pot. It is meant to be more like a palate-cleansing amuse bouche before the entrée. We can program the service elements like a late-night variety show; or we can arrange it in a story, a gospel narrative that people can enter into and reenact and participate in week after week after week. Historically, the Church has opted for the latter.

we are also to seek to confess our sins that we have committed to one another. This does not mean that we need to tell them all the nitty gritty details. what we are going to go through today is that idea. That in light of the end times that are coming, we need to confess our sins to God and to one another. We need to seek reconciliation with God we must come to the understanding that we need to seek Him in the word of God, through praying through His word and through repentance which leads to deliverance. Prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord.

9:1-10 - Prayer - sin and righteousness

There is so much information here but the idea that we are going to be working through, the main idea of the passage is our response to what we have heard which is confession, repentance and deliverance. Yes it is good to look into the dates and all that, which we will do but that main idea is our response that we see how sinful we are, that we come to the Lord on our knees and seek Him in all that we do. That we are in the word of God and are praying through what we learn.

The hope for faithfulness comes through seeking the Lord God in all that we do, even in the midst of hearing the scary things that are going to come to pass.

the time that this is taking place we are told is near the end of chapter 5 and the beginning of 6. Daniel 9:1

Daniel 9:1 (CSB) 1 In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, a Mede by birth, who was made king over the Chaldean kingdom—

it was during the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede. which places the date at around 538 BC. We meet Daniel, this time not with a vision at first but Daniel was seeking the Lord through His word as to what all this meant that He was seeing. He went back to the words spoken by God through the Prophet Jeremiah. Likely Jeremiah was dead by this point but we do know that He was alive during the beginning of the book of Daniel.

Daniel was confused and needed to seek the Lord so He went to the word of God. What he found out is that Jeremiah prophesied that the desolation of Jeruselam would last for 70 years. Daniel 9:2

Daniel 9:2 (CSB) 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books according to the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be seventy.

so what did Daniel do with this information? he turned to the Lord in prayer. We can learn something from the way Daniel prayed. He did not just pray from the heart but he prayed through the scriptures that He was reading. This is something that I think we do not do often enough. Daniel prayed and confessed from the word of God. verse 4 starts out with a phrase meaning “I beseech you oh Lord”. He starts out similar to how Jesus taught us to pray. WHich in itself Daniel quoted from Neh 9:32

Nehemiah 9:32 (CSB) 32 So now, our God—the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant— do not view lightly all the hardships that have afflicted us, our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets, our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the Assyrian kings until today.

His prayer throughout this passage is all words from the scriptures that He would have been reading since being a child. the focus starts out on our great covenant keeping awe inspiring God.

the focus then in Verse 5 goes from God to the fact that we are all sinners in need of the saving grace of God. Confessing the fact that we are all sinners in need of His forgiveness. Which itself is a quote from Jeremiah, the scripture he had been reading through. it goes from adoration of God to confession that we have not listened, we did not listen to the prophets who warned us and the word of god which reminds us what we have done.

Verse 7-10, taken from Jeremiah 33:16 reminds us that we serve a righteous God. But we are shameful because of what we have done. God is a God of compassion and forgiveness but yet Israel rebelled against God, like we do today and rejected the Lord’s compassion.

9:11-16 - Prayer - Consequences of sin

sin and shame belong to us for what we have done yet the Lord God is a awe-inspiring God, a faithful God who has shown us compassion adn forgiveness even though we do not deserve it. A series of confessions to the Lord God of all we have done.

the next chunk, Verses 11-16 deal with the consequences of sin. again all taken from previous scripture. These are not words prayed from the heart but words prayed through from the word of God asking forgiveness and confessing what sin is in our hearts.

the consequences of the sin of the people of God at this time was the mess that they where in. It was their own faults that they where in captivity. The bible says that now the Lord is patient in His judgement and giving us an opportunity to turn to Him. God is righteous and we are not. But through the blood of Jesus we can be declared as right.

9:17-20 - Prayer - Restoration

The last chunk, Verses 17-20, is a prayer that God would restore Israel to what they once where, that He would make His face to shine upon them again.

our petitions we are reminded are not based on anything we can do or have done, for we are sinful, but rather they are based on the fact that we serve a righteous God who shows us abundant compassion when we turn to Him.

there is so much more here I could focus on, but this is the basis for what we are going to go through next. Jesus died for us while we where yet sinners. His compassion was given to us when we did not deserve it. This is a reminder that we need to be praying through the word of God. and what we are going to go through Next should place within us a sense of urgency to make sure that we approach the Lrod on our knees and make sure we have confessed our sins to Him.

We get another glimpse into what the end is going to look like and know that we either re going to have the goal of eternity with Jesus or eternity in the wrath of God, the choice is yours. The main point not so much what is going to happen but rather our response to what is going to happen.

9:21-27 - 70, 7’s

SO what we have gone through so far shows us that we need to seek the deliverance of God in our lives. We all need to be delivered from sin into righteousness. We all need to come to the understanding That God is God and we are not. We need to confess our sin to God and to those we have wronged. We need to repent of our sin and the Lord promises to deliver us. But the next part is I believe the why we need to do this.

because there will come a day, when the Lord returns. You may not agree with me, But I don't see this next bit as the main point but enforces why we need to seek God through His word, why we need to do all these things. It should add a sense of urgency o our lives and remind us that the Lord God is in control and we can have hope for faithfulness. Daniel was still praying right into the evening and the Lord heard His prayer, even right at the beginning of the prayer and this was the answer the Lord gave Him to the Israelite's question, how log oh Lord? Daniel 9:24

Daniel 9:24 (CSB) 24 Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city— to bring the rebellion to an end, to put a stop to sin, to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.

This prophecy regards the end of time, not just how long Israel will be in captivity for. 70 weeks are decreed. The Hebrew word here for weeks is important to understand. It is not literal weeks but what people call heptads, or periods of time. In this reference it means 70 periods or 7 years. so it is not referring to just over a year but rather it is saying 490 years. It is going to take that long to accomplish 6 things. These things will happen before the Messiah comes to set up His kingdom.

to bring the rebellion to an end (their rebellion against God), to put a stop to sin, to atone for iniquity (cross), to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy (fulfillment of prophecy), and to anoint the most holy place.(the millennial kingdom temple)

Some of these have happened, some of them are yet to happen. Here is where it gets a little tricky though. These 70 groups of 7, or 490 years doesn't seem to be 490 years in a row but are grouped into three separate groups. Daniel 9:25

Daniel 9:25 (CSB) 25 Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until an Anointed One, the ruler, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat, but in difficult times.

we have 7 groups of 7 or 49 years, and then 62 groups of 7 or 434 years. and then the last is in verse 27 which is the last group of 7 or 7 years.

The first 7 heptads is 49 years and goes from when the Israelite's where decreed to go rebuild the temple in the book of Ezra and would go from 457-408 when the rebuild was done as we see prophecied here in 25.

the next 62 heptads or 434 years would then start from 408 BC and would take us to exactly near the end of Jesus ministry when He was crucified. around 27 AD. This is the time it says in verse 26 that the annointed one, the messiah, will be cut off or would die. The end will come quickly, like a flood and many horrible things will happen.

we are told that there would be a last 7 years Daniel 9:27

Daniel 9:27 (CSB) 27 He will make a firm covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and offering. And the abomination of desolation will be on a wing of the temple until the decreed destruction is poured out on the desolator.”

The abomination of desolation, the Antichrist will come and do many horrible things. This is seen as being partially fulfilled in Antiouchus IV Epipheneas but looks forward to a much more horrible time. But we are told this will not last forever, that he will; be destroyed and the messiah will reign once again.

the last Heptad refers to a a time at the end, the last 7 year period before the return of Christ. There will be a covenant made with the people of God, namely the Israelite but the covenant will be broken half way through the 7 years. The A of D will reek havoc on the people of God until He is destroyed by Jesus.

So What?

This is what is going to happen (21-27) in light of that we must seek God through His word, we must be praying through His word we must repent and be delivered from our sin. The main point is not so much the dates and what is going to happen but the fact that all this should motivate us to seek the Lord God in prayer. If you don't know God you need to seek Him, if you do know God you still need to seek Him.

We need to be seeking God through His word

When we are scared and confused and do not know what to do why is it that God is the last person we tend to lean on. We look to the book of Daniel and see what He did when he was confused and scared and trying to figure out what this all meant. He went to the word of God and sought God there. We need to be constantly seeking God through His word, whether we are scared and confused, or whether life is going good we must be seeking God through His word.

We need to be praying through the word of God.

We are told that we need to pray from the heart, that we need to follow our hearts. But sometimes we forget that Jesus taught us how to pray, and it is this same pattern that is followed here by Daniel. The prayer Jesus taught us is not just a pattern for us to use in prayer but a prayer for us to follow. I would encourage you to look through the word of God and as you are going through His word to spend time time praying through his word. The heart is sinful or deals with sinful thoughts and can easily be lead astray. But the word of God can reach through all that and help us seek the will of God.

Confession, Repentance and deliverance

It is my firm belief that the point of this passage is not the dates, though that is important but rather the main point we read in the prayer. Look, this is going to happen we are told. We are going to face hard times, there is a hostile world coming against us, people are going to hate us but Our God wins. What this glimpse of the end of time tells us is that we need to confess our sins, we need to seek repentance and be delivered from our sin. This is what the prophecy tells us. Do not wait till it is to late.