Introduction
Some of the chapters
in this book of Daniel are not in
chronological order. For example,
Daniel 7 occurred chronologically
before Daniel 6. This point is
mentioned because the prayer recorded
in Daniel 9 occurred during the year
that Daniel was sent to the
lions’ den (Daniel 6). Even
though the prayer recorded in Daniel
9 was left unfinished because of
Gabriel’s unexpected visit, it
was included in the book of Daniel
for at least two reasons:
First, the Bible tells us that God
sent an answer to Daniel while he was
praying. This information assures us
that God hears the prayers of His
children and He responds according to
His infinite wisdom. Second, this
special prayer has been preserved in
the Bible because of its amazing
content. Daniel states many profound
truths in his prayer that everyone
should thoughtfully consider.
Part I
The story in Daniel 9
occurred in 538 B.C. and Daniel knew
the seventy years of captivity were
drawing to a close. He was deeply
concerned about Israel’s release
from captivity and was anxious to
fulfill whatever role the Lord might
want him to play. Therefore, Daniel
turned to the Lord with humility,
fasting and prayer. “In the
first year of Darius the [grand] son
to Ahasuerus, of the seed of the
Medes, which was made king over the
realm of the Chaldeans; In the first
year of his reign I Daniel understood
by the books the number of years,
whereof the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah the prophet, that he would
accomplish seventy years in the
desolations of Jerusalem. And I set
my face unto the Lord God, to seek by
prayer and supplications, with
fasting, and sackcloth, and
ashes.” (Daniel 9:1-3, KJV,
insertion mine)
Commentary on Part I
Consider some of the
concerns and concepts that must have
been in Daniel’s mind before he
began to pray:
- Daniel knew
that god had set the
descendants of Abraham apart
from the other nations for a
glorious purpose. (Exodus
19:4-6; Isaiah 42:6)
- Daniel knew
why his people were captives
in Babylon.
- Daniel knew
that Israel’s
deliverance would have to be
“an act of God.”
- Daniel knew
that God kept vigil,
and He would not forget His
promise to free His people
from captivity. (Exodus
12:42)
- Daniel knew
that God had set a date
for the release of His people
and “the Friday
year” of 536/5 B.C. was
the seventieth year of
captivity.
- Daniel
believed he had been placed
in a high administrative
position to somehow
facilitate the release of his
people, but he did not know
what to do.
Now that some of
Daniel’s concerns have been
identified, carefully examine
Daniel’s confession and prayer:
Part II
“And I prayed
unto the Lord my God, and made my
confession, and said, O Lord, the
great and dreadful God, keeping the
covenant and mercy to them that love
him, and to them that keep his
commandments; We have sinned, and
have committed iniquity, and have
done wickedly, and have rebelled,
even by departing from thy precepts
and from thy judgments: Neither have
we hearkened unto thy servants the
prophets, which spake in thy name to
our kings, our princes and our
fathers, and to all the people of the
land.
“O Lord,
righteousness belongeth unto thee,
but unto us confusion of faces
[shame and embarrassment], as at
this day; to the men of Judah, and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
unto all Israel, that are near, and
that are far off, through all the
countries whither thou hast driven
them, because of their trespass that
they have trespassed against thee. O
Lord, to us belongeth confusion of
face, to our kings, to our princes,
and to our fathers, because we have
sinned against thee. To the Lord our
God belong mercies and
forgiveness’s, though we have
rebelled against him; Neither have we
obeyed the voice of the Lord our God,
to walk in his laws, which he set
before us by his servants the
prophets.
“Yea, all
Israel have transgressed thy law,
even by departing, that they might
not obey thy voice; therefore the
curse is poured upon us, and the oath
that is written in the Law of Moses
the servant of God, because we have
sinned against him. And he hath
confirmed his words, which he spake
against us, and against our judges
that judged us, by bringing upon us a
great evil: for under the whole
heaven hath not been done as hath
been done upon Jerusalem. As it is
written in the law of Moses, all this
evil is come upon us: yet made we not
our prayer before the Lord our God,
that we might turn from our
iniquities, and understand thy
truth.” (Daniel 9:4-13, KJV,
insertion mine)
Commentary on Part II
Daniel’s fasting
and prayer must have been motivated
by three factors. First, fasting is
something we can do when we want God
to consider the intensity of our
heart’s desire. Second, Daniel
humiliated (embarrassed) himself with
sackcloth and ashes to show God that
he was willing to do anything God
wanted him to do to facilitate the
release of his people. Third, Daniel
knew about Solomon’s prayer,
which the Lord confirmed by sending
fire from Heaven when Solomon
dedicated the temple in Jerusalem.
Solomon prayed: “When they [Israel]
sin against you – for there
is no one who does not sin – and
you become angry with them and give
them over to the enemy, who takes
them captive to a land far away or
near; and if they have a change of
heart in the land where they are held
captive, and repent and plead with
you in the land of their captivity
and say, ‘We have sinned, we
have done wrong and acted wickedly;
and if they turn back to you with all
their heart and soul in the land of
their captivity where they were
taken, and pray toward the land you
gave their fathers, toward the city
you have chosen and toward the temple
I have built for your Name; then from
heaven, your dwelling place, hear
their prayer and their pleas, and
uphold their cause. And forgive your
people, who have sinned against
you.” (2 Chronicles 6:36-39,
insertion mine)
Given the content and
eloquent language in Daniel’s
prayer, it is possible that Daniel
prepared this prayer for a specific
worship service. It is also possible
that he prepared this prayer to meet
one of the conditions required for
deliverance! Notice what the Lord had
said when He gave the covenant to
Israel at Sinai: “[If you
rebel against me] You will perish
among the nations; the land of your
enemies will devour you. Those of you
that are left will waste away in the
land of their enemies because of
their sins; also because of their
fathers’ sins they will waste
away. But, if they will
confess their sins and
the sins of their fathers
– their treachery against me and
their hostility toward me, which made
me hostile toward them so that I sent
them into the land of their enemies
– then when their uncircumcised
hearts are humbled and they pay for
their sin, I will remember my
covenant with Jacob and my covenant
with Isaac and my covenant with Isaac
and my covenant with Abraham, and I
will remember the land.” (Leviticus
26:38-42, italics and insertion mine)
Daniel’s prayer
indicates that he well understood the
terms and conditions of the covenant
between Israel and God. Daniel
acknowledged that God had afflicted
Israel with a curse as the covenant
stipulated. Daniel knew that Israel
deserved captivity because of
rebellion. Daniel justified
God’s righteous actions and he
openly confessed that Israel has
insulted God. He prayed, “…
therefore the curse is poured upon
us, and the oath that is written in
the Law of Moses the servant of God,
because we have sinned against him [the
Lord our God].” (Daniel
9:11)
Bilateral Covenant
The curse that God
placed on Israel is difficult for
some people to understand, so some
background information may prove
helpful. God made a unilateral
covenant (a one-sided unconditional
covenant) with Abraham. God promised
Abraham that a) all nations would be
blessed through him, b) his
descendants would be as numerous as
the stars, and c) they would inherit
a specific parcel of land. At the
Exodus, God made a bilateral (a
two-sided or mutually agreed upon)
conditional covenant with Israel, and
it may be summarized with these
words: “If you will be my
people, I will be your God.”
(Leviticus 26:12) However, “if
you chose to love other gods and
rebel against my laws, I will destroy
you.” (Leviticus 26:14-39) The
Bible indicates that God began
destroying Israel with the first
generation that came out of Egypt.
The first generation was put to death
in the wilderness because of
rebellion! The nation of Israel could
uphold their end of the bilateral
covenant only if a majority in Israel
loved and obeyed the Lord. Moses knew
this was a crucial point. In his
farewell address to the second
generation of Israel – the
generation that entered the Promised
Land – he said, “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all
your strength.” (Deuteronomy
6:5) He also wrote, “Do not
seek revenge or bear a grudge against
one of your people, but love your
neighbor as yourself. I am the
Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18)
According to Jesus, these two
commandments were the greatest
commandments spoken by Moses.
(Matthew 22:36-40)
It has been said in
the book that God’s treatment of
Israel is a mirror reflecting how He
deals with all nations. The inverse
of this statement is also true.
Israel’s treatment of God is a
mirror reflecting how the human race
treats God. The carnal nature of
individual Jews made Israel’s
corporate behavior rebellious and
ungrateful. A grateful company of
slaves was willing and eager to enter
into a covenant with God at the base
of Mt. Sinai. However, forty days
later, they were dancing around a
golden calf. After two years, this
same group of people became so
rebellious that God refused to allow
them to enter the Promised Land.
(Numbers 14) God confined that
generation to the wilderness for
forty years so that all of the adults
(except Caleb and Joshua) would die
without receiving what had been
promised to them. (Hebrews 3:10,11)
This is a crucial point. Many people
have wondered, “Why did God deal
so harshly with Israel? Would it have
been easier for Him to abandon Israel
and start over with another nation?
This almost happened. God almost
destroyed Israel when they bowed down
and worshiped the golden calf in the
shadow of Mt. Sinai, but Moses
interceded. (Exodus 32:10) Consider
God’s love. From the beginning,
God foreknew the offspring of Abraham
would fail, so why did He enter into
a covenant with them? This is a
profound point: God does not treat
us on the basis of what He knows the
outcome will be. Instead, God deals
with His subjects on the basis of
love. God loved Abraham and He
did everything a heart of love could
do to accomplish His plans through
Abraham’s children. God wisely
put “a destruction clause”
into His bilateral (two-sided)
conditional covenant with the
offspring of Abraham because God had
made a unilateral covenant (one-sided
non-conditional) with Abraham. In
other words, God unconditionally
promised the patriarch Abraham that his
descendants would inherit a specific
parcel of land. God foreknew that
Abraham’s offspring would rebel
against Him time after time, and the
only way He could fulfill everything
He promised to Abraham was through a
provision in the covenant that would
provide for rebels to be destroyed!
Every time God destroyed Israel, He
started over with a remnant. When
Israel rejected Messiah, God did not
abandon Israel and turn to the
Gentiles. God redefined Israel by
making Gentile believers in Christ
the heirs of Abraham! (Galatians
3:28,29; Ephesians 2) By doing this,
God will be able to fulfill the
unconditional covenant He gave to
Abraham!
Blessing and Curses
God’s bilateral
covenant with Israel was conditional.
The covenant began with “If you
will be my people, I will be your
God.” To motivate Israel to be
faithful to the covenant between
them, God put an important balance
between blessings and curses in the
covenant. This balance mirrors the
two options from which mankind can
choose. Our first option is to love
God, submit to His laws and enjoy His
presence, favor and blessings. Our
second option is to rebel against
God, experience the pleasures of sin
for a short season, and suffer the
consequences of sin and destruction.
(Leviticus 25; Deuteronomy 28;
Ezekiel 18; Romans 8) These are the
only options available to mankind,
because everything in the universe
belongs to God. People who wish to
live forever in God’s kingdom
cannot live in rebellion against God
because God will not tolerate
rebellion in His house. God cast
Lucifer and a third of the angels out
of Heaven because of rebellion, and
God cast Israel out of His favor for
the same reason. (Ezekiel 28:17;
Revelation 12:7-9; Matthew 23:38)
Consider God’s words to Israel: “Follow
my decrees and be careful to obey my
laws, and you will live safely in the
land.” (Leviticus 25:18) “If
in spite of this [a series of
punitive judgments] you still do
not listen to me but continue to be
hostile toward me, then in my anger I
will be hostile toward you, and I
myself will punish you for your sins
seven times over.”
(Leviticus 26:27,28)
God has demonstrated
through Israel’s long history
that perfect laws cannot change a
rebellious heart. (Romans 8:7) God
blessed Israel with His magnificent
laws and promised them every material
benefit if they would follow Him, but
unfortunately, God’s generosity
did not cure their rebellion. Instead
of becoming a conduit through which
God’s blessings could flow to
all the nations around them, Israel
selfishly appropriated God’s
blessings to themselves. However, we
should not condemn Israel too harshly
because every nation has followed the
same path! Remember, Israel’s
treatment of God is a mirror
reflecting how mankind treats God. A
carnal heart can change. The carnal
heart can even do “a good
deed” every now and then, but
good deeds do not transform the
carnal heart into the type of heart
that God wants. The root problem
with the carnal heart is that it
cannot love God and others as much as
it loves itself. Believe it or
not, selfishness and rebellion
against God are genetic! Human beings
are born with the carnal nature. This
is why everyone who wants to be part
of God’s kingdom must be born
again. All sinners’ can
receive a new heart if they surrender
to God’s will. The carnal heart
is self-seeking; therefore, we cannot
joyfully submit to God’s will
until we surrender to His will. If we
surrender daily to go, to be and to
do all that God directs, He will do
something within us that we cannot do
for ourselves. God will transform our
selfish hearts into selfless hearts
through the power of His Spirit. A
loving heart does not think less of
itself; it thinks more of others than
itself. The born-again experience
does not occur in groups of people;
it occurs within the heart of one
individual at a time. Because most
people in Israel did not experience
the new birth, the nation of Israel
corporately failed to reach the
glorious potential that God offered.
Israel’s history indicates that
most people in Israel were constantly
rebellious toward God at any given
time. Israel destroyed the prophets
God sent, and ultimately, God
destroyed His temple and His city
along with two-thirds of His people.
Then He put the survivors in
Babylonian exile for seventy years.
(Ezekiel 5:11,12)
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