In Daniel chapter 9, Daniel prays with great passion and urgency for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. He does so for the praise of God’s glory, not because of people’s righteousness.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode.
This is episode 10 in our Daniel Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled Daniel’s Passionate Prayer for Israel, where we’ll discuss Daniel 9:1-19. I’m Wes Treadway, and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, we’re told in Romans 8, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for.” We could also extend that and say, we don’t know how we ought to pray. What should our motivations be? What words should we use? We don’t know what to do with prayer. We’re instructed again and again in the Bible how significant and important prayer is, but we don’t know how to pray. Well, the way that the Spirit helps us in our weakness among other things, is by the scripture and by scriptural patterns and examples of prayer. And in Daniel 9 we have one of the great paradigm prayers or role model prayers in the entire Bible. Daniel, a holy man, gives us an example of a powerful faith-filled, humble prayer, and we would do well to imitate it.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read verses one through 19 in Daniel 9:
In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans – in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
“To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him.
“He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. Therefore, the LORD has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
“O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem, and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now, therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
Andy, what motivated Daniel’s passionate prayer for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and what does this teach us about the relationship between scripture intake and intercessory prayer?
Andy
Yeah, I think what happened is according to the introduction in this chapter is there’s been a massive change in the world empires, the Babylonian Empire has fallen, and now we’re in the first year of Darius the Mede who was a sub-ruler under Cyrus the Great, the Persian ruler. So, the Medo-Persian Empire has taken over. So, this massive change, and also with the reading that Daniel did from the scroll of Jeremiah, the prophet, he came to realize that according to specific prophecies written in that scroll from Jeremiah, the exile was to last 70 years. And he was counting years, and the time was drawing near, so that motivated him to turn to the Lord in prayer. And so, I think this is an excellent model for us, that we should take our cues and our concepts of prayer, both how to pray, definitely, but also what to pray for from the written word of God.
Wes
Now, verse two speaks of the desolations of Jerusalem, and this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen this word or some variation of it, desolate or desolation. What does the phrase desolation of Jerusalem mean, and why was Daniel so focused on Jerusalem?
Andy
Yeah, the desolation concept is going to be huge at the end of this chapter as we have the abomination of desolation statement, and we’re going to see that again later in the prophecy of Daniel, Daniel 11 and 12. So this is a very significant phrase, but the word desolate or desolation means emptiness. There’s an emptiness. Jerusalem is empty, the temple is empty. And I think Ezekiel the prophet gives us the significant emptiness when the glory of God, sometimes called the shekinah glory, which is just related to dwelling, the dwelling glory, God visibly dwelling in the midst of his people, as we saw during the Exodus with a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, or when the tabernacle was first made with fire, the glory of God entering the tabernacle. And then when Solomon built his temple, the glory of God, also a glory cloud, entered the temple, and no one could enter it.
But then in Ezekiel’s vision, the glory left the temple and left Jerusalem. So basically, at that point, the temple is nothing more than a very beautiful pile of rocks. It was an empty place and then in rushed the Babylonian army and destroyed it. And so, Lamentations begins with Jeremiah the prophet weeping over the city and saying, “How desolate lies the city once so full of people.” So, there’s just a simple physical desolation. People aren’t living there. I mean the walls are broken down, the city’s a pile of rubble. How could you live there? And my guess is there would be some squatters, some people that would live there. Picture Berlin in 1945 or Tokyo in 1945, there’d be people who would crawl in there and live there, but they lived just a click up from an animal level, scrounging for food and water and all that. It was just a horrible situation. And so, it was a desolation and emptiness, but predominantly the desolation has to do with the glory of God having left and these demonically incited forces, the Babylonians, rushing in to destroy.
Wes
What does Daniel’s description of his prayer in verse three teach us about his commitment to prayer?
Andy
Yeah, I think it’s so vital for us to understand Daniel’s personal piety. Central to piety was his holiness, his commitment to holiness. We see it throughout the book of Daniel. Daniel was a holy man. He wasn’t a slave to his appetites. He regularly fasted. We see that throughout the book. And so, when the time came for him to turn away from pleasure, to turn away from food, he would do it. He puts on sackcloth, showing tremendous humbling. Generally, it’s connected with grieving over sin. We also see his piety just in terms of his immersion in the word of God, the scroll of Jeremiah. And we didn’t say anything about it a moment ago, but it’s really quite remarkable. Jeremiah’s scroll would’ve been one of very few that existed on planet earth. This is before the printing press. This is before multiple rapid copies of Scripture could be made.
This is within one human lifetime of Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah was a despised, a hated prophet, but somehow God in his wisdom got at least one copy, probably not the original that had been made by Baruch the scribe but had got at least some copy to the exiles in Babylon. And Daniel being one of the leaders of the Jewish community there ended up getting it. But how he got it or not is not the point. The point is he immersed himself in it and understood its message and then based his prayers on it. So, we see piety and godliness. I think the consistent lesson of church history, lesson of the Scripture is that God hears prayers in proportion to the holiness and obedience of his people.
“I think the consistent lesson of church history, lesson of the Scripture is that God hears prayers in proportion to the holiness and obedience of his people.”
If whoever has my commands and obeys them, Jesus said, he is the one who loves me, and whoever loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love him and manifest or disclose myself to him. Now, fundamental to a powerful, fruitful prayer life is the prior manifestation or disclosing of God’s purposes to the servant of God. We’re not making this thing up. We’re not like flying the airplane of redemptive history here. We don’t know what to do. We can guess, but we don’t know. And so, we have to be led by the wisdom of God, and he does that through Scripture. And so fundamentally, he immerses himself in the word of God and bases his prayer on that.
Wes
It really is a rich picture of the humbling that has taken place as he’s seen himself and his people in light of God’s word as he fasts and adorns himself with sackcloth and ashes. In verse four, we get the beginning of his actual prayer. How does Daniel begin his prayer, and why does he mention God’s faithfulness to his covenant?
Andy
Well, he turns to God, and he begins with worship, with a statement of God’s excellent greatness. And so, you have two conceptions as Daniel in sackcloth and ashes and fasting goes to the Lord and again and again in the prayer confesses the sins of he himself and of his people. Now I tell you, there is no one other than Jesus for whom we have so much information in the Bible and no evident sin, and we never see Daniel do or say anything wrong. But here he confesses sins. He’s a sinner. He’s a sinner saved by grace, and he knows it. He’s very, very humble.
So, a powerful prayer warrior has two conceptions, first and foremost of the infinite majesty and glory and greatness of God and secondly of his own humiliation as a sinner and as a creature. And so, Daniel has that. He’s got both of those. So, he goes to God in a tremendous, humbling, very meek and lowly, but look what he says about God. O God, O Lord, the great and awesome God. So, the infinite majesty of God; he’s the terror-inducing God. He’s a great God, a powerful God, but he’s also a covenant-keeping God. He’s a God who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey him. And so, he’s praying to God on the basis of commitments and covenants he has made to his people.
Wes
It seems like at least a part of the pattern we see in this chapter is a humbling of Daniel and the people of God and an exaltation of God. It moves back and forth it seems, where we get this picture of Daniel in his humility and then his prayer exalting God. But then in verses five and six, he turns again to confession. What does Daniel confess in this prayer, and why does he refer so often to his own and to Israel’s sin throughout this prayer?
Andy
Well, we know that the worst example of prayer that we ever see in the lips of Jesus is the Pharisee and the tax collector parable. And the Pharisee prayed about himself in this manner “I thank you God that I’m not like other people.” Daniel is nothing like that. He’s not exempting himself from anything. He understands, as Romans 9 says, out of the same lump of clay, God makes pottery for noble purpose and some for that are vessels of wrath, and there’s no difference, intrinsic difference between us and others. And so, Daniel understands he’s made of the same stuff as all of the most wicked idolaters and murderers and thieves and covetous individuals and adulterers.
He says, “I’m no different than them.” Even though he has not actually committed those sins, he knows that his heart is the same. He sees that. And so, he says we, we, we, we, not they or Israel, et cetera. We have done this. We have sinned. We have acted wickedly. We have rebelled against you, and we have turned away from your commandments. He confesses these things again and again, and it’s a role model for us. Remember how the tax collector in that parable stood at a distance, would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “Be merciful to me, O God, a sinner.” This is the kind of prayer that God hears.
Wes
Why is the righteousness of God so important, and why does Daniel say that he and all of Israel are covered with shame in verses seven and eight?
Andy
Well, fundamental to the prayer is the holiness and the righteousness of God, a commitment that God has to uphold his own glory, to uphold his own name. This will be the basis of Daniel’s prayer. This is a right definition of righteousness. God’s commitment to himself, God’s commitment to his own character, God’s commitment to his own name. This is the standard that he uses for everything, and he has revealed that standard in the original covenant he made, the Mosaic Covenant. And he has enforced that standard again and again by his covenant lawyers, the prophets who came to Israel, generation after generation and warned the people that they were violating God’s covenants and breaking his laws, And yet they did not listen to those prophets. As Daniel confesses in verse six, “We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings,” our princes and our fathers, and to all the people in the land.
We didn’t listen. As Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.” That’s what they did. But God is righteous, and he is committed to his own standard. He’s committed to his own name. And his name and reputation are in some powerful way linked up with that of the Jewish people. And so similar to Moses’s intercession for sinful Israel, Daniel’s going to take the same approach. The Lord is righteous, but by contrast we are covered in shame. We’re like dipped in moral sewage, we’re disgusting and repulsive. This is who we are. The men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, all Israel, both near and far in all the countries where we’ve been scattered, all over the world, we’re shameful. And in that way we’ve carried your name to all of these distant Gentile lands. And so, it says in Romans 2, “God’s name is blasphemed among the nations because of you.” So, God’s name and reputation are on the line because of the scattering of these sinful Jews who have rebelled against God. And so, Daniel is arguing in that behalf.
Wes
Righteousness is one of the chief characteristics we get of God, but it’s not the only one. Why is it also important that God is merciful and forgiving?
Andy
Yes, in verse nine, the Lord is a merciful and forgiving God even though they have rebelled against him, and this is our great hope. What other hope do we have? If God is not merciful, gracious, compassionate, forgiving, we have no hope because we’ve sinned. Daniel says it openly, we have sinned. It’s done. I mean, that ship has sailed. We’re done. We deserve to die. And if God is not merciful, if God is not gracious, if God does not forgive, we have no hope. And so, we are counting on that mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Now, in the kindness of God, we have far better and greater, infinitely greater display of that mercy and grace and forgiveness than Daniel had because we have the account of the only begotten son of God, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. That is the perfect, final once-for-all display of God’s mercy and forgiveness for sins. But Daniel knew of that in a foreshadowing sort of sense as we’ll discuss later in this chapter.
Wes
Verse 10 really reiterates what you mentioned already about the prophets in verse six, that they’re a sort of delivery mechanism of the word of God, the law of God, the commands of God, to the people of God, warning them that they ought to obey, and of the consequences that come if they do not. According to verses 11 and 12, what is the reason for the destruction of Jerusalem?
Andy
The reason is that they have sinned, that God has brought the righteous punishments that he told them would happen before they ever even entered the promised land in the book of Deuteronomy, in the song of Moses. It’s a prophetic warning ahead of time what would occur if they violated and that they would violate that covenant. They would violate ,and God would bring in Gentile armies to destroy them. And the place where he put his name, he would take that away. And so, the prophets predicted it, and now God has fulfilled it. He did the very thing he said he would do because God is righteous and faithful, and he has fulfilled the words that he spoke. They were not idle words, they were true words, and God has fulfilled it.
“A powerful prayer warrior has two conceptions, first and foremost of the infinite majesty and glory and greatness of God and secondly of his own humiliation as a sinner and as a creature. “
Wes
What additional sin then does Daniel confess in verse 13?
Andy
Despite the fact that this destruction has happened, despite the fact that they are not all completely destroyed because again, it says in Romans, in Isaiah, “If the Lord had not left us a remnant, we would’ve become like Sodom, we would’ve been like Gomorrah.” In other words, God was gracious to allow any of them to survive at all. They were no better than Sodom and Gomorrah. Isaiah the prophet openly calls them Sodom. Listen to me, you rulers of Gomorrah. He calls them Sodom and Gomorrah, you’re no different, commit the same sins, the same idolatries. And yet unlike Sodom and Gomorrah, God left them a remnant. And despite that all of the judgments had been fulfilled, all of the predictions had occurred, God had shown the truthfulness of his word and yet had enabled some of them a remnant to survive scattering them throughout the Babylonian Empire. Despite all of that, they still hadn’t repented. They still were the same. They had not turned to the Lord God in genuine repentance and forgiveness, and actually were continuing to be hard-hearted people.
Wes
In verse 14, Daniel speaks of the Lord being righteous in all the works that he has done because they had not obeyed his voice, essentially reminding them again that this isn’t unjust. That God is doing exactly what he promised would happen if they were to disobey and not keep his covenant. Why does Daniel mention God’s mighty hand in the exodus from Egypt? And how then is the rebuilding of Jerusalem in keeping with all God’s righteous acts?
Andy
Yeah, I want to say something. I want to say it’s really kind of amazing to me as we go through this now, and I’ve been through this chapter many times before, but the terrible contrast here between God and his people, how completely different they are from each other must be a great grief to God because the ultimate end of our salvation is total conformity to the image of Christ, the son of God. That’s where we’re heading, that we won’t be different from God at all except that we’ll be creature and he’ll be creator and he’ll have roles and he’ll have certain attributes that we can never have. But in terms of those communicable attributes, we’ll be perfect in love and mercy and justice and righteousness and all respect.
We’re going to shine like the sun. That’s where we’re headed. But how grievous is it now, how different we are from God? It’s a terrible and a tragic thing, and I think Daniel has a sense of that. Now, in terms of the might and power of God displayed in the past, in the Exodus, he made a name for himself that continues to this very day, and that name is a linking together of the people of God, the Jews and the great acts of God such that Rahab the prostitute, having heard of those mighty acts, trusted in the God of the Jews. So again, that’s part of the problem is God’s name is linked to the sinful, wicked people, but God is every bit as powerful now as ever he was before and Daniel’s about to ask him to do something great.
He’s about to ask him to restore the people back into the promised land, back into Jerusalem and allow the city and indeed the temple itself to be rebuilt. Now, that would be a great work, a mighty work. As a matter of fact, Isaiah said it’s a new work so great that the old work will seem as nothing compared to it, that the work of restoring Zion, restoring the people of God ultimately fulfilled in the new heaven, new earth, and new Jerusalem, that will be greater than anything he ever did with the original exodus. But God is a powerful God, and he can do the great thing that Daniel’s about to ask him to do.
Wes
And it’s an astounding request in light of what you just mentioned, the disparity between the character of the people and the nature of God, but that Daniel makes this request is incredible. In verses 17 and 18 what motive does Daniel give for God to rebuild the city and how does Daniel think that this rebuilding would accomplish those ends?
Andy
Daniel is consistently concerned with the name and the reputation and the glory of God, and so he argues on that basis, “Hear the prayers and petitions of your servant for your sake, O Lord, for your namesake, that mighty name you made that endures to this day. For that namesake, open your eyes and look at the desolation of your sanctuary. Open your eyes and look at the desolation of your city and rebuild your sanctuary and rebuild your city. Restore your people for your namesake.” That is a great prayer.
Wes
What motive does Daniel reject as a motivation for this rebuilding?
Andy
His own righteousness. We do not make this request because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy, that’s why. And so, we come again and again and say, Lord, we know that you’re not impressed. There’s nothing about us that’s impressive, but only by your grace do we come. And we have an even better motive now, and that is we come in the name of Jesus. Jesus is our access to the throne of God. Jesus is the new and living way. In his righteousness we come, in his righteousness and in his name we stand.
When we pray in Jesus’s name we are praying. We should understand that as saying united with Jesus by faith, we stand in his righteousness, his holiness by faith and in that we’re bold to make this request. By the way, I think about the great hymn by Wesley, And Can It Be. I think about “bold I approach the eternal throne.” There’s a boldness here to Daniel. It’s like we’re horrible, we’re dipped in shame, we’re terrible, we’re rebellious, and we’re still rebellious. But despite all of that, I ask you, rebuild your city and rebuild your temple. So that’s pretty amazing. That’s a bold prayer.
Wes
In verse 19, we get Daniel’s final petition. Why should desire for the honor of God’s name always be the central motive of our prayers? And what final thoughts do you have for us on this passage?
Andy
I mean, he ends it in verse 19. He says, “O Lord, listen; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hear and act. For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your name.” That’s what we’ve been saying. Again, it goes to Romans 2:24, “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” speaking to the Jews. That’s a terrible thing. God cares about it more than we ever will.
You’re dragging my name down into the muck. So it is when Christians sin or have some kind of dissensions or factions like in Corinth and all that, that drags God’s name down. Or when they’re wicked and sinful, like that man who had the sexual immorality. And Paul wanted them to expel that wicked man from among them, to protect the name of Christ in the city- for the sake of the name, for your name’s sake, establish Jerusalem, establish the temple, rebuild your city. And so that is a paradigm example. So, what I get out of this is the humility of genuine prayer, the piety, the godliness, but also the ultimate concern for the glory of God and for the name of God. That’s how we should pray.
Wes
Well, this has been episode 10 in our Daniel Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode 11 entitled, The 70 Weeks of Daniel, where we’ll discuss Daniel 9:20-27. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode.
This is episode 10 in our Daniel Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled Daniel’s Passionate Prayer for Israel, where we’ll discuss Daniel 9:1-19. I’m Wes Treadway, and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis. Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, we’re told in Romans 8, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for.” We could also extend that and say, we don’t know how we ought to pray. What should our motivations be? What words should we use? We don’t know what to do with prayer. We’re instructed again and again in the Bible how significant and important prayer is, but we don’t know how to pray. Well, the way that the Spirit helps us in our weakness among other things, is by the scripture and by scriptural patterns and examples of prayer. And in Daniel 9 we have one of the great paradigm prayers or role model prayers in the entire Bible. Daniel, a holy man, gives us an example of a powerful faith-filled, humble prayer, and we would do well to imitate it.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read verses one through 19 in Daniel 9:
In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans – in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years.
Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
“To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him.
“He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. Therefore, the LORD has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
“O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem, and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now, therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
Andy, what motivated Daniel’s passionate prayer for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and what does this teach us about the relationship between scripture intake and intercessory prayer?
Andy
Yeah, I think what happened is according to the introduction in this chapter is there’s been a massive change in the world empires, the Babylonian Empire has fallen, and now we’re in the first year of Darius the Mede who was a sub-ruler under Cyrus the Great, the Persian ruler. So, the Medo-Persian Empire has taken over. So, this massive change, and also with the reading that Daniel did from the scroll of Jeremiah, the prophet, he came to realize that according to specific prophecies written in that scroll from Jeremiah, the exile was to last 70 years. And he was counting years, and the time was drawing near, so that motivated him to turn to the Lord in prayer. And so, I think this is an excellent model for us, that we should take our cues and our concepts of prayer, both how to pray, definitely, but also what to pray for from the written word of God.
Wes
Now, verse two speaks of the desolations of Jerusalem, and this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen this word or some variation of it, desolate or desolation. What does the phrase desolation of Jerusalem mean, and why was Daniel so focused on Jerusalem?
Andy
Yeah, the desolation concept is going to be huge at the end of this chapter as we have the abomination of desolation statement, and we’re going to see that again later in the prophecy of Daniel, Daniel 11 and 12. So this is a very significant phrase, but the word desolate or desolation means emptiness. There’s an emptiness. Jerusalem is empty, the temple is empty. And I think Ezekiel the prophet gives us the significant emptiness when the glory of God, sometimes called the shekinah glory, which is just related to dwelling, the dwelling glory, God visibly dwelling in the midst of his people, as we saw during the Exodus with a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, or when the tabernacle was first made with fire, the glory of God entering the tabernacle. And then when Solomon built his temple, the glory of God, also a glory cloud, entered the temple, and no one could enter it.
But then in Ezekiel’s vision, the glory left the temple and left Jerusalem. So basically, at that point, the temple is nothing more than a very beautiful pile of rocks. It was an empty place and then in rushed the Babylonian army and destroyed it. And so, Lamentations begins with Jeremiah the prophet weeping over the city and saying, “How desolate lies the city once so full of people.” So, there’s just a simple physical desolation. People aren’t living there. I mean the walls are broken down, the city’s a pile of rubble. How could you live there? And my guess is there would be some squatters, some people that would live there. Picture Berlin in 1945 or Tokyo in 1945, there’d be people who would crawl in there and live there, but they lived just a click up from an animal level, scrounging for food and water and all that. It was just a horrible situation. And so, it was a desolation and emptiness, but predominantly the desolation has to do with the glory of God having left and these demonically incited forces, the Babylonians, rushing in to destroy.
Wes
What does Daniel’s description of his prayer in verse three teach us about his commitment to prayer?
Andy
Yeah, I think it’s so vital for us to understand Daniel’s personal piety. Central to piety was his holiness, his commitment to holiness. We see it throughout the book of Daniel. Daniel was a holy man. He wasn’t a slave to his appetites. He regularly fasted. We see that throughout the book. And so, when the time came for him to turn away from pleasure, to turn away from food, he would do it. He puts on sackcloth, showing tremendous humbling. Generally, it’s connected with grieving over sin. We also see his piety just in terms of his immersion in the word of God, the scroll of Jeremiah. And we didn’t say anything about it a moment ago, but it’s really quite remarkable. Jeremiah’s scroll would’ve been one of very few that existed on planet earth. This is before the printing press. This is before multiple rapid copies of Scripture could be made.
This is within one human lifetime of Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah was a despised, a hated prophet, but somehow God in his wisdom got at least one copy, probably not the original that had been made by Baruch the scribe but had got at least some copy to the exiles in Babylon. And Daniel being one of the leaders of the Jewish community there ended up getting it. But how he got it or not is not the point. The point is he immersed himself in it and understood its message and then based his prayers on it. So, we see piety and godliness. I think the consistent lesson of church history, lesson of the Scripture is that God hears prayers in proportion to the holiness and obedience of his people.
“I think the consistent lesson of church history, lesson of the Scripture is that God hears prayers in proportion to the holiness and obedience of his people.”
If whoever has my commands and obeys them, Jesus said, he is the one who loves me, and whoever loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love him and manifest or disclose myself to him. Now, fundamental to a powerful, fruitful prayer life is the prior manifestation or disclosing of God’s purposes to the servant of God. We’re not making this thing up. We’re not like flying the airplane of redemptive history here. We don’t know what to do. We can guess, but we don’t know. And so, we have to be led by the wisdom of God, and he does that through Scripture. And so fundamentally, he immerses himself in the word of God and bases his prayer on that.
Wes
It really is a rich picture of the humbling that has taken place as he’s seen himself and his people in light of God’s word as he fasts and adorns himself with sackcloth and ashes. In verse four, we get the beginning of his actual prayer. How does Daniel begin his prayer, and why does he mention God’s faithfulness to his covenant?
Andy
Well, he turns to God, and he begins with worship, with a statement of God’s excellent greatness. And so, you have two conceptions as Daniel in sackcloth and ashes and fasting goes to the Lord and again and again in the prayer confesses the sins of he himself and of his people. Now I tell you, there is no one other than Jesus for whom we have so much information in the Bible and no evident sin, and we never see Daniel do or say anything wrong. But here he confesses sins. He’s a sinner. He’s a sinner saved by grace, and he knows it. He’s very, very humble.
So, a powerful prayer warrior has two conceptions, first and foremost of the infinite majesty and glory and greatness of God and secondly of his own humiliation as a sinner and as a creature. And so, Daniel has that. He’s got both of those. So, he goes to God in a tremendous, humbling, very meek and lowly, but look what he says about God. O God, O Lord, the great and awesome God. So, the infinite majesty of God; he’s the terror-inducing God. He’s a great God, a powerful God, but he’s also a covenant-keeping God. He’s a God who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey him. And so, he’s praying to God on the basis of commitments and covenants he has made to his people.
Wes
It seems like at least a part of the pattern we see in this chapter is a humbling of Daniel and the people of God and an exaltation of God. It moves back and forth it seems, where we get this picture of Daniel in his humility and then his prayer exalting God. But then in verses five and six, he turns again to confession. What does Daniel confess in this prayer, and why does he refer so often to his own and to Israel’s sin throughout this prayer?
Andy
Well, we know that the worst example of prayer that we ever see in the lips of Jesus is the Pharisee and the tax collector parable. And the Pharisee prayed about himself in this manner “I thank you God that I’m not like other people.” Daniel is nothing like that. He’s not exempting himself from anything. He understands, as Romans 9 says, out of the same lump of clay, God makes pottery for noble purpose and some for that are vessels of wrath, and there’s no difference, intrinsic difference between us and others. And so, Daniel understands he’s made of the same stuff as all of the most wicked idolaters and murderers and thieves and covetous individuals and adulterers.
He says, “I’m no different than them.” Even though he has not actually committed those sins, he knows that his heart is the same. He sees that. And so, he says we, we, we, we, not they or Israel, et cetera. We have done this. We have sinned. We have acted wickedly. We have rebelled against you, and we have turned away from your commandments. He confesses these things again and again, and it’s a role model for us. Remember how the tax collector in that parable stood at a distance, would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “Be merciful to me, O God, a sinner.” This is the kind of prayer that God hears.
Wes
Why is the righteousness of God so important, and why does Daniel say that he and all of Israel are covered with shame in verses seven and eight?
Andy
Well, fundamental to the prayer is the holiness and the righteousness of God, a commitment that God has to uphold his own glory, to uphold his own name. This will be the basis of Daniel’s prayer. This is a right definition of righteousness. God’s commitment to himself, God’s commitment to his own character, God’s commitment to his own name. This is the standard that he uses for everything, and he has revealed that standard in the original covenant he made, the Mosaic Covenant. And he has enforced that standard again and again by his covenant lawyers, the prophets who came to Israel, generation after generation and warned the people that they were violating God’s covenants and breaking his laws, And yet they did not listen to those prophets. As Daniel confesses in verse six, “We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings,” our princes and our fathers, and to all the people in the land.
We didn’t listen. As Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.” That’s what they did. But God is righteous, and he is committed to his own standard. He’s committed to his own name. And his name and reputation are in some powerful way linked up with that of the Jewish people. And so similar to Moses’s intercession for sinful Israel, Daniel’s going to take the same approach. The Lord is righteous, but by contrast we are covered in shame. We’re like dipped in moral sewage, we’re disgusting and repulsive. This is who we are. The men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, all Israel, both near and far in all the countries where we’ve been scattered, all over the world, we’re shameful. And in that way we’ve carried your name to all of these distant Gentile lands. And so, it says in Romans 2, “God’s name is blasphemed among the nations because of you.” So, God’s name and reputation are on the line because of the scattering of these sinful Jews who have rebelled against God. And so, Daniel is arguing in that behalf.
Wes
Righteousness is one of the chief characteristics we get of God, but it’s not the only one. Why is it also important that God is merciful and forgiving?
Andy
Yes, in verse nine, the Lord is a merciful and forgiving God even though they have rebelled against him, and this is our great hope. What other hope do we have? If God is not merciful, gracious, compassionate, forgiving, we have no hope because we’ve sinned. Daniel says it openly, we have sinned. It’s done. I mean, that ship has sailed. We’re done. We deserve to die. And if God is not merciful, if God is not gracious, if God does not forgive, we have no hope. And so, we are counting on that mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Now, in the kindness of God, we have far better and greater, infinitely greater display of that mercy and grace and forgiveness than Daniel had because we have the account of the only begotten son of God, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. That is the perfect, final once-for-all display of God’s mercy and forgiveness for sins. But Daniel knew of that in a foreshadowing sort of sense as we’ll discuss later in this chapter.
Wes
Verse 10 really reiterates what you mentioned already about the prophets in verse six, that they’re a sort of delivery mechanism of the word of God, the law of God, the commands of God, to the people of God, warning them that they ought to obey, and of the consequences that come if they do not. According to verses 11 and 12, what is the reason for the destruction of Jerusalem?
Andy
The reason is that they have sinned, that God has brought the righteous punishments that he told them would happen before they ever even entered the promised land in the book of Deuteronomy, in the song of Moses. It’s a prophetic warning ahead of time what would occur if they violated and that they would violate that covenant. They would violate ,and God would bring in Gentile armies to destroy them. And the place where he put his name, he would take that away. And so, the prophets predicted it, and now God has fulfilled it. He did the very thing he said he would do because God is righteous and faithful, and he has fulfilled the words that he spoke. They were not idle words, they were true words, and God has fulfilled it.
“A powerful prayer warrior has two conceptions, first and foremost of the infinite majesty and glory and greatness of God and secondly of his own humiliation as a sinner and as a creature. “
Wes
What additional sin then does Daniel confess in verse 13?
Andy
Despite the fact that this destruction has happened, despite the fact that they are not all completely destroyed because again, it says in Romans, in Isaiah, “If the Lord had not left us a remnant, we would’ve become like Sodom, we would’ve been like Gomorrah.” In other words, God was gracious to allow any of them to survive at all. They were no better than Sodom and Gomorrah. Isaiah the prophet openly calls them Sodom. Listen to me, you rulers of Gomorrah. He calls them Sodom and Gomorrah, you’re no different, commit the same sins, the same idolatries. And yet unlike Sodom and Gomorrah, God left them a remnant. And despite that all of the judgments had been fulfilled, all of the predictions had occurred, God had shown the truthfulness of his word and yet had enabled some of them a remnant to survive scattering them throughout the Babylonian Empire. Despite all of that, they still hadn’t repented. They still were the same. They had not turned to the Lord God in genuine repentance and forgiveness, and actually were continuing to be hard-hearted people.
Wes
In verse 14, Daniel speaks of the Lord being righteous in all the works that he has done because they had not obeyed his voice, essentially reminding them again that this isn’t unjust. That God is doing exactly what he promised would happen if they were to disobey and not keep his covenant. Why does Daniel mention God’s mighty hand in the exodus from Egypt? And how then is the rebuilding of Jerusalem in keeping with all God’s righteous acts?
Andy
Yeah, I want to say something. I want to say it’s really kind of amazing to me as we go through this now, and I’ve been through this chapter many times before, but the terrible contrast here between God and his people, how completely different they are from each other must be a great grief to God because the ultimate end of our salvation is total conformity to the image of Christ, the son of God. That’s where we’re heading, that we won’t be different from God at all except that we’ll be creature and he’ll be creator and he’ll have roles and he’ll have certain attributes that we can never have. But in terms of those communicable attributes, we’ll be perfect in love and mercy and justice and righteousness and all respect.
We’re going to shine like the sun. That’s where we’re headed. But how grievous is it now, how different we are from God? It’s a terrible and a tragic thing, and I think Daniel has a sense of that. Now, in terms of the might and power of God displayed in the past, in the Exodus, he made a name for himself that continues to this very day, and that name is a linking together of the people of God, the Jews and the great acts of God such that Rahab the prostitute, having heard of those mighty acts, trusted in the God of the Jews. So again, that’s part of the problem is God’s name is linked to the sinful, wicked people, but God is every bit as powerful now as ever he was before and Daniel’s about to ask him to do something great.
He’s about to ask him to restore the people back into the promised land, back into Jerusalem and allow the city and indeed the temple itself to be rebuilt. Now, that would be a great work, a mighty work. As a matter of fact, Isaiah said it’s a new work so great that the old work will seem as nothing compared to it, that the work of restoring Zion, restoring the people of God ultimately fulfilled in the new heaven, new earth, and new Jerusalem, that will be greater than anything he ever did with the original exodus. But God is a powerful God, and he can do the great thing that Daniel’s about to ask him to do.
Wes
And it’s an astounding request in light of what you just mentioned, the disparity between the character of the people and the nature of God, but that Daniel makes this request is incredible. In verses 17 and 18 what motive does Daniel give for God to rebuild the city and how does Daniel think that this rebuilding would accomplish those ends?
Andy
Daniel is consistently concerned with the name and the reputation and the glory of God, and so he argues on that basis, “Hear the prayers and petitions of your servant for your sake, O Lord, for your namesake, that mighty name you made that endures to this day. For that namesake, open your eyes and look at the desolation of your sanctuary. Open your eyes and look at the desolation of your city and rebuild your sanctuary and rebuild your city. Restore your people for your namesake.” That is a great prayer.
Wes
What motive does Daniel reject as a motivation for this rebuilding?
Andy
His own righteousness. We do not make this request because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy, that’s why. And so, we come again and again and say, Lord, we know that you’re not impressed. There’s nothing about us that’s impressive, but only by your grace do we come. And we have an even better motive now, and that is we come in the name of Jesus. Jesus is our access to the throne of God. Jesus is the new and living way. In his righteousness we come, in his righteousness and in his name we stand.
When we pray in Jesus’s name we are praying. We should understand that as saying united with Jesus by faith, we stand in his righteousness, his holiness by faith and in that we’re bold to make this request. By the way, I think about the great hymn by Wesley, And Can It Be. I think about “bold I approach the eternal throne.” There’s a boldness here to Daniel. It’s like we’re horrible, we’re dipped in shame, we’re terrible, we’re rebellious, and we’re still rebellious. But despite all of that, I ask you, rebuild your city and rebuild your temple. So that’s pretty amazing. That’s a bold prayer.
Wes
In verse 19, we get Daniel’s final petition. Why should desire for the honor of God’s name always be the central motive of our prayers? And what final thoughts do you have for us on this passage?
Andy
I mean, he ends it in verse 19. He says, “O Lord, listen; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hear and act. For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your name.” That’s what we’ve been saying. Again, it goes to Romans 2:24, “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” speaking to the Jews. That’s a terrible thing. God cares about it more than we ever will.
You’re dragging my name down into the muck. So it is when Christians sin or have some kind of dissensions or factions like in Corinth and all that, that drags God’s name down. Or when they’re wicked and sinful, like that man who had the sexual immorality. And Paul wanted them to expel that wicked man from among them, to protect the name of Christ in the city- for the sake of the name, for your name’s sake, establish Jerusalem, establish the temple, rebuild your city. And so that is a paradigm example. So, what I get out of this is the humility of genuine prayer, the piety, the godliness, but also the ultimate concern for the glory of God and for the name of God. That’s how we should pray.
Wes
Well, this has been episode 10 in our Daniel Bible study podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for episode 11 entitled, The 70 Weeks of Daniel, where we’ll discuss Daniel 9:20-27. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
