A call to prayer, reading and meditation (Sermon 9)

Date 20 01 02 Text Daniel 9 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

We have considered Daniel under two kings so far – under two Babylonian kings Nebuchadnezzar and under his grandson Belshazzar. Daniel also served under two Medo-Persian kings. In Chapters 9 and 6 we read of two things that happened to him under King Darius the Mede. As is often the case, we don’t know anything about Darius except what we find in the Bible. We are told that he was a Mede by descent and that he was the son of Xerxes {Ahasuerus} and that he was made ruler over the Babylonian {Chaldean} kingdom, presumably by Cyrus the Persian. What we read of in Daniel 9 happened In the first year of Darius. His example here is a clarion call to three basic Christian disciplines – prayer, reading and meditation.

1. A call to read God’s Word

By this time Daniel is probably about 82. We say that because he probably came to Babylon as an exile in 605 BC when he would have been about 14. Some 68 years had now passed, almost the full 70 of the exile period. In this period he has seen the power of Babylon come and go. His own popularity has waxed and then waned and then waxed again so that he was again beginning to be honoured and respected. Through it all, he has remained faithful. Come rain or shine he has continued to look confidently to the Lord. He has continued to trust in him.

As the chapter opens then we can picture this old man with his long white beard – not in the palace or going about his civic duties - but sat at home. There is a lamp on the table, perhaps, and before him he has a great scroll opened and he is pouring over its contents. It is part of Daniel’s Bible. No slimline pocket editions from the Bible Societies in those days. Rather each book of the Old Testament was available only on handwritten scrolls. The scroll Daniel has at this present moment is the prophecy of Jeremiah. When Daniel was a boy back in Judah Jeremiah had been preaching. Perhaps Daniel could remember having heard him preach. As he read from the prophecy perhaps he could picture him in his minds’ eye. As he read from Jeremiah he discovered something quite remarkable that had either escaped his attention previously or came home to him with new force. In verse 2 he tells us how in the first year of Darius I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years. Jeremiah’s prophecy wouldn’t have had chapters or verses then but today we can see that Daniel must have been reading Jeremiah 25:8-11 and especially 29:10-14.

25:8-11 Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, declares the LORD, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.

29:10-14 When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the LORD, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile

Can you imagine Daniel reading this and remembering his childhood days? If you grew up in one place as a child you will know how the memory of it is burned into you with an intensity nothing can match. I grew up in Cwmbran, as you know. Things like the route to the shops or school or chapel, are burned into the retina of my mind with an amazing depth. For Daniel, of course, besides all this, there was the Temple itself and all it meant. We know that he would open his windows and pray towards that temple three times every day. That’s where his heart was. And now he saw that the people of God were going to be returning there in just two years time. The Babylonians had come and gone and God clearly had plans for his people. But what about the calling on God and praying to him? Who was doing this? And so on the basis of what he read Daniel set to praying. Verse 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. Before we turn to his prayer let’s note some lessons found in these 3 verses.

Applications

1. Do not neglect the Word.

2. Look for applications to your situation. They are there – not in the newspaper way some imagine but what we need to know is there.

3. Reading should lead not to complacency but to prayer. Daniel did not say ‘O that’s good, I look forward to it. Rather, he began to pray earnestly for its fulfilment.

2. A call to pray to the Lord

It is interesting that in the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel, in the ninth chapter of each we have a great prayer, one from each of these three great and holy men. In each case, these great prayers have something to teach us about how to go about praying to God in our day. Here in Daniel’s prayer we notice a number of things. Daniel’s prayer is characterised by seven things that ought to characterise our prayers too.

1. Pray with seriousness. Perhaps this goes without saying but there is an attitude about that we can engage in prayer lightly or casually, even with humour. This flies in the face of all we learn in Scripture. Daniel is in utter seriousness as he approaches the throne of grace here. Daniel prayed three times a day at normal times but this was a special season of extended prayer. In verse 3 he says So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. The accompanying actions demonstrated how serious he was.

2. Pray with reverence. Daniel was clearly intimate with God but there is no ‘pallyness’ here. Look how he begins (4) O Lord, the great and awesome God.

3. Pray with penitence. The burden of this prayer is confession. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed he says in verse 4. In verse 20 he refers to speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill. He confesses his own sin and the sins of his people. He identifies with them. We must do the same. Do we?

5-8 We have sinned and done wrong he says We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 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. Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame - the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. O LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you.

4. Pray with submissiveness. He makes no excuses for their guilt. He does not complain. We must do the same. Do we?

10-16 We have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. Therefore the curses and sworn judgements written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favour of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him. Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. … Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

5. Pray with confidence. It is important to notice that though Daniel is very penitent and submissive, he is yet full of confidence in the Lord. We need that blend in our prayers so much. He addresses the Lord not only as awesome but also as the one who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands. In verse 9 we have the same note, The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. The prayer ends with a confident plea to God’s mercy (18, 19)

Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 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.

God is merciful. We cannot presume on that mercy but we can be confident about it.

6. Pray with particularisation. One problem we often have in prayer is that we are not specific enough. Daniel is not like that at all. He is very specific:

16 O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill … 17 Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favour on your desolate sanctuary. 18 … see the desolation of the city that bears your Name … 19 … O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act!

7. Pray with persuasiveness. Finally, note how although Daniel does not make demands as such he is very persuasive. He uses all the arguments he can muster. This also ought to characterise our prayers. Cf 15 Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Note the reminder of who these people were and how God had worked for them in the past. 16 O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill … 17-19 … For your sake, O Lord, look with favour on your desolate sanctuary. … see the desolation of the city that bears your Name … For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name. How often do we pray like that?

3. A call to meditate on the Lord’s future plan

Thirdly, we come to the matter of meditation and especially the call to meditate on God’s future plan. If we really want to pray and read Scripture then meditation or contemplation must go with it. It’s clear here that it was as Daniel meditated and reflected on what he’d read in Jeremiah, as he revolved it in his mind, that it began to sink in that he was near the end of the exile. As he was thinking about these 70 years, God sent Gabriel to him again and he was given something more to reflect on.

In verses 20, 21 he tells us while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice (3 pm).

1. Important general insights. Initially Gabriel says two very interesting things

22 He instructed me and said to me, Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. It as we meditate on God’s Word and pray about it that insight and understanding come. If we simply forget about what we read and don’t pray in the light of it we will have no insight and no proper understanding.

23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Daniel was highly esteemed in heaven. The angels knew about him. Do they know about you? Daniel is assured here that as soon as he started to pray an answer was given. Are you tempted to leave replying to things? Usually it’s best to make an immediate reply and then if there is a delay at least it won’t be so bad. By this time it is afternoon but, we are told, the actual answer was given as soon as Daniel prayed. We do not know the reason for the delay but it assures us that even though answers to prayer may take some time in coming from our point of view the norm is for them to be immediately answered.

2. Important specific insights. Gabriel then goes on to reveal something new to Daniel. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision: he says (24) Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city (Jerusalem). Now we cannot be sure about how to take these sevens but it would seem most likely that each seven stands for approximately seven years and so we are talking about a period of around 490 years. If we take that as starting from the decree of Cyrus in about 535 it brings us to a period just over 40 years before the birth of Christ. There would be a shortfall then but we must take these figures as very round numbers. That it must be the events concerning Christ’s coming that are referred to here is clear.

Gabriel talks about a series of things that are going to happen in this period. These years are decreed

1 To finish transgression and to put an end to sin. There was a day coming Daniel is told when God would deal with transgression and sin. He would bring them to an end. And that is what he has done in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has finished with transgression, he has brought sin to an end. We do not see the completion of the task yet by any means but it is under way. From the cross the words It is finished! have sounded out.

2 To atone for wickedness. More specifically there is a reference to the work of Christ in dying on the cross to atone for the wickedness of men. He has paid the price of atonement by dying as a substitute.

3 To bring in everlasting righteousness. Here is the positive side. He has brought in an eternal righteousness that can be yours through trust in him.

4 To seal up vision and prophecy. When Christ comes then all the visions and prophecies of the Old Testament era will find their fulfilment in him. Revelation will come to an end. It will be sealed up. And that is what happened. Within the first century of Christ’s coming the Scriptures were complete as we have them today, Old and New Testaments. They are not to be subtracted from or added to. They are sufficient for us.

5 To anoint the most holy {one}. How was all this possible? As we’ve been saying, it was through the anointing of the Most Holy One. It was through the Messiah or Christ, who we know is Jesus of Nazareth.

In verses 25-27 Gabriel goes into some more detail about the coming 490 years by dividing it into three unequal sections. There will be three periods

• One of seven ‘sevens’. 25 Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens’, (49 years) and (then) 62 ‘sevens’ (434 years). It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. So the first period will be one of some 49 years. During that period Cyrus would issue his decree for the return of the Jews to the Promised Land. God would raise up Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi to encourage the people. Jerusalem would be rebuilt.
• One of 62 ‘sevens’ 26 After the 62 ‘sevens’ (434 years) – this period is passed over in silence and that is just what it was, a period of silence, what we often call the inter-testamental period when there was no revelation from God until John the Baptist.
• Another ‘seven’ (7 years). The final seven is when
• (26) the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing … The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘7’. The Lord Jesus would bear the wrath of God and be rejected by men. He would set up the new covenant at that time.
• Also (26) The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. 27 … In the middle of the ‘7’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him {it}. The end of the sacrificial system came because he died on the cross – the once for all sacrifice fulfilling the types. With Jerusalem’s overthrow in 70 AD by the Romans under Titus it became impossible. The Romans again set up idols there. It is difficult to be sure about detail but once again we see the accuracy with which Daniel half a millennium before the coming of Messiah is able to see the future so clearly by the grace of God. What a comfort to him to know that sin was going to be dealt with. We are looking, of course, not to the first coming but the second. Sin has been dealt with in part, praise God and there is more to come. It is right that we meditate on God’s Word as we also look to the future which is entirely his hands.