Daniel Prays For The People
December 4, 2019
Commentary
At this time, Daniel was an old man, nearing ninety years of age. He had served through many changes of dynasty in the kingdom of Babylon, having been the prime minister of the kingdom under three successive kings. As the account tells us in the opening verses, he is reading the Scriptures to find out what God is going to do (vv. 1-3). Daniel was reading from the book of Jeremiah the prophet and realized that almost seventy years had gone by since Israel had been taken captive, yet there was no sign that the Israelites in Babylon were at all interested in returning to Israel. They were treated with great respect by the Babylonians, who allowed them a great deal of freedom. In fact, we know from other accounts that they had settled down and had started businesses. They had been sheep-keepers in the land of Israel, but they became shop-keepers in Babylon. Some of them had gone into business so these people were not at all interested in going back to the desolations and ruins of Jerusalem. For this reason, Daniel and some of his companions fasted and covered themselves with sackcloth, in the Hebrew manner of expressing their mourning, and began to pray.
As he prayed he fasted (v. 4), confessed his sins (v. 5), and pleaded that God would reveal his will (vv. 6-10). He prayed with complete surrender to God and with complete openness to what God was saying to him. The captives from Judah had rebelled against God. Their sins had led to their captivity, but God is merciful even to rebels, if they confess their sins and return to Him. God had sent many prophets to speak to his people through the years, but their messages had been ignored. The truth was too painful to hear. Daniel tells the Lord He has merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against you and rejected your teachings that came to us from your servants the prophets.
Application
Daniel knew how to pray. When I pray I need to come to God with complete openness, vulnerability and honesty like Daniel did. Attitude is very important.
Daniel 9:1– 10 (NET)
1 In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, who was of Median descent and who had been appointed king over the Babylonian empire— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, came to understand from the sacred books that the number of years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem, which had come as the Lord’s message to the prophet Jeremiah, would be 70 years. 3 So I turned my attention to the Lord God to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God, confessing in this way:
5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, and to all the inhabitants of the land as well.
7 “You are righteous, O Lord, but we are humiliated this day —the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. 8 O Lord, we have been humiliated —our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors—because we have sinned against you. 9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. 10 We have not obeyed the Lord our God by living according to his laws that he set before us through his servants the prophets.
Illustration: I Wasn’t Praying to You Mr President
The story goes that one time when Bill Moyers was a special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, he was asked to say grace before a meal in the family quarters of the White House. As Moyers began praying softly, the President interrupted him with “Speak up, Bill! Speak up!” The former Baptist minister from east Texas stopped in mid-sentence and without looking up replied steadily, “I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.” (Don Oberdorfer in the Reader’s Digest).