Daniel 9:15-19

b. REQUEST

TEXT: Daniel 9:15-19

15

And now O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16

O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, let thine anger and thy wrath, I pray thee, be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are round about us.

17

Now therefore, O our God, hearken unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.

18

O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies sake.

19

O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God, because thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

QUERIES

a.

Why remind God of His mighty work in delivering Israel from Egypt?

b.

Why Daniel's interest in the holy city and the sanctuary?

c.

Why pray all this for thy great mercies sake?

PARAPHRASE

And now, O Lord our God, my petition for my people. You brought great renown to your name when You delivered Your people from Egypt with a display of miraculous power. And now, though we of the captivity have sinned so terribly and are full of wickedness, have mercy and deliver Your people again as before. O Lord, I beseech You, as is befitting Your absolute righteousness and merciful love, withdraw Your wrath from Your city Jerusalem, the city which You consecrated for Your purposes. All the heathen nations round about us speak derogatory things of us and they reproach Your holy Name because Your city lies in ruins as a result of our sins, and sins of our fathers. We deserve our chastening but, I pray that You will hear Your servant's prayer, Lord, and let Your face radiate in benevolence and good-will upon Your sanctified city, restoring it to its former glory only to establish Your glory, O Lord. O my God, bend down Your ear and listen to my plea. Open Your eyes and direct your gaze upon our wretchedness, and see the desolation of the city which is Yours. We do not ask because we deserve anything but simply in order that Your righteousness and mercifulness may be displayed before the nations. O Lord, hear me I plead; O Lord forgive your penitent people I pray; O Lord, act on behalf of Your own gloryYour people and Your city bear Your name and our Love for You cannot bear to hear You reproached because of our humiliation.

COMMENT

Daniel 9:15-19. WE DO NOT PRESENT OUR SUPPLICATIONS BEFORE THEE FOR OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, BUT FOR THY GREAT MERCIES SAKE. This is the key phrase of the entire second half of Daniel's beautiful prayer. The deep humiliation and concern for God's glory must serve as a model for the attitude in all true prayer!

Daniel begins his petition to the Lord in the attitude that above all else he wishes the Lord to act to glorify His Own Holy Name just as He did in His miraculous deliverance of weak, humiliated, sinful Israel from Egypt.

The next concern (Daniel 9:16) is that God withdraw His desolation of the Holy City and Holy Land and Holy People, not from any selfish motive on Daniel's part, but in order that God's righteousness, mercifulness and power may be vindicated before the eye of the heathen world which has taken great delight in mocking Jehovah God and Jehovah's people because of their seeming powerlessness at the heathen's hands.

Daniel 9:17-19 are emphatic repetitions of Daniel's concern that only the glory of God be upheld. Daniel is not concerned that the people be delivered in order to enjoy physical ease and comfort. Daniel is not interested that the people be delivered in order that their wounded pride be avenged. His only interest is that God's holiness and faithfulness be vindicated. After all, sinning man deserves only judgment. If he is delivered at all, it will be entirely due to the very nature of GodHis mercifulness and loving-kindness.

This is the whole point of prayer! God seeks contrition and penitence in prayer in order that He may do for man what He has made up His mind to do for man all along! It is not the eloquence of man's prayers, nor the quantity of them that move God to actionif this were so, answer would come on the basis of merit. It is the attitude! Prayer does not change thingsmen are changed, they are so changed that they are driven to their knees in deep contrition an dependence; and God can then act as He has said He would act, and wants to act, from the beginning of the world. God cannot act to bless any man if that man does not pray, believing, trusting, repenting. It is not God who changesit is man who changes. Man changes and God acts. God also acts when man does not change to conform to His will, but this action (judgment) is simply in accordance with what God has said He will do when man refuses to repent.

Daniel's prayer that God will act in the interest of His Own Perfect Will is as God wishes. God only wants us to be better than we are, but He knows that this can only come as a result of man's seeking to glorify his Creator and Redeemer. So it is that God acts to glorify His Own Name, not out of selfish egotism, but in order to bless His creation and His creatures. One has only to read such passages as Ezekiel 20:9; Ezekiel 20:14; Ezekiel 20:22; Ezekiel 20:44 to understand that God acts for the sake of His Own Name. The inevitable result of God acting to glorify His name is that the man who accepts and acts in accordance with God's way is thereby made a partaker of God's glory (cf. 2 Peter 1:3-4).

And this is the way Jesus taught us to pray, Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. Jesus is our divine example in sacrificing oneself wholly to glorify God (cf. John 17).

In answer to his prayer Daniel receives, not just an interpretation of a phrase in Jeremiah's book, but an unfolding of God's program for the ages, which is in effect this: Not only am I, the Lord, going to fulfill this promise of deliverance after 70 years of captivity, but I am going to fulfill all my promises, and this is the pattern after which they shall be fulfilled (as outlined in the succeeding Daniel 9:20-27).

QUIZ

1.

What is the key phrase of this second part of Daniel's prayer?

2.

What historical action of God does Daniel use as the basis of his prayer?

3.

What is Daniel's main emphasis in his prayer?

4.

Why do we say God does not change but that man must?

5.

What other scripture express the idea that God always acts to glorify His Own Name?

6.

When man, by faith accepts the above premise and acts in accordance with it, what is the inevitable result?

7.

What example do we have to show that glorifying God is our mission?