17/07/22 – Daniel 9:10-16 – Daniel’s prayer Pt 2
Daniel 9:10 – 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.
obeyed – to hear; listen to; obey; give heed; consent; grant request. It has the idea of listening and hearing in order to obey, like a teacher telling a student to listen carefully so he doesn’t get it wrong. It often is used to ask God to hear prayers made to Him, yet not in the sense that He should obey us in return, but to take heed of (hearken to) our petitions and to grant them if possible.
Eg “Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant …” (Daniel 9:17)
It is translated “hearkened”
in Daniel 9:6
– 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.
That is, we haven’t paid attention to God’s prophets in order that we might
obey their words.
to walk in his laws – or to live our lives according to His laws. To live their lives in obedience to the commandments of God.
Leviticus 18:5 – Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I [am] the Lord.
Romans 10:5 – For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
God’s prophets were called to serve God by proclaiming God’s message to His people (and, at times, others as well). If God’s people obeyed, then they would be blessed. If they disobeyed, they would be cursed. Moses reminded the Hebrews in the wilderness of this:
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 – 19I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, [and] that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he [is] thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
It was because of their sin, their refusal to hear and obey the messages of His prophets, and their refusal to live according to God’s law, that they were now in captivity in Babylon.
Jeremiah 44:23 – Because
ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the Lord, and have
not obeyed the voice of the Lord, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes,
nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is
happened unto you, as at this day.
Just about
every prophet in the OT exhorted God’s people to obey God rather than seek to
worship other false gods. Moses exhorted them to not even get curious about
other gods but just leave them alone. But they continued to seek false gods.
Deuteronomy 12:29-32 – 29When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from
before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and
thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; 30Take
heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be
destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying,
How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I
do likewise. 31Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every
abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they
done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt
in the fire to their gods. 32What thing soever I command you,
observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
Daniel 9:11 – 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.
transgressed – or passed by; alienated themselves from. They had put God’s law to one side and passed by. They were not walking in the pathways of God’s law, but other pathways instead.
departing – turned aside from. They had transgressed the law by departing (turning away) from it.
It wasn’t just Judah and Benjamin (the 2 southern tribes) who had sinned, but all 12 tribes of Israel that had transgressed God’s law by turning aside from it and walking in other pathways. Therefore God’s curse was poured out (like water being poured out) upon them, with the oath (curse) that was written in the law of Moses, God’s servant, all because they had sinned (missed the way; gone wrong; incurred guilt) from God. That is, they were walking along the wrong pathway because of their disobedience.
Note that “curse” can mean “oath” and “oath” can mean “curse”.
Deuteronomy 28:1-14 defines obedience to the law and its consequent blessings. But Deuteronomy 28:15-68 defines the transgressions of the law and its consequent cursing. Israel could have chosen to obey and be blessed, but they instead chose to disobey (departing from God’s law and walking disobedient pathways) and were now suffering the consequences: the curse of God upon them.
Deuteronomy 28:15 – But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
Jeremiah 42:18 – For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.
Daniel 9:12 – 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.
hath confirmed – or has established; has carried out.
spake against us – or promised against us.
God has carried out what he promised (threatened) to do (that is, send them into captivity). He has promised (threatened) this to (against) the general population and also to (against) their judges (magistrates; law-givers; rulers; governors); these judges not only failed to provide true justice but in many cases were using their positions of authority to satisfy their own desires. Like many of the prophets, Isaiah had something to say about the corrupt justice of the leaders and judges.
Isaiah 1:23 – Thy
princes [are] rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth
gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not
the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
He has carried out His judgments against them by bringing upon His people great evil (distress; misery; injury; calamity; adversity).
And God is righteous in all this (note Vs 14 below) because Moses gave them a choice: obey and be blessed; disobey and be cursed.
Deuteronomy 30:19 – I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
And all (all people for all time) will face God in judgment one day and then the consequences will not be just for a few years but for eternity.
2 Corinthians 5:10 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad.
for under the whole heaven – Daniel is speaking as one who cannot imagine anything worse than what his people have endured for the past almost 70 years. No doubt things could have been worse. The people of Israel have been killed, persecuted, taken into captivity, treated like slaves, and Daniel is finding it hard to imagine how things could be any worse. But there would have been other heartaches for other nations; Jerusalem would not have had a monopoly on misery and suffering. Daniel no doubt is using colourful and emotive, even exaggerated language to express his extreme feelings about his people.
Daniel 9:13 – 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.
It was the whole law of Moses they had to obey, not just some of it. Failing in one point was to fail in all.
James 2:10 – For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one [point], he is guilty of all.
There was no point to doing just some of the law, because no amount of obedience could offset the disobediences.
evil – distress; misery; injury; calamity; adversity – as used in Vs 12 above.
“This evil (the curse that have been poured out upon us – Vs 11 above), all of it has indeed come upon us as promised by God in His law (as given by Moses) for our disobedience. Yet, in spite of God’s threats and words from His prophets, we did not humble ourselves and pray as per 2 Chronicles 7:14 – If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. We did not make any effort to understand God’s truth!”
“It was written in the law of Moses that this evil (the captivity) would come upon us if we failed to obey the Lord God, yet in spite of our disobedience of the law, we have not come before God to confess our sins (to obtain forgiveness).”
There is still the same requirement for God’s people to obey God today or be chastened according to His word.
Hebrews 12:5-7; 11 – 5And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My
son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of him: 6For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.7If
ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth
not?
11Now no chastening for the present seemeth
to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them
which are exercised thereby.
1 John 1:9-10 – 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
“We did not turn from our iniquities and made little or no effort to understand God’s truth.” That is, their sin was a higher priority than worshipping God!
Deuteronomy 30:1 – And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call [them] to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee,
Note 2 Chronicles 7:14 – If my people, which
are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and
turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land.
Daniel 9:14 – Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God [is] righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
“Therefore the Lord has watched upon (been alert to; been vigilant to) this evil; He has not ignored it. He has brought it (brought it to pass) upon us, not because He is unjust, but because He is righteous and therefore perfectly just. He has made us suffer the consequences of our evil, because the Lord our God is righteous (just; lawful) in all His works (in everything He does); He does not punish anyone unjustly, for all have sinned; all have broken God’s law, and fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23); and the iniquity of us (which condemns us all to death – Romans 6:23) all has been laid on Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53:6).”
for we obeyed not his voice – or we have not hearkened unto His voice – note “Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name” (Daniel 9:6) (where “hearkened” is the same word used for “obeyed” in Vs 14 above)
Note that in Daniel’s prayer he twice states (Daniel 9:6&10) that they have not hearkened to (obeyed) the words of God’s servants the prophets.
Daniel 9:10 – 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. The point is being made very clearly that they could not possibly claim ignorance of God’s word because, in fact, they should have known God’s word, having being told it over and over by God’s servants the prophets, so must have deliberately ignored it. Thus their disobedience was an act of the will. Note “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth …” (Hebrews 10:26)
Daniel 9:15 – 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.
hast gotten – or “has made” or “has accomplished”
hast gotten thee renown – literally “has made You a name (for yourself)”. That is, by taking your people out of Egypt You have gained a (good) reputation (probably among the nations) for yourself; You have made a name for yourself.
Exodus 14:18 – And the Egyptians shall know that I [am] the Lord, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.
at this day – or probably “at that time”
“And now, O Lord our God, You who have brought your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, getting You renown (gaining a good reputation; making a name for yourself among the nations) at that time; it is to You that we confess our sin, that we have done wicked things.”
Daniel is mindful of just how much God has done for them, and that His people should never forget what great things God has done for them.
To God be the glory, great
things He hath done,
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life our redemption to win,
And opened the life-gate that all may go in.
God has done great things for His people.
Psalm 126:1-6 – 1When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. 2Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them. 3The Lord hath done great things for us; [whereof] we are glad. 4Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. 5They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 6He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves [with him].
Isaiah 63:7-11 – 7I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, [and] the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses. 8For he said, Surely they [are] my people, children [that] will not lie: so he was their Saviour. 9In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. 10But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, [and] he fought against them. 11Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, [and] his people, [saying], Where [is] he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where [is] he that put his holy Spirit within him?
It is because God has done so much for us that we must confess our unrighteousness (our sin and wickedness) to Him.
1 Kings 8:46-51 – 46If they sin against thee, (for [there is] no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near; 47[Yet] if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; 48And [so] return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name: 49Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, 50And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them: 51For they [be] thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:
Daniel 9:16 – O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury 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] about us.
reproach – reproach; scorn; shame;
disgrace
Note “confusion of faces”
(Daniel 9:7)
and “confusion of face” (Daniel 9:8)
where both phrases refer to the shamefulness of their wicked behaviour. In a
way “reproach” refers to this same idea: that
because of their sin and iniquities, they have become a shame rather than a
glory to God. Instead of glorifying God with their lives, they have become a
shame which can be seen by all those around them. The same can happen to
Christians today. We are admonished to be ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20),
depicting Him positively to a needy world around us, but what sort of
ambassadors are we if we break rules and set a bad (negative) example of
obedience to God? How often have I seen an allegedly Christian driver speeding
heedlessly through a carpark, with people jumping out of the way to escape
being run over? So often Christians are a shame to God rather than a glory!
Daniel pleads with God to forgive their iniquities
(if they turn away from it, of course), and to remove their shame (reproach).
Of course, such shame results from their sin, and it is the turning away from
their sin that will remove that reproach (shame). People should look at God’s
people and see the glory of God in them. Moses’ face shone with the glory of
God (Exodus 34:30).
Righteousness
means that God is perfectly justified in punishing us for our sins against Him.
No-one ever is punished without due cause. But it also has the idea of being
right with His people here, that because Jerusalem is on His holy
mountain (Psalm 48:1-2), and His
people are called by His name.
2 Chronicles 7:14 – If my people, which
are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and
turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin, and will heal their land.
Daniel
acknowledges that they have sinned and that God was righteous (perfectly
justified in doing so; He had every right to do as He did) when He turned His
anger and fury against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And, this sin was not of
just this generation that had been sent into captivity at Babylon, but also
because of the iniquities of many generations before now (“our fathers”).
“O Lord,
according to your righteousness, I plead with You to now turn your anger and
fury away from your city (and people) Jerusalem and your holy mountain. Because
of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are a
reproach to all others around us. We, your people, are called by your name to
be your people, yet our sin causes those about us to mock your name; we have
brought reproach upon You, Lord.”
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