Lent day 16

 

Daniel 9

Daniel’s Prayer for His People

1In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes,a a Mede by descent, who was made ruler over the kingdom of the Chaldeansb — 2in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.c 3So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

4And I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed, “O, Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of loving devotiond to those who love Him and keep His commandments, 5we have sinned and done wrong. We have acted wickedly and rebelled. We have turned away from Your commandments and ordinances. 6We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, and fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You. 8O LORD, we are covered with shame—our kings, our leaders, and our fathers—because we have sinned against You.

9To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him 10and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God to walk in His laws, which He set before us through His servants the prophets.

11All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You. 12You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

13Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquities and giving attention to Your truth. 14Therefore the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it upon us. For the LORD our God is righteous in all He does; yet we have not obeyed His voice.

15Now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and who made for Yourself a name renowned to this day, we have sinned; we have acted wickedly. 16O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, I pray that Your anger and wrath may turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all around us.

17So now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, cause Your face to shine upon Your desolate sanctuary. 18Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.

19O 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.”

Only  a couple of things to say today.

1) Daniel knew the scriptures. He read the prophetic words about the captivity of Israel and knew that the time was coming for restoration.  But he didn;t just sit back and think ' Brilliant., I might get to go home soon, God has promised so its all about to happen'.  His response was to plead with God for His word to come true.  I'm sure Ive been as guilty as anyone of hearing a God-promise for my own life or someone elses and just assuming that because its been spoken its going to happen  After all God keeps His promises right?

Well Daniel felt the need to pray hard,  To fast, dress in sackcloth, proclaim, declare and above all repent

2) Of all the people who probably didn't need to repent Daniel was your man.,  Faithful for decades, humble, righteous and yet here he is on his knees on behalf of his wayward people, Daniel doesn't see himself as in any way set apart from the people, his congregation. He sees himself (I think) as only as good as the worst of his people, So he repents wholeheartedly for the nation,

3) He knows who God is. God's character.  God is kind, compassionate, righteous and rescuing.  He reminds God of His faithfulness in the past and begs for His compassion now. All this in the full knowledge that God has already promised to bring back the captives and restore Israel to Jerusalem.  

We need to learn from this. All of God's promises are contingent on our hearts being soft, our lives being righteous and our feet keeping on the path with Jesus.  Just because it says something in the Bible might not mean it is true for us. We receive God's promises by asking for them. In order to ask we need to come. To come we need to positions ourselves correctly with humility and repentance.

Here endeth the lesson

Amen