Once again, Daniel is back at the top level of government: when the Persians took over, Darius quickly made Daniel one of the three governors and he was soon recognised as head and shoulders above the other two (Daniel 6). I love this guy. He is hugely gifted, highly educated, a capable leader and administrator, at the peak of his career. But he is also a guy who walks with God and continues loyally to be a part of God's people, to pray every day facing Jerusalem, to immerse himself in the Scriptures... and to face some puzzles.... Like “What's happening Lord?”
This prayer happens because of Scripture and history. Daniel had a copy of a prophecy that was written at the beginning of Judah's exile time, by a guy called Jeremiah. And Jeremiah told God's people that they would be in Babylon for seventy years. Now, those seventy years were running out. Persia had taken over the Babylonian empire – and the end of the exile seemed no nearer. So Daniel sets himself to prayer and fasting. He needs answers, and desperately wants to get himself and his people beyond whatever is blocking them from returning to their own city, Jerusalem.
Mind the gap... Can you see a gap between the faith we read about in Scripture and the Kingdom we experience in our world? Can you see a gap between the Kingdom Jesus brought, and how we live today? Can you see a gap between the Church of Acts 2, and the Church of 2016? We need to pray – with our Bible in one hand and the daily paper, or the church's annual report, in the other.
Scripture, prayer, visions and miracles are part of his life. Here he prays one of the longest prayers set within an Old Testament story. So let’s look at his prayer.
1. It is soaked in Scripture. The Book that helped create the Gap, also fills Daniels prayer about the gap. It informs his awareness of Gods' character and his understanding of why judgement has happened. The Hebrew in this chapter is better better than elsewhere in Daniel – because so much of the prayer is quoted from Scriptures that Daniel had read, and memorised. It's like Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8. The Phrase “My servants the prophets” comes from Jer 26. 5. The law had outlined blessings for those who kept it and curses for those who broke it (Dt 28. 11ff, 15ff) and Daniel well knows how God brought Israel our of Egypt (Ex 13. 3)
Our prayers need to be soaked in the bible... His grasp of the word tells him that what as happening was a result of their turning away from the Lord to worship idols.
2. It confess both corporate and personal sin. Daniel confesses the sins of God's chosen people. But he doesn't say “They have all done this, he says “We have” - ten times in English translation.
we have sinned and done wrong. (v 5)
We have been wicked and have rebelled; (v 5)
we have turned away from your commands (v 5)
We have not listened to your servants the prophets (v 6)
we have sinned against you (v 8, 11)
we have rebelled (v 9)
we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept his laws (v 10, 14)
all this disaster has come, yet we have not sought the favour of the Lord (v 13)
We need as we look at the state of our nation, and our Western world, a world under god's judgement, it's easy to point the finger of blame. “Society has gone far away from god's plan; traditional understanding of decency have been thrown aside, Sunday has become a day for shopping, football and DIY, people are more interested psychics than Jesus.” But it's not enough to point the finger at “the world” we have done it. Alan Donaldson at the BU Assembly on Friday, preached on John 12. 24 “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.” and he said that the reason we struggle with that, is because we have bought into the world's value system. Listen to Harry Emerson Fosdick's prayer, written for a wealthy Baptist Church in New York City in 1930:
Cure your children's warring madness; bend our pride to your control;
shame our wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things and poor in soul.”
And as individuals, even if like Daniel we have tried to be 100% disciples even when others are not, we still need to confess “We have sinned against you.”
3. It's about glory and shame. It desires the removal of shame from God's people (v. 16), for the glory of God (v. 17) Doesn't that ring a bell in 2016? The latest Church statistics (from the BU Assembly: 1/3 drop in Church Attendance since 2002. I love canon J John's answer to the question “What do you do?” He says “I work for an organisation that cares for people from the cradle to the grave. We run nurseries, hospitals, schools, relief programmes. And operate in just about every country in the world.” The guy on the plane says “Oh, what is it called?” Answer, “the Church.”
It is the Church's shame that we are not perceived as being a place where God is encountered, but only where he is talked about
It is the Church's shame that we are perceived as being against stuff, instead of for people, for life
it is the church’s shame that we are perceived as being outdated and irrelevant,
it is the church’s shame that we are the custodians of costly Victorian architectural antiquities
it is the church’s shame that we live in a vicious circle of self-perpetuation: where outreach is more about recruitment than about Kingdom
But that mess, reflects on our Heavenly father. So like Daniel, our prayer has to be “For your sake, Lord, look with favour on your desolate sanctuary.” (v 17, 19)
4. It seeks mercy. “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.” (v 18). The word “mercy” isn't steadfast love; it isn't chesedh the covenant word. It is rechem, the word for compassion, and the word for “womb”. Daniel is saying “Lord, look on us lying helpless as newborn babies in the blood and filth and shame of our situation; look on us like the mother who has just given birth, and care for us. We're desperate for you.
5. It is answered! Gabriel comes again. The strong man from God, the one who always announces hope. God sends this mighty spiritual being to reveal truth to Daniel. (Just a word about angels. We don't ask for them. We don't pray to them. We don't need them to take our prayers up to God. But sometimes God sends them!)
And what a revelation. The seventy years since Jeremiah prophecy, were almost up. History tells us that shortly, Ezra would be sent back to rebuild Jerusalem. That happened but God doesn’t mention it here. The weeks (or, “sevens”) in verses 24-27 are blocks of seven years. God says that the real sorting out will take seveny-times-seven years... After seven “seven” and sixty-two “sevens” (483 years), the Anointed One will be put to death (v. 26) And about 483 years later (some people figure almost 483 years to the day from when Ezra was sent to Jerusalem) Jesus was crucified.
And then, in the “last seven” another “abomination that causes desolation” will be set up in the temple. That seventieth seven seems to stretch. It's the prophetic telescope again. The minor events of Judean history – including the restoration of the temple in 160BC, and its final destruction in 70 AD – are simply pointing forward to the very end of time. Wallace says “in the shape of earlier and smaller events, we can discern the patterns that are going to be manifested in the final events.”
What does that mean for us?
Firstly, we know that God is working out his purpose. We don't know when the end will come. God isn’t interested in giving us a timetable. But we do know that the final throes of this universe, lead to god's victory, because they are the answer to the prayer of Daniel, and the fulfilment of the word of Gabriel, God's mighty man. There will be trials; there will be a man of lawlessness; Jesus will return; and he will take us to the place he has prepared for us.
Secondly, we recognise that our history, as Daniels, and Ezra's and Maccabaeus' are mere details, in God's plan
And thirdly, we live for Jesus, prayerfully, missionally, confidently, whatever happens. John Lennox says “if thinking about the book of Daniel leads us to endless speculations and fails to produce a life like Daniel's we have understood neither his message nor his call to live for God as salt and light in the world.”
© Gilmour Lilly October 20
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