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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Rev. Rodney den Boer > Daniel's prayer of confession shows that God keeps his covenant promises | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Read: Daniel 9 Sing: Ps 84:1, 5; Ps 79:1, 3; Ps 74:1, 3, 7; Hy 15:1, 2, 3; Hy 16:1, 4, 5 Questions for reflection/discussion
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Dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
We are often told that life is short, but there are times when it seems very long. In the middle of suffering, we cry out with the psalmist, “how long, O LORD?” When we think of our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, North Korea, and many other places who are killed for their faith in Jesus Christ, we cry out with them, “how long, O LORD?” When we think of our brothers and sisters in places ravaged by war, when we think of the fear they face, when we think of them pouring themselves out in care for others, we join their cry, “how long, O LORD?” And when we feel worn out ourselves by the constant battle against sin, the relentless pressure from Satan and the world, and the brokenness of life, it becomes our cry, too. Life is short, but it seems so long. How long, O LORD? We long for ultimate peace and restoration.
Dear congregation, with this yearning for ultimate peace and restoration, we turn to the word of God. Daniel, God’s faithful servant, was a man who also yearned for peace and restoration. He lived away from his homeland, away from the place of his forefathers, and away from the temple of his God. And in our text, we see his godly actions as the time of exile came to an end. He prays. He confesses sin. And God’s response to his prayer shows us that God heard him and God is faithful to his promises, God is faithful in the relationship he made with his people. He would bring his people back to their land but even more than that, he would bring ultimate peace and restoration by sending his Son, Jesus. And this is our God. In our yearning for ultimate peace and restoration, we can trust that God will fulfil his promises to us and he will bring us home. The Holy Spirit shows us this morning from Daniel’s prayer of confession that God keeps his covenant promises:
Daniel’s prayer of confession shows that God keeps his covenant promises
- The occasion of his prayer
- The content of his prayer
- The answer to his prayer
1. The occasion of Daniel’s prayer
Verse 1 says it was the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes. This is Darius the Mede who reluctantly locked up Daniel in the lion’s den. We identified him in ch6 as Cyrus the Persian, the first ruler of the Persian empire. Babylon had just fallen. And so, we learn that the seventy years of the exile were just about completed.
And that’s also what Daniel learned as he studied the Bible. Verse 2 says that Daniel understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Daniel understood by the books. And notice what is said about these books. In these books, Daniel read the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet. Daniel read Scripture. Jeremiah wrote words on paper, which somehow made their way to Babylon and were understood to be inspired by God. Daniel understood that these books, these words had divine authority.
And you notice, too, that he refers in his prayer to what is written in the Law of Moses, in v11 and v13. The things written have divine authority. By the time of Daniel, there is already a collection of writings. He has a Bible, which includes at least the Torah and the writings of Jeremiah. From his reference to the other prophets, we expect there were more. The canon of the OT was being compiled, and the written word of Scripture played an increasingly prominent role towards the end of the OT. The words of God were being preserved for future generations. Daniel had a Bible.
And so, when Daniel read his Bible, what did he learn? He learned about the relationship that God made with his people. God was good to them, he gave them the land of Canaan and promised to bless them richly if they trusted him and obeyed him. And he also told them that he would punish their disobedience. And when his people started following false gods, he warned them, through Jeremiah and other prophets, calling them to turn back to him. And we know the story: they didn’t turn back, and so God announced judgement, he said through Jeremiah and other prophets that he was going to punish them with the king of Babylon. As Daniel read the prophecies of Jeremiah, he could look back and see that it was all true. They deserved to be there. God had been so good to them but they had turned their backs on him.
But Daniel also learned that God promised to restore them. He read from Jeremiah 25 and 29 that the time of exile would be last seventy years and then God would bring them back to their land. And this, along with everything else Daniel read from Jeremiah, matched earlier revelation, from the Torah, the books of Moses. In Leviticus 26:40ff, God says that after he would bring punishment for disobedience, then, if they confess their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham I will remember.
In the books of Jeremiah, he learned that God would return his people after seventy years. And now those seventy years were up. So, what does Daniel do?
He prays. We know that Daniel is a man of prayer. In ch2 when King Nebuchadnezzar was going to kill all the wise men including Daniel and his friends, he responded by calling a prayer meeting. In ch6, he didn’t give up on his daily prayer habits even when prayer was outlawed, because he was a man of prayer and that had been his habit since the days of his youth. And now, at the end of seventy years, Daniel prays on behalf of his people.
Notice that God has not yet fulfilled his promise to bring them back from exile. The seventy years are up, but Daniel is still in Babylon with all the Jews, and the temple is still in ruins. Yes, God promised to bring them back. But he has not yet acted upon that promise. And so, Daniel prays. God’s promise to restore the people is the impetus for Daniel’s prayer, that promise galvanises him to pray. He understands the time he is in, and prays for God to act, based on his promises.
Dear brothers and sisters, we live in a different stage of history than Daniel. And we need to know and understand from the word of God the times in which we live. When we read the Scriptures, we see how God has fulfilled all his promises in Jesus Christ, in his death and resurrection. We live in the time when his death and resurrection is being proclaimed to all nations, and before his second coming, when we will enjoy his promises to the full. The next big item on the calendar of redemptive-history is the return of Jesus Christ.
And in this time, too, God acts in response to the prayers of his people. We are called to pray for the spread of the gospel so that God’s kingdom will be complete. Is this your prayer, beloved? Do you yearn for the fulfilment of God’s promises? Are you praying that God will bring in the full number of his kingdom?
Or are we settling for lesser things, focused on living comfortable lives, focused on our homes, our families, our businesses and schools.
What about you? Is your deepest desire for the glory of Christ to spread? It will be seen, I think, in the urgency of our prayers. Do your prayers reflect a desire for the Great Commission to be fulfilled? Do your prayers reflect a desire for Jesus to return? Perhaps I can ask the question this way: is there anything, dear brothers and sisters, that you want more than for Jesus Christ to return?
Because, that is the final goal for which we long. Come, Lord Jesus. That ought to be our prayer. That is the prayer for our time. Daniel prayed, understanding the time. And let’s consider what it was that he prayed, the content of his prayer.
2. The content of Daniel’s prayer
Note first that this prayer is based on God’s character. In v4 he addresses God as the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and mercy. The majestic God of heaven and earth had bound himself in a relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants. He rescued the people of Israel out of Egypt in faithfulness to this relationship. And he promised that when his people returned to him, he would return to them. He is a God who keeps covenant, who is faithful in his relationship. This is who God is, how he has revealed himself. This relationship underpins Daniel’s prayer.
But there is a big contrast between God and his people. God is faithful; his people are not. Daniel contrasts God with his people. In v7, righteousness belongs to you, but shame of face belongs to us. In v8-9, to us belongs shame of face, we deserve this, but to you belong mercy and forgiveness. God is righteous, merciful, but we are shameful sinners.
So, Daniel confesses sin. Note the complete honesty he has before God. He doesn’t try to hide his sins or the sins of his people, but he lays it all out. He uses different words for sin in v5-6. We have sinned, which means to miss the mark or fail to reach a standard; we have committed iniquity, which means we have incurred guilt; we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from your precepts and your judgements. And on top of that, we didn’t listen to the warnings you gave through your prophets. You see his honesty, he doesn’t say, “Lord, we sinned, but it wasn’t that bad.” He doesn’t pass the blame on to others. He doesn’t minimise it. No, he confesses it all in complete honesty before God.
And note, finally, that he prays this prayer on behalf of all Israel, not just the Jews who had been taken to Babylon, but also the ten tribes that were taken to Assyria. They, too, were God’s chosen people. They, too, had sinned and rebelled against God and experienced his judgement. And so, Daniel confessed the sins of all Israel.
And then, having acknowledged sin, he asks God for forgiveness. Again, this is based on God’s character, in v16, “according to all your righteousness,” and v18, “because of your great mercies.” God revealed himself as a God of steadfast, a God abounding in mercy, and because he promised to forgive their sins when they called on him in true faith, Daniel appeals to him to do just that.
John Newton wrote a hymn speaking to his guilty, burdened soul, “Approach, my soul, the mercy seat.” There’s a line which says, “Your promise is my only plea, with this I venture nigh.” God’s promise was Daniel’s only plea, and with that he drew near, in v19, finishing with an impassioned plea for forgiveness, o Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act!
Remember, Daniel is at the end of seventy years in exile. He longs for restoration to his land and for the city of Jerusalem and temple to be rebuilt. But he knows that God must forgive sin in order to accomplish this restoration. And so he pleads with God to forgive their sins, based on his mercy, on his steadfast love, on his promise.
And dear congregation, we can also learn much from Daniel’s prayer for our own day. Even as we live in the last days, even as we wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to return, we continue to sin every day. The church is infected by sin in various ways. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray in the fifth petition, “Forgive us our sins, as we also forgive those who have sinned against us.” The catechism also reminds us in LD 45 that, in order to pray in a way that pleases God, we must thoroughly know our need and misery, that we may humble ourselves before him.
Notice that in this prayer Daniel doesn’t presume upon God’s promises. Even though God had promised to rescue them from exile and bring them back to the promised land, Daniel recognises that he and his people do not deserve that. We don’t deserve the complete redemption God has promised us.
And so we can learn from Daniel to come before God in humble confession. Not demanding forgiveness, but pleading for it, based on God’s promise. Not demanding God’s blessing for our lives, but recognising our sin and misery, and humbling asking for his forgiveness. So, dear brothers and sisters, come to your holy, righteous God. Know him. Know his character, that he is righteous, though we are not. And confess your sins. Name them. Think through different commandments and how you’ve offended him. And ask for his forgiveness, based on his mercy. based on his steadfast love, based on his character which he has shown us fully in Jesus Christ.
And we can be sure that God will hear and answer our prayers, when we pray in true faith. Let’s see the answer that God gave Daniel.
3. The answer to Daniel’s prayer
Daniel has barely finished praying, in fact, says, v20, while I was still speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people, and he repeats in v21, yes, while I was speaking in prayer, Gabriel came to me, being caused to fly swiftly. That’s a very quick answer, beloved! As Daniel begged God to hear him, God immediately assured him that he did hear him, he sent his messenger Gabriel.
We can be sure, dear brothers and sisters, that God also hears our prayers. Just as surely as he heard Daniel’s prayer, he hears your prayers, when you open your heart before God, he immediately hears you. When you humble yourself in confession of sin, he hears you. When you pour out your grief and pain to him, he hears you. When you appeal to him to restore his church and gather in his chosen ones, he hears you. He hears you, boys and girls, when you pray before you sleep. That’s why we say, Amen. Because God has much more certainly heard my prayer than I feel in my heart that I desire this of him.
And what does Gabriel say? This passage has been called the most confusing section of the book of Daniel. Gabriel gives a vision of seventy weeks. I will present what I believe to be the most accurate interpretation of this book. One commentator gave the following illustration to help understand this passage. He said that when you climb a mountain, you climb to the top, but when you get there you realise you actually haven’t gotten to the top, because the peak is actually a lot higher. In a similar way, Daniel was looking forward to the restoration of his people to Jerusalem, but that was only the first peak of the mountain. Through Gabriel, God made him look further into history, to the true peak, the coming of Jesus Christ. The coming of Jesus Christ would fulfil Daniel’s yearning for ultimate peace and restoration.
In this vision, one week represents seven years, as it is in Leviticus 25:8, which speaks of seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years. One week represents seven years. Seventy weeks then equals seventy times seven, about 490 years. And yet it is also important that these are prophetic numbers, symbolic numbers. Seventy weeks, or literally, seventy sevens, equals seven times ten times seven – a complete, full number, according to the Bible.
God promised through Gabriel that this compete, full time was determined to do six things, in v24. And these six things are all fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came in the fulness of time.
Christ came to finish transgression by dying for the sins of all his people. He came to make an end of sins in the once-for-all sacrifice that he made on the cross. He came to make reconciliation for iniquity, or atonement, appeasing God’s anger for our sin and restoring us to God the Father. He came to bring in everlasting righteousness by being righteousness for us, and establishing his righteous rule over all this world. He came to seal up vision and prophecy, because he was God’s final revelation. Visions and prophecy are no longer necessary, because Jesus Christ has fully revealed God the Father to us. And he came to anoint the most Holy Place, entering into the very presence of God in heaven with his blood.
But that would not happen immediately. There would first be seven weeks, from the command to rebuild Jerusalem. That command was issued by King Cyrus in his first year, according to Ezra 1. That would have been very soon after Daniel prayed this prayer. The streets and the walls of Jerusalem would be rebuilt in troublesome times. And then there would be sixty-two weeks, a much longer period of time.
And then, in the final week the anointed one, Messiah, shall be cut off, v26. Isaiah 53 prophesies about the suffering servant, “he was cut off from the land of the living.” And in that time the people of the prince who is to come would destroy the city and the sanctuary. With the benefit of history, we can see a clear reference to the Roman ruler Titus, the Son of Vespasian, who destroyed the temple at Jerusalem in AD 70.
And then, v27, he, the Messiah shall confirm a covenant with many. Our Lord Jesus Christ confirmed the covenant when he died for the sins of many. On the night of his death, he said, “this is the new covenant in my blood.” And he brought an end to sacrifice and offering when he offered himself as the once-for-all sacrifice to completely satisfy God’s anger for the sins of the world. This would all happen in the midst of conflict, we read about abominations and one who makes desolate. And we’ll hear more about that next week, if the Lord wills.
You see how Daniel’s vision was lifted ahead. He confessed his sins and the sins of the people and prayed for restoration. And God showed that he was able to do abundantly more than Daniel even asked for and he would bring ultimate peace and restoration through the Messiah! Daniel asked God to forgive their sins – God said, yes, I’ll do that, I will deal with the root problem of Israel’s rebellion, I will deal with their rebellious hearts by making a sacrifice for them which will satisfy my anger perfectly. And I’ll give them a new heart so that they will serve me.
You see, this confirms the covenant promises God made to his people. Daniel prayed to the God who had made a covenant with his people. And God revealed that he remained faithful to that covenant relationship. He would restore his people to their land. And in the fulness of time, he would send his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. Yes, God is faithful to his covenant. His answer to Daniel’s prayer gives abundant confirmation of that!
And that, beloved is our hope. That is why we can confess our sins to God. 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Do you believe that when you confess your sin? God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer confirms that he answers our prayers abundantly more than we even ask of him. It confirms that he is faithful to his covenant promises.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, life is short but at times it can seem excruciatingly long. There is still suffering left for us on the road to glory. But this prayer reminds us that God does fulfil our yearning for ultimate peace and restoration with him. We experience a small beginning of that reality here and now, in the church, as God’s redemptive rule begins to shape our hearts and lives, and as we experience the joy of forgiveness. We experience it by living in intimate fellowship with God and his people. And we can be sure that God has forgiven our sin and he will restore us completely in relationship with him and his people on a renewed earth. Believe that promise. It’s true for us and our persecuted brothers and sisters. And keep praying, like Daniel, for God’s purposes to be fulfilled. Pray for the full harvest of God’s kingdom to be gathered in. Pray for mission. Pray that the truth of the gospel will ring out from us into the suburbs around us. And pray that Jesus Christ will return. God will answer that prayer in his good time, because he is faithful. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Rodney den Boer, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2025, Rev. Rodney den Boer
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