Confession and Intercession (Daniel 9)

Henry George Moss

Daniel is led to turn to the Scriptures of truth (Dan. 9:2) for light and understanding, and in this he surely furnishes a striking example for us who are Christians. God has made wonderful revelations by His servants and apostles of old and while it is essential on our part to turn to God in prayer for light and guidance, yet the Spirit of God would invariably turn us to the Scriptures. The Bereans were commended of Paul as being ‘more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so’ (Acts 17: 11).

Jeremiah had clearly foretold the length of Israel’s captivity in Babylon, and also had predicted God’s judgment upon their captors (Jer. 25:11–12). He had also prophesied a return of the people to their own land (29:10). The prayer and confession of Daniel are based upon the warnings of Moses, and also upon the prayer of Solomon in reference to the exile of God’s people in a strange land.

We see from chapter 6:10 that it was the practice of Daniel to pray with his window open towards Jerusalem, when three times a day he prayed and gave thanks to God. He sets his face unto Adonai, the Elohim and El with whom was all power.[1] There is the deepest contrition on the part of Daniel: ‘I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments’ (9:4). Jehovah was He who had entered into covenant relationship with His people. Jehovah was still recognised as his Elohim, but he also appeals to Adonai, the great and terrible El; and this will be the character in which the Lord Jesus will come forth for the deliverance of His people. El is the God of holiness in supremacy over evil, yet He is the covenant-keeping God who shows His loving kindness to those who love Him, and who prove their love by the keeping of His commandments.

‘We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments’ (v. 5). There is no Pharisaic prayer with Daniel: ‘I thank thee, that I am not as other men’ (Luke 18:11). If he thought only of himself, he might have stood afar off from the people and said, ‘I am holier than thou’, but he is taught of God to do otherwise. ‘We have sinned’, he says, and he takes his place with the people. Nor does he seek to condone their evil for he knows only too well how far they had gone in departing from God and His truth. He remembers how faithfully God had warned kings and princes, also the fathers with all the people, for they had all shared in the common guilt. He also owns that the Lord was righteous in all He had done to this people: ‘O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee’ (v. 7). Unfaithfulness marked each and all so that they were without excuse. Like the publican of old they could not face up to it, neither could they lift up their eyes to heaven. But like him they also could plead God’s mercy and forgiveness.

‘To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him’ (v. 9). Mercy and forgiveness: this is what we all need, whether it be the sinner of our day or the Jew of the past or future, for this casts them upon God, and upon what He has done for them. Rebellion, disobedience and transgression had ever marked them, hence the curse which had been poured out upon them as foretold by Moses. What lessons have yet to be learned by the Jews as a nation! ‘For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ’ (John 1:17) has still to be learnt by them.

At this time there had been a confirming of God’s words which He had spoken against them. It was God Himself who had brought this great evil upon them in driving them from the very same land of promise into which His strong arm had previously brought them. Nebuchadnezzar may have been used to bring it about, but there is not a word of this in the prayer of Daniel. Daniel’s lament is that in spite of all God’s judgments yet there had been no real repentance on the part of the people or any turning in true contrition to God. Yet Daniel, like Moses of old, pleads that it was Jehovah their Elohim that had brought His people out of Egypt and that in so doing He had gotten renown unto Himself.

‘We have sinned, we have done wickedly’ (v. 15). But he pleads that God in His righteousness would let His anger and fury be turned away from Jerusalem: ‘thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain’ (v. 16). It was the city where God had chosen to place His name. ‘Because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thypeople are become a reproach’. Daniel would thus press God’s claims: Thy city; Thy holy mountain; Thy people; Thy sanctuary; Thy name. Therefore as an intercessor he pleads that God would hear the prayer of His servant, and his supplications, and cause His face to shine upon His sanctuary that is desolate, ‘for the Lord’s sake’ (v. 17). No righteousness on the part of Daniel or his people is pleaded, but there is an appeal to God’s great mercies. Again, Daniel prays that Adonai would hear, forgive, hearken and do: ‘defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name’ (v. 19). Daniel’s prayer was for his people Israel, and his supplication was for Jerusalem, the holy mountain of his God. He does not plead the promises of Abraham, which had reference to Christ, his seed, and the deliverance which would come to God’s people in the last days. Here the deliverance near at hand was to be but partial; there could be, as yet, no finishing of transgression, no making of an end of sin, no expiation for iniquity, and no bringing in of everlasting righteousness. These things could only be true of the latter days, and in reference to the coming of Christ to deliver His people and set up His kingdom.

How speedily God heard and answered the prayer of Daniel, sending His messenger, even Gabriel, who being caused to fly quickly, touched him about the time of the evening oblation. Doubtless Daniel’s mind had gone back to the time when the evening sacrifice had been offered, and with contrite spirit he is found in prayer before God at this same time. How encouraging and strengthening must have been that touch. It reminds us of the Lord’s touch when His beloved servant John was lying prostrate before Him, and of the Lord’s message to him, ‘Fear not’ (Rev. 1:17). So here, Gabriel talks with Daniel and tells him how he had come to give him skill and understanding. ‘Before they call, I will answer’ (Isa. 65:24).

H G Moss[2]

[1] Daniel appeals to God according to His many names. In the order they appear in v. 4:‘the Lord’ is Jehovah or Yahweh, the self-existent or eternal, covenant-keeping God; ‘my God’ is Elohim, the plural of Eloah, meaning God as supreme; ‘O Lord’ is Adonai, the plural form of lord or master; and ‘God’ is El, ‘The Mighty’ (eds.).

[2] Adapted from Notes on the Book of Daniel.

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From: Truth and Testimony, 2022