Daniel 9:1–19: “When Scripture Sends Us to Our Knees”

 Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the book of Daniel in the OT. Daniel is my favorite book of the Bible. And today we come to one of my favorite chapters of Daniel, chapter 9. Because recorded in this chapter is one of the greatest, one of the most memorable, one of the most heartfelt prayers recorded in the Bible.

The well-known speaker and quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada said once,

• “Amazing, isn’t it, that our prayers, whether grand and glorious or feeble and faint, can move the very heart of God who created the universe? Prayer moves God, and when God moves in your life, things get exciting!”

Joni knows a thing or two about prayer. She’s lived that.

Charles Spurgeon, the great nineteenth century Baptist preacher said this:

• “We should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a proper mood, for it would be dangerous to remain in so unhealthy a condition.” 

William Temple, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said once,

• “When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don’t, they don’t.”

Why do Christian men and women throughout church history pray and advocate for prayer? Why have God-fearers and believers been doing this for literally thousands of years? Well, one of the reasons is that we see prayer modeled by God’s people in Scripture: 1) the early church, 2) Mary with her “Magnificat” in Luke 1, 3) the Apostle Paul, 4) King David in the Psalms, 5) Jesus in the Gospels, 6) Hannah in the OT, 7) Moses in the OT, 8) Ezra and Nehemiah in the OT, 9) Stephen in the book of Acts, etc., etc.

And then also, there’s Daniel. In the midst of a book that is chock full of prophetic visions and amazing historical narratives, Daniel records one of the most amazing prayers ever prayed in the Bible. And today we get to read it. Today, we get to study it. We get to learn from it. And, in our own practice of prayer, we get to imitate it.

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Let me give you four statements about Daniel’s prayer from Daniel 9:1–19, church. These are four aspects of Daniel’s prayer that we should imitate. Here’s the first.

•  1) Daniel’s prayer responds to Scripture (Dan 9:1–2)

Look at Daniel 9:1.

• ¹ In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— ² in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

Now just a few comments here on the setting of Daniel 9. Daniel is probably still in the city of Babylon. But the city is no longer part of the Babylonian kingdom. If you remember from Daniel 5, the Medo-Persians attacked the ridiculously incompetent King Belshazzar. And they took over the kingdom. And Darius the Mede is put in charge of the Chaldeans—i.e., the Babylonians.

King Darius, by the way, was the figure who was forced by his officials to put Daniel in the lions’ den in Daniel 6. That didn’t work out great for those officials. Daniel was spared because an angel of the Lord clamped down the mouths of the lions. But the angel of the Lord didn’t clamp down the mouths of those lions when those officials were thrown into the den.

Sometime before or after that event with the lions’ den, the prayer of Daniel 9 took place. And by now, Daniel is an old man held hostage in a second beastly kingdom. It’s no longer the Babylonian lion with eagles’ wings. Those wings have been plucked off (Dan 7:1–4). Instead, it’s the Medo-Persian bear with three ribs in its mouth devouring much flesh (Dan 7:5). And Daniel’s longing for his people to be restored to the land of Israel and Jerusalem.

And as part of that, Daniel was reading the prophet Jeremiah. Daniel was just a boy when Jeremiah wrote his prophecies. Jeremiah was there when Jerusalem was destroyed and the captives were taken to Babylon including Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And here’s what Jeremiah wrote. In chapter 25 of that prophetic book, Jeremiah prophesies seventy years of exile and judgment. Jeremiah writes,

• “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, ⁹ behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them [the Babylonians] against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. ¹⁰ Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹² Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste” (Jer 25:8–12).

Jeremiah repeats this prophecy a few chapters later in Jeremiah 29:10:

• “For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”

So, Daniel was reading one or both of these texts from Scripture in Babylon, and he starts realizing, “The clock is about to strike. The seventy years are almost up. The desolations are almost over!”

But notice what Daniel does next. He doesn’t go pack his bags. He doesn’t send out an all-points bulletin to all the Jews in Babylon. He doesn’t even celebrate the fact that these seventy years have passed. No, here’s what he does—he prays. He gets on his knees. He cries out to the Lord.

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Look at verse 3.

• ³ Then I turned my face to the Lord God,

This could be literal or figurative. I imagine Daniel at this point lifting up us face and his hands to God. Oftentimes this was done with Hebrews while they were on their knees. That was a common posture of supplication.

The title of this message is “When Scripture Sends Us to Our Knees.” You can take that figuratively or literally also. I personally see Daniel here literally on his knees before God, head and arms lifted up to heaven as he’s praying.

And look at the end of verse 3.

• seeking him [the Lord God] by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

Consider once again how amazing it is that we can bring our prayers and pleas to the Lord. That is a privilege that we should never get over. It’s shocking that the God of the Universe actually listens to our prayers. That privilege was not lost on Daniel.

Sackcloth and ash, as many of you know, was a demonstration of humble self-abasement in the ancient world. You would put an uncomfortable piece of clothing, usually covered with goat hair, over you. And then, you would take burned up ash… not the ash that comes from dead animals… that would be unclean for a Jew… but cold ash from a previous fire and sprinkle it over you. Those two things mixed with fasting would be an incredibly uncomfortable experience.

By the way, you don’t have to fast for God to hear your prayers. You are not obligated to put on sackcloth and ashes to get God to hear you. Daniel isn’t doing this so that God would hear him. He does this to demonstrate humility and to posture himself appropriately before the mighty God of the Universe. And this will become clear why he’s doing this when you see what he prays.

Look at verse 4.

• ⁴ I prayed to the Lord my God

Notice how personal Daniel is here—“The Lord! My God!” This is even more personal than you realize, because, for the first time in the book of Daniel, Daniel uses the Name of God, Yahweh. He did it in verse 2. He does it here in verse 4. And he does it six more times in this chapter (Dan 9:2, 4, 8, 10, 13, 14 [2x], 20).

That’s pretty surprising, but keep in mind that roughly half of the book of Daniel is written in Aramaic (Dan 2:4b–7:28). And Yahweh (the Tetragrammaton YHWH) is never used in those Aramaic chapters.

But Daniel 9 is written in Hebrew. And Daniel makes clear here that he’s praying to Yahweh, the personal, covenant God of the Israelites. And Daniel calls Yahweh, “my God!”

• ⁴ I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God,

By the way, “O Lord” in the middle of verse 4 isn’t Yahweh in Hebrew. It’s the Hebrew אָדוֹן (adon) which means “sovereign lord” or “master.” And then Daniel uses the word for “fearsome” or “awesome,” and then Elohim, which is the generic word for God. So, Daniel is stacking up terms here for the true God of the Universe. Forget those lame deities of the Babylonians and the Medo-Persians. Those gods are fake gods. Daniel’s praying to the real God of the Universe.

• “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love [חֶסֶד (ḥesed)] with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Write this down as a second statement about Daniel’s prayer. Daniel’s prayer responds to Scripture. But also,

• 2) Daniel’s prayer begins with adoration (Dan 9:3–4)

“Sovereign Lord!” “Great and awesome God!” “Covenant Keeping God.”

What Daniel does here isn’t that different from the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:9:

• “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”

It’s adoration!

And it’s not that different from Jesus’s high-priestly prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane:

• “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (John 17:1).

And it’s not that different from some of Paul’s prayers in the NT where Paul lifts high the name of the Lord before he ever prays anything else.

And I would just encourage you, church, in your times of prayer… before you ever ask God for something… before you ever petition him or supplicate or say, “Gimmee, gimmee, gimmee, God!” Before you do that, remind yourself how awesome God is. Say it out loud. Tell God how amazing he is. Thank him for all the things that he’s done for you!

That’s good S.O.P. for our times of prayer. We see this modeled in Scripture. We see this modeled by the prophet Daniel.

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Notice what Daniel does next. Look at verse 5.

• ⁵ we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.

Who’s the “we”? Who’s Daniel talking about here? Why the first-person plural?

Look at verse 6.

• ⁶ We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

What’s interesting here is that Daniel is one of the few people in the OT who has no famous or recorded sins in the Bible. Moses had his smashing of the rock moment. Moses also killed an Egyptian. David had his Bathsheba moment. Abraham lied about his wife. Abraham also had his Hagar incident.

But we don’t have a moment like that in Daniel’s life recorded in Scripture. Make no mistake—Daniel was a sinner! All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God! What’s significant here is that Daniel isn’t just confessing his own sin before the Lord… he’s collectively… he’s communally confessing the sins of his people.

“We’ve sinned.” “We’ve done wrong.” “We haven’t listened to you, Lord.” “We got ourselves into this mess. It’s our fault.” “And only you can get us out of it.”

Write this down as a third statement about Daniel’s prayer that we should emulate.

• 3) Daniel’s prayer includes confession (Dan 9:5–14)

Tell me if you’ve heard this before church. Tell me if this rings a bell:

• “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Matt 6:12).

Some of you may be familiar with the acronym A.C.T.S. that is used as a model for prayer. A-Adoration; C-Confession; T-Thanksgiving; S-Supplication. That model wasn’t created out of thin air. We see these things displayed by people praying in Scripture. And Daniel is one of those.

And what’s fascinating here is how Daniel takes on the corporate sins of his people. He says “we” and “our.” Daniel didn’t commit those sins! Not really! Daniel was just a boy when he was taken captive. He didn’t have time to commit those sins and reject those prophets.

But he so closely associates with the sins of his people and the mistakes that his forebears have made that he can say, “We’ve sinned. We’ve rebelled. We’ve ignored your torah, Lord.”

I would just say applicationally that confession is an essential part of our prayer times. There is a time for personal confession. And there is a time for corporate confession. We can and should confess the sins of our family, the sins of our church, the sins of our churches, and the sins of our country. Daniel did it. We should too. It’s a great precursor to petition.

Look at verse 7.

• ⁷ To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame,

There’s a little bit of adoration there mixed with confession. I love that!

• ⁷ To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. ⁸ To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.

Daniel is not just laying it on thick here. He is actually grieved by this. He’s emotionally pained by the failures of his people. He’s crying out to the Lord while covered in ash and clothed in sackcloth. This is a lament for the sin of his people. This is heartfelt grief and sadness and sorrow over the failure of his people.

Look at verse 9.

• ⁹ To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him ¹⁰ and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

Notice in your English Bibles, Daniel varies his usage of the words Lord, LORD, and God—in Hebrew, Adonai, Yahweh, and Elohim. These are words for Israel’s God (among others) used throughout the OT.

Look at verse 11.

• ¹¹ All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him.

I mentioned earlier that the title of this message is “When Scripture Sends Us to Our Knees.” And the primary Scripture that Daniel references is Jeremiah 25:8–12, and possibly also Jeremiah 29:10. But a secondary Scripture is referenced here too.

When Daniel says in verse 11,

• And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him.

That’s a reference to Deuteronomy 28. That’s a reference to the climactic moment in the Pentateuch when the Israelites were about to enter into the Promised Land. And the old man Moses gave them one final charge before he went up to Mount Nebo to die.

And the essence of Moses’s message in Deuteronomy 28 was this: “If you obey and serve God, you’ll be blessed. If you reject him, you’ll be cursed.” This is what’s referred to as the “Land Covenant” or the “Deuteronomic Covenant.”

And sure enough, God meant what he said. The Israelites rejected God, and so God removed them from the land. He poured out judgment upon them.

And the reference to seventy years isn’t just a random number. 2 Chronicles 36:20–21 says,

• “He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”

God’s law required Israel to let the land rest every seventh year as a Sabbath to the Lord (Lev 25:1–7). God also warned that if his people persisted in disobedience, he would remove them from the land so that it could enjoy the Sabbath rest they had denied it (Lev 26:33–35, 43). Since they failed to keep that covenant commitment, God says in judgment over them, “I’m going to let the land rest seventy years.” That’s where Jeremiah’s seventy years of captivity comes from. While the people were in exile, the land received its Sabbath rest.

Look at verse 12 with me.

• ¹² He [i.e., Yahweh] has confirmed his words,

Wouldn’t you know it! God said it, and he did it.

• ¹² He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. ¹³ As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice.

You might have noticed here how Daniel’s prayer pivots from first person to third person. He went from primarily “us” and “our” to “he” and “him.” And that’s because this prayer isn’t just a historical record. It’s not just a personal interaction between Daniel and the Lord. This prayer is didactic. Daniel, empowered by the Holy Spirit, is teaching us some things about God and his Word even while he’s praying!

And this was instructive for the people in Daniel’s day who read about this prayer. It was instructive later for the people in Israel who returned to the land. And it’s instructive for us, 2,600 years later. This prayer teaches us about God. It teaches us about God’s Word. It teaches us about a God who always keeps his promises, even when those promises involve judgment and calamity and exile!

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And that leads us to the final section of this prayer. That leads us to the finale. Write this down as the fourth and final statement about Daniel’s prayer.

• 4) Daniel’s prayer ends with petition (Dan 9:15–19)

Watch how Daniel ends this prayer. Daniel ends rapid fire with petitions.

In Greek, you have something called the optative mood. It’s a grammatical construction of a verb that indicates wish or desire. And prayers are often prayed in the optative mood. For example, Paul prays for the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5:23,

• “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In Hebrew, there’s no equivalent to the optative mood. Instead, writers use what are called imperatives when they express a wish or ask for something in prayer.

And these imperatives are really striking. Because imperatives are often used for commands. They are very punchy statements. So it’s fascinating to see Daniel here “not commanding” the Lord per se in these verses… but asking strongly… he’s petitioning and pleading aggressively before the Lord.

And the imperative form of the Hebrew verb shows up ten times in verses 15–19. “Listen, Lord! Forgive, Lord! Open your eyes. Incline your ears. Pay attention. Act, Lord! Delay not!”

The emotion is palpable here as Daniel brings out these imperatives with machine-gun fire. And what’s striking about it is that he hasn’t used one imperative in the first fourteen verses. Why would he? He’s meditating on Scripture. He’s praising God. He is confessing before God in those verses. He does that before he ever asks God for anything.

But then when he starts asking stuff of God, he lets it rip. And these last five verses are a barrage of petitions. Look at verse 15.

• ¹⁵ And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

Here’s a little more adoration and confession ramping up to the petition.

• ¹⁶ “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us.

In other words, “Don’t let your enemies get the satisfaction of seeing your holy city and your chosen people perpetually humiliated. Don’t let them see your promises unfulfilled.”

By the way, Moses prayed something similar when the Israelites were rebelling against the Lord in the wilderness. God wanted to wipe them out. But Moses said, “No, Lord! What will the people back in Egypt think if that happens? What will the other nations say? Your name will be defamed! Don’t let that happen!” (see Exod 32:11–14; Num 14:13–19). Daniel learned from Moses how to pray. And we learn from Daniel and Moses how to pray.

Look at verse 17.

• ¹⁷ Now therefore, O our God,

“In light of your promises… in light of the fact that there are people watching… in light of the fact that you are a faithful and righteous God, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness…”

• listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.

The “sanctuary” is a reference to the temple. The temple is in ruins. Nebuchadnezzar plundered it and razed it to the ground roughly seventy years before this.

• ¹⁸ O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations,

“The city is in ruins. The temple is in ruins. Judah is in ruins. The people are in exile.”

• Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name.

“Look on Jerusalem, Lord! This is not the way it’s supposed to be. Jerusalem was supposed to be a place of prayer and a city called by your name.”

And then look at the middle of verse 18. This is probably the most important statement that Daniel makes in this prayer. And it’s the statement that most immediately relates to both OT and NT believers. We pray this prayer verbatim as NT Christians.

• For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness,

We, as NT Christians, do not approach the throne of grace with confidence on the basis of what we have done, but on the basis of what Christ has done for us. We don’t present our petitions to God because of our righteousness, but because of his righteousness.

• For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.

Look at verse 19. Here comes a massive barrage of imperatives. It’s like the end of a fireworks show where all the fireworks are being shot up and exploding at the same time.

• ¹⁹ O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act.

The gall of Daniel! Who talks to God like this?

• Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”

In other words, “Defend your honor, Lord! Defend your name! Fulfill your promises. Send your people back to Jerusalem in fulfillment of your Word and the promises in the book of Jeremiah!” That’s what Daniel is praying here. That’s his petition.

Notice, he’s not praying for a Cadillac. He’s not praying for his best life now. He’s not praying for a financial windfall. He’s not praying for health, wealth, and prosperity. He’s praying God’s Word back to God.

He’s praying that God will fulfill what he said. He’s praying, if I can go NT with you for a second… He’s praying for God’s will to be done. John 15:7 says,

• “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

John 14:13–14 says likewise,

• “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

Can we pray like this, church? Can we pray strong petitionary prayers like Daniel does in Daniel 9:15–19? Yes, we can. But if you start praying petitionary prayers for a Cadillac…or for health and wealth and prosperity and comfort… if you do that, don’t be surprised if your prayers go unanswered. Those prayers might as well be bouncing off the ceiling and coming back to you.

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Now let me ask you this. Let’s get back to Daniel in Daniel 9. Did Daniel’s prayer get answered? Did God listen, hear, see, forgive, and act? Did he return his people to the Promised Land?

Yes, he did. Let me say two things about that. Yes, the people returned. Ezra 1:1–4 says as follows,

• ¹In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: ²“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ³Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. ⁴And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.”

The timing of this event is curious. The first year of Cyrus king of Persia is probably the same time as the first year of King Darius the Mede. There is some historical evidence that suggests that Cyrus made Darius (Gubaru) the king over the Chaldeans, but he was subordinate to King Cyrus in Persia.

The other historical possibility is that Cyrus and Darius are the same person. I think that’s plausible, because Darius could actually be a title like “Pharaoh,” not a proper name. However you put that together historically, the timing of this edict from Cyrus in Persia coincides historically with Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9. So even as Daniel was praying, God was already moving behind the scenes to bring the Israelites back to Jerusalem.

And Daniel lived long enough to see this. In Daniel 10, the first statement is that Daniel had a vision from the Lord during the third year of King Cyrus’s reign. So, in his first year, King Cyrus made a proclamation that the Israelites would return from exile. In King Cyrus’s third year, Daniel had a vision. Ergo, Daniel lived long enough to see the seventy years of Jeremiah’s prophecy fulfilled. And his prayer was answered.

Now Daniel probably didn’t return with the Israelites to Jerusalem. Remember Daniel’s an old man. That’s a long trip from Babylon to Jerusalem for an octogenarian! Daniel probably didn’t return to Jerusalem. But he lived long enough to see his people return.

But here’s the really fascinating thing. After Daniel’s amazing prayer, God sends the angel Gabriel to come talk to Daniel. And Gabriel’s going to reveal some amazing things to Daniel. And what Gabriel reveals is only tangentially connected to the Israelites returning to Jerusalem. It’s like Gabriel shows up and says, “Yeah, yeah, I know you’re praying about the Israelites returning to Jerusalem. That’s great. But God’s got some bigger fish to fry. Let me tell you about that!”

“You’re worried about the seventy years, Daniel. Let me tell you about the seventy weeks of years!” And Daniel’s going to get probably the most amazing prophecy ever recorded in the OT concerning the Messiah—Daniel 9:20–27. It’s utterly amazing. And I’m going to tell you all about it… next week. Y’all come back now.

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Can we pray together as we close? I’m going to do something in my prayer right now, and I want to invite you to join me. I’m going to pray adoration. I’m going to pray confession. And then, I’m going to pray petition. Let’s emulate Daniel’s prayer now. Pray with me.