Sorry for the slight delaying getting this up, I made a mistake about the scheduling of this post. (MK)
Day #29: Daniel’s Prayer of Confession (David Bacon)
Daniel 9:1-5, 11-12, 18-19
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. 3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules…
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. 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…
18 O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
Daniel’s prayer of confession from Daniel, chapter 9, is my favorite prayer that I have studied in the past five years. From the prior chapters in the book of Daniel, we have seen him act righteously before Kings Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius. Each account shows that he is faithfully obedient to God in the face of danger. Now we get this account where Daniel not only has kept in mind God’s promise from 70 years prior but uses this awareness to come before God in an amazingly humble confession of sin! Why is HE confessing?
When I have to discipline my kids, they are usually only ready to come forward with an apology after the punishment is over and they feel restored to my good graces. Even then, 8 times out of 10 they’re only sorry because they got caught and punished for the infraction, not for the actual sin itself. This is very different from Daniel’s prayer of confession. He is aware of the reasons behind Judah’s punishment and the current exilic state that has been brought upon them. That’s a major component of confessional prayers: acknowledging our true state.
In this chapter, Daniel acknowledged the sin of his people (vs. 8,10,11a). He uses the phrase “we have sinned” 4 times in verses 5-15. He used first person plural language by saying “we,” not third person language by saying “they.” This is an acknowledgement of corporate sins as a nation. Daniel was pretty young when he was taken in exile to Babylon, yet he is still identifying with the sins of Judah because he is a part of that nation.
We too should acknowledge how we have sinned not just individually but corporately. This is why when we confess our sins each Sunday we break it up into the verbal corporate confession of sins and then the private silent confession. We acknowledge that our sins are both corporate – as a nation, as a commonwealth, as a church – and our sins are personal.
Daniel also acknowledges that this punishment was prophesied from the time of Moses (vs. 11b-14). In Deuteronomy, we get a number of passages where Moses is leaving parting words for the nation of Israel as his death approaches. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 describes what God will do to Israel if they disobey his commands. There are some particularly gruesome descriptions of how foreign nations will besiege a disobedient Israel and the horrors of what the Israelites would do during this besiegement. Daniel is knowledgeable of these curses. He knows that the exile is a direct result of Judah’s disobedience.
We also should acknowledge what the just punishment is for our sin. I am not saying that all sorrow and calamity that may befall you is directly due to your sin. That was the error that Job’s friends made. Just as Jesus told his disciples that the blind man was not born blind because of his family’s sin (John 9:3), we cannot peg a curse or punishment to a particular sin unless it is specified in the bible. This is hard to do since there are no prophecies about the people of America in the 21st century. However, we can acknowledge that all have sinned and that sin deserves death and eternal punishment.
Finally, Daniel acknowledges that only God could restore his people and only because of his great mercy. (vs 18). None of Daniel’s (or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s) righteous deeds are enough to save Judah. They needed God’s mercy and forgiveness to be restored. We too must acknowledge that the only hope we have is Christ. Praise God that when we confess our sins, we can hold fast to the hope found in Christ, the propitiation* for all of our sins.
*Propitiation: (n) something that propitiates or appeases; Propitiate: (v) to gain or regain the favor or goodwill of