September 4, 2024 - Daniel’s Prayer and Christ’s Wartime Message
Opening Prayer: “Having raised me from bed and sleep, O Lord, enlighten my mind, and open my heart and lips to praise Thee, O Holy Trinity: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O God.”
Reading: Daniel 9 & 10
Note: Tomorrow will be our final day in Daniel. Today’s reading is complex and involves prophecies, symbols, and timelines that scholars have debated for years. Don’t let the historical details overwhelm you; keep a high-level overview for the purposes of daily devotion. If the history piece intrigues you, there are some great books that detail how Daniel’s visions pertain to the rise and fall of worldly empires. In the interest of time, we will focus more on lessons to be learned from Daniel, practical application, and the critical pieces of the dreams and visions that promise a coming Savior. Once we finish Daniel, we will round out the week with some practical considerations for the Christian life.
Summary: Chapter 9 begins with Daniel’s earnest prayer of repentance to the Lord, confessing the sins of His people and pleading for God’s mercy. Daniel confesses numerous sins specifically, including departing from God’s law, ignoring the prophets He sent, and refusing to listen to His voice. God’s covenant mercy and love is a constant theme throughout the prayer in spite of Israel’s continued defiance and wickedness. Daniel pleads with God to end Israel’s captivity in Babylon, not because of their righteousness, but because of His mercy.
Gabriel once again comes to Daniel to give him “skill and understanding,” and to reveal the period of “seventy weeks” that would precede the coming of Israel’s “everlasting righteousness” (Christ). This period of time begins with the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem. Gabriel continues to reveal what will take place amongst the people of God in the coming years in what is clearly God’s answer to Daniel’s desperate prayer. Daniel asks for the end of his people’s captivity, and God answers with a Messiah.
In Chapter 10, while he is mourning and fasting, Daniel receives a vision in which an “angelic figure” (a “certain man”) appears to him, fresh from the spiritual battlefield, and speaks of a war raging between the angels and the demonic forces of the pagan “gods” controlling Israel’s enemies. The angel, widely believed to be a vision of the pre-incarnate Christ, says he has come to reveal the future of Daniel’s people. Daniel is told that the spiritual war has only just begun, and that future nations ruled by demons will continue to oppose Christ until He ultimately makes them His footstool.
In sum, there’s (spiritual) war afoot, and our Lord fights on our behalf.
Consider
Chapter 9
v. 3: Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
Godly men intercede for their people; they name the sins of their families, communities, and nations, beginning with their own, and ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness. Fasting was, and still is, an act of humility and dependence on God reminding us that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4). Sackcloth and ashes were outward symbols of inward repentance. Daniel mourned the idolatrous, disobedient state of God’s people but wholly believed in God’s covenant-keeping love.
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