Daniel 9
David Guzik · Citado em PreceptAustin
Daniel 9:1-23
Guzik - Daniel understood something from reading the words of God's prophets. Prophecy is meant to be understood - perhaps not in every detail, but certainly in its main points...passionately as he did in Daniel 9? Daniel knew that God's promises invite our prayers and participation; they don't exclude our prayers and participation. "Nothing, therefore, can be better for us, than to ask for what he has promised." (Calvin) This principle is repeated in many passages. 2 Peter 3:12 indicates that there is a sense in which we can hasten the Lord's coming by our holy conduct and godly lives; we can also hasten the Lord's coming through evangelism because Paul says that God's prophetic focus on Israel will resume when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:25). This means that we can also hasten the Lord's coming through prayer, even as Daniel asked for a speedy fulfillment of prophecy regarding captive Israel (Daniel 9). We can also pray Even so, come, Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20) If you want Jesus to come soon, there is something you can do about it! C H Spurgeon once cried out in essence for a "generation of Daniels" declaring "Oh! That you studied your Bibles more! Oh! That we all did! How we could plead the promises! How often we should prevail with God when we could hold Him to His word, and say, 'Fulfill this Word unto Thy servant, whereon Thou hast caused me to hope.' Oh! It is grand praying when our mouth is full of God's Word, for there is no word that can prevail with Him like His own." I like how Rosscup introduces his exposition of Daniel 9 on a great prayer answered by a great prophecy... Daniel is sensitive to his people’s need, saturated with God’s Word, sympathetic with fellow Israelites in their plight, and surrendered to God. (Rosscup, J. E. An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible: Igniting the Fuel to Flame Our Communication with God) (Bolding Added) I, Daniel, observed in the books - Not the devotionals. Not the commentaries (even the one you are reading!). The books of God's Word, in this case Jeremiah the prophet. Remember that Daniel was in an important position of leadership under Darius (cf Da 6:1,2-note), but his "busyness" did not lead to "barrenness" (spiritually speaking) for it did not prevent him from serious Bible study and prayer (cp Da 6:10 - "three times a day"!). Beloved, you may be the president of a corporation or the janitor in that corporation, but in either case you are in daily, even "desperate" need of the intake of the pure milk of God's Truth in a world filled with deception and lies! (cp Mt 4:4, John 8:31, 32, 36, 1Pe 2:1, 2-note = Take care of the business of verse one so that you will have the "infant-like" yearning and hunger of verse two!; He 5:14-note, Job 23:12-note -Does this have anything to do with why/how Job was able to bear up under unspeakable tribulations and sufferings?; Joshua 1:8-note, Ps 1:1-note, Ps 1:2-note, Ps 1:3-note-What are the promises from God in Joshua and Psalm 1?; Jas 1:23, 24-note; Jas 1:25-note). Beloved, mark it down -- If you are too busy for serious time with your Lord in His clearly spoken, accurately recorded, everlasting, very personal Word of Truth and Life, then simply put... YOU ARE TOO BUSY! John Phillips offers a good word of caution... If, in our study of the sacred page, we are so eager to get on with exploring prophecies that we neglect such passages as this, then we are in no spiritual condition to study prophecy at all. Prophecy is not in the Bible just to satisfy our curiosity about the future; it's there to help develop our spiritual capacity. (for the present) (Exploring the Book of Daniel: An Expository Commentary) (Bolding and parenthetic statement added) The word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet - This phrase clearly teaches that God spoke to and through His servants, the prophets. What they recorded was not "their own words" but "God's very words" in written form. Do you realize that every time you open the Bible and read a passage or paragraph, God is speaking directly to you? Do you really believe that He is speaking to you? He is because He has! While the canon of Scripture is closed, God still speaks clearly in His Word, the Bible. What other Book can you read where the Creator of the Universe is speaking to you? What other Book can you read where the "Author" Himself indwells you, teaches you, enables you to understand and then gives you the power to comply? So what's your excuse? Why are you not on your knees daily allowing Him to speak to your wayward heart? The amazing truth is that He the Almighty Creator even yearns for an intimate, personal relationship with you His creation. You are very important to Him, regardless of what messages you have heard from misguided parents, friends and foes or the world system. God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (Jn 3:16) Have you accepted His amazing, "life changing" invitation to believe in the Lord Jesus (Acts 16:31, Acts 4:12, Jn 8:12, 24)? The number of years - What does this phrase say about Daniel's approach to the interpretation of prophecy? He does not say "the symbolism" of the "years" nor the "spiritualization" of the "years" but the number of years. Beloved when the plain sense (literal, normative grammatical sense) of what God is saying makes good sense, we dare not take it in some other sense (allegorical, symbolical or spiritualized sense), lest our interpretation end up being no-sense (nonsense)! Namely seventy years - Daniel interprets the prophecy of seventy years as literal and does not attempt to spiritualize it (See Literal Interpretation), as so often happens when one attempts to interpret Scripture which is of the "apocalyptic" genre (cp attempts to spiritualize the specific number "one thousand" in Re 20:2-note, Re 20:3-note, Re 20:4-note, Rev 20:5-note, Re 20:6-note, Re 20:7-note - not once but six times!). (See related topics - The Rise of Allegorical Interpretation and Understanding Numbers) Daniel was reading Jeremiah the prophet and this may have been the passage that he was reading... (Jeremiah writes that) From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah (~627BC = Inception of Jeremiah's ministry - cp Jer 1:2), even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again (referring to true prophets, not the false prophets rampant in Jeremiah's day - cp Je 14:14, 15, 16, Je 23:16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31ff, Je 27:14, 15), but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear, saying, 'Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell on the land which the LORD has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever; 6 and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands (Idolatry), and I will do you no harm (A conditional promise).' 7 "Yet you have not listened to Me," declares the LORD, "in order that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. 8 "Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Because you have not obeyed My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north (cp Je 1:14, 15, 16), 'declares the LORD,' and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant (cp Jer 27:6 - Refusal to listen to his servants the prophets would necessitate His use of another type of "servant" to get Israel's attention! Note that God is not the Author of evil but in the mystery of the sovereignty of God, He is able to use evil men and nations to bring about His desired ends. And at the same time He is perfectly justified in punishing these evil men and nations as described below in verse 12), and will bring them against this land (The Land of Israel), and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them a horror, and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. 10 'Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 'And this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 'Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,' declares the LORD, 'for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it (Babylon) an everlasting desolation (A prophecy which was partially fulfilled in 539BC in Da 5:31 but which will be fully fulfilled in Re 18:2-note, Re 18:19-note). (Jer 25:3-12) WHY SEVENTY YEARS? Why did God specify seventy years? First we must understand God's ordinance of the Sabbath year which He specified to Moses at Mount Sinai as recorded in Leviticus 25... Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, 'When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD. 'Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. Your harvest's aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. And all of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. (Lev 25:2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Comment: The year of Sabbath Rest for the land also had other important associations including (1) the remission of debts (Dt 31:10) and (2) the reading of His Word ("the law", presumably the Torah) so that they might hear God's Word (How important is it that we today preach this same Word!) and learn a proper reverential fear of Him (Dt 31:11, 12, 13). THE FEAR OF JEHOVAH Remember that "fear" of God is a good thing, not a bad thing. There are many advantages associated with proper fear of Jehovah, a doctrine found in both the Old and New Testaments! For a profitable time of study, read over the following passages and make a list of the spiritual "dividends" that accrue when one fears the LORD (this would make a simple but powerful Sunday School lesson) - Pr 1:7 [cf Pr 15:33, Ps 111:10-note, Mic 6:9], Pr 9:10, Ps 25:14 [Where Hebrew word for "secret" conveys the following senses - intimate=Pr 3:32, sweet fellowship=Ps 55:14, friendship=Job 29:4, secret counsel=Am 3:7; Job 1:1, 9, 28:28 [What does fear cause Job to do which is similar to Pr 3:7, 8:13, 16:6?], Does fear of the LORD come naturally? = Ps 34:11-note [cf. the prayer of Ps 119:38-note]; Ps 115:13-note; Ps 103:11-note; Ps 103:13-note ; Ps 103:17-note, Ps 145:19-note; Ps 147:11-note; What do we have to do? Pr 1:29 - Play the chorus We Choose the Fear of the LORD; Pr 10:27, Pr 14:26, Pr 14:27, Pr 19:23, Pr 22:4, What is fear an "antidote" for? See Pr 23:17 and Pr 29:25; Ec 8:12, 13, Ge 22:12, Ps 33:18-note; Ps 34:7-note, Ps 34:9-note; Ps 86:11-note; Beware = Isa 29:13; Ps 2:11-note [where "reverence" = fear]; Pr 31:30; Ps 128:1-note [cf Pr 28:14, Ps 112:1-note, Ps 112:2-note, Ps 112:3-note]; Lk 12:4, 5; Acts 9:31; 2Cor 7:1-note; Ep 5:21-note, Php 2:12-note; 1Pe 1:17-note; 1Pe 2:17-note; Mal 4:2; Ec 12:13, 14, Re 11:18-note, Re 19:5-note) Again in Leviticus (and Dt 28:1-30:20, esp Dt 30:19, 20) God made it clear that if His people Israel obeyed Him, He would abundantly bless them, but... if you do not obey (shama = listen so as to obey, used repeatedly with this sense in Daniel 9!) Me and do not carry out all these commandments, if, instead, you reject (Hebrew "ma'ac" = to despise, spurn, disdain, scorn. Wow! Woe!) My statutes, and if your soul abhors (Heb = "qa'al" = intense aversion, detest, loath, vilely cast away! Woe again!) My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, I, in turn, will do this to you (Lev 26:14, 15, 16a)... I will scatter (you) (Hebrew = zarah = disperse as scattering seed; see diaspora) among the nations (Northern 10 Tribes were taken captive to Assyria in 722BC, the Southern 2 Tribes to Babylon, 605, 597, 586BC) and will draw out a sword after you, as your land (Israel) becomes desolate and your cities become waste. 'Then (When?) the land (of Israel) will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land (of Israel) will rest (Hebrew = shabath) and enjoy its sabbaths (Hebrew = shabbath). All the days of its desolation (referring to the land of Israel) it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it. (Lev 26:33, 34, 35) In Second Chronicles we read that... those (In Israel and Jerusalem) who had escaped from the sword he (Nebuchadnezzar) carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, (Always take note of "until" which specifies when something comes to an end, in this case the Babylonian captivity) 21 to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah (Jer 25:11,12, Je 29:10), until (Note) the land (of Israel) had enjoyed its sabbaths (In Le 25:4 [cf. Ex 23:10, 11] God had specified that the land was to "rest" and lay fallow for one year - other important events were also commanded to occur every 7 years - Dt 15:1, Ex 21:2, Ne 10:31). All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete (70 sabbaths would be 70 x 7 years or 490 years which is the period from about the time of Saul to the Babylonian captivity during which they did not keep the sabbath for the land). 22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia -- in order to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah-- the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, 23 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up!'" (2Chr 36:20, 21, 22, 23, cf Ezra 1:1, 2, 3, 4 and Isa 48:28, 45:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) Comment: In punishing Israel, Jehovah used a Gentile King Nebuchadnezzar to carry them off into Babylonian captivity for seventy years and then used another Gentile King Cyrus of Persia (Read Isaiah's incredible prophecy of Cyrus almost 150 years before Cyrus was even born and about 100 years before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple and sacked Jerusalem in 586BC - Is 44:28, Is 45:1, 2, 3, 4) to bring them out of captivity and back to the land of Israel. How sovereign is God in history? Do you believe He is that sovereign in your life, beloved? We can trust Him. He is in control even when our life seems out of control! Eugene Merrill adds that "“The real tragedy of the exile was not the removal of the people nor even the utter destruction of the city and the temple. It was the departure of their God from their midst, an absence symbolized in one of Ezekiel’s visions by the movement of the Shekinah from the temple to the summit of the Mount of Olives (Ezek 11:23-see note). If we take 605BC (the first of the three deportations, followed by 597BC and 586BC) as the inception of the 70 years, Daniel would have received this vision in about the 67th or 68th year of the Babylonian captivity (First year of Darius ~539/538BC) and thus he would realize that the exile would soon "expire" (536BC). Remember that revelation should always cause a response. And what does this Scriptural revelation prompt this great man of God to do? In this case Daniel's response was to pray! ISRAEL'S INCORRIGIBLE IDOLATRY The other reason God took Judah into exile and sent desolation on the land and His Temple is because His people were flagrantly worshipping idols rather than the true and living God. God states His case in second Chronicles declaring... Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place and it shall not be quenched. (2Chr 34:25) Comment: A W Tozer said that "Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is - in itself a monstrous sin - and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness. Always this God will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges. A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true God. ”Thou thoughtest,” said the Lord to the wicked man in the psalm, ”that I was altogether such as one as thyself.” Surely this must be a serious affront to the Most High God before whom cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, ”Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.” Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place. (Knowledge Of The Holy) (Note also that "Idolatry" begins with a "Big I"! Need I say more!) In a more general sense, Israel's failure to keep the sabbath years and her continual seeking like a harlot after abominable idols reflected specific aspects of her disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant ("The Ten Commandments") and its "addendum" (Note Dt 29:1 specifically says "besides the covenant...") which was spoken through Moses at Moab (Dt 29:1 - In the Hebrew Bible this verse is the last verse of Dt 28 and thus may be a concluding statement of the preceding declaration rather than an introduction to what follows. Some refer to this as the "Palestinian Covenant" viewing it as giving Israel the title to the land [Dt 30:5] but MacArthur sees that the emphasis is more on the change of Israel's heart - cf Dt 29:4 and Dt 30:6 this latter an allusion to the "New Covenant" of Jer 31:31-34) (The context is the "addendum" issued at Moab) And all the nations (the Gentiles) shall say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land (Israel)? Why this great outburst of anger?' Then men shall say, 'Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt." (So even the heathen recognize Israel's failure to remain faithful to her covenant promises to Jehovah!) (Dt 29:24, 25) Daniel 9:3 So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. I set: Da 6:10 Neh 1:4-11 Ps 102:13-17 Jer 29:10-13 33:3 Ezek 36:37 Jas 5:16-18 with fasting: Da 10:2,3 Ezra 8:21 9:5 10:6 Neh 1:4 9:1 Es 4:1-3,16 Ps 35:13 Ps 69:10,11 Isa 22:12 Joe 1:13 2:12 Jonah 3:6-9 Lk 2:37 Ac 10:30 Jas 4:8-10 Daniel 9 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries SUPERNATURAL RESPONSE OF A SCRIPTURE SATURATED SAINT Too many people study Bible prophecy out of curiosity, but fail to let their study impact their spiritual life. Not so with Daniel. Daniel was undoubtedly a man of prayer as emphasized by the fact that four of the twelve chapters record him praying and about 125 of the 356 verses in the book deal in some way with his prayers! (see esp Da 2:17, 18, 6:10, 11, 13, ) Is it any surprise that Daniel was highly esteemed in heaven’s throne room (Daniel 9:23; 10:11, 18)? Lord, give us more "highly esteemed Daniels" in these dark days of decadence and decline. Amen. Ray Pritchard notes that... Our prayers never exist in a vacuum. The prayer that touches God’s heart must be rooted in God’s Word. As Luther said, we ought to take God’s promises and fling them back in his face. “Lord, you said you would do this. You made a promise. Now, Lord, do what you said you would do.”
Daniel 9:1-23
Guzik writes that... Cause Your face to shine: This is the heart of Daniel's plea. He knows that God's people need so much, but all their need can be summed up in this: they need God's face to shine upon them. "Oh, that we might learn how to pray so that God should be the subject as well as the object of our supplications! O God, thy Church needs thee above everything else! A poor, little, sick, neglected child needs fifty things; but you can put all those needs into one if you say that the child needs its mother. So, the Church, of God needs a thousand things, but you can put them all into one if you say, 'The Church of God needs her God.' " (Spurgeon) Daniel's prayer is consumed with the glory of God, not primarily the benefit of man. His purpose in prayer was to see God's work accomplished and His cause glorified. We should pray with the same passion and concern for the work of God in our congregations and communities. We can pray the prayer of Psalm 85:6: Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? Alone and in groups we can pray for God to pour out the Holy Spirit, to bring repentance and revival among His people, and to awaken the unconverted. This also speaks to purity of motive in Daniel's prayer. Sometimes we pray for God to do a great work so we can be known as great workers for God. We need to pray for the sake of the Lord's cause, both in our words and heart. Daniel 9:18 "O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. incline: 1Ki 8:29 2Ki 19:16 Ps 17:6,7 Isa 37:17 63:15-19 64:12 See our desolations: Ex 3:7 Ps 80:14-19 Which is called by You name: Jer 7:10 14:9 15:16 25:29 1Co 1:2 for we: Isa 64:6 Jer 14:7 Eze 36:32 presenting: Heb. cause to fall, Jer 36:7 37:20 Daniel 9 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Not...on account of any merits of our own - Not our goodness, but God's goodness! Pritchard... It’s worth noting that the petition section comes at the end of the prayer. He doesn’t ask God for anything at all until he has first thoroughly confessed the sins of the people. After all, until the sin that caused the exile in the first place is dealt with, there is no basis for asking God to restore his people. Taking the prayer as a whole, we discover that everything Daniel says is based upon God’s character: You are awesome—(Da 9:4) You always keep your promises—(Da 9:4) You are righteous—(Da 9:7) You are a forgiving God—(Da 9:9) You have a great name—(Da 9:15) You are a merciful God—(Da 9:18) In many ways verse 18 is the theme of the whole prayer: “We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.” What a crucial insight that is. So many times we pray because we secretly think we have “earned” the right by our good behavior to ask God to bless us. Daniel chose the opposite tack. “Lord, we don’t deserve to be heard by you because we have sinned greatly against you. The only reason we come to you is because you are a God of love and grace.” When we approach God with that attitude, we will discover that he welcomes us into his presence and listens graciously to every word we say. (The Positive Power of Prayer) Guzik... This is what it means to pray in the name of Jesus. Those aren't words we tack on to the end of a prayer, but they should express the fact we are praying in merits and righteousness of Jesus, not our own. Daniel was not great because he prayed. He was great because his prayer was the necessary expression of great trust and dependence on God. Many religious people spend countless hours in prayer but it achieves nothing because it is not rooted in the goodness and righteousness of God. Self righteous or self trusting prayer is of no power before God. "One of Satan's most subtle delusions is that he succeeds in getting hundreds of thousands of men to trust in prayer, apart from faith in the shed blood of Jesus." (Talbot) But on account of - When we approach God in prayer, we always do so on the basis not of who we are or what think we merit but on the basis of Who God is, a God Whose great compassion flings open the door of the Throne Room of Heaven that we might dare (yea, even boldly) approach Him through Christ Jesus our Mediator. Hallelujah. Great compassion - God answers prayer because of His mercy not man's merit! Regarding God's great compassion, Francis Schaeffer once said... I must say that when I pray for my country and our culture, I do not pray for God’s justice. I can only plead for His mercy. If we had the justice of God, we would not have peace. We would have a situation like Jeremiah’s (referring to Jer 25:10). How dare we pray for justice upon our culture when we have so deliberately turned away for God and His revelation? Why should God bless us? (Woe!) (Death in the City. 1969) Daniel 9:19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name. forgive: Nu 14:19 1Ki 8:30-39 2Ch 6:21,25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30,39 Am 7:2 Lk 11:8 do not delay: Ps 44:23-26 74:9, 10, 11 79:5 85:5,6 102:13,14 Isa 64:9, 10, 11, 12 Your own sake: Ps 79:8, 9, 10 102:15,16 115:1,2 Jer 14:7,20,21 Eze 20:9,14,22 Eze 36:22 39:25 Eph 1:6,12 3:10 because your city: Da 9:18 Ps 79:6 Isa 63:16-19 Jer 14:9 25:29 Daniel 9 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries "O Adonai, hear; O Adonai, forgive; O Adonai, hearken and do: defer not, for thine own sake, O my God" O Lord - O Adonai - Three times. It's as if Daniel is crying out "Master, give me Judah or I die!"
Daniel 9:1-23
Guzik quips... Both Daniel and the Apostle John (John 13:23) were noted for their love-relationship with God. Both Daniel and John were also noted for receiving amazing prophetic messages. Daniel had just considered a set of "sevens" upon the nation of Israel - the 70 years of promised captivity prophesied by Jeremiah. It is as if God said through Gabriel, "I'll show you some 'sevens' that will really blow your mind." When we seek God diligently, we often receive more than we ask for. F B Meyer (Our Daily Homily) has the following devotional on Daniel 9:23... At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued This is always so. Directly a God-given prayer is uttered, the commandment goes forth. There is a sense, indeed, in which true prayer is the anticipation in the human heart of the Divine intention: “Before they call I will answer; and whilst they are yet speaking I will hear.” (Isa 65:24) Does it seem as though your prayer were like a ship lost at sea, which brings no cargo home? Dare to believe that the commandment did go forth, though as yet it has not reached you. It is operating; and before long you shall see the result. “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye have received them.” The answer may not have come to hand, but it has been granted. Even if you do not live to see the answer, dare to believe that it is assured. What a tender address is this— “greatly beloved”! And the margin says very precious. Is it really so, that we are very precious to God? To those who believe, Christ is precious; but how wonderful that they should be amongst his jewels, who were born of the first Adam, and have cost so much pain and sorrow by their sins! There is no accounting for love. Directly love begins to enumerate the reasons for its attachment, it ceases to be true love. Love knows no law except the drawing of an inward affinity. So Jesus draws near to us. We are very precious to Him. To have our love well compensates Him for all his bitter sorrow. Let us be very careful not to hurt Him, or give Him needless grief. And when we pray, let it be with the assurance that He bends over us and says, “Thou art greatly beloved; ask what thou wilt.” As soon as the child of God says “Father,” the whole Godhead is quick to hear his request. Continued in.... Daniel 9:24 Commentary Daniel 9:25 Commentary Daniel 9:26 Commentary Daniel 9:27 Commentary DANIEL 8 DANIEL 9:24