Daniel 9:8,9 - To the Lord belong mercy and forgiveness

9:8

“We are covered with shame because  we have sinned against you”. When we sin it brings shame upon us, when a nation rejects God it brings shame upon that nation. The individual or the society will often react to this by seeking to bring shame upon anyone who calls the nation out, just as happened to the prophets who went to Israel. And the same happens in our society today, just witness what happens to anyone who questions the LGBTQ agenda.  The only way to get rid of shame is to acknowledge our sin and to repent.

9:9

Our natural reaction to being told we are sinners (denial, self-justification  or excusing ourselves) is useless. It is also based on a fundamental misunderstanding, and that is that if we are indeed guilty of the sin we are accused of, then God will take that as a reason to condemn us. But Jesus said He did not come into the world to condemn it, John 3:16-21 sums up the situation perfectly. It is often misunderstood by thinking that it means Jesus does not tell us that any of our ways are wrong. That is not what it is saying. Rather it is saying that the result of our admitting our sin will not be condemnation, but forgiveness. “For the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him”. However, if we refuse to admit our sin, then we are “condemned already” (John 3:18).

Revelation 15:5,6 - The temple in heaven was opened

15:5

NIV has “I saw in heaven the temple - that is, the tabernacle of the covenant law”. ESV, and others, have “the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven”. ESV is probably more accurate, but whatever the case it seems to be pointing to the tabernacle in the Exodus. The tabernacle was opened.

15:6

Out of the tabernacle came the seven angels with the seven plagues. So these plagues are not just things that happened, they were deliberately delivered to the earth by God. They were a divine act. The angels were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes. These were “good” angels, not demons. Emphasising again the divine nature of the acts, they are a deliberate and righteous part of God’s plan.

Daniel 9:6,7 - We have not listened to your prophets

9:6

Perhaps the defining feature of this prayer is the acknowledgement of sinfulness, and Daniel is praying both on behalf of himself and of the nation as a whole. Today we seem to want to try and get people into the kingdom without mentioning sin until the last moment. God had sent prophet after prophet, they gave the clearest of warnings, but the nation did not listen to them. The prophets spoke both to the leaders and the powerful, and to the ordinary people.

9:7

“Lord, you are righteous, but we are covered with shame”. And this applied to all of God’s people, whether they were in Jerusalem, Judah, Israel, or in one of the countries to which many of them had been exiled. This distinction between the righteousness of God and the shame of the people is crucial. And it goes right against the common perception of people today. Today society considers God to be covered with shame, and mankind to be righteous. We have got it so completely wrong. The Israelites were scattered because of their unfaithfulness.

Revelation 15:3,4 - Great and marvellous are your deeds

15:3

They sang the song of Moses, this stresses the continuity of the Bible. Abraham and Moses are often looked back on in the New Testament, and the tone is almost always that the gospel is the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises. The words of this short song are reminiscent of the Old Testament, e.g. Ps 86:10. The Lord’s deeds are great and marvellous, and we should note that this is coming just before various plagues will be poured out. All that God does is just and true, and He is the King of the Nations. Many object to the ways of the Lord, but on the last day all His ways will be shown to have been true.

15:4

Everyone should fear the Lord and give glory to His Name. For He alone is Holy. There is no one like our God. No one else who created the universe and everything in it, no one else who keeps the universe going. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess, for all will see that Christ is Lord. There will come a time when God makes it obvious to the whole world the righteousness of all His acts.

Daniel 9:4,5 - We have sinned and done wrong

9:4

So what was Daniel’s response in prayer? The dominant point is that it is God oriented. “I prayed to the Lord and confessed”. Confession of our sins is vital and central. We tend to downplay this these days, but this is a great mistake. “Repent and believe”, and “repent for the kingdom of heaven is near” are repeated commands in the New Testament. The fundamental element of the fall is a rejection of God and His ways. We think that we can decide what is right and wrong, and that we do not need to worship God. God is a “great and awesome God”. And He keeps His covenant of love. We are creatures who do not keep our promises. And is a covenant of love with those who “love Him and keep His commandments”. We are so prone to blaming God, but it is always we who are to blame, not God.

9:5

“We have sinned and done wrong”. Until we reach the point of admitting this, owning up to it, we will not make any progress. “We have been wicked and rebelled”. We spend an awful lot of time in self-justification and denial. As long as we stay in that state there is no prospect of progress. This is not just a matter of not liking the state we are in, the consequences of our actions. It is admitting that “we have turned away from your commands and laws”. We should have been obeying God’s commands, not going our own way. 

Revelation 15:2 - Those who had been victorious over the beast

15:2

Before the plagues come we have quite a description of what is going on in heaven. The plagues come from heaven, they are God ordained. The wrath is also a vindication of those “who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name”. In the early church the day of a man’s martyrdom was sometimes called the day of his victory. Why victory? Because despite all that was thrown against the man by the enemy, he refused to deny Christ. The enemy had failed, the martyr had won. We should also note that they had been victorious. A terrifying picture is painted of the beast, and we should be aware of how terrible the beast will be, but we should be equally aware that by perseverance and faithfulness we are the ones who will overcome the beast. He will be a defeated enemy.

Daniel 9:1-3 - I turned my face to the Lord

9:1

The bulk of this chapter is a prayer of Daniel, and a prayer that is very instructive. This is followed by more revelations from Gabriel. These events happened in the first year of the Persian Kingdom. There is great debate over the precise identity of Darius son of Xerxes. Part of the problem is that it was not uncommon for kings to be known by two or more names. He was a descendent of a Mede, so had affinities with both the Perisan and Mede kingdoms.

9:2,3

Daniel knew the book of Jeremiah. Note also that he refers to “the Scriptures”, so it is clear that Jeremiah had canonical status at a very early stage. Jer 25:10 and 29:11 state that the desolation would last for seventy years. The Babylonian reign was over and so Daniel concluded that the end of the exile must be in sight. We should not get bogged down in looking for a precise seventy years, rather it signifies the period of God’s judgment upon both the people and the land.

Biblical prophecy does not lead to passivity. The attitude of “God has said this will happen, therefore it will just happen and it doesn’t matter what we do” is not an attitude that finds any support in the Bible. Daniel’s response is to pray to the Lord, and to fast in sackcloth and ashes. God’s word leads to action on our part, God involves us in His plans.