O LORD, we are covered with shame--our kings, our leaders, and our fathers--because we have sinned against You. Sermons
I. THE MOMENT IN TIME. This was most critical; for: 1. The moment had been anticipated in prophecy. (Jeremiah 25:11, 12; Jeremiah 29:10-14.) How Daniel reckoned the seventy years, and how others did so, must be carefully observed. The deportation to Babylon extended over twenty years; hence different men took a different starting-date whence to reckon the seventy. Daniel reckons from the first siege, the date of his own going into captivity ( B.C. 606). Zechariah from the third siege, (1) from the beginning of it, B.C. 590 (Zechariah 1:12); (2) from its close, B.C. 588 (Zechariah 7:1, 5). The prophets wrote each from his own standpoint, and there are no discrepancies, though the critical school tries to create them. 2. It was immediately after the fall of Babylon. (Ver. 1.) 3. The Cyrus of prophecy was on the throne of Persia. Darius was only vicegerent in Babylon (Isaiah 44:24-45:7). In the very next year Cyrus issued his decree (Ezra 2:1, 2). 4. It was offered at the exact moment of evening sacrifice. (Ver. 21.) II. THE FOUNDATION OF THE PRAYER. The Word of God, as contained in "the Scriptures." We should read ver. 2 thus: "I Daniel understood by the Scriptures the number of the years." The expression is, indeed, most remarkable, and has been laid hold of to impugn Daniel's authorship. This is said in substance: The expression shows that the Old Testament was, when the Book of Daniel was written, complete. It must then have been written after the close of the Old Testament canon; not then by Daniel, but by some one very much later. The author, whoever he was, has inadvertently betrayed himself. The answer would be best given by showing historically the gradual formation of the canon all the way down from Moses, and particularly that from his time even "the Scriptures" had an acknowledged existence. (See Westcott, on 'The Canon,' specially p. 251, in Dr. Smith's 'Dict. of the Bible.' See also Pusey on Jonah 1:1.) Enough for us here to note that Daniel's prayer was founded on the prophecy and promise of Daniel's God. Enough for practical purposes. III. ITS SOLEMN AND DELIBERATE CHARACTER. Imagine vividly the crisis. The first great world-power had already gone down. How long the second and third might last, who could tell? Then would appear the fourth, during whose existence "one like a Son of man" would come "with the clouds of heaven." The deliverer from captivity (Cyrus) had already appeared - was on the throne of power. 1. Such a prayer could not be breathed amidst life's business. Retirement, leisure, deliberateness, solemnity, were all essential. 2. There had been preparation for it. "Fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes," i.e. the withdrawal of the spirit from the realm of the sensuous, the assumption of the mourner's garb, the sign of abasement and grief, viz. casting ashes on the head. 3. Daniel's mode of speaking implies deliberation and solemnity. "I set my face," etc. "Unto the Lord God," with perhaps the lattice open "toward Jerusalem." IV. ITS CONTENTS. In a sense we would analyze it; but not so as to dissipate the aroma of its sweetly plaintive devotional spirit. 1. The invocation. (Ver. 4.) In these words we trove: (1) Some of the glorious attributes of God referred to. And: (a) His majesty. All great in him. (b) Fidelity to covenant. Whether the terms be written in the ordinances of heaven, the social constitution of man, the development of providence, the book of the Law, or the gospel of his Son. But "the covenant" specially. (c) Mercy. (2) An answering feeling. Dread. Not the abjectness of fear, but the prostration of reverent love. 2. The confession. In it there are the following specialities: The iniquity of the nation is set forth: (1) In its greatness. Terms that to us are almost synonymous in Daniel's Hebrew set forth the nation's sin as failure, perversity, disturbance, rebellion, departure from all that is holiest and best, disobedience to the one supreme voice. (2) In its aggravations. The Law disregarded. Prophets unheeded. See the history (2 Chronicles 36:14-16). Divine judgments in vain. (3) In its universality. The ten tribes "afar off," and the two "near." (4) In its effects. The fulfilment of oath and curse-in the desolations of temple and city, Church and nation. 3. The vindication of God. (Vers. 7, 8, 11-14.) 4. Complaint. The reproach of the people and the ruin of the sanctuary were the prophet's mighty griefs (vers. 16, 17, 18). "Our desolations." 5. The petition. (1) The plea. It is for: (a) The cherishing of anger. (Ver. 16.) (b) The recognition of the desolation. (Ver. 18.) (c) The favouring smile of God. (Ver. 17.) (d) Pardon. (Ver. 19.) (e) Divine action. (Ver. 19.) (f) Instant and speedy relief. (Ver. 19.) (2) Its ground. Observe: (a) Daniel has never forgotten for a moment the covenant relation of God. Note: "The Lord my God;" "The Lord our God;" (b) Toward the close all the argument is fetched, not from what man is, but from what God is. "According to all thy righteousness;" "For the Lord's sake;" "The city which is called by thy name;" "For thy great mercies;" "For thine own sake;" "Thy city and thy people are called by thy name." V. THE ANSWER. 1. Instantaneous. 2. Most marked. 3. By angelic envoy. In conclusion, observe: 1. The noble unselfishness of the prayer. All intercessory. 2. Its consequent prevalence. Every word was answered. Next year out came the edict of Cyrus for the restoration. - R.
Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. We take the words of the text in their more general reference. They are such as we ought all to use. Glory is ascribed to God; a proper view and estimate of our own character is taken.I. GOD HAS SPOKEN TO US. Daniel speaks of "the voice of the Lord our God." So Paul — "God, who spake in time past unto the fathers," etc., "hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." And he exhorts us not to "refuse Him who speaketh from heaven." The meaning is a direct communication. Not mere intimations — as by sign, works — leaving us to collect inferences. The Scriptures are — by the inspiration by which they were given — the actual voice of God to us, on all the subjects to which they refer. Fully realise the solemn truth — The great and dreadful God hath spoken to us. II. "BY HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS, HE HATH SET HIS LAWS BEFORE US." Here is the purpose of His voice. Man is distinguished from all other earthly creatures by his moral capacities and faculties. He is thus made in the image of God. Constituted God's subject. Bound by the will of God; that will, expressed, is the Divine law. This is done in Scripture. Its principles, its prohibitions, its requirements; by direct precept, by larger explanation, in various examples, are there set before us — as the law of God, the sanctioned expression of His will. III. THIS VOICE "WE HAVE NOT OBEYED." Speak not now of our natural condition — our fallen nature. We have followed our own inclinations; and the action has been as the originating principle. IV. WE ARE THUS GUILTY OF REBELLION. God is our Sovereign. We have, as to our hearts and lives, sought to dethrone Him. We have refused to His law its just supremacy. Other lords have thus had dominion over us. V. FOR THIS REASON, "CONFUSION OF FACE BELONGS TO US." Shame one of our natural emotions. Called for by humbling sense of real impropriety and wrong. We may be hardened; we may mix ourselves with the general mass; still, rightly viewed, sin is a shameful thing. When Divine light is received and obeyed, we feel our personal guilt. We have no excuse. VI. NEVERTHELESS, " TO THE LORD OUR GOD BELONG MERCIES AND FORGIVENESS." It is a fact — not merely good to the obedient, but long-suffering to the guilty. His words reveal it as a perfection of His nature. Describes the wisdom that has devised means for its fitting and consistent exercise. God is merciful, and it is in Christ. Pardon may be had — it is through Christ. The wickedness of sin. It is rebellion against a sovereignty of purity, wisdom, love. (G. Cubitt.) To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses. There can be no so prevalent a persuasive and inducement to repentance, no so powerful a charm to win the hearts of sinners, and melt them down into a relenting compliance with the Divine will, as the serious consideration on the one hand of God's gracious dealings with us, and of our own ungracious returns on the other hand; of His mercies and forgivenesses, and of our rebellions and disobediences. The whole business of religion is comprised in these two heads, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. How can we better come to the knowledge of God than by studying those attributes of His which make up the perfection of His very nature? And what likelier way for us to arrive at the true knowledge and right understanding of ourselves than to contemplate the pravity and corruption of our natures, and the provoking sinfulness of our lives? There being nothing else in us that we can truly and properly call our own. Divine goodness is here recommended to us by two obliging terms, of mercy and forgiveness1. Mercy, the essential character of His nature. Forgiveness, the gratuitous product and expression of His gracious will. Mercy in the Father's self, for He is the a Father of mercie." Forgiveness for the sake of His Son, the Mediator. Mercy in the ordinary course of Providence; and forgiveness upon the terms and covenant of grace. Consider, then, what a gracious God we have to do with, whose very nature and being consists of mercies and forgivenesses. Let us fill our souls with a reciprocal love and answerable affections to the Lord our God. 'Tis this mercy of our God that makes Him God: and 'tis this mercy of His that should oblige us to His service, and make Him our God. 2. What less could be expected from a merciful God than this, that He should forgive sins? This is the special instance of mercy, that He is a God forgiving sins, and pardoning iniquities. Let us assure ourselves that what mercy we find at His hands, as we are His creatures, the same forgiveness we shall obtain of Him as we are His redeemed' ones. (Adam Littleton, D.D.) I. Sin's essence. What constitutes its character? No unanswerable question is here asked as to the parent of its birth; here is no search into its originating cause. The simple inquiry is, Where is its sphere of work, and what is its distinctive nature? Scripture states in terms intelligible and incontrovertible, "Sin is the transgression of the law." (1 John 3:4.) God, as supreme in all His universe, fixes His mode of government. This essence appears in frightful enormity when the purport of this law is viewed. The sum of its requirements is worthy of the great Lawgiver. In Divine simplicity it only requires love. The whole inward man must be bright in one complexion — love. Any deviation from this course constitutes sin. This sublimity brightly shows the origin of the law to be Divine. As a mirror it reflects Jehovah's excellence; it is the transcript of His glorious being; it is holiness on its highest throne; it is purity in its loveliest form; it is perfection without one alloy. How abominable, then, is that principle which hates and resists such code, and strives to crush it beneath insulting steps! It follows that the need of forgiveness is universal, for sin exercises a sway coextensive with all human life. It grasps each mother's son in its vile arms, and stays not its assaults while time endures. II. This need becomes more apparent as advance is made from sin's essence to some of its developments. Here it appears a many-headed hydra, a fiend of various forms. Its outbreak towards God, towards the soul within, towards the world around, betray it.(1) Let diverse instances show its conduct towards God. Its feelings may be thus classed. Alienation. Whatever departs from God's rule departs from Himself. Contrariety to His law separates from His mind. Disinclination to His will moves altogether in an adverse course. Hatred. "The carnal mind" — and every mind is such in which the Spirit dwells not — "is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Romans 8:7.) Sin has strong inclinations, and they all are arrayed against His righteous ways. It has ungodly bias towards the abominable things which God hates. Contempt. With haughty look it sneers at sacred precepts. It scorns them as weak precision. It spurns the restrictions of godly walk as derogatory to man's liberty. Defiance. It raises an insulting head. It braves displeasure. It ridicules all penal consequences. Rebellion. It shivers the yoke. It breaks restraining bands. It ignores submission. Treason. It enters into conspiracy with all Heaven's foes. It joins hands with every adversary. Robbery. God, as Sovereign, has a right to exact obedience. Sin defrauds Him of this due. Such, and many more, are the developments of sin in reference to God. Thus the position is established, that vast is the need of vast forgiveness.(2) The picture darkens when the developments of sin in reference to the soul are seen. It changes this garden of the Lord into a waste howling wilderness. Fragrant flowers cease to bloom; thorns and briars usurp their place. It dims the noblest jewel of God's creation.(3) The case assumes more frightful hue when sin's inroads on the world around is added. Doubtless sin is inborn. It is an hereditary disease; the seeds of every evil are innate in each heart. Unaided by contagion it would universally exist; but yet by contact, influence, example, it multiplies, and becomes more rampant. A spark from without kindles the dry stubble; bad men wax worse by bad fellowship. To the forgiveness of sins attention now reverts. The subject justly claims large share of pious thought. Angels may gaze and marvel, but they have no experience of its joys; for none of that pure company exult in pardon. It is the heartfelt property of the redeemed. I. Sin's guilt. Guilt is that property of sin which links it to God's wrath. It constitutes its criminality, and forbids immunity. That sin has this property is clear; it stands confessedly a convict. It cannot plead that it is guiltless; therefore avowedly it merits punishment. Thus in reference to God it has been proved to be alienation, hatred, contempt, defiance, robbery, treason, rebellion. Can such be its guilty state; can it evidently work havoc throughout all creation, and shall God sit indifferent, as though He saw no evil? The very thought strips Him of the glories of His holiness. Righteousness is no more righteous, if it withholds the righteous condemnation, Truth lies low in ignominious steams, if the words be not fulfilled, "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23.) Thus the guilty cannot be screened as guiltless. Doubtless God is rich in His mercy; His mercy endureth for ever; His mercy reacheth unto the heavens. "To the Lord our God belong mercies." But mercy cannot annihilate the attributes which sit as conquerors on the glorious throne. It lives co-equal with them. Its delight is to exalt, to magnify, to glorify them. Who now can fail to feel that the guilty sinner needs mercies and forgivenesses? Let the page of experience be next read. It is written throughout with testimony that tremendous indications of Divine displeasure pursue guilt. Amid sweet rays of mercy striving to break forth, big drops of wrath often descend. The present aspect of earth is mournfully significant; the whole creation groans and travails together. Tears and sighs and anguish in multiform misery tell what sin has brought into this earth; sufferings and agony point to their prolific parent. Thus the wide spread of misery proves that the guilt of sin awakens just displeasure. Mark, next, the terrors of conscience when aroused from apathetic slumber by the Spirit. See the man awakened to the real perils of a guilty state. He is brought into a new world, where all is dismay. The past cannot be recalled; the present must move onward; the future cannot be escaped. In what mirror are these terrors seen? Surely in the mirror of sin's guilt. Conscience, in the Spirit's light, convicts of sin. Guilt is its inseparable companion; vengeance from Heaven closely follows. The awakened conscience knows this and quakes. Annals of the past confirm this statement; they exhibit terrific outbreaks of Divine wrath. Let the old world toll its awful tale. Its wickedness exceeded all that is denounced as wicked; its trespass grew up unto the heavens. Enormity of evil cried aloud, and enormity of vengeance slumbered not. Thus far the guilt of sin has been viewed, as exhibited in time, and as endured on the little space of this passing scene. But sin's results end not with earth's brief moment. II. Sin's final doom now meets us. Scripture abounds in warnings; their plainness is only equalled by their awe; their terrors are all faithfulness and truth. They speak loudly that men may ponder and recaps. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9) (Romans 2:8, 9) Such are the penalties to which its guilt is righteously amenable. Such is its sure condemnation. It will be happy if through this dreary passage a glorious prospect is attained. It will be so to all who now clasp to grateful hearts the good news "To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him." Let, then, the reviving truth now have free course and be glorified. A remedy is provided. A refuge is erected. Let the tidings be devoutly prized, "Christ has suffered the just for the unjust." In Him all manner of sin is forgiven to the children of men.. Let men be wise to seek in an accepted time this inestimable gift. Let not the only hope be slighted. It shines in Christ and in Christ alone. He is the treasure-house in which forgiveness is stored. (Dean Law.) The Evangelist. I. OUR FIRST VIEWS ARE VIEWS OF GUILT. Man is a rebellious subject, inasmuch as:1. We have refused tribute. Tribute, as it respects human governments, is the sum raised, for their support. As it respects the government of God, it implies merely the homage rendered to its validity and glory. 2. We have disobeyed the law. Both the precepts and the prohibitions. In our thoughts, in our conversation, in our behaviour. We have committed sins against ourselves, against our fellow-creatures, and against our God. 3. We have abetted the enemy. He who committeth sin is of the devil, that is, he resembles him, and serves him. II. OUR SECOND VIEWS ARE VIEWS OF MERCY. God is a merciful and forgiving Sovereign. The term mercies would be too general. In the term of forgiveness there is something specific. 1. Consider what we sometimes observe, and what we never fail to admire, among mortals. Is it not the display of compassion, forbearance, and generosity? Shall God sink in the comparison? 2. Consider the Divine precepts. 3. Consider the Divine assurances. Happy for us that they are too numerous to be recounted. 4. Consider the mediation of Jesus Christ. 5. Consider experience and fact. Believer in Jesus Christ, much more art thou a witness. (The Evangelist.) People Ahasuerus, Daniel, Darius, Gabriel, Jeremiah, NahumPlaces Egypt, Greece, JerusalemTopics Belongeth, Belongs, Confusion, Covered, Face, Fathers, Heads, Kings, O, Open, Princes, Rulers, Shame, Sin, SinnedOutline 1. Daniel, considering the time of the captivity,3. makes confession of sins, 16. and prays for the restoration of Jerusalem. 20. Gabriel informs him of the seventy weeks. Dictionary of Bible Themes Daniel 9:1-19 1065 God, holiness of Library Daniel: a Pattern for Pleaders"O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God; for thy city and thy people are called by thy name."--Daniel 9:19. DANIEL was a man in very high position in life. It is true he was not living in his own native land, but, in the providence of God, he had been raised to great eminence under the dominion of the country in which he dwelt. He might, therefore, naturally have forgotten his poor kinsmen; many have done so. Alas! we have known some that have … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 61: 1915 The Man and the Book. Whether the Time of the Future Judgment is Unknown? That Whereas the City of Jerusalem had Been Five Times Taken Formerly, this was the Second Time of Its Desolation. A Brief Account of Its History. From the Supplement to the Summa --Question Lxxii of the Prayers of the Saints who are in Heaven The Blessing of God. Three Things Briefly to be Regarded in Christ --viz. His Offices of Prophet, King, and Priest. General Account of Jesus' Teaching. Fifthly, as this Revelation, to the Judgment of Right and Sober Reason, Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature The Fulfilled Prophecies of the Bible Bespeak the Omniscience of Its Author "And There is None that Calleth Upon Thy Name, that Stirreth up Himself to Take Hold on Thee," The Sin-Bearer. Jesus Heals on the Sabbath Day and Defends his Act. The Being of God The Manifestation of the Messiah The Intercession of Christ Destruction of Jerusalem Foretold. Christ's Priestly Office The Scriptures Links Daniel 9:8 NIVDaniel 9:8 NLT Daniel 9:8 ESV Daniel 9:8 NASB Daniel 9:8 KJV Daniel 9:8 Bible Apps Daniel 9:8 Parallel Daniel 9:8 Biblia Paralela Daniel 9:8 Chinese Bible Daniel 9:8 French Bible Daniel 9:8 German Bible Daniel 9:8 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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