Latest revision as of 22:43, 9 March 2024

Theological Proposition/Focus: We are all fallen creatures before the holy God of the universe.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: The holiness of God should drive us to our knees in repentance, not just for the sins of today but for the fallenness of humanity.

Introduction: Memory Verse: 1 Peter 5:7

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Preview: Today we are going to talk about repentance but not just personal repentance, corporate repentance. We will see that repentance ultimately acknowledges that we sin against God and must appeal to his mercy.

Text: Read Daniel 9:1-3 first then back to title slide then Daniel 9:4-19, read with each point.

Image: Anticipation

Have you ever waited for something for so long that when the time finally comes you can't do anything but think about it? For me this often happens at night. A couple of years back I was going to be ferrying a small plane that had some instrument failures from Colorado to Lincoln by myself before it got repaired. It would be the first time I had ever made that length of a flight by myself and since the airplane was in need of repair my nerves were a little more tense than usual. In the days leading up to the flight I didn't really think much about it. But the night before I could hardly sleep. I was excited, anxious, and just primed to go. I remember thinking to myself, go to sleep, you need your sleep before this flight. Anticipation was driving me nuts!

Today we are going to be looking at Daniel 9 and anticipation will weigh heavy on Daniel. In order to understand Daniel 9 we need to take some time and dig into the historical background that brings us up to chapter 9.

Setting the Stage:

Daniel 9:1-3

The Fall of Jerusalem

In 587 BC the city of Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. This campaign was part of a series of events that resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of many Judeans to Babylon.

Several factors were at work:

• Political instability: The Kingdom of Judah was politically weak and faced internal strife, making it vulnerable to external aggression. Judah rebelled against Babylonian rule, which led Nebuchadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem in 597 BC and later in 587 BC. The Babylonian army surrounded Jerusalem, cutting off its food and water supplies, leading to famine and desperation among the inhabitants. After a lengthy siege, the Babylonian forces breached the walls of Jerusalem, resulting in the destruction of the city and its temple, including Solomon's Temple. Many of the prominent citizens of Judah were taken into captivity and forced into exile in Babylon, marking the beginning of the Babylonian Exile, which lasted for several decades.

But none of the events here should have come as a surprise.

Moses had warned that this might happen

At the beginning of Israel's history Moses had revealed the principle under which God intended to work with Israel

Obedience would bring blessing, and disobedience would bring discipline. One form of discipline was that Israel would be subjugated to Gentile powers (Deut. 28:48–57, 64–68). Israel’s experience in Babylon was the outworking of this principle.^[1]

However, Moses also promised that "the discipline would be lifted and the nation would be restored to blessing (Deut. 30). She would have to return to God and obey His voice; then God would turn back her Captivity and restore the people to the land from which they had been dispersed and shower blessings on them. ^[2]"

The prophets had also predicted the outcome

Within the prophetic writings, the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Judeans to Babylon were said to be consequences of the people's disobedience and rebellion against God's laws and commandments.

Throughout the Bible, there were numerous warnings from prophets such as Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel, urging the people of Judah to repent and turn back to God. They prophesied about the impending destruction of Jerusalem if the people continued in their sinful ways, including idolatry, social injustice, and moral corruption. God's allowance of Jerusalem to fall to Babylon was in fulfillment of these prophetic warnings and as a demonstration of divine justice. God used the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar as an instrument of punishment to discipline the people of Judah and to bring about their repentance.

But hope was also promised in Jeremiah 25:11-12

11 This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate forever.^[3]

Israel had messed up, but God was merciful and would restore the people. This is the context in which we find ourselves in Daniel chapter 9.

Body

The theme for today is repentance. We are going to really dial into repentance and seek God's forgiveness. As I look at verses 4-6 what I see is an important reminder.

Repentance requires personal and corporate confession (4-6).

Most of us are familiar with the idea of personal confession of sin.

1 John 1:9 states "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.^[4]" The word ὁμολογῶμεν, which we translate as confess means "to share a common view or be of common mind about a matter, agree. ^[5]" Bob Bryant, a theologian, suggests "When I confess my sins to God, I simply admit to Him the sins that He already knows I have committed.^[6]" In this way confession is not about telling God of the existence of sin in our life, rather confession is an act of admitting to ourselves that there is sin in our life and an act of alignment with God regarding that sin. We literally begin to agree with God that our way is not better than his way.

Image: worn out shoes.

Some of you know that I love running, more of you know I am cheep, and most of you know I am stubborn. For a long time, I had a tendency to over-run my shoes. My feet would begin to be sore and Emily would ask if I needed new shoes. "That cost money," I would reply "and my shoes look fine.: Eventually, she convinced me, I bought new shoes and the difference was incredible. In some sense, this is a lot like how confession of sins works. We carry this burden of sin and the Holy Spirit begins working in our hearts to admit we are carrying this burden. Eventually, we come around to seeing the sin as God sees the sin, we align ourselves with God on the matter and turn the burden over to him. Immediately we have a new hop in our step.

So why do we need to individually confess our sins? Because when we do so we align ourselves with God in order that we might have the joy, the relief, the life that God intends us to have.

In fact, this is the idea behind 1 John 1:9.

We often memorize 1 John 1:9 but let me just read all of 1 John 1:4-9 to you.

4 We write this to make our joy complete. Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ^[7]

When we align ourselves with God through confessing sin to God we are living in the fellowship God intends. Individual confession matters because it brings the joy of a life lived as God intends.

But the reality is that we should also consider corporate confession.

Confession is more than a laundry list of individual sins.

I think the mistake that we often make is the mistake of believing that just because we have confessed our individual sins we are good to go. We treat it like a checklist. God, yesterday I was mean to the dog, sorry, Friday night I was short with my wife, Thursday morning my heart was not in my devotions, and then today, when I burned the toast I thought a curse word. First, I suggest to you that this laundry list recitation of sins is not confession. Remember, confession involves aligning oneself with God. Hence, confession is more about talking about the heart attitude that sat behind the sins. Second, I think we bear a much larger responsibility in confession. I think we need to widen our sphere of confession to both individual and corporate confession.

Confession is the realization that we are completely fallen.

In verse 5 Daniel repeatedly uses the word "we." I don't know that I would describe Daniel as having been personally wicked, as having personally turned away from God's commandments and laws, as having personally ignored the prophets. However, Daniel was human, Daniel was a sinner, Daniel was a part of the people of God, a people who had committed these sins corporately, and Daniel recognized that he was himself a part of the problem.

My biggest problem is not an individual sin my biggest problem is that I am a sinner.

Sometimes we evangelical Christians are accused of being "holier than thou" and I think it may be in part because we fail to realize that the sins of mankind are, in fact, our sins. Daniel stood in solidarity with the people and took the offenses as his own. This is incredible and I believe a vital component of confession. My biggest problem is not that I got angry and lost my temper this week. My biggest problem is that I am a fallen human who at my very core rebels against the God of the universe.

We together are wicked, rebellious, disobedient, and fail to listen. Let me say it another way,

Wickedness, rebellion, disobedience, and failure to listen rank among the top corporate sins.

As a people, we commit wicked acts killing the innocent, and oppressing and enslaving the downtrodden. We rebel against God's institution of marriage and the creation of man and woman. We disobey God's command to worship God alone, and when people tell us we are wrong we rally together to shout down those who would call out our sin. We are wicked and sinful people and we need to confess that sin to God!

MTR: Consider, what are some areas of corporate sin for which you should be repenting.

Repentance requires us to acknowledge that ultimately our sins are against the God of the universe (7-14).

So often we sin against someone in that we wrong them, offend them, steal from them, or any other of a litany of wrongs against another that we forget ultimately our wrong is against God himself. Daniel begins verse seven with the phrase Yahweh, you are righteous. The problem with sin is that sin is against the righteousness of God. God's righteousness really matters because the contrast with sin is the righteousness of God.

As we look at verse 7 something that really stood out to me was an incredibly important reality. We need to deal with sin because,

When sin is allowed to linger it breeds shame.

I want to point something out to you. In our usual way of thinking we would draw the contrast between righteousness and guilt or wrong. Here, however, the contrast is between righteousness and shame.

In the ancient world, shame was connected to one’s public reputation. It refers to a person’s internal experience of disgrace, fearing that others will see how he has dishonored him/herself, often resulting in a preventative attitude that one must remain out of sight in order to avoid being disgraced (Lemos, “Shame and Mutilation,” 227). ^[8]

Shame often interferes with relationships. Relationships with others and relationship with God. Here is the reality, our unrighteousness is a problem, but if left undealt with, our unrighteousness becomes shame and then it is even harder to deal with. We need to engage in corporate confession because we do not want to deal with shame!

Because sin is ultimately against God, God has the right to discipline.

When we see our main problem as being contrary to the God of the universe we can understand discipline much better.

God’s discipline did not mean that He had withheld mercy (cf. v. 18) and forgiveness from His people, but it meant that He, being righteous, must punish people’s rebellion and disobedience (v. 10). They refused to keep God’s laws (v. 10; cf. v. 5) for they transgressed His Law (v. 11) and turned from God (cf. v. 5), being obstinate in their disobedience (refusing to obey).^[9]

ultimately we see that

God's discipline seeks to turn the sinner back to God.

Through the prophets God had promised restoration of a people who turned back to God. In fact, even in the Law of Moses, God had warned that disobedience would result in discipline. God was seeking to get Israel's attention and discipline was the means.

Image: Be careful about over-application of this passage

Theology matters! Israel was God's nation. The United States is not God's nation in the same way that Israel was. God has not chosen us and called us out. Too many pastors have cited events as God's discipline on our country. I cannot say for a fact that it is or is not God's discipline but here is what I do know. As individuals, and as a church, we are God's. God disciplines his own and we should repent for sin. I don't want you to over-apply this but I do want you to search your own heart. Maybe you need to confess individually, maybe you need to confess corporately. Don't apply this too broadly and miss the message for yourself personally. Take time to confess.

MTR: Search your own heart, are there areas in which God is trying to get your attention?

Repentance requires an appeal to God not based on our righteousness but on His mercy (15-19).

Earlier in the passage, Daniel had highlighted specific elements of sin. Now Daniel transitions into supplication. We need to understand that sin is real and sin is a problem. But just recognizing that sin is real and sin is a problem is not itself the correct response to sin. We must go a step further, we must appeal to God.

Appealing to God is the correct response to sin.

Daniel draws attention to two important aspects of an appeal to God. The first aspect is the greatness of God. The appeal is made to God because there is none greater. God is the God of the Exodus who delivered the people of Israel from one of the world's foremost empires with a mighty hand. God's deliverance from Egypt had brought God glory as it displayed his might. Look at what God states in Exodus 9:15-16

15 For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. 16 But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.^[10]

God's power is on display for the world and that power is part of our appeal to God. We appeal to the highest power.

It is also worth noting that the appeal to God is also an admission of sin, an admission of having done wrong. Repentance requires that we admit our sin!

But we can admit wrong, we can admit sin because God is safe. C.S. Lewis famously wrote of the lion Aslan, he is not a tame lion, but he is safe. The picture is apt. God is the God of the universe but he is completely safe. Hence,

Calling on the God who mercifully forgives is appropriate.

Look closely at verse 16. Daniel appeals to God to be consistent with who God is. Daniel literally asks God to act in a manner that is consistent with his reputation for being merciful. The reality was that the sins of the people had made them objects of scorn. These people who supposedly left Egypt under the great God of the universe had been conquered and relegated to captives. The conclusion of the Exodus was not an eternal kingdom, it was a return to slavery this time to Babylon. Daniel recognizes that sin has brought about these events but also recognizes that God is a consistent God and God's reputation is also on the line here.

In verses 17-19 he shifts his language to a more positive tone. He begs God to hear the prayer and to look with favor. Daniel notes that it is not his righteousness that deserves God's favor but rather God's mercy.

For the Christian, our appeal for mercy is grounded in the cross of Christ.

Now I want to shift gears slightly. You see we not only have God's mercy, we have the cross of Christ. Just as Daniel appealed not based on his own righteousness but on the righteousness of God. So we can beg God for forgiveness not based on our righteousness but on the imputed righteousness of Christ.

Imputed righteousness refers to the fact that when a person accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior, they are credited with the righteousness of Christ. This means that although individuals are inherently sinful, God sees them as righteous because of the righteousness of Christ being "imputed" or credited to them.

This concept is based on passages in the Bible, such as 2 Corinthians 5:21, which states, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

In essence, imputed righteousness emphasizes that a person's standing before God is not based on their own good works or merit but on the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is freely given to believers through faith. Daniel asked for forgiveness because God's people were God's people. This takes on an even greater meaning for us. We can dare to repent because we have confidence that it is not just God's name we are under but God's very righteousness.

MTR: Take a second, consider the cross, come to God and ask for forgiveness, and joyfully praise the God who has forgiven.

1. ↑ J. Dwight Pentecost, “Daniel,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1359–1360.
2. ↑ J. Dwight Pentecost, “Daniel,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1359–1360.
3. ↑ Jeremiah 25:11-12
4. ↑ 1 John 1:9, NIV.
5. ↑ William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 708.
6. ↑ Bob Bryant, “Confession of Sins in the Spirit-Filled Life,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society Volume 14 14, no. 27 (2001): 53.
7. ↑ 1 John 1:4-9
8. ↑ David Seal, “Shame,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
9. ↑ J. Dwight Pentecost, “Daniel,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 1360.
10. ↑ Exodus 9:15-16, NIV.