Daniel 9:1-19 Dare to Repent

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.

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:

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. Disobedience to Babylon: Judah rebelled against Babylonian rule, which led Nebuchadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem in 597 BC and later in 587 BC. Siege warfare: The Babylonian army surrounded Jerusalem, cutting off its food and water supplies, leading to famine and desperation among the inhabitants. Destruction of the city: 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. Exile of the population: 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.

The reality underneath the visible reality was that God was at work.

The problems

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.

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. "

The prophets

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.

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.

Let's read

Daniel 9:1-3.

In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

Daniel 9:4-19

4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:

“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.

7 “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. 8 We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you. 9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; 10 we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.

“Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. 12 You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. 14 The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.

15 “Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. 16 Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.

17 “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. 18 Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”

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 ideas 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." The word ὁμολογῶμεν, which we translate as confess means "to share a common view or be of common mind about a matter, agree. " 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." In this way confession is not about telling God of the existance 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.

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. 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.

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..

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 I 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, 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.

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.

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 god 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, oppressing and enslaving the downtrodden. We rebel against God's institution of marriage and creation of man and women. 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!

Repentance requires that we 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.