A Word in Season: A Pattern for Prayer (Daniel 9:1-5)

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It is the first year of Darius, some say Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the

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Medes, who has made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. And Daniel is in Babylon.

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And in the first year of the reign of this king, Daniel understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the

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Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

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Daniel has been considering the writings of God through the prophets. He has been pondering the labors of Jeremiah in particular.

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And the consequences in verse three of Daniel nine, then I set my face toward the

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Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.

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And I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession and said, Oh Lord, great and awesome

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God who keeps his covenant and mercy with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments.

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We have sinned and committed iniquity. We have done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from your precepts and your judgments.

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And that's the introduction to what becomes an extended prayer of confession.

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One of the model prayers of the Old Testament and indeed of the whole scriptures coming as it does from the lips of one of the few men who emerges from the pages of scripture without any spot or blemish upon his name.

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Now, what is striking about the way in which Daniel prays and what can you and I learn from his prayer?

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I think it's worth thinking about where Daniel got his praying from, where Daniel or how

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Daniel prepared to pray and then what Daniel actually did pray. Daniel ponders, he prepares and he prays.

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He's pondering the scriptures. He's thinking about the word of God which he has been studying.

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It's not even something that necessarily just pops into his mind. Daniel is a student of the word of God.

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He wants to know what the Lord God says. And in his case, it becomes clear to him from the prophet

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Jeremiah in particular and perhaps other portions of scripture more generally that the

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Lord having promised to bring judgments upon his people if they rebelled against him has done just that and has established this particular time period of 70 years for the desolations of Jerusalem.

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Now, in terms of that revelation, there is both a reality about God's judgment but also a promise with regard to the fact that that judgment will come to an end in this particular regard.

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And Daniel now lays hold of the fact that God has spoken, that God has made clear his will concerning some of these things, both the fearfulness of the sin and his readiness to show mercy to his people.

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And you will appreciate then that Daniel doesn't just say, oh, great, 70 years is nearly up, we should be okay, that this pondering leads to preparation.

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Daniel set his face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

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What Daniel understood prompted him to preparation of soul, to set his face toward the

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Lord God, probably meant for Daniel, not just this period of fasting and sackcloth and ashes, but rather a concentration of soul in addition to those things with his face toward Jerusalem, the place where at Daniel's time,

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God had made his presence particularly known. So Daniel, when he sets his face, is setting his whole humanity to seek after God and everything shows how seriously he takes it.

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And then finally, there's the prayer. I prayed and made confession. Daniel enters into the sin of the people and the sin of the nation and the need of the hour.

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He pleads with God as a man whose soul is prepared to have dealings with the

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God of heaven on the basis of the things that God has made known. Now, what a wonderful example for you and for me.

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Do we ponder the scriptures? Do we consider what God has spoken, both with regard to sin and with regard to grace and mercy and favor and love?

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Does that make us set our face toward the Lord God? Do we prepare our souls then to have dealings with this

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God on the basis of what he has said? And then do we pray from our hearts, asking that the

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Lord God would forgive our sins and that he would show his mercy for his own glory's sake.