Person, Posture, and Purpose
Daniel 9:1-19
In Daniel 9, Daniel offers a prayer. This prayer has deep significance for the people in exile. This prayer is inspired as Daniel reflects on words written by his fellow prophet Jeremiah, words that declare a return to The Promised Land after 70 years of exile. The prayer may seem out of place amongst the apocalyptic passages surrounding it, but the prayer is integral to understanding how the people of God should approach times of exile, looking for hope in the midst of the hopeless. As we seek to understand this prayer, we will discover the person of prayer, the posture of prayer, and the purpose of prayer.
Before Daniel actually starts praying, he announces the person of prayer, the one upon whom prayer should focus. Daniel tells us, he prayed to the Lord my God. Lord is a translation of the Hebrew word YHWH. These four consonants, known as the tetragrammaton, are often written out as Yahweh, identifying the Lord of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is only in the context of this prayer that the author of Daniel uses this name.[1] The person to whom Daniel prays and to whom we should address our prayers is the one true God, who shows Himself as grace giver and covenant keeper. This name connects Daniel and all who call upon this name to the God involved in history, to the God who seeks relationship with people, to the God who keeps promise with the people.
Yahweh is the God of the covenant. The Hebrew word for covenant is tyrb (berit). This is a legal expression for a relationship where commitments are made by multiple parties. These commitments are then upheld by the law. It is best understood as a political treaty. In Hebrew understanding, God is the king who enters into a political treaty with his servant people Israel.[2] The prayer that Daniel offers is founded on this covenant relationship. The prayer depends on the God of mercy who will keep covenant even though the servant people, Israel, have broken covenant.
Yahweh is the person upon whom Daniel’s prayer must focus. This prayer is meaningless except in the fact that Daniel turns to the true God, the covenant keeping God, the God who can renew the covenant even though the other party in the covenant failed. Even in sending the people into exile, God upheld the covenant, as it originally stipulated negative consequences if Israel breaks the covenant. These negative consequences can be found in Deuteronomy 27-28. God keeps covenant in the midst of the people’s obedience and rebellion. This speaks to God’s pursuit of his servant people in relationship at all moments. Daniel turns to Yahweh, understanding that restoration is in God’s hands.
As Daniel comes to God, he comes in a particular posture. He turns to God. This may be a way of stating that Daniel literally faced in the direction of Jerusalem, but it is definitely a statement of Daniel’s attitude. This action, along with the prayer itself, declares that Daniel knows he along with all of Israel has rebelled against God. So, he must humbly turn to God, seeking out God’s forgiveness and acts of restoration. Further actions announce Daniel’s humble posture. Daniel fasts and dons sackcloth and ashes, indicating his sorrow and grief over the state of Israel in exile.
The content of Daniel’s prayer reveals the purpose of prayer. The prayer begins with praise declaring God as awesome and elucidating God’s quality as the faithful God who keeps covenant out of love. God is the God who holds his people responsible to the covenant, but God is also the God who loves more deeply than any can fathom. In this love, redemption and restoration occur. Daniel bases his prayer of repentance upon the fact of God’s love and commitment to the covenant.
The prayer continues, confessing Israel’s failure to keep covenant. Notice that Daniel offers a corporate confession. The entire community is guilty of breaching the covenant so Daniel brings the entire community before God. Daniel uses five different ideas to emphasize the community’s failure: sin, wrongs, wickedness, rebellion, and turning away. Daniel then, as a way of contrast with Israel’s complete failure, declares God as righteous. Israel’s failure compounded by God’s righteousness emphasizes the full extent of the brokenness that exists in the relationship between Israel and their God. Daniel admits that the exile is due to this brokenness. The exile is just punishment. The curses and punishments written out in the law of Moses, as found in Deuteronomy, are the judgement the people now face.
After exploring the breached covenant and subsequent just punishment, Daniel entreats God to restore Israel into relationship with God and also to The Promised Land. This entreaty is based on God’s attributes and historical interaction with Israel. The God Daniel speaks to has previously delivered the people of Israel from oppression in Egypt. God is the God who frees the oppressed and releases the slaves. If God is consistent in His person, then He must return the people from exile. God continuously performs righteous acts, enacting justice based on his mercy. If God is true to His righteous character, He will bring about justice for those in exile, returning them to their home. Daniel knows this, praying accordingly. Finally, Daniel asks God to end the exile for God’s sake. In this, Daniel seeks to remind God of His character. As the Lord of the covenant, as the Lord of love, as the Lord of righteousness God must act and send the Israelites home. In God’s action on behalf of the covenant people, many nations will know that God is true to His character. In restoring the people to The Promised Land, the rest of the world will know the integrity of the God of Israel. All these words of Daniel reveal that the purpose of prayer is to draw the people of God into relationship with God.
Those awaiting God’s promise and action in their lives and their world should be people of prayer. Those in prayer must direct their prayer toward Yahweh, resting in the truth of God’s character as the keeper of covenant love. Our prayer toward Yahweh should be done in the correct posture: in honest repentance. As the faithful pray, we should begin by acknowledging God’s character, we should begin in praise, lifting up the many attributes He has proved over and over. Then we should take an honest look at why we might be in a place of waiting. Did we perhaps, like Israel, break covenant with our God? Is God in some way directing us back to him because we have done wrong? We need to admit to our failure. Then we must confess to the fact that our rebellion in the midst of God’s righteousness leads to exile.
God desires restoration. God has a plan for restoration. This restoration for each of us finds its basis in God’s character as the loving, grace-filled, covenant keeping God. In the truth of His character, God draws us back into His presence. In calling on God’s name, we can know God, reconciled to Him. We should all be people of prayer. We need to focus our prayer on Yahweh, the person of prayer. We need to have the correct posture when we pray, orienting ourselves toward God’s presence and guidance. We then need to discover the purpose of prayer, that of being restored to a vital relationship with our God.
Prayer: Covenant Keeping Lord, we thank you for proving your love to us over and over as you free the slave, return the exile, and restore the sinner to righteousness! You also prove your love to us in the gift of prayer. Through this gift we can seek you and live in relationship with you. Draw us deeper into that relationship as we confess to you our wrongs. Bring us into the fullness of your forgiveness so that we might know you better. We pray all this, in Christ’s holy name, Amen!
[1]
Tremper Longmann III, The NIV Application Commentary: Daniel. (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 1999), 223.
[2] Ibid.,
231-234.
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