(Daniel 9)
THE abandonment of God’s land by the remnant of Jeremiah’s day, completed the scattering of God’s people. Fifty years passed away and then God intervenes in His grace and grants a revival, under which a few of His people are set free from the captivity to return to the land. The experiences proper to those affected by this movement and the principles that should have guided them are set forth in the prayer and confession of Daniel. And therein we shall find much that is instructive to those who in our day have been set free from the systems of men to walk in the light of Christ and His Assembly.
The day in which we live is dispensationally very different to the day in which Daniel lived, and yet morally there is much that corresponds between the two periods.
In the first place, Daniel, in his day, could look back over one thousand years of failure amongst the professing people of God, for in his confession he goes back to the time when God brought Israel out of Egypt, and from that time he says, “We have sinned, we have done wickedly” (9:15).
Secondly, in the seventh and eighth chapters of Daniel he is permitted to look into the future and still he sees that failure and suffering await the people of God. He sees that the Gentile powers would make war against the saints and prevail against them; the daily sacrifice would be taken away; the truth would be cast down to the ground; the sanctuary trodden under foot; and that the enemy would prosper and destroy the mighty and holy people (7:21, 8:11, 12, 13, 24).
Thirdly, he sees there will be no deliverance for God’s people from this long history of failure, until the Son of Man comes and sets up His kingdom (7:13, 14).
Thus Daniel, in his day, sees the past marked by failure, the future dark with predictions of deeper sorrows and greater failure, and no hope of deliverance for the people of God as a whole until the King comes.
In the presence of these things Daniel was deeply affected, his thoughts troubled him, his countenance was changed, and he fainted and was sick certain days (7:28, 8:27).
We can hardly fail to see there is that which corresponds to these experiences of Daniel in our day: for we too look back over nearly two thousand years of failure amongst the professing people of God, and we too have learned that the little while that may yet remain, will be marked by increasing failure amongst the professing people of God. “In the last days,” says the Apostle, “difficult times shall come,” “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse;” again he says, “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine ... they shall turn away from the truth.” Peter also warns us that “There shall be false teachers” among the people of God, who “privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.” Furthermore the third thing that Daniel saw is equally plain to us, for we also see from Scripture, that there will be no recovery for the people of God as a whole, until Christ comes.
But this is not the only correspondence between our day and that in which Daniel lived. For Daniel made another discovery. He learned from Scripture that, in spite of all past failure, and in spite of all future disaster, God had foretold that there would be a little reviving in the midst of the years. He discovers by “the word of the Lord” to Jeremiah that after seventy years there would be some recovery from the desolations of Jerusalem. So we have learned from Scripture that in the midst of the corruptions and deadness of Christendom, as set forth in Thyatira and Sardis there would again be a revival in the midst of the years as set forth in Philadelphia.
This revival has four outstanding characteristics, for to Philadelphia the Lord says, first “Thou hast a little strength.” second, Thou “hast kept My word;” third, Thou “hast not denied My name;” and fourth, “Thou hast kept the word of My patience.” In a day when religious flesh is displaying itself in power as great Babylon, those under this revival would be marked by a position of outward weakness; when on every hand the Word is being belittled, they keep the Word in its purity and integrity; and when the Person of Christ is being attacked, they do not deny His Name. Moreover, when men are making desperate efforts to heal the divisions of Christendom, they keep the word of His patience. They wait the coming of Christ to heal the divisions and bring His people together in His presence.
Now obedience to the Word and the refusal to deny the Name of Christ will involve a great deal. To those who obey the Word, and give Christ His place it means the recovery of the truth of Christ and His Church, the heavenly calling, the coming of Christ and other related truths.
Moreover such are exposed to the constant danger of giving up the truths that have been recovered, and hence the warning to such is, “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown,” and the exhortation is to “overcome.”
How then are we to “Hold fast,” and how are we to “overcome?”
It is evident we can neither “hold fast” nor “overcome” in our own strength. We can only “hold fast” and only be overcomers, as we are strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Hence we must look to the Lord, and this calls for prayer. Then if we pray to the Lord, if we seek His grace, it is necessary that there should be a moral condition suited to the Lord, and this calls for confession. And in respect of these two things, prayer and confession, we can learn much from Daniel. As we have seen he had looked back, and he had looked on and as he saw the condition of things amongst the people of God he was greatly distressed, and in his distress he did two things: First he looked away from man to God, as he says in chapter 9:3, “I set my face unto the Lord God” to seek Him by prayer. Second, not only did he pray, but he adds, I “made my confession” (v. 4).
Now mark the result of this prayer and confession. The first result of turning to God is that he gets a great sense of the greatness, holiness and faithfulness of God. Man is very small, and Daniel may be fainting but the Lord is “great.” Moreover he realizes that God is true to His word and that if only His people will cherish His Name—if they will love Him—and keep His Word, in spite of all their failure they will find mercy.
The second result of turning to God, in prayer and confession, is that he gets a deep sense of the total ruin of God’s people. He recognizes that the low condition of God’s people lies at the root of all the division and scattering that has come in amongst the people of God. He does not seek to place the blame for the division and scattering upon certain individuals, who may indeed have acted in a high-handed manner, and have perverted the truth and led many into error; but, looking beyond the failure of individuals he sees and owns the failure of God’s people as a whole. He says, “We have sinned,” “Our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land” (Dan. 9:5, 6). Personally Daniel had no direct part in bringing about the scattering that had taken place seventy years before, but the absence of personal responsibility, and the lapse of time, does not lead him to ignore the division and scattering or seek to place the blame for it upon individuals long since passed from the scene; on the contrary he identifies himself before God with the people of God; he says “We have sinned.”
In the history of Israel the people failed and in their low condition insisted upon a King, then the kings led them astray. So in the history of the Church. In the third and fourth chapters of 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul traces all division back to the low carnal condition of the people that led them to range themselves under certain leaders; and the Apostle foresees that after his decease leaders would arise that would bring about open division, for he can say, “I know that after my decease... of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.”
Hence it would appear that the root of all division whether in Israel or the Church, can be traced back to the low moral condition of God’s people as a whole, and not simply the wrong doing of individuals. Hence true confession must have in view all the people of God. Daniel does not think of one city only, (though that city may have taken the lead in failure), but, with Jerusalem, he links “all Israel;” nor does he confine his thoughts to all Israel that may be “near” at hand, for he takes in all “that are near and that are far off” (9:7). With this example before us we may well ask what should be our great aim in confession and humiliation? Should it be simply that the breaches might be healed? Surely not—this must be left in the hands of the One before whom we have so grievously failed. Our end should be that we might be restored morally to the height of our calling from which we have departed.
A third result of Daniel’s prayer and confession is that he recognizes the hand of God in government upon His people. He lays hold of this deeply important principle that when division and scattering have occurred these evils must be accepted as from God, acting in His holy discipline, and not simply viewed as brought about by particular acts of folly, or wickedness, on the part of individual men. This is clearly seen in the great division that took place in Israel. Instrumentally it was brought about by the folly of Rehoboam, but says God, “This thing is done of Me” (2 Chron. 11:4). Four hundred and fifty years later when the people of God were not only divided but scattered among the nations, Daniel very clearly recognizes this great principle. He says, “O Lord righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither Thou hast driven them.” Then again he speaks of God “bringing upon us a great evil,” and yet again, “the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us” (Dan. 9:7, 12, 14). Thus Daniel loses sight of the wickedness and folly of individual men. He mentions no names. He does not speak of Jehoiachin or “his abominations which he did,” nor of Zedekiah and his folly, nor does he refer to the ruthless violence of Nebuchadnezzar, but, looking beyond all men, he sees, in the scattering, the hand of a righteous God.
Thus too a little later Zechariah hears the word of the. Lord to the priests, and all the people of the land, saying, “I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not” (Zech. 7:5, 14).
So too Nehemiah, later still, in his prayer recalls the words of the Lord by Moses saying, “If ye transgress I will scatter you abroad” (Neh. 1:8).
There is no attempt with these men of God to modify their strong statements of God’s dealing in discipline. They do not even say that God has “allowed” His people to be scattered, or “permitted” them to be driven away, but they plainly say that God has driven the people away and brought the evil.
Fourth, another great principle that flows from turning to God in prayer and confession is, not only that we recognize God’s hand in dealing with us in discipline, but, that we have turned to the One who alone can gather and bless His people. So that in the acknowledgment of God’s hand in discipline lies the only hope of any reviving or any measure of recovery, for in setting our faces toward God we are looking to the One who can not only divide but unite, not only scatter but gather, not only break up but heal. (Hosea 6: 1). Man indeed can scatter, and divide, and break up, but he cannot again gather and unite, and heal. God can do both and do both righteously. This is clearly seen in Daniel’s confession, for he says, “O Lord righteousness belongeth unto Thee... Thou hast driven them etc.;” then again he says, “The Lord watched upon this evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth” (vv. 7, 14). Then for a third time he appeals to the righteousness of God; but this time it is to bless and show mercy, for he says, “O Lord according to all thy righteousness, I beseech Thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away” (v. 16).
Daniel bases his appeal upon the fact that however much the people might have failed, and God may have had to discipline them, yet they are His people. It is, says Daniel, “Thy city Jerusalem,” “Thy holy mountain,” “Thy people” that are in reproach, “Thy Sanctuary that is desolate,” and it is “Thy servant that prays” (vv. 16, 17). Then he pleads that the blessing might be granted “for the Lord’s sake” (v. 17). Thirdly, he pleads the Lord’s “great mercies;” and finally, he pleads the Lord’s Name, for he says, “Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy Name” (v. 19).
Here then we have portrayed some of the great principles that should guide us in a day of confusion and ruin.
First, to turn to God in prayer and confession, and in His presence to get a fresh sense of His greatness, holiness, and mercy to those who are prepared to keep His word (vv. 3, 4).
Second, to confess our failure and the totality of our ruin (vv. 5-15).
Third, to recognize and own the righteousness of God in dealing with us in His government (vv. 7, 14, 15).
Fourth, to fall back on the righteousness of God that can act in mercy and grant some reviving.