Daniel was often found praying; it was characteristic of him as a man of God. In the second chapter of Daniel, when the king had dreamed a dream and none could interpret it to him, Daniel prayed and asked his friends to pray with him for the same purpose—that the God of heaven would grant them mercies concerning this secret. When the answer came, he did not rush in to tell the king, but he stopped and thanked the Lord first.
In the sixth chapter of Daniel, a decree was fostered and promoted by the enemies of Daniel. The king was persuaded to sign the decree, stating that whosoever should ask a petition of any god or man except the king for thirty days should be cast into the den of lions. Daniel went into his house, kneeled upon his knees and prayed three times a day, “as he did aforetime.” He wasn’t moved by the decree; he did not alter his ordinary course of living; “he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed . . . as he did aforetime.” He was a man of prayer, and where you find a man of God, you will find a man of prayer.
So Daniel, in the ninth chapter, began to pray. It was “in the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus.” What set him praying at this time was the fact that he found out that the children of Israel were to be in captivity in Babylon for seventy years. He knew the seventy years were about up. He believed what God said by His prophet Jeremiah, and he expected the people to return to the land when the years were fulfilled. Being a man of faith, a man of prayer and a man of the Book, he set himself to pray.
When the appointed years had run their course, God raised up Cyrus, a righteous man of the East, named 175 years before his birth, for the purpose of sending them back. He not only raised up Cyrus, but He raised up Daniel at the right time to confess the sins of the people as his own. In Isaiah 59:1616And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. (Isaiah 59:16) we read, “He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor.”
Identification With the People of God
This man Daniel was raised up to pray for the people of God. In like manner, men like Samuel, David and many others pleaded with God for His people. What was the condition of the people? Did Daniel overlook their failure, which brought God’s governmental dealings upon them? Not in the least. He sought “by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.” It was no superficial work with Daniel, no feigned identification with His people. He felt their failure as his own, and it brought him low in sackcloth and ashes, in prayer and supplication (continuing in prayer). He said, “O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments” (Dan. 9:44And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; (Daniel 9:4)). Notice the next word: “We [not they] have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments.” He fully identifies himself with all the people. If there was one man among the captives in Babylon free from blame, it was Daniel. He was taken there as a young captive through no fault of his own, and he lived for God there. He led a life of devotedness from a young man to a very old man; he was a faithful man. He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself. It wasn’t an outward thing — it was purpose of heart. He wanted to please God. He saw in Babylon things that would defile him as a godly Jew, and he separated from them for God’s glory. He had Scripture for what he did. May we have purpose of heart to seek grace from God to put far from us that which would defile us.
Daniel is now an old man who has gone on faithfully. Now he identifies himself with the sins of the people and prays. There is another thing about his prayer in verse 7: “O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of faces.” We must always bear in mind that God is righteous; He never makes any mistakes. Daniel takes all the blame for himself and his people. Notice again in the eighth verse: “O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.”
Let us remember, dear fellow-Christian, we are living in a day of ruin — in the last days of the history of the church of God on earth. Not in the days that began so brightly on the day of Pentecost, but we are in the days of 2 Timothy, when the house of God is spoken of as a “great house,” in which are not only vessels to honor, but also vessels to dishonor. What are we to do? We cannot walk out of the “great house”; the “great house” is the profession of Christianity on earth. You cannot get out of it unless you give up Christianity.
Our Part of the Failure of Christendom
May I say a few words to those who are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Let us beware of setting ourselves up as those who have not failed. I tremble when I see any tendency to exalt ourselves and say that we have kept the truth, or that the truth is kept by us. Brethren, this is to not have learned our lesson well. We are a part of the ruin, and we need to be in the spirit of Daniel as found in this Scripture. I am persuaded that if we set ourselves up to be something, God will show us that we are nothing. He will definitely blow upon pride. “These six things doth the Lord hate; yea, seven are an abomination unto Him.” The first thing mentioned is “a proud look” (Prov. 6:1617). Let us beware of setting ourselves up to be something, or of claiming to be superior to someone else. Let us give a word of caution: There is a path for faith, a path of obedience, and if we walk in that path, may we do it conscious of the fact that we are part of the failure that has come in. There is a way of maintaining the truth in these last days, but we need bowed heads in the sense that we are a part of the failure of Christendom.
Self-Denial
“In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled” (Dan. 10:23).
Fellow-Christian, what do we know about real prayer and intercession before God? Sometimes the question is asked about “fasting.” In the previous chapter fasting is mentioned. And here in verse 3, he was in the spirit of fasting and mourning. The question is often asked, “Is there such a thing as fasting today?” May we not say that if we were in earnest before God, we might know more of self-denial? In this day of prosperity and luxury, how much do we know of self-denial? Is that not the reason we so seldom hear of answered prayer? James tells us, “Ye have not, because ye ask not,” and, again, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” But there is such a thing as being in the state of fasting before God — walking in humiliation and self-judgment, owning the failure in particular, with self-denial.
Daniel waited three full weeks. Many a dear saint of God has asked for a thing he has not seen in this life. God has not promised to answer our prayers in our lifetime. The answer here came in God’s own due time. We cannot hurry God.
May we know something of walking in the spirit that characterized Daniel — realizing our sad part in the failure, interceding for the people of God and seeking grace to go on in obedience to His Word. Obedience to the Word of God if it takes us into the path of separation is one thing, but if we lift up our heads and seek to be something, that is another thing. Let us put pride far from us.
Let us seek grace to have purpose of heart and devotedness, if left here, to be kept in the path of faith until the moment we hear the shout. It is not far off!
P. Wilson, adapted from
Prayer and the Unseen World