Daniel 9:4

 

I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Daniel is one of the more famous Old Testament heroes, mostly due to his rescue from the lion's den.  Daniel lived at the same time as Jeremiah, the prophet we studied yesterday.  Jeremiah warned of three cycles of captivity, with the third including the destruction of Jerusalem.  Daniel was exiled in 605BC, during the first round of King Nebuchadnezzar's invasion. (2 Kings 24:1)  Daniel rose in power in the land of his captors and became a high-ranking official.  Daniel was thrown in to the lion's den after not only refusing to bow to Babylon's king, but also refusing to stop bowing to the LORD in prayer.  Although he'd been in exile for over 50 years, Daniel was still faithful to God and to his homeland.  In chapter 9,  Daniel is praying for his people.  After reading the writings of Jeremiah, he realizes Jerusalem's time is short.  So he turns his face to the LORD God, and prays and pleads for mercy.  (Daniel calls God Yahweh 7 times in this chapter, but nowhere else in his book.) He prays  Exodus 34:6-7, according to His stubborn, unwavering, unmoving, faithful promise and love.  God's promise is to those who love Him and keep His commandments; Israel has done neither.  But Daniel intercedes on their behalf anyway, confessing his sin AND theirs. He recounts Israel's sin, and he recounts the righteous acts of God.  He prays for God to intervene.  

A few years ago, while reading Daniel, I was so moved by Daniel's prayer in chapter 9 that I wrote out the whole thing!  The line that so inspired me was verse 8 and 9--"To us, O LORD, belongs open shame....because we have sinned against You..  To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, because we have rebelled against Him."  Just like Israel, we have sinned.  We have not loved God.  We have not kept our part of the covenant.  And our reward, exactly what we deserve, is open shame.  But God owns mercy and forgiveness.  It begins and ends with Him.  It's His to give, and He does.   He is faithful to us because He is faithful to Himself, to His word, to His promises.   If there's one thing we've learned about the chesed of God, it's that He is determined to show forgiveness and mercy to us.  For our good and for His glory.  "O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive.  O Lord, pay attention and act.  Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name."