We are ''
code blue '' in our nation
(Ed note: many examples of the dissolution of American culture and
government are given in the lecture) and God is looking for "Daniel's"
to stand in the gap.
"In the
first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made
king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans--in the first year of his reign"
(Da
9:1-2a)
Daniel wrote these words about 538 BC (Ed note: Daniel was taken captive in 605 BC so this would be the
67th year with only 3 remaining to fulfill the 70 years decreed by God)
Daniel has lived long enough now to
have witnessed the fulfillment of the prophecy in
Daniel 2 against Babylon (the head of gold
had passed to the silver chest & arms of the Medes and Persians).
Daniel would be about 82 years old
and
yet he is still standing fast as a man of the Word and of prayer. What
Daniel discovers as he reads Jeremiah's prophecy (Jer
25:11,12 or a letter Jeremiah wrote to the exiles =
Jer 29:10) provokes him to prayer.
Daniel began as a young man of prayer (cf
Da 2:17-18,
6:11). If you're going to learn how to grab
the horns of the altar, to beseech God to come to America's aid in this ''code
blue'' era remember that
the word of God and prayer go together. Stated another way "THE BASIS OF
PRAYER IS THE WORD OF GOD".
Jesus taught that
"If
you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it
shall be done for you.''
(Jn 15:7)
So as we look at the Word of God, we
know how to pray. In prayer we align ourselves, our desires, our actions,
our petitions, with the Word of God . And we align our lives with the word
of God.
Ed Note: It was C H Spurgeon
who said
"Oh!
That you studied your Bibles more! Oh! That we all did! How we could plead
the promises! How often we should prevail with God when we could hold Him to
His word, and say, 'Fulfill this Word unto Thy servant, whereon Thou hast
caused me to hope.' Oh! It is grand praying when our mouth is full of God's
Word, for there is no word that can prevail with Him like His own."
WHY PRAY WHEN YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN? If God is sovereign,
why pray? Because God tells us to pray. We have not because we ask not.
James writes that
"You
lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot
obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask." (James
4:2)
"Until now you have asked for
nothing in My name; ASK,& you will receive THAT YOUR JOY MAY BE MADE FULL."
(Jn 16:24)
DANIEL PRAYS THE
''PRAYER OF FAITH"
The "prayer of faith" is laying hold
of the promises God has said He would perform. It's also laying hold of Who
He says He is. It's taking what God has said for you to do, getting on your
knees and submitting to what He says to do. We have this wrong concept that
a prayer of faith is when I evoke enough feeling and emotion so that I can
lay hold of the Word of God and make it "work". This is not true. If God
says it, you can lay hold of it without any emotion at all...you don't have
to ''work up'' faith...you simply have to take God at His Word! It's laying
hold of God's PROMISES and God's CHARACTER!
DANIEL'S PRAYER:
He turned his attention to seek God and the fulfillment of this prophecy. At
first glance, it doesn't sound like a ''code
blue'' situation...you've
paid your debts (70yrs in captivity)...but everything was not fine. We will
look at why it was still ''code
blue'' even though it
looked fine at the time.
WHY FASTING, SACKCLOTH, ASHES?
LEVITICUS 26 (Leviticus lays out the Law
and the statutes which ordain how the Jews were to live, the first section
of this chapter delineating the blessings for obedience and the second section the judgments
for disobedience)
Leviticus 26:1 'You shall not make for
yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a [sacred]
pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it;
for I am the Lord your God. 2 'You shall keep My SABBATHS and reverence My
sanctuary; I am the Lord. (Refers to OTHER ''SABBATHS'' the Jews were to
keep such as every seventh year.) 3 'If you walk in My statutes and keep
My commandments so as to carry them out, 4 then I shall give you rains in
their season...5 'Indeed, your threshing will last for you until
grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will
thus eat your food to the full and live securely in your land. (God is
saying that He is in charge of the rain & the harvest & if they would walk
in obedience they would be supplied.) 6 'I shall also grant peace in the
land, so that you may lie down with no one making you tremble. (In
America many today are not able to lie down without trembling. If we would
do what God prescribes = execute justice speedily, institute the death
penalty, we would not be trembling) I shall also eliminate harmful beasts
from the land...11 'Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul
will not reject you. 12 'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you
shall be My people. 13 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt so that [you] should not be their slaves, and I broke the bars
of your yoke and made you walk erect.
14
'BUT
IF YOU DO NOT OBEY ME AND DO NOT CARRY OUT ALL THESE COMMANDMENTS, 15
if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances
so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant 16
I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror,
consumption and fever that shall waste away the eyes and cause the soul to
pine away; also, you shall sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies shall
eat it up. 17 And I will set My face against you so that you shall be
struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you shall rule over
you, and you shall flee when no one is pursuing you.
18
'If also
AFTER THESE THINGS,
you do not obey Me, THEN
I will punish you
SEVEN TIMES more for your sins.
What is God saying to the Jews
in
Lev 26:18?
He is saying that if you still do not obey Me after I have ''taken you to
the woodshed'', then I will punish you SEVEN TIMES MORE FOR YOUR SINS!
And if once was not enough, God repeats this three times in the following
verses!
Leviticus 26:21
'If then, you act with
hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the
plague on you
SEVEN TIMES according to your sins....26:24 then I will act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike
you SEVEN TIMES
for your sins....26:28 then I will act with wrathful hostility against you; and I, even I, will
punish you
SEVEN
TIMES for your sins.
SO WHAT IS GOD SAYING?
Obey Me = Receive blessing, BUT Disobey Me = Receive punishment.
Furthermore, God says that if the Jews disobey AFTER they are punished they
will receive seven times more for their sins.
A SABBATH REST
The Jews had been judged primarily for
two reasons -- because of their
IDOLATRY and because they had broken the SABBATHS.
Specifically, the Jews had broken the Sabbaths that specified the land was
to be allowed to rest every seventh year.
God's command for a Sabbath Rest for the
land is found in
Leviticus
25, where God
"spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai,
saying, 2 "Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, 'When you come into
the land which I shall give you, then THE LAND SHALL HAVE A SABBATH TO THE
LORD. 3 'Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall
prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, 4 but during THE SEVENTH YEAR THE LAND SHALL HAVE
A SABBATH REST, a SABBATH TO THE LORD; you shall not sow your field
nor prune your vineyard. 5 'Your harvest's after growth you shall not
reap...the land shall have a SABBATICAL YEAR. 6 'And all of you shall have the SABBATH products of
the land for food; yourself...7 'Even your cattle and the animals that are
in your land shall have all its crops to eat." (Lev
25:1-7)
In this last section God assures them, saying in essence
''Don't panic because you didn't sow seed for crops. I'm in charge!"
SPECIFICALLY HOW WOULD THE
SABBATH YEAR WORK?
God goes on to explain that...
'You
shall thus observe My statutes, and keep My judgments, so as to carry them
out, that you may live securely on the land. 19 'Then the land will yield
its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. 20 'But
if you say, "What are we going to eat on the
SEVENTH YEAR if we do not sow
or gather in our crops?" 21 then I will so order My blessing for you in the
sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years. (which
would take care of the 8th yr & the 9th yr when the crop comes in!) ...22
'When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the
crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in. 23 The
land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for THE LAND IS MINE; for you
are but aliens and sojourners with Me." (Lev25:18-23)
God tells the
Jews that if they don't keep
the SABBATH YEAR He is going to get it back because the land is His!
HOW DOES THE
"SABBATH YEAR FOR THE LAND"
RELATE TO THE 70 YEARS OF BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY?
God had said
"the land will
ENJOY (Hebrew =
satisfy, especially to satisfy a debt!) its SABBATHS all the days of THE DESOLATION (Ed
note: basic idea is desolation caused by some great disaster, usually result
of divine judgment), while you
are in your enemies' land; then THE LAND WILL REST and
ENJOY ITS SABBATHS. All
the days of its DESOLATION
it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while
you were living on it." (Lev26:34-35)
God makes it very clear that He will get back His Sabbath rests for the
land. Here is the "divine mathematics":
490 years divided by 7 = 70
years
So
70 years of sabbaths is what the Jews owed the Lord, the exact time they
were in Babylonian captivity.
Daniel records that
"in the first year
of his reign I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which
was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the
completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years." (Da
9:2)
IN WHICH "BOOKS" DID DANIEL READ ABOUT
"SEVENTY YEARS"?
The prophet Jeremiah had recorded that
"this whole land (Judah) shall be
a
desolation
(Ed note: same word group translated "desolation in Lev 26:34-35 above) and
a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon
seventy years.
Then it will be when
seventy years
are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,' declares
the Lord, 'for their iniquity, and the land of the
Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation." (Jer
25:11-12)
ANOTHER PASSAGE DANIEL MAY HAVE READ IS JEREMIAH 29...
"And seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile,
and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have
welfare. ' 8 "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Do not
let your prophets who are in your midst and
your diviners deceive you, and
do not listen to the dreams which they dream. 9 'For they prophesy falsely
to you in My name; I have not sent them,' declares the Lord.10 "For thus
says the Lord, 'When 70 YEARS have been completed for Babylon, I will visit
you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11
'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for
welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 'Then you
will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 'And
you will seek Me and find [Me,] when you search for Me with all your heart.
14 'And I will be found by you,' declares the Lord, 'and I will restore your
fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places
where I have driven you,' declares the Lord, 'and I will bring you back to
the place from where I sent you into exile.' (Jer
29:7-14)
WHY IS DANIEL
IN SACKCLOTH &
ASHES?
Daniel is in sackcloth and ashes because he knows they went into captivity
because of
idolatry and the land did not receive the required SABBATH rests.
BUT THERE ARE TWO OTHER REASONS WHY DANIEL MAY HAVE PUT ON SACKCLOTH &
ASHES:
1). GOD IS A COVENANT-KEEPING GOD:
If they repent & confess their sin God will remember His COVENANT:
Leviticus 26:40 '
If they confess their iniquity (when Israel is in captivity...did
you see Daniel confessing iniquity? ) and the iniquity of their forefathers,
in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their
acting with hostility against Me--41 I also was acting with hostility
against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies-- or if their
uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their
iniquity, 42 then I will remember MY COVENANT with Jacob, and I will
remember also MY COVENANT WITH ISAAC, & MY COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM as well,
and I will remember the land.
Leviticus 26:43
'For the land shall be
abandoned by them, and shall make up for its sabbaths while it is made
desolate without them. THEY, MEANWHILE, SHALL BE MAKING AMENDS FOR THEIR
INIQUITY, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My
statutes. (So while in captivity the Jews were to be making amends for
their iniquity...are they? Daniel was but probably not the nation as a
whole).44 'Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their
enemies, I will not reject them (Why? because He is a covenant-keeping
God) nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant
with them; for I am the Lord their God. 45 'But I will remember for them the
covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in
the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.' "
IS GOD FINISHED WITH
ISRAEL?
Some people say that God is through with Israel but look at
Romans 11. The apostle Paul asks and
answers his own question --
"God has not rejected His people, has He? May it
never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe
of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew." (Ro11:1-2)
Why has God not rejected His
people? God has not rejected the Jews is because He is a covenant-keeping
God. So it's not because of them, not based on their acceptability, upon Who God is.
Remember this simple but important principle:
WHEN YOU GO TO PRAYER,
YOU ALWAYS GO ON THE BASIS OF WHO GOD IS.
You CONFESS to clean up your act.
But you go to Him not on the basis of your
merit, but on basis of Who He is.
God goes on to explain through Paul that the Jews rejection of Jesus Christ has been
the Gentile's salvation. The olive tree pictures the grafting in of the
Gentiles. Then God says He is not through with the Jews.
Paul writes to the Roman saints that
"I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery,
lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening (Paul
was a part that wasn't hardened--he believed) has happened to Israel until the fulness of
the Gentiles has come in; (until the last Gentile that needs to be saved is
going to be saved) and thus all Israel will be saved; (all Israel that is
living at the time Christ returns, not all Israel from the foundation of the
world.) just as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He
will remove ungodliness from Jacob. And this is My COVENANT with them, When
I take away their sins." From the standpoint of the gospel they are
enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of [God's] choice they are
beloved for the sake of the fathers for the gifts and the calling of God
are IRREVOCABLE." (Ro
11:25-29)
God called Abraham out of pagan Ur and promised him a land as an everlasting possession and
Daniel knows this covenant promise of God and comes to God on the basis of WHO HE IS.
WHAT IS THE SECOND REASON
DANIEL IS IN SACKCLOTH & ASHES?
2). BECAUSE THE PEOPLE HAD NOT REPENTED
The Jews sinned and judgment and exile followed--they continued in sin and still
did not repent (read Malachi).
Leviticus 25 taught that is they continued to sin and they would get 7x as
much or 7 x 70 = 490 years.
Daniel knows that the 70yrs of captivity is over but the SIN of the people
is not over and so he comes to God in sackcloth and ashes.
THE FIRST BIBLICAL REFERENCE TO ''SACKCLOTH'' IS:
Genesis 37:34
"So Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and
mourned for his son many days."
Jacob is mourning for Joseph because he has been told by his sons that Joseph
is dead. Jacob mourning because of grief
Jesus taught that
"Blessed
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted"
(Mt 5:4)
It is code blue
It is time for mourning
Esther 4:1
"When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his
clothes, put on
sackcloth and
ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and
bitterly."
Ps 35:13
"But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was
sackcloth; I
humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer kept returning to my bosom."
DANIEL SAW THAT ISRAEL WAS IN DANGER BECAUSE THEY HAD NOT REPENTED.
WHAT DOES SCRIPTURE
SAY ABOUT FASTING
An example of
"hypocritical fasting" in Isaiah 58...
'Why have we FASTED and Thou dost not see? Why have we humbled
ourselves and Thou dost not notice?' Behold, on the day of your FAST you
find your desire, and drive hard all your workers. (God is saying that
you're just fasting to manipulate Me! And it doesn't change the way you
treat people.) Behold, you FAST
for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not FAST like you do today to
make your voice heard on high. Is it a FAST like this which I
choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one's head like
a reed, and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call
this a FAST, even an
acceptable day to the Lord? (It's all show, going through the "motions") Is this not the FAST which I
choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness (when Daniel was fasting before
the Lord, he was trying to loosen the bonds of wickedness & sin among his
people ) to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free,
and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry...
(Read
entire chapter to see what else God says about fasting).
(Isa
58:3-7)
GENUINE FASTING is to unloose the bonds of wickedness and sin
GENUINE FASTING shows that one is serious with God.
ZECHARIAH:
(a post-exilic book, after Jews return from 70 years in Babylon)
"Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men
to seek the favor of the Lord, speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the Lord of
hosts, and to the prophets saying, "Shall I weep in the fifth month
(Ed note: the fall of Jerusalem was remembered by the Jews with 4 fasts, in
the 4th, 5th, 7th & 10th months, that in the 5th being considered the most
serious because the Temple had been burnt in that month...so here they use
the 5th month fast as a "test case" in their question) and
abstain, as I have done these many years?" (They are asking God ''What should I do? Should I abstain? Should I fast?) Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying 5 "Say to all
the people of the land and to the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in
the fifth and seventh months these 70 years, was it actually for Me that you
fasted?" (Zech 7:2-5)
In other words God answers their question about whether they should fast by
asking them a question back "Were you fasting because you heard Me? Were you fasting
because you were seeking Me?
Or were you fasting simply because you wanted to get your way?"
How was Daniel
fasting? He was fasting, genuinely seeking the Lord.
HOW DID DANIEL
APPROACH GOD?
1) HE LOOKED FIRST AT THE CHARACTER OF GOD
He "reminded" God of Who He is. We need to let Him know that we
know Who He is.
"And I prayed to the
LORD my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome
God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and
keep His commandments...Righteousness belongs to Thee, O Lord...To the Lord
our God belong compassion and forgiveness..." (Da
9:4, 7a, 9a)
The PRAYER OF FAITH is laying hold of the character of God and saying ''...Hallowed
be Thy name.''
2). HE CONFESSES
HIS SIN Over and over...no
excuses, no glossing over.
"we have sinned, committed iniquity,
acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and
ordinances. ...Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes,
and our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee." (Da
9:5,8)
3). ACKNOWLEDGING THEY HAD HEARD BUT NOT LISTENED
"Moreover, we have not listened to Thy servants the prophets, who
spoke in Thy name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people
of the land." (Da
9:6)
Listen"
is the Hebrew word shama' conveys the idea of perceiving,
hearing with attention or obedience and so of listening
effectively so that there is a heeding of what one is hearing. (Ed note: KJV
often translates it as "obeyeth"! See verse 8 below in the NASB!)
In Jeremiah 11:1-14, a key word is "Listen"--
"Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "Cursed is the man who
does not HEED the words of this covenant which I commanded your
forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from
the iron furnace, saying, 'LISTEN to My voice, and do according to all which
I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,' 5 in
order to confirm the oath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a
land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day."'" Then I answered and
said, "Amen, O LORD." And the LORD said to me, "Proclaim all these words in
the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, 'HEAR
the words of this covenant and do them for I solemnly warned your fathers in the day that I brought them up from
the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning persistently, saying, "LISTEN
to My voice.
8
Yet they did not OBEY
(shama') or incline their ear, but walked,
each one, in the stubbornness of his evil heart; therefore I brought on them
all the words of this covenant, which I commanded [them] to do, but they did
not.'...They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors
who refused to HEAR My words, and they have gone after other gods to serve
them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant
which I made with their fathers. Therefore thus says the Lord, "Behold I
am bringing disaster on them which they will not be able to escape; though
they will cry to Me, yet I will not
LISTEN to them." (Jer11:3-11)
From the last verse
above, we see that there can come a time when you have so often refused to listen to God, that when you run to
Him asking ''God, listen to me'', He will reply and will say ''I am not going to LISTEN
to you because you didn't LISTEN to Me. I'm going to have to judge you.''
The ONLY way to stop God's
righteous judgment
for our not listening is by genuinely REPENTING
4). ACKNOWLEDGED
GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS IN JUDGING AND GOD'S COMPASSION
Don't whitewash sin and don't ever call God unjust for judging sin.
"As it is written in the law of Moses,
all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the
LORD our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Thy truth.
Therefore, the LORD has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for
the LORD our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has
done, but we have not obeyed His voice...O Lord, in accordance with all Thy
righteous acts, let now Thine anger and Thy wrath turn away from Thy city
Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of
our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people have become a reproach to all those
around us." (Da
9:13-14, 16)
Daniel is saying that
God was righteous in judging them. Now he asks God to be righteous in pardoning
them.
To be righteous means to do what's right, so if we sin God must judge
sin. If we sin, confess and repent, and God did not honor that would that be right?
No. So God is right in JUDGING but He is also right in FORGIVING sin,
because we have
forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ.
5). THEY ASKED FOR
GOD'S SAKE
"O my God, incline Thine ear and hear! Open Thine eyes and see our
desolations and the city which is called by Thy name; for we are not
presenting our supplications before Thee on account of any merits of our
own, but on account of Thy great
compassion."
(Da9:18)
Daniel is going before God for God's
sake, for God's glory. When you make that the basis for all your prayer, you
will find God listening very clearly to your prayers!
It is Code Blue
It was for Daniel
& it is for us
It is an emergency
Get on your knees
Pray Daniel 9
Fast. Pray. Get
serious
Call upon
God because He is a covenant-keeping God and call on Him now.
LEST WE DON'T LISTEN WHEN HE JUDGES US
AND GREATER JUDGMENT HAS TO COME IN ORDER TO GET OUR ATTENTION.
PRAYER: Father, thank You for Your word. Thank You for the wonder of it all.
Father as we study this next lesson, open our eyes even more and Father let
us see that we cannot plumb the depths of Thy Word, that we'll never exhaust
it, that there's always more there to see, more to learn, not things that
are figments of our imagination, & more understanding of what You have said.
Father, we've heard this lesson. Let us listen to what we have heard. In
Your name. Amen.
