Introduction These transcripts are from Kay Arthur's lectures on the old course on Daniel and not the new lecture series circa 2006. They are provided as a service to the body of Christ with the written permission of Precept Ministries International. This material is the property of Precept Ministries International and all rights are reserved.
The transcripts are for the most part verbatim with deletions identified by the characters (...). The utilization of italics, bolding, hyperlinks and pop up notes represent editorial additions. Any written additions are identified by the designation "Ed note". All references are the NASB unless otherwise indicated.
Please note that these lectures by Kay Arthur supplement the excellent Precept Upon Precept inductive Bible study on the Daniel. Click on the link below and note that you can download lesson 1 free of charge.
Below are links to the excellent Precept study of the Revelation. If you are planning on doing this four part study, I would strongly encourage you to first complete the Daniel study, as knowledge of the prophecies in Daniel is critical to a full understanding of the prophecies in the Revelation. Note that for each part, you may download a PDF of lesson one at no charge.
If you can find a local Precept class studying Revelation, I would strongly encourage you to join the class, as I know of no other study available anywhere in the world that will equip you so thoroughly to discern the signs of the times and cause you to live expectantly as you look for Christ's Return!
Related Resources:
- Daniel Resources from literal perspective
- Revelation Resources from a literal perspective
- Great Tribulation
- Day of the Lord
- Daniel's Seventieth Week - chart
- Daniel's Seventieth Week Charted Parallel with other Daniel prophecies
- Millennium 1 - Early Church drift from literal interpretation of Rev 20
- Millennium 2 - Context & events leading up to Millennium
- Millennium 3 - How OT describes Millennial Messianic Age
- Daniel 1 Commentary
- Daniel 2 Commentary -- Da 2:1-23
- Daniel 2 Commentary(2) -- Da 2:24-49
- Daniel 3 Commentary
- Daniel 4 Commentary
- Daniel 5 Commentary
- Daniel 6 Commentary
- Daniel 7 Commentary(1) -- Da 7:1-6
- Daniel 7 Commentary(2) -- Da 7:7-14
- Daniel 7 Commentary(3) -- Da 7:15-28
- Daniel 8 Commentary
- Daniel 9 Commentary(1)
- Daniel 9:24 Commentary
- Daniel 9:25 Commentary
- Daniel 9:26 Commentary
- Daniel 9:27 Commentary
- Daniel 10 Commentary
- Daniel 11 Commentary(1) -- Da 11:1-19
- Daniel 11 Commentary(2) -- Da 11:20-45
- Daniel 12 Commentary
Related Resource: Daniel 9 Commentary notes onsite
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.
Lev 26:14 '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.
Lev 26:18 '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.
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, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 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." (Lev 25:18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 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." (Lev 26:34, 35)
God makes it very clear that He will get back His Sabbath rests for the land. Here is the "divine mathematics":
490 yrs 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, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 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, 41, 42…
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, 44, 45…
'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.' "
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-note)
Ed note: For an excellent in depth analysis of the question "What About Israel?" see the following studies by Dr Tony Garland…
- Romans 9:1-5 Paul's Sorrow Concerning Israel
- Romans 9:6-13 Children of the Promise
- Romans 9:14-24 The Potter and the Clay
- Romans 9:25-33 A Remnant Will be Saved
- Romans 10:1-13 The Righteousness of God
- Romans 10:14-21 Has Israel Not Heard?
- Romans 11:1-6 God Has Not Cast Away The Jews
- Romans 11:7-15 Life from the Dead
- Romans 11:16-24 Two Olive Trees
- Romans 11:25-36 The Salvation of Israel
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, 26-note, Ro 11:27-note, Ro 11:28, 29-note)
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-note)
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 (note)
"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, 4, 5, 6, 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, 3, 4, 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, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 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.