Daniel was a man of God living in exile, along with his entire nation. But God showed him something in the Word. Pastor Jason shares from Daniel 9:1-9.
Enjoy this message? Consider visiting Ravenna Church of the Nazarene where Pastor Jason is serving as the Senior Pastor. Have a prayer need? Want to share something with Pastor Jason? Send The Dirt Path Pastor a message. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thedirtpathpastor
Help spread the gospel through this podcast by subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing this episode.
Daniel was a man of God living in exile, along with his entire nation. But God showed him something in the Word. Pastor Jason shares from Daniel 9:1-9.
Enjoy this message? Consider visiting Ravenna Church of the Nazarene where Pastor Jason is serving as the Senior Pastor. Have a prayer need? Want to share something with Pastor Jason? Send The Dirt Path Pastor a message. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thedirtpathpastor
Help spread the gospel through this podcast by subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing this episode.
Group projects can be the worst. But do you know what is worse than group projects? Group punishments. Playing sports, serving in the military, and even just having siblings, I have had my share of group punishments. In every situation, I have wanted to shout, “It wasn’t me!”
The good news is that God only holds me and you accountable for our personal decisions, actions, and attitudes. God will not judge me for your sin, nor will He judge you for my sin. But at the same time, we cannot deny that our own personal sin has a ripple effect, impacting the whole community at times. And a lot of our own suffering can happen because of someone else’s sin.
God does bring judgment on entire families and nations throughout scripture. How are we to juggle our personal sins and the sins of the community? Our passage today reveals that “it wasn’t me” is not the right answer.
Daniel 9:1-9 (CSB)
In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, a Mede by birth, who was made king over the Chaldean kingdom—in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books according to the word of the LORD to the prophet Jeremiah that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be seventy. So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:
Ah, Lord—the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him, and keep his commands—we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from your commands and ordinances. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, leaders, fathers, and all the people of the land.
Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but this day public shame belongs to us: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel—those who are near and those who are far, in all the countries where you have banished them because of the disloyalty they have shown toward you. Lord, public shame belongs to us, our kings, our leaders, and our fathers, because we have sinned against you. Compassion and forgiveness belongs to the Lord our God, though we have rebelled against him…
This is the Word of God.
For the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
As the worldly powers shifted around Daniel, he dug into the Word of God. While reading, Daniel would have found Jeremiah 25:11-12, which said, “This whole country will be reduced to a wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. When the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation for wrongdoing.” (CEB) Daniel understood that he and God’s people were in exile because of Israel’s failure to obey God. But Daniel saw that the old regime of Babylon had been punished just as God said. With that in mind, Daniel would read Jeremiah 29:10-11, which said, “When Babylon’s seventy years are up, I will come and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. I know the plans I have in mind for you, they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope.” (CEB)
What is interesting is that during the time Jeremiah was sharing these prophecies (before the exile), he was beaten, imprisoned, and mocked. Now, as God’s words were being fulfilled, Jeremiah’s message was recognized as inspired. Daniel read them and believed what God had said, interpreting his current moment through God’s Word. He knew the end of the exile was approaching, so Daniel began to pray.
Much of Daniel’s prayer focuses on the Promise Keeper and the promise breakers. God’s people were the promise breakers. Their national failure went beyond just sinful actions, they were openly defiant of God’s ways and violent toward the messengers God sent to warn them. They had blocked ears and hard hearts.
God dealt with them in the same way anyone would with an unfaithful spouse; God’s covenant with them was like the covenant of marriage. The Lord was right in judging them, love deals with sin. However, God did not nullify His covenant with the Israelites, He left the door open to show them mercy and forgiveness.
Knowing God, Daniel knew God loved His people and wanted the relationship restored. The only problem for the Israelites was as a nation they had no right to claim these promises because it was their actions and hearts that disrupted the relationship. Daniel did the only thing he could do; he threw himself and his fellow countrymen at God’s throne of grace. He confessed to God the nation’s sins and appealed to God’s heart, seeking His forgiveness and mercy. Standing on God’s Word, Daniel asked God to do what the Israelites could not do for themselves.
There is something interesting about all this. Using a very churchy word, Daniel interceded for the entire nation, or Daniel prayed as a representative of them. Before the exile, we know little about Daniel’s life, but based on what we know from reading the book that bears his name, it is hard to imagine Daniel is guilty of the sins he is confessing. Even if he had been, Daniel clearly has a strong relationship with God now. Yet in his prayer, Daniel never says, “It wasn’t me,” instead he identified himself with those who were guilty and unfaithful. Daniel accepts the group's punishment for his nation's failures and confesses their sins as if they were his own sins.
How does this apply to you and me? We live in some dark times. Sin abounds and is often applauded. Truth is shunned, and we know God cannot be pleased with it.
You and I may or may not be personally guilty of these sins. Even if we had committed them, we have already confessed them to Jesus, turned from that life, been washed in the blood, and filled with the Holy Spirit. Yet here we are in a time such as now.
Remember, personal sin impacts the community, regardless of its acceptance. We may not be guilty of America’s sins, but we are dealing with generations worth of sins impacting today. You and I may not be guilty of the Church’s sins, but we see and deal with the ramifications of her failures. And it would be easy for us to stand up and shout, “It wasn’t me,” which could be true. But that is not what Jesus is calling us to do, because that is not what Jesus did. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin so we might become sons and daughters of righteousness. He chose to be flesh; Jesus chose to identify with us.
We must intercede on behalf of our nation, our community, our family, and the Church. To truly be intercessors, we cannot point fingers at those who are guilty, instead, we must admit to being one of them. America may be in rebellion against God, but as Americans, we must confess our national sins. The Church might have soiled her wedding dress, but as Christians, we must confess the sins the community has committed. It is not us versus them, it is us with them so God can forgive and restore us.
By identifying with the community, we are throwing all of us at the mercy of God and His forgiveness. God’s grace can intervene, change, and preserve. You and I do not have the power to do anything, but God has the power to transform everything.
Are we willing to intercede? Can we do that as Americans? As Estill County Engineers? As our family names? As the bride of Christ? Forgiveness, mercy, and grace are waiting if we are willing to intercede as one with them.