Daniel 9:11-14 “Even More on This Business of Doing Wrong”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹and the all of Israel has overstepped Your law and turned aside, not hearing/obeying in Your voice, and the curse has poured out on us and the oath which [is] written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned to Him. ¹²And He has confirmed His words which He spoke (intensely) against us and upon our judges who judged us and to bring on us a great evil which has not been done under the all of the heavens like it has been done in Jerusalem. ¹³Just as [it is] being written in the Law of Moses, the all of the evil in this has come on us and we have not entreated the face of the LORD our God to turn from our iniquities and to give attention in Your truth. ¹⁴The LORD watched on the evil and He brought on us because the LORD our God [is] righteous on the all of His doings which He does and we have not listened/obeyed to His voice.

Continuing to ponder on this neglected subject of our doing wrong – I think some things are worth noting, particularly as regards our sinfulness and how we deal with it. In v.11, Daniel says, “All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you.” Note this is a case where, as Daniel says, “,,,the curses and sworn judgments…have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you.”

 The case before us is one where the person(s) very specifically and deliberately violated what they knew to be the Lord’s way, and they are now suffering very specifically for those sins. This is the same situation David found himself in, confessing his sins regarding Bathsheba, “Against You, and You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight…” (Ps. 51:4). Nathan told him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you…’” David very specifically sinned and would be very specifically punished for that sin. We should note that, when he replied, “I have sinned against the Lord, the same God told him, “The Lord has forgiven your sin...but because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die” (II Sam. 12:11-14).

Several things to note, first of all that both Daniel and David were good repenters.  David’s prayer there in Psalm 51 reads the same as Daniel’s here in Daniel chapter 9. In both cases, they both clearly owned their sins, both humbly accepted the just punishments for those sins, and both enjoyed the Lord’s wonderful forgiveness. David was still called “A man after God’s own heart” (I. Sam.13:14; Acts 13:22),  and Daniel was still told, “…you are highly esteemed” (v.23). Both understood what we noted earlier that there is no need for “Denial or Despair,” but that they could thoroughly repent in hope. Paul would later say, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” (II Cor. 7:10). Lord, help us all to be good repenters!

We should inject here the very Biblical observation that God’s reason for allowing pain in our lives is not always a just punishment for willful sins we’ve committed. Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” and Jesus answered them, “Neither…but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:2,3). Paul said in II Cor. 12:7, “To keep me from becoming conceited…, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” In the first case, the pain had nothing to do with either the man born blind or his parents, but rather it was for God’s glory. In the second case, the pain was specifically to prevent sin in Paul’s life. In a very context of pain, we read, “And we know that all things work together for good” and that God’s purpose in it all is “that we should be conformed to the image of His Son…” (Rom. 8:28,29). As I read and studied the Bible, I used to keep track of the reasons why God allows pain in our lives, and I believe at last count I was up to twelve!

So let us not think in our lives or the lives of others that whatever pain they suffer must be because they’ve sinned. That is only one out of many reasons why we may find pain in our lives. On the other hand, even at our best, we’re still sinners, both in our very nature and in the choices we make throughout our day. Being a sinner and knowing my heart is “desperately wicked and deceitful above all things,” the possibility that I’ve brought trouble on myself is always an option. Because of that, it is very easy when suffering to fall into the “Despair” option, wrecking our joy and our lives, worrying over “How have I sinned that all this should happen?”

We need to keep that option open and always pray humbly asking the Lord to show us our sins, but here is what I decided many years ago: I do not believe the Lord is One to sadistically bring pain in our lives then play a game of, “It’s up to you to figure out how you must have sinned,” leaving us to wallow in the misery of searching out some “secret sin” we’ve committed. It is interesting that David said concerning Bathsheba, “My sin is ever before me…” (Ps. 51:3). The minute Nathan said, “You’re the man,” David replied, “I have sinned against the Lord” (II Sam.12:13). David knew it all along, he just didn’t want to admit it. I believe, if we suffer in any way, and if it really is because of some specific sin we’ve committed, we’ll know exactly what it was and also there will be a very clear connection between what we did and why we’re suffering.

In other words, the Lord won’t play “cat and mouse” with us. If we’re willing to be humble before Him, that specific sin will be obvious to us and the consequences will be very clearly connected to it. If I say to Him, “Search me, O God, and know my heart, and see if there be any wicked way in me,” He will gladly answer. If I sincerely and humbly (to the best of my ability) pray that prayer and the Lord brings nothing to mind, then I can go on with my life, trying to say to Him, “Then teach me whatever it is You want me learn, or use me however You’re wanting to use me.” I can spend my time in the joy of knowing “All things work together for good,” and that, in it all, His ultimate purpose is to make me more like Jesus, to allow me to “share in His holiness.” Although we are sinners and justly deserve hell all day every day, I would suggest to you that, if you sincerely want to follow Jesus, you’re in the Word, and regularly in prayer, there will actually be few times in your life where you are specifically suffering for specific willful sins. Most of the time, it’s just a matter of being sinners living in a sinful world. God told Adam and Eve, “In dying, you shall die,” and it is true to this day that we literally live dying. However, our great God takes the very sinfulness of our hearts and miseries we swim in to accomplish His great eternal purposes in our lives!

So, Lord help us to be good repenters, like Daniel and David, but also keep alive in us always “the joy of our salvation.” Help us to deal decisively with our sins, but may we also rejoice constantly in knowing we are “dearly loved children,” and hear Him saying, “The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty; He will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph. 3:17).

Daniel could deal decisively with his sins, yet also be a man exemplary for his love and faithfulness. Let us “go and do likewise!”

 

Daniel 9:11-14 “More on This Business of Doing Wrong”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹and the all of Israel has overstepped Your law and turned aside, not hearing/obeying in Your voice, and the curse has poured out on us and the oath which [is] written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned to Him. ¹²And He has confirmed His words which He spoke (intensely) against us and upon our judges who judged us and to bring on us a great evil which has not been done under the all of the heavens like it has been done in Jerusalem. ¹³Just as [it is] being written in the Law of Moses, the all of the evil in this has come on us and we have not entreated the face of the LORD our God to turn from our iniquities and to give attention in Your truth. ¹⁴The LORD watched on the evil and He brought on us because the LORD our God [is] righteous on the all of His doings which He does and we have not listened/obeyed to His voice.

I sadly think this is a passage where we’d do well to just park and ponder for a good long while. As I said before, I’m afraid this subject of sin is all but unaddressed today. Personally, I can’t change the world, but I can try to stand myself openly before the Lord and let Him teach me what He will. Jesus told the Laodiceans, “I counsel you to buy from Me white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness, and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see” (Rev. 3:18). Whether anyone else does or not, you and I can open our Bibles, sit before the Lord and say to Him, “Yes, Lord, give me Your white clothes and salve for my eyes. I do want to see!”

Let me begin with the Lord Himself. What would Daniel and his prayer teach us? I believe what he teaches us is monumental! What do I mean? What is the message of this whole book of Daniel? Is it not, “The Most High rules in the nations of men”? That truth has been (or should have been) for us a great source of hope as we go on living in the same world of constant turmoil and threats, just like Daniel. However, let us be reminded, when it comes to this subject of sin, this truth is a two-edged sword. The Lord rules. As we would take shelter under the blood of Jesus, that is an enormously comforting truth. However, if we would spit in His face, we’ll soon find out there is an entirely different understanding of that truth! In Jesus, we rejoice in the truth that He will do for us “immeasurably more than we could ask or think,” but let all the world know that when we would offend the Most High, He is just as able to reign down on us curses and miseries “immeasurably more than we could ask or think!” He is no one to be trifled with. As we’re told in Hebrews, “Our God is a consuming fire!”

What are we dealing with here? We’re dealing with the fact that our God is infinitely just. He is infinitely loving and merciful and forgiving, but let us be reminded He is also infinitely just as well and that at all times and in all ways, our God expresses all of His infinite attributes in perfect, infinite balance. What is going on in the passage before us? The Lord had entered into a covenant with the people of Israel. They promised to obey Him (“All the Lord commands us, we will do”) and He laid out very clearly for them the promise of His blessings if they would obey and the horrific threat of His cursings if they did not. Read for yourself Deuteronomy 28.

Daniel read Deuteronomy 28 and what is he saying in his prayer? “We, the people of Israel have utterly violated our covenant with You and You, Lord, have brought on us exactly the cursings You said You would.” Can anyone else see that is perfect justice? The Most High rules. He said He would…and He did. Daniel says, “Under the whole heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done in Jerusalem,” and what does he say next? “Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us…for the Lord our God is righteous in everything He does,,,” (vv.12-14).

Our God is not like the indulgent parent who says to their child, “You stop that or we’re going home!” then says, “I told you to stop that! You stop that or no video games tonight! If you stop that, I’ll buy you an ice cream cone! … and on and on and on. No. The Most High rules. He does what He said He would do. In His world, to do right is to be blessed, to do wrong is to suffer consequences.

Of course, I can insert here that this is, in itself, the wonder of who Jesus is. What do we learn in Romans 3:25,26? “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of His blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – He did it to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” God’s infinite justice means that, since Jesus Himself has already been punished for our sins, if we will accept His offering, then the Lord will forgive us. In a sense, He must. He is just. As He warns us, “The wages of sin is death,” but that only requires one death. Jesus’ death can be that one death, that one payment required to satisfy God’s infinite justice – and it is, if we by faith accept it.

The world stands warned. Outside of Jesus, God’s infinite perfect justice guarantees that sin will be punished – infinitely punished. It’s called hell, a place where “their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.” However, for those of us who would take shelter under His blood, though we move into the glorious privilege of becoming the children of God, we need to recognize that He remains the same. His perfection is now expressed as our Father, rather than the Judge, but understand, He is still our Father. As Israel found out, He is no indulgent parent. He loves His children too much to let us go on sinning and self-destructing. If anything, in this world, we may find His chastening hand more severe on us than He seems to be on the world around us! And why? Because He loves us justly.

Even as Daniel observes, “Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem,” so I would sadly suggest has been pretty much the entire history of the Jewish people. Right down to the horrors of the Holocaust, their sufferings in this world have been horrific. However, what would that teach us? It ought to teach the world that God loves His people too much to just let them sin. If only the Jewish people would pray like Daniel prays, acknowledge that it is their sins which have brought on them those horrible consequences, and turn to the Lord in personal and national repentance, the same Lord would pour out all the blessings He promised in that very chapter – Deuteronomy 28.

He is just. He is infinitely just. “The Most High rules in the nations of men.” He is no one to be trifled with. In Jesus, let us “come boldly before the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need.” May we come as “dearly loved children” to crawl into the lap of our wonderful Father, but let us come thanking Him that He loves us too much to let us just go on sinning! Let us tell Him, “Thy rod and Thy staff (both!), they comfort me!” May we happily accept His admonition, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons…our fathers disciplined us as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness” (Heb. 12:7-10).

Daniel understood and it made him who he was. Let you and I join him in worshiping the God of perfect, infinite justice, and may we too be people of faith, just like Daniel.

 

Daniel 9:11-14 “This Business of Doing Wrong”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹and the all of Israel has overstepped Your law and turned aside, not hearing/obeying in Your voice, and the curse has poured out on us and the oath which [is] written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned to Him. ¹²And He has confirmed His words which He spoke (intensely) against us and upon our judges who judged us and to bring on us a great evil which has not been done under the all of the heavens like it has been done in Jerusalem. ¹³Just as [it is] being written in the Law of Moses, the all of the evil in this has come on us and we have not entreated the face of the LORD our God to turn from our iniquities and to give attention in Your truth, ¹⁴The LORD watched on the evil and He brought on us because the LORD our God [is] righteous on the all of His doings which He does and we have not listened/obeyed to His voice.

I would like to suggest these verses in Daniel are a most appropriate study in our world today. Theologians call it “Hamartiology,” which means properly our “theology of sin.” What it all comes down to is this whole business of doing wrong. I’m suggesting this is an appropriate study precisely because I fear this is today an all but forgotten subject, even amongst professing Christians and the Church.

As we see the rapid devolvement of our nation, Christians in America like to quote II Chron. 7:14, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” The emphasis then becomes the need to “humble ourselves and pray and seek His face.” Those are good things, but notice there is another condition given: “and turn from their wicked ways.” Whose “wicked ways?” Who is the subject of this passage? “My people.” Us. Professing Christians. The Church. And whose sins need to be forgiven? Ours. Us professing Christians’. The Church’s.

Note again that Daniel lives in none other than Babylon itself. Babel. The very epicenter of evil in our world. The drunken harlot of Revelation 18 and 19. Yet whose sins need to be forgiven? Whose sins are the focus of Daniel’s prayer? His own and his people’s.  Just as in Daniel’s case, the healing of our land doesn’t mean somehow getting all these bad people around us to stop their abortions and all our other national sins. It isn’t about them, it is about us.

And if we would get serious about our sins, where would we start? May I suggest one of the most prevalent and unaddressed sins in the Church itself today is sexual sin? I suspect for the men of the church today that starts with pornography. It is interesting to note in Prov. 6:26, “By means of a harlot, a man is turned into a loaf of bread…” Men a bunch of loaves of bread? I’m sorry, but what more fitting epitaph could we offer for the men of the Church today? Men are supposed to be rocks. They’re supposed to lead the Church, their families, and even our nation in a manly resolve to be moral, to be people of determined integrity, to show everyone else what it means to stand for something.

What does it do to a man when he is “secretly” clicking around on his phone or computer to take in pornography? As the verse says, it turns him into a “loaf of bread.” And why? I believe it is because the most driving passion in any man’s heart is sexual desire. What God calls us men to do is to conquer that passion in our hearts, in the privacy of our hearts and in the control of our eyes. Jesus Himself said, “If any man looks on a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery in his heart” (Matt. 5:28). Proverbs would tell us, “Drink water from your own cistern…Rejoice with the wife of your youth…may her breasts satisfy you always, may you always be captivated (literally ‘intoxicated’) with her love (literally ‘lovings’)…For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord” (5:15-21). God calls us men to conquer the most driving passion in our hearts. When, and to the extent we do, we become men of steeled resolve. We become rocks. All of the other matters of morality – honesty, dependability, control of our finances, etc. – become lesser challenges because we’ve already conquered the biggest monster in our hearts.

If I may stay on this sad subject just a little longer, I know of a Christian counselor who told me once, when he is doing pre-marriage counseling with any young couple, his first assumption is that they are already having sex. Christian couples. Young people who sit in the pews and sing, “Oh How I Love Jesus.” I’m repeating the man’s sad observation because I strongly suspect he’s right.

What do we all think God should think of this? These are not “debatable” issues of what we eat and drink and what we do. This is a direct violation of literally one of the Ten Commandments. It is bald-faced, willful, deliberate sin. And I’m suggesting God’s Church is full of it. Not only is the Church full of it – can I suggest it basically goes completely unaddressed? If we Christians really want the Lord to “heal our land,” may I suggest it will begin with our serious repentance of exactly sexual sin?

Once again, Daniel would teach us it isn’t about denial or despair. Following His example, it is about clearly acknowledging our sins and then the repenting of them as people of great hope. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). To our God belong “mercies and forgivings.” Obviously, our sin problems go far beyond the matter of sexual sin, but I would call our attention to this one in particular as I believe, especially for us men, it is one of the most prevalent and damaging and unaddressed sins of our generation. If we would seriously address “this whole business of doing wrong,” let us be specific. Let us go for the jugular, so to speak, then work our way down from there.

Daniel wasn’t afraid to address this whole business of doing wrong. Let us be like him!