15And now, Adonai our God, who brought out Your people from the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and made to You a name as [it is] to this day, we have sinned, we have acted wickedly. 16Adonai, like the all of Your righteousnesses, may (nah) Your anger and Your fury turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain. Because [of] our sins and the perversions of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people [have become] a reproach to all of ones around us. 17And now, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant and his requests and cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary, the desolate, to the sake of Adonai. 18Incline Your ear, my God, and hear. Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called [by] Your name on it, because not upon our righteousnesses we cause to fall our requests to Your face, [but] because upon Your great mercies. 19Adonai, hear! Adonai, forgive! Adonai, give attention and act! For Your sake, my God, do not tarry because Your name [is] called upon Your city and upon Your people!
Finally, Daniel comes to his actual request. Up to this point, his prayer has been consumed with acknowledging God’s greatness and the depth of the Jewish people’s sins.
As I read this prayer, one of the first things that strikes me is how much Daniel knew his Bible. It’s perhaps not as easy to see in English, but in Hebrew there are several places where there is no doubt in my mind Daniel is actually quoting Scriptures. I don’t mean, obviously, that he quotes chapter and verse, but what I do mean is that the particular words and phrases reflect a man who knew his Bible so well, when he speaks, his sentences simply come out in terms which you can find in exactly that order in exactly that context in other places in the Bible. He’s so full of the Scriptures, when he speaks, it comes out Bible!
Just as an example, in v.17, when Daniel says, “And now, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant and his requests…” those are the exact same Hebrew words and in the same order as Psalm 143:1, “Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy…” Not so obvious in English, but it’s there in Hebrew – I am quite sure Daniel has prayed the prayer of Psalm 143 many, many times, so that, when he himself prays, those words come out. Then when he says, “Make Your face to shine on Your sanctuary…” those are the familiar words of the Aaronic Benediction in Numb. 6:24-26, “The Lord bless us and keep us, the Lord make His face to shine upon us...” Those kinds of little bits and snatches of Bible words and phrases are laced all through Daniel’s prayer.
I’m reminded again that, when he
said back in verse 2, “I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures…” it wasn’t
some isolated case of him opening a scroll. Daniel was a man who regularly had
his Scriptures open in front of him, reading and studying and pondering, and
that so much that his mind was full even of simply Bible terms. If you and I
would have the faith of Daniel, may we realize we need to imitate his Bible
study habits before that will ever happen. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God.” Strong faith grows only in the soil of much Bible reading
and study.
All that said, however, I believe Daniel has opened my eyes to something I am not sure I’ve ever really seen before. Read these verses over and over and over and over and probably, like me, you’ll begin to notice something that strikes us as strange. You would think his prayer would read something like, “Lord, You see how much we Your people are suffering here in Babylon! Please bring an end to this awful captivity and let us Your people return to our home! Free us from the rule of these Gentiles and let us again be a strong, independent nation! Help us and free us, Lord!”
If your first thought is, “That’s basically what he’s praying,” go back and read it a few more times. Can you see, too, that Daniel’s greatest concern is not for the suffering of his people, but instead for the glory of God??? What bothers Daniel most about the downtrodden condition of his people is not their suffering but rather the disgrace it brings to the name of the Lord! What bothers him most about the desolation of Jerusalem is how it degrades the name of the Lord. The reason he’s praying for it all to end is to once again show the world that our God is a great God, that He is glorious!
Let me inject that there is nothing wrong with praying specifically for an end to the people’s suffering. The poor leper said to Jesus, “If You are willing, You can make me clean,” and what was Jesus’ answer? “I am willing. Be clean.” Our larger problem in this world is our sins and our sinfulness, yet Isaiah specifically said, “By His stripes, we are healed” (53:5) and much of Jesus’ earthly ministry was giving sight to the blind, healing the sick, and even raising the dead. “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him” (Psalm 103:13). The Lord Himself tells us we should be “Casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you” (I Peter 5:7). That last phrase says literally, “for it matters to Him concerning you.” Jesus cares. Pray on, though your prayers be the senseless babbling of a 2-year old. Your Father just loves to hear your little voice. Just spill your heart.
At the same time, however, our Father does want us to grow up. For myself, I believe what I’m seeing in Daniel is the realization that there is a much larger issue at stake here, even in my suffering, and that is the glory of God. I would suggest it’s easy to say I want the Lord to be glorified. I would suggest statements like that have even become cliché in the Church today. However, do we really mean it? Is that truly what we care most about? For myself, I don’t know that I’ve ever really seen that. Have I ever really done what I did because I sincerely cared about the glory of God? I’m afraid the honest answer is no. Like I said, I feel like Daniel’s prayer has cracked open a door I’ve never really known was there. It opens a window through which I’m not sure I’ve ever really peeked.
Note how he says things like: “O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteousness, turn away Your anger from Jerusalem, Your city.” He says, “Our sins have made Jerusalem and Your people an object of scorn to all those around us.” He says, “For Your sake, O Lord, look with favor on Your sanctuary.” Finally he concludes with, “For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”
While I am quite sure Daniel was deeply grieved by the oppression and sufferings of his people, he could lift up his eyes and see there was a much larger issue at stake. Just so it’s said, I also am quite sure Daniel understood that God’s glory is always the greatest good of His people. For the Lord to be glorified would indeed result in blessing on His people. However, Daniel could see that it was truly God’s glory that was most at stake and that, it turns out, was the sincere focus of this great model prayer.
Obviously, for us all, maturity will mean learning to actually value God’s glory even above our own suffering. That is no doubt part of the “secret” of what made Daniel who he was. No wonder Daniel is praying this prayer, even though he himself is probably 85 years old and cannot ever see the benefits that will come as the Babylonian Captivity ends! No wonder. It’s not so much an end of the suffering that concerns Daniel, but rather the glory of God in this world – which is by its very nature timeless (and has nothing to do with his age, or even his presence)! No wonder Daniel seems so calm, so resolute in his faith regardless of his circumstances. His heart has moved on to the much larger issues of God’s glory in the events of his life.
Wow. I have a LOT to learn. I do want to be more like Daniel. Studying his prayer greatly encourages me to just keep studying the Bible, but now he’s challenging me to take what I would call a step of maturity, to actually make choices sincerely moved by the glory of my God. That seems almost insurmountable to me. On the other hand, knowing the Lord, I am sure if we would ask Him, He would be more than happy to teach us! May we truly learn what it means to live for His glory! Daniel did. We can too!
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