"Passionate, Penitent Prayer"

Scripture Passage

Daniel 6:1-28; Daniel 9:1-27; 2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-11; 1 Chronicles 3:17-19

Scripture Focus

“O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act!” (Daniel 9:19 NLT)

Observation

Well, I don’t know how to get my mind around everything we’re reading together. Today’s reading contains three particularly significant Biblical passages—the familiar story of Daniel in the lion’s den, the remarkable prophecy regarding “seventy sets of seven” (9:24), and the prophecy-fulfilling decree by Cyrus that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple!

Given all that, my attention is drawn to Daniel as a person of passionate, penitent prayer. Daniel’s commitment to prayer is evident in the story of the lion’s den, and affirmed and expanded in chapter 9, where Daniel “learned from reading the word of the LORD, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years” (9:2). It’s significant that “even before any formal endorsement had been accorded them, he included Jeremiah’s writings as inspired Scripture” (Zondervan’s NIV Bible Commentary).

Jeremiah had prophesied that Jerusalem would lie desolate for seventy years. Most likely, Daniel dated the beginning of that time from the date of his own deportation to Babylon and would have read this prophetic word three or four years short of the passing of the full seventy years. This was not too far in advance for Daniel to start praying! Daniel’s prayers prompt all sorts of observations. For example…

• Daniel’s prayers grew from “reading the word of the Lord.”
• Daniel asked God to do what He had already promised to do.
• Daniel repented for sins that weren’t his personally, but those of his people.
• Daniel acknowledged the “rightness” of the judgments of God.
• Daniel grounded his requests completely in the mercies of God.

So…what do you see about Daniel’s prayers, and how might Daniel’s praying change the way you do your praying?

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