Praying for the Fulfillment of Prophecy.
If prophecy is to be fulfilled, why pray for it? If the time has come for Rev. vii, 3, to be accomplished why pray for that event? We will let Daniel answer. His remarkable prayer, as recorded in the 9th chapter of his prophecy, presents many features which are parallel to the circumstances of the church at the present time, and affords us an example which we may consistently and profitably follow. He gives the occasion of his prayer in verse 2, as follows: "In the first year of his reign [the reign of Darius], I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem." It was the fulfillment of prophecy, then, that called forth this action on the part of the prophet. Daniel was in captivity, with his people. That captivity had been a subject of prophecy, as to when it should commence, and when it should close; and at that time the power of Babylon was to be broken. Daniel understood from the prophetic word, the prophecy of Jeremiah, that "the time had come" for the seventy years' captivity to expire. The time had come for the prophecy to be fulfilled; and this was the occasion of his prayer, and of his humiliation before the Lord. He continues: "And I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes; and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments." What language could express more fervent supplication, and deeper humility! and how the prophet adapts it to commandment-keepers, by reminding us that it is with such that God will keep the covenant and mercy. He then goes on to confess the sins of his people, how they had departed from the Lord, rebelled against his precepts and judgments, and had not hearkened to the voice of his prophets. He acknowledged that righteousness belonged to God, but unto them shame and confusion of face. After confessing his sins and the sins of his people, he then states the object of his prayer, in verse 17, as follows: "Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate." Daniel, it seems, had mistaken the application of what he had heard respecting the 2300 days, Dan. viii, 14, so far as to suppose they would end with the seventy years' captivity, and that the sanctuary was to be cleansed at the close of the captivity, which had then come. Hence he prayed, "Cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary which is desolate." But it matters not that he mistook in the application of this prophecy. His example is equally to our purpose, and Gabriel was immediately sent to set him right in this matter. The point before us, is that while the time had come for the fulfillment of that prophecy which he supposed involved the cleansing of the sanctuary, he set his heart to seek the Lord, and with fasting and sackcloth, prayed for that event. May we not, therefore, understanding from books, even the Revelation of the Lord, that the time has come for the winds to be held, consistently pray for that event? And if Daniel, the man who though he had not a testimony worded like Enoch's that he pleased God, yet had the testimony that he was a man greatly beloved—if such a man in view of the accomplishment of a prophecy in behalf of his people, had occasion for such humiliation, fasting and prayer, how much more have we occasion for the same things! And if in anything we can and should exercise living faith, it is in those requests which find an immutable foundation in the sure word of prophecy.