Daniel 9:10, commentary and pictures

The verse is a confession that God's people had not listened to His voice nor lived by His laws given through His prophetic servants. It owns disobedience as the cause of Jerusalem's ruin and the captivity, and even Daniel, though beloved and faithful, joins himself with the guilty in pleading for restoration rather than claiming holiness. It stands within his humble, earnest and contrite intercession made with fasting and sackcloth and ashes, without self-esteem or boasting, which was heard because it came from unfeigned lips and a wholehearted seeking of God who is ready to answer, give wisdom and help. It belongs to the prophecy of Daniel 9 that fixes the time of Christ's first coming and foretells the death of the Messiah, on which rests the proclamation that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. That same prayer of confession and repentance is what God's people need now, to humble their hearts, turn from disobedience and self-confidence, keep God's commandments, and find pardon and power to stand ready for the Lord's coming.

Confession in Daniel's Prayer

Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets, is the confession of God's people that they had not obeyed the Lord nor followed the laws He made known through His prophets. It belongs to Daniel's earnest prayer of confession, which was heard. Pardon is found by praying as Daniel prayed and confessing sin, and the only safety is in keeping the commandments of God. Those who do as Daniel did are faithful and true, live wholly for God's glory, stay awake and keenly alive to the enemy's devices in the daily conflict between good and evil and between loyal and disloyal angels, choose that good angels shall win over them, live under the guarding and protection of heavenly intelligences and angels, and are made ready to stand in their lot and place for the last great controversy and the Lord's coming.

The disobedience confessed is acknowledged as the sin behind Jerusalem's desolation and the captivity. Daniel witnessed that desolation in Babylon and offered his prayer of contrition of soul in deep sorrow as he pleaded for restoration.

Though greatly beloved by God and faithful, Daniel includes himself in the confession of his own and his people's disobedience. Even one greatly beloved and loved by God acknowledges personal and shared sin rather than claiming holiness or denying it. Refusing to confess leaves people uncleansed from unrighteousness. His prayer in Daniel 9:3-19 shows what it means to humble the heart before God.

The verse belongs to Daniel's humble, earnest, contrite, full and complete prayer of intercession for himself and Israel and for the people he loves. He set his face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes, and prayed unto the Lord his God and made his confession. It is wrestling with God in prayer, and its contrite spirit leaves no room for self-esteem or boasting before God. The prayer was heard because it came from unfeigned lips and from a contrite person seeking God wholeheartedly. God is ready to hear, answer petitions, give wisdom, and help those who come to Him in faith.

Prophecy and Coming Judgments

Daniel 9:10 belongs to the prophecy of Daniel 9 that fixes the time of Christ's first coming. The proclamation that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand rests on that prophecy, and the same prophecy foretells the death of the Messiah. The kingdom expected at the end of the seventy weeks was mistaken for an earthly kingdom because popular errors blinded minds to the truth. Yet those who proclaimed the time gave the right message at the right time and fulfilled God's will in delivering the message He desired to be given, suffering disappointment through misapprehension of their own message like those who proclaimed the expiration of the 2300 days.

Daniel's writings contain revelations about the future that Daniel himself did not fully understand and that were to remain sealed until the time of the end. His prayer of confession opens what he saw in vision would be. The judgments witnessed in San Francisco and many places are a standing warning of the great things to take place before us, which all who are living shall see to the end.

Pattern for Prayer Today

The prayer recorded in Daniel 9:3-19 is the prayer God's people now need to offer, assembling together, confessing sins, repenting before God, and continuing in prayer until the Lord manifests Himself with power. It is the model needed when God's commands and guiding messages have been ignored. The present disobedience to be confessed is self-confidence and presumption, failure to heed light and the testimonies of His Spirit, departure from expressed commands and working contrary to messages long given about the different features of the work. It includes selfishly gathering facilities to a few favored places and neglecting other parts of the field, including large cities and the Southern field, a condition that will end only when those who claim to believe the truth practise the truth.

The prayer shows what it means to humble the heart before God. It is the pattern for one who has carried responsibilities, been reproved for not doing the Lord's will, and departed from the faith, to make a change, confess sins, and humble the heart, with the promise that God will speak peace to him. Pardon is found by praying as Daniel prayed and confessing sin, and the only safety is in keeping the commandments of God. Those who do so are faithful and true, not asleep but awake and keenly alive to the enemy's devices in the daily conflict between good and evil and between loyal and disloyal angels, choosing by their own choice that good angels shall win over them. They live wholly for God's glory under the guarding and protection of heavenly intelligences and angels, and are made ready to stand in their lot and place for the last great controversy and the Lord's coming.

The verse belongs to Daniel's prayer of confession that supports the call to seek God in humility and contrition. That prayer is held up as a prayer for the Holy Spirit to work on behalf of God's people. It is urged as a test of whether one's experience is ready to stand before God and calls for humility before Him. It is to be made the believer's own prayer, prayed in humility so that God may lift up the humble, with a true sense of human value as measured by the infinite price paid for redemption. Every capability and talent is to be valued as the Lord's precious endowment to be used to His name's glory, seeking the working of the Holy Spirit in order to reach perfection and completeness in Jesus Christ.

Its confession applies to recognizing transgression and repenting, with the Sabbath question presented as a matter of honoring God by obeying. The God who heard Daniel will hear now if approached as Daniel approached Him, with the soul in communion with God and praying without ceasing for enlightened minds and understanding of truth. The prayer teaches humble self-abasement before God while giving Him the glory due to His name and never erasing the dividing line between His commandment-keeping people and those who have no respect for His law.