As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us; yet we besought not Jehovah our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
Daniel names the worst part of Israel's ruin: the disaster came just as the law of Moses had warned, and still no one prayed. Why does trouble leave so many people unchanged, and what links turning from sin to understanding God's truth?
The failure Daniel confesses here is not the original sin but the response to its punishment. One writer calls this the lowest point of the whole confession. He reads the next verse as its result, quoting verse 14 from an older translation.
We have not only broken the law. When the chastening came, we did not turn to the Lord with a true heart, so that we might be turned from our iniquities. Here sin reached its height. "Therefore the Lord has watched over the evil and brought it upon us" (v. 14) — as He watched over the good to bless. How terrible, when the government of God watches over evil to make it come upon His people!
Daniel could have stopped at admitting the nation's guilt. Instead he adds a worse detail: nobody sought God even after the blow fell. Hiding nothing is what makes his prayer a model.
Daniel went to the very bottom. He viewed all the sins of his people in the light of God's holiness. He justified God, and owned that the judgment which had come on Jerusalem, Judah, Israel, kings, princes, and people was only what they righteously deserved. So it is a pattern confession for all time, for believers and for sinners alike. Only remember that grace is known even better now (see 1 John 2:1-2; 1:9). And if it is better known, that is one more reason to confess thoroughly and openly.
The verse ties two things together: turning from sin, and gaining insight into God's truth. One commentator applies that link to people who find the Bible impossible to understand.
He fully justifies God. Then he adds this to his confession: they had not turned to Him in prayer, asking to be freed from their moral state and to understand His truth (v. 13). And is not this in large measure the reason why so few today understand God's truth — His Word? To most it seems a sealed book, passed from one to another with the admission that it cannot be understood. (See Isaiah 29:11-12.) But how could it be otherwise? Men — and Christian men at that — fail to cry to God for light. They are unwilling to turn from their worldly ways, or to break with their ungodly company. Here lies the real reason why most professing Christians today fail to understand the Scriptures.
Daniel was taken to Babylon as a boy and had no share in the sins that ruined Jerusalem. Yet the prayer never says "they."
Daniel was led captive when very young, and he had taken no part in the actual sin of Israel. There was therefore no ground for self-accusation. But the fact is, there is no such thing as a Christian who is separate from the interests of his fellow believers. This could not be… Since Christ identifies Himself with all that the people have done from the beginning, Daniel too can say, "We have sinned." He joins himself to them all, as one of the same people, though he had shared in none of these sins.
Commentators do not leave this in the past. One writer holds Daniel's words up as a mirror: trouble accepted calmly, truth left unstudied. He keeps the verse's older wording, where "entreated the favor of the LORD" reads "made our prayer before the Lord."
Has this solemn verse no voice for the people of God in our own day? The people of God are scattered and divided because of their sins. Yet how calmly, even contentedly, they look at this division! What is more, God's truth is little understood at the moment, and there is little desire to understand it. Oh that the state of God's people would stir us so deeply that we must make our prayer before the Lord our God, turn from our iniquities, and set our faces to understand the truth of God!
- The blow. The disaster came exactly as written, so the punishment itself was proof that God keeps His word.
- The silence. The worst sin was not the first offence. It was the refusal to pray once the chastening came.
- The hardening. When God's people will not turn, His government watches over the evil to bring it on them. Once it watched over the good to bless.
- The turning. Daniel's confession hides nothing and justifies God. He says "we" though he shared none of the guilt. That is the pattern for anyone confessing sin.
- The understanding. Turning from sin and understanding God's truth stand or fall together. Where people will not break with their ways, the Bible stays a sealed book.
And Jehovah hath watched over the evil, and brought it upon us; for Jehovah our God is righteous in all his works which he hath done; and we have not hearkened unto his voice.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.