-- And now, O Lord our God, who broughtest thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand, and hast made thee a name, as it is this day, -- we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
Daniel's long confession has already agreed that God's judgments are just. Now, before he asks for anything, he reaches back past the exile to the event that made Israel a nation. He names God as the One who brought His people out of Egypt. In the same breath he admits that this redeemed people has sinned.
Daniel does not confess a recent lapse. By naming the exodus, his confession stretches across the entire national story.
In the first place, Daniel, in his day, could look back over one thousand years of failure among the professing people of God. In his confession he goes back to the time when God brought Israel out of Egypt, and from that time he says, "We have sinned, we have done wickedly."
Mentioning the mighty hand is not a change of subject. It is the sharpest thing Daniel says against his own people.
There was yet a further aggravation of their guilt which Daniel confesses. The people who had sinned and done so wickedly were the redeemed of the Lord. They were the people He had brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. God had won renown through them, and now these same people had dishonoured Him by their sin. God's redeeming power on behalf of Israel had spread His fame among the nations. Israel's sin had made the Gentiles blaspheme His Name. So God vindicated His glory by driving Israel back into bondage.
Having admitted the sin, Daniel has nothing left to offer from his people's side. He holds onto one thing only: God's name. That is why his next words ask for God's own city.
"O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill" (v. 16). The words of Daniel are quite touching. He deeply felt that it was the sin of the people that had brought down all the evil. Even so, he repeats, It is a question of Your name; he says nothing about the name of the people.
There is a striking confidence under the self-accusation. Commentators note that Moses prayed in the same spirit, though the two men start their appeal at different points.
Daniel's faith outreaches their sin, and rests on God's faithfulness; so did that of Moses — only here he goes back to Moses and Egypt; Moses also goes back to the fathers.
Daniel does not leave one excuse standing. He measures his nation's history by God's holiness and agrees with the verdict. What he does here is not for Israel only.
Yet again he mentions another thing that makes their guilt worse. They had sinned and done wickedly against the very One who had redeemed them with a mighty hand out of the land of Egypt, and had won renown for Himself (v. 15). 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 overtaken Jerusalem, Judah, Israel, kings, princes, and people was only their righteous due. It is therefore a pattern confession for all time, whether for saints or for sinners. We only need to remember that grace is now known even more fully. That is one more reason for thoroughness and openness in confession.
Anyone can copy this prayer. Its marks are plain, and so is the ground it stands on.
The things that mark true confession come clearly to light here. Daniel admits the evil without any excuse or softening. He owns that God's judgments and discipline are right. He asks God to grant deliverance according to His word, pleading "not… for our righteousness, but for your great mercy." Let us cultivate these excellent features in our day. We too can ask for nothing on the ground of merit, but only on the ground of mercy.
- Redemption — Daniel begins where Israel began. God brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and that act won Him a name among the nations.
- Reproach — that same redemption makes the sin worse. God won renown through this people, and their sin then shamed His Name.
- Reach — Daniel's confession covers a thousand years of failure. He does not limit the guilt to his own generation.
- Refusal — he pleads no merit at all; the motive he presses is God's own name and God's own city, not Israel's worth.
- Result — his confession justifies God and rests on His faithfulness. It is a pattern for anyone who comes to God asking for mercy.
Lord, according to all thy righteousnesses, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; for because of our sins, and because of the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people [are become] a reproach to all round about us.
Daniel has just spent fifteen verses owning his nation's sin and clearing God of all blame for Jerusalem's ruin. Now he asks for something, and his plea rests on a surprise: not the nation's record, not even mercy at first, but God's own righteousness.
Watch what Daniel puts first in his prayer.
Daniel has confessed the sin and failure of God's people, and he has justified God in all His ways. Now he turns to prayer and pleads with Him. Surprising as we may find it, his first plea is the righteousness of God, and later the "great mercies" of God. He realises that mercy must rest on righteousness. In verse 14 he had already owned the "righteousness" of God in bringing all this sorrow on the people. Now he asks that in righteousness God would turn His anger and fury away from Jerusalem.
He could argue that way because of something God had already done.
The prophet had a right to plead the Lord's righteousness. Jehovah had put His name in the sanctuary Solomon built. He had also accepted Solomon's prayer at its dedication. In this way He bound Himself to hear the prayers of His people when their sins had humbled them before Him. So in this plea Daniel counted on all that Jehovah was as revealed to Israel, and on His faithfulness to His own word. Nothing gives the soul so much courage as grasping God's righteousness, or sets it so completely free in God's presence.
Notice whose city it is in Daniel's prayer. He never calls Jerusalem ours.
The words of Daniel are quite touching. He felt deeply that the sin of the people had brought down all this evil. Still, he repeats: it is a question of Your name. He says nothing about the name of the people. He had truly felt their misery and sin, and he was humbled for it. But he insists on this point: Jerusalem is the city of God. As he confessed the sins of his fathers, he could not bear the thought of the city of God lying in ruins. Those sins were the cause, so God must forgive them before He can restore the city.
The same instinct shows in two more words: "Your people."
It is very touching to see the way Daniel uses the term "Your people." God had in fact written Lo-ammi ("not my people") on Israel. But faith would rebuild the link, and so it refuses that name of reproach.
Daniel names the sins, then leans on something outside the people altogether.
God Himself becomes the motive. Faith sees the sins of the people. Yet the glory of God identifies itself with such a people, so faith can claim deliverance from the results of those sins. This very glory makes forgiveness necessary, for God has identified Himself in goodness with the people. And if God is to act for His name, He must deliver Jerusalem, for there was no other place on earth that bore His name.
Read the whole prayer and you will not find Daniel asking for one thing for Daniel.
Note that the prophet forgets himself. He makes not one single request for himself. He prays only for others. And even when he prays for them, he thinks not so much of their blessing, or relief from oppression, or even their return to the land. God's honour is uppermost in his thoughts.
The point is not to admire Daniel, but to pray like him.
The subjects of his supplication are the city, the holy mountain, the sanctuary and the people of God. He is not pleading for himself, his own interests, or the particular needs of his companions in captivity. His whole heart is taken up with the interests of God on earth. If only we knew more of the spirit of Daniel! If only our hearts were so filled with what is nearest and dearest to the heart of Christ that we rose above all personal and local needs. Then we could cry to God for His Church, His Name, His house and His people, confessing the common failure and feeling the common need.
- Righteousness first. Daniel asks God to act "according to all your righteous acts" — the same righteousness he had just owned in the judgment. Mercy rests on righteousness, not against it.
- A bound God. He could plead it because God had put His name in the sanctuary and promised to hear a humbled people. Grasping that leaves the soul free and bold before Him.
- "Your," not "ours." City, mountain, people, sanctuary — Daniel hands each back to God. Faith refuses the label of rejection and holds the link.
- Sin owned, then removed. The ruin came from the sins of the people and their fathers. God had to forgive those sins before the city could rise again.
- God's name as the motive. No other place on earth carried that name. So His glory itself argues for Jerusalem's rescue — and this prayer asks nothing for the one praying.