Thine, O Lord, is the righteousness, but unto us confusion of face, as at this day, to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, in all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their unfaithfulness in which they have been unfaithful against thee.
Daniel prays for a nation in exile, and this verse is the hinge of his confession. He puts everything right on God's side and everything shameful on the people's side — from Judah and Jerusalem to the tribes scattered in every land.
Daniel's prayer does two things at once. It admits the sin, and it clears God's name in the punishment.
The two prominent features of Daniel's supplications are confession and the justification of God in what He had done in His dealings with His people... God could not fail in keeping His covenant with His people. So the conduct of the people themselves must have been the cause of all the discipline that had come upon them... He offers no excuse for how great his people's guilt was, and he does not try to lessen it. In every variety of expression he makes the fullest confession of their many sins.
Daniel says "us," though he was carried off to Babylon as a boy and had no part in the sins that ruined the nation.
Daniel had been led captive when very young, and he had taken no part in the actual wrongdoing of Israel. There was, therefore, no ground for self-accusation. But the fact is, there is no such thing as a Christian separated from the interests of his brothers and sisters... If, then, Christ identifies Himself with all that the people have done from the beginning, Daniel also can say, "We have sinned" (vv. 5-7).
The exile had obvious human causes — bad kings, foolish decisions, a Babylonian army. Daniel names none of them.
Daniel takes hold of a deeply important principle. When division and scattering have happened, we must accept these evils as coming from God, acting in His holy discipline. They are not simply brought about by particular acts of folly or wickedness by individual men... Daniel loses sight of the folly and wickedness of individual men. He mentions no names. He does not speak of Jehoiakim or "his abominations which he did." He does not mention Zedekiah and his folly, or the ruthless violence of Nebuchadnezzar. Looking beyond these men, he sees in the scattering the hand of a righteous God.
The verse reaches past the exiles in Babylon to tribes long gone from sight. Daniel still prays for them as one people.
A large part of the people of Israel did not return to Palestine from the Babylonian captivity with Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah. They stayed scattered across the whole earth. Yet God-fearing Israelites always kept alive the thought that the twelve tribes were one people, even after the division under Rehoboam. Elijah the prophet built an altar with twelve stones "according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob" (1 Kings 18:31). Daniel prayed for all Israel and not for Judah only (Dan. 9:7).
Daniel calls God righteous in the scattering. Later he leans on that same righteousness to ask for mercy.
When we set our faces toward God, we look to the One who can not only divide but unite, not only scatter but gather, not only break up but heal (Hosea 6:1). Man indeed can scatter, and divide, and break up, but he cannot gather again, and unite, and heal. God can do both, and do both righteously. This is clearly seen in Daniel's confession... Then for a third time he appeals to the righteousness of God. But this time it is to bless and show mercy. He says, "O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I beg You, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away" (v. 16).
Two verses later Daniel says mercies and forgivenesses belong to God. Shame comes first, then mercy — and that order is a pattern for anyone praying over a ruin they helped cause.
God has granted us an incomparably higher order of blessing and privileges. Remembering that, we have far greater reason than those much more faithful and humble men of God to bow down before God in dust and ashes... and to say, "O Lord, to us belongs open shame, because we have sinned against You." But then we also, like them, may go on: "To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him." First the "because," then the "although."
- Righteousness — His. Daniel makes no excuse for the sin. God kept His covenant, so the fault must lie with the people.
- Shame — ours. Daniel had no part in the nation's sins. Still he says "we" and "us," and will not stand apart from his people's ruin.
- The hand — His. Daniel names no kings, no fools, no invaders. Behind the scattering he sees God's discipline, not just the mistakes of men.
- The reach — all Israel. Daniel's one prayer holds the whole nation together — near and far, in sight and long lost.
- The plea — that same righteousness. Daniel calls God righteous in scattering. Then he asks that same righteousness to turn His anger away, because mercies and forgivenesses belong to God too.
O Lord, unto us is confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
Daniel is praying for a nation in exile, and he begins by owning its sin as his own. Verse 8 is the heart of that confession: shame belongs to the people, from the kings down, because they sinned against God — what older translations call "confusion of face."
Daniel went into captivity as a boy. He had no hand in the sins that wrecked the nation, yet he refuses to stand apart from it.
Daniel had been led captive when very young, and he had taken no part in the actual iniquity of Israel. There was, therefore, no ground for self-accusation. But the fact is, there is no such thing as a Christian separated from the interests of his brothers and sisters... He identifies himself with all, in the unity of the same people, though he had not shared in any of these sins: "O Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings," and so on. These kings were no longer in existence, but he saw the whole thing together.
The verse names kings, princes and fathers. Daniel does not use that list to push the blame onto them.
He does not try to pin the blame for the division and scattering on certain people. Some of them may indeed have acted in a high-handed way, twisted the truth and led many into error. But he looks beyond the failure of particular people. He sees and owns the failure of God's people as a whole... He himself was not responsible, and much time had passed. Even so, he does not ignore the division and scattering, and he does not blame people long since gone from the scene. Instead he identifies himself before God with the people of God.
Daniel wants light from God. He does not start by asking for it.
He wants light, but he begins by confession. He goes down. He conceals nothing. He had learned that to the God with whom he had to do "all things were naked and open," and who, above all else, seeks in those who come to Him openness, truth, and sincerity.
Half-confession is treated as no confession at all:
It is a mere cheat if we confess only some of our sins, and perhaps not the greatest. God will have it all brought out so that He can forgive.
Verse 8 hands shame to the people; the very next sentence hands mercy to God. That second half is what makes the prayer possible at all.
In verse 8 Daniel confesses again that shame belonged to every class of the people because of their sins. Then he says, "To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him"... In that one sentence Daniel had reached the only foundation he could rest on as he prayed for his people. If he had known only the law, he could not have hoped to be heard.
The order of the two matters:
We can say, "O Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, because we have sinned against You." But then we too, like them, may go on, "To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him." First the "because," then the "although." Take the second without the first, and you have plain lawlessness.
What made Daniel's confession real is what makes ours real.
The marks of true confession come clearly to light here. Daniel owns the evil without trying to excuse it or soften it. He owns that God's judgments and discipline are right, and he pleads for deliverance, according to God's word, "not... for our righteousnesses, but for Your great mercies." Let us cultivate these features in our day. We too can ask for nothing on the ground of merit, but only on the ground of mercy.
- Sinned — Daniel names the cause with no excuse: the people sinned against God. Kings, princes and fathers all share the shame.
- Owned — Daniel had no share in the nation's collapse, yet he says "we." He will not separate himself from his people or blame leaders now dead.
- Uncovered — Confessing only the safer sins is a cheat. God wants it all out, and then He forgives.
- Answered — Shame belongs to us, mercies and forgivenesses belong to the Lord. That second clause, not any merit, is the only ground on which Daniel dares to keep praying.
- Ordered — First the "because," then the "although." Claim mercy without owning shame, and grace turns into licence. Own shame without mercy, and there is no hope.