094. The Prayer Of Daniel For The Restoration Of Jerusalem.

The Prayer Of Daniel For The Restoration Of Jerusalem. The Prayer as recorded.—Daniel 9:3-19. The Answer.—Daniel 9:20-27.

It is said of Daniel that three times a day he entered his closet to commune with God; though surrounded with cares and anxieties, as chief president of the kingdom, he sought relief from them all where only relief could come, he sought that wisdom which stamped his career as a man of God and a ruler. In the chapter preceding this particular prayer, we are told of these stated devotions, and also that upon his knees, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he sought God’s favor. With every token of sorrow, humiliation, and love, Daniel has come to pray at this time for God’s promised mercy to his afflicted people.

There is deep confession of his own sin and the sin of his people, that the punishment is justly deserved, but that even the most guilty might hope in God; he alludes to the fact, that many, very many of the Jews had failed to call upon the Most High, or sought to be turned from their iniquities, but his desire that God would restore his temple, and cause his face to shine upon his sanctuary, was earnest and heartfelt. While he pleads with God his prayer is answered, for we are told that a “holy visitant,” one sent from God, but in the form of a man, comes to instruct Daniel concerning the Lord’s designs, with regard to the subject of his prayer. He has repeated assurances of the Lord’s favor and is called by the angel the “beloved.” In the angel’s answer to Daniel we have one of the most striking and undeniable prophecies of the coming and salvation of Christ which is contained in the Old Testament; this is one of the reasons why the Jews refused to recognize Daniel as a true prophet—the “seventy weeks” are four hundred and ninety years; and to this day the rabbinical teachers withhold it from their people.