{"id":23706,"date":"2022-10-28T22:00:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-29T05:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/daniel-8_15-27-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-10-11T21:32:50","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T04:32:50","slug":"daniel-9_1-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/daniel-9_1-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Interceding for Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniel 9:1-14\u00a0 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Daniel 9:1-14.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Daniel 9:1-2 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom–
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0 Daniel had been reading the book of Jeremiah where Jeremiah predicts that the Jews of Jerusalem would be exiles and would only return to Jerusalem after 70 years.\u00a0 See Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10.\u00a0 Jeremiah had given this prophecy found in Jeremiah 25:11-12 back in approximately 605 B.C. when Daniel would still have been a teenager.\u00a0 Cyrus, king of Persia, would let the Jewish exiles return to Jerusalem in 538\/537 B.C., which is approximately 68 years later.\u00a0 How remarkable it is that Jeremiah\u2019s prophecy was right.<\/p>\n

Daniel 9:3 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 3: I love how Daniel responded to Scripture.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t just read or listen and walk away.\u00a0 He responded with prayer, petition, fasting, and mourning.\u00a0 All of that starts in the heart.\u00a0\u00a0May you and I have such a soft heart to the Word of God that the Word of God can easily move us to action, to worship, to repentance, to prayer, to doing something with what we have heard or read.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daniel 9:4-14 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I prayed to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0my God and confessed: “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands,
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame–the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0O\u00a0LORD, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him;
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0we have not obeyed the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. “Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0LORD\u00a0did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 4-14:\u00a0 Daniel had made a career out of speaking to kings.\u00a0 By this point he had already served King Nebuchadnezzar and King Belshazzar of the Babylonian empire and is now serving King Darius of the Mede-Persian empire.\u00a0 But the one king Daniel had never stopped talking to and never stopped serving was the King of kings, the LORD.\u00a0 In Daniel\u2019s prayer there is an evident intimacy that only comes from spending much time in God\u2019s Word and in God\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n

In his prayer Daniel contrasts the goodness of God with the wickedness of his people.\u00a0 He calls the LORD \u201cgreat and awesome\u201d (v4), \u201crighteous\u201d (v7), and \u201cmerciful and forgiving\u201d (v9).\u00a0 In contrast Daniel calls himself and his people sinners \u2013 \u201cwe have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled\u201d (v5), \u201cwe have not listened to your servants the prophets\u201d (v6), we are \u201ccovered with shame \u201c(v7, 8), \u201cwe have rebelled against him\u201d (v9), \u201call Israel has transgressed your law and turned away\u201d. In every verse of this passage, if Daniel is not speaking to the faithfulness of God he is speaking to the unfaithfulness of his people.\u00a0 Daniel acknowledges that the reason his people were exiled to Babylon was because his people had utterly failed to obey God.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When praying to God on behalf of people you identify with, do these two things that Daniel did:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Put your attention on God and how great He is.<\/strong>\u00a0 This helps us to put everything else in perspective.\u00a0 Avoid the temptation to make your prayers all about the people.\u00a0 The fact is that there is no one like our God, so give Him the attention and praise He deserves.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Own the sins of the people you represent.<\/strong>\u00a0 This helps us to stay humble and allows us to more effectively pray on behalf of others.\u00a0 Notice that Daniel is among the most upright and noble men you will find in the entire Bible, yet when praying to God Daniel puts himself in the same boat as all the Israelites who had not been faithful to God.\u00a0 That\u2019s what makes Daniel such an exceptional leader and intercessor for his people.\u00a0 Daniel did not see himself as so much better than his own people; rather he identifies with his people and takes ownership of his people\u2019s sins, so every confession is \u201cwe sinned\u201d rather than \u201cthey sinned\u201d.\u00a0 Jesus would do the same to a far greater degree.\u00a0 Taking on human flesh, living among us, and dying for our sins, Jesus identified with us in every way so that we could be a faithful high priest, mediator and intercessor for his people.<\/p>\n

Father, have mercy on us Your people in respect of all the ways we have sinned against You.\u00a0 Thank You that You always remain faithful, even when we are faithless.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Daniel 9:1-14.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Daniel 9:1-2 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom–
\n2\u00a0\u00a0in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-2:\u00a0 Daniel had been reading the book of Jeremiah where Jeremiah predicts that the Jews of Jerusalem would be exiles and would only return to Jerusalem after 70 years.\u00a0 See Jeremiah 25:11-12 and 29:10.\u00a0 Jeremiah had given this prophecy found in Jeremiah 25:11-12 back in approximately 605 B.C. when Daniel would still have been a teenager.\u00a0 Cyrus, king of Persia, would let the Jewish exiles return to Jerusalem in 538\/537 B.C., which is approximately 68 years later.\u00a0 How remarkable it is that Jeremiah\u2019s prophecy was right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23709,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23706\/revisions\/23709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}