Daniel 9

In this chapter we have as deep and beautiful an expression as ever flowed from the heart of a mere man: it flowed, in all its tone of deep abasement, out of a soul that had just gleaned from the prophetic page promises of mercy about to dawn.
" In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto -the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
And it led to a fuller revelation (of the Seventy Weeks) being made to the prophet direct from God.
"And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, 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, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him; neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him. And He hath confirmed His words, which He spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all His works which He doeth: for we obeyed not His voice. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
"O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and. cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name."
Blessed is the recognition, here, of the character of the Lord (ver. 4); of the entire failure of the people (ver. 5); of their perverseness against multiplied testimonies (ver. 6); as is also the unfolding of what magnified and made more striking their sin, together with the appropriation of it all-the sin of all-to himself [Daniel] in common with all Israel, wherever any member of it might be found (ver. 7-14); and then how freely flows forth the fervent supplication! (ver. 16-19).
Such ought to be the effect of the perception, through faith, of God's being at hand to fulfill the promises of His free grace. And where such living sympathy with the blessed Revealer above, and the people revealed to below, exists-surely the first taste of prophetic testimony, embittering the belly as it may, will lead on to fuller and deeper understanding of the hopes which await us.
The position, occupation, service, life, of one connected with the people of the Lord, have a Divine futurity stamped upon them. If we are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, how shall we best share the character of Him from whom that Spirit has come to us? The glory of God-His purposes of grace (which the failure of the people cannot set aside)-deep shame as to the failure, in every part of it, of that which we find ourselves connected with-failure in the presence and in contrast with such purposes of grace-shall they not form the heart and mind and life, and give distinctiveness of position, occupation, and service to those that have them? May the Lord grant that the icy hardness of His people now may be judged by themselves in the light of His presence and love; in the presence, too, of the failure as much deeper in that which was placed of God as His witness at Pentecost, as its privileges and blessings and responsibilities were higher than those of Daniel's people.
What a place was Daniel's in his day! The nation of the Lord under judgment of the Gentile statue-himself in the highest part of the oppressor's court, through faithfulness to God-placed there to receive and speak out and record the Lord's thoughts of judging that which, used by Him as a means of judging Israel, had exalted itself and sinned against Him. The people of the Lord are not of Babylon. Of another origin, their interest is in that which its existence and power reproach. If they keep themselves unspotted from the world, they will find light as to good things to come their portion, and testimony to it their duty. But they cannot separate themselves from what is of God, and they must bear its shame as their own before Him.