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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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Daniel 9:3
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
What brought that about?
Daniel reading the Scriptures. Daniel reading Jeremiah.
Understanding from his prophecy that Jerusalem would be desolate for 70 years.
Daniel was not only a nobleman and a great political administrator, he was also a priest and a prophet. He interceded for the people. He identified himself with the failed leadership of Israel – confessed their sin and repented. He was a man of total integrity and obedience before God, and so took upon himself the need to confess and repent of the sin of others.
His prayer is a model prayer. He began by acknowledging who God is. “Great and awesome” (v 4). A covenant-keeping God. A good God who loves His people and longs for His best for them. He acknowledged and confessed their sin. He agreed that God was righteous in what He did. He confessed that God is a forgiving God but in order for that to happen, contrite repentance had to take place and they had not done this. He then pleaded before the Holy God that He would honour His Name.
Like Moses, he reminded God that the only reason the Jews were different from all the other nations of the world was that He, God, had chosen them and led them, cared for them and been their Protector. Without Him, they were nothing. But, in order for the nations to know there was only One True God, He would have to be merciful to Israel again. He concluded, “We do not make requests of You because we are righteous, but because of Your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your City and Your people bear Your Name” (v 18-19).
At the end of his prayer, the angel, Gabriel, came to him a second time and gave him another prophecy. When you read it, you see it relates to the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Then the Anointed One would appear in Jerusalem but be cut-off. After that, the city will be laid waste.
That happened when Jesus came. He was the Anointed One who was rejected and “cut off” (v 26) by His crucifixion at the hands of both Jews and Gentiles. Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70. But there was worse to come. Eventually, an abomination would be set up in Jerusalem itself.
Watch and ponder. It will yet happen.
However, in the meantime we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (see Psalm 137 & Psalm 122) and the opening of the eyes of the Jews that they may recognise and understand that Jesus is their true Messiah and so return into an intimate relationship with their God. (See also Romans 11:23.)
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