Liberal Democrat Christian Forum - “If My People...”

“If My People...” – Daniel 9

Written by Jo Holland
Saturday, 29 December 2007
Magazine Editor Jo Holland investigates how the Babylonian Prime Minister Daniel took hold of God’s promises to hear and answer His people’s prayers for the ‘healing of the land’. When Christians pray in and about politics, one verse keeps cropping up: 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (NIV) Here God calls His people to intercessory prayer. The writer Selwyn Hughes reminds us that intercession is “the giving of ourselves in fervent, believing and unhurried prayer to the needs of others (so that) through intercession we reach out and lay hold of all the mighty resources of God.” The passionate prayer in Daniel 9 is a practical application of 2 Chronicles 7:14. Daniel’s prayer and God’s answer teach us about God’s promises, the power of prayer, and why and how we should intercede today for the healing of our hurting world. The Background: In 605BC – 400 years after King David – Nebuchadnezzar captures Jerusalem and take the Jewish people into exile in Babylon. Among the exiles is a young nobleman called Daniel, who, by refusing to compromise his faith, wins the king’s favour, and is “placed… in a high position and…made…ruler [Prime Minister] over the entire province of Babylon…” (Daniel 2:48). Daniel continues to worship God, despite persecution, and as an old man studying the Scriptures (Daniel 9:2), he spots something in Jeremiah 25:11 that he has not seen before: “This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.” It promises that, after 70 years, the Jewish people will be set free. Daniel realises that the 70 years are almost up. But he does not see any sign that the king is about to have a change of heart, or that his exiled people are about to ‘turn from their wicked ways’ and return to God: “all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favour of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth” (v13). Yet in verse 3 Daniel takes hold of this promise and boldly claims it himself. He does not sit back and assume that it will be fulfilled anyway. He sees the need, prays into the promise that God will “turn away (His) anger and (His) wrath from Jerusalem” (v.16), and asks God to honour it. And God answers his prayer, in a far bigger way than he could imagine. The Prayer: Daniel’s prayer contains all the ingredients of prayer in 2 Chronicles 7:14: In verse 19, he establishes that the people are ‘called by God’s name’, as he reminds the Lord that “your people bear your name”. In verse 3, he ‘humbles himself and prays’. Daniel is one of most important men in the land, and yet he humbles himself before God and dedicates himself to prayer: “So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” Throughout the prayer we see how he ‘seeks God’s face’, focusing on God’s power and mercy, with intensity and reverence. He ‘turns from his wicked ways’, and confesses, not just for himself, but on behalf of his entire people: “All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.” (v11). He makes specific requests and prays persistently – not for the people’s sake, but for God’s own sake. He does not ask for the destruction of the Babylonians but asks God to “open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name” (v.18). And he does not give up. The Answer: Daniel’s passionate intercession is powerful, and God’s response mirrors the second half of the 2 Chronicles verse: GOD HEARS (v.20-23): The angel Gabriel arrives to tell Daniel that as soon as he started praying, “an answer was given”. GOD FORGIVES (v.24): Gabriel speaks of “putting an end to sin”, “atoning for wickedness”, and “bringing in everlasting righteousness”, and looks ahead to the coming of the Messiah, the “anointing of the most holy”. Part of God’s answer to Daniel’s prayer is a glimpse of future events, promising that his requests will be answered in time. But God goes further: not only will the Jews be forgiven for their past and current sins, and physically set free from Babylon, but ultimately they will be set free from sin itself, through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. GOD HEALS THE LAND (v.25-27): God sets in train a process of events. Within a few months, Darius the Mede is gone, and King Cyrus takes over. At this point, 2 Chronicles 36:21-23 says: “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfil the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm …: "The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you – may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up." The Jews are free to return home. Within 50 years, the city of Jerusalem is rebuilt. God promised. Daniel prayed. God fulfilled his promise. The Challenge: 2 Chronicles 7:14 carries a great promise; an explicitly conditional promise: “if my people pray, and turn from their harmful ways, I will hear and answer.” Do we believe God’s promise is also for us at this time? If so, when did we last intercede like Daniel for the healing of our land, our people and our world? The author John Ortberg says: “History does not belong to the powerful, or the wealthy, or the rulers, or the armies, or the corporations, or the global media empires. What they do on their own, apart from God, may look impressive for a time. But the day will come when all merely human actions will be tossed, forgotten, on the ash heap of the dead past. History belongs to the intercessors – to those who believe and pray the future into being.”

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