Restless in Babylon (Daniel 9:1-19)
Billy Milton - February 22, 2004
Introduction
Some of you might have come along this morning expecting me to speak on the subject of why bad things happen to good people. I’ve decided not to speak specifically on that subject for two reasons.
- I hope that most of you are aware that actually that concept is rubbish. Bad things don’t happen to good people any more than to any other sector of society.
- Whether a thing is bad or good and whether a person is bad or good is a purely subjective thing depending on where you live and what your circumstances are. However, if this question truly disturbs you please talk to me at the end and I’ll happily discuss it with you.
Instead what I thought we could more usefully do is attempt to bring this series to a close by looking at Daniel becoming ‘Restless in Babylon’. We will be looking at Daniel 9:1-19, which tells the story of an aged Daniel still longing to go home but realising that it was his nation’s rebellion and sin against God that resulted in them being in this trouble in the first place. As I read this passage this week I was struck by the close parallels to Berkhamsted 2004. Look at these features of life in Babylon that parallel life in Berkhamsted.
- God’s people appear to have settled down very nicely. They seem to be quite at home in Babylon.
- They’ve taken on board much of the culture and,
- No doubt the children born in the exile felt that Babylon was their home.
- Most of them had probably adjusted so well to life in Babylon that they had even lost the desire to go home.
Now, this picture of the Israelites in exile in Babylon is probably the closest parallel in Scripture for our present day Christian experience.
- We too are a people in exile; we too have become far too comfortable in our temporary home. Peter in the introduction to his 1st Epistle describes Christians as, ‘those who are away from home but going home’.
- We too have become almost indistinguishable from the world around us and, as a result …
- Sadly, for many of us, we are at home!
- We too have lost that sense of anticipation of, and longing for, going home.
- We need a Daniel who will shake the very throne of God with his prayer.
So in this passage before us this morning we find Daniel reading from the Scriptures as recorded by Jeremiah, and reflecting on his circumstances. The Babylonians had utterly devastated Jerusalem many years previously but Daniel discovers that God has promised that the desolation of Jerusalem will only last 70 years. This prompts Daniel to enter into a time of prayer and repentance on behalf of the nation that God might take them home early.
Now, before we actually look at the prayer, I want to point out a few things we have already learned about Daniel the man, his prayer life and his response to God’s word.
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As I pointed out, Israel as a nation was in exile, seemingly, abandoned by God because of their sinning. At least that’s how it felt. It felt like God was punishing them. But let me say, feeling forsaken, and indeed abandoned by God, is not an unusual feeling for his people. Bad things happen to good people, if you like. Job, who had done nothing wrong, indeed precisely because he had done nothing wrong, seemed to have been totally abandoned by God. We, the onlooker, know that this wasn’t so, but Job didn’t have the comfort of our perspective. A good man felt abandoned.
However, even in the most trying of circumstances, when Israel was experiencing a radical absence of God, we are told in v3 that Daniel turns to the Lord God. When the going gets tough, the tough get praying! By faith we must learn this difficult lesson, as Job learned - God is always there, even when we are not aware of his presence. Faith demands that this be so.
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The second point I want to make here is regarding the method that God chose to speak to Daniel. He didn’t speak audibly to him; he didn’t at this point send the angel Gabriel (although see v21); he didn’t even give him a vision or a picture as he had done before. v2 tells us that he simply spoke to Daniel ‘from the Scriptures’. Those of you who know me will know that God has often blessed me or provoked me through a prophecy or a word of knowledge and so on, but we need to be careful that we don’t become lazy. Let’s not make someone’s prophetic gift an excuse for our own laziness! Instead of relying on someone else to bring the excitement and quick fix of a word of knowledge or prophecy or such like we need to be people who know and love God’s word. I saw a cartoon recently where a Pastor was asking one of his elders why he insisted on such a long Bible reading each week. The elder replied, ‘Well at least we know that one thing in the service will be inspired!’.
I can assure you, I am not anti-charismatic and I have been greatly blessed and challenged by people bringing a prophecy or picture to me, but very rarely will I take any major decision unless and until God confirms it through his word. I am becoming increasingly concerned that God’s Holy Scriptures, the inspired word of God, are not being taken seriously any more. Daniel took it very seriously. Can I make a plea this morning that we too become a people who diligently search the Scriptures?
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And Daniel’s response? The fact that God has spoken through the prophets does not mean that all the believer has to do is sit, newspaper in hand, awaiting the outcome. The appropriate response to a prophetic word is soul-searching prayer. Notice the preparation of a servant of God before coming to God in prayer - vv3-4. There was genuine repentance - sackcloth and ashes; there was fasting - this was serious business, not some familiar, safe routine. And when he turned to God, there was pleading, there was petition, there was confession and there was repentance. Daniel is not just saying his prayers here, he is wrestling with God.
The Prayer of Repentance
The first thing that is apparent in this prayer is the constant repetition of Israel’s failure:-
- v5 we have sinned and done wrong
- v5 we have been wicked and have rebelled
- v5 we have turned away
- v6 we have not listened
- v7 because of our unfaithfulness
- v8 we have sinned against you
- v9 we have rebelled
- v10 we have not obeyed
- v11 we have sinned against you
- v11 all Israel has transgressed your laws
- v15 we have sinned, we have done wrong
- v16 our sins and the iniquities of our fathers
There is not even an attempt to justify their behaviour or explain it away or even to minimise it. There is simply no justification for apathy and rebellion towards God. It was not because God didn’t care for his people that he allowed them to be conquered; nor was it because the gods of Babylon were stronger. It was only because Israel had forced his hand by flagrant and shameless sin. They had called God’s bluff just once too often.
I read this week about an unusual work of modern art that was on display in a gallery in America. Gun aimed at chair ready to go off at any time. People pay to sit in that seat for a minute. What a foolish place to sit. Foolishly the children of Israel had ignored the risk that God might just fulfil the promises he had been making through his prophets until it was too late. How comfortably are you seated this morning nd what’s the view like?
The second element to the prayer in vv7-11 is that the people of Israel have been, and are being, humiliated before the heathen. They are covered in shame and it’s all because of their own unfaithfulness. What made their disgrace even more shameful was their flagrant ingratitude toward their compassionate, forgiving God (v9) whose pardon and mercy they ridiculed and rejected.
But despite this humiliation, we see in vv11-14 that it was more important to Daniel for the God of Israel to retain his integrity and uphold his moral law than for his guilty people to escape the consequences of their infidelity! Had God not fulfilled his word of judgment, little credence could be placed in his word of grace. This is still a difficult lesson for us to learn today. The God of love and mercy and grace is also the God of justice and wrath. The Bible is very clear about that and if we even attempt to rob God of his justice and righteousness we simultaneously rob him of his mercy and grace. Let us be careful God is not one-dimensional.
My third and final point about this prayer is found in the last few verses vv15-19. Twice in these verses Daniel tells God that it is, ‘for your sake, O Lord’ that he is praying this prayer. Daniel can’t stand the thought that the sin of his fellow countrymen is tarnishing God’s reputation and so the prophet felt emboldened enough to press for an early return of the Jewish captives to Palestine. There, a new commonwealth of chastened believers might be established and a testimony might once again be set up for the one true God. Are we aware of this fact about sin? When we sin, it’s not the church that we sin against, or the pastor, or our fellow members, but it is against God. It’s his reputation you tarnish; it’s his name you bring into disrepute. We need to repent of our brushing aside of God.
God answered Daniel’s prayer and exactly 70 years after they went into exile God allowed them back into the land of Israel and in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah we have recorded the details of how that happened. Tonight in Beulah at 6.00pm we will be meeting to plead with God to revive his church in Berkhamsted and to bless our efforts to serve him in this church. If you feel restless in Babylon then you too are invited to come and pray with us.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this series on the life of Daniel - the man of integrity who dared to be different.