Several months ago, we discussed the prayer found in Nehemiah chapter one, where Nehemiah petitions God to grant him success in restoring the city of Jerusalem. I find that the prayer in Nehemiah 1 is very similar to another notable prayer in the Old Testament: the one which the prophet Daniel offers in Daniel 9.
Daniel 9:1-3 (ESV)“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.”
Both Daniel’s prayer and Nehemiah’s prayer have many parallels. They are both prayers about the same problem, asking God to restore the city of Jerusalem from destruction. Both men use similar language—even quoting from the same parts of the Law—and both approach God with a similar humble attitude. Both men lived similar lives, serving as high officials of the Persian kings while in exile. It is likely that both men were eunuchs and were isolated even from the Jewish community in Persia. We know that both men were faithful and devoted servants of God, and that both were deeply sorrowful about the trials that their brethren suffered during their lifetimes.
There is great value in considering the examples of prayer God gives us in the Bible, and Daniel’s prayer is no exception. Daniel’s words contain valuable lessons for how we should bring our prayers before God, and God’s response to Daniel shows us an important and encouraging truth about how God hears us when we come before him.
Daniel Brings His Petition
Daniel begins his prayer by glorifying God, quoting the same passage of Deuteronomy 7:9 that Nehemiah used to start his prayer. I have wondered if this phrase might have been a common way that the Jews in exile started their prayers, as a reminder that God would still keep his promises even during a time when it might feel like God had abandoned them.
Daniel 9:4-5 (ESV) “I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, ‘O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.’”
He then immediately goes into the main body of his prayer, confessing the sin that Israel has accumulated for generations by refusing to submit to God.
Daniel 9:6-11 (ESV) “We 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. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him.”
Daniel 9:14 (ESV) “Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice.”
Take note of how Daniel approaches this confession. We see throughout the book that Daniel is a faithful man who loves God and who does everything in his power to honor and obey God. If there is anyone who should not be accountable for Israel’s past sin, it is Daniel. Despite that, he does not hesitate to hold himself responsible for the collective sins of his people. He understands that the consequences he is suffering as an exile among foreign people are the just result of the sins of Israel, and Daniel does not blame God for following through on the punishments that he promised would happen if they did not stay faithful. He does not try to exclude himself from those who sinned, nor does he try to justify himself by comparing his own righteousness to the failures of his ancestors.
Daniel finishes his prayer by presenting the request that he has been thinking about since the beginning of the chapter.
Daniel 9:16-19 (ESV)“O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
When we looked at the prayer in Nehemiah 1, we pointed out that Nehemiah knew the promises that God had made to him and that he centered his prayer around asking God to fulfill those promises. Here Daniel does the same thing, asking God to remember the promise he once made to his people that he would restore Jerusalem. Daniel knows that Israel does not deserve this, but instead he asks God to show mercy so that his name may be exalted among the nations.
Throughout this prayer, Daniel exercises tremendous humility before God. His genuine sorrow and desire for God’s mercy permeates every word he speaks. He does not hold back from confessing the misdeeds of his people, and he recognizes that the disaster they have suffered is well deserved. Daniel is not thinking about himself; instead, he is focused on God and is seeking the spiritual wellbeing of his people. He knows that he will not return to Jerusalem himself, but he still earnestly desires for it to be restored.
Daniel’s humility and selflessness is something that we should want to emulate in our own prayers. Sometimes we can be flippant about the blessing of prayer, treating it as something commonplace or as a right that we deserve to have. Likewise, we can also be selfish in our prayers, asking God for things that we desire only for our own enjoyment. Daniel demonstrates for us the broken and contrite heart that God truly desires in those who approach him in prayer.
God’s Answer
Even before Daniel finishes speaking, God sends an angel to Daniel with a response.
Daniel 9:20-23 (ESV) “While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. He made me understand, speaking with me and saying, ‘O Daniel, I have now come out to give you insight and understanding. At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved. Therefore consider the word and understand the vision.’”
I find this message from God to be extraordinarily encouraging. No, we do not receive these kinds of direct responses from God today, but the way that God responds to Daniel still tells us something important about what God thinks of our prayers. Gabriel tells Daniel that because of the great love that God had for him, God heard his pleas even from the very moment he started speaking. Even at the very beginning of Daniel’s prayer, God saw Daniel’s heart and sent out his word in response.
In 1 John 3:1, John says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.” The love that God has demonstrated for us is even greater than the love which he showed to Daniel in his lifetime. If we are so loved by God, then we should understand that God is not going to be any less attentive to us than he was to Daniel. Just like with Daniel, from the very moment we bring our prayer before God, God is already sending out his loving response back to us.
No disciple of Christ should ever have reason to doubt that God hears their prayers. There is no “heavenly answering machine” that we need to wait for God to get back to, and no waiting period before God decides whether or not he will respond. Just as it was for Daniel, God’s love for us is vast beyond measure, and we can trust that God is there to listen to us at the very moment that we are in need of him.
