It is my great joy and privilege to be able to minister the word of God to you this morning. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Daniel chapter nine, we continue to make our way verse by verse through this great Old Testament prophetic book. And we are looking at part two of Daniel's prayer of confession and intercession, as we just read a few minutes ago. In Jesus prayer in John 17, he said, "'This is eternal life, that we may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.'" And dear friends, that is the purpose of what every faithful pastor will do on a Sunday morning. We are here to open up the Word of God so that you might know who God really is, and to know His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, You will recall that it was for this reason that Paul said, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. And so we are here to learn more about these things, especially as we look at the prayer life of this choice servant of God, that lived many years ago, a man that we will one day see and be able to fellowship with, for eternity, an amazing thought is not? Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones said, "It is in prayer that we come as near as we ever shall, in this world, to the ultimate purpose for which God has created and redeemed us. That is, that we might know Him and glorify Him." Dear friends, disciplined, fervent, persistent prayer will be the very air that a Christian breathes if indeed, they truly love the lover of their soul. It will be a part of who you are. The truest passions of a man's heart can be heard most clearly in his or her prayers. For it is there that the Spirit's secret work is most evident, and his power is most manifested. In fact, Spurgeon said, "Prayer is the cylinder nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence." He also said, "It is the highest activity of which the human soul is capable." So as we come to the word this morning, we do so with these things in mind as we examin Daniel's prayer of confession and intercession.

May I remind you that Daniel nine is divided into two parts, the first 19 verses speak to the issue of his prayer. And then the final verses speak, regarding God's answer to his prayer. And we've been examining this chapter under four headings. We've looked so far at the impetus of his prayer and the focus of his prayer. And now this morning, we will conclude the study on the humility of his prayer and the burden of his prayer. Let me give you a bit of a review here regarding the impetus of his prayer. In the first two verses there we read, "In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of Median descent, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign, I Daniel observed in the books, the number of the years, which was revealed as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, the prophet, for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely 70 years." So here, once again, we see that the impetus for Daniel's prayer was his study of the Word of God as it was revealed to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the 70 years of judgment that God had imposed upon his nation Israel, because of their idolatry, and especially because of their neglect of his appointed sabbatical years. And there's warnings about this, for example, in Leviticus 26. And Daniel was also familiar with the last seven chapters of Deuteronomy. That's Deuteronomy 28 through 34 that provide as David Larson says, quote, "The matrix out of which the great prophecies of the Old Testament regarding Israel emerge." I wanted that for an overhead last week, and we weren't able to get that. So now you have it in your bulletin. So you can study that later. So you see it once again, that these are the types of things that Daniel would have understood as a student of the word. So he knew what God had said, but he didn't really know when the clock had started to tick when the judgment would be over and so forth. But to be sure, the word of God animated within his heart, a desire to come before God, and to cry out to him for understanding. And certainly the study of the Word will always be the the spirit generated wind in our sails, that move us along, in worship and praise in our life. Shallow study, I might add, will produce shallow praying, and all of that will produce a shallow Christian life that will forfeit blessing. So the emphasis of his prayer was, when is the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely the seventy sevens, when is that going to occur?

Secondly, by way of review the focus of his prayer, verse three, we see, "I gave my attention to the Lord to seek Him by prayer, and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes." Again, the because of the deep burden for his countrymen, his rebellious countrymen, and because he longed for the glory of God to be manifest in the world, he jettisoned all of the distractions in his life, that he might focus his attention solely on the Lord. Adonai, here, the Lord, master the Lord God. And He alone is the ruler of heaven and earth, all authority is his. He is the object of faith and worship. And so he looked intently to God, nothing else got in his way.

And that brings us now number three to the humility of his prayer. And we will begin here, especially in verse five, and we are going to see that his humility has manifested primarily in his sensitivity to sin, and hatred of sin, not only in his countrymen, but also in his own heart. Again, verse four, "I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, 'Alas, oh Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant and loving kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.'" Here beloved, we witness one of the most common effects of in-depth study of Scripture. Notice what he says, "I prayed to the Lord," be translated Yawei, which is the sacred and personal name that God derived from what is called the tetragrammaton, meaning the four letters, the four Hebrew, consonants translated in English as Yahweh, Y H. W. H. You will recall that when Moses came before God at the burning bush, and inquired of God, concerning his name in Exodus three, God responded to him and said, "'I am who I am. Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I am' has sent you.'" And in this we see the great theological truths concerning the great I Am. He is saying that I am the self-existent eternal one that always has existed and always will exist. So this name speaks to his self-existence, his preexistence, the one who has no beginning and no end. That's who Daniel is praying to. He is the one that is eternal and unchanging in his nature. He is the infinitely Holy covenant making and covenant keeping God of Israel who was gracious to all upon whom he has set his love. And apart from this understanding of the one true God, dear friend, your prayers will be superficial, at best, and self-serving at worst. So this is where we must begin.

I might add to this is, it's important for you to understand. So I'm going to dwell on this for a moment. This person in the name of God, Yahweh is used 6800 times in the Old Testament. But in the book of Daniel, it is only used in this chapter and it's done so seven times. We see this as well in the New Testament with reference to Jesus, the Son of God. You will recall, for example, in John one and verse one, we read, "In the beginning was the Word," and the word "was" is the imperfect tense of the verb, "to be" from which we get "I am." The point is, in the beginning, the great I AM, the Lord Jesus Christ, was already in existence, because there was never a time in which he did not exist. And repeatedly in the New Testament, especially in John's gospel, we read about the "I am." Jesus repeatedly uses this as his title. He said, "I am the bread of life." "I am the light of the world." "I am the door of the sheep." "I am the good shepherd." "I am the resurrection and the life" "I am the true and the living way." "I am the true vine." You will recall as well, when Judas and the officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees along with their troops when they came to arrest Jesus, Jesus said to them, "'Whom do you seek?' They answered him, 'Jesus the Nazarene.' And he said to them, 'I am he.' When he said to them, "I am he,' they drew back and fell to the ground." John 18. I might add that in the original language, the word "he" is not there. He simply said, "I am." He is the great I Am, Jesus was claiming for himself, the name of God, that is rooted in Exodus 3:14, "I am."

Now back to Daniel, although he did not know how Yahweh would one day reveal himself as the incarnate Christ, he knew who God was, he understood this and he worshipped him in spirit and in truth. So indeed, he says, verse four, "I prayed to the Lord, my God," to the great I AM, and once you notice that, he says, "my God," it's not some impersonal force, but rather he speaking of a personal Savior, a personal master in his life, the one he worshipped and loved and served. He goes on to say, "and confessed, and said, 'Alas, oh Lord, the great and awesome God.' The term "awesome" here could be translated, "the one who is to be feared." You are "'the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant and loving kindnesses for those who love Him and keep His commandments.'" Now, once you notice the startling contrast here. Here we read of a great and an awesome God beyond our ability to even comprehend, and yet he is also the one who "keeps his covenant and loving kindnesses for those who love Him and keep His commandments." The ineffable tetragrammaton, meaning the too wondrous to utter from the lips, four letters, YWHY, this is the one the one who is exalted in the heavens, beyond our ability to fathom, is also the one who condescends to our lowly estate, in all of our sin, to save us from our sin, and to reconcile us unto himself. Daniel sees the essence of this, in his prayer. Reminds me of the great hymn that we've sung many times that written by Isaac Watts. "Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my sovereign die. Would he devote that sacred head for sinners such as I? Was it for crimes that I had done, he groaned upon the tree, amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond decree."

So dear friends, these astounding truths pertaining to the character of God, the perfections, of who he is, are concentrated here in Daniel's prayer. And in light of this, we might pause for a moment and say, how should we live? Given all that God is. Well, there are many answers to that, but certainly in Romans 12 and verse one, Paul says, "Therefore," in other words, in light of all that God is and all that he has done, that he's spoken of, in the previous 11 chapters, "Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living in the holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."

So back to Daniel's prayer in verse four, "I prayed to the Lord my God, and confessed and said,' Alas, o Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant and loving kindnesses for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances." Dear christian, there's much instruction here. One that will be the truest expression of humble worship. May I pause for a moment and give you a few things to think about? First of all, when it comes to the kind of prayer that is really effective, that honors God, it is going to flow out of a heart, number one, that is consumed with God's glory. This is what we see with Daniel. Daniel is overwhelmed with the character of God, the infinite perfections of God, as he has revealed himself in Scripture. This was what silenced Job you will recall, after he demanded an audience with God to plead his case, thinking that perhaps God lacked information. Or even worse yet, maybe he was being unfair. And you will recall what God did. He intimidated Job with his glory for a number of chapters. And finally, God changed his perspective. He didn't change his circumstances, but he changed his perspective. Job said in Job 45 or 42, verse five, "I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes sees you. Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes." Dear Christian I might add that like never before in my life, I believe that today is the day when the church needs to have a zeal for the glory of God. And I fear that is missing. We need to have a zeal that can only come from a soul captivating, a soul exhilarating, a sin destroying vision of the majesty of God. "Soli deo Gloria" was the bedrock affirmation of the Reformation. We see this in the eternal purpose of God's plan of redemption to bring glory to himself. And of course, this includes two basic things, he's going to restore the kingdom and he's going to redeem the people. He's going to transform us in such a way as that our life will redound to his glory. But this all begins when we are consumed with his glory. And this only, this only occurs when we have a decisive commitment to personal righteousness and holiness, anchored in the bedrock of divine revelation where we learn who God is.

But once you're consumed with God's glory, as Daniel was, the next thing that happens is confession of sin. Confession of sin, there we can say, with Isaiah, remember when he saw the Lord, high and lofty lifted up, he said, "Woe is me, for I am undone." We can say with the Apostle Paul in Romans 7, "O, wretched men that I am, who will free me from the body of this death," referring to the sin that remained is in his unredeemed humaneness. Oh Child of God, please hear me. If you're not first amazed at the character of God, at the holiness of God, in contrast to your sin, you will never be amazed by God's grace. And you should not sing that hymn. When we see him for who he really is, we will be reduced to nothing. And all that will be left is for us to cry out to him for mercy. And as we experience that mercy, as we confess our sin, we experience that mercy, and we celebrate his grace. This is what we read in Hebrews 10 verse 19, "Therefore brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

So when we're consumed With God's glory, it will produce within us a desire to confess our sin. First John one nine, you're all familiar with it, "If we confess our sin," confess in Greek is a compound word "homologeo." "Homo" means the "same," "logeo" means "to say." When we confess, we are saying the same things about our sin, as God does. We're agreeing with God. And when we come before him, and we agree with God about who we really are, what we really do, etcetera, what does he do? "He is faithful, and he is righteous, to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

And this will produce number three: confidence in God's precious promises. This is what we see with Daniel. Daniel was convinced because of the promises of God, because he was the covenant making and the covenant keeping God that he would forgive those who come to him in brokenness of sin. Again, for the Lord is "the great and awesome God," verse four, "who keeps His covenant and loving kindnesses," which can be translated, "his steadfast love," "for those who love Him and keep His commandments." Dear friends, he knows our weaknesses. He knows our frailty, our inability to be perfectly obedient. And so what does he do in his great love for sinners? He extends his steadfast love, his loving kindness. The Hebrew term "hesed," is the one that is used. The term connotes not only his willingness to forgive, but his loyalty in keeping his covenant promises. Daniel understood these things. He understood that God keeps His promises even though his people don't. Isaiah 66 two, the prophet says, "But to this one, I will look," God is speaking through the prophet here. "But to this one I will look," this is what gets God's attention, "To him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at My word." Beloved, I hope that is the attitude of your heart.

So when we're consumed with God's glory, we confess our sin when we have confidence in his promises. And finally, it produces a commitment to serve Him, come what may, that he might be glorified. And that's going to be the theme later on in the prayer here in verses 16 through 19. You will recall, Isaiah's confession, and his subsequent forgiveness, caused him to hear the voice of the Lord. When he said Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And what did he say? Here am I send me? Well, this is the passion of "all who love Him and keep His commandments," verse four. So I might add, that if you have no desire to obey the Lord, no desire to serve him, on the basis of the Word of God, you do not love him. Don't kid yourself. Verse five, again, he says, "we have sinned." He's including himself here. How often we're prone to see the speck in your brother's eye, but we don't see the log on our own. But he says, "we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances." Boy he covers the full spectrum of sin here. And the shocking nature of their sin is even amplified further in verse six. "Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land." In other words, it's bad enough to disregard your written word, but beyond that, they rejected the words of the prophets that God had sent to them, to call them to repentance, to warn them of impending judgment.

We read in the Old Testament that even in the days of revival during the reign of Hezekiah, when the king's messengers went to the land, and called all of the people to Passover in Jerusalem, according to Second Chronicles 13, verse 10, it says, "Many of the people laughed them to scorn and mocked them." Boy, if that isn't an indictment of our culture today. And by the way, they laughed them to scorn and mocked them, knowing that the Assyrians had already been successful in conquering some of the cities. I mean, folks sin is insanity. You know, it's insanity. We see this in our country today. It is disintegrating before our very eyes freedoms being stripped away. You've got gross immorality dominating our culture; our economy is suffering. We are hopelessly in debt. Our borders are overrun with illegal aliens. Marxists totalitarians continue to force us to adhere to their demands. We have demented fools, basically, that are ruling over us. I use "fool" in the biblical sense. The fool is a person that has no fear of God. Our enemies no longer fear us. But despite all of these things going on, when we come along and warn people and offer them the gospel, what do they do? They laugh us to scorn. And they mock us. Boy, nothing has changed in 2500 years, right? Nothing is changed.

Look again at the contrast presented in verses seven through nine. "Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day--to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You." I want you to also notice that he brings no indictment here against the Lord, as if he were wrong in his judgment. I'm reminded of Isaiah 30 and verse 18, where we read, "Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore he waits on high to have compassion on you, for the Lord is a God of justice. How blessed are those who long for him?" As we look at verses eight through 10, we see more of these contrasts with respect to their stubbornness, their contumacy, their intransigence, versus the compassionate mercy of the Lord, verse eight; "Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and fathers." Fathers used here metaphorically to describe the leaders of Israel. Why? "because we have sinned against you." But then he goes on to say in verse nine with the contrast, "To the Lord our God, belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him; nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in His teachings, which He set before us through His servants the prophets."

You see, friends, like all of us, the people were blind to the horrible power of their sin nature. They were so deceived, they couldn't see the deceitfulness of their own heart, and were it not for God's grace and his word and the power of the Spirit, that's where we would be as well. Verse 11, "Indeed, all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him." By the way, this is a specific reference to the covenant curses recorded in Leviticus 26, and Deuteronomy 28, and so forth. And then Daniel goes on to specify the evils that God is going to pour out upon his people Israel, because of the rebellion. In verse 12 we read, "Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us, and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity for under the whole heaven, there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. Therefore," verse 14, "the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all his deeds, which he has done, but we have not obeyed his voice."

I want to give you some Old Testament background, which requires us to hear some of the passages of Scripture that many times we overlook. I want to take you back some 900 years prior to what Daniel was talking about when God revealed through Moses what he would do to the people if they failed to obey him. And of course, now Daniel sees that come to fruition. There are curses that are promised in Deuteronomy 28. First of all, beginning in verse 49. Let me give you a sample of this. "The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old nor show favor to the young. Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you and all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given to you. Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters in the Lord your God has given you during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you." In other words, the enemy will starve you until you will resort to cannibalism, which is exactly what happened. If you've ever studied siege warfare, it's an amazing thing. I've been to places in Israel where you can see the remnants of the siege warfare like at Lachish with Sennacherib and the Assyrians, the great fortified city of Lachish. Also at Masada. What they would do first of all, is the hoard would come in, and they would take months and they would build a stone fence around the entire city. For all of you to see, to say to you, there is no escape. There is no escape. And they post their military people all around. And then they find the best way, the closest way to build a ramp up to the walls. They also find other places where they can build other ramps and other towers. And they little by little over time, began to build around so that they can breach the walls. And all along they are starving the people. As people died within the city of Jerusalem, during the Babylonian siege, their corpses were more than they could bury so they would throw them over the walls. The stench of putrefaction was so great it would, just imagine how it would choke you. Of course, anyone that handles corpses knows that it's easy to contract all manner of diseases. And that's what happened after two and a half years of siege. Imagine that, two and a half years, as the Babylonians surrounded Jerusalem, starvation set in. And that caused the people to begin to eat their young and those that would die. God warned them about this some 900 years prior Leviticus 26:29, "You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat." I want you to obey me and I'll bless you, if you disobey me, I will bring my wrath down upon you. Ezekial warned of this, in Ezekial 5:10, "Therefore fathers will eat their sons among you and sons will eat their fathers. For I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind." Likewise, Jeremiah 19, verse nine, "I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. And they will eat one another's flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them." But they ignored all of the warnings of the prophets. We're militarily invincible, we can handle it. After all God is on our side. Lamentations 2, after it had happened. Jeremiah laments, "See O Lord and look with whom you have dealt. Thus, should women eat offspring, the little ones who were born healthy." Chapter four verse 10, "the hands of compassionate women boiled their own children that became food for them because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. The Lord has accomplished his wrath. He has poured out his fierce anger and he has kindled a fire in Zion, which has consumed its foundations."

Back to the warnings, the curses in Deuteronomy 28 verse 54, "The man who is refined and very delicate among you shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you, and all your towns. The refined and delicate women among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground of delicateness and refinement, shall be hostile toward the husband she cherishes and toward her son and daughter, and toward her afterbirth, which issues from between her legs, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in your towns." Beginning in verse 58, of Deuteronomy 28, "If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law, which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues and miserable and chronic sicknesses. He will bring back on you all of the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the Lord will bring on you until you are destroyed. Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you are as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not obey the Lord your God. It shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. And there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone which you are your father's have not known. Among those nations you shall find no rest and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes and despair of soul. So your life shall hang and doubt before you and you will be in dread night and day, and you shall have no assurance of your life. In the morning, you shall say, 'Would that it were evening!' And at evening you shall say, 'Would that it were morning!' because of the dread of your heart which you dread and for the side of your eyes, which you will see. The Lord will bring you back to Egypt and ships by the way, which I spoke to you, 'You will never see it again!' And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer." Let me read you some ancient history from Josephus, regarding what Daniel saw on the siege of Jerusalem, and why he was passionate about praying to the Lord, that the desolations of Jerusalem would come to an end for his for the glory of the Lord. Here's what Josephus the ancient Jewish historian said, "Now the king of Babylon was very intent and earnest upon the siege of Jerusalem, and he erected towers upon great banks of Earth, and from them, repelled those that stood upon the walls. He also made a great number of such banks, round about the whole city, the height of which was equal to those walls. However, those that were within bore the siege with courage and alacrity, for they were not discouraged either by the famine or by the pestilential distemper, but were of cheerful minds in the prosecution of the war. Although those miseries within oppressed them also. And they did not suffer themselves to be terrified either by the contrivances of the enemy, or by their engines of war, but contrive still different engines to oppose all the other with all till indeed, there seemed to be an entire struggle between the Babylonians and the people of Jerusalem, who had the greater sagacity and skill. The former party, supposing they should be, there by too hard for the other, for the destruction of the city. The latter placing their hopes of deliverance and nothing else but in persevering in such inventions, in opposition to the other as might demonstrate the enemy's engines were useless to them. And the seeds they endured for 18 months until they were destroyed by the famine, and by the darts which the enemy threw at them from the towers." He goes on to say, "Now the city was taken on the ninth day of the fourth month in the 11th year of the reign of Zedekiah. And when the city was taken about midnight, and the enemy's generals were entered into the two ample, and when Zedekiah was sensible of it, he took his wives and his children and his captains and friends and with them fled out of the city through the fortified ditch and through the desert, and when certain of the deserted had informed the Babylonians of this at break of day, they made haste to pursue after Zedekiah and overtook him not far from Jericho, and encompassed him about with those friends and captains of Zedekiah, who had fled out of the city with him. When they saw their enemies near them, they left him and dispersed themselves, some one way, some another, and everyone resolved to save himself. So the enemy took Zedekiah alive when he was deserted by all, but a few with his children and his wives and brought him to the king. Then, Nebuchadnezzar began to call him a wicked wretch, a covenant breaker, and one that had forgotten his former words when he promised to keep the country for him." Josephus went on to say, "And when he had used these words, Zedekiah, he commanded his sons and his friends to be slain while Zedekiah on the rest of the captain's looked on, after which he pulled out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him and carried him to Babylon. And these things happened to him as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold." He went on to say, "And now it was that the king of Babylon sent Nebuzaradan, the general of his army to Jerusalem, to pillage the temple, who had it also in command to burn it in the royal palace and to lay the city even with the ground and to transplant the people into Babylon. Accordingly, he came to Jerusalem in the 11th year of King Zedekiah and pillaged the temple and carried out the vessels of God both gold and silver, and particularly, that large labor which Solomon dedicated as also the pillars of brass and their chapters, with the golden tablets and the candlesticks. And when they had carried these off, he set fire to the temple in the fifth month, the first day of the month in the 11th year of the reign of Zedekiah. And in the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar. He also burnt the palace and overthrew the city." Then we read, "The general of the Babylonian king now overthrew the city to the very foundations, removed all the people and took for prisoners the high priests Araya, and Zephaniah, the priests that was next to him and the rulers that guarded the temple, who were three in number. And the eunuch who was over the armed men, and seven friends of Zedekiah and his scribe, and 60 other rulers, all whom, together with the vessels, they had pillaged. He carried to the king of Babylon, to Riblah city of Syria. So, the king commanded the heads of the high priests of the rulers to be cut off there. But he himself led all the captains and Zedekiah to Babylon. He also led Josedech, the high priest away, bound."

That gives you a flavor of what happened, dear friends. You understand now the passion of Daniel's heart. People were warned, but they ignored the one that loved them enough to call them unto himself. Verse 12, back to Daniel nine. "Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring us great calamity; for under the whole heaven, there has not been done anything, like what was done to Jerusalem." So we see the humility of his prayer, most prominently in his confession. And finally, we see the burden of his prayer. And here, he petitions the Lord for forgiveness for restoration.

Notice verse 15. "And now, o Lord our God, who have brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have made a name for Yourself, as it is this day--we have sinned, we have been wicked." Now mind you, here he is reminiscing about the God of glory that delivered his people out of the bondage of Egypt, to put his glory on display. Later on in the New Testament, he delivers both Jew and the Gentile from the penalty in the bondage of sin, through his death and his resurrection, and in Christ. As we've seen in other passages in Daniel, one day, there will be a future millennial reign upon the earth and there he will once again manifest his glory to the people as he re gathers Israel. And has he restores them to their land. As we read in Jeremiah 16, and many other Old Testament passages, verse 16, then of Daniel's prayer, he says, "O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us. So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant, and to his supplications. And for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on your desolate sanctuary."

And then finally, we come to an eloquent crescendo of his prayer, in verses 18 and 19, where he says, "O my God, incline Your ear!" It literally it could be translated, stretch out your ear, it's like hold your ear with a cup of your hand and listen carefully to my plea. "O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations in the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. O, Lord hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name." He uses five verbs here: forgive, listen, take action, do not delay. Once again, dear friends, you see a passion for God's glory, to deliver his people who are called by his name and thus to bring honor to himself.

Oh dear friends in closing, I hope you don't miss the great truths herein. Not only are these great historical facts that we can look back to, but they also demonstrate some great theological truths, not the least of which is this; God means what He says. God means what He says. All sin is going to be punished. And thankfully, he has made a way for someone other than ourselves, to pay for our sins, and that is His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid in full the penalty of the sins of all who would place their trust in Him as their only hope of salvation. But hear this. If you reject his call to repentance, to come to faith in Christ, your sin will be paid for not by Christ, but by you yourself. And you will pay for that, in the torments of an eternal hell. Because God means what He says. Dear Christian, I hope you will give heed to the instructions that we gleaned from Daniel's prayer. There's such a pattern here. And here we see the truest expression of humble worship. I pray that when you come before the Lord your God, you will, as we discussed be, first of all, just absolutely consumed with his glory, understanding who he is, as he has revealed himself in Scripture. And if you begin there, what will automatically happen is you will confess your sin. Because whenever we stand in the presence of his holiness, we are laid bare. In that confession, will by the power of the Spirit of God, cause us to have confidence in the precious promises of God that are inherent in the Gospel promises available to all who are broken over their sin, and cry out for mercy. And that will lead finally to a commitment to serve him, come what may, that he might be glorified. And that we might experience the fullness of joy that he longs for us to experience. So let's bear these things in mind. And I would ask you to read this prayer again, in your study this week, with these things in mind, and let the Spirit of God teach you even further. Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for these eternal truths that speaks so directly to our hearts. Despite the fact that these things happened millennia ago, Lord, nevertheless, you are an unchanging God, you are a holy and a sovereign God. And yet you are a forgiving, long suffering God who longs to reconcile sinners unto yourself. May we all be reminded of these great truths. And because of this, be animated to further worship and praise and service to you. So we commit the preaching of your word, to the power of your Spirit to do what you will, for your glory. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.