Faithful Prayers for Uncertain Times (Daniel 9-12)

This is the final week in our series in the book of Daniel, where we’ve been talking about how to thrive in our faith as we live sent into a world that’s not our home. Last week, we looked at two visions that pointed to the coming of world kingdoms that would be hostile to the gospel.  

But then right in the middle of those dreams Daniel shows us a vision of the throne room of heaven where he sees the Ancient of Days enthroned, as a way of reminding us that God’s in control of all of human history.¹ (theme woven throughout) 

Now, if you have a Bible, we’re going to spend the last bit of our time in Daniel 9 as we conclude our series. [v. 1] – In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—

Now, the book of Daniel is littered with historical references like this. So let me situate us real quick. The Babylonians took over Jerusalem and deported the Israelites in two waves. Daniel and his friends would have been exiled as part of the 1st wave some time around 605 BC – the 3rd year of Johoiakim’s reign. That’s chapter 1.   

As we jump into chapter 9, the Medo-Persians have taken over Babylon, which happened in 539 BC. That would also be Year 1 of the reign of Darius the Mede mentioned in [v. 1]. For anyone keeping count, that means Daniel’s been in Babylon somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 years.   

[v. 2] – in the first year of (Darius’s) 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.

Now, at this point in Daniel’s life he’s in his 80s and he’s probably missed out on many of the dreams he had in life—he didn’t get the career he wanted, no wife and kids, no retirement plan. On top of that, he’s old. Meaning, many of his friends are dead and gone. Life in Jerusalem is a distant memory.  

If you were far from home and couldn’t return, how many years would it take before you gave up on the prospects of ever going back? For Daniel, it’s been almost 70 years and he still believes he’s going home.   

That’s why he prays for it. Because he sees in God’s Word that God promised it. Daniel sees a gap between the promises of God and his current reality, and that leads him to pray God-sized prayers that get heard from heaven. 

[v. 2] says one day Daniel was reading the Bible when he came across a promise God made in the book of Jeremiah. [Jer. 25:11] – (The land of Israel)…shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.

We read that and think, “Man, things got hard for God’s people.” Daniel reads this and says, “God, a promise. You said 70 years in Babylon.” And he grabs ahold of it. 

[Dan. v. 3] – Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the

Lord my God and made confession…

When tragedy strikes you or when you’re trying to make a big life decision or when you feel like you need your world turned rightside up, what’s the first thing you think to do? For Daniel, after all the waiting and suffering, he turns to the Word of God, gets reminded of the promises of God, and then falls at the feet of God. Prayer is his first and best work. And that’s nothing new for him. That’s what we’ve seen from Daniel all throughout his time in Babylon. That’s what we saw: 

Chapter 2 – When all the wise men were sentenced to death, Daniel and his friends prayed to the Lord for deliverance, and God revealed the king’s dreams to him. 

Chapter 6 – Darius’s officials try to punish Daniel for being a man of prayer.  We learn here that Daniel prayed 3x a day. And when he found out that a law had been signed to prevent him from praying, the first thing he did was go up to his prayer room and give thanks to God. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den because he was found guilty of praying.  

And get this: If Daniel prayed every day, 3x a day during his 70 years in Babylon, that’s over 75,000 prayers! What do you think that would do for your spiritual life? 

Chapter 10 – When Daniel received a troubling vision, he sought understanding from the Lord by praying and fasting for 3 weeks.  

Now, I point all this out, not to compare you to Daniel or to make you feel guilty about your prayer life. But I think if we’re honest, a lot of us wonder if prayer is really that important. Or if prayer is even that effective. If God already knows everything, why do I need to pray? God does what he will; my prayers don’t change that.  

But see, prayer is not so much about asking God to change his mind as it is about asking God to conform your mind to his. When you spend time with people you love, you start to love what they love. Well, when you spend time with the Lord in prayer, you start to desire the things God desires. And you start to pray for God to do things only he can do.  

Now, the point isn’t for us to learn to pray like Daniel. The point is to enjoy God, but what drives you into that joy is knowing that God enjoys you. God doesn’t just bark orders at you. He speaks promises to you. Which is why when you learn to pray the promises of God in the face of uncertain times, it’s not just that God changes your circumstances; it’s that God changes you.  

Daniel had unwavering faith in his public life because he spent so much time praying in his private life. And if you desire to enter that kind of life with God, let me offer four truths from Daniel’s prayer that informs how we can pray.  

1. Learn to pray prayers rooted in God’s promises.

Prayer is an exercise in hearing the promises of God and then calling upon God to do it. See, the Bible isn’t just a story for us to know or a rule for us to follow. The Bible’s filled with promises God wants us to grab a hold of.  

Kids are masters at this. I consider myself someone who tries to be careful in the things that I say, but I have to be especially careful around my kids because they tend to treat every suggestion like a promise.  

We took our kids bowling for the first time last week for the church social, and my kids were disappointed we only let them play one game. So I promised to take them bowling again sometime soon, and I know that promise is going to be on their minds every time we go to Ampang Point. They’re going to keep bringing up that promise until “soon” means “today.” 

But where we make open-ended promises all the time, God never speaks an errant Word. He means everything he says and he’s faithful to every word. When God makes a promise, you best believe he’ll do it. It’s not a suggestion or an empty phrase; it’s a guarantee.  

But Daniel goes one step further.  

Jump down [v. 17] – 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…[v. 19] 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 yourname.”  

Two things to mention here: FIRST – Bible-saturated people pray Bible-based prayers. V. 17 is a reference to Numbers 6. V. 19 is a reference to Deuteronomy 30. All of this was prompted by Jeremiah 25. The bible just flows out of Daniel.  

SECOND – Daniel prays for God to be faithful to his promises like God’s reputation depends on it. Daniel’s saying, God, you’re a truth-telling God. You’re a God who’s abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. I’m not asking you to do these things because of me. I’m asking you to do these things because you said you would. Do it for the sake of your great name. Do it to show the nations how great you are.  

How many of us feel comfortable talking to God like that? You’d have to really lean into your identity as a child of God to talk to him like that. See, God wants us to learn to depend on him like this. To say, God, “You promised.” 

Which means we need to learn to mine the Word of God for the promises he makes and start praying them back to him. 

Let me give you an example of this: there are lots of people in our church who’ve been walking through some really difficult seasons. Some of these things are new, but some of these things have been going on for years. 

– And so it draws me to pray the promise Jesus made in Matthew 11 – Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. And so I pray, God, your people are weary. But you say that anyone who brings their burdens to you will find rest for their souls. God, I bring their burdens to you. Give your people rest in the finished work of Jesus. Let them experience the care and compassion of the humble Savior, who you say is gentle and lowly in heart. Give them peace that surpasses understanding. 

What promises of God can you start grabbing ahold of and claiming as your own? What promises can you start asking God to do for the sake of his name in this city?  

What if you started keeping a prayer journal to track these things? I bet years from now you could look back on your requests and see God’s faithfulness throughout your life. I bet it would teach you to be watchful when you pray and to believe that the Lord is a prayer-answering God. 

2. When prayer begins with Scripture, humility is born in us.

Prayers that are born out of God’s word reminds us who God is and who we are. In our community groups, we’ve been following a pattern for studying the Bible called the REAP method. It’s not the only way to study the Bible, but it is a helpful way to study. You can find this pattern spelled out in our BRPs.  

R.E.A.P. stands for: Read, Examine, Apply, Pray.   – Read: What does this text say?  

• Examine: What does this text mean?  
• Apply: What does this text mean for us? 
• Pray: What does this text lead me to pray? 

The purpose is to help us build a pattern for understanding and praying the 

Word of God and not just bending it to mean whatever we want it to. The Examine section specifically asks questions related to what the Bible teaches us about who God is and who we are.  

Sometimes the Bible says hard things about us that we need to hear. That was the case for Daniel. Daniel started praying in response to the Bible, but what he read also reminded him of the covenant God made with his people in the Law of Moses.  

God says (about the covenant) [Deut. 28:15] – “if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments…[v. 20] – “The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.

Like I said, not the most encouraging thing to hear. (Not something you expect your friend to text you…) But Daniel can’t skip over this because he knows he’s in exile because they failed to be faithful to God. Just listen to his prayer:  

[v. 4b] – “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. 6 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. 7 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame…  

The contrast couldn’t be clearer. Daniel acknowledges the faithfulness of God and the wickedness of his people. God did everything he promised. We’re the unfaithful ones. God was so gracious he sent all kinds of warnings to get us to turn back to him. We just didn’t listen.  

Daniel’s basically saying even if God had come in the flesh and spoken to us himself, the people still would have rejected him. That was true in Daniel’s day, that was true in Jesus’s day, it’s still true today.  

[v. 11] – 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…[13] As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth.  

First, Daniel acknowledges who God is – Why do we need to acknowledge who God is when we pray? It’s not because God’s forgotten who he is and we need to remind him. It’s because we forget. And also because when you’ve fallen into sin, the first thing you need to do is remember that God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. You need to remember that your unfaithfulness doesn’t cancel out God’s grace.  

We talk about God this way because we need to remember who he is when we approach him. He is both awesome and gracious. When we come to God in prayer, we’re not talking to a genie who grants our wishes or a butler who serves at our beck and call. He’s the Ancient of Days. He’s the one who sits enthroned over all. And he’s the God who’s gentle and lowly in heart. Who willing dies on the Cross to save sinners.  

Second – Daniel humbly identifies himself with the sinners. Now, when we look at the life of Daniel, we see nothing but faithfulness in hardship. He’s blameless. A man of integrity. But his good acts don’t cancel out a community of faithlessness.  

He doesn’t argue with God or defend himself while looking down on the people. He acknowledges their sin. He takes ownership of it. He says, God’s Word is true. God’s ways are good. God’s judgments are fair. 

Bible-soaked prayer teaches us to walk humbly with our God. It gives us a balanced diet of humility AND hope. We can be honest about our sin and hopeful according to God’s gracious promises.  

3. Bible-based prayer teaches us to trust in God’s mercy over our goodness.

Daniel prayed faithfully in Babylon for 70 years. When his faith was under attack, he prayed. When his life was in danger, he prayed. When a new power came to rule, he prayed. He prayed for God to reveal. He prayed for God to reign. He prayed for God to restore.  

Daniel never quit praying. What sustains a prayer life like that is a conviction that’s bolstered by a life of prayer. Prayer is countercultural because it teaches us to depend on the mercy of God, not our own good works. 

[v. 16] – “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. 17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, andfor your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate.  

Here, Daniel makes specific requests, and notice, he focuses on the Lord’s interests. He says: Restore your city. Restore your people. Restore your presence among us. Daniel’s saying, we’ve made a ruin of ourselves, but your presence can bring life to the desolate places.  

Doesn’t matter how good we’ve been. Dead people CANNOT bring dead people to life. Only God can do that. That’s why we need God’s resurrection power at work within us.  

[v. 18] – 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.  

People who are confident in their own goodness for salvation don’t pray like this. Those who downplay the seriousness of their sin don’t pray like this. Only those who have the truth in them can say, “My sin is so serious that I deserve God’s judgment—but my God is so good, he will make a way for me.” He parts the seas, he calms the storms, and he raises the dead. He’s done it for me, he can do it for you.  

So we pray: God, I’m coming to you for mercy, because I know you never turn away anyone who comes with a humble and repentant heart. I’m overwhelmed and lost, but your mercy and grace never run out. That’s what I’m counting on—not my goodness, but yours. Don’t treat me as I deserve, but only according to your kindness. And that brings us to truth #4… 

4. Jesus is God’s final answer to our prayers.

Jesus is God’s yes to all our prayers because he is the fulfillment of all God’s promises. BTW – when we pray for anything in Jesus’s name, that’s not just a nice way to sign off our prayers. When you pray in Jesus’s name, you are literally saying, “I make this request as a child of God with the full power and authority of Jesus’ name behind it.” That’s what it means to pray in Jesus’s name.  

Let’s keep going, as Daniel pleads for mercy, God sends the angel Gabriel to tell Daniel that God has heard his prayer and…[v. 23] – 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.

What a comforting message to hear before receiving some tough news. Gabriel basically says, “Daniel, remember that vision of heaven’s throne room? The Ancient of Days: He treasures you, he loves you, and he’s heard and answered your prayers.” That is so life-giving—but then Gabriel warns Daniel that things are about to get much harder. 

And that’s revealed through visions in even more detail in chapters 10-12. We just don’t have time to get into all of that right now, but at this point, hopefully you’ve noticed that all the visions and dreams of Daniel, whether given to the pagan kings or to Daniel himself, are about a series of world kingdoms that will arise, each one oppressive and hostile to the gospel. But as we’ve been saying from the beginning, God is in control and he will have the final word. So, let me summarize with the explanation Gabriel gives Daniel at the end of chapter 9.  

[Note: complicated; hold loosely; one interpretation, test this] 

Gabriel says [v. 24] – “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.  

Just a couple of things to note here:  

FIRST – numbers in the Bible often contain symbolic meaning. 7 is a number for completion, and the number 70 is 10 7s, which means completely complete. 

SECOND – a week in the Jewish language means a period of 7. Sometimes that means 7 days, and sometimes that means 7 years, as it does here. So when he says 70 weeks are decreed he means 70 7s (you could replace ‘week’ with ‘7’) or 70 x 7 = 490 years. That’s the period of time he’s referring to. 

THIRD – at the end of these 70 weeks rebellion will be brought to an end, sin will be atoned for, righteousness will reign, the prophecies will be fulfilled, and God’s holy place will be restored. Now, the next logical question to ask is when does the countdown clock for these 70 weeks begin?  

[v. 25a] – Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks.  

The clock starts once the decree is made for people to start returning to rebuild Jerusalem, which was made by the Persian King Artaxerxes some time around 445 BC. (Holding this loosely. Could be wrong.) We learn about that decree in the book of Nehemiah. This first period of 49 years covers the rebuilding of Jerusalem. That’s the first period of time.  

[v. 25b] – Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.  

So here, we learn that there are going to be very troubled times for God’s people, which fits the timeline of the coming kingdoms of Persia, Greece, and Rome. Then after 62 weeks of 7, an Anointed One will come. Anointed One means Messiah. This is referring to the Messianic King God promised would come, and Gabriel says the Lord’s Anointed will be cut off.  

Now, if the decree of Artaxerxes is right, and we base the dating on the Jewish calendar, the first period of 7 7s = 49 years and the second period of 62 7s = 434 years. If you add those together, that’s 69 weeks, you get 483 years. So, from the time of Artaxerxes decree—that puts us at about 32 AD as the time when this Anointed One will be cut off.  

Now there’s debate about the final week of this prophecy, and I’m not settled on all of this, so I’m not going to get into it right now. But here’s what I will say: After Jesus’s resurrection one of the first things the disciples asked Jesus was when God would restore the kingdom of Israel and Jesus said in [Acts 1:6] – “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses…to the end of the earth.”

So I think we should keep in mind that the times we live in are evil, but our focus shouldn’t be on knowing when the end will come, but on proclaiming the good news of Jesus until it does.  

So let me end with this: Daniel prayed with steadfast faith for God to restore his people. And God answered that prayer by sending out a word promising that one day Jesus would come to save us from our sins. And it would require him to be cut off to do it.  

So in the fullness of time, that’s exactly what he did by dying on the Cross and rising on the third day. See, Jesus is God’s final Word. Jesus came to fulfill all of God’s promises. He’s why we can pray with such bold faith. Because we know that any promise we ask for in Jesus’s name finds its yes in him.   

[As we close]: If you’ll go back with me to Jeremiah 25…we said all of this started with Daniel reading in Jeremiah about God’s judgment and promise after 70 years. 

Well, that same passage goes on to talk about the cup of the Lord’s wrath as the punishment for sin and let me tell you, it’s brutal. [Jer. 25:15] – Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16 They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”

 This cup is the cup of God’s wrath in judgment of sin that we all deserve. And there’s nothing we could do to avoid it.  But that brings us to today—Palm Sunday—when we remember the final week of Jesus’s life as he journeys to the Cross. The week begins with Jesus entering Jerusalem as a King, but ends with him being rejected and crucified. 

Later that same week, Jesus instituted the Last Supper with his disciples before going to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. While in Gethsemane, Jesus prays about the cup of God’s wrath he’s about to drink for us. 

[Matt. 26:39] – My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.  

[v. 42] – My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.

Jesus was crucified the next day. According to the will of the Father, he was cut off for our sin, taking the full weight of God’s judgment so we wouldn’t have to. Instead of giving us what we deserve, he gives us mercy and grace. He took the cup of God’s wrath and, in its place, he offers us the cup of fellowship with the Father. 

So as we come to the Lord’s Table this morning, let’s remember the sacrifice Jesus made to save us. 

Now, this meal is for Christians—those who have stopped trusting in their own goodness and now trust in God’s mercy alone through Jesus Christ. 

If you’re not a Christian, we ask you to stay seated during this time. This meal isn’t for you yet, because right now, you’re still living separated from God. But Jesus died to change that. He was cut off so you could be brought in. He died and rose again to save you from your sin. 

If you want to take the next step in following Jesus, I encourage you to talk to a pastor or a trusted friend after the service. We’d love to walk you through next steps.