Daniel's Prayer
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. Daniel 9:3
"O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God: for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name" (Verses 4-9, 16-19).
Heaven was bending low to hear the earnest supplication of the prophet. Even before he had finished his plea for pardon and restoration, the mighty Gabriel again appeared to him, and called his attention to the vision he had seen prior to the fall of Babylon and the death of Belshazzar. And then the angel outlined before him in detail the period of the seventy weeks, which was to begin at the time of "the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" (Verse 25).
Daniel's prayer had been offered "in the first year of Darius" (verse 1), the Median monarch whose general, Cyrus, had wrested from Babylon the scepter of universal rule. The reign of Darius was honored of God. To him was sent the angel Gabriel, "to confirm and to strengthen him" (Daniel 11:1). Upon his death, within about two years of the fall of Babylon, Cyrus succeed to the throne, and the beginning of his reign marked the completion of the seventy years since the first company of Hebrews had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar from their Judean home to Babylon. (Prophets and Kings, 556)
Reflection: The prayer of Daniel, found in chapter nine, is the longest prayer recorded in the Old Testament. We generally think of Daniel as the prophet of prophecy, but Daniel was also very much the prophet of prayer. Each one of us has the privilege, as did Daniel, of a prayer life. There is a fountain of life in earnest and honest prayer.
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. Daniel 9:3
"O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for Thine own sake, O my God: for Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name" (Verses 4-9, 16-19).
Heaven was bending low to hear the earnest supplication of the prophet. Even before he had finished his plea for pardon and restoration, the mighty Gabriel again appeared to him, and called his attention to the vision he had seen prior to the fall of Babylon and the death of Belshazzar. And then the angel outlined before him in detail the period of the seventy weeks, which was to begin at the time of "the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" (Verse 25).
Daniel's prayer had been offered "in the first year of Darius" (verse 1), the Median monarch whose general, Cyrus, had wrested from Babylon the scepter of universal rule. The reign of Darius was honored of God. To him was sent the angel Gabriel, "to confirm and to strengthen him" (Daniel 11:1). Upon his death, within about two years of the fall of Babylon, Cyrus succeed to the throne, and the beginning of his reign marked the completion of the seventy years since the first company of Hebrews had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar from their Judean home to Babylon. (Prophets and Kings, 556)
Reflection: The prayer of Daniel, found in chapter nine, is the longest prayer recorded in the Old Testament. We generally think of Daniel as the prophet of prophecy, but Daniel was also very much the prophet of prayer. Each one of us has the privilege, as did Daniel, of a prayer life. There is a fountain of life in earnest and honest prayer.
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