Making Our Confession
“And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O LORD, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments.” Daniel 9:4
Darius was king of Persia which had overtaken the Babylonian Empire during the time that the Babylonians held many Judeans captive including Daniel the prophet. It was during the first year of Darius’ reign that Daniel finally understood the words of the prophet Jeremiah concerning the length of time that he and his fellow Jews would be in captivity which was 70 years. For an unknown reason, God had not allowed Daniel to see that prophecy in the book of Jeremiah until there were only four years left before he and the Jews would be freed. He was thankful that captivity would soon be over, but he was also very mindful of the reason for their captivity–the disobedience and idolatry of God’s people. As his custom was to pray to the LORD frequently, he came before Him in humility and submissiveness, fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes.
Daniel began his prayer as all prayers to God should begin– as a praise and affirmation of the sovereignty, power, and holiness of the LORD God. Jesus taught us to pray in this manner in Matthew 6:9-13. He prayed this way Himself. If Jesus, God’s own Son, felt compelled to address His Father with such honor and respect, should it not behoove us to fall to our knees in humble submission, giving God all the honor due Him and praising His name before we ask for anything? In my opinion, Daniel stands out as the most righteous of God’s chosen people throughout scripture. Many of the Old and New Testament saints are shown to be men and women who have rebelled against God at one time or another or have committed transgressions against God’s law. However, scripture reveals nothing, not one iota, of rebellion or iniquity in Daniel’s life. Of course, he wasn’t sinless, but he was very conscientious about obeying God. We could all take lessons from Daniel.
In his prayer, he included himself among those who had rebelled against God. He prayed, “We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets, which spoke in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land” (Daniel 9:5-6). One of the great marks of a true man of God is his willingness to identify with those over whom he shepherds. He reminds me of the captain who goes down with his ship or the one who truly believes that the “buck stops with him”. As representative of God’s people and willing to suffer with them, Daniel was a type of Christ, who bore our sins and interceded for us to the Father. He confessed the sins of all the people of Judah, those who had departed from God’s law and thumbed their nose at His judgments.
God had sent prophets to His people of which their terms spanned generations, but their words of warning and woe were ignored or mocked. Some prophets were killed (Matthew 23:37; II Chronicles 24:20-21). Since the people of Israel were so opposed to heeding the words of the prophets, perhaps that’s why God withdrew His spokesmen for over 400 years between Malachi and John the Baptist, choosing to remain silent, granting His rebellious sons and daughters their desire to separate themselves from His rule, but that didn’t relieve them of their responsibility to Him nor of His righteous judgment.
Imagine for a moment, if you will, a prayer like Daniel prayed for the people of Judah except that this would be a prayer for America. Imagine the president getting down on his knees and beginning to pray (I know that this is a stretch) but humor me for a minute. He confesses that the people of this nation, including himself, have sinned, committed the most heinous of sins like abortion, adultery, homosexuality, lying, cheating, coveting, fornication, slander, theft, gossip, and so on. He confesses that we have ignored Him and His word, have mocked and ridiculed His followers, and have tried to eliminate Him and His word from every corner of our society. He goes on to confess that we have ignored those whom God has sent to warn us in their preaching and teaching of God’s word and have even tried to shut them up through intimidation, threats, and attempts to “cancel” them by policies aimed at eliminating their right to free speech. How would folks react? Most would be surprised, but some of them would be thanking God for his humility and agreeing with him. Others would be angry or offended thinking that he had lost his mind. I know that there is a 99.99 percent chance that the present administration would not do this, but maybe one day we will have a man leading this country who would be bold enough to surrender to the Lord and lead the country in a more righteous direction. One can only hope and pray.