Daniel 9 — O Lord, Hear; O Lord, Forgive
In the first year of Darius, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years. I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces. We have not obeyed his voice. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do. Gabriel — Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.
“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.”
— Daniel 9:19
- v.1-19 Daniel's prayer of confession
- v.20-27 The seventy weeks
Four pleas in one verse. Hear, forgive, hearken, do. Daniel grounds the request in God's reputation — for thine own sake.
The motive is God's honor, not the petitioner's comfort. The highest prayer asks for God to act because His name is at stake.
Messiah... cut off, but not for himself. The vicarious nature of the Messianic death named centuries beforehand. He dies — for others.
A staggering prophecy. The cross was on God's calendar half a millennium before it happened.
Verse 5 trains your intercession. We have sinned — even for the sins of others. Include yourself; do not stand above the people you pray for. Daniel's solidarity with his nation's sin was the posture that brought Gabriel.
Verse 26 is one of the clearest Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament — Messiah cut off for others. The whole chapter's confession finds its answer in the Christ who would bear what the prayer admitted.
Daniel includes himself — we have sinned — though personally faithful. He owns the corporate sin as his own.
A model of intercession. Pray we, not they, when interceding for your people. Solidarity with sinners is the posture of a true intercessor.