Daniel 9
The Seventy Weeks Prophecy
Daniel's prayer
Faith in Prayer
Daniel 9:15-19
Do you pray for Israel?
From diaspora times, several Jewish traditions are linked to the deep meaning of Jerusalem to Judaism and to the Jewish people.
If you attend a traditional Jewish wedding, you'll notice that there is a glass that will be broken. It's is said to be a symbol of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, that marked the beginning of the diaspora. Even in the most joyous of occasions, the recall of the loss of the Temple is a sad one.
At the end of the Passover Seder, "LeShaná Habaah B'Yrushaláyim" is sung, which means, "next year in Jerusalem". That's the proclamation of faith in the diaspora for almost 2000 years, which is also present in Israel's Anthem Ha Tikvah, that proclaims that hope is not lost "as long as within the heart a Jewish soul still yearns, and onward, towards the ends of the east, an eye still gazes toward Zion".
The rebirth and restoration of Israel that began in 1948 were prophesied in several passages by different prophets in the Bible. Would God do that with no connection to the wishes of Jews and Zionist Christians praying for it, or did God answer the prayers of the believers asking for it? The prayer of Daniel could shed some light on this question, because it is about a former restauration and a former destroyed temple (by the Babylonians in that case)
Daniel 9:15-19
"Now, Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us"
"Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name!"
The original Hebrew sounds like this:
"Veatá, Adonáy Elohénu, ashér hotzéta et ammekhá meéretz Mitzráyim beyad khazaká, vatáas-lekhá Shem kayóm hazé: khatánu, rashánu. Adonáy, kekhól zidkotékha, yashób-na appekhá vekhamatekhá meirekhá Yerushaláyim har-kodshékha! Ki bakhataénu ubaavonót aboténu, Yerushaláyim veammekhá lekherpá lekhól-sebiboténu"
"Veatá, shemá Elohénu, el tefilát abdekhá veel takhanunáv, vehaér panékha al-mikdashekhá hashomém, lemáan Adonáy. Haté Eloháy oznekhá ushamá! Pikekhá enékha ureé shomemoténu, vehaír ashér-nikrá shimkhá alékha! Ki lo al-zidkoténu anákhnu mapilín takhanunénu lepanékha, ki al rakhamékha harabím"
"Adonáy, shemáha! Adonáy, shelákha! Adonáy, hakashíba vaasé! Al-teakhár, lemaankhá, Eloháy, ki shimkhá nikrá al-irekhá veal-ammékha!"
As the two previous passages, even when non-literal (because the Hebrew poetical language has been interpreted) the rendering to English is a truthful one.
We can see in this passage some of the reasons that move Daniel to pray, and that even lead his mind. When he calls Yahweh "Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day" he is recognizing God as Israel's Creator (the Creator of all the Universe is also their Creator) and as Israel's Redeemer (the one who delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt and led them to the Promised Land, as it is explicitly stated in the beginning of the Ten Commandments)
God is our King, Creator and Redeemer, also. He's the One with total authority upon us, upon our lives, and He wants us to seek from Him the answers we need, the direction we need. And because in many cases He will use human beings to execute his decisions, our prayers should ask Him to reveal to us His will, in order to do it.
As every man or woman of God, Daniel knew that God is seeking someone among us "who would build up the wall and stand before Him in the gap on behalf of the land so He would not have to destroy it" (Ezekiel 22:30) which happens every time human sin rises. It can be seen when he interceded for his friends - and for all the wise men in Babylonia - in chapter two, and in this chapter nine, also, when he is interceding for his people Israel.
When the prophet prays, "we have sinned, we have done wrong", confessing Israel's sins, he is recognizing that they are justly punished, and asking for mercy. It can be read in Daniel's supplication, "turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill", In the message corresponding to Daniel 9:5-6 in this blog we have treated confession of sins as the means to come near to God.
"Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary". Daniel was asking for God's favor, because he knew we need it. God is our Healer, our Teacher, our Invigorator. That's what Daniel himself declared in Dn 2:20-23 when he received revelation about Nebuchadnezzar's dream. God did "look with favor", and inspired king Cyrus and other Persian kings to let the Jews return and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, as we read in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Even when the people got weary because of their enemies' persecution, God called Haggai and Zechariah to prophesy to them so that they should finish His work.
We do need God. We need His healing hand on us in our illnesses, His wise counsel teaching us in our ignorance, and the anointing of His Spirit in our weaknesses.
Even Daniel's feelings have their place in his prayer. Why should he cry to God to "give ear and hear" and to "open His eyes and see"? Had he not read that "He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep"? Does the prophet believe that God is deaf, or blind? Or that He doesn't care?
Certainly not.
The Bible calls God our Father, the Bishop [NIV "overseer"] of our souls, the Savior of our souls. He loves us, and He cares for us when nobody else does. He'll always be our helper and guide, our protector and provider.
Nevertheless, it doesn't mean that God would deal with us as if we were infants. As in the physical life we grow from babies to children, teenagers, young, mature and elderly people, in spiritual life we also grow. The development of our faith will include to take faith steps, to enter the realm of the unknown and insecure, or even to stand firm in the midst of storms that we can't still. In any case, the feeling of "being on our own" because God "is hidden" could overwhelm us. It is important for us to know that it is just that, a feeling. God is watching us, and ready to help us when we need it. He Who watches over us never slumbers or sleeps! His love never fades!
Do you pray for Israel?
Daniel prayed this way:
"We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name!"
There are two points we can observe:
Our prayers will not be answered "because we are righteous" but "because of God's great mercy". Our "righteousness" is called "filthy rags" by Isaiah, because it doesn't matter how many good acts we do; we have all sinned and we have all fallen short of the glory of God. There is no righteousness or justice in us that would enable us to make requests before God.
The second point is when Daniel says "for your sake". This basis for his prayer comes from Hebrew "lemáan Adonai" (for the Lord's sake) which in this context (because the city and Israel's people bear God's Name) has the implication of the preservation of God's reputation. He prays for Jerusalem and the Jewish people so that the Name of the God of Israel, who have chosen Jerusalem, shall not be discredited.
For many centuries, the church was infested with Replacement Theology, the idea that the Jews were no longer "God's people", but the church. Then "Israel" in the Bible was supposed to mean a "spiritual Israel", the church; the land of Israel would never become the country of the Jews but the seat of the kingdom of God, and Jerusalem would only be restored when that kingdom of God should become a reality (the notions about the coming Kingdom were different, but with a common belief that Israel as a Jewish nation had ceased to exist) It would be John Nelson Darby (1800-82) who established the organized teaching about the dispensations or biblical periods. Not that he should "invent" them; both Ireneus and Augustine of Hippo defined dispensations also, and many other theologians, both Catholic and Protestant. But the prevailing Replacement Theology, impregnated with antisemitism, had made their distinctions confusing. Because if dispensations shall make sense - as they certainly do - it is in the context of two different programs for Israel and the church, devised by God to save men, and defining two peoples - Jews and Christians - that would be united under the Messianic Kingdom. Darby's eschatological doctrine became greatly popular and was received by Christians of many denominations in the USA, and the restoration of Israel as a Jewish State was prophesied by Christians even before the birth of the Zionist Movement.
Did God decide to restore Israel with no connection to the wishes of Jews and Zionist Christians praying for it, or did God answer the prayers of the believers asking for it? Is Israel an inevitable fulfillment of the prophecies, or is it God's answer to the prayers of the believers? Was the Balfour declaration a random political move, or God's answer to the prayers of Zionist believers?
Things don't "just happen" with God. When El-Shaddai called Abraham and promised him a land for his descendance, He told the patriarch:
"Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you"
Genesis 12:1-3
Now Jews, Christians and Muslims are called "Abrahamic religions" because of their belief in Abraham, and in the God of Abraham. Should it make the promises to Abraham relevant for Jews only? Christians only? Muslims only?
God himself has the answer to this question. Apart from special interpretations or wishful thinking, God traces his covenant with Abraham to be valid in all its meaning to Isaac and Jacob (aka Israel) He gave also a promise to Ishmael, father of the Arab nations, because he was also Abraham's son.
"...your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year"
Genesis 17:19-20
"But God said to him [Abraham] 'Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring"
Genesis 21:12-13
Observe how God's covenant with Abraham should be only for Isaac - with special blessings for Ishmael. The full covenant promised to Abraham's descendance (the "offspring that will be reckoned") is confirmed to Jacob, when God said to him:
"I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you".
Genesis 28:13-15
Now, apart from the promises given to Ishmael, the Abrahamic covenant is ONLY for Isaac and Jacob. We have to remember that Abraham got even more descendants. But the covenant with Isaac was of a special kind:
"Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east"
Genesis 25:5-6
Observe how Hagar and Ketura are differentiated from Sarah, and their children were "sent away from Isaac to the land of the east" (at the east of Israel you'll find the Arabian Peninsula, the only "land of the Arabs" before the Muslim conquests that created a "great nation" from Spain to India)
Replacement theology pretends to interpret all promises to Israel, even to Abraham, as if they were no longer valid for them, only for the church. There's a big problem with that: God's covenant with Israel was NEVER "replaced" by His covenant with the church. Jesus promised his apostles to govern ("judge") the twelve tribes of Israel in the Kingdom of God, and the apostle Paul said that "all Israel will be saved", because "as far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies [of the gospel] for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable" (Romans 11:26-29, fragments)
Do you read the same as I do, "they are loved on account of the patriachs"? "on account of" is the rendering of Greek "diá", a preposition that means "through", "by the means of", "by reason of", "because of". Israel is loved by God BECAUSE OF the covenant with the patriarchs, WITH or WITHOUT church. Because God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is "irrevocable". The church of the Gentiles became "God's people" because the Gentiles were inserted in Israel, not Israel in the Gentiles. In this same chapter, the Gentiles are called "branches of the wild olive tree" and Jews are called "branches of the cultivated olive tree", being this cultivated olive tree, Israel. And the "branches of the wild olive tree" are grafted in the "cultivated olive tree".
Do you pray for Israel? There is satanical activity denying the Jewish rights to the land God promised to Abraham (specifically to the line of Isaac and Jacob) and denying that the promises to Abraham are valid for nowadays Jews. As Israel's restoration is in God's plan, Israel's destruction is in Satan's plan. Israel's physical defenses include "Iron Dome", a military system of protection that has stopped thousands of rockets launched by the terrorists in Gaza to kill Israeli civilians. But Israel needs a spiritual Iron Dome, a shield against spiritual powers that shall be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Pray for Israel!
In the love of Christ, your brother
Israel Leonard
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