Daniel 9:1 - Meaning and Application

We left Daniel at the end of the previous chapter serving the king, but here he is at better work. He is speaking with God and hearing from him, not for himself alone, but for the whole church, whose spokesman he was before God. God had entrusted him with messages for his people, including words about the days of the Messiah.

Notice first when Daniel had this time with God, in the first year of Darius the Mede, who had just become king of the Chaldeans after Babylon was conquered by him and his relative, Cyrus. In that year the seventy years of the Jews’ captivity came to an end, but the decree releasing them had not yet gone out. So this prayer seems to have been made that same year, and likely before Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den. It may also have helped him stay faithful in prayer, even at the risk of his life, because he had so recently experienced its comfort and help.

Notice next what moved him to pray. He understood from the books that seventy years was the set time for Jerusalem’s desolations. The book he read was the prophecy of Jeremiah, where he found it clearly foretold, “After seventy years are completed in Babylon, I will visit you and keep my promise to you” (Jeremiah 29:10). The same prophecy also said, “This whole land will be a desolation for seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:11). Daniel uses the same word for “desolations,” which shows he had that prophecy in mind.

Even though Daniel was himself a great prophet and knew God’s visions well, he still studied Scripture carefully. He did not think it beneath him to consult Jeremiah. He was also a leading statesman and chief minister to one of the greatest rulers in the world, yet he still found time and heart to spend with God’s word. The greatest and best people must never think they are above their Bibles.

Notice also how earnestly he prayed when he saw that the seventy years were nearly finished. It appears, from Ezekiel’s dates, that the years of captivity were being counted exactly. Then Daniel set his face to seek God by prayer. God’s promises are meant, not to replace our prayers, but to stir them up and encourage them. When we see the time of their fulfillment drawing near, we should press them before God all the more strongly.

Daniel did this here. He prayed three times a day, and he surely spoke often about Jerusalem’s desolations in those prayers. Yet he still did not think that enough. In the middle of his business, he set aside special time to call on heaven for Jerusalem. God had told Ezekiel that, even if Daniel and others stood before him, their intercession would not keep judgment from coming (Ezekiel 14:14). But now Daniel hoped that, since the time of punishment was ending, his prayer might help bring the judgment to an end too (Isaiah 40:2).

When the day of deliverance begins to shine, God’s praying people should stir themselves. God expects something special from them then, beyond their regular prayers. Daniel sought God by prayer and pleas, fearing that the people’s sins might make God delay their rescue longer than planned. Or rather, he wanted the people to be prepared by God’s grace for the deliverance his providence was about to bring.

Now see the strength of his heart in prayer. “I set my face toward the Lord God to seek him” means his thoughts were fixed, his faith was firm, and his holy desire was strong. In prayer we must set God before us and place ourselves before him. We must direct our prayer to him and look up to him. Daniel likely also turned his face toward Jerusalem, as he usually did, to move his heart more deeply by thinking of its ruin.

See also how he humbled his body in this prayer. To show his deep sorrow before God for his own sins and the sins of his people, and to confess his own unworthiness, he fasted, wore sackcloth, and sat in ashes. He did this to feel more deeply the desolations of Jerusalem, for whose repair he was praying, and to remind himself that he was engaged in an extraordinary work.