The book of Daniel is a very interesting book. It tells about the life of a young boy Daniel and his life time.
We can divide the entire book (12 chapters) into two categories - Past (first 6 chapters) and Future (next 6 chapters).
Past events:
Chapter 1: We will not touch the food offered to idols
Chapter 2: I will describe your dream to you, O king.
Chapter 3: We will not bow down to the image
Chapter 4: Be careful of your pride, O king.
Chapter 5: Mene Mene Tekel Uparsin
Chapter 6: No matter what, I will not stop praying, though it may cost my life
Prophecy:
Chapter 7: 4 Kingdoms - Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome
Chapter 8: Fight between Persia and Greece kingdoms
Chapter 9, 10: Daniel's prayer for going back to Jerusalem
Chapter 11, 12: Future revelation and the end time prophecy.
We see that this book has everything that is needed for a believer.
Let us now focus on Chapter 9.
In this chapter, Daniel shows us how to pray. His prayer is a role model for every believer. In this chapter, we see that Daniel not only prays for his nation, but he also confesses on behalf of the entire nation Israel. Let us now read the first few verses from Chapter 9:
In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.
4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:
Verse 2 talks about Daniel understanding from the Scriptures. How did Daniel get hold of Scriptures of Jerusalem.
If we peek into his life, at the age of 15 he was taken captive to Babylon, and this prayer is at the age of 85. He was in Babylon for 70 years, and all these years, he was the Prime Minister in Babylonian Kingdom. As a PM, he had privileges to certain things - one such privilege is to lay hands on the Holy Scriptures.
He read the book of Jeremiah. In that book, Jer 2:12 and Jer 29:12-14 , we see how the Lord clearly mentioned about the 70 year captivity and how he will redeem the children of Israel if they seek him diligently.
Daniel took that verse and he turned to the Lord and pleaded with him in Prayer and petition, in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes.
He also prayed to the Lord and confessed the sins. We see that he led a life which as blameless and his colleagues and others tried to find fault with him, but they could not.
It was not his sins that he confessed, he confessed the sins of his ancestors and God forgave the people and sent them back to Jerusalem.
How great and merciful our God is. He hears our prayer and delivers us.
We need to pray till we get bold in the presence of God..
In the next post, I will explain the details of his prayer, meanwhile, you can keep praying and asking God to prepare you to be a prayer warrior.
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