In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. 8 To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him 10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. 12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against Jerusalem. 13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16 “O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us. 17 Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. 19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” Daniel 9: 1-19 ESV
Daniel 9: 1-3
The prayer is a prayer regarding 70 years. The answer is an answer regarding 70 weeks of years...The prayer is a prayer for restoration. The answer is the answer of ultimate restoration in the coming of Messiah. So the chapter is divided into two parts, the prayer and its answer. And while the prayer occurred at one point in time, one day in the life of Daniel, the answer extends to the Kingdom of Christ...The prayer is the main thrust of the chapter. In fact, there is twice as much attention in verse numbers given to the prayer as there is to its answer. Prophecy is important, but it cannot substitute for prayer. God never calls us to be so speculative or so attached to the future that we lose sight of the present. That’s the essence of the significance of the prayer. (John MacArthur - Elements of True Prayer, Part 1) - P A
In the first year of Darius - Darius is considered by many historians to be a title, like Caesar, Pharaoh, king, etc...
The first year - Daniel 9:23 states that Daniel was given a vision in this first year, and this vision represents the third of four visions which are summarized below...
Vision #1 - Daniel 7:1 - First year of King Belshazzar (~553BC)
Vision #2 - Daniel 8:1 - Third year of King Belshazzar (~551BC)
Vision #3 - Daniel 9:23 - First year of Darius the Mede (~538/539BC)
Vision #4 - Daniel 10:1 - Third year of Cyrus the Persian (~535/536BC)
The first year of Darius (note) the son of Ahasuerus (note) of Median descent - In Da 5:30-note we see God remove Belshazzar, the King (and kingdom) of Babylon (cf Da 2:21-note) and then in Da 5:31-note we observe Him establish "Darius the Mede (who) received the kingdom at about age of sixty-two" (539BC) so that vision #3 occurs about 12 years after vision #2 in Daniel 8. Stated another way, the vision of Daniel 9 occurred after Daniel 5 and presumably at some time during Daniel 6. - Precept Austin
Perceived in the books - He has access to the law and the prophets, is a contemporary of Ezekiel as well. In verse 11 he mentions the law and Moses. Ezra and Nehemiah will be the men that actually leave Babylon later to take a remnant back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. The word of God is the force throughout this whole chapter, it is what informs his prayer.
6this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted Ezra all his requests, for the hand of the LORD his God was upon him. 7So in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, he went up to Jerusalem with some of the Israelites, including priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants.… Ezra 7: 6-7
The number of years that - How long Lord, how long is this captivity? God gave Daniel a very specific time for the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the seven periods of time in the field, and this chapter gets even more problematic for skeptics in its exactness. Given what we have read about Antiochus in the previous chapter, skeptics like to push the book Daniel into the time period of the Maccabees or later, but this chapter will look even to the time of Christ, 400 years after the last prophecies of the Old Testament. It is stunningly beautiful, Daniel is studying the books, and he comes upon Jeremiah, who by now, though hated in his time, is proven accurate. The false prophets of Jeremiah's time predicted peace and prosperity, then changed it to a captivity of 2 years, and well, here we are some 70 years later.
…98Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me. 99I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. 100I discern more than the elders, for I obey Your precepts.… Psalm 119: 98-100
…20Those who escaped the sword were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into exile in Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. 21So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD through Jeremiah. 2 Chronicles 36: 20-21
11And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
12But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will make it an everlasting desolation. 13I will bring upon that land all the words I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.… Jeremiah 25: 11-13
Namely, seventy years - So why the 70 years? Well, look at 2 Chronicles 36:21 above, "so the land enjoyed it's Sabbaths", and every seventh year was a Sabbath year where the land laid fallow, as directed in God's law, yet for 490 years they thought better than to do what God said, so He is exacting it from them in Babylon, 490 years divided by 7 equals 70 years of captivity.
…2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD. 3For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops. 4But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the LORD. You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.…
…5You are not to reap the after growth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untended vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. 6Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year shall be food for you— for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you, 7and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.… Leviticus 25: 2-7
Then I turned my face to the Lord God - Daniel does not read this and then do a victory dance, and though God has said 70 years, yet Daniel's excitement leads him to pray. He comes to God with God's words, and but mark this, it is humble still, wondrously surprised, the love of God and the promises of God. Having the prophecy, and seeing the track record of God in fulfilling prophecy does not lead this man to complacency or stoicism. It is rather some of the most beautiful, soulful and Biblically articulated prayer.
C H Spurgeon once cried out in essence for a "generation of Daniels" declaring "Oh! That you studied your Bibles more! Oh! That we all did! How we could plead the promises! How often we should prevail with God when we could hold Him to His word, and say, 'Fulfill this Word unto Thy servant, whereon Thou hast caused me to hope.' Oh! It is grand praying when our mouth is full of God's Word, for there is no word that can prevail with Him like His own." - Precept Austin
13You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart Jeremiah 29: 10-13
We are not told of others that prayed, maybe Daniel is who the prophet had in mind, that he carries the spiritual weight of a nation. He prays like Nehemiah because of the sins of the people, yet identifies himself with them, even as Christ took our sins upon himself.
…16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail. 17Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth yielded its crops.… James 5: 16-18
…4When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5Then I said: “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion with those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6let Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to hear the prayer that I, Your servant, now pray before You day and night for Your servants, the Israelites. I confess the sins that we Israelites have committed against You. Both I and my father’s house have sinned.… Nehemiah 1: 4-6
Pleas for mercy with fasting, and sackcloth and ashes - It was in God's word, much about restoration, even a Messiah, yet mercy is asked for when the one asking does not have any other grounds than that God has been merciful before, and though He has said it, yet it was not earned. Fasting puts aside something important, elevating something else, sack cloth and ashes are for mourning and humility, we are as dust.
Now, human reason would say this: You’re reading along in Jeremiah, and you read it will be seventy years, and God always fulfills His Word, right? So your response would be what’s to pray for. What are you going pray for? It’s cut and dried. Seventy years, it’s over. What are we praying for? Now, that’s the typical response of human reason. It doesn’t make sense. But that is not Daniel's response...when Daniel read of the plan of God, rather than becoming fatalistic about it and slamming shut those...the book or closing down the scroll, and saying, “Well, that’s that. Let me get my rocker, man. It’s almost over.” He went immediately to his knees in brokenness and penitence and cried out to God in sackcloth and ashes on the behalf of his people....You say, “Why?” Let me tell you why. You know why we ought to pray when we find out God’s purposes in His Word? Not because God needs our prayers to do it, but because we need to line up with God’s causes. Prayer is for us. It’s for us... We line our hearts up with His causes. We see our sinfulness. We see the need of His grace and power. And we submit ourselves to His plan. (Elements of True Prayer) - John Macarthur
By NT times fasting had become (as is too often the case with spiritual disciplines) for many "pious" Jews an external "ritual" (Lk 18:12). It is important to remember that fasting gains no "points" with God. We can never do enough to merit an audience with Him. Study Isaiah 58 for God's opinion of "external" fasting (Is 58:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14). And remember Jesus' warnings and instructions regarding fasting (Note Jesus says not "if" you fast but "whenever" you fast! While it is not a command, the implication seems clear that it is a discipline in which saints will engage. Are you as convicted as I am? Mt 6:16, 17, 18-see discussion of fasting). - Precept Austin
…12Let no one despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching. 14Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given you through the prophecy spoken over you at the laying on of the hands of the elders.… 1 Timothy 4: 12-14
