Daniel 9:10 Commentary and Bible Study

God did not just give his laws to Israel once, and then say no more. That ought to have been enough. He was entitled to be obeyed immediately, as the Creator of every man born; as the Redeemer of Israel out of bondage and the one who had led them out of Egypt and given them a nation of their own according to his promise; as the one who had sustained them and defended them from their enemies. He had given them a land of milk and honey, a fertile and beautiful land. But when at first they turned away from his commandments, though they were delivered with such awesome accompanying signs so that the people trembled, and they knew without doubt that God Almighty was speaking to them, he did not immediately take their land from them, but time and time again sent the prophets to remind them of his standards, in order to bring them back to obedience. God had done all this for an unreasonable length of time, going on when others would have long since given up and written off the people as unteachable. Daniel makes all their past history to be his own, and the history that belonged to that current generation of Jews in Babylon. He accepts that they have failed to learn and their guilt is aggravated, for they knew their past history, and it laid a strong incentive on them to respond to the Lord. God had been more than indulgent to the nation in allowing it to continue so long with so little response to him. Yet, for their pains, the prophets were mistreated and abused; they were shunned by the people and not honoured as they deserved. They were treated as emissaries of a foreign power, rather than as the representatives of their rightful sovereign ruler.‘Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice.’ Daniel does not minimise the sin, but states all the provocation of it. They have disobeyed in full awareness of what God required of them; they cannot plead ignorance. They have devised strategies to avoid having to obey, by departing from God so that they did not need to be reminded of his commandments, putting them out of their sight, as it were. God is just in the punishment he has send on Jerusalem. They have had a greater punishment designed by God, to meet the enormity of their sin. It is universal sin through the whole nation, across the whole of their history. No more has come upon them than they were warned of. The ‘oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God’ is found in Deuteronomy 28, where a series of increasingly severe curses and punishments is threatened against the nation, if it persists in its wilful disobedience, punishments which that current generation in Babylon had witnessed firsthand.He has confirmed his words of warning that he would judge. And after centuries of patience the judgment has fallen. That word, says Daniel, was against the people of Israel, and against their judges, that is, their rulers, their kings, who so often led the nation into sinful ways. God watches over his word century after century, and what was said to Moses so many years before was now being fulfilled. The Lord forgets nothing, and anticipates everything. Daniel admits the righteousness of their unique punishment, which was foretold so long before. What happened to Jerusalem was unique among the nations of the world. That a nation should have such a remarkable birth with such great signs and wonders; that it should be given such enlightened laws, such access to God, such pure forms of worship in the ceremonial law; that it should be watered and fed, and dealt with in a way that so closely reflected its walk with God; that God should send his prophets to make such tender appeals to the people, and suffer his messengers to be ignored and rejected and even murdered: that God should allow all this and not yet finally judge the nation was extraordinary. Yet, for all this, they did not repent. Still, even with the trials and tribulations, the captivity, the dispersion, and the self-evident anger of God upon them, they failed to repent. But still, even now, Daniel comes with hope that God will hear them again.And yet the nation has not been humbled and turned to God in prayer. The purpose of discipline is to cause us to come to our senses and to turn back to God. The ground is being ploughed and harrowed, sown and watered; will it respond by bearing fruit? Daniel publishes this prayer to show the Jews what should have been their attitude before God, and to move them to repentance. We may hear each other’s sincere prayer and learn what should be out attitude and what petitions we ought to be making to God.‘Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.’ Therefore, instead of watching over the good that we should long for, the Lord watches over the evil providences which he sends to correct his people, and he, as it were, makes sure that the evil achieves its end. If we try to turn away and avoid it, he redirects it to come after us. Again Daniel confesses that God is righteous in all his works. But as for us, we are disobedient. God has forced Israel to face up to their sin, after many years of their failure to do so.