Daniel 9:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Daniel 9:7

Comments

Next Daniel thinks of the punishment which the nation has suffered, and he connects this undoubtedly with the judgment of God on them, a judgment which they were faithfully warned about, and which was long threatened, but held back due to the patience of God. Now it has fallen on them and they have not been able to avoid it. ‘To us [belongeth] confusion of face’, and he names every stratum and rank of society. None are excused from the highest to the lowest. Each class may wish to point to another class and say that sin belongs to them, but Daniel admits the guilt of Israel is universal throughout their society. This confusion of face is because of shame over sins which they need to confess, and acknowledge as iniquitous. Daniel means that Israel was in this state, because they had suffered exile in Babylon, and had been so slow to learn from it. Instead of coming to God and weeping before him, they had thought insufficiently about what had happened to them and not connected it with their idolatry and breaking of his commandments. What God has done is wholly deserved and wholly just.‘But to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses’ – many, many mercies – ‘though we have rebelled against him.’ He appeals to mercy as the only ground of hope. We can come to God because his heart and nature is ready to forgive. There would be no point in confessing our sin if we had not hope of being forgiven. Confession is a prelude to asking for mercy. It is identifying our sins and admitting to the grievous nature of them.

Application

In the matter of judgment God is absolutely righteous. This is an essential part of true confession of sin. Our confession should be a vindication of God and an acknowledgement that righteousness is not to be divided between us and God, but is wholly on his side. If he has judged us for our sins then his judgments are entirely just. We have nothing to complain about; we can only submit to our punishment and bear it quietly in humility. God is always righteous in everything he does.

If we have exhausted his patience and caused him to treat us severely, we must take his side against ourselves and condemn our former behaviour as fully justifying what he has finally sent. We must change sides and abandon our loyalty to our previous practices. The firmness of his discipline is designed to make us do this. This too is an essential part of confession. No one is truly confessing their sin while they still hold resentment against God for the chastisement he has inflicted on them. No one is truly confessing their sin while there is a lingering excuse in their minds, or a tendency to think they were not entirely in the wrong.

We experience confusion of face under the discipline of the Lord. Before we come to confession, we justified our sins, but that was a charade, intended to convince those who knew us that we were not guilty. By defending ourselves, we held on to a pretence of righteousness. But God judgment has broken our defence and caused it to collapse. We are exposed by it, and therefore we have confusion of face, for we do not know where to hide, now that we have come out against ourselves. Our guilt is so great before God and before men that we feel we must hide our faces.

We must not complain that God has been too severe towards us; indeed we must do the opposite: we must acknowledge his mercy even in bringing us under discipline. He might have left us with no possibility of repentance and sent us directly to hell. He has not done so, and we should see this as a mercy. ‘God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this’ (Ezra 9:13).

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Daniel 9:7 Commentary and Bible Study