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Context No. 2174 of 4322 · Daniel (Greek)

Context · Reflection

Daniel (Greek) 9:17-27: in context

17“Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. 18My God, turn your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by your name; for we don’t present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake. 19Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don’t defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.” 20While I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God— 21yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening offering. 22He instructed me and talked with me, and said, “Daniel, I have now come to give you wisdom and understanding. 23At the beginning of your petitions the commandment went out and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore consider the matter and understand the vision. 24“Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, to put an end to sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. 25“Know therefore and discern that from the going out of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again with street and moat, even in troubled times. 26After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the prince who come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will be with a flood, and war will be even to the end. Desolations are determined. 27He will make a firm covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he will cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. On the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate. Even to the full end that is decreed, wrath will be poured out on the desolate.”

As Daniel pours out a prayer of confession for his people, pleading not on the ground of their righteousness but of God's great mercy, an answer comes with startling speed. While he is still speaking, praying and confessing, the angel Gabriel comes to him. And Gabriel tells him something remarkable about the timing: at the beginning of your pleas a word went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved. The answer had been set in motion at the very start of Daniel's prayer, and Daniel is told he is greatly beloved by God.

Two things in Gabriel's word are worth holding. The first is the swiftness of God's response: at the beginning of your pleas a word went out. Daniel had barely begun to pray, and already God had heard and begun to answer; the word went out at the beginning of his petition, not after long delay. God was not slow to hear, not reluctant, not distant; he heard from the first words and set the answer in motion at once. The second is the tenderness of God's regard: you are greatly beloved. God did not hear Daniel as a distant petitioner but as one dearly loved; the answer came swiftly because Daniel was beloved to God. These two together, the swift hearing and the deep love, reveal how God receives the prayers of his own. This gives us confidence in prayer, and assurance of God's love. We can imagine that our prayers must travel far and wait long before God attends to them, if he attends at all; that we pray to a distant God who is slow to hear. Gabriel's word says otherwise: the answer went out at the beginning of Daniel's plea; God heard from the first words. And we can imagine that God regards us coldly, tolerating our prayers rather than loving us; Gabriel's word says otherwise: you are greatly beloved. The prayers of God's people are heard swiftly by a God who loves them dearly. This does not mean every prayer is answered at once as we ask; God's answers are wise and good, and sometimes his timing is long. But it means that we are heard from the beginning, and heard by a God who loves us. From the first day, Gabriel tells Daniel elsewhere, that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself, your words were heard. God hears from the first day, from the beginning of our pleas. This assures us as we come to God in prayer. We do not pray to a distant, reluctant, or cold God, but to one who hears us from the first words and who regards us as greatly beloved. When Daniel prayed, the answer went out at the beginning of his plea, and he was told he was greatly beloved; and we too pray to a God who hears from the beginning and who loves us dearly, so that we may come to him in prayer with confidence, knowing we are heard at once by a God to whom we are beloved.

Do I imagine that my prayers must travel far and wait long before God attends to them, or that he regards me coldly, and can Gabriel's word to Daniel, that at the beginning of his pleas a word went out, and that he was greatly beloved, assure me that God hears the prayers of his own from the first words and loves them dearly, so that I come to him in prayer with confidence, knowing I am heard at once by a God to whom I am beloved?

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