Preface: The following post is from February of 2019. I reposted this a number of times...and wrote another post on Daniel chapter nine....and reposted it a number of times. The point I was and am trying to make is that Daniel....as an old man....and in Babylon a long time....pleaded to God with prayer and supplications and fasting and sackcloth and ashes....laying before God the guilt of all of Israel that brought them to where they were.....and as soon as he did this....God sent Gabriel to explain to Daniel what the seventy years of Jeremiah meant. There is no mortification for our own guilt in the church today....and until our pulpits lead us in this direction....we will remain confused and in chaos....and continue to suffer in extreme delusion and spiritual blindness....but should we prostrate ourselves in mortification before God....and pray with tears....God will....just as He did with Daniel....open our eyes to what is today hidden concerning the return of our Lord and Savior and King!
"By Prayer And Supplications, Fasting, Sackcloth, And Ashes."
There is a prayer of Daniel that would do Christians in America good to not only read but meditate upon....and not only meditate upon but devour....along with....in due time....the entire book of Daniel. ...again and again and again as the years go by....should God give us those years. Daniel's prophesies are not fully understood by us today....not by a long shot....but much of it is....and much of Daniel is perspicuous in that the meaning is clearly discernible upon reading it for the first time.
The prayer starts in the fourth verse of the ninth chapter and continues through the nineteenth verse. Daniel had witnessed what had happened to his people. This exalted prophet of God.....having already experienced miracles and visions.....reads the prophet Jeremiah anew....but this time understands that his people would be in bondage for seventy years. This should be a lesson to us....God reveals the various wonders of His Word to us in due time. Daniel had pleaded with God...."by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes." God is not going to reveal to us those things we are so in need of today if we are not anxious to hear them.
No sooner does Daniel finish his prayer.....but God....through Gabriel....reveals one of the most incredible prophesies in all of Scripture to him. So whether you are thirty years into the faith or thirty days....God incrementally opens His Word to us in marvelous ways....as we are in need....and according to our desires to know of them.
In that prayer Daniel acknowledges the rebellion of the people to the Lord....and the consequences paid. This is what we need to meditate upon in America....this is what our pulpits must remind us of....for we also have rebelled.....and are staggering blindly in confusion and chaos. We are looking for answers to questions today but are in reality looking no further than our own minds....instead of humbly imploring of the only One who has those answers.
