When we think about Daniel in the Old Testament, we may be very quick to think of him as a great figure — bold and powerful in the world; appearing wise to see and interpret the dream of a king; standing against the worldly current with his diet; surviving the lion’s den. But what we often miss is the other side of Daniel that is hidden throughout this precious book, which holds a key for us to know him as a real, tangible person loving the Lord and how we can come into that same condition today.
In chapter 9 of the book of Daniel, we see him fasting, praying, and repenting — actually, the majority of the chapter is Daniel’s repentance as the result of the direct touch of God’s words in him. When Daniel read the words of Jeremiah, something within him was quickened, causing him to repent not only of his sins but also identify himself with the sins of his people, the desolation of God’s testimony as prophesied by Jeremiah. Daniel’s heart was on God; he realized that he was living in the fulfillment of God’s words, God’s timeline. On one hand, the 70 years of captivity Jeremiah prophesied was on the whole nation of Israel, yet to Daniel it was very personal; he experienced God’s judgment on His people because they turned away from God and His marital covenant with them. During the captivity, Daniel was matured with rich human experiences, having lived through the rise and fall of empires; he saw and experienced failures yet there was a strong yearning in him to return to Jerusalem for the Lord’s testimony. In Daniel’s repentance there was a clarity.
Daniel’s confession was genuine, thorough, and transparent. He didn’t see himself as a great man of accomplishments. Instead, Daniel utterly spent himself before God, until no human strength remained (v. 20). He was real and tangible before the Lord, and in that tangibility he spontaneously was one with God’s heart for His people (v. 19). Daniel wasn’t overcoming because of his deeds, but in his repentance he found himself in God’s timeline for turning the age:
Seventy weeks are apportioned for your people and for your holy city, to close the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make propitiation for iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the ages, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. (Dan. 9:24)
This apportioned time of seventy weeks was not just a prophecy or distant moment in time, but Daniel’s experience of salvation! Today, as the church, we are also like Daniel; we are in this specific, tangible experience of salvation in God’s timeline, in space and time. Have you ever wept from the direct touch of God’s words? Have you ever experienced the inward quickening of your senses, to suddenly see and mourn the waste of your youth squandered in striving, ambition, and vain pursuit of the world? Like Daniel, today we need to be enlightened by the Lord’s words to see our desolate condition. Our repentance is spontaneous! We are so free to confess to the Lord — in this apportioned time, sins and transgressions will be brought to an end, no longer deviating us from His presence. We find propitiation has been made for our iniquities. We see the Lord is the true righteousness of the ages, not ourselves. Visions and prophets will all be sealed up in the fulfillment of that time, but today, we have the opportunity for the most critical part of the Lord’s words to Daniel: to be anointed in spirit, which is the Holy of Holies among us today! Today, we can live and walk in this anointing. What a tangible salvation that we can experience in the Lord’s apportioned time!
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 11/3/2023, not reviewed by the speaker.)