Last time, we looked at how Daniel denied himself the king’s spoils and how that led him to be reminded that he didn’t belong to the Babylonians, but rather God.

Today, I want to look at another discipline that Daniel demonstrated for us. That discipline is repentance. See if you can hear Daniel’s repentant heart in this passage, “in the first year of his (Darius’) reign, I, Daniel perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, 70 years. Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, ‘O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules,'” (Daniel 9:2-5).

In this blog, I have often said that if I find someone else makes a point more coherently than me, I will use their words and give them the credit. T.M. Moore–in the Advent devotional “He Has Come” says this regarding Daniel and Christians today:

“Even the prophet Daniel, who stands out among the giants of Biblical characters with respect to personal piety, fell to profound and passionate expressions of repentance for himself and his nation upon reading in the book of Jeremiah concerning the end of Israel’s captivity in Babylon. In his prayer of repentance we see a man broken before the faithfulness and grace of God to an undeserving people, a man not in the least reluctant to apply Israel’s wickedness to himself and to exert himself in dramatic and outspoken declarations of repentance, pleading with God to restore favor to His people.

We evangelicals have established a place of prominence for ourselves in this society by our penchant for declaiming loudly against the sins of others. We have denounced the secular humanists, chastised the evolutionists, decried the postmodernists, and raged against the immoral practices of the people of our day.

Yet, we hear little such passion in the acknowledgement of our own sins before the God of judgment and mercy–sins of complacency, failure in mission, poor stewardship, ecclesiastical in-fighting, and a host of others.” (Moore, “He Has Come” p. 9)

In other words, we sure want others to change the way they live, but we think we are doing OK. I think Jesus had something to say about that (see Matthew 6:12 and 7:1-5).

As I hope you have seen in this series, we have much to learn by studying and applying how Daniel remained faithful to God regardless of his circumstances. The circumstances we are in now also call for leaders such as Daniel. Desperately, we need leaders who think and act and can lead others to act like Jesus in our difficult days. Who will step into the role that God would have them in these turbulent times?

More to come…
Jeremy