Daniel 9:13-19

Help us Holy Spirit to turn our spirits back to You. Enable us to recognize our sins, repent and change. Teach us Your ways. Not because of our goodness but for Your names sake. In God alone is hope. In the measure we believe in You, is the measure that we can receive from Your hand.

The Israelites are in captivity because of their ancestors’ sin. If the temple associated with the God of Israel has been disgraced, so too has God and the nation to whom it belonged. The condition of God’s city—the temple—and His people reflects on Him. Daniel pleads for their restoration so that the greatness of God’s name might be restored, not defamed. Daniel is concerned with God’s reputation among the nations; he does not want to bring any reproach on His name. Faithlife Bible.

This is a prayer of repentance for Israel’s past sinfulness, but it is also a prayer of confidence because God was about to overthrow the Babylonians and allow the Jews to return to their homeland to rebuild it. The 70 years of captivity were almost up, and glorious things lay ahead. Daniel confessed that Israel had departed from the Word of God, had disregarded the prophets of God, and had despised the Lord Himself. 

James said that “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”. Daniel’s prayer seems to be a case in point. Not long after Daniel prayed, Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the temple. Was there a connection between Daniel’s prayer, Cyrus’s decree, and Jeremiah’s prophecies? Gabriel indicates that there was.

Prayer is not a gimmick by which we charm or coerce God into giving us what we want. Prayer is a sober-minded acknowledgment of our true situation before the Lord and an admission of our need for His divine help. Are you prepared to pray like Daniel?

Daniel reflected on the greatest redemptive event of Israel’s history, the exodus from Egypt, and prayed that God would repeat what He had done long ago. It is important to note that the only basis for Daniel’s appeal was the grace of God. NKJ Bible.

Daniel 9:13-19

13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

Jeremiah 31:28 | And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD.