Look Back to Move Forward

Daniel 9:1–2 (ESV) In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his 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, seventy years.

In Daniel 9, we find the prophetic backstory of the fall of Babylon and Daniel's insight into the rise and fall of empires, as Israel lay in exile. He, unlike many in Israel, listened to God's true prophet, Jeremiah, who foretold 70 years of exile, rather than the 2 that Hananiah and other false prophets were declaring. 

Daniel knows that just because the Babylonian empire had fallen, it did not mean that Israel was now to be sent back prematurely to their land. God would accomplish His purpose through multiple regimes to prove His Word, and not the declarations of emperors or wise men would prove true. 

Thus, we find Daniel not seeking restoration of the nation but renewal of the soul. 

Daniel 9:3–5 (ESV) Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 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, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.

A new empire didn't mean anything. A new heart is what God wanted. Daniel remembered the admonitions of Solomon, who instructed Israel to seek God and His temple if they were ever to return. 

1 Kings 8:48–49 (ESV) if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, 49 then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause

We consider Daniel a great prophet because the future was revealed to him. BUT have you ever thought the sort of man to whom God will reveal the future is a man who is well acquainted with what God has said in the past? Many believers focus on the end times, but overlook the foundations of the faith from earlier times. Our job is not to speculate as to what will happen, but to remember what did happen. 

Daniel connects the dots from the promises in the Law to Israel's present condition in exile. 

Daniel 9:7–8 (ESV) To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. 8 To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.

We have an obsession with the future. Perhaps because we are dissatisfied with our current situation. I don't know. But here's a thought, and I'll leave this devotion at this point in Daniel 9. Perhaps, if we examined the ways we have strayed from God in the past, we'd repent our way into a far better experience in our present. Daniel lived in honor in pagan countries because he stood on the Word of God and didn't fall for the lies of the false prophets before him.