Daniel 9: An Admission of Guilt and Expectation

7 Righteousness is on your side, O Lord, but open shame, as at this day, falls on us, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and 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 Open shame, O Lord, falls on us, our kings, our officials, and our ancestors, because we have sinned against you. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him, 10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following his laws, which he set before us by his servants and prophets.

The book of Daniel is rich with prophetic material to explore, and there are a ton of ways to engage the text in a manner that speaks to the church.  In my most recent reading of Daniel 9, one major thing stood out to me.  It is a theme that has been fresh on my mind because of exposure to N.T. Write’s Pauline works as well as spending a significant amount of time in Isaiah this semester.  The thing that I am continually seeing in the prophetic literature recalls back to God’s covenant to Abraham.  The covenant entailed that Yahweh would make Abraham the father of many peoples, who in turn would be a blessing to all the nations. 

But the thing that the prophets continually point out to us is that Israel has failed in its charge to be a blessing to the nations.  They continually mistreat the poor and the oppressed, their rulers are corrupt, their officials are corrupt, their ancestors were corrupt, their priests are corrupt.  Over and over, the prophets say this.  In this light, Isaiah, Daniel, and several other prophets begin to hint at the need for a messianic figure to complete Israel’s covenant commitment to be a light to the nations.  Isaiah views Israel’s failure as the reason for their impending destruction and exile, Daniel looks back to the exile as the product of Israel’s unfaithfulness, and they both look forward to the manner in which God will restore all things to Himself in His faithfulness (Isaiah 56-66, Dan 9: 24-26). 

The reason that this all is important comes in the fact that this is the context in which we must understand Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus is the fulfillment of the messianic expectations of the prophets.  Jesus’ ministry is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s covenant faithfulness with Abraham, and indeed with mankind in general.  Jesus’ ministry is the fulfillment of the ‘light to the nations’ that Israel was meant to be.  Jesus’ ministry was the blessing through which the unfaithfulness of Israel and the sins and rebellion of the Gentiles could be overcome through the faithfulness of Christ.  Jesus is indeed the messiah and Lord of Israel, and that means good news for both the Jews and the Gentiles.