John Calvin Commentary Daniel 9:1-3

"In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes." — Daniel 9:1-3 (ASV)

In this chapter, Daniel will explain to us two things. First, how very ardently he was accustomed to pray when the time of redemption, specified by Jeremiah, drew near; and next, he will relate the answer he received from God to his earnest entreaties. These are the two divisions of this chapter. First, Daniel informs us how he prayed when he understood from books the number of the years. From this we gather that God does not here promise his children earthly blessings, but eternal life, and while they grow sluggish and set aside all care and spiritual concern, he urges them the more earnestly to prayer. For what benefit do God’s promises bestow on us, unless we embrace them by faith? But prayer is the chief exercise of faith. This observation of Daniel’s is worthy of notice: He was stimulated to prayer because he knew from books the number of the years. But I will defer the rest until tomorrow.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, as in these days you have called us to a similar lot to that which the fathers under the Law formerly experienced, and as you confirmed them in patience, armed them for constancy in warfare, and rendered them superior in all conflicts with Satan and the world; grant, I pray you, that we at this day, whom you wish to be joined to them, may become proficient in your word. May we look forward to bearing the cross throughout our whole life. May we be prepared for the contest, and prefer miserable affliction under the standard of the cross to spending a secure and luxurious life in our own enjoyments, and thus becoming deprived of that hope of victory which you have promised us, and whose fruit you have laid up for us in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord. — Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We began to say yesterday that the faithful do not so acquiesce in the promises of God as to grow sluggish, and become idle and slothful through the certainty of their conviction that God will perform his promises, but are rather stimulated to prayer. For the true proof of faith is the assurance when we pray that God will really perform what he has promised us.

Daniel is here set before us as an example of this. For when he understood the time of deliverance to be near, this knowledge became a stimulus to him to pray more earnestly than he was accustomed to doing. It is clear then, as we have already seen, that the Prophet was diligent and earnest in this particular.

He did not deviate from his usual habit when he saw the greatest risk of being put to death; for while the king’s edict prohibited everyone from praying to God, he still directed his face towards Jerusalem. This was the holy Prophet’s daily habit. But we shall perceive the extraordinary nature of his present prayer when he says he prayed in dust and ashes.

From this it appears how God’s promise stirred him up to supplication, and from this we gather what I have recently touched upon—that faith is no careless speculation, satisfied with simply assenting to God. For the foolish seem to assent by outward hearing, while true faith is something far more serious.

When we really embrace the grace of God which he offers us, he meets us and precedes us with his goodness, and thus we in turn respond to his offers and bear witness to our expectation of his promises. Nothing, therefore, can be better for us than to ask for what he has promised.

Thus in the prayers of the saints these feelings are united, as they plead God’s promises in which they entreat him. And we cannot possibly exercise true confidence in prayer, except by resting firmly on God’s word. An example of this kind is here presented to us in Daniel’s case. When he understood the number of the years to be near of which God had spoken by Jeremiah, he applied his mind to supplication.

It is worthwhile to notice what I have mentioned: Daniel is not here treating of his daily prayers. We may easily gather from his whole life how Daniel had exercised himself in prayer before Jeremiah had spoken of the seventy years. Because he knew the time of redemption to be near, he was then stimulated to more than his usual entreaties.

He expresses this by saying, in fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. For the saints were not accustomed to throw ashes over their heads every day, nor to set themselves apart for prayer by either fasting or putting on sackcloth. This action was rare, used only when God gave some sign of his wrath, or when he offered some rare and unique benefit.

Daniel’s present prayer was not according to his usual habit; but when he put on sackcloth and sprinkled himself with ashes, and endured fasting, he prostrated himself suppliantly before God. He also pleaded for pardon, as we shall see later, and begged for the fulfillment of what the Almighty had surely promised.

From this we should learn two lessons:

1. We must perseveringly exercise our faith by prayers.
2. When God promises us anything remarkable and valuable, we ought then to be more stirred up, and to feel this expectation as a sharper stimulus.

With reference to the fasting, sackcloth, and ashes, we may briefly remark how the holy fathers under the Law were accustomed to adding extraordinary ceremonies to their prayers, especially when they wished to confess their sins to God, and to cast themselves before him as thoroughly guilty and convicted, and as placing their whole hope in their supplication for mercy.

And in the present day the faithful are justified in adding certain external rites to their prayers, although no necessity either can or ought to be laid down beforehand in this case. We know also, the Orientals to be more devoted to ceremonies than we are ourselves. And this difference must be noticed between the ancient people and the New Covenant church, since Christ by his advent abolished many ceremonies.

For the fathers under the Law were, in this sense, like children, as Paul says (Galatians 4:3). The discipline which God had formerly instituted involved the use of more ceremonies than were later practiced. As there is this important difference between our position and theirs, whoever desires to copy them in all their actions would rather become the ape than the imitator of antiquity.

Meanwhile, we must notice that the reality remains for us, although external rites are abolished. Two kinds of prayer, therefore, exist:

1. One which we ought to practice daily, in the morning, evening, and if possible, every moment; for we see how constancy in prayer is commended to us in Scripture (Luke 18:1; Romans 12:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:17).
2. The second kind is used when God denounces his wrath against us, or we have need of his special aid, or seek anything unusual from him. This was Daniel’s method of praying when he put on sackcloth and sprinkled himself with ashes. But as I have treated this subject elsewhere, I am now more brief.

When Daniel perceived the period of deliverance near, he not only prayed as usual, but left all his other occupations for the purpose of being quite at ease and at leisure, and thus he applied his mind exclusively to prayer and made use of other aids to devotion. For the sackcloth and the ashes achieved far more than mere outward testimony; they are helps to increase our ardor in praying when anyone feels sluggish and languid.

It is true, indeed, that when the fathers under the Law prayed with sackcloth and ashes, this appearance was useful as an outward mark of their profession. It testified before men how they came before God as guilty suppliants and placed their whole hope of salvation in pardon alone. Still, this conduct was useful in another way, as it stirred them up more eagerly to the desire to pray.

And both these points are to be noticed in Daniel’s case. For if the Prophet had such need of this assistance, what shall be said of our necessities? Everyone ought surely to understand how dull and cold he is in this duty. Therefore, nothing else remains except for everyone to become conscious of his infirmity, to collect all the aids he can command for the correction of his sluggishness, and thus stimulate himself to ardor in supplication.

For when Daniel, according to his daily custom, prayed so as to run the risk of death on that very account, we ought to gather from this how naturally alert he was in prayer to God. He was conscious of his own insufficiency, and therefore he added the use of sackcloth, ashes, and fasting.

I pass by what might be treated more extensively—how fasting is often added to extraordinary prayers. We conclude also how works by themselves fail to please the Almighty, according to the fictions of the Papists of these days, and also to the foolish imaginations of many others. For they think fasting a part of the worship of God, although Scripture always commends it to us for another purpose. By itself it is of no consequence whatever, but when combined with prayers, with exhortations to penitence, and with the confession of sinfulness, then it is acceptable, but not otherwise. Thus, we observe Daniel to have made use of fasting correctly, not as wishing to appease God by this discipline, but to make him more earnest in his prayers.

We must next notice another point. Although Daniel was an interpreter of dreams, he was not so elated with confidence or pride as to despise the teaching delivered by other prophets. Jeremiah was then at Jerusalem when Daniel was dragged into exile, where he served as a teacher for a long period afterwards, so that Babylon became a kind of pulpit.

And Ezekiel names him the third among the most excellent servants of God (Ezekiel 14:14), because Daniel’s piety, integrity, and holiness of life were even then celebrated. As to Jeremiah, we know him to have been either just deceased in Egypt, or perhaps to be still living, when this vision was offered to Daniel, who had perused his prophecies previously to this occasion.

We observe also the great modesty of this holy man, because he exercised himself in reading the writings of Jeremiah and was not ashamed to admit how he profited by them. For he knew this prophet to have been appointed to instruct himself as well as the rest of the faithful.

Thus he willingly submitted to the instruction of Jeremiah and ranged himself among his disciples. And if he had not deigned to read those prophecies, he would have been unworthy to share in the promised deliverance. As he was a member of the Church, he ought to have been a disciple of Jeremiah; so in the same way, Jeremiah would not have objected to profit in his turn, if any prophecy of Daniel’s had been presented to him.

This spirit of modesty ought to flourish among the servants of God, even if they excel in the gift of prophecy, inducing them to learn from each other, while no one should raise himself above the common level. While we are teachers, we ought at the same time to continue learners. And Daniel teaches us this by saying, he understood the number of years in books, and the number was according to the word of Jehovah to the prophet Jeremiah. He shows why he exercised himself in the writings of Jeremiah—because he was persuaded that God had spoken by his voice. Thus it caused him no trouble to read what he knew to have proceeded from God.

We must now remark the time of this prophecy—the first year of Darius. I will not dwell upon this point here, because I would rather discuss the years when we come to the second part of the chapter. I stated yesterday that this chapter embraced two principal divisions. Daniel first records his own prayer, and then he adds the prediction which was brought to him by the hand of the angel.

We shall next speak of the seventy years, because the discussion will then be long enough. I will now touch only briefly upon one point—the time of redemption was near, as the Babylonian monarchy was changed and transferred to the Medes and Persians. In order to render the redemption of his people the more conspicuous, God desired to wake up the whole East after the Medes and Persians had conquered the Babylonians.

Cyrus and Darius published their edict about the same time, by which the Jews were permitted to return to their native country. In that year, therefore, meaning the year in which Darius began his reign. Here it may be asked, why does he name Darius alone, when Cyrus was far superior to him in military prowess, prudence, and other endowments?

The ready answer is this: Cyrus set out immediately on other expeditions, for we know what an insatiable ambition had seized upon him. He was not stimulated by avarice but by an insane ambition, and never could rest quietly in one place. So, when he had acquired Babylon and the whole of that monarchy, he set out for Asia Minor and harassed himself almost to death by continual restlessness.

Some say he was slain in battle, while Xenophon describes his death as if he was reclining on his bed, and at his ease was instructing his sons in what he wished to have done. But whichever is the true account, all history testifies to his constant motion from place to place.

Hence we are not surprised at the Prophet’s speaking here of Darius only, who was more advanced in age and slower in his movements throughout his whole life. It is sufficiently ascertained that he was not a man fond of war. Xenophon calls him Cyaxares and asserts him to have been the son of Astyages.

We know, again, that Astyages was the maternal grandfather of Cyrus; and thus this Darius was the uncle as well as father-in-law of Cyrus, as the mother of Cyrus was his sister. When the Prophet calls his father Ahasuerus, it need not occasion us any trouble, as the names vary very much when we compare the Greek with the Hebrew.

Without the slightest doubt, Astyages was called Ahasuerus, or at least one was his name and the other his surname. All doubt is removed by the expression, Darius was of the seed of the Medes. He distinguishes here between the Medes and Persians, because the Medes had seized upon rich and splendid territories, stretching far and wide on all sides, while the Persians were confined within their own mountains and were more austere in their manner of life.

But the Prophet here states the Median origin of this Darius and adds another circumstance: namely, his obtaining the kingdom of the Chaldees. For Cyrus allowed him to be called king, not only on account of his age and of his being both his uncle and father-in-law, but because he would not attempt anything against his authority. He knew he had no heir who might in future become troublesome to him. Cyrus therefore yielded the empty title to his father-in-law, while the whole power and influence remained completely within his own grasp.

He says, then, When I understood in books the number of the years for filling up the desolation of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. This prophecy is found in Jeremiah 25 and is repeated in Jeremiah 29. God fixed beforehand seventy years for the captivity of his people, as it was a grievous trial to be cast out of the land of Canaan, which had been granted them as a perpetual inheritance. They remembered those celebrated sentences:

This shall be my rest for ever, and
Ye shall possess the land for ever (Psalms 132:14).

When they were cast out and dispersed throughout the various countries of the earth, it seemed as if the covenant of God had been abolished, and as if there was no further advantage in deriving their origin from those holy fathers to whom their land had been promised. For the purpose of meeting these temptations, God fixed beforehand a set time for their exile, and Daniel now returns to this prediction.

He adds, Then I raised my face. It is properly אתנה, ath-neh, I placed; but as some interpreters seem to interpret this word too fancifully, as if Daniel had then looked towards the sanctuary, I prefer rendering it, He raised his face to God. It is quite true that while the altar was standing, and the ark of the covenant was in the sanctuary, God’s face was there, towards which the faithful ought to direct both their vows and prayers; but now the circumstances were different because the temple had been overthrown.

We have previously read of Daniel’s praying and turning his eyes in that direction, towards Judea, but his object was not a desire to pray after the manner of his fathers, for there was then neither sanctuary nor ark of the covenant in existence (Daniel 6:10). His object in turning his face towards Jerusalem was openly to show his profession, in this way mentally dwelling in that land which God had destined for the race of Abraham.

By that outward gesture and ceremony the Prophet claimed possession of the Holy Land, although still a captive and an exile. With regard to the present passage, I simply understand it to mean he raised his face towards God. That I might inquire, says he, by supplication and prayers. Some translate, that I might seek supplication and prayer. Either is equally suitable for the meaning, but the former version is more natural, because the Prophet sought God by supplication and prayers. And this form of speech is common enough in Scripture, as we are said to seek God when we testify our hope that he will perform what he has promised. It now follows: —