John Calvin Commentary Daniel 9:13

"As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet have we not entreated the favor of Jehovah our God, that we should turn from our iniquities, and have discernment in thy truth." — Daniel 9:13 (ASV)

He repeats what he had already said, without any excess, showing how God’s judgments are proved by their effects, just as the law of Moses contains within it all the penalties which the Israelites endured. Therefore, since such a clear agreement existed between the law of God and the people’s experience, they should not have become rebellious and sought every kind of subterfuge to no avail.

By this alone God sufficiently proved Himself a just avenger of their crimes, because He had predicted many ages before what He had afterwards fully carried out. This is the purpose of the repetition, when Daniel says the people felt the justice of the penalties pronounced against them in the law of Moses, for in the meantime he adds, we have not earnestly sought God’s favor. Here he severely blames the people’s stubbornness, because even when beaten with stripes they never became wise.

It is said—fools require calamities to teach them wisdom. This, therefore, was the height of madness in the people to remain so stubborn under the rod of the Almighty, even when He inflicted the severest blows. Since the people were so obstinate in their wickedness, who does not perceive how deeply this conduct was to be deplored?

We have not earnestly sought, therefore, the favor of our God. This passage teaches us how the Lord exercises His judgments by not utterly destroying people, but holding His final sentence in suspense, as by these means He wishes to impel them to repentance.

First of all, He gently and mercifully invites both bad and good by His word, and also adds promises, with the aim of enticing them. Then, when He observes them either slow or rebellious, He uses threats with the aim of arousing them from their slumber. If threats produce no effect, He goes forth in arms and chastises the sluggishness of humankind.

If these stripes produce no improvement, the desperate character of the people becomes apparent. In this way, God complains in Isaiah of their lack of soundness; the whole body of the people is subject to ulcers from the head to the sole of the foot (Isaiah 1:6), and yet He would lose all His labor, because they are utterly unmanageable. Daniel now asserts the existence of the same failing in the people, stating that the Israelites were so untouched by a sense of their calamities that they never supplicated for pardon. I cannot complete the remainder today.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that we may learn seriously to consider in how many ways we become guilty before You, especially while we daily continue to provoke Your wrath against us. May we be humbled by true and serious repentance, and fly eagerly to You, as nothing is left to us but Your pity alone; when cast down and confounded, and reduced to nothing in ourselves, may we fly to this sacred anchor, as You are easily entreated, and have promised to act as a Father of mercies to all sinners who seek You. Thus may we approach You with true penitence, and relying on Your goodness, never doubt the granting of our requests; and being freed by Your mercy from the tyranny of Satan and of sin, may we be governed by Your Holy Spirit, and so directed in the way of righteousness as to glorify Your name throughout our lives, until we arrive at that happy and immortal life which we know to be laid up in heaven for us, by Christ our Lord. — Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

In yesterday’s Lecture we dwelt on the Prophet’s elaborating on the people’s crime, in resisting the impression made by God’s chastisements; but now he demonstrates more clearly the kind of obstinacy displayed. For they did not turn away from their iniquities, and were not attentive to God’s truth. He had said before, we have not earnestly sought to avert God’s anger. But here he expresses something more, namely, that while there might have been some pretense of prayer, there was no real sincerity. We know how impiously hypocrites abuse God’s name, and pretend to the outward form of prayer, and even to the greatest fervor, but there is no reality in their prayers.

Thus the Prophet has good reason for uniting what should never be separated, and then convicts the Israelites of obstinacy, because they did not humbly flee to God’s mercy with repentance and faith. Doubtless, there was some form of piety left among the people; but Daniel here evaluates prayers according to God’s word, and thus presents these two things to us: namely, repentance and faith.

We must diligently note this. For nothing is more common than an earnest supplication for pardon when the signs of God’s wrath are apparent; this was always customary among all nations and at all times, and yet neither repentance nor faith existed. Hence their prayers became mere falsehood and vanity.

This is the meaning of the Prophet’s language when he says, We have not asked at the face of Jehovah our God, by turning away from our iniquities, (or that we may return,) and by being instructed in Your truth. Finally, we may gather from this passage what the rule of pious and acceptable prayer really is: first, we must be displeased with ourselves for our sins; next, we must regard the threats and promises of the Almighty.

As to the first part of this rule, experience teaches us how rashly many break forth into prayer, even when their evil conduct openly rises up against God. On the one hand, they are so enraged as not to hesitate to engage in warfare with God, and yet they pray to Him, because terror seizes their minds and compels them to submit to God.

The Prophet, therefore, here shows the utter uselessness of that outward show and perverse mixture of noise and flattery, because God cannot approve of any prayers unless they spring equally from repentance and faith. When he says, the people were not attentive to God’s truth, in my opinion, this extends equally to threats and promises, and faith apprehends both God’s pity and His judgments.

For, surely, it cannot be otherwise, when terror rouses the pious to fly to God’s mercy. Therefore, as God includes each quality in His word, as He summons all who have sinned to His own tribunal, and then gives them a hope of reconciliation if the sinner is really converted to Him, so also Daniel, by saying, the Israelites were not attentive to God’s truth, doubtless referred to both aspects: namely, their lack of sufficient consideration of God’s judgments, and secondly, their foolishness in despising His pity when plainly set before them.

On the whole, this passage shows us the impossibility of our prayers being pleasing to God unless they flow from true repentance and faith; that is, when we heartily feel our wickedness, we then flee to God’s mercy and rely upon His promises.

Hence we discover three things to be necessary to render God propitious to us:

1. Dissatisfaction with ourselves, which occasions sorrow through our being conscious of our sins and of our having provoked God’s anger.
2. Faith must necessarily be added.
3. Prayer must follow as a proof of our repentance and faith.

When people remain without repentance and faith, we observe how God’s name is profaned even if they conceive and utter many prayers, at the very time when the two principal dispositions are entirely lacking. Now let us proceed,—