John Calvin Commentary Daniel 9:14

"Therefore hath Jehovah watched over the evil, and brought it upon us; for Jehovah our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, and we have not obeyed his voice." — Daniel 9:14 (ASV)

Daniel confirms what he had previously said concerning the slaughter that afflicted the Israelites: it was not the offspring of chance, but of the certain and remarkable judgment of God. Therefore, he uses the word שקר, seked, which means to watch and to apply the mind attentively to anything. It is properly used of the guards of cities, who keep watch both by night and by day.

This phrase does not appear to me to imply haste, but rather continual carefulness. God often uses this metaphor of His watching to chastise people who are far too eager to rush into sin. We are familiar with the great intemperance of humankind, and their disregard of all moderation whenever the lusts of the flesh seize them.

God, on the other hand, says He will not be either slothful or neglectful in correcting this intemperance. The reason for this metaphor is expressed in Jeremiah 44, where people are said to burst forth and to be carried away by their appetites, and then God is continually on the watch until the time of His vengeance arrives.

I have mentioned how this word denotes continual diligence rather than hasty swiftness. The Prophet seems here to imply that although God had endured the people’s wickedness, He had finally performed His previous threats; He was always on the watch, rendering it impossible for the people to escape His judgments for the wickedness in which they indulged.

Therefore Jehovah has closely attended to the calamity, and caused it to come upon us, he says. To understand the Prophet’s intention more fully, we must notice what God pronounces through Jeremiah in Lamentations (Lamentations 3:38). There, He accuses the people of sloth because they did not acknowledge the justice of the punishments they suffered; He blames them in this way.

Who is he who denies that both good and evil proceed from the mouth of God? It is as if such a denier were pronouncing a curse against those who are ignorant that calamities originate from God when He chastises the people. This sentiment is not confined to a single passage. For God often inveighs against that stupidity which is inherent in humankind, leading them to attribute every event to fortune and to neglect the hand of the smiter (Isaiah 9:13). This kind of teaching is found everywhere in the prophets, who show that nothing can be worse than to treat God’s judgments as if they were accidents under the influence of chance. This is why Daniel insists so much on this point.

We also know what God declares in His law: If you have walked against Me rashly, I also will rashly walk against you (Leviticus 26:27–28). That is, if you do not cease to attribute to fortune whatever evil you suffer, He will rush against you with closed eyes and will strive with you with similar rashness. It is as if He had said, "If you cannot distinguish between fortune and My judgments, I will afflict you on all sides, both on the right hand and on the left, without the slightest discretion, as if I were a drunken man." This is according to the expression, With the perverse, you will be perverse. For this reason, Daniel now confesses, God watched over the calamity, so as to bring down all those afflictions by which the people were oppressed.

In this passage, we are taught to recognize God’s providence in both prosperity and adversity, to stir us up to be grateful for His benefits, while His punishments ought to produce humility. For when anyone explains these things by fortune and chance, they thereby prove their ignorance of God’s existence, or at least of the character of the Deity whom we worship. For what is left for God if we rob Him of His providence?

It is sufficient here just to touch on these points, which often arise and of which we usually hear something every day. It is enough for the exposition of this passage to observe how the Prophet incidentally opposes God’s judgment and providence to all notions of chance.

He next adds, Jehovah our God is just in all His works. In this clause, the Prophet confirms his former teaching. The phrase God is just appears to give a reason for His dealings, for the nature of God supplies a reason why it is impossible for anything to happen by the blind impulse of fortune.

God sits as a judge in heaven; therefore, these two ideas—divine judgment and fortune—are directly contrary to each other. Thus, if one of the following assertions is made, the other is simultaneously denied: if God is the judge of the world, fortune has no place in its government; and whatever is attributed to fortune is subtracted from God’s justice.

Thus, we have a confirmation of the previous statement by the use of contraries or opposites. We must necessarily ascribe to God’s judgment both good and evil, both adversity and prosperity, if He governs the world by His providence and exercises His role as judge. And if we incline in the least degree to fortune, then God’s judgment and providence will cease to be acknowledged.

Meanwhile, Daniel not only attributes power to God but also celebrates His justice. It is as if he had said that God does not arbitrarily govern the world without any rule of justice or equity, but that He is just. We must not suppose the existence of any superior law to bind the Almighty; He is a law to Himself, and His will is the rule of all justice.

Yet we must establish this point: God does not reign as a tyrant over the world. While in the perfection of His equity He performs some things that seem absurd to us, it is only because our minds cannot ascend high enough to grasp a reason that is only partially apparent, and almost entirely hidden and incomprehensible in the judgments of God.

Daniel, therefore, wished to express this with these words: Jehovah our God, he says, is just in all the works which He performs. The meaning is that the people would not have been so severely chastised and afflicted with so many miserable calamities unless they had provoked God’s wrath. This could be easily gathered from the threats that God had announced many ages before, and which He at that time proved in actual fact to be in no way frivolous.

Next, a second part is added, as not only God’s power but His justice shines forth in the slaughter of the people; and I have touched briefly on each of these points, as far as was necessary for explanation. But we must notice the Prophet’s allusion in these words to those numerous trials that had fallen upon the faithful to prove their faith.

They perceived themselves as the most despised and miserable of mortals; the special and sacred people of God were suffering under the greatest reproach and detestation, although God had adopted them by His law with the intention that they should excel all other peoples. Therefore, while they perceived themselves drowned in that deep whirlpool of calamities and disgrace, what would they suppose, except that God had deceived them, or that His covenant was utterly annihilated?

Daniel, therefore, establishes the justice of God in all His works to meet this temptation, to confirm the pious in their confidence, and to induce them to fly to God in the extremity of their calamities.

He adds, as a reason, Because they did not listen to His voice. Here, again, he points out the crime of the people: they had not transgressed through ignorance or error, but had purposely taken up arms against God. Whenever God’s will is once made known to us, we have no further excuse for ignorance, for our open defiance of the Almighty arises from our being led away by the lusts of the flesh. And from this we gather how very detestable is the guilt of all who do not obey God’s voice whenever He deigns to teach us, and who do not instantly acquiesce in His word.