“Daniel: Intercession” (continued) - part 5

As we look at chapters 6 and 9 of Daniel this evening, I would like to point out three grand functions of the ministry of prayer and intercession that are evident in these accounts of the prophet.

First, we will look at the function of the restraint of evil, and the changing of men’s hearts; then, second, at the function of preparing vessels; and third, the function of its outworking for the Church’s glory.

Starting with the first, of exchanging God’s saving power for the destruction of evil, we can begin in Daniel 6. 

Here we see a group of conspirators who have approached the king to accuse Daniel of breaking the law. 

And, interestingly enough, his accusers have’...tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so; they could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. 

Finally these men said, ‘we will never find any basis against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.’  (vs 5) 

It was certain they were well aware of the importance of God in Daniel’s life and heart and the effect it had on his behavior, specifically on his high moral and ethical standards he applied in his governmental position. 

In their jealousy of him, they conspired to bring him down by finding some connection with his relationship to his God with which they could trap him.

In collusion with the king, they came to an agreement to ‘establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree.’ (v 7)

The king signed the law and established the edict. The weight of the state stood behind this new Persian law to carry out the punishment for its violation. 

And what was the decree? 

We find it in the last part of v 7: ‘...that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days save unto thee, O king, shall be thrown into the lion’s den.’ 

There was nothing healthy about this scene: here was a king who kept lions to dispose of his enemies, and was even willing to sacrifice a loyal advisor, as Daniel was to him, for the sake of the letter of the law, his very own law, as the sovereign principle of the empire.

This incident repeated the concept of the unchangeable laws of the emperor but, from chapter 2:21, we have learned that God changes what humans consider unchangeable as the direct outcome of prayer and intercession by His faithful own.  

But, it was in Daniel’s giving of himself to the Lord in prayer that we can note God’s governing Mind in carrying forward His salvation plan. 

Notice v 10: ‘...Three times a day, he got down on his knees and praying, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before...’; that is, before the king’s new edict was announced. 

And, his God was merciful, intervened, shut the lion’s mouth, and touched Darius’ heart to acknowledge, esteem, and give God His rightful place in the order of governing the earth. 

‘May you have abundant prosperity,’ Darius wrote. ‘I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel: for He is the living God and He endures forever; His kingdom will not be destroyed, His dominion will never end. He rescues and He saves; He performs signs and wonder in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.’
(vs 25-26)

This is exactly what one of the functions of what prayer and intercession is designed to do - to resist evil, to rescue from destruction, and to replace it by changing the hearts of men toward God.

Through this example of Daniel’s praying and esteeming God above all else, it is plain to see how decay, destruction, and evil are kept at bay so that spiritual prosperity is able to flow onward to God’s people and to the world, in general.

Do we have any idea what this world would be like, even as discouraging as it may look at times, if the Lord had not put this one principle for restraint and change into effect for His people to employ?

This is precisely in line with the principle of intercession given in 2 Chronicles 7:14 which reads: “If My people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.’

Here are the stipulations for heaven-sent blessings upon the earth: cease from sin, turn from living lives of proud self-centeredness: ‘If My people...shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face...’.  

Prayer and intercession are shown to be the prime, all-engaging forces in God’s divine course of salvation history - in keeping evil at bay, in healing from sin and rebellion toward the Lord, and in saving.     

Any substitute for such sacred ministry puts God below His rightful and supreme place, on an earthly level that materializes His entire plan and purpose.

A politician, on the news several weeks ago, in speaking of a competitor in assessing his political career, said of him (and I quote loosely): ‘He thinks he is the city’s savior; he shows himself as a savior to all, but the problem is that as a savior, he is not saving anyone but himself - his own political career. A savior is someone who makes sure everyone benefits from his saviorhood, but his problem is that nobody is benefitting. Praying for a savior does no good if the savior who benefits himself cannot benefit everyone else who is expecting him to save them,’

I thought - ‘how like this world’ and ‘how unlike of the true Savior of the world Who benefits all who come to Him, for those who acknowledge Him through seeking His face in prayer.’

The fact that God is at work in the world, calling men and women to His service, placing upon their hearts the burden of prayer, enpowering them to do so - this is the world’s great and only hope today. 

So - Daniel made this clear when he got down on his knees, as he always did, praying, giving thanks to his God.

And this brings us to the second function of intercession and prayer: Daniel gave himself to the ministry of prayer in spite of the evil set-up for his entrapment.

Like the Psalmist in 109:4, these conspirators to bring him down were fiercely about him, yet his conscience was clear, he performed his duties as a testimony to his God, and he could now earnestly petition his God for God’s hand on the matter.

It was in calm communion with Him that he found defense and rest.

‘They are sinning against me, but I make it my business to pray and am in my element when I pray - I give myself to prayer.’

He became prayer toward deliverance and salvation as they became harm toward sinful destruction.

What was his answer, then, to this?

This was his answer to his enemies - he took their injustice to the Judge of the whole earth Who can do only right - he
carried his case to the Lord, taking refuge in God, committing his cause into His hands - and left his accusers 
to themselves.

With these men against him, he did what every believer has the right and the commission to do - to arm himself to the work of prayer to give himself to prayer - and, woe, woe to the one who has armies of prayer marching against him.

Giving one’s self to prayer is the work of God’s people that prepares to greater work toward divine honor.

If you have a mind to, and feel so led, look back once again at how the priests in Samuel’s day regarded this ministry of intercession for the people and how lowly they esteemed the living God.

It took the Lord’s intervention through Samuel - Samuel, who willingly gave himself to the Lord’s ministry of intercession - to set the course of the nation aright.

We see it again in Acts, after Christ’s ascension - the carrying on of the work of the Lord that was put into place once more at the very beginning of the early Church.

If you recall, there was a need to take care of the daily administration of the Church’s ministry to the widows, an important part of the Church’s function. (Acts 6:1-4) 

But the disciples seemed to thoroughly understand the primary function of the Church, the ‘giving of themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word’ (v 4), and, through their understanding of that, the problem with     other important problems of Church life were taken care of in its proper divine way.

There were those who gave themselves primarily to attend to matters such as these to help shoulder the burden of the Church’s work upon the earth.

They understood the importance of these two ministries of the Church - the ministry of prayer listed as the first of the two - since it is the foundation out from which all other ministries are to follow under the Holy Spirit’s unction.

In a pre-eminent sense, the ‘giving of themselves to prayer’ is a function of prayer that prepares the Church to the serious business of continuing on with God’s full thought upon the earth.

Without the vital, living connection with the Head through prayer, the Church ceases as ‘the organism of spiritual life.’

Daniel persisted in his ministry to this end of moving toward God’s full thought upon the earth in Daniel 9: ‘I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek Him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.’

Here we see him studying ‘the books’, specifically, Jeremiah’s writings in which Daniel is pondering the length of the time of the exiles from Jerusalem.

And so he prayed a prayer of confession and penitence for the Lord’s people and called on the Lord for final deliverance, asking Him to act when the odds to do so may have seemed so overwhelming to Daniel.

In verse 5, he confessed, as spokesman of the people, ‘We have sinned and done wrong...rebelled...turned away from Your commands and law...succumbed to the heathen and his ways...have refused to repent at Your rebukes and warnings; in short, we have rejected You, ridiculed and rejected Your pardon and mercy.’

Jeremiah rehearsed the sin of the people in a similar way and had discovered this as the reason why the heavens were silent to their pleas and prayers: here it is in Lam 3:44: ‘Thou hast covered Thyself with a cloud, so that our prayers should not pass through.’

God had ‘wrapped Himself in a cloud, too thick for prayer to pierce’ - their sin separated them from Him.

But, fortunately, His prophet, Daniel, had given himself in prayer on their behalf.

In reading further in Daniel, we see how burdened Daniel was that God’s people were missing this favor of God because of their rebellion against Him.

His prayer, his giving himself in prayer - exemplifies the earnest power in prayer of a man of God who is standing in close relationship with the Most High God.

It prompted him to intercession - intercession that issued in a God-given view of God’s mind and purpose to Daniel.

The only ground for Daniel’s approach to God was his earnest desire - I repeat - his earnest desire for God to glorify Himself by showing the riches of His mercy and grace in pardoning and restoring His guilty people.

And, now let us look at the third function of prayer and intercession ministry in thid regard.

His prayer was strictly intercessory, asking for God’s mercy to overlook the people’s rebellion anf to forgive, and, in its place, to continue onward for the glory of His Being to be seen on the earth.

Notice v 15: ‘Thou hast brought Your people forth and hast gotten the renown...Your Name is glorified before all nations...’.
See how he pleaded in this kind of a personal relationship in verses 17 through 19: ‘Hear the prayer of Thy servant and his supplication. O my God, incline Thine ear...for Your sake, O Lord, look...see the desolation of the city that bears Your Name...we do not make requests of You because we are righteous, but because of Your great mercy...for Your sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people bear Your name.’.

He summerized it by saying he presented his ‘supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God.’ (v 20)

God’s honor was at stake among His own people, people who are His and are accustomed to live in His city.

The ‘giving of oneself in prayer’ leads naturally on into why prayer in the first place.

That concentrated alliance with the Divine Being was no small thing!

It involved Daniel’s entire being, a work that was so strong and intense that it required a preparation that involved his entire physical being.

He sought God only in this and he did it with sackcloth and ashes. 

The sackcloth in that day was the penitential garment worn at times such as these and the ashes signified humility and penitence.

It was not just a rite used to ask forgiveness, but was an act of spiritual warfare that was presumed to have material results - to invite the direct intervention of God.
The idea that is to be considered in this is that the means of preparation Daniel used to place himself in that condition was what pleased God for the hearing and the answering of his prayer.

As I have tried to point out many times in the past, the 
preparation for this ministry goes back to the preparation of the heart, the heart as it stands before the living Christ
within Who clears away the cloud first before the petition is presented to the throne of God - ‘...He ever liveth to make intercession...’ for the saints. (Heb 7:25)

It takes the preparation of the heart supported by the Holy Spirit in the face of Jesus Christ Who is the means through Whom true humility and penitence is realized.

And this is the preparation pleasing to God for the hearing and the answering of prayer today.

When Solomon dedicated the finished temple, the Lord filled the house with His glory and the announcement of ‘I have chosen Jerusalem that My Name might be there.’

The temple was consecrated to be the dwelling place of His Name and the home of His gracious presence. 

It was to show forth the excellencies of the Lord, His divine thoughts with His people embodying them and expressing them, and, in his heart and mind Daniel could see how pitiful its state was.

The Lord God could not let the desolation, the desecration of His Temple, and the glory of Himself in the Temple to continue without doing injury to His honor. (Isa 48:11)

Yes - prayer is for the purpose of deliverance from sin into the miraculous rescue into salvation.

As I stated earlier, a savior whose agenda benefits only Himself is no savior at all.

But - it is not primarily for this; it is perfectly melded together with the honor and glory of God through His redeeming plan for which He deserves all homage and esteem.

Thus, Daniel directed his face to God, the Lord in heaven, the Lord of the whole earth, the Sovereign God, the only True and Faithful Lord of the universe, on behalf of God’s honor.

Today, the Church, in this dispensation, has been given the self-same function: to esteem the honor of God in Christ Jesus, to show forth His excellencies, to embody His Beauty and to express His thought, to be a living functioning company of His people.

The Church, the City of God, is to be a crown of splendor, a royal gem, in the Lord’s hand, and is to be called by a new Name, one pronounced by the mouth of Jehovah.
(Isa 62)

Its ministry, by prayer and intercession, is to bring into being all that God intends for His Church to be - to be that bulwark that keeps evil at bay to resist it, to change it to Life through salvation - to be that organism of spiritual life in Christ, - to be, not a system organized and run by men for a religious or soulical purpose, but to be something formed of the Holy Spirit, a living, local company of the Lord’s people.

The Church is intended to be this, that which knows its Divinely appointed resources as it functions according to God’s intention.

And - when it is this, God is in His rightful place of honor, dignity, and glory.

And - miracle of miracles, it is to be brought to this place through the ministry of prayer and intercession of the Lord’s people.

It starts with the putting away of evil and sin, the changing of men’s hearts.

It goes on to the preparation of the heart to the giving of ourselves to this ministry of the Church.

And it culminates with the ministry needed to hold His Name in honor in His Temple, in His Church, in His People, in His Holy City.

Now, are we beginning to see how His Temple, the Church universal, is so important to our Lord’s heart, and the reason why it is called to this ministry of intercession?

I think we need to thank and praise our Lord with such a gratefulness of heart and such depth of genuine Love of and for Him that we can sing, ‘O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed...And when I think that God His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in...How great Thou art! 
                                      Amen!