HOMILETICS
SECT. XIX.—DANIEL A MAN OF PRAYER (Chap. Daniel 6:10-11)
Daniel’s enemies had so far gained their object. The royal decree that was to remove him out of the way was already signed. It only remained to be put into execution. How was Daniel employed in the meantime? Just as usual. Fidelity to God forbade him to yield obedience to the decree; faith in God led him as usual to his closet. With his window open towards Jerusalem, reminding him of the promises of God to His praying people (1 Kings 8:40-49), he kneeled down and prayed with thanksgiving three times a day, “as he did aforetime.” A fine exhibition of the man of God here presented. “When Daniel knew that the writing was signed.” “He knew too that it was aimed at him, and that it was a compound of malignity and absurdity; but he uttered no reproach, and made no remonstrance either with his persecutors for their injustice, or against them in appeal to the misguided sovereign. ‘He went into his house.’ And for what purpose? Not to devise a counterplot; not to indulge in bitter lamentations over his hard lot, or secret repinings at the conduct of Providence; but to pray. This was his habit ‘three times a day,’ and he continues the practice as before. The Holy City with its Temple was now desolate, but he prayed with his window ‘open in his chamber toward Jerusalem;’ the Temple being regarded by the pious Jews as a type of Christ, while the circumstances of its dedication filled their minds with sentiments of the profoundest awe and solemnity. ‘He gave thanks before his God;’ a devout heart finding reasons for gratitude when others can perceive nothing but occasions of lamentation.”—Cox.
Daniel as a man of prayer was—
1. Constant. He prayed as he was wont. Prayer had been his habit, and that habit was not likely to be suspended now when it was most needed, though its exercise might cost him his life. A truly godly man prays at all seasons, in the gloom of adversity as well as in the sunshine of prosperity. Daniel had prayed in the midst of public business under Nebuchadnezzar, as one of his councillors of state; he had prayed in the quiet retirement of private life under Belshazzar, when his godliness removed him from the court; he had prayed again under Darius, as ruler over a third part of the empire and First Lord of the Treasury. He prays now in the prospect of a horrible death which he knows his prayers will cost him. “Will he always call upon God?” is asked by Job as the test that distinguishes a true servant of God from a hypocrite. Daniel known in Babylon and at court as the man that served God “continually” (Daniel 6:16; Daniel 6:20).
2. Regular. Daniel, like the Psalmist, had his regular seasons for prayer, three times a day. “Evening, morning, and at noon will I pray and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice” (Psalms 55:17). The rule not suspended even now when his enemies were watching to find him in the act. Prayer with Daniel, as with every truly godly man, more than his necessary food. Morning saw him on his knees giving thanks for the mercies of the night, and craving guidance, help, protection, and blessing during the day. Noon saw him returning to the exercise, seeking refreshment in communion with his God, and a mind kept above earthly things. Evening found him again in his closet, giving thanks for the mercies of the day, and seeking pardon for shortcomings, a blessing on his labours, and the divine presence and protection during the night. Daniel prayed without ceasing, carrying ever with him a prayerful spirit, and, like Nebemiah, lifting up his heart to God repeatedly during the day as occasion suggested. But he felt the need of meeting with God more freely and fully at stated times. “Unless we fix certain hours in the day for prayer it easily slips from our memory; and therefore, although Daniel was constant in pouring forth prayers, yet he enjoined upon himself the customary rite of prostrating himself before God three times a day.”—Calvin. How much may be lost by omitting the prayer “at noon!”
3. Believing. “His windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem.” Expressive of his belief in the promise made by God at the dedication of the Temple, in regard to those who should in any place pray towards that house (1 Kings 8.) So David lifted up his hands towards God’s “holy oracle” and worshipped “toward His holy Temple” (Psalms 5:7; Psalms 28:2). Thus Daniel prayed, believing the promise. “He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Believing prayer that which is made in God’s own way and in dependence on His promise. The eye to be now directed in prayer, not to Jerusalem, but to Jesus at God’s right hand, the true Temple with its ark and mercy-seat. The promise is now, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you” (John 15:16; John 16:23). “Seeing that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we many obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16). Our Propitiation or mercy-seat, for whose sake God can be propitious, pardon our sins, and hear our prayers, is “Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:2-3). “What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering” (Mark 11:24; James 1:6).
4. Fearless. Daniel went to his chamber—the upper chamber, chosen for quietness and freedom from interruption, like the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 1:13-14; Acts 2:1-2). The window of lattice-work open, as usual on such occasions, toward Jerusalem. This now done by Daniel at the peril of his life. Carnal prudence might have suggested a different course for the present. This, however, would have appeared only cowardice and deceit. Daniel acted in the spirit of Nehemiah, who, when tempted by his enemies to shut himself up in the Temple to save his life, said, “Should such a man as I flee?” (Nehemiah 6:11). So Jesus, when some of the Pharisees tempted Him to flee for His life,—“Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee,”—said, “Go ye and tell that fox, Behold I cast out devils, I do cures to-day and to-morrow.” The fear of God raises us above the fear of man. True faith makes men heroes. “Fear not them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The lions’ den could be but a shorter way to paradise. The fearlessness of faith not to be confounded with foolhardiness. One thing to put oneself in the way of danger, and another not to go out of the way of duty. Prayer to God as usual was Daniel’s duty, though the passage to his chamber was the passage to the lions’ den. “It was necessary to testify before men his perseverance in the worship of God; to have altered his habit at all would have been a partial abjuration, and proof of perfidious defection. God not only requires faith in the heart and the inward affections, but also the witness and confession of our piety.”—Calvin.
5. Cheerful. Daniel not only prayed but “gave thanks” to God. Thanksgiving naturally a cheerful thing. “I will praise the name of the Lord with a song; I will magnify Him with thanksgiving” (Psalms 69:30). Daniel went to his chamber not only to pray but to give thanks. Went, therefore, with a cheerful, not a downcast countenance. Realised how much he had to give God thanks for. That he had been made to know Him, and to know Him as his God and Father, and the Hearer of prayer; that He had been his help and deliverer hitherto; and that even now he was honoured to confess Him before men, and perhaps to suffer for His sake. All these sufficient causes for thankfulness, and therefore for cheerfulness. Daniel solemn in the prospect of death, but not sad. Stephen’s face, in similar circumstances, like the face of an angel. Thanksgiving accompanying prayer makes prayer cheerful and joyous. Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” Remembrance of God’s mercies gives brightness, not only to the past, but to the present and the future. “Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” With the Lord for his God and Saviour, why should Daniel not give thanks and rejoice? “Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, &c., yet will I rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.” Prayer, resting on the promise, cannot but be cheerful; prayer, accompanied with thanksgiving, must be still more so. Hence thanksgiving always to accompany prayer. “Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks.” “By prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God” (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18; Philippians 4:6). Grace enabled Daniel to give thanks and rejoice in the prospect of a painful death. Faith sings a joyous pæan where Nature offers only a doleful dirge. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” So Paul and Silas not only prayed but sang praises to God in the prison. Daniel gave thanks “to his God.” That God was “his God” in itself a sufficient ground for thankfulness, whether in life or in death. The expression indicative of the holy joy with which this aged saint poured out his heart before God, even now in the prospect of a lion’s den.
6. Earnest. Daniel not only prayed, but “made supplication” (Daniel 6:11). Supplication is prayer intensified, a beseeching or pleading for special and needed mercies; entreaty. Prayer always to take this form, or to have supplication connected with it. Hence the two generally conjoined. “With prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God.” “Praying always, with all prayer and supplication.” “So Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears” (Hebrews 5:7). The Holy Spirit a “Spirit of grace and supplication;” and makes intercession for us “with groanings that cannot be uttered.” The more there is of the spirit of prayer and of felt need, the more there will be of supplication in our prayers. The fervent prayer the effectual one. “Elias prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not,” &c. So Daniel employed entreaty in his prayer. That entreaty not necessarily merely for himself. The cause of God, of his brethren, and of his fellow-men, probably more on Daniel’s heart at that hour than his own. His prayer that of a burdened spirit, but burdened more for others than himself (chap. 9.) Daniel’s prayer always with supplication, but probably now more than usual. “Shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry day and night unto Him continually?” For himself he now needed special strength to endure the fiery trial that was to try him; grace to be faithful unto death, and to glorify God in the fire by patience and serenity; the comfort of the Divine presence, if called to suffer the threatened penalty, according to the promise, “When thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee;” “Fear not, for I am with thee” (Isaiah 43:2; Isaiah 43:5).