Relent, O Lord
As it is written in the law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. Daniel 9:13
We Have Not Sought – If you knew Hebrew, you would shudder at the sound of this phrase. It uses the great prayer word halal, the basis of our transliterated word, hallelujah. But halal has three separate (though perhaps related) meanings, any one of which strikes terror in the heart of men. The first is used in 1 Kings 20:1 where it means “to become sick unto death.” The second is found in Isaiah 17:11 where it describes a disease brought on Damascus as the punishment of God. And finally, there is this verse and many more (Exodus 32:11, Psalm 45:13 and Proverbs 19:6) where it means to beg God for a stay of judgment, to make entreaty or appeasement in order win favor and forestall calamity.
Have you prayed a prayer like that? “O Lord, please don’t let this terrible thing happen. Please hear my cry to You and withhold Your judgment. Forgive, Lord, and restore. Do not cast us off.” Go back and read this little story (it begins in 9:1). Daniel is not praying for himself. He is praying on behalf of the entire nation, crying out to God to relent from the terrible judgment that has befallen Israel. Why is Israel in such desperate straits? Daniel knows why. Israel is experiencing the fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy – the curse that would come over any nation that knew God’s law and yet refused to abide by it. As surely as the sun sets in the West, the order of the universe is built on God’s rules. Disobey them and suffer the consequences.
Don’t you wonder why we just don’t get it? God’s governance of the moral universe hasn’t changed in spite of all our efforts to rewrite the code. Any nation that attempts to displace God’s view is bound to feel the fire. But we go right on thinking that somehow this time it will be different. We are self-delusional saboteurs, providing evidence for our own condemnation as we march merrily toward destruction with evolved, educated egos. We look back on the past with disgust, but that will not matter when the past revisits us with the same situation that Daniel faced. Throwing himself on the mercy of God, he pleaded for a reprieve. Where are the Daniels of this age? Do we no longer believe we even need them?
One of the biggest roadblocks to true restoration is the heresy that God forgives all, as if to imply that once I am “saved” I no longer have any need to conform my life to God’s law. Somehow we fool ourselves into believing that grace sets aside law. Can you imagine that? Keep thinking that way and the first two meanings of halal will undoubtedly arrive in due course. Jesus died to remove my guilt, not to change God’s law. Jesus died so that I can now obey. That was the whole purpose all the time. Obedience first, last and in-between.
There is no other way. Hallelujah!
