Dan. 9.9,10 and Advent Evensong

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To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him: neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he set before us. Dan. 9.9,10

At Evensong in Advent, I use this penitential sentence (found in 1662 and 1926), from Daniel's great confession on behalf of Israel, mourning in lonely exile:

In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes ...

The sentence is a stark reminder throughout the days of Advent of why "thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility" - "for us men and for our salvation", in the words of the Nicene Creed, for we all stand with Daniel and ancient Israel, mourning in lonely exile and in need of the redemption wrought by Adonai. 

It also expresses why the penitence of Advent is necessary, for "we have rebelled against him: neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he set before us" - and Our Lord Jesus Christ "shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead". In light of the coming Day, now we must confess that we have "followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts", and seek grace "that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life".

That the prophet offered his confession by the waters of Babylon is also resonant in Advent, for we too are, to quote 1 Peter 2:11, "strangers and pilgrims". Appropriately, in the 1926 lectionary, 1 Peter is read at Evensong in the second week of Advent, concluding on Saturday with 1 Peter 5, in which the apostle refers to "The church that is at Babylon", a reminder of our communion with Daniel and the exiles.

Also resonant in Advent is the fact that Daniel is invoked by Our Lord in Saint Matthew's account of the eschatological discourse:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains ...

The prophecies of Daniel ring out across Advent, speaking of exile, of the rise and fall of kingdoms, of the end of the days: and in all such times, the prophet's example of and call to penitence is to be heeded, not least in these days of Advent.

Daniel's great confession was offered "about the time of the evening oblation" (9:21), making this sentence particularly fitting at Evensong. As Daniel and the exiles prayed at the hour of the evening sacrifice, so too does the Church, the new Israel, pray at the evening hour, after the example of those who in ancient times "by night [stood] in the house of the Lord: even in the courts of the house of our God". And that prayer begins, heeding the prophet, by acknowledging "neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he set before us", as we await the fulfilment of Adonai's redeeming purposes.

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