Daniel's intercession

“we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from Your commands and laws. We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.” Daniel 9:5-6
Daniel 9 contains the prayer of Daniel, which culminates in one of the most amazing prophecies in the Bible (which we’ll look at tomorrow). Daniel is one of only two major characters in the Bible of whom no sin is recorded – the other being Joseph. (We read earlier in Dan. 6:4, “At this, the administrators and the satraps 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.”) Yet he includes himself with those who had ‘sinned and done wrong’, with those who had ‘been wicked and... rebelled’, with those who had turned away from [God’s] commands and laws’. Daniel was human and he would have sinned occasionally, but it did not characterise his life. He was diligent in keeping God’s commands, even in a foreign land, and obeying Him. In addition, he says, ‘We have not listened to Your servants the prophets’ – even though the reason Daniel was praying was because he had read and paid attention to the prophecy of Jeremiah that the Babylonian captivity would last for seventy years, and the time was nearly up (Dan. 9:2).
In this we see Daniel being an intercessor. He prayed as if he was guilty of all the things the people he was praying for had done. Jesus did the same thing – not only praying for, but dying in the place of sinful mankind. We can pray in like manner today. Interceding is much deeper than simply praying for someone as an outsider. It will lead you into deep anguish of spirit. But in doing so, it will reveal God’s heart to you – His hatred of sin, and His love for humanity and desire that all would be saved.