Daniel 9:8-10 O Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.… We take the words of the text in their more general reference. They are such as we ought all to use. Glory is ascribed to God; a proper view and estimate of our own character is taken. I. GOD HAS SPOKEN TO US. Daniel speaks of "the voice of the Lord our God." So Paul — "God, who spake in time past unto the fathers," etc., "hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." And he exhorts us not to "refuse Him who speaketh from heaven." The meaning is a direct communication. Not mere intimations — as by sign, works — leaving us to collect inferences. The Scriptures are — by the inspiration by which they were given — the actual voice of God to us, on all the subjects to which they refer. Fully realise the solemn truth — The great and dreadful God hath spoken to us. II. "BY HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS, HE HATH SET HIS LAWS BEFORE US." Here is the purpose of His voice. Man is distinguished from all other earthly creatures by his moral capacities and faculties. He is thus made in the image of God. Constituted God's subject. Bound by the will of God; that will, expressed, is the Divine law. This is done in Scripture. Its principles, its prohibitions, its requirements; by direct precept, by larger explanation, in various examples, are there set before us — as the law of God, the sanctioned expression of His will. III. THIS VOICE "WE HAVE NOT OBEYED." Speak not now of our natural condition — our fallen nature. We have followed our own inclinations; and the action has been as the originating principle. IV. WE ARE THUS GUILTY OF REBELLION. God is our Sovereign. We have, as to our hearts and lives, sought to dethrone Him. We have refused to His law its just supremacy. Other lords have thus had dominion over us. V. FOR THIS REASON, "CONFUSION OF FACE BELONGS TO US." Shame one of our natural emotions. Called for by humbling sense of real impropriety and wrong. We may be hardened; we may mix ourselves with the general mass; still, rightly viewed, sin is a shameful thing. When Divine light is received and obeyed, we feel our personal guilt. We have no excuse. VI. NEVERTHELESS, " TO THE LORD OUR GOD BELONG MERCIES AND FORGIVENESS." It is a fact — not merely good to the obedient, but long-suffering to the guilty. His words reveal it as a perfection of His nature. Describes the wisdom that has devised means for its fitting and consistent exercise. God is merciful, and it is in Christ. Pardon may be had — it is through Christ. The wickedness of sin. It is rebellion against a sovereignty of purity, wisdom, love. (G. Cubitt.) Parallel Verses KJV: O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. |
    |