Drew
Member
Here is an interesting prayer from Daniel 9:
I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 5we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. 6"Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.
7"Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us (K)open shame, as it is this day--to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in (L)all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You. 8"Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9"To the Lord our God belong (M)compassion and forgiveness, for we have (N)rebelled against Him; 10nor have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His teachings which He (O)set before us through His servants the prophets. 11"Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him. 12"Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our (S)rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has (T)not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem. 13"As it is written in the (U)law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have (V)not sought the favor of the LORD our God by (W)turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. 14"Therefore the LORD has (X)kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the LORD our God is (Y)righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice. 15"And now, O Lord our God, who have (Z)Brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have (AA)made a name for Yourself, as it is this day--we have sinned, we have been wicked. 16"O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your (AB)anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your (AC)holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a (AD)reproach to all those around us. 17"So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, (AE)let Your face shine on Your (AF)desolate sanctuary. 18"O my God, (AG)incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and (AH)see our desolations and the city which is (AI)called by Your name; for we are not (AJ)presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion.
19"O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, (AK)do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name."
In this prayer, the subject of God’s righteousness is woven into an extended treatment of God’s covenant dealings with Israel. Even though this text is from the Old Testaments My ultimate argument here is about what “righteousness†means in Romans. The connection to Daniel 9 is this: In Romans, Paul appeals to the same “story†that Daniel here appeals to and is thereby plugging into this same covenantal theme, albeit implicitly. This will respond directly to those who argue that covenant is not a major theme in Romans since it is rarely referred to explicitly.
Another common error obscures discernment of the covenantal theme in Romans: At many points, readers see Paul as making an argument about righteousness imputed to the believer when in fact, Paul is addressing God’s own righteous behaviour. However, to keep this treatment reasonably short, I will simply assert, without argument that certain texts in Romans deal with God’s own righteousness (the relevant arguments are provided elsewhere). My focus, instead, will be on showing the specifically covenantal nature of such allusions to God’s own righteousness.
Please note that I am not saying that, at certain other points in Romans, Paul is not talking about a righteous status that the believer obtains. However, even in those cases, Paul is not talking about how we are imputed with God’s (or Jesus’) righteousness, but instead how we are ascribed the simple status of righteousness that person gets when acquitted in the lawcourt – this is certainly not somebody else’s righteousness. But that’s another debate.
The above is just an introducti0on, more posts later....
I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 5we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. 6"Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.
7"Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us (K)open shame, as it is this day--to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in (L)all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You. 8"Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9"To the Lord our God belong (M)compassion and forgiveness, for we have (N)rebelled against Him; 10nor have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in His teachings which He (O)set before us through His servants the prophets. 11"Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him. 12"Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our (S)rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has (T)not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem. 13"As it is written in the (U)law of Moses, all this calamity has come on us; yet we have (V)not sought the favor of the LORD our God by (W)turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Your truth. 14"Therefore the LORD has (X)kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the LORD our God is (Y)righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice. 15"And now, O Lord our God, who have (Z)Brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and have (AA)made a name for Yourself, as it is this day--we have sinned, we have been wicked. 16"O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your (AB)anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your (AC)holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a (AD)reproach to all those around us. 17"So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, (AE)let Your face shine on Your (AF)desolate sanctuary. 18"O my God, (AG)incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and (AH)see our desolations and the city which is (AI)called by Your name; for we are not (AJ)presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion.
19"O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, (AK)do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name."
In this prayer, the subject of God’s righteousness is woven into an extended treatment of God’s covenant dealings with Israel. Even though this text is from the Old Testaments My ultimate argument here is about what “righteousness†means in Romans. The connection to Daniel 9 is this: In Romans, Paul appeals to the same “story†that Daniel here appeals to and is thereby plugging into this same covenantal theme, albeit implicitly. This will respond directly to those who argue that covenant is not a major theme in Romans since it is rarely referred to explicitly.
Another common error obscures discernment of the covenantal theme in Romans: At many points, readers see Paul as making an argument about righteousness imputed to the believer when in fact, Paul is addressing God’s own righteous behaviour. However, to keep this treatment reasonably short, I will simply assert, without argument that certain texts in Romans deal with God’s own righteousness (the relevant arguments are provided elsewhere). My focus, instead, will be on showing the specifically covenantal nature of such allusions to God’s own righteousness.
Please note that I am not saying that, at certain other points in Romans, Paul is not talking about a righteous status that the believer obtains. However, even in those cases, Paul is not talking about how we are imputed with God’s (or Jesus’) righteousness, but instead how we are ascribed the simple status of righteousness that person gets when acquitted in the lawcourt – this is certainly not somebody else’s righteousness. But that’s another debate.
The above is just an introducti0on, more posts later....