Having taken a broad look at what Daniel 9 can teach us about prophecy last month, lets look at his prayer in more detail. In particular I want to look at the idea of corporate responsibility. In the world we live in, everything has to be someone's fault. There has to be an individual to blame, one only has to look at the number of court cases in America and the rising number in the UK to see this. When was the last time someone stood up and took the blame for something their company had done.

The Jews were taken into captivity when Daniel was just a teenager, he was not around in the many decades previous when the Jews had sinned against God. Yet here he stands up and prays for forgiveness. He starts by confessing the sins of the nation and asks that God might forgive them. He recognises that they are under captivity because they sinned against God and pleads for mercy. He asks that the nation may be delivered for they are called by God's name.

When was the last time we prayed for our assembly as a whole? for our fellow Christians across this nation? for this nation as a whole? If we turned over to 1 Timothy 1v2 we would see that we should pray for our nation and those that rule it. Certainly in England (and I am sure it is true in other nations), there is much that we as a nation have done wrong, and we need men like Daniel ready to get up and pray for forgiveness, that God may deliver us.

If you have any comments or questions about this article then please e-mail me at a.wood@assemblyyouth.net

Spending time in the Scriptures Matthew	Next month: Seventy weeks.	Wilderness years sabbath offerings
	Dare to be a Daniel
	Last month: why is prophecy so important?.

All quotes are from the English Standard version of the Bible unless otherwise specified.