We're still in Daniel chapter nine, where the old man is taking time to pray for the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. Daniel wasn't much more than a child when Jerusalem fell because of Israel's rebellion against God. If he didn't already know that the exile was a consequence of the nation's idolatry and disloyalty to God, he definitely knows it now, after reading about it in the writings of the prophet Jeremiah.
Daniel has been faithful to God throughout his whole lifetime, yet here he takes his place as a Hebrew and prays, "We have sinned and done wrong..... We have not obeyed the Lord our God." Daniel wasn't the one involved in idolatry and injustice, but he humbly confesses on behalf of his ancestors and his countrymen. This is the principle of identificational repentance.
As we look around us, we see nations in turmoil: the disUnited Kingdom, divided by the ongoing Brexit debate, and the disUnited States at war with each other over questions relating to immigration, abortion and infanticide. It could be easy to point the figure and pass judgement, even when we want to turn to prayer. How much more powerful it is if we stand in the gap and make confession on behalf of our town or country. While anyone might pray, "Lord, please forgive America for the recent change in abortion laws," it's much more powerful when an American prays, "Lord, we have sinned by killing millions of babies. Please have mercy and hold back your judgement.
Yes, it's God's job to judge. When we identify and confess, instead of judging, we are putting ourselves in a place of humility on behalf of our nation. It's also a recognition that we do probably share part of the guilt. Perhaps those laws about same-sex marriage would not have been passed in a number of nations if so many in the churches of those nations hadn't failed to speak up or even to pray.
It may seem strange to identify with wrongdoers and confess something that we feel we didn't actually do - especially for those of us in the individualistic western world where the idea of collective responsibility is not a particularly strong part of our culture. We probably struggle with the idea that one man's sin can affect a whole nation's progress (as in the story of Achan in Joshua chapter 7) and it might feel equally foreign to us that one representative of a group of people can stand for the entire group when confessing sin and asking for forgiveness - as Daniel does in this account.
But Jesus set an example for us in the way He showed us that one man, identifying with the entire human race, could take on the sins of the world and bring salvation for those of us who were the true wrongdoers.
This principle is true in human interaction, as well as in prayer to God - for example, if a white, Afrkaaner president were to publicly acknowledge the evils of apartheid, or an Australian politician were to ask forgiveness for the way the Aborigines had been treated in the past. I remember speaking with a young woman who had been badly shamed and abused by school teachers; as a schoolteacher myself (by training) I was able to acknowledge how wrongly she'd been treated, and to ask her to forgive and release those who had hurt her.
But, as Daniel models for us here in chapter 9, it's also a principle of prayer - such as when a native of Las Vegas confesses to God the sins of gambling and greed in their city. It may not feel the most natural aspect of prayer, especially when the principle is still new to us, but we should never underestimate the power of identification and representation when we're confessing and praying for our town, our country or our people group.
As we know, God accepted Daniel's prayers and fulfilled Jeremiah's prophecy. He heard the voice of one man (and perhaps there were others) on behalf of a whole nation, and it changed the course of history.
