Repentance must be sincere and from the heart. Repentance involves a change of heart. Is it possible to have corporate repentance for corporate sin? Can the heart (or culture) of a group which has forsaken God repent and change? In Daniel 9 we read such a prayer of repentance. In answer to this prayer, we read how the people were corporately restored to the blessing of God in the Promised Land of blessing.

What is corporate sin? In this case, the people had forsaken the Lord. Surely there were some individuals who did not (Daniel among them). Still, the righteousness of a few did not redeem the whole who had forsaken the Lord.

God tells us not to get into the habit of forsaking public worship (Hebrews 10:25). Those who fall into this habit are sinning against the Lord. The remedy for that person is to repent and return to obedience. But what if a congregation stops having Lord’s Day worship? Or what if they cease to have the Word of God preached and received as part of that worship? Then the congregation itself is sinning corporately and needs to repent and return to the Lord in obedience. It is this sort of corporate sin that leads Daniel to pray, "We have sinned."

Daniel’s prayer begins by extolling the Lord who is great and awesome, faithful to keep his covenant with those who love him. Throughout the prayer, Daniel makes his appeal on the merciful character of God. Even before he focuses on their problem (exile), or the cause of their problem (sin), he focuses on the solution to the problem—God himself.

Daniel then goes to the root of their distress. We have sinned and done what is wrong in your sight. We have been wicked and rebelled. We have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets (v 5). There is no disseminating here. There is no blame shifting or pointing the fingers at "them." Notice how Daniel uses the word we over and over.

It is easy to point the finger at someone else. As long as you do not see your own responsibility and your own guilt, you will blame others for your pain and problems. When we have a problem, it will never be solved until we say, "We have a problem." If it is caused by our sin, then we must repent and turn our hearts to the Lord and to one another. This is true in the family. This is true in the Church. Pointing the finger at someone else’s part in the problem alone does not solve the problem.

Daniel does not blame God for their situation. In fact it is God’s faithfulness to the covenant in the face of their faithlessness that caused their situation. In verse 10 Daniel points to the covenant curses that they brought on themselves by their own sin. The judgment of God should have brought the people back to the Lord, but it did not. All this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning form our sin and giving attention to your truth (v 13). Daniel repents of their lack of repentance since that corporate sin continued their shame and distress.

Daniel pleads for mercy and forgiveness. Notice what this is based on. It is not based on the righteousness of the people. He does not say to God, "Have we not suffered enough? After all it has been 70 years." He does not appeal to people’s sorrow or their promises to do better next time. Daniel does not appeal to anything in the people that merits favor or leniency with God.

We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, hear and act (v 18). In all our repentance, corporate and personal, we base our petitions for forgiveness on the finished work of Christ. There is nothing in us that deserves forgiveness or a second chance. What God wants is not our confident boasts but our humble hearts. God knows that we are totally dependent on him. He wants us to know that too.

How does this apply to us here at Lakeside? Our hearts have been far from the Lord’s heart in the matter of sharing the gospel with those around us. Jesus showed the urgency of God’s heart when he died to save sinners. We have not had that urgency. We can be loaded down with guilt over our failure to share the gospel and this may motivate us until our sense of guilt fades. The motivation we need will come only from a heart that has returned to the Lord in repentance. We must repent. Those who need only a little forgiveness need only a little savior. When you realize how much you need the Savior and how big he is, your heart will overflow with tales of Jesus. Repentance is realizing and returning to our first love. Christ alone is big enough to give us what we need to follow him.