Daniel 15: The Lion's Den

One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot this week is just how blessed I am to be a part of this church family for as long as I have been. This church body is loving, friendly, supportive, and encouraging, and I pray that if you’re visiting with us today, you’ve already caught a glimpse of that fact. We invite you, if you are a guest with us today, to fill out a communication card, which you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. Then you can drop that in the offering boxes by the doors on your way out after service, or you can bring them down to me at the front following our benediction at the end, as I would love to meet you and give you a small gift to thank you for your visit with us today. If you’re online, and visiting with us, feel free to head over to our website ehbc.org, and fill out the communication card on the “I’m New” page. Whether you’re here in the room or online, we just want to be able to send you a note thanking you for your visit today, and to see if we can pray for you or minister to you in some way.

I want to say thanks this morning everyone who serves on our Audio-Visual Ministry. Without them, we wouldn’t have lyrics on the screen, sound over the speakers, or a stream going out across the world. We appreciate your time and dedication, AV team!

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AAEO Video: Alayu & Yegile Dubale, Ethiopian Gospel Believers’ Church,

Opening

Last Sunday, we looked at the first 17 verses of Daniel 6, the last narrative chapter of the book (the remaining chapters are prophetic). We saw how Daniel’s faithfulness to his work caused him to be both appreciated by Darius and hated by his fellow administrators. They manipulated King Darius into signing an edict that said that praying to or petitioning anyone other than the king during the next 30 days would be punishable by death. But Daniel kept right on praying “as he had done before,” praying in the direction of Jerusalem three times a day. And from Daniel’s example, we learned that we are to be faithful at work, faithful in prayer, and faithful in persecution. When we finished verse 17, we were left with a little bit of cliffhanger: Daniel had been thrown to the lions, and a stone had been placed over the opening to the den.

Imagine that you have never read about Daniel in the lions’ den (I know, that’s really hard to do): What would you be thinking at this point? Probably that Daniel is a dead man, and that his enemies had managed to eliminate him. Well, that’s what King Darius thought as well, although he held on to the tiniest fraction of hope.

Our focal passage today begins in verse 18 of Daniel 6, and goes through the end of the chapter. Would you please stand as you are able in honor of the reading of the Word of God as we begin our look at Daniel’s experience in the lions’ den:

Daniel 6:18–28 CSB

18 Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him, and he could not sleep. 19 At the first light of dawn the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. 20 When he reached the den, he cried out in anguish to Daniel. “Daniel, servant of the living God,” the king said, “has your God, whom you continually serve, been able to rescue you from the lions?” 21 Then Daniel spoke with the king: “May the king live forever. 22 My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths; and they haven’t harmed me, for I was found innocent before him. And also before you, Your Majesty, I have not done harm.” 23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to take Daniel out of the den. When Daniel was brought up from the den, he was found to be unharmed, for he trusted in his God. 24 The king then gave the command, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the lions’ den—they, their children, and their wives. They had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones. 25 Then King Darius wrote to those of every people, nation, and language who live on the whole earth: “May your prosperity abound. 26 I issue a decree that in all my royal dominion, people must tremble in fear before the God of Daniel: For he is the living God, and he endures forever; his kingdom will never be destroyed, and his dominion has no end. 27 He rescues and delivers; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth, for he has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.” 28 So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

PRAYER (Reagan Knoner; Ethiopian Gospel Believers’ Church, Alayu Dubale)

If you were to visit the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago, you would find an impressive treasure of ancient Babylon: a brick relief that once adorned the path to the Ishtar Gate, likely the busiest gate, of the capital city. This relief is called The Striding Lion. Its creation date is from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, so somewhere between 605 and 562 BC. It is almost guaranteed that at some point in time before his experience in chapter 6 of the book that bears his name, Daniel’s eyes looked upon this very lion as he went about his tasks of managing Babylon for Nebuchadnezzar, or for the new king over the province of Babylon—Darius the Mede. And it makes me wonder if perhaps, when the events of this chapter were over, both Daniel and Darius looked differently at this relief as they continued to live their lives in Babylon. Of course, this is all conjecture.

But we all have things like this, I suppose. Things that remind us of a time in our lives of special difficulty or pain, or of victory or joy. Things that capture our attention in a new way, or perhaps in an old way but far removed from the moment that forged the memory, that take us suddenly back to that place and time. I have a few of these that come to mind quickly: Krispy Kreme original glazed donuts, the first Star Wars movie (now known as Episode 4: A New Hope), the soundtrack to the movie Flash Gordon, eating fresh raw green beans, and the scent of L’Air Du Temps perfume. I won’t go into what they all mean or what moment they take me back to.

But none of my moments that I recall are life-or-death situations. For Daniel and Darius, the events of chapter 6 of the book would have had a monumental impact on their lives. God stepped in and took action in a miraculous way, and they had seen that He can give hope to the hopeless and He can bring the haughty low, because He and He alone is the hero of the story of Daniel’s life.

1: God can give hope to the hopeless.

There are two people in this chapter who are seemingly hopeless when we reach verse 18. Darius had been hoodwinked into signing that silly edict, and once the plot against Daniel was discovered, it was too late: Darius tried to rescue Daniel as we saw last week in verse 14. But he couldn’t do it. He was every bit as trapped as Daniel would be come sundown. So Darius personally went and witnessed Daniel’s sentence being carried out—something that the king certainly didn’t make a habit of doing. But he had to be there, and as we saw last week, he blessed Daniel, saying: “May your God, whom you continually serve, rescue you!” (v. 16)

So Daniel, the 80-something year old administrator, was thrown into the lions’ den. Ordinarily, that situation would be a no-win for the elderly gentleman. There’s no way he stood a chance against the lions. The stone was rolled over the entrance to the tomb and sealed, effectively sealing Daniel’s fate. Darius was a man who was almost completely hopeless:

Daniel 6:18–20 CSB

The most powerful man in the world has found himself to be completely powerless. We aren’t sure what “diversions” were: some form of entertainment or personal enjoyment is likely. But he was stressed about Daniel’s predicament. We know he fasted. Perhaps he prayed, for the first time, to Yahweh. Since the edict he had signed had made him the mediator of the requests of the people, it would not have been a violation for him to pray directly to God.

But we see the king having had a sleepless night, awaiting the rising of the sun. And as soon as it is first light, he throws off decorum and position, and he runs to the lions’ den, which he is nearly certain has become Daniel’s tomb. And he cried out from his anguish, almost sure that he will hear no response from the tomb but the satisfied purrs of the lions within, who had enjoyed a good supper: “Daniel, has your God, whom you continually serve, been able to rescue you?” His question reflected his blessing. He certainly wasn’t convinced that Yahweh, the God of the Jews, would have been able to rescue Daniel, and it shows in his question.

This passage reminded me of Mark 9, when the father brought his son with an evil spirit to the disciples, and they couldn’t help him. When Jesus arrived, He was told about the boy’s condition, and the boy’s father said:

Mark 9:22–24 CSB

22 “And many times it has thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”

This father was a lot like Darius. Just as Darius had hoped that God could rescue Daniel, he wasn’t sure of it. His hope, like the “if you can” father, was the “wishful” kind of hope: like you and I wishing to win the lottery—sure, you might buy a ticket, but you have no real expectation of winning. No real confidence. No real assurance. No real hope: just a wish. But you don’t really believe.

Many people in the world live with this kind of wishful hope. They really want there to be a heaven, and they really might want to go to it when they die, so they think that as long as they’re better than the next guy (in their own eyes, of course), they’ll make it in somehow. Or they in their wishful thinking believe that “everyone will go to heaven:” a concept called universalism. Neither of these things are true, according to Scripture. Notice how Paul refers to what the Ephesians used to be before they came to faith in Christ:

Ephesians 2:12 (CSB)

12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.

If you’re spiritually lost, meaning that you have never believed the Gospel and placed your faith in Jesus Christ, then you might be like Darius or these Gentiles before believing: without Christ, excluded from the citizenship with Israel, foreigners of the covenants of promise, without hope, and without God in the world. You might be wishing that you’ll be good enough to deserve to go to heaven, or that everyone gets to go, but you have no real reason to have any actual confidence, any reliance, any assurance beyond your hopeful wish.

But the Bible tells us that Jesus lived a perfect life of holiness, while we are sinners. And the wages—what we deserve because of our sin is death. So Jesus, God the Son in the flesh, died in our place, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. And He overcame death, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He intercedes for us as our high priest. This hope is a confident assurance—a knowledge of and reliance upon what will happen because of Jesus. The author of Hebrews describes it this way:

Hebrews 6:19–20 CSB

19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

This hope is an anchor for our souls. If we’re in Christ, we have confidence that we are saved from our sin because the penalty has been paid, that God Himself lives in us by His Holy Spirit, and that some day, Jesus is going to come back again in glory and in power. But because this hope is an anchor, it will keep us focused on who Jesus is and what He has done. If you have never trusted in Jesus’s work on the cross as sufficient to save you, would you take stock within your own heart right now? Where have you placed your hope for eternity? Is that a wise and prudent place? Does that hope keep you from drifting away in to sin? Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. Will you surrender this morning to the truth of the Gospel, believing in Jesus and turning from your sin, trusting Him as your Savior and your Lord?

Darius didn’t have that kind of hope. Part of the mastery of the writing of Daniel is this particular passage. Imagine for a second that you don’t know the outcome. At the end of verse 20, you still don’t know if Daniel is alive or dead.

But there was one other person in this passage who should have been devoid of hope: Daniel himself. But he wasn’t.

Daniel 6:21–23 CSB

21 Then Daniel spoke with the king: “May the king live forever. 22 My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths; and they haven’t harmed me, for I was found innocent before him. And also before you, Your Majesty, I have not done harm.” 23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to take Daniel out of the den. When Daniel was brought up from the den, he was found to be unharmed, for he trusted in his God.

What a relief that must have been for Darius to hear Daniel’s voice! And what a relief it must have been for Daniel to be able to say those words. The angel, likely The Angel of the Lord, who had appeared to Abraham on Mount Moriah, who had appeared to Moses in the burning bush, who had appeared to Joshua, and likely was the One who had walked around in the fiery furnace with Daniel’s friends, had shut the lions’ mouths.

God can give hope to the hopeless.

Daniel had done nothing that deserved God’s judgment in this situation. That’s what he meant when he said “I was found innocent before Him.” He wasn’t saying he was perfect, just not deserving of wrath. Not only that, but he had not harmed the king in any way by praying to Yahweh. In fact, his deliverance was due to the fact that he “trusted in His God.”

You have to wonder what Daniel did all that night in the lions’ den. I think that He prayed at least for some of it. Perhaps his prayer was Psalm 57.

Psalm 57:1–11 CSB

1 Be gracious to me, God, be gracious to me, for I take refuge in you. I will seek refuge in the shadow of your wings until danger passes. 2 I call to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. 3 He reaches down from heaven and saves me, challenging the one who tramples me. Selah God sends his faithful love and truth. 4 I am surrounded by lions; I lie down among devouring lions— people whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. 5 God, be exalted above the heavens; let your glory be over the whole earth. 6 They prepared a net for my steps; I was despondent. They dug a pit ahead of me, but they fell into it! Selah 7 My heart is confident, God, my heart is confident. I will sing; I will sing praises. 8 Wake up, my soul! Wake up, harp and lyre! I will wake up the dawn. 9 I will praise you, Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. 10 For your faithful love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches the clouds. 11 God, be exalted above the heavens; let your glory be over the whole earth.

But otherwise, I think he slept. He had nothing to worry about. The angel of the Lord had arrived and calmed the lions, shutting their mouths and disabling their claws (remember that he was completely unharmed). This is the kind of rescue that those who are in Christ look forward to. But just because we’re saved doesn’t mean that we’re perfect, so haughtiness has no place in the life of a Christian, and God can bring the haughty low.

2: God can bring the haughty low.

The other two administrators and the few satraps that had conspired together to bring Daniel down now faced a serious dilemma—Daniel had survived the lions’ den. Talk about your all-time backfires. While the king had failed to rescue him, Daniel’s God had come through, and now the king decided that the lions still needed to be fed.

Daniel 6:24 CSB

24 The king then gave the command, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the lions’ den—they, their children, and their wives. They had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

Do you remember back in chapter 3, verse 8? Back when Nebuchadnezzar had commanded everyone to bow down to his idolatrous statue, some of the wise men had come to “maliciously accuse” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? We find the same phrase here: they had tried to “eat the pieces” of Daniel in much the same way as the Chaldeans had done to his friends. We might say that they tried to “take a bite out of him,” or “sink their teeth into him.” But more so than in the fiery furnace narrative, they literally had tried to have Daniel eaten.

So Darius turned the tables on those who had been jealous of Daniel. To be completely accurate, God did not directly bring about this result on the conspirators who set Daniel up. How God humbled them was to miraculously deliver, and thus vindicate Daniel. However, as we saw last week, the government does not bear the sword for no reason. Daniel had been vindicated by the fact that he had undergone the punishment prescribed in the law, and had survived it. Darius did not take kindly to being manipulated.

Proverbs 18:12 CSB

12 Before his downfall a person’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

So instead of the conspirators coming out on top and replacing Daniel, they received the punishment that they had intended to kill Daniel. Interesting enough, here Darius is fulfilling a law from Israel regarding false witnesses—that are to have done to them as they had attempted to do to the accused.

Deuteronomy 19:16, 19 (CSB)

16 “If a malicious witness testifies against someone accusing him of a crime, … 19 you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you.

But what about the fact that their wives and children were thrown into the lions’ den with them? That hardly seems fair. Note that the Bible is recording what occurred. It’s not making a judgment call on it. Darius is fulfilling the law of the Medes and Persians. The Greek historian Herodotus recorded that this was the law for those convicted of crimes where capital punishment was warranted, much like what Nebuchadnezzar had said in chapter 2 of the book of Daniel:

Daniel 2:5 CSB

5 The king replied to the Chaldeans, “My word is final: If you don’t tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be made a garbage dump.

Their wives and children being killed was a part of Medo-Persian discipline. Some might have a problem with this picture, but the Bible isn’t saying this is how WE should handle things (prescriptive), but how the things were handled according to Medo-Persian law (descriptive).”

The really ironic twist to the manipulators is that I doubt the 30 days of the edict were completed by this time, and so if the conspirators wanted to cry out to their gods to ask for rescue, they couldn’t. The only person they could bring petitions to was Darius, and he had just thrown them into the lions’ den!

Haughtiness has no place in the life of the Christian. We on our own are lost and steeped in sin, so we have nothing to bring to the table of pride. Understanding that all good and perfect gifts come from the Father (James 1:17), and that our salvation is a gift from Him that we neither deserved nor earned. It was given, received, so we have no room to boast about it or anything else:

1 Corinthians 4:7 CSB

7 For who makes you so superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? If, in fact, you did receive it, why do you boast as if you hadn’t received it?

As we reflect on our lives, we tend to see ourselves in the most positive light. However, the Bible tells us that our exalted view of ourselves is misplaced. To be honest, we are usually more like the conspirators than we are like Daniel. But we should want to be like Daniel—a great example of what it means to live by faith, walking in consistent humility. But even if we put ourselves in Daniel’s shoes, we’re still not in the position of being the hero of Daniel. That title belongs to One, and One only:

3: God is the hero of the book of Daniel.

Here at the end of the narrative portion of the book of Daniel, we can confidently say that God is the hero of the book of Daniel. In chapter 1, He gave the boys the bravery to request a much different diet than the rest of the captives, and it was approved by the jailer, and caused them to be better looking and healthier than their pagan counterparts. Daniel confidently told Nebuchadnezzar that he could both tell him his dream and its interpretation in chapter 2, because he knew that God would provide the answer the king needed. The boys had refused to bow down to the idol, even though the punishment was being thrown into the furnace (chapter 3), and God met them in the furnace and shielded them from the flames. Daniel had been exceedingly clear with Nebuchadnezzar when Nebuchadnezzar had his second dream in chapter 4, because again God had given him the wisdom the king needed. In chapter 5, Daniel told King Belshazzar to keep his royal rewards and told him exactly what he didn’t want to hear, because God had declared that Belshazzar’s time had come. God made all of that possible, so God is the hero of the book of Daniel. And because of His work in and through Daniel, Darius acknowledged the greatness of God in chapter 6:

Daniel 6:25–28 CSB

25 Then King Darius wrote to those of every people, nation, and language who live on the whole earth: “May your prosperity abound. 26 I issue a decree that in all my royal dominion, people must tremble in fear before the God of Daniel: For he is the living God, and he endures forever; his kingdom will never be destroyed, and his dominion has no end. 27 He rescues and delivers; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth, for he has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.” 28 So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

Before we look at the proclamation that Darius made, I want to address verse 28. This verse as it’s translated here, seems to suggest that Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian are different people, because it says “and.” But last week, I said that Darius and Cyrus were the same person, with different names. However, many commentators (and I agree with them) show that where verse 28 is translated “and,” it could also be translated as “even” or “that is.” For example, the same construction is found in 1 Chronicles 5:26

1 Chronicles 5:26a (CSB)

26 So the God of Israel roused the spirit of King Pul (that is, Tiglath-pileser) of Assyria,

So verse 28 could accurately be translated: “So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius, that is, the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”

Now back to Darius’ decree: While this doesn’t exactly say that Darius came to saving faith, it at least shows his honoring of the Lord God through his proclamation. The proclamation even effectively canceled the earlier one requiring everyone to bring petitions only to the king, either making him a priest, or worse, some kind of god. And in his proclamation, Darius rightly declared three aspects of God’s character: that He lives eternally, He rules sovereignly, and He acts personally.

A: God lives eternally: “For He is the living God, and He endures forever;”

The first two lines of Darius’s decree reflect the eternality of God. He lives and endures forever. He has always lived, and He always will live. He has no beginning, and He will have no end.

Psalm 90:2 CSB

2 Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God.

The living God delivered Daniel from the mouths of the lions. The pagan administrators and satraps who tried to have Daniel killed received no rescue from the “gods” that they worshiped, because those gods never lived and would never live. Worshiping those gods is worthless, lifeless, pointless, hopeless.

So are the “gods” that we create in our own lives. We chase things that are fleeting and temporary. Things that cannot ultimately satisfy, because they will not endure forever. Things that compete with God for our attention and glory.

Only God has always been and will always be. Only He deserves our worship and praise.

B: God rules sovereignly: “His kingdom will never be destroyed, and His dominion has no end.”

God’s eternal kingdom is not some earthly kingdom like Babylon or Persia, like Greece or Rome. No, the Lord is sovereign over all things, over all people, in all places, in all of time. His kingdom is unbreakable, and will never end. No one can take His throne.

Exodus 15:18 CSB

18 The Lord will reign forever and ever!

Psalm 45:6 CSB

6 Your throne, God, is forever and ever; the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.

All other kings eventually die. All other thrones will eventually topple. But God’s kingdom never will. We can trust that He is in control, and that his plans and purposes will be accomplished.

C: God acts personally: “He rescues and delivers; He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth, for He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”

Darius called all people to “tremble in fear” at the God of Daniel, because He moved and worked in a very personal way—He stepped into time and rescued Daniel miraculously. The false gods of Babylon and Persia could never do such a thing, because they don’t actually exist.

But God has taken the personal nature of His rescue even further. The living, sovereign, personal God of Daniel has come in the flesh: the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son. He stepped into our mess as one of us, so that He could deliver us from our bondage to sin:

Colossians 1:15–20 CSB

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

As the hero of the book of Daniel, God stepped in to our reality and personally rescued Daniel from the mouths and claws of the lions. And in Jesus, God stepped in to our reality in order to rescue us from sin, and death, and from an eternity without God.

Closing

You might think that you don’t need to be rescued from those things. But you do. We all do. Our sin separates us from God, but our hero Jesus, willingly gave His life as the sacrifice to save us from the penalty that we deserve because of our sin. Surrender to His rescue, trusting in His saving death on the cross for your forgiveness, and committing to Him as King over your life. God wants that relationship with you. If today, you are surrendering to Jesus as Savior and Lord, we want to celebrate that fact with you. The band is going to come in a moment to lead us in a song of response. If you are surrendering to Jesus today, come and and share it with one of us who will be at the front, publicly declaring your faith in Jesus. If you’re online and you are surrendering to Jesus today, please send me an email so we can walk with you and celebrate your salvation with you.

If you’ve already surrendered to Jesus, but you’ve never made a public declaration of that faith, the way to do that is through baptism, like we saw at the beginning of service. If you are a believer and need to be baptized, come and let us know, so we can schedule it.

Church membership

Prayer

Giving

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Deut 24-25, Ps 111)

Pastor’s Study tonight

Prayer Meeting Wednesday, again led by Joe (vacation)

Thoughts on platform

Sunshine station for Reagan

Instructions for guests

Benediction

Hebrews 1:10–12 CSB

10 And: In the beginning, Lord, you established the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands; 11 they will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like clothing; 12 you will roll them up like a cloak, and they will be changed like clothing. But you are the same, and your years will never end.

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