Surviving the Lions Den
Surviving the Lion’s Den
Daniel 6:1-23
Introduction:
Have you ever thought of the people who are watching you? Maybe we think about the people around us who are watching us. The person sitting on the bench at the mall while everyone walks by might be watching you. You realize the little kid peering over the booth at the restaurant is watching you. The person who honks their horn at you has probably been watching you also.
Within the last year the city has installed surveillance cameras. Probably a majority of the public places we visit have cameras that are watching us. When your identification gets checked someone is watching you there also. Every time you use a credit card someone is watching you, maybe not with their eyes, but the company knows you have made a purchase. Wherever we go people are watching us.
Daniel was a man who fell into that category as well. He had served under a number of kings who paid close attention to him. He also had some of the king’s advisors taking notice of him. Some of them were looking at him for positive reasons, while others were very jealous of him. I want to take a look at the traits that Daniel possessed that caused people to look at him.
Trait I. He was trustworthy
A. Daniel is such an impressive man. I think it is safe to assume that Daniel did not want to be in this situation. Yet, we see him making the most of the situation that he is in. Now he has another king who is over him. This is King Darius. He is still highly respected by those who are over him. In v. 3 we get the impression that Daniel was about to be promoted. The king liked Daniel, but the other officials who were near Daniel were jealous of him and were seeking ways to get rid of Daniel. There are three words used in v. 4 to describe Daniel. He was not corrupt, he was trustworthy, and he was not negligent. Because of the kind of person that Daniel was there was no way these who were jealous of Daniel would get him in trouble. In v. 5 they even say, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God."
B. A few years ago I heard a statistic that many employers do not like to hire people they know are Christians. They don’t hire them because they are not as reliable as other people. They would spend a lot of time on the job talking about things that did not pertain to work and were somewhat slothful in their work. This troubles me because I think that Christians should be some of the best workers and instead they have the reputation for being some of the worst. Daniel had been placed in an undesirable situation and he worked to the best of his ability. He was so good that the king took notice of him. Isn’t it sad that Christians have a bad reputation when it comes to work ethics?
C. I would guess that we all want to appear to be trustworthy, but are we really? Only you and God know what happens when no one else is looking. In those moments are we able to be considered trustworthy, not corrupt and not negligent. If you are trustworthy, why are you? It is nice to please our boss and to have him or her say nice things about you. It is nice to have coworkers who notice your hard work. We really need to be working hard to make God happy. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,” (Col 3:23 NIVUS) Our boss might be a lovable fuzz ball or they might be a ruthless dictator. It does not matter who your boss is, you need to work for them as if you were working for the Lord.
Trait II. He was steadfast
A. In order to keep Daniel from advancing any further in the kingdom the other advisors devise a plan to get Daniel into trouble. These men were probably not really that interested in worshipping Darius. They were interested in getting Daniel into trouble. They convince Darius to write a law that no one is to worship any God except Darius over the next thirty days. According to the laws of the Medes and the Persians anything written in the law could not be changed, not even by the one who had made the law. They play to the pride that comes along with being a powerful king. This really sounds good to Darius, but he had apparently forgotten about the piety of Daniel.
B. Even after the law is made public Daniel continues pray to God three times a day. He does this in a public manner and those who had convinced the king to make the law see him praying. At the very end of v. 10 we are told he did this, “just as he had done before.” Even though Daniel’s life was threatened if he continued to pray he remained steadfast. It is almost the same situation that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in chapter three. If they obey the king’s command they will be breaking God’s law. If they obey God’s law, they will be in trouble with the king. Daniel obeys God’s law, and willingly accepts the consequences of that action. He is thrown to the lions.
C. When George Bush Sr. was running for president, he made a big deal of the promise of no new taxes. That seemed to be one of the biggest campaign promises that people grabbed onto. During his term as president he broke his promise and that probably contributed to the loss of the election for him. I think that most of us are interested in supporting a candidate because of the promises that they make. We want them to be steadfast in those promises. We don’t want them to waver.
D. Certainly a steadfast spirit is something that God desires to see in us. There are several passages in the New Testament that speak of that steadfastness. Here is one, “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel” (Php 1:27 NIVUS) If we are going to wear the label Christian then there is an expectation that we will be steadfast in our relationship with him. We have one God who holds our lives; we need to work to please him.
Trait III. He was innocent
A. For several years I drove from Michigan to Huntington, Indiana. The highway in Michigan would allow you to travel at 65 mph, but once you reached Indiana you would need to slow down to 55 mph. Sometimes it was hard to get myself to slow down that 10 mph. If a person was not paying attention they might miss the signs that warn a person to slow down in Indiana. Missing the signs is not an excuse as far as a judge is concerned. A person caught speeding could still be required to pay a fine.
B. Daniel did not unknowingly break the laws of the land. He knew that King Darius had written this law, and he knew if he was caught he would be required to pay the penalty. It could be said that he was answering to a higher authority. He knew he would be breaking God’s law if he did what the king had commanded. So in the eyes of God Daniel was innocent. The result in this situation is that God protects Daniel. He is put in the Lion’s den, but the lions do not touch Daniel. Daniel says God sent an angel to protect Daniel from the lions. In v. 22 the reason God did this was because Daniel was innocent in his sight. He might have broken the king’s law, but he kept the command of his God.
C. Daniel was a man who was guilty according to the laws of the land, but he was innocent as far as his God was concerned. When Daniel is faced with this crisis he chooses to obey his God rather than the earthly authorities. As a result of being innocent he is protected by God. Many times in our world people choose to obey God rather than the authorities and it does not turn out as well. Sometimes they are killed, sometimes they are tortured and sometimes they are imprisoned. I don’t know why God choose to protect Daniel the way he did and at other times that protection is not as evident. In every situation it is important for individuals to remain innocent in the eyes of God. We need to remember that he is the highest authority that we will ever answer to.
Trait IV. He was trusting
A. As a youth we would play a game to illustrate the importance of trust. A group of us would stand in front of one of the youth, and the youth would fall backwards into the arms of the rest of the group. As the game went on we would require the person demonstrating faith to fall farther and farther before they were caught. Even though you knew someone was behind you to catch you, it was still hard to convince yourself that it was safe. It was an act of trust.
B. Daniel choosing to disobey the king’s orders and face the possibility of being thrown into the Lion’s den would be the same as allowing yourself to fall backwards and believing that God is going to catch you. Daniel knew the right thing to do and he trusted God with that decision. I really admire the faith of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These four men were faced with death if they refused to obey the commands of their earthly leaders. They choose to do what is right according to God’s standards. They could have chosen the path that would have caused them no trouble in the present. These men were obviously focused on more than the present. They were willing to risk their lives for what they knew was right.
C. We are fortunate as Christians that we don’t have to worry about that. We have freedoms in our country that guarantee that we won’t suffer for our faith. We are free to worship whoever we want and however we want. We are not placed in the situation like these men were. When we are placed in a situation where we would be required to demonstrate our trust, how would we do? It is hard to know for sure, since we are not in that place.
Conclusion:
What do people see when they are looking at you. Maybe you can say that you have nothing to hide and people can look at you as much as they want, because you are the perfect Christian. Maybe you have some things you don’t want people to know about. It might be a little uncomfortable to have people noticing you. Each of us should be striving to allow others to see Jesus in us.