Faithful Even Under Attack

The Living God Hears & Saves His People

10.29.23 [Daniel 6:10-23] River of Life (Reformation Sunday)

For as long as I can remember I’ve heard people complain: It’s hard to find good help these days. Maybe that’s always been the case. It certainly feels like it’s even more accurate right now than it once was.

Just last week, some friends invited our family over to have pizza and hot dogs and carve pumpkins with the kids. When they opened up the pizza box, they saw that someone had taken a handful of the middle of the pizza. It looked more like a donut than a pizza! The sad part is no one was really all that surprised. It’s hard to find good help.

But it’s not just takeout pizza problem. You see it at the grocery store. You notice it at the doctor’s office. You encounter it when you’re trying to get any kind of customer service that isn’t a chatbot. It’s gotten so bad that it almost feels strange when real people are actually helpful.

It’s hard to find good help these days. But not just these days. Days gone by, too. Days like in Daniel 6. Daniel 6 is one of the best-known Bible stories in the whole Old Testament, but it also covers a historic period of world history. The world superpower known as Babylon had fallen overnight. The Medes & Persians had risen to power now, but they had learned a few tricks from Babylon. One of those was to incorporate the best and the brightest from the peoples you conquer. Scripture tells us that (Dan. 6:1) it pleased Darius, the new king, to appoint 120 satraps and three administrators over his new kingdom. Daniel was one of the 3.

When you get a new boss in the corporate world, you want to do your very best to distinguish yourself. You recognize someone new is looking at you and your performance. King Darius wanted to figure out which leaders he could trust in his new kingdom. Daniel quickly stood out. He was talented & trustworthy. Hardworking & honest. So the King planned on making Daniel his right-hand man.

When Daniel’s co-workers found out, they weren’t happy for him. They were envious. They tried to figure out a way to get rid of him. But they couldn’t because Daniel was so faithful. Finally, they said: (Dan. 6:5) We will never find any basis for charges against Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.

Think about that! Daniel’s enemies recognized that he was so faithful that the only way they were going to be able to get him to slip up was if he had to choose between following God or following human orders. So that’s what they did. All 120 satraps and 2 administrators schemed against Daniel. They went to King Darius and buttered him up first.

They said he should issue an edict that if anyone prayed to any god or man besides the King for the next 30 days they should be thrown into the lions’ den. Put it in writing, they said. Then it will really be impactful!

They knew this would put Daniel in a difficult situation. They also knew that King Darius would be unable to stop the wheels of injustice.

What would you have done if you were in Daniel’s shoes? Far too many go for long stretches without praying when there is no edict. What does it say about us that it would be harder to go thirty days without sugar than it would be to go thirty days without the sweet privilege of prayer?

We make excuses. We’re just too busy to pray! Are you too busy to eat? Of course not! Our Lord went 40 days without eating anything in the wilderness. All the while, he continued to pray. Fasting for thirty days is unimaginable to us. But going thirty days without praying just happens.

What would you have done if you were in Daniel’s shoes?. We’d like to think we’d be bold. That this edict would compel us to pray more publicly. But is that anything more than wishful thinking? We say we’d do that because we have lived in a land where free speech is protected & celebrated. Would you go out into the streets of Gaza tonight and pray publicly? Likely not.

Instead, we would adapt to keep a lower profile. We wouldn’t stop praying altogether, but we would pray more privately. We would calculate our risks. We would listen to the suggestions of our frightened flesh. We might think things like My prayers don’t need to be seen to be heard. They can be private and internal. No one else needs to know. God knows what’s really going on in my heart.

All of that is true. God hears prayers that no one else does. In fact God makes sense of prayers that we cannot make sense of for ourselves. The Holy Spirit intercedes with groans on our behalf.

But why would we make those changes? Because we’re scared. We’re intimidated. Because there is a part of us that has bought into the idea that If God wanted us to keep on praying semi-publicly, then he would have stopped this edict. God wouldn’t put me in this evil situation.

Let’s ask ourselves a crucial and fundamental question. Is God the author of evil? Does he tempt his people? Does he want to see us fall into temptation or give into evil’s intimidation tactics?

Of course not! God doesn’t create evil. He doesn’t tempt anyone. He never wants to see anyone sin. More than three hundred times he tells his people don’t be afraid. Paul reminds us that (2 Tim. 1:7) God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but one of power, love, and self-discipline.

Daniel embodied a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. When Daniel heard about the decree, he recognized what they were doing. You don’t work in government administration for 50-60 years and not learn a thing or two about dirty political tricks. But instead of going to the King and lodging a complaint or asking for an exception to be made, Daniel appealed to a higher power. (Dan. 6:10) He went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem and he did what he always did. He got down on his knees and he prayed.

Daniel continued to trust his God. He knew how hard it was to find good help in his day. It wasn’t going to come from his co-workers. It wasn’t going to come from his King. There was nothing Darius could do, and it seemed he tried everything. But the child of God doesn’t put their trust in people, or even princes and kings. (Ps. 121:1-2) Where does our help come from? Our help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. That’s why Daniel prayed. He thanked God for all he had done. Daniel remembered how his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had been put in a similar situation of life and death for their faith. Daniel asked God to help him in this time of need.

Look at how God answered his prayer in v. 11. This blood-thirsty mob found Daniel praying and went directly to the King. They reminded Darius of his royal decree and how it couldn’t be repealed. They trashed Daniel’s good name by calling him an untrustworthy foreigner and saying that he pays no attention to the King. They tried to tear Daniel into pieces.

And there was nothing the King could do about it. He tried everything. But he was powerless to prevent 80-year-old Daniel from being thrown into a pit with those powerful and ferocious lions. He was forced to give the order he hated. As Daniel was tossed to those beasts, the King cried out for Daniel’s God to do something. Then a stone was brought and placed over the mouth of that den of death. The king sealed it with his signet ring and the nobles did the same. That whole night, the King struggled. He wasn’t in the mood for food or entertainment. Nothing could get Daniel off his mind. He couldn’t even sleep.

The next morning, hoping against hope, Darius rushed to the lions’ den. He cried out to Daniel, even though he had no reason to think he was still alive. And then he heard Daniel’s voice. (Dn. 6:21-22) May the king live forever! My God sent his angel and he shut the mouth of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in God’s sight. And I have never done anything wrong against you either, your Majesty! These are the only words that Daniel spoke that are recorded in this whole account. But they make crystal clear what happened and why. God did it.

God did what Darius could not. God did what Daniel’s enemies could not imagine. God did more than what Daniel asked for. God saved Daniel.

That’s the help we all need these days. In a day when it’s hard to find good help, it’s comforting to know that our help comes from the Lord. The Lord who loved us enough to take on flesh and blood and live among us. The Lord God who loved us enough to always be faithful—even more than Daniel. The Lord God who loved us enough to allow himself to be falsely accused and condemned to die. The Lord God who watched his enemies lick their chops and suffered the pains of hell in our place. This Lord God, Jesus Christ, was more faithful than Daniel. But when he prayed to our God for help, he was not rescued. Why not?

Because God was saving us instead. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we have been rescued, redeemed and saved from eternal condemnation. Our help has come from the Lord! We know his power, his love, his commitment to our salvation.

Our God is faithful. That is what Daniel trusted in this dark moment. That’s what Martin Luther trusted in his darkest moments, too. As he came to see that God’s Word spoke of a righteousness that is credited to us by faith, he wrote boldly. He wanted others to know, too. When those in Rome found out what he was saying, they gave him two options: take it all back or become a wanted man. As Luther stood before princes and spiritual leaders of Rome, they gave him one last chance to change his stance at the Diet of Worms. Luther took the moment to clarify his stance.

My conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.

God did. God raised up people to protect Luther. God raised up others to take up the mantel of his ministry. God helped him. And us through him. Our help in these evil days still comes from the Lord!

Think about what a powerful witness men like Daniel and Martin Luther were. Their acts of faith still reverberate and inspire us today.

But it doesn’t take such a white-hot spotlight for us to do the same today. We live in a world where people recognize they are missing more than the middle of their pizza. They miss people of integrity. People of unconditional love. People who can do both at the same time—speaking the truth in love. That is what our God has called us to be and do. To love people enough to serve them, not to please them, but to glorify God. And when those people have been led astray by this wicked world or their own sinful flesh, we must remain faithful to the Word of God. Our consciences are captive to the Word of God, because it is in the Word that we see how God has loved and saved us, how Christ has redeemed us and set us free. In the Word, we see God’s faithfulness. Here we stand. God help us all.

In trying moments, God will help us. We know this. We believe this. We ought to live this. We ought to pray as Daniel did, as our Lord Jesus did, God help me to accept and fulfill your will. We must pray humbly, boldly, and continually. We must pray with the utmost confidence that our God is powerful, wise, and most of all loving. Here we kneel knowing that God will help us. Amen.