Living in Exile: Face Your Lions

Life of the Church

Good morning everyone, and happy Sunday. It’s good to see you all here braving this weather to come together in worship.

I have a few announcements to highlight from your bulletins. The men’s group will not be meeting tonight, but they will be meeting next Sunday. All men are invited to that.

I’ll remind you that your baby bottles are due next Sunday, the 19th. We still have a few of those left scattered in the windows. Please take one and fill it with your spare change to support Comfort Care.

For the month of February we’ll be taking a love offering for a longtime church family in need of financial help for medical bills. You can just write “Love offering” your envelope or check, and we’ll make sure it gets where it needs to go.

Also, we’d like to start gathering for a fellowship meal once a quarter after Sunday service. It’s just a time to talk and visit and be together. Our first meal of the year will be on February 26. Sooner’s will be providing some good food, so please try to join us.

It’s time to order your Easter lily if you’d like to give one in memory of a loved one. You’ll find an order form in your bulletin. Those are due by March 12.

Lastly, our beautiful flowers up here are given in remembrance of Ronnie Chandler. We had a beautiful service for Ronnie here on Thursday. Please continue to keep Connie, Chance, and the entire family in your prayers.

Jesyka, do you have anything?

Sue, do you have anything?

Opening Prayer

Father, your Son said that the love we have for our brothers and sisters will proclaim to the world that we are your disciples. Deepen our love for one another and make us eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. Help us care for all, regardless of who they are. Give us Your love to share to others so that we may strengthen the weak, bind up the injured, for our service to the world is service to you. Help us show your unending love for us by honoring one another, and so prove to the watching world Christ has risen and reigns. For we ask this in Jesus’s name, Amen.

Sermon

We’re coming to the end of our series on how we as modern Christians should consider living in the world in the same way as the people of Judah lived in exile under the rule of Babylon. And today we’re going to talk about probably the most well-known story in the life of Daniel.

There are certain Bible stories that we’re taught from a very early age. Noah’s ark is one of those. Adam and Eve and the apple. David and Goliath. Moses and the burning bush. Daniel and the lion’s den is another one of those. But the problem with this story is that the lesson we’re taught about the lion’s den as children isn’t the lesson we need to know as adults. You could even say the lesson we’re taught as children is the wrong one all together.

That can be a hard thing to swallow. We want to read these verses and think the main point is that we can be like Daniel, that God promises to always shut the mouths of the lions in our own lives. But we’re going to find out this morning that’s not always the case. We’re also taught as children that it’s Daniel who’s the hero of this story. That’s not true either. The hero of this story is God. It’s God’s character, and it’s how God worked in Daniel’s circumstances and how He works in ours.

Everything we’ve talked about how to live in exile is rolled up into this one story in Daniel chapter 6. But let’s take a minute first and look at how Daniel got to this point.

After years of God warning His people in Judah that judgment was coming unless they started honoring Him and treating one another right, judgment finally came through a Babylonian king named Nebuchadnezzar. God is patient with our sins. He works to bring us back to Himself and doesn’t want us to suffer. But when we choose to just keep going our own way, sooner or later God has no choice but to let us face the consequences. For the people of Judah, Babylon was the consequences. Jerusalem was destroyed, and Nebuchadnezzar took all the ruling class and the talented people back to Babylon.

But how are a people who have been set apart by God supposed to live and carry on in a godless land? That was the question the people of Judah had to answer. That’s the same question we as Christians have to answer now in our country. In Babylon, false prophets rose from among God’s people who said, “We have to completely set ourselves apart from these Babylonians. We can’t have anything to do with them.”

That’s what some churches are preaching today. They say the nation wants to hate us, fine. The best way to deal with that is just circle the wagons. Don’t look outward to a hurting world, just look inward and take care of our own.

But God said otherwise. God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, and in Jeremiah 29:4-9, God tells His people how they’re supposed to live in exile. Listen to what Jeremiah writes:

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.

“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD.”

That’s how Daniel lived in exile. That’s how his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, lived. They did exactly what God calls us to do — they were active and supportive citizens of Babylon, but they were also separate from Babylon. That got them into trouble sometimes, but God always delivered them, and God always prospered them.

Then last week, we saw the Babylonian empire end. It’s now the Medes and Persians who are in charge, and with them comes a new Persian king named Darius. But even with all this change, a lot of things remain the same. Let’s see how Daniel is faring with this new king. Turn with me to Daniel chapter 6. We’ll begin today with verses 1-5:

It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, to be throughout the whole kingdom; and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him.

And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”

And this is God’s word.

Daniel is an old man by this point, and it’s likely that his three childhood friends have gone on to be with God. But Daniel’s just trucking along. Retirement isn’t in Daniel’s vocabulary. He’s still using the gifts God gave him to help make the nation prosper, whether that nation is Babylon or Persia. And he serves so well that Darius the king wants to make Daniel something like the Prime Minister. He’s going to set Daniel over the entire kingdom.

In verses 3 and 4, we see why the king wants to choose Daniel for this important position. Verse 3 says that Daniel had an “excellent spirit.” That’s not talking about Daniel’s faith. Darius isn’t a believer by any means. He doesn’t care at all what religion Daniel follows. That phrase points more to Daniel’s knowledge of government affairs, how well he manages people, and especially his integrity.

Verse 4 gives us three more qualities that Daniel had — he was faithful, and no fault or error was found in him. “Faithful” means that Daniel was loyal to both his king and his word. That “no error” could be found in him means that Daniel wasn’t neglectful in anything he did. He worked hard and made sure that work was done right. And he had no fault — that’s a big one, because that means Daniel wasn’t corrupt. Even in ancient Babylon, government corruption was a problem.

It’s easy to see why the king would want someone like that in charge of things, isn’t it? And the qualities Daniel had that set him apart are the same ones God calls us to have in our own lives, because those qualities are rare. They’ll stand out, and they’ll draw people not just to you, but to the God who’s alive in you.

Our son texted me the other morning from college and said, “Dad, how can I be a better Christian to people today?” And the first thing I did was act shocked. And then I patted my own back.

But I told him that he didn’t need to carry a Bible around campus to let everyone know he was a follower of Christ. Help people, especially in the little ways. Take an interest in who they are. Encourage them. Work hard. If he does that, sooner or later people are going to ask him why he’s like that, and that’s an open door to share his faith. It’s Micah 6:8, right? “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

It’s what Saint Francis of Assisi said: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel. If necessary, use words.” That was Daniel, that’s how he lived. And the king noticed.

But there are other people who noticed this too, and for all the wrong reasons. Daniel was a good man. He was faithful to God. He worked for the welfare of everyone. And for as much as someone like that should be appreciated and honored, that’s not the way the world works. It’s not the way the world worked back then, and it’s not the way it works now. Sometimes the more you try and the more righteous you are, the more people are going to hate you for it.

Daniel has a lot of rivals. There are a lot of people in the Babylonian government who covet the job that Darius wants Daniel to have. So in verse 4, they do what all politicians do — they try to dig up dirt on the person they want to destroy. The problem is they can’t find any. Daniel’s not corrupt. He’s honest. He’s good. He’s in Babylon but he’s not of Babylon. He lives his life by the rule of God and not by the rule of the culture.

So his rivals say in verse 5, “Fine. We can’t find any fault with Daniel in the work that he does, so we’re going to go after his religion.”

They come up with a plan that’s going to make Daniel have to choose whether to be loyal to the law of king Darius or the law of God. Look at verses 6-9:

Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.

“Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction.

I want you to pay attention to how these government officials approach the king in verse 6. They “come by agreement.” God’s kingdom is divided over some pretty trivial things. I always think of The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is the site where Jesus died and rose again, one of the holiest places in Christianity. The church is maintained by six different denominations. None of them have ever gotten along. There’s a small part of the church’s roof that is disputed between the Ethiopian Christians and the Coptic Christians, so one coptic monk always sits in a chair in that spot. One hot day a while back, the monk moved his chair just a few inches into the shade. The result was a fist fight that put 11 monks into the hospital.

Some time during the 1700s, one of the monks placed a ladder against a wall in the church. No one knows who did it, and nobody’s moved it. That ladder is still there after about 300 years, because everyone knows as soon as it’s moved, there’s going to be a fight. Over a ladder.

God’s people can be awfully petty over awfully petty things, but the devil’s kingdom is always united. We see that here. How often do politicians agree on anything? But they’re all in agreement here. They don’t want Daniel’s godliness anywhere around them. They especially don’t want to answer to Daniel’s godliness.

And now this new law has been signed by the king himself — for one month, anybody who prays can only pray to the king. If anyone’s found doing otherwise, they’ll be thrown to the lions. So now Daniel has to make a choice. He has to choose whether to be loyal to the king — which he’s always been — and keep his wealth, his position, his reputation, and his life. Or he has to be loyal to God and die.

Now we have to stop here for a minute. It’s easy to just skip past this, because we know which of these Daniel is going to choose, and we know how this is all going to work out for him. But that choice is never an easy one. There is no courage involved in knowing what God wants you to do. The courage comes in doing it, and no matter how much faith Daniel has, choosing God over the king still takes a whole lot of courage.

He’s not just siding with God here. Daniel is clinging to God even though he knows he’s going to lose everything because of it. There are too many Christians in this country who think that living for God is all about the good things we think we’ll get as a result — if we love God enough, He’ll keep us healthy. If we love God enough, He’ll keep us from pain. If we love God enough, he’ll keep us from want. But if that’s what you think, there’s no way you can make it through Daniel chapter 6, because by choosing God, Daniel chooses to suffer. He’s choosing to die.

We’ve seen Daniel in this kind of situation before. Back in chapter 1, he refused to eat and drink from Nebuchadnezzar’s table. In chapter 2, he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream after the king had ordered all the wise men to be killed. There’s no doubt Daniel’s friends told him all about how they were thrown into that furnace. In chapter 5, Daniel has to interpret the handwriting on the wall as the kingdom fell all around him. We know what Daniel’s going to do, and it does it in verses 10 and 11:

When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God.

There’s three things we can learn from these verses. First, verse 10 is the perfect picture of not only how Daniel lived in exile, but how we’re supposed to live in exile as well. There he is in his home in the center of Babylon, but he has his window open and is looking toward Jerusalem. He’s firmly in the world, but his eyes are fixed on heaven.

Second, these rivals of his know without a doubt they’ll catch Daniel breaking the king’s new law, don’t they? Not only that, they know exactly where and when to catch him. The only way they can know that is if Daniel sets aside regular time every day for God. The only way Daniel gets caught is because his rivals know Daniel prays every day, and they know where, and they know when.

It’s amazing to me how many Christians call themselves by that name and make no time to read their Bibles and pray. You can’t do it. You just can’t. Because here’s the thing — you can have Daniel’s faith. You can have Daniel’s courage to go through life completely committed to God. But to have those things, you absolutely have to know God. The courage and faith that Daniel had weren’t blind. They weren’t empty. To Daniel, God wasn’t an idea, He was a person. A friend. God was someone Daniel loved.

You’ll die for your family, don’t you? Will you die for democracy? You have to pause there, don’t you? That’s because democracy is an idea, but your family are real people you know and love. Ask any soldier who’s been on a battlefield, they’ll tell you they’re not fighting and dying for America. They’re fighting and dying for the people next to them, because they’re the ones those soldiers know and love.

You cannot have real faith and real courage until you have a real love for God, you cannot have a real love for God unless you know God, and you cannot know God unless you spend regular, daily time meeting Him both in prayer and in His words to you, through the Bible.

Verse 10 spells it right out there. Look at what it says at the end: “He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.”

Daniel was Daniel because he spent time with God every day. He wasn’t tempted to say, “Well, this whole new law from the king is only for thirty days. I’ve prayed all my life. Why can’t I just stop for a month? Or why do I have to always pray like this, with my window open? I can pray anywhere. I can pray while I’m talking to somebody.”

But no. Daniel’s going to stay faithful to God. And Daniel shows right here that the troubles in our lives don’t create who we are as much as they reveal who we are.

One more thing that Daniel’s doing in verse 10. He makes it a point to not change his routine one bit because he’s protesting, isn’t he? Daniel’s protesting the idea that human government is the highest form of law. That’s not true.

There is something that philosophers call natural law. Natural law says there are laws that go beyond anything that any government can break, laws given not by man but by God. It’s the law that Thomas Jefferson referred to in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

By Daniel opening up that window and facing Jerusalem to pray, he’s making a statement that he will obey every law the king makes, so long as that law doesn’t go against the higher law that God has given. But there are consequences to that. Look at verses 12 and 13:

Then they [the government officials] came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, “O king! Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” The king answered and said, “The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Then they answered and said before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”

Daniel isn’t the only one who has to suffer the consequences for what he’s done. King Darius has to face his own. He loves Daniel, and now he knows he’s been swindled. Daniel’s rivals appealed to the king’s ego to get Daniel out of the way, and Darius fell for it. But there’s nothing he can do. Darius is powerful, but not even the king is more powerful than the law. Verses 14-16:

Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed.”

Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!”

It’s amazing to me what Darius says to Daniel — “May your God, whom you continuously serve, deliver you.” The highest compliment Darius can give isn’t any of those things that had led him to set Daniel over the whole kingdom. It’s not that Daniel has that excellent spirit. Not that he’s faithful, or that he has no fault or error in him. Everything that Daniel is, his very heart, is right there in what Darius says — Daniel continuously serves God.

What happens next is exactly what Daniel knew would happen. Exactly what had to happen according to the law. He’s sent to the lions. Verses 17 and 18:

And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him.

A stone is rolled over the entrance to the lion’s den. The king goes home, but he can’t sleep. He’s so worried and anxious that he doesn’t want any of those things kings always love. There’s no food that night, no wine, no women. But we all know what happens, don’t we? Verses 20-23:

As he [meaning Darius] came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”

Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”

Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

That’s how Daniel faced his lions. But now here’s the question — how do you face yours? How do you face your lions? Because to understand what this story is really teaching us, we have to get past the idea that God will always shut the mouths of the lions in your life. And we all know by experience that’s just not the case.

In the Bible, lions are used as a metaphor for all the chaos in this world. That’s why Peter describes Satan as a roaring lion, prowling around for someone to devour.

Think of the chaos you’ve had to face in your life. The sicknesses. The disappointments. The loss. Did God spare you from those lions? He’s spared you from a lot of chaos you don’t know about. God’s saved you from things that you’ll only learn of in heaven. But He doesn’t always shut the lion’s mouth, does He?

Out there in the world, you’re going to face more lions because of what you believe. You can’t be surprised by that. You can’t be shocked when it happens. Because you’re living in exile. And because you’re living in exile, there’s something fundamental to you, something so basic that it’s at the very heart of you, that the world is always going to find completely strange. Your home is somewhere else. You don’t see and understand the world the same way that others do. All they can see is Babylon, but you’re looking to Jerusalem. The world doesn’t understand that, and you have to learn to be okay with it. The world has to see you that way.

When people who aren’t religious think of religion, they think it’s all about doing your best and doing your duties to rise up to God. But that’s not you. You’re not under religion, you’re under the gospel, and the gospel says that the thing that changes you and takes your roots out of this world and into the next isn’t anything you can do at all. God does it for you, and He does it through a grace you can never earn and a mercy you’ll never deserve.

That’s why the world says, “All the wealth I have is my money,” but you say, “I have greater wealth that’s much more than money.” That’s why the world says, “All the beauty I have is in my appearance,” but you say, “My soul is made beautiful by God, and this body will age and fail but my soul will shine forever.”

You see? People have to misunderstand us. In fact, if you’ve never offended anyone by what you believe, then you’re doing something wrong. You’re either being too accommadating, and so you’re not being salt, or you’re being too cowardly, and you’re not being light. But just as Daniel saw all through his life, there are consequences to being salt and light.

You can draw your lines and refuse to cross them. You can refuse to hang up your harp and still find cause for hope. You can face your furnace knowing that God is in control of the outcome. You can remember what your job is and what God’s job is. You can do all of those things and still get bitten by the lion.

Don’t ever think that the whole point of this story is that if you’re a good person and a good Christian and love God, you’ll never be hurt. If you think that, then you’re going to have to explain the cross to me.

The true meaning of this story is that it points us to another story. Darius rolling the stone in front of the lion’s den points us to another stone that’s rolled away, and to another man who obeyed only God and who was innocent of the crimes he was accused of. The point of this story is that it points to Jesus. Jesus is how we face the lions in our lives, those lions that roar and prowl and seek to devour all through the Old Testament. But then we get this beautiful image in Isaiah 11:6:

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

The den of lions became a place of deliverance for Daniel. The tomb of Christ became a place of deliverance for us. That is where the lions are tamed. That is where chaos becomes peace.

Don’t ever doubt that you’ll face times when you’ll have to make the choice that Daniel did. Will you bend to the culture’s will, or to God’s? Will you run from Babylon, or will you do all you can to make Babylon prosper? And will you lose yourself in Babylon, or will you fix your eyes on heaven?

If you’re ready this morning to not look back and long for the good old days, then I invite you up here as we sing our closing hymn. If you’re ready to stop looking ahead in fear, I invite you up here. If you’re ready to lift your eyes to a higher throne, I invite you up here. God will equip you to serve both this world and the next, and He’ll help you stand firm. You can face all your little lions with confidence, because Christ faced the biggest lion of all for you.

Let’s pray:

Father we’re so thankful for the example of Daniel’s life, and how he lived but thrived while in exile in a foreign land. Help us to follow his lead and be active in a strange world, leading people to you, while also keeping our gaze firmly fixed to heaven. We pray, Father, that through knowing You more and deeper we can develop the courage to stand firm, the faith to reach out rather than hold back, and the wisdom to know that in this life we will face many lions, but we can face them well, knowing that Christ entered into the deepest pit to secure our victory. Guide us as we leave this place, and give us a heart for You and for others. For it’s in Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.