Shutting the Mouths of Lions

Introduction

Daniel 6 Pg 743

The more you value something, the more you are willing to sacrifice in order to keep or obtain that valuable thing

If you value health, you will sacrifice the pleasure of food and the comfort of the couch in order to get in shape

If you value safety, you will sacrifice a good deal to live in a safe neighborhood

If you value freedom you ought to be willing to sacrifice a life of immediate pleasure and exercise self-restraint.

At least that’s what we used to believe

What do you value most? For what would you sacrifice even your life?

I’d imagine that that list is pretty short

Perhaps the lives and welfare of your family?

The freedom and honor of your nation?

Immortal fame?

I wonder if you would trade your life to worship God?

Does the worship of the Creator, the infinite and eternal One, your savior rank that high in the list of what you value?

It did for Daniel

He quickly and readily accepted a most gruesome death merely because he was unwilling to cease his worship of His God

Yet his adoration was vindicated as God granted him salvation and delivered him from even the most fearsome enemies

Read Daniel 6 Pg. 743

Thesis: The faithful have many enemies, yet God is able to save from death those who trust in Him

Outline

The Conspiracy of Envious Elites

The Piety of a Faithful Servant

The Deliverance of the Living God

Narration

In chapter 5 we saw the Persians overthrow the Babylonian Empire and subsume it into their own nation

Now Darius the Persian is ruler in Babylon and he does a very Persian thing

He delegates authority and responsibility among 120 satraps or governors and places 3 high officials over the 120 satraps

Daniel, now an old man is made one of those high officials and immediately distinguishes himself above the others because there was a spirit of excellence in him (v. 3)

So Darius decides to make him the highest ruler in all of Persia

Of course, this provokes the envy of his wicked peers and subordinates and they conspire together to destroy him

They are unable to find anything legitimate to hang around his neck so they discover a way to make him guilty

They propose a new law to the king that no one should pray to any god or man, except Darius, for 30 days

Darius, being an arrogant man, acquiesces to their request, unknowingly sealing his most faithful servant’s fate

Of course, Daniel is caught praying to the God of Israel by his enemies and he is brought before the king

The king, wishing to spare his servant seeks a way to absolve him and set him free, but the laws of the Medes and the Persians cannot be revoked, even by their kings, and Darius is forced to throw Daniel to the lions as he decreed

But Daniel is not devoured, the Lord shuts the mouths of the lions

The next morning, Darius comes to the lions den to see if, beyond hope, his friend had survived

When he sees what God had done, he has Daniel’s accusers, with their families , thrown into the lions den and then he praises the God of heaven as the One who is king over all and who governs all things

A Conspiracy of Envious Elites

We aren’t told exactly who these enemies were, but presumably they were some of the satraps and the 2 other high officials

They were envious of Daniel’s success

Their envy led them to hate Daniel, and their hate led them to devise his destruction

They maliciously accused Daniel (v. 24)

The Conspiracy

They engaged in conspiracy

Three times in the text it says that they ‘came by agreement’

v. 6, 11, 15

This word could easily be translated, ‘they conspired’

They gathered in dark, smoke filled rooms and plotted and schemed Daniel’s downfall

They didn’t care how they got him, but they would get him

False Pretenses

Of course, they couldn’t find anything legitimate to accuse him of, so they had to stack the deck against him

Just a little bit of clever legislation would do the trick

v. 5 We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.

They devised a plan whereby they would change the law to outlaw Daniel’s worship

Daniel prayed to his God daily, so they convinced the king to forbid prayer on pain of death

On pretense of honoring the king, they deceived him into being the author of Daniel’s doom

They convinced the arrogant king that it was legitimate for people to only pray to him for their needs

After all, who had a need that the all powerful Darius could not supply? Why should they need to pray to anyone else?

Darius’ incredible arrogance made him weak to his councilors, easily manipulated by flattery

Thus the enemies of God rarely seek the destruction of God’s people on account of their actual behaviour

Rather, they seek our destruction merely out of hatred and envy

They hate our Lord, so they hate us

They trump up charges against us, either falsely accusing us, or targeting the one thing we will not, even on pain of death, give up–the worship of our God

So they did against the early Christians, falsely accusing them of incest, cannibalism, and atheism

So the enemies of God do to this day

We ought not be naive to this fact

We see something of a parallel today in the desire for a secular state and a total separation of Church and state

We have been convinced by secular humanists that our governmental institutions must be totally neutral and uninformed by any sort of religious presuppositions

This has been nothing but a veiled attempt to destroy true religion and the public profession that Christ is Lord

Secular Humanists have not sought to make our government religiously neutral, they have merely sought to silence and supplant the true religion with their false religion

Separation of church and state has been a legal pretext, not for religious liberty, but for religious revolution

So it is no longer acceptable to have an inscription of the Ten Commandments at a court house, but it is acceptable to have an idol to Satan set up

It is not acceptable to have public prayer in schools, but it is acceptable for our young ones to be catechized in the religious dogmas of the sexual revolution

We, like Daniel, have enemies that would attempt to wield political power against us, to silence us, to keep us out of positions of influence

Persecution and hatred of Christians is not a practice of a bygone era

It happens all over the world. Our enemies would love for it to happen here.

It will be a reality as long as the righteous and the wicked inhabit the same world

It is especially pronounced wherever the wicked increase in power

But they will not succeed

Psalm 7:14–16 “Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.”

The short triumph of the wicked will end in their ruin. -Matthew Henry

For Daniel’s enemies, their envy was the seed of their destruction and the destruction of their families

It’s not just that God punishes the wicked for their evil deeds

It’s that their own evil deeds are the means by which they are punished. Because wickedness always ends in misery

The chief officials individually saw Daniel and thought to themselves, “the honor that He is receiving ought to be mine. He does not deserve it, but I do.”

Then they took action on those thoughts and conspired together

Their envy led them to commit great injustice, their injustice landed on their own heads.

They and their families were fed to the lions.

Had they not allowed envy to consume them, they would have been spared, their families would have been spared.

Let us all beware lest we allow sinful thoughts and desires to take root

Sins of the heart, if not arrested there and killed there never stay there

They externalize and turn into action, and sinful action propels us to greater sinful action which lands us in misery

Do not allow pride, lust, anger, unbelief, envy, or ingratitude free reign in your internal life.

Sooner or later those sins will come out and you will pay dearly for it

Enemies

Daniel faced what most of God’s people will face

What even we face today

Wicked men who sought his harm

But they did not succeed in their conspiracy because unbeknownst to them, Daniel had his own conspiracy going

One which thwarted all of their evil designs

The Piety of a Faithful Man

Daniel was the exact opposite of his peers

He was Excellent, Blameless, Confident, and Prayerful

Excellent

A spirit of excellence (v. 3)

No doubt he was well known for his success under the previous regime.

He interpreted visions, he foretold the future, he had wisdom and knowledge

Daniel had the Midas touch. Everything that he put his hand to succeeded

I believe this was for two reasons

First, the spirit of God was in him.

Several times in this book it is declared that the spirit of the holy gods is in him

It was God’s spirit that enabled him to excel in all he did

But secondly, Daniel was concerned about the honor of his God

And for this reason, he cared about his work, he cared about his relationships, he cared about his words and his deeds and his responsibilities.

He knew that he was a representative of His God in a foreign land among the pagans. And all he would do would reflect well on Him

Furthermore, the exiles were commanded, before they were deported to Babylon, to seek the welfare of the city to which they would be deported.

Jeremiah 29:7 “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.”

Brothers and sisters, we have the same spirit that Daniel had.

We too are representatives of our God in this world

And we too have been commanded to seek the welfare of city in which we sojourn (Love your neighbor)

We should be excellent, our speech should be excellent, our work should be excellent

We should not be satisfied with anything less than excellence

Mom’s don’t believe your instagram feeds that try to convince you of the low guilt, do as little as you can get away with, style of parenting. Be an excellent mother

Men, don’t be led astray by your sloth to get by with the bare minimum at work

The Lord has called us to excellence, He has given us the resources we need to be excellent

The excellence of our work ought to reflect the excellence of our master

Blameless

Daniel’s enemies could find nothing to accuse him of

One could imagine them secretly pouring over Daniel’s ledgers looking for discrepancies

These officials took bribes and skimmed off the top, of course they assumed Daniel did too.

They probably secretly interviewed those close to Daniel to learn how he had abused his authority. Or perhaps how he dishonored the king in private.

They went through his Twitter feed and examined his browser history

But they could find nothing against him. He was a blameless man, a man of integrity

We shall find no better defense against the envious and the slanderous than to conduct ourselves righteously and innocently. -John Calvin

Do you want to be protected against your enemies? Do no wrong.

Don’t give them anything to accuse you of

The greatest enemy we have is Satan, and his greatest weapon against us is our enflamed feelings of guilt.

When we walk blameless before the Lord, we take the club right out of his hands

Confident

When he found out that the document had been signed he opened his windows and prayed toward Jerusalem (v. 10)

Was this foolishness?

Or was this unparalleled courage?

Why did he pray with the window open?

Many of us would no doubt counsel Daniel to continue in his faithful worship to God, but to not put himself in unnecessary danger.

He should pray, but where people could not observe him. Surely his prayers were no less acceptable to God with the windows closed.

But v. 10 tells us that opening his windows, facing Jerusalem, and praying three times a day was his normal practice.

Certainly people witnessed this practice regularly and it was well known, hence why his enemies sought to attack him on this point.

What if he had gone to some private place to pray? What if he had he closed the windows?

What if after the king’s edict, people ceased to see him engaged in his normal worship.

They would think that he had ceased worshipping God out of fear of the king.

Were he to do that, Daniel would be testifying with his actions that Darius is to be feared more than YHWH

That the worship of God is not worth the lion’s den

But Daniel’s reverence and fear for God were greater than His reverence and fear of Darius.

And so he unashamedly prayed publicly to the Lord

He publicly condemned the wicked edict of the king whom he loved

And this was the righteous thing to do

Because God does not merely require inward obedience and inward prayer and inward worship.

God does not care only about the heart. He cares about outward profession and public worship and outward obedience.

Because these testify to a watching world His greatness

And He requires public worship and outward devotion of us even in times of danger.

Let’s remember that for the next pandemic

Prayerful

As soon as he learned of the conspiracy against him, he began his own conspiracy

But Daniel’s co-conspirator was God almighty

In the battle of conspiracies, the scales were tipped in his favor

Daniel 6:10 “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

Brothers and sisters, we know that that the world, the flesh, and the devil are conspiring together against us

God has invited us into His conspiracy against them. And we conspire with him when we pray

So the Psalmists prayed

Shatter the teeth of the wicked

Lord, the nations shall be your heritage

Psalm 7:1–2 “O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.”

Could you go for thirty days without praying to God?

That’s all Daniel had to do. Just thirty days

Why do we pray?

As an outlet and expression of our love for the Great One who has redeemed our lives from the death and agony that we deserve

And to beseech this same God for all the things that we need because He is the only one who can grant us what we need

To cease to pray for thirty days is to for thirty days rob God of the worship that He is owed

And it is to rob men of the comfort that might receive from him

You see, it wasn’t just courage to do the right thing that moved Daniel to such a bold action

It was Daniel’s love for his God which moved him.

Not pray for thirty days? How could he not pray to the God who had been so kind and gracious to him?

How could he not offer thanksgiving to the God who had given him so much?

How could he not worship the One in whom and from whom is every good thing?

And given the threat that he was under, how could he not immediately go to his listening Father and petition Him for salvation?

I fear our churches in this land are full of people who don’t need a government decree to go 30 days without serious prayer before the Almighty

That thirty prayer-less days can pass for a good number of Christians without any notice

Certainly this is one reason why our land is in the mess that it is

We should sooner go 30 days without food than 30 days without prayer

Daniel was in danger because he would not leave off the sincere worship of God and its outward profession. Hence we must bravely undergo all dangers whenever the worship of God is at stake. This temporary life ought not to be more precious to us than that most sacred of all things—the preservation of God’s honor unstained. -John Calvin

How much joy can there be in life if communion with the living God is forbidden?

His presence is what makes the joys of this life joyful and the hardships of this life endurable

The Deliverance of the Living God

Despite his love for God and his righteousness and his excellent spirit Daniel was in a hopeless situation

Enemies on all sides, his only ally a weak and foolish king

And now it seemed as though his enemies had won, their conspiracy had succeeded

For the crime of serving his king well and loving his God well, Daniel was condemned by his only friend to be eaten alive by lions

The Den of Lions

Lions are hungry, powerful beasts. Have you seen them in the zoo? Have you heard their roar?

They’re far more intimidating than the children’s books make them out to be

Up to 570 lbs. in weight. Consuming anywhere from 20-100 lbs of meat per day

These lions were numerous and so hungry that they would eat anything that entered their den; as the corrupt officials would come to find.

Daniel had no chance of fighting them off.

No spear, no sword, no weapon at all.

Besides, he was into his seventies by this point. He could not save himself from the beasts.

The Stone Rolled over the pit

Besides this, the king had a massive stone rolled over the entrance of the cave and he sealed it with his own signet ring.

Daniel could not fight the beasts and he could not escape them

Even Darius, the most powerful man in the world, sought to rescue Daniel

He labored till the sun went down to rescue him. (v.14)

But even he could not save his friend

Daniel would, without a doubt, be eaten alive

He was doomed and hopeless

Such is the condition of all whom God graciously delivers.

Such was your condition before God delivered you from your enemies

Such is the condition of some of you even still, because you refuse to entrust yourself wholly to the only one who can deliver.

He does not rescue any who are not doomed and hopeless.

But He only rescues the hopeless who have found their hope in Him

The Victory of Faith

Darius, dismayed at the death of his most faithful servant, went home and wept

Sleep evaded him, worry and grief overtook him

The next morning he ran to the den to learn the fate of his friend

v. 23, no harm was found on Daniel because He trusted in his God

Daniel trusted in God and God shut the mouths of the lions

Daniel went into the same den as the corrupt officials, Daniel came out unharmed, the officials were devoured

The great distinguishing factor between the two parties was faith

This is what the apostle Paul teaches in the New Testament

Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”

Daniel’s life is nothing other than a refined, pure mirror, in which we see the battle and victory of faith, which through the grace of God conquers all devils and people. -Martin Luther

Full and final salvation from our enemies, death, sin, and the wrath to come comes from God and is acquired by faith

And so we trust in God that we might avoid all harm

We, like Daniel, are in a dangerous position

Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour

Most of the world is in His jaws, on the verge of being swallowed by the grave, and we were once there too

But those who trust in the Son of God, as Daniel trusted, will be snatched from the jaws of that horrible lion

And no harm will be found on them

Christ

As we read about a faithful and blameless man, surrounded by enemies, conspired against, condemned to death by a weak ruler, placed in a cave, a stone rolled over its entrance and sealed with the rulers signet

How could we not think of our savior?

How could we not think of the one through whom and by whom God delivers His people?

The One to whom Daniel’s life points

The only truly faithful and blameless man, Jesus Christ, our Lord

The great difference between Daniel and Christ is that God did not save Him but instead allowed him to be put to death for our sakes so that we would not suffer the eternal agonies of death

He is the One in whom we trust, He is the One whom we love, He is the One in whose name we pray and in Whose name we live

And He is the one who, though He was devoured by death, rose again from the dead, conquering His enemies, and ensuring our victory over ours.

Conclusion

We live in a dangerous world

We have many enemies

Sickness, poverty, abandonment, tyranny

The faithful have particular enemies

Wolves in sheep’s clothing

Crafty Serpents

A Roaring Lion

Envious rulers

We need not be afraid, because our God shuts the mouths of lions

The threats to Daniel’s life were many, they were fierce, they were cunning, they were strong

And they were no obstacle at all for the God of Heaven

Like Daniel, we will suffer in this life

And like Daniel, we will be unharmed because we trust in our God