Daniel 6

When COVID first started to lock things down everyone began to watch more tv then they really wanted.

Which led to watching things we normally missed during the day.

I went down that path less traveled myself

There is a television show called antiques roadshow where people bring in items from their house they think have some value and antique appraisers give them an estimate of worth

One episode there was a guy in Texas brought in a painting his grandparents gave him behind his front door where people hung hats and coats.

It was nice as an entryway picture but it was actually handed down from his great grandparents trip to Mexico in the early 1900’s so he brought it to the show.

Turns out his house warmer was a one of a kind of one of the first paintings by Diego Rivera . In July of 2018 it was worth 2.2 million .

It had served the purpose he knew for it. But there was immeasurable value if he worked to find it.

We do the same with the Bible and especially with stories like this one that we may have grown up hearing…Daniel and the Lions Den

But this message of a familiar story could be a series in itself. It is packed with an image of faithfulness to God in a hostile culture, and ultimately an incredible picture of Jesus.

Daniels Distinction (1-9)

The Medes and Persians now rule the world after toppling Babylon

The new world power had picked up some best practices from the Babylonians though

They used the best of the countries they conquered and simply made them persian

Persian order, Persian religion and so on

Part of their order was to have leaders who were devoted to Persia over the regions of the vast emipre

And they kept the ones who led well for Babylon…why reinvent the wheel if its worked for other people

Imagine the politicing and posturing of the leaders who were left…a position with Persia was a matter of life and death ..your family having a big house or poor, slave or free

But Daniel didn’t play the politics game

Forget the Lions Den the first miracle of Daniel 6 is that Daniel is an honest squeaky clean politician

He was simply put in charge because he was excellent at his job

The passage goes on to say that the jealous rulers of the story knew the only way to catch him was to make his religious devotion to God illegal bc he was blameless.

They tricked the king and an order was signed

We have covered a long period of time in the five chapters leading up to this

For the story it means despite what we saw on the felt board in Sunday school Daniel is 85 90 yrs old

Is anyone surprised it took us until chapter 6 to see the lions?

What we have to learn about reading our bibles is that this look back at an entire life was meant for more then some moralized story that you are Daniel and the lions are your problems

This book was a message desperately needed by the original readers and all of us trying to hold onto our faith in a world that doesn’t beleive

A world where it looks like the bad guys are winning the message of Daniel is hold fast what we see on a tuesday isn’t all there is

It is the message to not look at the news..look to the kingdom that wins in the end

What we know is that in the first year of this transition of empirical power the exiles were allowed to slowly return and begin rebuilding the walls and the city of jerusalem.

The Persian idea was happy people makes a happy country

Imagine that …after 70 years you can go home

But Daniel doesn’t go

Daniel is not young- he may have been so old that the journey was not something he wanted to do.

this was before those rascal motor scooter commercials with the old man at the grand canyon

But heres why he really stayed...he still had Kingdom work to do.

Verse 3 says what distinguished him. He had an excellent spirit. The indwelling of the holy spirit we see for example in Exodus 35.

This excellence meant there was no gap in what he was in public and life at home.

Have all the bumper stickers you want. Make all the facebook posts you want.

But if your life, loves, attitudes, priorities, and work looks just like the world you will have no impact when you share a post about the your political candidate, Jesus Christ, or anything else.

Daniel did not have a God is my Co pilot sticker on his camel. then bash Persia on His instagram account

Is that something you do with your life?

Daniel was known by his character to the point that his faithful character was the only way they could trap him.

Verse 4 tells us this: 4 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.

They conspired in a smokey dark back room scene from a movie.

What’s In the Heart (10-18)

We said last week that adversity doesn’t build character it reveals it

What he has been building in his life for 70 years comes out in the squeeze of suffering

Is that what we are doing in the unseen good seasons of life

Let me give you a summary of verses 10-18

The decree, crafted by jealous officials, prohibited anyone from praying to any god or man except the king for thirty days. Despite the law, Daniel continues to pray three times a day, facing Jerusalem, as he had always done. His enemies catch him in the act and bring him before the king, reminding Darius that the law cannot be changed.

Reluctantly, Darius, who deeply respected Daniel, orders him to be thrown into the lion's den as punishment. He expresses hope that Daniel's God will save him. Daniel is placed in the den, and a stone is rolled over the entrance. The king spends the night in fasting and anxiety, unable to sleep. The next morning, he hurries to the den and finds Daniel unharmed, revealing that God had protected him from the lions. Darius is overjoyed, and he orders that the men who had plotted against Daniel be thrown into the den instead, where they are immediately devoured by the lions.

Verse 10 says Daniel prayed "as he had done previously," highlighting his disciplined life of prayer for over 70 years.

He prayed from his upper chamber, with windows toward Jerusalem, a place in the house nearly impossible to see into.

Despite being far from home, Daniel’s prayers were a quiet, constant plea for God’s mercy and wisdom, facing a city he hadn’t seen in decades.

We can picture daniel throwing open some big french doors on the ground floor and really making a scene of political revolt

But the windows were always upstairs at the highest ceiling to vent the heat and prevent robbers from entering.

These windows were almost impossible to look into from the outside because of their small size and location on the roof.

Pleading in the quiet but oh look where he prayed.

He prayed toward Jerusalem.

He had not seen home in so long.

He probably could remember the faint smells of home the face of his mom or the places he would hide as a kid when he played.

Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles- are we preparing our children so that as teenagers if we never get to hear us pray or teach them again that into their 90’s they will be anchored in the truth and willing to die for the gospel?

The temporary joy the fleeting pleasures never took captive Daniels heart like the presence of the living God did.

Nothing anchored him more than the joy of what lay before him

What a picture of Jesus…

On the verge of betrayal Jesus too withdrew and prayed in the garden alone.

He too for the Joy everlasting before him took what may come because We were the crown he was not to be denied.

Becuase this world was not his home ..something and someplace better was just around the corner

Friends we are exiles.

This is not our home.

Are we longing and asking that this broken place is made new

would a law making prayer illegal impact your day at all? Would it impact mine?

If you aren't praying today you wont care to give it up when it is taken away.

Daniel didn't have a world shaker prayer meeting every day.

This is conjecture but I am sure he got up many times and didn't feel the spirit moving but it was the habit of his life to hold fast to the only living God

Verse 11 says Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God.

Remember where i said the windows were...this verse means that to see him praying they had to break into his house...invade the one place Daniel had and they had to break in to see him praying to God.

Then they run to the weak king still drunk off of power still loving that an empire wide order was just signed to worship him...after all ALL the governors agreed on it he was told..

Obviously he realizes quickly that he’s been lied too but it is too late.

Daniel who he has come to love is now the one doomed to the lions jaws to be torn apart.

He was distressed and tried to reverse the order but it was too late and he was too weak to do what was right

You cannot read this and not see Jesus’ own trial and death in the life of Daniel.

Jesus who was blameless, full of a good spirit, full of wisdom as wisdom.

He was conspired against as an innocent man, sentenced to a horrific death by a weak ruler who wanted to release him but was too weak under pressure.

A stone is rolled over the tomb as it were and he is left for dead... sounds a lot like Jesus

There is no earthly hope for Daniel…

but for those who serve God continually there is hope of the resurrection from the pit because of the resurrected Jesus

Serve Him Continually (19-24)

At the first sign of light the king runs to the tomb...he is broken in voice as he cries out...hoping his friend daniel and more importantly that Daniel's God were who they said they were

What a description of Daniel.

Repeated in this chapter is the refrain The God whom you serve continually…

The king cries out:

O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”

This term...to call Daniels God “the living God” is astounding here.

It is as if he is saying “Daniel if you are safe your God alone is God of God’s”

Paul picks up this language in 1 Thessalonians 1:9 “how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.

Paul only uses this pair of descriptors together for God here.

Living and true are found used by Paul together only here.

From Daniel to Paul to us the lure of devotion to something or someone other than God is real.

What we see through time is that all other loves are worthless to deliver on their promise of life.

The idol of the spirit of our age is pleasure and self.

When crisis hits both are powerless to deliver.

The king saw this...only in service to the LIVING and TRUE God could life come from death.

Verse 22 is Daniels assessment of his continual service…

Safe through righteousness…. This is awesome look at this …

22 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.”

When god shows up we see a recurring theme of things being made new.. this is new creation in Daniels life.

Adam to Daniel to Jesus in mark after his temptation.

The language is the same

Look at this cool thread

Adam in the perfect world was with the wild animals

Daniel had a taste of that restoration with the wild animals…for a moment things were right

And in the coming of Jesus new creation we long for bursts on to where we walk

Mark 1:12–13 CSB

Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him.

With the wild animals was the announcement that in the unbeatable Kingdom everything will be made right and everything sad will come untrue

Things will be restored not without the trials but through them ..

Christ saved us not by avoiding suffering but enduring it for the joy set before him.. new creation with us forever..

In a miracle more radical than the mouths of lions closed God through Christ saves us from the pit.

God did not spare his only son.

But threw him into the pit to be crushed for our sin. That we may be raised as Daniel was from sure death...to life…

That the ultimate lions den of our funeral and suffering doesn’t get the last word for those who serve the Lord constantly

The Oriental Institute Museum sits on the University of Chicago’s campus in Hyde Park, Chicago

Inside it stands one of the great treasures of Babylon: the Striding Lion. According to archeologists, this majestic brick imprint dates to the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and once adorned the pathway to the Ishtar Gate.

A flex of Babylons power to everyone who entered the capital

I can picture Daniel aging there stopping and looking at it knowing his faith would one day cost Him

He surely had seen people thrown to lions before

But I can see him in those moments setting his aging face like flint and resolving with the words of Job he grew up with - “Though he slay me I will trust Him”

483 years later the Lion from the tribe of Judah walked the streets under another world power

Jesus walked by roman crosses flexing their dominance as people hung in agony

How many times did he see them and know that was where His obedience to the Father would take him

But like Daniel the Lion and the Lamb set his face like a stone with resolve to hang there in our place

Have you believed 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

2 Corinthians 4:17–18 CSB

For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

The people around you need this hope

When they ask where is God in the face of suffering

You have the answer

He has taken our place in the Lions Den so that he can make everything sad come untrue again really really soon

Let that be your anchor today and when you suffering

Lets Pray