God's Protection Sustains His People

Introduction

Well I am sure by now you have all seen “the hand writing on the wall” haven’t you?

If you are at all familiar with that phrase then you might be experiencing a bit of anxiety right now, but don’t worry I only said that for illustrative purposes. Because that is what we all need right now, a little more anxiety. Most of you have probably heard some version of the statement before, “The hand is writing on the wall”? It means that there are clear signs that a situation is going to become very difficult or unpleasant. What you might not know is that this phrase originated from a story in the life of Daniel, where the new King literally saw the saw “the hand writing on the wall” and it did indeed turn out to be very “unpleasant” news for him.

You can read all the details in Daniel Chapter 5, but in short a new King has taken the throne of Nebuchadnezzar but along with it he did not take Nebuchadnezzar stance on the authority of the Most High God, a lesson that he learned the hard way. After boasting over his great city Babylon, God humbled him to the point of going mad and being forced to live in the fields where he ate the grass like an oxen. Immediately he went from the King of the most powerful empire of the world to a crazy cow man, but when he finally humbled himself before the Most High God, his sanity and kingdom was returned to him.

But the new King of Bablyon apparently has to learn the hard way so he sets out to challenge the LORD by throwing a huge party where they take out the vessels from God’s Temple and...

Daniel 5:4–6 ESV

4 They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. 5 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. 6 Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.

Over our time in the Gospel Project we have learned that the only reason that Babylon was allowed to raid Jerusalem and the Temple of the LORD was because God had raised them up to judge his unfaithful children. Even before Babylon laid seige on Israel, the prophet Jeremiah told the people of God this. He said...

Jeremiah 27:6 ESV

6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him.

To accomplish his purposes in our world, God gave the Babylonian Empire the land, the beasts and even His children for a season, but He did not give them His authority. And through out the book of Daniel we see God making this message clear to the many Kings that Daniel served under. We all have lesser authorities that God has placed above us, but even they are subject to the ultimate authority of God. He never relinquishes His authority, He only allows other authorities for a season to accomplish his purposes. So once again, God sends a message to the King in Babylon to let him know that he is not the ultimate authority.

So what was the message? Well on top of the fear that gripped the room, the hand also delivered a written message. A message the King and all of his so called “wise men” again were powerless to understand. And so Daniel is summoned once again.

Daniel 5:25–31 ESV

25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” 29 Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. 30 That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. 31 And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

Tension

I share that story as a bit of a walk up to our primary text or today. We are going to look at the story that everyone thinks about whenever you mention “Daniel” from the Bible. A few weeks ago I told you that since this Daniel was my name sake, people brought specific gifts to the hospital because of my name.

Thankfully, they didn’t bring the vegetables and water for Chapter 1, or a bowling ball from chapter 2, or a zippo lighter for chapter 3, or a sapling for chapter 4 or even a pen set for chapter 5. When they heard I was named Daniel they only thought of Chapter 6…so they brought me stuffed lions like this one.

This is actually one of my childhood lions that I laid at the end of my bed all the while growing up. He is so old that he had a partial face lift that we never finished..anyway,

...my point is that this is very familiar story, certainly the most familiar one of Daniel. and like every other familiar story as soon as we hear the title our brains start telling us that we already know this story…and to a degree we probably do.

But my hope is that as we have been growing in our knowledge of the Old Testament, you are no longer satisfied with the watered down version of the story, but you hunger to know how this story also points us to Jesus Christ.

So lets do our very best to lay aside the pictures of smiling lions licking the face of the teenager and look for the message of the Gospel, where we all find ourselves in need of being rescuing from the devastating effects of a broken world and how to live rightly in response to our great rescuer.

So if you haven't already, open up your Bibles to Daniel Chapter 6, Let’s pray and we will dive into that adventure once again.

Truth

As we read at the end of chapter 5, the Babylonian Empire has now fallen to the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire and Darius the Mede has now recieved the Kingdom. While there are many historical debates out there over who exactly this Darius is and how he came to power, what we know from Scripture is that Darius is now the King who is in charge over what was the Babylonian Kingdom.

One of his first acts as King was to set up a leadership structure where 120 governors called “satraps” would serve under three regional “high officials”. Daniel was appointed one of the three high officials.

So once again I am just in awe of the leadership abilities of this Daniel. Amidst a culture secure in it’s pagan ideology and idolatry Daniel still rises to the top…so much so that the King notices and then sets out to create an entirely new position where Daniel is even in charge of all the wise men of the Kingdom. How does he do this? Well the text says that God does this through Him. That “an excellent spirit was in him”.

Church we need to be praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ whom God has lead to positions of governance in our world today. They are under continual strains to sacrifice their integrity for the sake of the political system they are forced to navigate within. I don’t know how they do it, but I am sure that they could not do it without depending on the Holy Spirit, so lets not forget to be in prayer for those who currently serve and those who God would still call into these roles in our nation. The political world is a difficult place to work for the Children of God, and it was no different for Daniel.

Believe it or not, politics play a more significant role in this story than the Lions. Daniel was a faithful political servant was about to be appointed to a position of even greater power and this is the reason that Daniel became “Daniel in the Lion’s den”.

First they tried to discredit him, by doing a deep dive into his life. They hacked into his emails, his browser history, tapped his phones and got a hold of some of the speeches he made in college…or the ancient equivalent of such things... and still they couldn’t find anything to discredit him before the King. Not a single hateful rant about the government who destroyed his homeland, dragged him into servitude and forced him to serve their pagan kings.

How many of us could say that? And our authority issues are not nearly as extreme as Daniel’s. Sometimes, I think I might have as much in common with the Daniel of this story as this lion has with the lions of this story. I am a “Daniel” in name only. Still, I want to grow in that direction, to Dare to be a Daniel, so lets see how he did it.

Daniel 6:6–8 ESV

6 Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! 7 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. 8 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.”

There is a terrible old joke that goes: How do you know if a politician is lying? His lips are moving.

I know that is a terrible stereotype, but it does reveal a prevailing attitude about politicians, that is why we need to pray for those in that field, because a lack of integrity in politics has a very long history.

Did you catch the lie in these politicians proposal? It is found in the word “All”. I looked it up and the word is there, it isn’t imposed for sentence structure or anything like that. They presented this proposal as if all three of the High Officials were on board - but we know that Daniel wasn’t

In many ways this declaration was not all that different from Nebuchadnezzar golden statue. The idea was the same - to unify the entire empire in their glorification of the King above every man or god. The players may have changed, but the game was pretty much the same. It was all about the Pride of the King.

Daniel 6:9–10 ESV

9 Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. 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, as he had done previously.

Our first theme of the week is that

God’s servant faithfully prays to the Lord (Dan 6:6-10)

This is a mark of every faithful servant of the Lord, to meet every level of opposition or obstacle with prayer. How could we possibly know how to honor the Lord in things we don’t understand if we don’t go to Him for that understanding? We have seen this already play a pivotal role in Daniels life. Daniel’s life was marked as a man of prayer.

Prayer is such a powerful and personal act that there is no force on this earth that can keep someone from praying. At differing times throughout history God’s people have met opposition that has kept them from gathering, singing, evangelizing, preaching, reading the Bible, owning a Bible, or even walking around freely as they were arrested and imprisoned for extended periods of time. But nothing can stop us from praying. Even those who have endured the most extreme persecutions for Christ testify that in their pain and suffering they were able to meet God in prayer. It was the only place where they found the strength and peace they needed to face their horrifying circumstances.

No one can keep you from praying Christian…except of course...you. You are the only one standing between you and the prayer life that you need. That is something to think about.

And understand that Daniel didn’t wait until this difficult day to become a man of prayer. This was his habit. That is why his opponents attacked him here. It was a part of his daily routine. It is how he has been living and leading in this pagan land for more than 60 years now. This wasn’t some sort of brand new “public, in your face, you can’t tell me what to do” kind of prayer. It was Daniel coming back to God and saying…ok God…how are we going to handle this?

He knew about the law. He knew about the lions. He knew that seeking the Lord was the only way to handle them both.

Our second theme for the week is that

God’s servant faithfully relies on the Lord for rescue (Dan 6:13-23)

Running somewhat parallel to the story of the fiery furnace, the jealous politicians maliciously accuse Daniel before the King, but this time instead of getting upset at Daniel, the King he set his mind to deliver Daniel. I can only imagine that the political agenda of these men became clear and now he thought he would do everything in his power to save Daniel from his own law. He worked all night long, but the law was unchangeable. The offense was undeniable. The verdict was clear.

Daniel 6:16 ESV

16 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!”

Don’t miss the significance of this statement! This king just spent all night trying to deliver Daniel and he was powerless to do so. Now this king is hoping that Daniel’s God can do what he could not. What must be going on in the head and heart of this great King?

Daniel 6:17 ESV

17 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.

And that is where the story ends…you know it isn’t.

Daniel 6:18–22 ESV

18 Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him. 19 Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. 20 As he 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?” 21 Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! 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.”

This is the fun part isn’t it. The great reveal. The great victory. Notice that Daniel didn’t yell at the King. He didn’t rub it in his face. He didn’t chide him for making such a foolish law or letting these political back stabbers get the best of him. He simply states that in all of this he has remained faithful both to his God and to the King.

Daniel 6:23–24 ESV

23 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. 24 And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions—they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

Of course that is just a very gruesome way of explaining that the lions where not defective, they were able to do exactly what Daniel enemies thought they would, that is unless God intervenes.

And throughout the book of Daniel we see how God:

God uses His servant to advance His kingdom (Dan 6:25-27)

Daniel is probably about 90 years old at this point, a far cry from the day that he was brought with his three friends into King Nebuchadnezzar throne room where they were found to be wiser and fitter than all the other young men. But in story after story we found the faithfulness of God’s servants work to bring glory to God. This is how King Darius declared it:

Daniel 6:25–27 ESV

25 Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you. 26 I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. 27 He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”

Gospel Application

I admit that it might be partly due to my name, but someday when I get to heaven I would love to sit down with this Daniel and ask him how he did it. I mean what did his leadership role look like on a day to day basis. How did his “excellent spirit” work to guide him toward which battles were worth fighting and which ones to just leave alone. He didn’t just survive in this hostile political environment, He thrived. He was a man of such prudence, patience and wisdom that the Kings of these massive empires followed his counsel to the betterment of their land.

We could certainly use more men like Daniel today. We have a lot of polarizing perspectives flying around us right now and people are very passionate about their views. They see things that they feel to be grave injustices and they respond quickly and strongly.

We might not always agree on what is or isn’t just in a particular situation, but what I can say is that the desire to see justice prevail in our world is a good and godly thing. It is something that the Christian should particularly be responsive to. We should care, maybe more than most, about the injustices in our world.

If you don’t believe there is a God then you are probably basing your sense of injustice on human dignity or the common good or something to that effect, but for the Christian any true injustice is more than just an offense to a person or group of people, it is that and it is treason against the God who created them. So for us it is actually even more serious than all that, not less.

The difference, however, is that while the non believer has only the tools of rage and self-righteousness to fight against the injustices in the world, the Christian is equipped with something very different. As in all things, we take our example from Jesus.

No one has ever been treated more unjustly than Jesus. He never once sinned, so every broken thing that he had to deal with in this world was never caused by his own moral failure. None of us can say that. Sure, we may have suffered injustice for something that we didn’t do, but other times we suffered because of what we did do. So while none of us are responsible for all the brokenness in this world, we are all responsible for some of it. Not Jesus.

And not only did he have to suffer through this brokenness in his life, he suffered through even more in his death. The Lion’s Den was a terrible way to go, but it was kitty play next to what Jesus went through. He was flogged, mocked, nailed, suffocated, and died on the cross all while bearing the weight of our brokenness and sin to the point that God the Father could not even look upon him. And all he ever did was what was right, fair, helpful and good.

That is the ultimate picture of injustice…even as it is the ultimate picture of love.

I am sure that when the stone rolled over the lion’s den, those jealous leaders thought Daniel was a dead man. 500 years later, the jealous leaders in Jesus’ day breathed a sigh of the same kind of relief when the stone was rolled over his tomb. What none of them seemed to understand was that God was working out His purposes in both.

Landing

For Daniel, God closed the mouth of the Lions to rescue Daniel and see King Darius declare the glory of God to the world.

For Jesus, God raised Him from the dead to rescue you and I and see us declare the glory of God to the world.

The Christian response to injustice is not rage or self-righteousness, but a civil disobedience that is marked by love, humility and self-sacrifice. We see this demonstrated by Daniel, but perfected in Jesus!

Let’s pray as we prepare ourselves for communion.