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Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Tuesday,
I wonder how many of you, my friends all around the world, have ever had a very close call with DEATH!? I mean the type of close call you might say you ‘stared death in the face’ and lived to tell your story! I have, at least twice. Once when I was told I had highly aggressive prostate cancer and removal of my prostate did not solve the problem, and my cancer numbers were doubling every few weeks. The other time I was a young boy and nearly trampled to death in an out-of-control crowd at the soccer stadium in Haiti. In the first case God led me to a physician who found the problem and by God’s grace I’m now cancer free, 9 years! In the second case my father scooped me up and put me up on his shoulders and I think he saved my life that day. And what’s your near-death story my friends?
Come with me back to Babylon, about 539bc. We’re standing outside a den of lions listening to them roar! We should be hearing a man scream as his body is torn to shreds but instead, we hear Daniel praying inside that den of lions! If you’ve been with me the past few days, you’ll remember Daniel had been arrested because he was found praying to God, something he did every day, at least three times a day. (Daniel 6:10) He was in the privacy of his own home, with his windows open facing Jerusalem, but praying to any god or any person other than King Darius was against the law, thus his arrest.
Despite Daniel being a high ranking official in Babylon, in fact an assistant to the king, the law was unchangeable because it was a ‘law of the Medes and Persians’. (Daniel 6:15) Despite his respect for Daniel, King Darius was required to issue the order, and Daniel was thrown to the lions and expected to be mauled and eaten alive within minutes.
Let’s pick up the story in Daniel 6:18 “The king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating or entertainment…he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den…He called to Daniel in an anguished voice, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?” Pause. Listen. Hold your breath. What do you hear? Do you remember what you felt, what you thought, when you stared death in the face?
King Darius had no reason to expect to hear anything other than lion roars in response to his call. Do you find the king’s words fascinating? He didn’t simply shout “Hey Daniel, are you still alive”? I wonder if during that long, sleepless night, Darius thought mostly about Daniel and his remarkable leadership integrity, his moral courage, his reputation as a man of prayer and a consistent, faithful, follower of the God of Israel? Did the king call in the royal scribes that sleepless night, and tell them to research the official, royal records about this Daniel and what his role had been in the Babylonian kingdom before its collapse only a few months before?
Listen again to King Darius’ anguished call that morning: ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’ Honestly now, how many of those words could be applied to you and me, to our reputations? When you and I face really difficult, challenging, frightening situations, are we viewed by others as someone like Daniel?
As we stand beside the king, waiting for something other than the growl of lions… something shocking happened. The record says Daniels’ voice was heard from the lions’ den: “May the king live forever! My God sent His angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in God’s sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.” (Daniel 6:21,22) I imagine the king’s eyes and mouth both opened as wide as they could. He was witnessing the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the illogical… a miracle of the God of Israel!
Did you notice Daniel did NOT say God killed the lions but rather an angel shut their mouths?! Do you also notice Daniel made sure the king understood this was a direct intervention of rescue by the Almighty God of Israel whom Daniel unwaveringly worshipped. There was no other explanation for Daniel’s survival that night. Also, I notice Daniel wanted the king to know that his integrity, both with God and with the king, was unblemished and would remain so!
Immediately the king took action. The record says: “The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den…no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in His God. Then, at the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the lions’ den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.” (Daniel 6:23,24) Ouch! Oh my, that’s graphic, isn’t it? Justice was immediately done to those who had framed Daniel. Sadly, in that culture entire families faced judgment when the head of the household was found guilty of a serious crime.
We have no record of exactly what took place next. I presume the king requested Daniel to escort him back to the royal palace, have breakfast, and talk together. King Darius undoubtedly had lots of questions, serious questions, life altering questions. It’s safe for us to assume this 62-year-old king had never in his lifetime or royal career, ever experienced anything like this before. Miracles cause us to think very deeply, asking the most profound life questions, don’t they?
Perhaps by that time the royal scribes had searched the royal records and found the other exploits of Daniel and the Babylonian kings. Perhaps they even went into the large banquet hall to see the miraculous handwriting on the wall “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin” which you’ll remember we considered in Daniel 5. Perhaps Daniel was able to tell the king many stories which Daniel did not recount for us in his record which we have in our Bible.
Was it that day, or night, or maybe it required several days of deep reflection before King Darius was convinced that Daniel’s God was the only one, true, living, all powerful God? Was it that day or the next that the king called in Daniel and his royal scribes and insisted they write a new royal proclamation which would be translated into every language spoken across the empire and sent by couriers to the far corners of the kingdom? Tomorrow we’ll look at that proclamation, it is profound!
For today, let’s praise God that HE is the very same Almighty God today as He was that night with Daniel, and this great God can see you and me and our life situations as clearly as He saw Daniel’s plight in that lions’ den. I have found a new song which may well have been the cry of both Daniel and King Darius as they reflected on the miracle, they both had witnessed. My heart is ready to worship, how about yours, and here’s that new song…
Today’s Scripture: Daniel 6:15-24.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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