Living in a Changing World — Episode 7: Among Wolves and Lions
It’s one of the best known stories in the Bible. There are countless drawings of it. Children learn it in Bible school. Christians of all ages love to read it and hear sermons about this challenge in Daniel’s life. Daniel had faced dangerous situations before, but being thrown into a den of lions was not something he expected.
This is a story of faith and courage. It is also a story of what happens when God’s law and man’s law collide. But to Daniel the choice was clear. He had resolved to follow the law of God regardless of the consequences.
If Daniel could face this life-threatening crisis with faith, then Christians today can take courage and trust God in the face of trials that challenge our faith.
Read about this subject
- Scripture: Daniel 6
- Church, State and Disease in Light of Scripture and Common Sense
Listen to more on this subject
Transcript
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
Let’s think about where Daniel’s life has taken him. He’s a young man when the story begins – how young, we don’t know. He was a Jew who grew up in Jerusalem. He was a young man that had potential. He was smart and had a lot of ability. If he was like most young people his age, he had plans to stay in Jerusalem. But that plan was never meant to be. There was tension between the Jewish people and the Babylonian government. Eventually, the Babylonians declared war on Judah. And when they came into Jerusalem, they took Daniel and thousands of others hostage back to Babylon. Whatever dreams he may have had in his homeland are gone. His life was never the same. But that didn’t mean that his life was over. That didn’t mean he could never accomplish anything worthwhile. As a matter of fact, he did more good because his plans for the future were dashed to pieces than he would have if those plans had gone through.
The whole Bible is full of countless examples of a bad situation working out for good. Imagine what history would’ve been like if Daniel had not been taken prisoner. You wouldn’t read all the stories in the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel wouldn’t be in the Bible. The war in Jerusalem was a tragedy to his nation. It was devastating for him and his family and friends. And yet, all the pain, heartache, and suffering of that terrible war fades into nothing compared to all the good that comes from this one man and this one book in the Bible. How true the words of Romans chapter 8 verse 28 are: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” And how many times do we see situations in the book of Daniel that look hopeless, but everything worked out in the end not just for the good, but for the better?
Daniel lived to see many changes. He lived through them. He adjusted to some change and resisted others. But there was always the possibility that something unexpected might happen. His life was not any different from your life or mine in that regard. Life never stays the same very long. No matter how much we try to control our world, it just slips away. That was the story of Daniel’s life. So far in this book, we’ve seen Daniel tested by different kings in different situations and Daniel always came through with honor. And now as we come to chapter six, his country has changed again. When he came to Babylon as a young man, the Babylonians or Chaldeans were in power. But that changed when the Medes and Persians marched into the city and took over. Now there is not just a new king and a new administration. Now there’s a new system of government and a new king over a new nation. The land is the same but the laws have changed. And here is Daniel, having to adjust to change again.
The longer you live, the more changes you see. I remember reading about one preacher that was about five or six years old when the Union Army under William Sherman marched through Georgia. His name was J. D. Tant. His son wrote a biography of him called “J. D. Tant—Texas Preacher.” He lived till 1941 just as World War II began. He had memories of what happened when troops came through his neighborhood when he was a young boy. He said those soldiers did some despicable things to the salves and every young girl they found. He said Hitler’s men were not any meaner than what those soldiers did in the Civil War. And I’m sure that soldiers on both sides did some reprehensible things. But it’s interesting to me that he lived through the war between the states in America, World War I, and into World War II. He went from the time of horseback and horse and buggy and trains to automobiles and airplanes. He saw a presidents come and go. He came up poor, earned a living, made it through the Great Depression, and saw the world threatened by the rise of communism and nazism.
But anyone who lives 70 or 80 years will see a lot of changes. And I’m sure you think about this more and more regardless of your age. And here’s what matters. It’s not how much you can remember about history. It’s how much you learn about life and how much you learn to love and trust and obey God through the ups and downs in life. It’s about keeping your eye on the changeless Word of God and holding to God’s unchanging hand in the midst of an ever-changing world.
In Daniel chapter 6 Daniel is older and wiser. He was wise when he was young, but he’s even wiser. Now he’s learned a lot by reading books. He’s learned even more by reading the scriptures. And he’s learned a lot about people. He had to know people pretty well to be in the line of work he was in. Remember that he had a high-level job in the government of Babylon. And when the Medes and Persians took over, they wanted him to work in their government. And we’re not talking about a low level job. We’re talking about an important position. This new government saw that Daniel was a valuable asset, so they gave him a job with a lot of authority. They saw what kind of person he was. That means they had confidence in him.
Listen to what the Bible says when chapter 6 opens. “It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom one hundred and twenty satraps, to be over the whole kingdom; and over these, three governors, of whom Daniel was one, that the satraps might give account to them, so that the king would suffer no loss. Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm.” Darius is the new king now, and he saw the same qualities in Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar saw. It’s interesting to think about kings in the Bible that were not men of God. They had to deal with a lot of people, so they had to study people. They had to be pretty good psychologists, if you will. A lot of people tried to deceive them, so they were usually pretty good at spotting a liar. But they also knew an honest face when they saw one. They knew by the way a man acted if you could take him at his word. They could see if a man did what he said he would do. They could see if he talked one way to one person and another way to someone else. They could often tell if people were telling the truth about that person.
Now the interesting thing is that these kings were often not men of principle themselves. They used people to get what they wanted. They lied and deceived. I’m not saying this in particular about Darius. I’m simply saying that Darius is not on the level of, let’s say, a good king in the Bible like Josiah or Jehoshaphat. I’m saying that even if they didn’t live right, they knew right from wrong. They knew it was better to have a worker they can trust than somebody that lied to them. And I’m saying that they were usually pretty quick to see honesty in a man, even if they didn’t like what he said about them. As a matter of fact, they had so many liars around them, trying to manipulate them and trick them that an honest man stood out like a bright light in the darkness of night.
Nebuchadnezzazar earlier saw that Daniel was a man of principle. As a matter of fact, Nebuchadnezzar saw that Jeremiah was an honest man and a man of principle, even though Jeremiah never worked for him like Daniel did. When Nebuchadnezzar sent his army into Jerusalem in Jeremiah chapter 39, he told the captain of the guard not to harm Jeremiah. Now he told the soldiers to destroy the city. He turned them loose to kill people. But not Jeremiah. Now why would the king back in Babylon who, as far as we know, never met Jeremiah, have such a high regard for this man of God, even to the point of sparing his life and giving him his freedom when everybody else was either killed or taken hostage? It’s because even though Nebuchadnezzar at the time didn’t even acknowledge the true God, he saw that Jeremiah was a good man and he evidently respected him for that. So now here in Daniel chapter 6, you have a new government and a new king. Darius the new king sees that Daniel is a talented man, a wise man, and an honest man.
Did you notice the words the Bible uses to describe what he and perhaps others saw in Daniel? They saw that he was different because he had an “excellent spirit.” He doesn’t just have a fairly good attitude. He doesn’t have just an acceptable demeanor. He has an excellent spirit. What does that mean? What does that involve? Well, instead of guessing about it, let’s use the book from Daniel to find out. In the first place, he’s humble. He does what he’s told to do even though he’s been put in this situation without his choice. You never see him complaining. You never see him arguing. You never find him feeling sorry for himself. You never see him trying to get even. In chapter 1, he complied with the training, they gave him. He learned the Chaldean language and read Chaldean books. He learned their ways, their history, their laws, and their customs. But when they wanted him to eat food that went against the law of God, he would not eat it. But even then, he kept a cool head. He knew it wouldn’t be wise to make the king angry. So he asked the prince of the eunuchs to give him other food. He didn’t demand. He didn’t insist. He asked. And it worked. Now there are times to be assertive. There are times to stand up for yourself and defend yourself. But there are times to use your head for the good of the situation and for your own good. And Daniel was very wise about that. He did the same thing in chapter 2 when he asked the king for time to find out the interpretation of the dream. And when the king had a bad dream in chapter 4, it bothered Daniel to tell the king what it meant because it was bad news for the king. If Daniel had been a spiteful, vengeful person, he would’ve been happy. And then in Daniel chapter 5, when king Belshazzar said he would promote Daniel and reward him with great honor, Daniel told him that he could give those things to others and that he would still interpret the writing on the wall. He was an unselfish person, a very unselfish person. That quality is so rare, especially in a government job where it’s all about power and money that bring out the selfish part of man. That’s why Daniel stood out like a bright shining light in the world of darkness.
If you read the book of Proverbs closely, you’ll see that the wisest king whoever lived talked about these virtues— the same virtues you see in Daniel. Solomon said, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1 verse 7). Daniel was a God-fearing man if there ever was one. Solomon said, “A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel” (Proverbs 1 verse 5). Daniel was that kind of man. He was a very wise man. In fact, Ezekiel the prophet used Daniel as the true measure of a wise man in Ezekiel 28 verse 3. As you read through the book of Daniel, you see Daniel handling difficult situations wisely and avoiding trouble for himself and a lot of other people. Solomon also said, “Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before unknown men” (Proverbs 22 verse 29). That is exactly what Daniel did. He excelled in his work. He didn’t do just enough to keep the king from being angry with him. He didn’t do mediocre work. He did the very best he could. That’s why he was promoted, just like Solomon said. Here’s something Solomon said about good character. He wrote, “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (Proverbs 16 verse 32). That was Daniel. If we had been in Daniel’s shoes, how many of us would have gotten excited and said something that would have done more harm than good? But Daniel always kept a level head. You might think he had every right to be upset and angry. But Daniel looked beyond his own personal interests and feelings. He saw the greater picture. Now that took something we need a lot more of today: self-control. The self-control to watch your tongue. The self-control to hold your temper. The self-control to step back and think things through instead of flying off the handle and getting mad. Solomon said, “The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression” (Proverbs 19 verse 11). We’re about to read a story in Daniel 6 about some men who were out to ruin Daniel. And we’ll see that Daniel was just the kind of man king Solomon described: a man with discretion, good judgment and self-control. Solomon also said to be fair and just. “Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning” (Proverbs 9 verse 9). That was Daniel. He was a fair man. He believed in justice—not justice that came from the Babylonians or the Persians or any men, but the justice that comes from God. And we’re about to see that he kept that sense of honor when some people he worked with did something very unjust to him.
This is a story that shows how spiteful and jealous people can be, no matter where they work or who they are or how successful they’ve become. The Bible says that the king was thinking about putting Daniel over the whole province. That meant he would have been over the other officials. But they found out about the king’s idea. Evidently he mentioned the idea and maybe asked some of his counselors what they thought. And those officials did not like the idea of Daniel being over them. They were jealous. They were just downright petty. So they looked for a way to frame Daniel and take him down. The first thing they did is in verse 4: “So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him.” They tried at first to find something he had done that they could tell the king to get Daniel fired or killed. Maybe Daniel had criticized the king. Maybe he lied. Maybe he lied about the king. Maybe he stole money. Maybe he wasn’t doing his job or maybe he wasn’t doing it right. Anything they could use to get him in trouble.You know very well that people do the same thing today in the workplace, in school, in families and in the church. Jealousy is everywhere you go. Solomon said you can’t do anything good without somebody being jealous. “He said, “Again I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor” (Ecclesiastes 4 verse 4). And when people are jealous, they’ll do or say just about anything to bring somebody down. They will lie. They will stab a person in the back. They will misrepresent. They will blame somebody else. They will stir up other workers against the person they’re jealous of. So here we are reading this book which is over twenty-five hundred years old, and people haven’t changed.
So these jealous men looked for something Daniel did wrong, but they couldn’t find anything. Now they were looking for something he did wrong in his work. It doesn’t mean Daniel was a sinless man. He wasn’t perfect. We know that because Solomon said there is not a just man on earth that does good and sins not (Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20). And you read later in Daniel chapter 9 that Daniel said he confessed his sin to God. But still, this was a high compliment to Daniel. They couldn’t find one thing wrong with anything Daniel did in his work. But when people are out to get you, they’ll think of something. Even if they have to connive. Even if they have to make up something. This story reminds us of the Jews who were out to get Jesus. Do you remember what they did? I’m not talking about something they did one time. I’m talking about all the times they tried to trap Jesus. When they brought the woman who was guilty of adultery to Jesus in John chapter 8, they were trying to catch Him in something He said. In Luke 22 the Jewish leaders were trying to physically take Jesus and kill Him, but they couldn’t because the people believed Jesus was a prophet. The Bible says in Luke 22 verse 20, “So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor.” And when they finally arrested Him at night, they looked for anybody that would testify against Jesus. But they still couldn’t find anything they felt they could legally charge Him with. Then finally the High Priest asked Jesus if He were the Christ. When Jesus affirmed, they accused Him of blasphemy and sent Him to the Romans to be executed. But they never proved that He did one thing wrong or said one thing that was not true.
In Daniel’s case, these men are out to get him and they won’t stop until they do. They couldn’t find anything wrong with his work ethic, so they thought of another way to ruin him. In verse 5 the Bible says, “Then these men said, ‘We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.’” Now that doesn’t mean they looked for some way that Daniel disobeyed the law of God. They didn’t care if he kept the Sabbath or ate unclean food. They didn’t know the law of Moses and they didn’t care about whether he was a good Jew or a hypocrite in his religion. They decided that the only way they could set him up was to put his religion in conflict with the law of the Medes and the Persians. They knew Daniel well enough to know that if he had to choose between this religion and their government, he would choose his religion. He was a man of principle. That also made him predictable, which politicians see as a weakness. So they came up with a plan that would put Daniel in a dilemma. He would either have to obey God and disobey the king or obey the king and disobey God. And, again, they knew what he would do. Now isn’t that a great compliment to Daniel? They knew they couldn’t get him to compromise!
So they came up with a plan. All they had to do was to fool Darius into signing a law that would get Daniel into real trouble without the king realizing it. And here’s what they proposed: “So these governors and satraps thronged before the king, and said thus to him: ‘King Darius, live forever! All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.’ Therefore King Darius signed the written decree” (Daniel 6 verses 6 through 9). What a dirty plan. They thought of something that would appeal to the king’s ego—no one is to pray to any god or man for thirty days except king Darius. Now remember that the people only had religious freedom as far as the government would let them have it, and if the king wanted them to worship his gods or worship him, they were bound by law to do it. And this was not some misdemeanor to them. It was not a light offense. They wrote the law and backed it up with a severe penalty—the death penalty. In fact, it was a horrible death. When these pagan nations executed people that broke the law, they were brutal. We’ve already read about a furnace of fire for people that didn’t bow down to a statue in chapter two. Now they devised a horrible death for anyone who prayed to any god or man except Darius. He was to be thrown into a den of lions to be torn apart and eaten. When we hear people today talk about the death penalty and how we in America executed murderers in the past, we wonder if people in our land have ever read these Old Testament stories. They complain about hanging or the electric chair in old days being barbaric. They say that a firing squad or lethal injection is uncivilized. Why don’t they say anything about the criminals that torture and kill innocent people? Why don’t these liberal thinkers speak out against all the suffering that modern day barbarians cause? If they want to talk about cruel means of death, they need to read about an innocent man being thrown into a den of lions, not a bloodthirsty killer being given an easy death by lethal injection!
These men that were out to get Daniel did not leave anything out of their plan. They didn’t want even the king to be able to get around it. That’s why they went to him. They knew the law. The Medes and Persians had a peculiar law: Once something was signed into law, it could not be changed by anyone, even the king. So there was at least one law the king had no power over. Even he had to submit to this higher authority. And we might wonder why these people ever came up with a law like this. What if they found out a law didn’t work? What if they saw that it was just plain wrong and couldn’t change it? Obviously, the results would be bad. But their reasoning was that it kept the law system stable. It kept kings from changing it to please this person or that group. They believed that this benefit outweighed the possible consequences even if they might be unfair.
So that was the situation. What did Daniel do? Did he even know that Darius signed this bill? Yes, he knew, and here is what he did in verse 10: “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” This is a tremendous verse that’s full of lessons to think about. In the first place, look at the courage of Daniel. He knew what would happen if he prayed to God, but he did anyway. And notice that he didn’t try to keep it secret. He went into the upper room of his house and opened the windows and prayed. He knew that someone might see him. And you might say, “Why didn’t he keep the windows closed so nobody could see him pray?” But he knew eventually somebody would see him. Somebody would find out. It was only a matter of time. He knew what the consequences would be, and yet Daniel went home and prayed. Now Daniel didn’t pray out of spite. He didn’t pray with a bad attitude. Disobeying the law didn’t give him any joy. He prayed in spite of the law, not to spite the law. He didn’t break the law just to be breaking the law. He broke the law of man because the law of man broke the law of God. Imagine the courage this took. He knew the penalty. He knew they would throw him into a den of lions. He knew he couldn’t get an appeal or get the king to change the law. As far as that law was concerned, what was done, was done. And yet Daniel prayed anyway. The Bible says after he found out about the law being passed, “he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” Daniel was a praying man. He had always been a man of prayer. The Bible says he kneeled to pray. It says he prayed three times a day. It says that had been his practice since he was a young man. And here he was praying even if it cost him his life.
This is the third time in this book where the law of man challenged the law of God. The first time was in chapter 1 where Daniel refused the King’s order to eat his food because it violated the law of God. The second time was in chapter 3 when the king commanded everyone to bow down to the image he had made. The third time is here in Daniel chapter 6. And each time, these Hebrew men of God did what Peter later said in Acts chapter 5 verse 29: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” We faced a situation like this a few years ago with Covid restrictions. The law of man, in many countries, including many states in America, issued orders prohibiting churches from assembling together to worship. They had no right to give those orders. The God of heaven gave the responsibility to assemble together on the first day of the week to worship Him. The Bible says we are not to forsake that assembly (Hebrews 10 verse 25). The Bible shows in First Corinthians 11 verse 20 and Acts 20 verse 7 that we are to come together on the first day of the week to worship. No man has the authority to forbid that duty. And, if Daniel, Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego had the responsibility to obey God rather than men, then we had the right and the responsibility to assemble during Covid regardless of what the government said.
So now Daniel has broken the law. And the men that hated him got what they wanted. So they went straight to the king. “Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. And they went before the king, and spoke concerning the king’s decree: ‘Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any god or man within thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?’ The king answered and said, ‘The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.’ So they answered and said before the king, ‘That Daniel, who is one of the captives from Judah, does not show due regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.’ And the king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him.” The king was caught. He didn’t see this coming. He liked Daniel. He respected him and he knew Daniel was an honest man. And as far as the country was concerned, he needed Daniel. But he’s between a rock and hard place. He tries to figure out some way to keep from executing Daniel. But no matter what kind of solution he thought of, he always ran into a wall: the law of the Medes and Persians. Now of course he could have deified that law himself. That’s what he should have done. But that would have cost him his job and his own life. So, very reluctantly, he gave in. The Bible says, “Then these men approached the king, and said to the king, ‘Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and Persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed.’ So the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, ‘Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you. Then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signets of his lords, that the purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed. Now the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; and no musicians were brought before him. Also his sleep went from him. Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The king spoke, saying to Daniel, ‘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, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.’” This story is mentioned briefly in Hebrews 11 verse 33. It says these Old Testament saints “stopped the mouths of lions.” This is one of the best known stories in the Bible, and it’s a story that encourages us to this day.
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