Daniel and the Lions

A heavy stone scrapes into place. Then darkness. Somewhere close, the low rumble of something large, breathing. And an old man, alone, in a pit full of lions.

Babylon has fallen. A new empire rules now, and King Darius has organised his vast kingdom under a hundred and twenty governors, with three senior officials over them. One of the three is Daniel. He is an old man by now. He was taken from Jerusalem as a teenager, decades ago, and he has served foreign kings ever since. He is honest. He is good at his job. And the king is thinking of putting him in charge of the whole kingdom. That does not sit well with everyone.

The other officials go looking for dirt on Daniel. They check his accounts. His decisions. His habits. Nothing. No bribes, no carelessness. So they try another angle. “We will never catch him,” they say, “unless it has to do with the law of his God.” They go to the king together, all smiles. “King Darius, live forever! We have all agreed. For thirty days, let no one pray to any god or any person except you. Anyone who does goes to the lions.” It is flattery dressed up as policy. Darius signs it. And a law of the Medes and Persians, once signed, cannot be changed.

Daniel hears about the new law. He knows exactly what it means. He goes home and climbs to his upstairs room, where the windows open toward Jerusalem. And he does what he has always done. He kneels. Three times a day, he prays and gives thanks to his God, just as before. He doesn't hide. He doesn't make a show of it either. He simply refuses to stop. The men are watching. They catch him praying and hurry straight to the king.

When Darius hears, he is deeply upset. He realises he has been played. All day, until the sun goes down, he searches for a way to save Daniel. There isn't one. The law is the law. So Daniel is brought to the den. At the edge, the king says to him, “Your God, whom you serve continually, will rescue you.” A stone is rolled over the opening, and the king seals it with his own ring. Then he goes back to the palace. He won't eat. No music. No sleep.

At the first light of dawn, Darius hurries to the den. His voice shakes as he calls down. “Daniel, servant of the living God! Has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to save you from the lions?” And from the darkness, a calm voice answers. “O king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before him. And I have done you no wrong, O king.” Daniel is lifted out. Not a scratch on him, because he trusted in his God. The men who plotted against him face the fate they planned for him. And Darius writes to every nation in his kingdom: Daniel's God is the living God, who rescues and saves.

Here's a detail that's easy to miss. Daniel prayed with his windows open toward Jerusalem. By then the temple there lay in ruins. But centuries earlier, when the temple was dedicated, King Solomon had prayed that if God's people were ever carried off to a foreign land, and they prayed toward their land, their city and that house, God would hear them from heaven. Hundreds of miles away, Daniel was taking Solomon's prayer at its word.

Daniel and the lions. You'll find it in Daniel chapter 6. Daniel didn't go looking for trouble, and he didn't hide from it either. He just kept doing, quietly, what he had always done. So here's something to think about. What is one good habit you would keep, even if it cost you something?