Please read Daniel 6.
This is most familiar -- perhaps the only
familiar story -- about Daniel that people know. We learned it in Sunday
school or a children's Bible story book. When was the last time you
saw, hear, or read this story? When you were a child?
Not long ago this story came out of its pretty Sunday School box in some
events we read about in the news. You may remember that when American
armed forces defeated the forces of Saddam Husein in Iraq, and US army officers
were finally able to enter the palatial homes of Saddam and his sons Uday
and Qusay. In Uday's home they found a collection of home-made videos
which he had made. Several tapes record Uday's pet lions killing and
eating his political enemies. News about that discover made me
sick. But then I remembered Daniel, who 2,500 years earlier in that
same part of the world, faced the same gruesome mode of execution.
Nothing much has changed, has it?
What was Daniel's offense? He was too honest. Too clean.
He simply didn't fit into politics. He didn't cooperate with a system
of government that functioned on embezzlement, bribery, and blackmail.
Daniel was now a very old man, probably in his 80s. The Persians [Iran]
conquered the Babylonian Empire [Iraq]. Now it became Medo-Persian Empire.
[Click here for a map.] The
Persians pulled Daniel the Jew out of retirement and put him in a position
of authority in the administration.
[King] Darius
thought it would be a good idea to choose one hundred twenty governors who
would rule his kingdom. He chose three men as supervisors over those
governors, and Daniel was one of the supervisors. The supervisors were to
ensure that the governors did not try to cheat the king. (Dan. 6:1,2 New Century Version)
The three supervisors were obviously supposed to look after the collection
tax revenue, and they were to make sure that government funds were to be
spent properly. It seem that Daniel was the only one of the three that
did what he was hired to do:
Daniel showed
that he could do the work better than the other supervisors and governors,
so the king planned to put Daniel in charge of the whole kingdom. Because
of this, the other supervisors and governors tried to find reasons to accuse
Daniel about his work in the government. But they could not find anything
wrong with him or any reason to accuse him, because he was trustworthy and
not lazy or dishonest. (vv.3,4)
Many people believe that to get ahead in politics and business, you have
to cheat a little... or a lot. But Daniel refused to play the game.
And he put everyone around him at risk. He wasn't just nutty.
He was dangerous! He had to go!
Again, after 2,500 years of "social evolution," nothing has changed.
I have two friends, one who worked in government and the other who was an
accountant for a business. Both men were ordered by their supervisors
to submit false reports. They both refused. So they were both
were fired. My friend who worked for the government not only
refused to send a false report, he told higher authorities what had happened.
What was his reward for his honesty? Those in authority made
sure that he could never work in his career again.
An experienced politician once said, "Making laws is like making sausage
-- you don't really want to know how it's done."
Just as today, when politicians and the press want to destroy somebody they
consider ideologically dangerous, they try to dig up dirt, any dirt, about
that person. And that is exactly what they did to Daniel, without success.
When that sort of thing happens today, how do the political witch-hunters
act? They attack their enemy's personal religious beliefs.
I remember when JFK was was running for President. Republicans sounded
the alarm: "Danger! Danger! He's a Roman Catholic! He may
obey the Pope rather than follow the Constitution!"
A few weeks ago, President Bush nominated Judge John Roberts to the position
of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Democrats sounded the
alarm: "Danger! Danger! He's a Roman Catholic! You know
that the Catholic Church opposes abortion!" Today, any
Christian who holds strong traditional convictions - whether Catholic or
Evangelical - is considered dangerous and unqualified for service in education,
law enforcement, Congress, the judiciary, and the Presidency.
Daniel got the same treatment:
Finally
these men said, "We will never find any reason to accuse Daniel unless it
is about the law of his God." So the supervisors and governors went
as a group to the king and said: "King Darius, live forever! The supervisors,
assistant governors, governors, the people who advise you, and the captains
of the soldiers have all agreed that you should make a new law for everyone
to obey: For the next thirty days no one should pray to any god or human
except to you, O king. Anyone who doesn't obey will be thrown into the lions’
den." (vv.6-8)
It is very, very dangerous to listen to flattery. Pride is its own
trap.
Now, O
king, make the law and sign your name to it so that it cannot be changed,
because then it will be a law of the Medes and Persians and cannot be canceled."
So King Darius signed the law. (v.9)
There was a difference between Babylonian law and Persian law.
Under Babylonian law, whatever the King wanted, that was law. If the
King changed his mind, the law changed with it. The Persians,
however, had a system that said, "Everyone, including the King, must obey
the law." You may have recently seen the popular political phrase:
"Rule of Law." That's what it means. Even the government must
obey the law.
Not even King Darius, who made this new law, could not change it later,
even if he wanted to. We see the same thing happen in the story of
Esther.
So now the trap is set for Daniel. What will he do? The
answer is simple. He will do as he has always done. This is not
the first such test for Daniel. God gave him training for situations
like this in his youth -- remember his test in the
first chapter of Daniel. And every day he after that, serving
in the government, he was tested and tempted to compromise his convictions,
bend the rules a little, pocket a bribe, do a political favor. The
test to do the right thing never stopped. He knew what he had to do.
Even though
Daniel knew that the new law had been written, he went to pray in an upstairs
room in his house, which had windows that opened toward Jerusalem. Three
times each day Daniel would kneel down to pray and thank God, just as he
always had done. (v. 10)
Did Daniel here violate a principle that Jesus would later teach in His Sermon
on the Mount?
[Jesus said,]
"When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. They love to stand in the synagogues
and on the street corners and pray so people will see them. I tell you the
truth, they already have their full reward. 6 When you pray, you should go
into your room and close the door and pray to your Father who cannot be seen.
Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you."
(Matthew 5:5,6 NCV)
Daniel did not offer his daily prayer to impress anyone. His prayer
was to God, and God alone. He prayed with his window open toward Jerusalem
because he was grieving over the sins of the nation that had caused the destruction
of Jerusalem, and he was praying for the restoration of Israel to its homeland.
Even if it had been his custom to pray in a place where no one could see
him pray, his continued practice of prayer would still have violated the
King's decree and Daniel would still have broken the law. Daniel went to
the lion's den, not because he prayed near his open window, but because he
prayed to God. There wasn't any
way that Daniel could avoid breaking the law.
When, where, and how Daniel prayed is a minor issue. But when the King
enacted that law, Daniel's prayer habit because a major issue. It would
have been wrong for him to change his habit simply to avoid getting caught
praying. Jesus later would speak about that issue:
"All those
who stand before others and say they believe in me, I will say before my
Father in heaven that they belong to me. But all who stand before others
and say they do not believe in me, I will say before my Father in heaven
that they do not belong to me." (Matthew 10:32,33 NCV)
Daniel did not know how this story would end. Would God save him, the
same as He did for Daniel's three friends? (See
chapter 3) Or would God permit 80-year old Daniel to honor Him
through his death as lions' lunch?
Daniel's attitude in this situation reminds me of a man, whose name is Sam Johnson.
Mr. Johnson was a US Air Force combat pilot who served in both Korea and
Viet Nam. Seven of his 29 years of service was spent as a prisoner
of war in Hanoi, North Viet Nam. He is unable to fully use one of his
hands because of his injuries. Today Mr. Johns serves in the US House
of Representatives, as the elected representative from the Texas District
in which I lived.
Mr. Johnson tells about a time when he was under pressure from Congressional
leaders to give his support to a bill which he personally opposed.
This was one time that he could not -- and would not -- go along with party.
Like Daniel, he would not compromise on his convictions in his government
service. In a last effort to change Mr. Johnson's mind, the Congressional
leaders met him in his office do deliver a warning, "If you don't go along
with us on this, we can make life very difficult for you!"
Mr. Johnson said nothing. He simply unbuttoned his shirt and revealed
his chest, back, and arms covered with the wounds and scars he received during
his seven years of torture from the Viet Cong. Then he said to his
Washington tormentors, "You
can do nothing to me!"
In the same way, Daniel could say, "Bring on the lions! They can do nothing to me!"
And as you know, the lions, in fact, really did nothing to him. It's
not that they were tame lions. Nor were they not hungry. The
Living God was Daniel's protector, as King Darius had prayed.
We are also in Daniel's position. The world calls on us to "be reasonable,"
to compromise, to take the easy way, while the lions (the devil and his associates)
are preparing to have us for lunch.
Christ Himself has entered the lions' den on our behalf. Christ offered
Himself as lunch for the devil, sparing us from that eternal punishment for
our disobedience to the holy Law of God. And then Christ offered to
serve a grand banquet feast for us at His own table in His home in heaven.
With Christ as our substitute,
with Christ as our provider,
with Christ as our protector,
like Daniel, we have nothing to fear from the devil.
Naturalists report that when a group of lions work together in hunting their
prey, they sometimes work as a team. Younger lions circle around a
heard of antelope and wait in hiding. Then the old tired lions they
left behind stand up a roar, frightening the antelope into an easy ambush.
If the antelope were smart, which way would they run? Yes, they would
run toward the roaring lion!
The lion that makes the most noise can do the least harm.
The Apostle Peter wrote:
The devil,
your enemy, goes around like a roaring lion looking for someone to eat.
Refuse to give in to him, by standing strong in your faith. You know that
your Christian family all over the world is having the same kinds of suffering.
And after you suffer for a short time, God, who gives all grace, will make
everything right. He will make you strong and support you and keep you from
falling. He called you to share in his glory in Christ, a glory that will
continue forever. (1 Peter 5:8-10 NCV)
Through His suffering on the cross,
Through His death and burial,
Through His bodily resurrection,
Christ has defeated
the devil.
In Christ you are saved.
In Christ you are safe.