Hey friend, welcome back here to the Seminar
Seminary and another week, another episode of
our Bible study series. We call the Bible for
Grownups. This is a special Jim's birthday edition.
And tonight we're going to tell one of my favorite
stories, one of my favorite things to do and
look at one of those familiar stories that even
if you're not a big church person, you still
kind of know the story. We're going to talk tonight
about Daniel in the lion's den, but we're going
to look behind the scenes and actually catch
what's going on with Daniel in the story that
might lead us to some sort of explanation as
to how he finds his way out of the lion's den.
I'll see you on the other side. Are you ready?
Okay. Well, if you're ready, then we're ready.
I've been waiting to hear that. Oh, you're ready.
Okay. Well, but we've been waiting for David
to get ready. That's right. Now that David's
ready, I'm going to go ahead and begin. I hope
you don't mind. Hey, I want to thank Carrie,
Jan, and Gigi for everything for the little birthday
soiree tonight. Thank you guys for that very
much. Thank you for the pizza and the cake. Thank
you. Tonight, I would like to talk about standing
strong. We're going to look at a couple of these
stories over the next couple weeks about Daniel.
Being my birthday, I wanted to kind of just do
one of those things I like to do, and that is...
We like to think that what we do here on Wednesday
nights is an examination of the Bible, but treating
the Bible like grown -ups, understanding it from
an adult, mature perspective. And you've heard
me say this a ton, but again, just to remind
you, and tonight I think is one of those perfect
examples, because so often many of us in our
journey were taught the Bible. To some degree,
but at some point we were probably taught the
Bible as children. Or maybe we came to Jesus
a little later in our life and we learned the
Bible then, but often in those situations. We
might learn the Bible as adults, but we're taught
that Bible by people who were taught the Bible
as children. So we sometimes find ourselves kind
of in this feedback loop of not having a real
understanding about what the Bible says, what
it promises, what it's supposed to mean to us.
And we take that childlike understanding of this
handbook to our lives. We rush headlong into
our adult lives. We encounter the world for what
it really is. And sometimes we feel like... We
find maybe those childlike explanations of what's
in Scripture don't seem to do much for us in
our adult troubled lives. And what happens often
is people become dismayed. Some people actually
walk away from the faith because they feel like
maybe they were sold a bill of goods. What they
believed that was supposed to happen to them
now that they had faith in God doesn't seem like
the stuff that they were promised that was in
the Bible is actually coming true. So often they
find themselves walking away. And I would argue,
from the perspective of biblical literacy, actually
knowing what the Bible says, not just thinking
we do, that that does an incredible disservice.
Because I believe that as a result, there are
many, many people who have walked away from faith,
walked away from God, because they believed something
about the Bible and our relationship with God
that's in the Bible that just isn't true. So
if you are one of those people that maybe find
yourself on the outside of faith, or maybe you're
still in church, but you know you've got one
foot headed towards the exit door, Because maybe
that's how you feel. I just want to say, give
it another chance. Let's look at this Bible as
adults. Let's actually see and try to understand
what it says and what it means and what that
means to us. And then we can talk about it. Okay?
And tonight is one of, being my birthday, I wanted
to just do one of those good old -fashioned BBS
-type Bible stories. has a lot more going on
to it than just the cartoon version you're going
to play in your head when I talk about it. Right?
So we're going to look at that. Tonight we're
going to talk about standing strong. And again,
if you grew up in Sunday school, you probably
have heard about a guy in the Bible named Daniel
and something called Daniel in the lion's den.
Right? I mean, up there at the top of the Bible,
stories that we all learn, whether we're big
Bible -thumping Christians or not, is usually
like Noah's Ark, Daniel and the Lion's Den, David
and Goliath, right? Like the Mount Rushmore,
those stories that we almost all of us know some
part of the story, but do we really know the
story? One of the challenges with this particular
story is a lot of times, again, it gets taught
in almost like BBS -like style. Daniel is this
handsome, remember you're going to play the cartoon
in your head, right? Daniel is this handsome
young man, and there are these three lions, but
in the cartoon in your head, they're not real
lions. They're beautiful little kittens, right?
They kind of cuddle up to Daniel. He uses them
as a pillow. Reality would have been nothing
like that at all. First of all, let's contextualize
the story. First of all, when Daniel experiences
this, he's somewhere in his 80s or so. He's been
walking with God now for eight decades. He's
an older man now, right? And the lions don't
look like kittens. I need to say this. I have
respect for lions. Not a big fan of cats, but
lions I respect. Different creature. Okay? So
anyway, we've got Daniel in the lion's den, a
well -known story. But again, I want to bring
a little context. And we're going to talk about
how we can learn to stand strong even when we're
experiencing severe opposition. So as I want
to do. Let me give a little bit of the history.
I'm looking tonight in the prophecy of Daniel.
That's the book of Daniel. But Daniel is a prophet.
He prophesies about the present and future experience.
And so when we have those types of books in the
Bible, Jonah is another prophet. We might refer
to that as the book of Jonah or the book of Daniel.
But given that these are the recordings of prophets,
they're actually technically called prophecies.
So while you can certainly continue to call this
the book of Daniel, if you really, really, really
want to be particular about it, and you want
to be one of those people at parties that goes,
well, actually, right, it's actually the prophecy
of Daniel. We're looking at the prophecy of Daniel
tonight in chapter 6. Okay? And you might know
there's another famous story with Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, right? Daniel, those guys? All
right. We often think about Daniel. Remember,
he has been taken after the fall of Jerusalem.
He's one of the ones that was taken to the new
kingdom and was put to work in the administrative
work of the new empire. So yes, he was brought
into captivity, but he works at the palace. He's
got a pretty nice... but it's not a life that's
free from opposition. Now, when that happens,
you guys probably remember that the king was
a guy by the name of Nebuchadnezzar. When our
story tonight takes place, Daniel's actually
on his third king, and it's a guy by the name
of Darius. Remember, he's in his 80s now. Now,
what's interesting about Darius is history records
him as an administrative genius. In fact, as
soon as he started ruling his kingdom, he came
and reorganized everything. And this reorganization
shows up in Middle Eastern administrative governance
for thousands of years later. This guy was a
real genius. And he came up with this administrative
plan that was in use for a long, long, long time.
And he set up... 120, and the word, the title
is called satraps. That's the title. And a satrap,
that word means kingdom protector. And then he
put three administrators over these 120 satraps.
And Daniel is one of these three top guys. And
their job would be to protect against rebellion,
to levy and collect taxes, and to guard the financial
affairs of the empire. Basically, they were there
to balance the national checkbook. So Daniel
chapter 6, verses 1 through 3, and this will
kind of tell you basically what I just told you.
But verse 1 says, It pleased Darius to appoint
120 satraps. to rule throughout the kingdom,
with three administrators over them, one of which
was Daniel. The satraps, or kingdom protectors,
were made accountable to them so that the king
may not suffer loss. Their job, again, is to
protect the kingdom. Verse 3 says, All throughout
Daniel's life, we can look at through that book,
and we see Daniel standing out, standing differently
from everybody else around him. Daniel exemplifies
serving God with an excellent spirit. Daniel
is always going the extra mile. Even when he's
working for what we would probably consider to
be the enemy kingdom. Right? He's always going
the extra mile. And so Darius says, I want to
put him in charge and he'll be second only to
me. That sounds like that would be a great day.
Right? New job. Promotion. He's still serving
God. He could still continue to be this great
witness through the example of his life. But
the reality, what ends up, what looks like a
promotion from the outside actually introduces
a lot of trouble from the inside. Because the
two other administrators, they were jealous of
Daniel. And they go all Hunger Games on him and
they say, we're going to take this guy out. We're
going to falsely accuse him. And we're going
to just figure out a way, just get him out of
the picture so that we can have this role. We're
jealous. We want to take him down a peg. And
in that spirit, they go after him. And we're
going to watch Daniel stand strong and what I
believe to be the result of his faith, a supernatural
strength. that can only come from a long -term,
developed, cultured, cultivated faith relationship
with the living God. So for Daniel chapter 6,
what I want to do is show you three truths to
help all of us stand strong, even in the midst
of opposition. The first of these truths that
I'd like to show you through the story is, and
again, Especially on Wednesday nights, we run
across a lot of these. This is something that
is not fun, but it is true. And that is that
when God raises you up, you can expect people
to try to tear you down. When God promotes you
and raises you up, expect people to tear you
down. I don't know how this might play out in
the circumstances of your life. But let's say
you receive a promotion. A lot of times people
think you'd be, the people you would think would
be most excited for you might end up being very
jealous, very critical of you. Maybe God speaks
to you very clearly about something controversial,
at least in the world's eyes. Like you're going
to downsize, you're going to make a decision
to... organize your life in such a way where
you're going to get out of debt. Maybe you're
going to be a stay -at -home parent. Maybe you're
going to homeschool, whatever, you know, those
kind of things that are kind of outside the norm,
but God's spoken to you, and you just know this
is the right thing to do. You know you could
make more money. You know you'd have maybe more
time to yourself if you sent the kids off to
public school, whatever, right? You know that.
But you're doing what God called you to do, and
often you'll find people criticizing. You're
raised up and people trying to tear you down.
In Australia, in New Zealand, in the United Kingdom,
they call this the poppy syndrome. Because you
guys ever seen a field of poppies, right? Often
when the poppy plant grows tall, so it's ununiform,
they'll come along and they'll chop it off at
the bottom. When someone rises up, people often
take shots at those who are more successful.
In the United States, it's also called the crab
syndrome. Because if you put crabs in a bucket
and one little brave crab says, I don't want
to stay in the bucket, and the crab just tries
to make an escape, the rest will actually reach
up and pull him back down into the bucket and
say, if I can't be free, You can't be free either,
right? And we see this play out in our story
exactly like this. Daniel chapter 6 again. Now
we're going to verses 4 and 5. At this, the administrators
and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges
against Daniel in his conduct of governmental
affairs. In other words, right, if we can't find
some sort of dirt, some skeletons in his closet,
right, maybe we can run. political hit ads on
Babylonian TV, and he won't get elected to office.
Verse 4, but they were unable to do so. They
could find no corruption in him. Why? Scripture
says, because he was trustworthy. He was neither
corrupt nor negligent. Finally, verse 5, these
men said, we'll never find any basis for charges
against this man, Daniel. unless it has something
to do with the law of his God. We tried to dig
up dirt on him, but this guy is so faithful and
serves his God with such an excellent spirit,
we can't find anything to use against him. So
we need to find something that has to do with
his relationship with God. And so they devise
a plan to attack him. Now, here's one of the
problems, I believe, in what we refer to as Western
Christianity. So often, people believe, hey,
if I'm serving God, I shouldn't face any opposition.
I mean, I'm trying to be faithful. I'm trying
to do what God wants me to do, so I shouldn't
have people coming after me. I shouldn't have
to face a hard time. I'm doing what God wants
me to do. But the reality is the Bible doesn't
say that. I don't know who told you that. It's
just not true. Because we battle not against
flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities
of a dark world. And when we're moving the kingdom
forward, we can always expect resistance from
sin. Oftentimes, our spiritual enemy works through
people to try to break us down. Sometimes even
well -meaning people. I said this before, and
I'll say it again, because I believe it 100 %
wholeheartedly, and that is if you are not ready
to face opposition for your obedience to God,
then you are not ready to be used by God. If
you're not ready to face opposition, When you're
trying to be obedient to God, then you're just
not ready. You're not ready to serve God because
you will experience opposition. So Daniel, standing
out, standing up, standing strong. And sure enough,
as a result, there's opposition against him.
Maybe you're experiencing opposition right now.
The other two administrators are like, we've
got to stop him. What do they do? Well, if you
read the story, basically what they do is the
two kind of go along and they try to butter up
the king. I don't know how they did, you know,
but like, gee, king, are you bulking up? All
right, that robe is tight -fitting. You're getting
buff, whatever. But they went to him and they
said, hey, king. How about this? How about you
issue a law, a decree, that says over the next
30 days, no one can pray to any god except you,
king. And if they pray to another god, then they
will be thrown into the lion's den. What do you
think? King Darius, you're a god. Why shouldn't
people be praying to you? Why should people be
praying to anybody else? When Darius, oh great
king, you're right here in front of us. And so,
King Darius being, like many other kings, vulnerable
to pride, they often try to deify themselves.
Even though, despite what these people might
be saying, they know they aren't gods. They love
to be treated like a god. So Darius, in his pride,
says, you know what? Fair enough. For 30 days,
if anybody prays to any other god besides me,
they are going to be lunch for my lions. Now,
this creates a bit of a problem for our friend
Daniel. Because these other administrators, they
knew. that Daniel was this incredible man of
faithful prayer. It's interesting, I wonder,
if someone was to make a law like that today,
I wonder how many people might worry about us
because they know we are people of such fervent,
faithful prayer. I wonder if anyone would think
of us. If that was the situation today. Well,
they knew that this was going to create a problem
because they knew this about Daniel and prayer.
Now, we have to understand when we hear this,
right? Again, cute little lions, handsome Daniel,
lion's den. And remember, right? When we're sitting
around eating Oreos and drinking Kool -Aid, we
know the end of the story. Daniel doesn't. Daniel
doesn't know how this is going to end up. He
simply has to make a decision. And I see he had
three options. First option, stop praying. Now,
think about this. I'm going to rationalize this
like we modern American Christians would do.
And I don't know, maybe you'll find yourself
in one of these three options. And you know what?
You wouldn't be alone. The first option that
Daniel could have made was he could have simply
stopped praying. He's 80 years old. It would
have been very easy for Daniel to say, look,
God, I have been faithful in this for 80 years.
We can take a month off and agree that's cool,
right? I mean, come on, God, you're going to
understand. I'm much more effective here as your
servant than I am dead. So I'll just take a month
off. What's the harm? Then we'll get back together.
You'll understand. The second thing he could
have done, quite honestly, what I would have
done, I would have faked it. I'd have prayed
silently. I mean, I'm just being honest. I'm
thinking, look, I'm just not going to pray out
loud. I'm going to pray silently. You know, hey,
what are you doing? Nothing, nothing. I'm just
sitting here thinking, are you praying? No, not
praying at all. Right? Or the third thing. There's
a third option. He could have kept on praying
publicly. Praying aloud and risking death. And
you know what? That's what he was willing to
do because his faith in God was so strong. Now
this begs the question, right? Because again,
put yourself in Daniel's sandals. It begs the
question. You can't help but ask yourself, what
could have built such an audacious faith that
you wouldn't think twice? about continuing to
pray publicly, knowing you are risking certain
death. What could have happened that would have
allowed Daniel to develop such a deep trust in
God? He was willing to stand strong in the face
of sure death. And that leads us to our second
thought tonight, and that is... And you've heard
this before, and it's cliché, but it shows up
in the story. I have to use it. Kneeling to pray
often is what gives you strength to stand. Right?
It's true. Kneeling to pray is often what gives
you strength to stand. Verse 10, continuing on
our story, very powerful. Now, when Daniel learned
that the decree had been published, now this
is super cool, okay? This is one of those things.
I think we run right over and we don't really
catch what's actually being said. So we're not
going to run right over it. We're going to take
it very slowly. I want you to see what's being
said here. Now, when Daniel learned that the
decree had been published, what does he do? He
went home to his upstairs room where the windows
opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day, he
got down on his knees and he prayed. Giving thanks
to God. Here's the line I want you to pay attention
to. Just as he had done before. Three times a
day, he got down on his knees and he prayed.
Just as he had done before. What are you talking
about? Hold on. Our first response to our trials
should not be panic, but always prayer. Our first
response. Should not be panic, but prayer. Even
our language. We said this just the other day.
Gives us away whenever we talk about what we
really think about prayer. Right? We're in this
incredible mess. Everything we've tried hasn't
worked. And we will say, well, all we can do
now is pray. Right? Notice, Daniel didn't announce
his prayers to make a public show. He just did.
what he had always done. Now, you might be saying,
what's up with this public prayer? Because Jesus
talks about this. And you know what? Jesus hated
hypocritical public prayer. Right? You might
remember. He says, look, you know, he hated it.
Look at me. I'm a Pharisee. Right? A Pharisee
praying on the street corner, making loud gestures
to God. Just so everybody else around would know
how much I love God. Jesus, not a huge fan of
that stuff. Daniel didn't announce it. He didn't
publicly say, you know, one of the stories we'll
talk about in the very beginning is they made
this deal where they tried to get all of these
young kids to eat the food of the kingdom, but
they were food that the Israelites weren't supposed
to eat. So they went on a vegetarian diet. It's
called the Daniel fast. You guys ever heard of
that? You've heard of that before, right? There
you go. Well, the Daniel fast, that comes from
this testing point when Daniel was serving the
king and he didn't want to eat the food that
the kingdom provided. He wanted to eat what he
was supposed to be eating, right? He didn't want
to defile himself with food that had been set
aside for idols. That was the issue. So at some
point, he probably made some decision. A decision
he probably made way before this moment when
he's in his 80s. Maybe decades prior. But he
made a decision to say, I'm going to seek God
in prayer three times a day. He pre -decided
long before the threat that he is now facing,
this is what I'm going to do. I am a child of
God, and I'm going to seek God. Not once a day,
but three times a day. Why? Because I need Him
that much. I need to start the day. I need some
of God in the middle of the day. I need to wrap
up my day with God. Why? Because God's been that
good to me. And I need to. I want to know Him.
I need to hear God's voice. I need to be working
through God's spirit. I need his ongoing strength.
I want to have an intimacy of continual communion
with God. Therefore, three times a day, I've
made my decision. I don't know, but I can promise
you, I can promise you this is true. If you haven't
preceded your plan to get to know God, chances
are you're not going to get to know God. If you
don't have a predetermined plan, again, we know
this being true about all other parts of our
lives. If you don't have a plan, often you are
setting yourself up for failure. If there's no
predetermined plan for you to achieve intimacy
with God, I can almost guarantee you, you are
not going to grow intimate with God. I'm talking
about pre -deciding, making that decision. First
thing in the morning, calling God in prayer.
You know, saying, praying, God, these are your
eyes. Let me see the needs that you have that
maybe I can fulfill. These are your feet, God.
Take me where you need me to go. God, I give
you permission to have the Holy Spirit interrupt
my day so that I can be led in your perfect will.
Every single day, having that predetermined plan
to seek that intimacy with God. Because if you
don't have that plan to grow more intimate with
God, you won't. Again, I talked about kneeling.
He knelt before God in prayer. He could stand
before men of power and of opposition to him
because he had knelt before God. And I'll be
honest, if you've never knelt in prayer, you're
missing one of the most powerful postures of
surrender. At some point, if you're a follower
in Christ, you are going to have to take some
sort of stand, some sort of courageous stand.
It could be some big world issue. It could be
something specific in your life that maybe we
don't face. Others of us don't. It could be you're
with friends or you're at work or whatever, and
there's a lack of integrity, and you've got to
take a stand. Against this, because you know
better. And I wish I could tell you that when
you take this stand, every single time it'll
just work out the way that you want, but it won't.
It might, but no guarantee, right? Because we're
talking about surrender. We're talking about
submitting to... God's will. God's plan. Daniel
could have asked, what if the lions eat me and
God doesn't rescue me? I mean, put yourself in
his shoes, right? Fair question. What happens
if I get caught praying and God doesn't save
me? There are plenty of stories. In the Old Testament,
where people have the same faith as Daniel, and
God doesn't rescue them. See, this is what I
was talking about when I started. Often the Bible,
guys, the stories in the Bible, they're not Disney
movies. This is real human life with a sovereign
God, remember, whose ways are always... Higher
than our ways is understanding higher than our
understanding. And God often does things that
simply does not make sense to us. So I cannot
promise you. Again, treating this like adults.
I can't promise you. If you take a stand that
you're not going to face consequences, that someone's
not going to go against you, that people aren't
going to resist you, that you're not going to
feel left out or overlooked or end up hurting.
Fact. you might end up feeling worse off. The
only promise I can make you is the third observation
that I'd like to illustrate tonight. Three of
three. When you do what's right, you can always
trust God with the results, regardless of what
they may be. See, here's the part I think that's
so difficult for us to understand. Daniel does
not know the end of the story and the middle
of the story. Daniel certainly. had no clue that
one day, thousands of years later, he'd be the
subject of a Sunday school lesson. He had no
idea, none whatsoever, that this would end up
the way he wanted it to end up. All he knew at
this point in the story, his story, is that for
the last 80 years, God had proven faithful to
him. So no matter what, Daniel was faithful to
God. That's it, period. No negotiation. No ifs,
no buts, no what ifs, how comes, doesn't seem
fair, none of it. God's been faithful to me,
therefore I will be faithful to him. If he saves
me, I'm going to trust him. And you know what?
If he doesn't save me, I'm still going to trust
him. So King Darius is devastated. Why? He likes
Daniel. Everybody looked at Daniel with favor,
except for those two that were jealous of him.
And the king actually is mad in the story because
he realizes he's been tricked. That two of his
three top, I don't know, right hand, whatever,
deceived him. So he feels very, very betrayed.
He actually tries to get out of it, Darius. But
he can't get out of it because he's given his
word. So he doesn't eat. He doesn't receive any
entertainment. He is devastated. He goes to his
palace and he just fasts and he prays for Daniel
who's being put in the lion's den. Now, we actually
don't know what happened down there. All we know
for sure is what didn't happen in the lion's
den. We don't know. If Daniel got down there
and was just worshiping God, we don't know if
he was afraid. We have no idea. All we know is
that by the power of God, God shut the mouths
of those lions. And I believe in my heart. This
is a literal story that reflects the goodness
and the power of God in Daniel's life. You don't
have to believe it, but I do. And in the morning,
The first thing King Darius does is he gets up
and he runs to the lion's den. He says, Daniel,
Daniel, Daniel, are you okay? I love this phrase.
King Darius, remember, you've got to pray to
me, no other gods. King Darius, remember I said
they know they're really not gods? King Darius
says, has your God, whom you continually serve,
has your God... I've watched you. I've known
you. I've seen you serving him. Has your God
rescued you from the pit of the lions? And in
verse 22, Daniel says, My God sent his angel
and he shut the mouths of the lions. They've
not hurt me because I was found innocent in his
sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before
you, your majesty. The king was overjoyed and
gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And
when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound
was found on him. Because, scripture says, because
he, Daniel, had trusted in his God. But the two
guys who had tricked King Darius, story's not
over. Call him into the office and, you know,
tsk, tsk, tsk. My friends, you now are going
into the lion's den. And I guess maybe the angel
of the Lord was tired from working all night,
but he didn't protect those guys. The king issued
a decree that everyone in the kingdom should
fear the God of Daniel. Because in Daniel's faithfulness
to God, God was faithful to him. And even if
God had chosen not to close the mouths of the
lions, Daniel still would have said, my God has
always been faithful to me. So if you're facing
some sort of opposition, and I know many of us
are, remember when God raises you up, people
try to tear you down. It's part of the deal.
You're going to be a great leader. You're going
to do anything of substance. You're going to
do anything that matters. That is a part of it.
So, lovingly, biblically, scripturally, quit
whining and suck it up. That's the way life goes.
That's a part of it. Don't worry. Don't worry.
If you're facing opposition, your obedience to
God, you're going to have opposition. In fact,
You should worry when you're not facing opposition
because that probably means you're not doing
a whole heck of a lot or anything at all. You
just maybe think you are. When God raises you
up, people will tear you down. Kneeling to pray
can give you the strength to stand. And if you
don't have a predetermined plan on how you're
going to grow with your intimacy with God, chances
are pretty good you're not really going to grow
closer to God. What a wonderful illustration
of our faithfulness to God and God's faithfulness
to us through the story of Daniel and the lion's
den. Amen? Amen. Thank you, guys. Well, what
do you think? I mean, the reality is that the
promises we think were made that... We follow
God and we're doing our best. We're committed.
We're trying to follow God's will for our life.
We can't help but just think. If we're following
God's will for our life, everything should just
fall in line. Everything should just go our way.
It's God's way. But that's not God's way. The
opposition that we encounter tests our faith,
causes us to go stronger into our faith, even
in those situations where we don't know how this
story is going to turn out, just like Daniel.
But those moments of opposition and our ability
to remain faithful through them and God's ability
to remain faithful to us through them, that gives
us the confidence. To go into a pit with a group
of lions and still have the confidence to trust.
Anyway, something to think about. Until next
week, friend, be blessed.