Daniel 6, What’s It Take?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

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Daniel 6 What’s It Take?

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Daniel chapter 6, be reading the entire chapter, hear the word of the Lord. It pleased
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Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom, and over them three presidents, of whom
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Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account so that the king might suffer no loss.
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Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other presidents and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.
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Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they couldn't find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.
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Then these men said, We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his
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God. Then these presidents and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him,
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O king Darius, live forever. All the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors, that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any god or man for 30 days except to you,
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O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the
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Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, King Darius signed the document and injunction.
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When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem.
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He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously.
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Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction,
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O king, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man within 30 days except to you,
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O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? And the king answered and said, The thing stands fast according to the law of the
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Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Then they answered and said before the king,
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Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed that makes his petition three times a day.
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Then the king, when he had heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel and he labored till the sun went down to rescue him.
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Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and the Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king has established can be changed.
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Then the king commanded and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. And the king declared to Daniel, May your
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God whom you serve continually deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lord's that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.
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Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him and sleep fled from him.
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Then at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. And as he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish.
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The king declared to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions?
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Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths and they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before him and also before you,
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O king, I have done no harm. Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den.
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And so Daniel was taken up out of the den and no harm was found on him because he had trusted in his
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God. And the king commanded and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions, they, their children, and their wives.
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And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces. Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you.
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I make a decree that in all my royal dominion, people are to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living
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God, enduring forever. Therefore, his kingdom shall never be destroyed and his dominion shall be to the end.
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He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved
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Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus, the
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Persian. May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, what does it take to get you to act on your faith?
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And a lot of people say they have faith. A lot of people say they believe in God, especially in this culture. But not a lot are willing to do things that will cost them because they believe in God.
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Well, how about for you? Is there a tipping point, a line that you wouldn't cross?
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Say the government or your employer told you to do something and it was against God's will and is there a line you would say, no,
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I refuse to that. Was there a point in which you would be willing to take a stand? Well, for America in 1775, it was the
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British trying to confiscate weapons in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, not really about obeying God, but it was about taking a stand.
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For early Baptist in New England, it was being required to pay taxes to the state church.
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For Hugh Latimer in England in the 16th century, it was Queen Mary. He was born about the same time as Martin Luther, just a few years later in England.
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And like Luther, he became a priest and studying for a degree in theology. He started to oppose the reformation that was just then coming out of Germany and other places in Europe.
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And he described himself as, quote, obstinate, a papist as anyone in England.
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But in studying the doctrines of salvation by grace and the authority of scripture and the like, a friend converted him to them.
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And he soon became an outspoken advocate for the gospel, for biblical reformation in the church.
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Now, as the official policy of England went kind of back and forth between being reformed and biblical and being traditional, and with the moods and the lives of the various kings and queens, actually only one queen at that point,
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Latimer did well when the wind blew for the reformation, and he suffered when it blew for tradition, going from being a bishop in the church to being imprisoned.
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Through all this, he did not change. He decided it was better to obey God than men and a woman.
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And so he was sentenced to death under that woman, Queen Mary, tied to a post alongside another man, also a bishop,
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Nicholas Ridley, to be executed for the same gospel. And just before they lit the flame, he turned to Ridley and said, be of good cheer,
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Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England, as I trust shall never be put out.
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Now what causes a man like that, who could have been very successful, had the position, if he would have just kind of blown with the wind, if he wouldn't have taken a stand, if he would have gone with the way the king or the queen wanted him to go?
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What causes such a man to instead take that stand and choose to light the fire of his own death?
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Well, Latimer acted and set a fire, and that fire engulfed other men, like William Perkins, who was a preacher and professor at Cambridge University.
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Perkins' sermons, his messages, his teaching made a young man named John Cotton feel convicted, feel guilty for his sins and his lack of faith.
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And so he resented Perkins. And when Perkins finally, when he died,
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John Cotton felt relieved when he heard the bell toll at Cambridge University for Perkins' death.
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But John Cotton later became truly converted and became a pastor himself in Boston, England.
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He served there faithfully for about 25 years, preaching the gospel of grace and holding up a sovereign living
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God who is the absolute ruler, more to be obeyed than even the king of England. Now, as King Charles I tried to enforce more uniformity on the churches,
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John Cotton refused to compromise with the traditions of the papist, as they called them. And so he came to America, to the very new
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Massachusetts Bay Colony at that time, with his family and many of his followers, many people from his own church.
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And he settled in a new town there, and they named the new town after their old town,
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Boston. From Luther to Ridley to Perkins to Cotton to Boston to America and the world today, the church has always been set on fire by believers who choose not just what's most convenient for them, to blow with the wind, what's most comfortable, what helps their career, their lifestyle, but whose hearts are set on fire by faith and a living
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God, a faith that moves them to stand up and take that stand.
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And we see that here, a living God who causes his believers to act, to stand.
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We see that in Daniel 6, in four parts, first the conspiracy, second the conflict, and third the conquest, and finally the confession.
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Well, first is the conspiracy, from verses 1 to 9. Now people today want to believe in a God who will give them popularity, give them success, give them a respectable, they want a respectable faith, made in a grand building with a respectable minister and helps their career, you know, and they can go there and make connections with other people who are also respectable, and where they can have a
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God who helps them in this respectable life, gives them positions, maybe like Daniel, positions with influence, with power, or with money.
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But here the world conspires against Daniel, and he is part of the government, he's a high official in this bureaucracy that kept the
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Persian Empire going, called a president in this translation, sometimes a high official, whatever, he is so successful, he's so hardworking and honest and scrupulous and efficient and loyal, it's what the
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Bible calls an excellent spirit in verse 3, that he was rising, he was already in the top three, kind of, what would you call them, inspector generals over the government, that Darius has his eye on him to raise him to be second only under him, and so over these 120 satraps.
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There are indeed, we see, often benefits if you follow the
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Lord's ways. The Lord makes you honest, a person of integrity. People will notice, sometimes, they'll trust you and give you more business.
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Here people like Daniel, you can succeed and become more successful, you're like him, more successful than those who cut corners and rip people off in order to make a fast buck.
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So sometimes there are indeed advantages to following the Lord. Now Daniel becomes distinguished, the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom, and so now here do the other officials, because he's distinguished, do they admire him?
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Do they support him? They want to emulate him. Wow, look at Daniel, I want to be like Daniel.
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Do they learn from him? How did he succeed? I want to do his, I want to find out his secrets and be like him. So do they want to be better like him?
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No, they resent him. They look for some complaint against him, some skeleton in the closet, anything they could do to make it look like it was a scandal in his life, they could use that against him to the king.
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They ask around, maybe they sent spies working as his servants, find out what his life was like, maybe audit his books, but he always, he came out clean, they couldn't find anything corrupt about him, says in verse four, because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him.
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Now they were conspiring but couldn't find anything. Many today think that if you're doing everything right, you're following the
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Lord, you're following his ways, then everyone will like you. If you're good with God, you'll be good with people.
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Everyone will appreciate you. That being right with God will lead to being right with the world. But sometimes the opposite is the case.
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Daniel is doing everything right and so those who don't want to do everything right, understand these people he's looking over, overseeing, they probably want to be corrupt and they know he's,
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Daniel's standing in the way of him getting their bribes, them being corrupt. Those who don't want to be right conspire to bring him down.
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And the Lord Jesus said, woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
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Everyone liked the false prophets in their day until the prophecies turned out false. But Jesus says, woe to you if everyone speaks well of you.
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Well, like the young unconverted John Cotton resenting William Perkins and secretly feeling relieved at his death.
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If you live God's way, if you speak his truth, if you have integrity and are faithful, you can expect some people to hold it against you, to hate you for it.
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They may even conspire to bring you down because of it. If we're faithful, we can expect resentment.
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If we tell the truth, we can expect intolerance and hatred. Behind all the talk of tolerance, of diverse lifestyles and views, they will resent you.
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If you are faithful to the Lord, you can expect those who are unfaithful to conspire against you.
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Verse four says Daniel was faithful. So in verse five, they decided that the only way they can get any complaint against Daniel, anything against him to stick, was if they set up some scenario in which it will be impossible to be faithful to God and to the state.
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So they would make, their idea was to make obeying God, worshiping God, make it illegal, at least for a time, just enough to catch
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Daniel. Now, I wonder for us if the world would look at us and think the only thing we can accuse them of is their being faithful to God.
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If they look at us and think the only thing we can hold against them is their obedience to God, of being faithful in prayer.
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Are we so different than the world that sometimes we're resented for it? So when they look for something against us to accuse, to complain about us, they have to see, it has to be their faith in the
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Lord. It's nothing else. The rest of their life is faithful, is good. That's where the conspiracy moves, and it started out looking for dirt, but they couldn't find any because Daniel was, again, faithful.
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And now they'll turn to Daniel's, they'll try to turn Daniel's faithfulness against them. So starting in verse six, they flatter the king.
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People love flattery. King Darius lived forever. They probably say all kinds of other flattery things he likes to hear.
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And they tell him, you know, all of us officials, we so admire you, Darius. We've decided that you deserve
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Emperor Appreciation Month. During that month, no one can make any petition, make a prayer.
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Basically, no one can worship anyone except you, not even a god, only you,
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Darius. You will be the exclusive object of prayers for a month.
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We think you deserve it, Darius. He likes the sound of that. That appeals to him.
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And the penalty, of course, you've got to have a penalty before sitting in law, is being thrown into the lion's den. In verse seven, they remind him that if he signs the decree, officially signed, that it is irrevocable.
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Notice how the passage emphasizes that so much. It's irrevocable. According to the law, the Medes and the
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Persians, it's their traditions, their law, can't be broken. Emperor Appreciation Month.
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And so it was declared, and Darius sealed it. It couldn't be taken back now, it's the official signature.
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The clerk, whoever said this is an official document, can't be revoked. Everyone's got to obey it. Conspiracy has succeeded.
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And now Daniel will have to decide if he's going to be faithful to the Lord or to the government, to God or to man.
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The conspiracy set up the conflict. What does it take to get you to make a stand?
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Second, it takes a conflict. In verses 10 to 18. But there doesn't appear to be any conflict in Daniel's mind.
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The passage here, the Bible doesn't tell us anything about a conflict in his mind. Did he have a fearful night, unable to sleep while he's trying to think over what to do, praying and inner debate?
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Should I obey this law? Should I hide? What should I do? About Daniel consulting friends or agonizing over this choice he's going to have to make?
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Daniel knew the decree had been signed. Notice that verse 10 explicitly tells us. He didn't accidentally break the law.
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You know, he wasn't out somewhere else doing some other business of the kingdom when the law was passed and he just kind of accidentally kept praying.
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No, he knew, verse 10 tells us, that this was the law. He knew that Emperor Appreciation Month was now in force and he knew it was illegal to pray to the
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Lord. But verse 10 tells us that he went to his house anyway and he prayed as usual.
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The conspirator spies had probably told them everything they knew about Daniel's day, what he ate for breakfast.
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It was kosher, I'm sure. How fast he drove his chariot. Whether any women came to visit when Mrs. Daniel wasn't around.
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And they didn't. And then, oh yes, he prays three times a day facing Jerusalem. And that little detail is important because Jerusalem is where the temple was, where Solomon had asked
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God to answer prayers of those who pray toward this house. Of course, the temple had been destroyed by the
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Babylonians, so it wasn't there anymore. But Daniel prays looking toward Jerusalem because he believes
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God will raise up that temple again. So Daniel is doing that.
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He's doing what Solomon asked God to remember people doing. So Daniel is showing that he believed
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God's promises and that he expects God to act. He expects the living God to raise up that temple.
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And so they conspired to make that illegal, guessing, rightly, that Daniel, always faithful, always a man of integrity, would keep praying.
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There was a conflict here. There didn't appear to be any conflict in Daniel's mind that we can see.
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The Bible didn't say anything about that, whether he even debated for a second about whether he should continue to pray.
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But there was a conflict between the law of God and the law of man. Human law said that you can't pray to anyone else but Darius, at least for that month.
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God's law said pray. It was the same conflict Hugh Latimer faced. The law of the queen said renounce the gospel.
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God said declare it. It was the same conflict faced by John Cotton. The law of the church said compromise.
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The law of God said don't compromise the truth. We're faced with conflicts now, with society telling us that we can cause some, or that we can't cause some sins, sins.
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You can't say that. That is hate speech that if you do, and you'll be, if you say those kinds of things according to them, you'll be shut out.
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You'll be put down. Your social media accounts suspended, maybe eventually, who knows, in the future arrested or harassed or fined or prohibited from some occupations.
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The day could come in this country when some court says that hate speech isn't protected by the
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First Amendment, which makes it pretty, you know, makes the First Amendment irrelevant but if it doesn't prohibit, if it doesn't protect speech, people think it's unpopular.
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But I can see some people, some people do reason that way. And the result would be that faithful Christians could be arrested for it.
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There were some people in Europe, I believe in Sweden, some Christian woman was arrested for, put on trial for quoting some scripture, right, because some scripture,
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God's word says some pretty direct things about some sins. And you could see this, some, there's people here in this country that want to bring that about here.
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They would say, you're inciting social divisions. You're calling some lifestyles or some religions, you're calling them wrong, you're calling them evil, and so that inspires violence, even if no one's actually done violence because of it, yeah, but it could inspire it, and so that should be suppressed.
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They'll call it stochastic, this is a funny word, this is what, the word they made up, stochastic terrorism, for making some people disapprove of other people, that could provoke eventually, maybe, they say, terrorism, words of violence, they'll say.
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And so if you say certain things, then you are violent. You're a stochastic terrorist, this is the way some people actually reasoning.
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But before that will come, first will be the social pressure, which we're already under right now, the assumption that tolerant, cultured, educated, intelligent, respectable, decent people just don't believe or say those kinds of things.
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We may like our religion to make us feel good, but some will decide that if there is a conflict, they'll go along to get along.
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They don't want a religion that makes you have to stand up against some sins, that people don't want.
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They want one that makes them harmonious with the world as it is, so you never have to stand up against it.
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Why sacrifice positions of influence, like Daniel had here? Why sacrifice that? No reason, just to say a few unpopular things.
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Why make yourself controversial and unpopular? Why see a conflict when there doesn't have to be any?
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They will reason. They believe in a God who is not in conflict with the world, who asks that, you know, that they make no stands, who's not asking you to stand up for anything, against anything in this world.
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They believe in a Jesus who tells them, good for you, if all men speak well of you.
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You've learned how to win friends and influence people, that's great. Believing in that kind of God will never give you the faith to act, to stand up, to know what to do in a conflict.
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Daniel in verse 10 knew that there was a conflict. He didn't pretend there wasn't, he didn't try to interpret it in a way.
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When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, it says, he prayed just like before.
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The law of God and the law of empire conflicted, but he went home and he prayed to the
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Lord in full knowledge that that was now illegal and punishable by death.
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Notice that he didn't modify his routine one bit. At the end of verse 10, it says, as he had done previously, it didn't change at all.
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He didn't think, well now that it's illegal, I'll pray, sure, but I'll do it secretly so they can't know about it.
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I'll keep praying to the Lord, but I'll pull the drapes now. I didn't used to do that when I faced Jerusalem, but now
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I will. To do that would be to give respect to an unrespectable law.
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He kept praying as normal. When prayer becomes fashionable and people are doing it just to kind of show off, part of a religious showmanship, then prayer in secret is a good thing.
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But when prayer is prohibited and to start then praying in private is an act of cowardice.
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Daniel was willing to act because he believed in the living God. And so when the conflict came, when push came to shove, there doesn't appear to have been any conflict in his mind.
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We're certainly not told of it. He just went ahead and kept doing what he had always done. Daniel prayed on his knees, showing his humility before God, looking toward Jerusalem, and so looking for the
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Lord to raise up his temple there, having resolved this conflict between the law of God and the law of man, that he will obey
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God. So that conflict is solved. The next conflict is between what is right and what is legal.
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In verse 11, the conspirators catch Daniel in the act, catch him praying. And so they probably bring witnesses who'll testify, we saw
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Daniel praying to the Lord, not to you, Darius. So they remind Darius in verse 11, isn't it the law that anyone who prays to anyone else other than you, you know, during this
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Emperor Appreciation Month, be thrown in the lion's den? Yes, it's irrevocable. You know, it's our grand tradition, the law of the
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Medes and the Persians. Ah -ha, they spring their trap. Daniel, the exile, the foreigner, the different one.
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Notice how they make sure to remind Darius that he's from Judah in verse 13. Daniel, the exile from Judah.
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He's a foreigner. They're insinuating that he's disloyal, that he's not one of our kind of people.
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He pays no attention to you, O king. He's disregarding you. He's disregarding your authority.
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He's disrespecting you. Now Darius is distressed in verse 14. He didn't seem to take it personally, not like Nebuchadnezzar.
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He knew that Daniel wasn't conspiring against him or disrespecting him. He's not like Nebuchadnezzar.
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Remember Nebuchadnezzar flying into a rage when his laws were broken, ordering the fire be stoked up hotter than ever?
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Here Darius doesn't order, you know, we need extra hungry lions. Go get some lions that have been starved or maybe wrap
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Daniel in bacon before we throw him down there, something like that. Give Daniel an angry ultimatum. No, Darius wants to get
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Daniel off the hook. He consults the lawyers. He looks for loopholes, for exceptions, for legal tricks.
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He's asking, I know, is it revocable? Is there any way we could, any precedent has ever been revoked, ever been suspended or anything?
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No, they can't find anything. The Bible tells us nothing about there being a conflict in Daniel's mind about whether he should obey the law against praying or not.
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But there is a conflict in Darius' mind about whether to do what's right, which is let
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Daniel go, or what is legal. Executing Daniel is legal, but it's not right.
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In verse 14, he labored, that is Darius, he worked hard till the sun went down.
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All day long he's looking, consulting, having his scholars go through the scrolls of past laws and precedents for a way to rescue
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Daniel, find a way to let him off the hook. But he can't, nothing can be found, verse 15. And the conspirators remind him again, they come up to him, you know, trying to remind
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Darius, put him on the spot. You have to obey the law, even you, the emperor. Actually he doesn't, he could revoke it, but the law can't be changed, that's our grand tradition.
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So he has a conflict. Will Darius do what is right or what is legal?
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Sometimes Christians have to decide between what is right and what is legal. Slavery was legal in this part of the country for a long time.
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But it was never right to keep people in bondage generation after generation, you know, this is the golden rule.
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If you don't want it done to you, don't do it to others. Racism was legal in the South, but it was never right.
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The gospel Hugh Latimer preached was illegal, but it was right. The purity of the church that John Cotton sought was illegal, but it was right.
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And so to do both what was legal and right, he came to America.
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Sometimes we don't have that way out. Daniel here did not have that way out.
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And we have to resolve, unlike Darius, that we will choose to do what is right rather than what is legal.
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Sometimes you may have to be an illegal Christian. Well, there's a price to be paid for being an illegal
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Christian. The price is portrayed in verses 16 to 18. Daniel is thrown into the lion's den.
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Now, we can celebrate that God brought him out safely, but he wasn't promised that he would be rescued first.
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There's no indication here that Daniel knew, just like with this story of the fiery furnace, that he knew that he would be rescued if he stayed faithful.
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He didn't know that. This passage isn't an assurance, you know, that if we stand up, stand up for Jesus, that we won't suffer for it.
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It's not promising us that. Yes, God will act eventually. God will save Daniel or us now or later.
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He is the living God. But when he will save us, now or later, that we don't know.
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So Daniel, thrown into the lion's den, not knowing what will happen to him, knowing that he's going to keep praying, knowing that God will act, but whether God acts before or after he's eaten by lions, that he doesn't know.
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Darius goes back to his palace. He's unable to eat or sleep or enjoy any of his diversions, his entertainment.
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In verse 18, he's conflicted. The illegal Christian is sometimes fed to the lions, as they were literally in the early church.
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You know, in the early centuries of the church in the Roman Empire, Christians were sometimes literally fed to the lions for the entertainment of gladiatorial games.
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Sometimes held up to ridicule. Christians are sometimes called bigots for saying what
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God says, no matter how lovingly and respectfully they say it. Well, we don't know if we'll be rescued from the fire now, like Daniel's friends, or not, like Hugh Latimer.
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We don't know whether we'll be saved from hungry lions, like Daniel, or not, like many early
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Christians. We don't know if our reputation will be protected now or not.
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One thing this passage does tell us with certainty is who will conquer.
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Third, the conquest from verses 19 to 24. First is the conquest of God's angel over the hungry lions.
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Now, early the next day, Darius runs to the lions' den, crying out in anguish as his most respected official under him, keeping the empire running.
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And he's had to lose him. He thinks he's going to be devoured by the lions, but he's crying out, hopeful but desperate.
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Not really believing, but just hoping maybe there's some way he survived. He cries out, has your
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God, whom you've served continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?
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Think of that question. Remember Nebuchadnezzar made a fiery furnace, said, no God is able, he said, he boasted, no
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God in the universe is able to spare anyone from this fiery furnace, this method of execution that I have developed.
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No one can spare you. No God is that powerful. Nebuchadnezzar boasted. Darius isn't so arrogant, but he wonders, he asks a question, has your
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God been able to deliver you from the lions?
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And from the lions' den, he hears that customary greeting made to a king.
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Remember that greeting made even by the conspirators earlier and their hypocrisy and their flattery? But here, he hears it,
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Darius, from the lion's den, coming from the man who was honest and loyal from fateful
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Daniel, oh, king, live forever. In verse 21, his
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God, he says, by his angels, has conquered the lions, shutting their mouths.
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He proclaims, Daniel proclaims, they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before God, blameless before God.
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Daniel explains that God rescued him, not because he'd never sinned. He didn't say, they didn't harm me because I'm sinless.
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He says, I'm blameless because God attributed no blame to him.
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Whatever blame he had earned by his sins is no longer held against him.
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It had been dealt with. That blame had been paid by someone else, so that Daniel is now without blame.
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And of course, this particular accusation, that he was disregarding the king, that he was conspiring against him, doing him harm, notice
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Daniel says, I was not harmed, and I did not harm you.
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Before you, oh king, I have done no harm. Well, Darius is happy.
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He's relieved. He had Daniel lifted up out of there. The edict said that any offender was to be thrown into the lion's den, and Daniel was.
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The law had been obeyed, had been kept. That he wasn't eaten showed that Daniel's God was alive and was acting, that he was indeed able.
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Daniel's brought out and shown to not even have a scratch on him, it says at the end of verse 23, because he had trusted in his
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God. He had resolved, before the conspiracy, that if there's a conflict, that he would obey
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God rather than people. It's not that he trusted that God would keep the lions from him.
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It's not that. As though some teach today, there are prosperity preachers out there teach today, that you can make happen whatever you believe.
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If you have enough faith, your faith can make it happen, whatever it is you want. You could shut the mouths of lions if you have the faith to do that.
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You could have a billion dollars if you have the faith to do that. You know, cure any disease with the faith to do that.
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People teach this kind of thing. Well, if that's the case, why didn't Daniel just believe that everyone would love him?
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That all these people conspiring against him would like him and support him instead of hate him? Then no one would be conspiring.
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Or maybe he could have had, if it's all dependent on Daniel's faith, manufacturing whatever Daniel wanted, that's what this is about.
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Why didn't he have faith that he would never be caught by the conspirators, that they would never find him praying?
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Or why not believe that Darius the king would choose to do what is right instead of what is legal?
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There's all kinds of ways. If it all depended on Daniel's faith making happen what happened, Daniel could have found a lot of ways to get out of the lion's den rather than what happened.
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The trust in God, his trust in God shows, and the obedience to God, that he had resolved to obey
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God rather than people. Whether God would save him from lions now or after they ate him, that he didn't know.
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He simply believed in a God who would, one way or the other, act.
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Well, God conquered the lions, the lions conquered the conspirators. In verse 24, those men who had maliciously accused
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Daniel were brought and cast into the lion's den. And just in case you're wondering, you think, well, maybe those lions were just fed a lot the day before.
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You know, maybe they were fed a whole herd of cows and they just didn't have any room for Daniel. Well, no, the conspirators are met by the same hungry lions.
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The lions are so hungry, when they see these morsels to them coming down at them, they jump up, meet them in midair, and devour them, start eating them before they even have a chance to hit the ground.
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These lions had been forced to sit, staring hungrily at Daniel all night long, probably licking their, you know, their lips.
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Wish I could eat that guy, but somehow I can't, they could think. Now, leaping up, they crunch down on the conspirators before they even had a chance to reach the ground.
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And the lions glorified God by showing, by proving that it was only
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God's power that had kept Daniel from their jaws the night before.
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That conquest brings on the confession, forth the confession, from verses 25 to 28.
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Darius issues an edict, like Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 4, a declaration, to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth.
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Nebuchadnezzar had similar language, it's for all people. This God is not just the God of this one people, the
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Jews. He's the God of all people, in verse 25. Because even though Daniel looks to Jerusalem for God to raise up his temple again there,
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God is far more than the God of just that one nation. He's not a national
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God. He's not just the God on one hilltop in Israel. To all people, no matter the language, or the nation, or the race, know this.
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Darius proclaims, tremble in fear before the God of Daniel.
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Why? Because in verse 26, he is the living
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God. All these other gods these people have, they're manufactured, they're dead, they're wood, they're stone.
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He's not a dead God. He gets up. He acts. He endures forever.
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He doesn't expire because he goes out of fashion. His kingdom shall never be destroyed. That's why we should seek it first.
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Because whatever else we seek, like money, will be destroyed.
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His dominion, that is his rule, shall be to the end. We know he's living, and enduring, and ruling because in verse 27, he delivers and rescues, that is he conquers.
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He saved Daniel. Darius confesses.
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He does it. He saves supernaturally and wonderfully. He says, not just in heaven.
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He saves in heaven, rescues in heaven. He says, but not just in heaven, not just in the spiritual realm, in our hearts, moving on our feelings, when the organ is playing softly in the background, as the smooth -talking preacher is saying all the right words.
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He acts in real ways in this earth, shutting the mouths of lions, or raising the dead who have been devoured by them, protecting from the fire, or bringing back the saints out of the ashes.
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So he is more to be obeyed than the temporary governments of the earth. He is the
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God, the living God, in verse 27, who has saved Daniel from the power of lions.
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He prospered Daniel, in that last verse, in a hostile world, conspirators all around him, but he prospered.
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God prospered Daniel. And so Darius still speaks, issues his edict, his proclamation, his confession, and he still commands us today, over 2 ,500 years later, fear this living
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God who acts. Well, what's it take to make you act, get you to take a stand?
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When we believe in a God who acts, and a living God who saves on the earth and in heaven, we act.
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What made Daniel, and Hugh Latimer, and John Cotton, and you, able to act on your faith?
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What it is, is when you believe in a living God who will save, either before or after the lions, or after the fire, or before or after the ridicule, or the final judgment, who will act to save you, who will act to declare you blameless, even though we know there's much about us that we could be blamed for.
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So the decree goes out, fear that living God who acts.
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What's it take to get you to act on your faith? Faith itself.
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Faith that saves is faith that acts. If your faith doesn't move you to act, to worship, to be baptized, to join a church, to pray, to search the scriptures, to obey what he commands, how he commands you to live.
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If it doesn't move you to act that way, it's dead. We act because we believe in a
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God who acts, a living God. The one Daniel looked to, to raise up the new temple.
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Jesus said, destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. He faced a conspiracy.
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He resolved when the conflict came against him, praying on his knees, not my will, but yours be done.
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He was blameless and trusted in God, and God took him and blamed him for all our sins so that our blame could be placed on him on the cross, and there could be no more blame left for us so that he could see us and see us then as blameless.
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Jesus wasn't saved from the cross, but he went to the grave, and there he was saved.
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There he conquered so that we could make the good confession. He delivers and rescues.
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He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He saved
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Jesus from the power of death. God raised
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Jesus up, the true temple where we meet God in him, and he gave him all authority in heaven and earth.
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His kingdom shall never be destroyed. Jesus acted, and if you believe in him, if you, like Daniel, look to him, you'll act.