Daniel 6:16- 28: The Lions' Den

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Daniel chapter 6, we'll pick up our reading in verse 16, continuing where Rob left off.

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Here now, the inspired word of God. Then the king gave orders and Daniel was brought in and cast into the lion's den.

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The king, the king spoke and said to Daniel, your God, whom you constantly serve will himself deliver you.

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A stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel.

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Then the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting and no entertainment was brought before him and his sleep fled from him.

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Then the king arose at dawn at the break of day and went in haste to the lion's den.

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When he came, had come near to the den to Daniel, he cried out with a troubled voice.

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The king spoke and said to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your

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God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions?

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Then Daniel spoke to the king, O king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth and they have not harmed me inasmuch as I was found innocent before him and also toward you.

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O king, I have committed no crime. Then the king was very pleased and gave orders for Daniel to be taken up out of the den.

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So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no injury whatever was found on him because he had trusted his

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God. The king then gave orders and they brought those men who had maliciously accused

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Daniel and they cast them, their children and their wives into the lion's den. And they had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

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Then Darius, the king, wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language who were living in all the land.

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May your peace abound. I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to fear and tremble before the

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God of Daniel, for he is the living God and enduring God forever.

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And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed and his dominion will be forever.

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He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has also delivered

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Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus, the

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Persian. Let's pray. Father, once again, as we prepare to look into your word, we would simply ask that you'd be pleased to bless the preaching.

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And that, Father, that as your word goes forth, that just as you have promised, it would not return void, but would accomplish every purpose for which you send it.

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We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated. Now, there are certain names that are associated with an event that mere mention of the name brings certain events to mind.

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For example, if I mention the name Abraham Lincoln, most people think of freeing the slaves right off the bat.

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If I mention Neil Armstrong, everybody thinks of the moon landing. The same is true of biblical personalities.

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If I mention Moses, usually the first thought is the exodus from Egypt. The same is true for Daniel, the subject of our study for a number of months now.

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The mere mention of the name Daniel most often causes people to think of his encounter in the lion's den.

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And that's the subject of our text this morning. Now, it's perfectly understandable why people would think of Daniel's encounter in the lion's den first, because it's a fantastic story.

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It's an integral part of the life of Daniel. But if all we know about Daniel is the story of the lion's den, then we have missed some of the most significant parts that this man played in the history of the kingdom of God.

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Just as the work of Moses is much more than the exodus, as important as that is, so the life of Daniel is much more than the time he spent in the lion's den.

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And that's evident even in the introduction to Daniel's service to this new king.

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Remember, Darius has just conquered Babylon and has taken over.

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And we see that he has already garnered favor with the new king. But I don't want you to think

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I'm downplaying the encounter in the lion's den. It most certainly is the capstone of Daniel's life, a life dedicated to the service of the most high

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God. But there is so much to learn from Daniel. We began last week with the events leading up to the encounter in the lion's den.

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Let's just very briefly review some of those events for the context.

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Remember, Daniel has already impressed the new king with his character, his abilities, so much so that Darius is preparing to give him rule over the entire empire.

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And that Daniel has so quickly impressed Darius is, that should be no surprise to us, because he has impressed just about everyone he has come in contact with over the course of his whole life.

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But while he has garnered the favor of kings, he has incurred the hatred and the jealousy of his peers.

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The impending elevation of Daniel to rule over the entire empire is just too much for his enemies to bear.

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So they conspired together to get rid of him. And they do so by duping the king into signing a law that they know

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Daniel will break. And they convinced the king to sign an injunction, making it unlawful to petition any man or any god for 30 days except for King Darius.

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And punishment for violation is to be thrown into the lion's den. Now, these men knew that Daniel had a daily routine of prayer.

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Three times a day, he would go to his upper chamber of his house, open the windows facing

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Jerusalem, and there he would offer prayers of petition and supplication, but also of thanksgiving and confession.

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So when the injunction is signed, which Daniel obviously knew about, what does he do?

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He goes to his house. Same routine. You know, it's interesting.

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Let me just pause here for a minute. It's interesting. Do you realize how many ways Daniel could have compromised here without sinning against God?

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First, it was only 30 days. Could have said, well, Lord, you know, 30 days.

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Or he could have just closed the windows. But he doesn't. He goes and he just carries on with his routine as though nothing had happened whatsoever.

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Now his spears, still in conspiracy mode, go to his house, and they see him with their own eyes violating the edict of the king.

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And so what do they do? They report his violation to King Darius. And we ended last week with these verses, verses 14 and 15 of Daniel 6.

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Then as soon as the king heard this statement, he was deeply distressed and set his mind on delivering

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Daniel. And even until sunset, he kept exerting himself to rescue him.

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Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, Recognize, O king, that it is the law of the

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Medes and the Persians that no injunction or statute which the king establishes may be changed.

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I want to pause and just reflect back on verse 14 for a minute.

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Look at what it says. As soon as the king heard this statement, he was deeply distressed and set his mind on delivering

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Daniel. And even until sunset, he kept exerting himself to rescue him.

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Notice the king's reaction to the news about Daniel. Deeply distressed. There obviously was a bond between Daniel and King Darius.

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He was about to be raised to probably the highest honor that could have been given him. So a good question to ask here is, what were these men thinking?

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His enemies, what were they thinking of taking a position against the king's favorite?

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They obviously thought they were smarter than the king. You ever notice that deceptive people, conniving people, conspirators, always believe they're the smartest person in the room.

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As an interrogator, that's the best place to have somebody. In the present case, that manifests itself as they use the law of the

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Medes and the Persians to deceive the king. Because once the king signed that law, it was irrevocable.

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So essentially what they've done is they have backed the king into a corner. And temporarily, they had the upper hand.

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That's why they come back and say, remember the edict. No, no, no, you can't change it.

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They backed the king into a corner. The king was powerless to save Daniel.

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And that's clear by the wording of verse 14. Besides being deeply distressed, he set his mind on delivering

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Daniel. He did everything he could. He tried everything he could think of. But here was the king.

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He was bound by his own hand, forced to send Daniel into the den of lions.

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And even though he set his mind to save him, it was no use. But the king didn't give up easily.

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The text tells us he kept exerting himself right up until sunset.

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How would you like to have been in a palace that night? The king was pulling out all stops to aid

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Daniel right up into the evening hours. And then to have the same men who tricked him return to him and remind him again of the injunction.

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You know, this was as much an attack on Darius as it was Daniel. In fact, it may be considered more of an attack upon the king than it was on Daniel.

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But the king is obviously an honorable man, and he knows his cause is lost. And so we read in verse 16.

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Then the king gave orders. And Daniel was brought in and cast into the lion's den.

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The king spoke and said to Daniel, Your God, whom you constantly serve, will himself deliver you.

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Once all the chances of saving Daniel are exhausted, the king relents and gives the order. Daniel's cast in the den.

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Don't miss again. Daniel was aware of the injunction and didn't change his routine.

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They didn't have to search for him. They knew exactly where to find him. But Daniel knew he was guilty of no crime.

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He was only guilty of standing firm in his faith against ungodliness. So he was prepared to die if necessary.

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But he also knew that God could deliver him from the lions. After all, remember his three friends,

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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar told him,

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Bow down or be cast into the furnace of blazing fire. Remember what they said?

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Verse 17 of chapter three. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will deliver us out of your hand,

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O king. But even if he does not, let it be known to you,

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O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

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But here's the interesting thing. There's a lot of parallels between these two events. But this time it wasn't

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Daniel making that statement. It was the king. King Darius says, your

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God whom you constantly serve will himself deliver you. Don't you find that interesting?

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He recognizes that Daniel's God is able to perform the miraculous.

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There's no question that Daniel's life has had an impact on this king. And that's one of the points that we want to continue to keep in mind through all of these events.

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Daniel's life before God has been the instrumentality of bringing the king to this place.

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It's difficult to say exactly what was in the king's heart, what was the condition of his heart. But he knows that God is different from all the other gods worshipped in Babylon.

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Because notice, he doesn't say, I hope your God will deliver you. He says, your

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God will deliver you. But notice what else he says in that statement.

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Not just that Daniel serves his God. He constantly serves his

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God. Daniel was a constant, committed fearer of the

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Lord God Almighty. Daniel's religion was not one of convenience.

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He didn't merely pray when things got tough or only when there was a special need.

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He prayed daily, three times a day. That type of Christianity impacts people, just like it impacted

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King Darius. Daniel served God not just in the easy times, but even now facing death, he perseveres.

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He's not dragged kicking and screaming into that den. He allows them to put him into the den.

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The king may have regretted signing the injunction, but he was true to the law of his land.

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And so Daniel is thrown into the lion's den. In verse 17, we continue, his stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den.

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And the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles, so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel.

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Notice this, he not only had Daniel placed in the den, then he has a stone placed over the opening.

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And then his nobles sealed the stone with his signet ring and the rings of the nobles. In other words, the king ensured that no one could tamper with this stone.

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Nobody could let Daniel out of under the cover of darkness. The king took his position seriously.

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Keeping his word was apparently important to him. You can see that Daniel had an impact on him, but so was the condition of Daniel.

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That was important to the king. Then the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting.

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And no entertainment was brought before him and his sleep fled from him. I toyed with the idea of calling this sermon

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Sleepless in Babylon. I thought better of it.

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I just didn't think better of saying it from the pulpit, that's all. The king was so affected by the punishment of Daniel that he suspends all the normal course of events in the palace.

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No entertainment, no food and drink, he's fasting. It's fair to say that this was probably one of the longest nights in the life of King Darius.

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And the wording is instructive, because his sleep fled from him.

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If he'd had a clock, he would have heard every ticking of that clock, but that's not invented for another three centuries.

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So the king waited in silence for the sun to rise. So the dawn comes.

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Now to say that the king was anxious would be an understatement. With no sleep, he waited anxiously.

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And verse 19 tells us, Then the king rose at dawn at the break of day and went in haste to the lion's den.

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At the break of day, he arises and went in haste. This is the king of the largest, most powerful empire in the world, and he's concerned over an exile from Judah, being in a lion's den.

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And I can imagine that with every step, the anxiety, the anticipation grew.

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He started with a fast -paced walk. I can see him running as he nears the lion's den.

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And when he had come near to Daniel, he cried out with a troubled voice, and the king spoke and said to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living

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God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions?

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Many scholars believe that Daniel was the author of this section of the book, and these verses could lend credence to that, because you can feel or sense the emotion in them, just the way it's written.

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The king spoke to Daniel. Daniel, servant of the living

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God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions?

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When he came near the den, he cries, cries out with a troubled voice.

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He no doubt had trouble getting those words out, not knowing the fate of Daniel.

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Was he dead? Was he alive? But though he was troubled, he still had hope in the

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God of Daniel. He doesn't ask Daniel, are you there? Or Daniel, are you alive?

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The words he speaks are words of hope. Daniel, has your

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God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you? Once again, he adds a description to Daniel's name.

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He's not merely calling him Daniel, but he calls him Daniel, the servant of the living

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God. I know I'm repeating myself, but it is intentional.

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The character of Daniel shines through these entire events. The king can't mention

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Daniel's name without thinking the living God. And he adds again, whom you constantly serve.

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This is what should be said of every Christian. Every Christian needs to ask himself that question.

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Do the people I come in contact with see Christ in me? Jesus said it in the

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Sermon on the Mount. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your

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Father who is in heaven. Can it be said of us that we are constantly serving the living

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God? And obviously, that's exactly how Daniel lived, because even the king of Babylon glorified

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God because of Daniel. And though it had been a long night, the king doesn't have to wait too long for a response, because in verse 21,

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Daniel spoke to the king. O king, live forever. Now, we know by now that that's a standard, polite, respectful address to the king.

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The king had heard those words hundreds of times before. O king, live forever.

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Four short words. But I'll make you a bet that they never sounded as good as that very moment coming from the lips of Daniel.

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He's alive. Daniel is alive. He survived the night in the lion's den.

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But then Daniel can't wait to explain what happened in the den. He speaks before him.

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Remember, he's still down there. The lions are still around him. He says, my God has sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth, and they have not harmed me inasmuch as I was found innocent before him and also toward you,

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O king, I have committed no crime. Now, this is a beautiful statement for several reasons.

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First, Daniel expresses something that only a true believer can.

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He says, my God has sent an angel. You know, he could have referred to God in many different ways.

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God Almighty. The most high God. The God of the Hebrews. The living

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God. And we could go on and on. But in those hours in the lion's den, it was the personal comfort that only

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God can give to his children that was impressed on Daniel's heart. So he says, my

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God. The God who called himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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Daniel can say, he's my God. Do you realize that if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, it's that personal relationship?

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He is your heavenly father, and you can call him Abba. Father God.

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Daniel says, my God sent an angel and shut the lion's mouth.

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Now, we do not know exactly how God did it. But again, the words Daniel uses are instructive.

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He didn't say, I don't know what happened. But the lions didn't touch me all night. That would have been fine.

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That would have been a great answer. But Daniel knows what happened. He says, one of God's angels was sent with the mission to shut the mouths of those lions.

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So he says, therefore, I was not harmed. We're not told how the angel accomplished this, just that he did.

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And Daniel reports the event to the king. But Daniel's not finished with his response.

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He says, he shut the lion's mouth. Inasmuch as I was found innocent before him, before God, and also before the king,

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I have committed no crime. I've mentioned this before, but Daniel is a unique person who was able to serve his

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God faithfully and also serve his human masters.

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That's not easy to do, especially in a godless society. But after he proclaims his innocence, he links his protection with his innocence.

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He is innocent before God, and he's innocent before the king.

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And to clarify, though he technically violated the king's edict, he committed no crime because it was an unjust and ungodly injunction that he violated.

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That was certain to be overturned in God's court. So Daniel can say with a clear conscience that he committed no crime.

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Now all of this takes place within a few minutes while Daniel is still in the den surrounded by the lions.

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He obviously has no fear of him. I know, I'm thinking about myself, my first word, get me out of this place.

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But Daniel has no fear.

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And of course the king is relieved that Daniel is unharmed.

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So finally the king was very pleased, gave orders for Daniel to be taken out of the den. So Daniel was taken out of the den and no injury, whatever, was found on him because he had trusted in his

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God. The text says the king was pleased, and then when they remove him, there's no injuries.

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You ever watch a news report where there's been a cave -in and miners, they have to dig the miners out, or we've had a couple in this country where children have fallen down in a well.

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And remember when they finally get them out, they take them to the ambulance and they give them a thorough check and find out what, and sometimes the damage on them is incredible that they survived.

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I'm sure the equivalent of that took place. The EMTs of Babylon came out, and I can see the king and many friends of Daniel looking over him, scouring him.

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Is he hidden injuries? Is there anything wrong with him? But there were none, no injuries on him whatsoever.

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How can this be? Very simply, this text tells us he trusted

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God. He trusted God. Once again, I'm reminded of the old hymn which sums up the

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Christian life. Trust and obey, for there's no other way.

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Now, the king may have been very pleased with Daniel's condition, but he was not pleased with his administrators who conspired against Daniel, for he also recognized the conspiracy was against him.

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So we read in verse 24, The king then gave orders, and they brought those men who had maliciously accused

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Daniel, and they cast him, their children, and their wives into the lion's den. They had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

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Obviously, the king believed in the principle of lex talionis, an eye for an eye.

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But the king recognized that these men brought false charges and maliciously accused

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Daniel. So the punishment was justly meted out to all those who had conspired against him.

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It's a proverb which came to mind as I was writing this sermon. Proverbs 26, 27,

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He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it will come back on him.

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So Daniel is acquitted of the charges against him. The real criminals have been suitably punished, but the king is not content with that.

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He is so moved that he issues a decree, and you have to,

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I want you to listen so carefully to this decree. This is starting in verse 25, Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language who are living in all the land,

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May your peace abound. There's the address. Here's the decree. I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the

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God of Daniel. For he is the living God and enduring forever, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and his dominion will be forever.

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He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has also delivered

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Daniel from the power of the lions. This is the second king that Daniel has influenced in a profound way.

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Nebuchadnezzar, of course, and now Darius the Mede, and that's an incredible decree.

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He decrees that all men in his vast kingdom, remember this is the largest kingdom in the world at that time, and that all men should fear

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God. And he lists a couple of the characteristics of God to make his point. He is the living

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God, making a distinction that all the gods of Babylon, he knew they were dead.

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They were not real. The everlasting, the eternal

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God. His kingdom will know no end. And he says something very profound.

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He is active in his kingdom, both in heaven and on earth. He is a God who is involved with his creation.

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He performs signs and wonders. Then he says, gets personal, and he rescues people just as he did

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Daniel. That's a doxology. Set that to music and we could sing that in the worship service.

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The author of the book graciously tells us what the result of all these things, what happened to Daniel, verse 28.

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So this Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the

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Persian. This is a very fitting ending to the historical section of the book.

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Remember, Daniel split somewhat in two from chapters 1 to 6, and then from 7 to 12.

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Daniel has not only survived in captivity. He's thrived.

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Next week we'll move on to the prophetic portion of Daniel. But before we do that,

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I want to recap a couple of the themes. Remember in the first message

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I delivered to you, I gave you five points why we're studying this book.

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And one of them was that it points us to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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And we've seen this from the very beginning in the book of, in typology. Remember in the very beginning,

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Nebuchadnezzar has the dream and he insists that his magicians tell him what the dream is, then interpret it.

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And they can't. So he sentences every one of them, them and their families, all to death.

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And Daniel enters and saves their lives by interpreting the king's dream. There's a typology there of condemned to death and being raised to life.

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But then in an even more graphic way, we saw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego actually cast into the fire.

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A death sentence for sure, yet God preserves the men. And in the midst of the fire, they come out unscathed by the flames.

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Don't even smell like smoke. That's a type of death and resurrection. But now

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Daniel faces certain death in the lion's den. But God shuts their mouths and Daniel exits the den completely unharmed.

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I want to take a couple of seconds here. I want to look at the similarities between Daniel's experience and the death and resurrection of Christ.

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Both of them were condemned by false witnesses and false charges. In both cases, the witnesses conspired to have them killed using lies and deception.

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Both were to die by cruel means. Both were placed in a tomb of sorts,

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Christ in a tomb, and the lion's den was certainly like a tomb. In both cases, a stone was placed over the entrance to the tomb.

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In both cases, the stone was sealed, and after the allotted time, both

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Daniel and Christ came out of the tomb alive. And when the experience was over,

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Daniel enjoyed success in the empire, and Christ came out of the grave and said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

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There is no question but that the book of Daniel points directly to Jesus Christ.

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Second, how do we prepare to face times of adversity as believers in Jesus Christ?

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How should a Christian respond when living in an ungodly nation?

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My first thoughts, and I said, how am I going to answer this? And I started mentally making notes.

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And I said, this is going to be a difficult question to answer because circumstances vary greatly.

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Then I realized Daniel gave us a very simple answer. I think it's profound, but very simple.

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And it's all through the text of Daniel. How does a Christian prepare for times of adversity?

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By living every day constantly before the face of God.

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It's that simple, brothers and sisters. The number one goal of the

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Christian in good times and in bad times is the same, live coram Deo, before the face of God.

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Remember what the scripture says, whether you're eating or drinking, do all for the glory of God. Paul says, work out your sanctification with fear and trembling.

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The goal of the Christian is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. If you're working on that and that alone, the good times, the bad times will be irrelevant to you.

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Paul says, what is the will of God for your life in 1 Thessalonians 4? But your sanctification.

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If that's your goal, all the circumstances of life will work out for your good.

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So then it's no wonder that the name of Daniel brings thoughts of the lions, then is it? He was not only a picture, a type of Christ in that den, but he was an example for every believer as well.

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Daniel had no injuries because he trusted God. You know, a lot of people didn't sleep well that night.

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I'm sure all of Daniel's friends, the king didn't sleep. King's sleep fled from him, it says.

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But I suspect that Daniel slept very well. I think he had a nice furry pillow to lay down on.

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Christian, why do you worry so much? Why do you fear?

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Simply trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

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If you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, you have reason to fear.

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Come to Jesus Christ, repent of your sin, trust in him and obey him.