In The Lion's Den (Daniel 6:1-22)

Good morning everybody. We are in the book of Daniel. You'll recall we've been going through Daniel and we are on Daniel chapter six this morning. So, I want to read that and then we'll dive right in. Let's read Daniel six through verse 22, and I'm just going to read it and you can listen.

This is perhaps the most famous chapter of Daniel. Kids, do you know the story of Daniel in the lion's den? You know that one? Well, that's the one we're about to hear. So, if you want to picture this story because it is a very vivid story and you want to close your eyes, I give you permission to close your eyes as I read this as long as you try not to fall asleep and you try to pay attention, alright? So, let's listen to God's word.

Daniel 6:1-22

Darius decided to appoint 120 Satraps over the kingdom, stationed throughout the realm and over them, three administrators including Daniel. These Satraps would be accountable to them so that the king would not be defrauded. Daniel distinguished himself above the administrators and Satraps because he had an extraordinary spirit. So, the king planned to set him over the realm. The administrators and satraps therefore kept trying to find a charge against Daniel regarding the kingdom but they could find no charge or corruption for he was trustworthy and no negligence or corruption was found in him. Then, these men said, we will never find any charge against this Daniel unless we find something against him concerning the law of his God. So, the administrators and satraps went together to the king and they said to him, making Darius live forever. All the administrators of the kingdom, the prefects, satraps, advisers, and governors have agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an edict that for thirty days, anyone who petitions any god or any man except you, the king, should be thrown to the lion's den. Therefore, your majesty, establish the edict and sign the document so that as a law of the Medes and Persian, it is irrevocable and cannot be changed. So, King Darius signed the written edict. When Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house. The windows in its upstairs room opened towards Jerusalem and three times a day, he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God just as he had done before. Then, these men went as a group and found Daniel petitioning and imploring his God. So, they approached the king and asked him about his edict. Didn't you sign an edict that for thirty days, any person who petitions any god or man except you, oh king, will be thrown into the lion's den? The king answered, as a law of the Medes and Persians, the order stands and is irrevocable. Then, they replied to the king. Well, Daniel, one of the Judean exiles, has ignored you, the king, and the edict you signed, for he prays three times a day. As soon as the king heard this, he was very displeased. He set his mind on rescuing Daniel and made every effort until sundown to deliver him. Then, these men went together to the king and said to him, you know your majesty that it is the law of the Medes and Persians that no edict or ordinance the king establishes can be changed. So, the king gave the order and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, may your God who you continually serve rescue you. A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den. The king sealed it with his own signet ring and the signet ring of his nobles so that nothing in regard to Daniel could be changed. Then, the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him and he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lion's den. When he reached the den, he cried out in anguish to Daniel. Daniel, servant of the living God, the king said, has your God whom you continually serve been able to rescue you from the lions? Then Daniel spoke with the king. May the king live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth and they haven't harmed me. For I was found innocent before him and also before you, your majesty, I have done no harm. — Daniel 6:1-22

This is God's word. Let's pray.

Lord God, would you illumine the words of scripture to our hearts? Would we be able to understand and discern the message that you have for us today? And help us to apply that to our lives in a way that makes us more like Christ. We pray this in your Son's name. Amen.

Well, let me ask you a question this morning. Have you ever missed someone? I mean, really missed them? Like, been just heartbroken, sick with longing because you want to be with that person? Well, this last week, my wife went to the Laity Lodge Retreat in Texas. And so she left on Thursday morning and has been gone ever since then. And I want to tell you that I really miss her.

I really miss her because she's my wife and I love her. But I also really miss her because we had five soccer games, a basketball game, and two dance rehearsals, a birthday party—all this weekend. And trying to get to all of that is quite a lot. My life does not work without Katie Sutton.

What's even worse is that someone told me it was healthy to try lifting weights from time to time. What I didn't realize is that if you do that wrongly, you can really hurt yourself. And so on Thursday morning, I woke up, tried to get out of my bed, and the pain in my back was so unbearable because I had done squats with too much weight that I almost passed out from the pain. So fortunately, my parents have come up to help me, but I really, really am missing Katie Sutton right now.

Now, why do I begin with that? Partially because I miss my wife, but partially also because I think that understanding the original audience who would have read this text and their current state of affairs is really important to kind of understanding the message of this text—the point. And I think often times we miss the point because we just try to bypass them and go straight to us.

So here's what I want to review with you. Why are the people in Babylon? They're in Babylon because they have been exiled. I want you to think about and remember what that's like, what happened to them at the beginning of this book. The Babylonians came in as a judgment from God and they took the people away from the land, destroyed the temple, and basically cut off any hope of a long-term future of their kingdom.

Now, inherent in that, with the destruction of the temple, the people lost their very special direct connection with God. It was almost like a divorce. Do you see? God had essentially said, "Enough is enough. You have turned away from me again and again, and so I'm kicking you out." That's what happened. That's where the people were. They had experienced the judgment of God.

Imagine the guilt of that. It would be as though Katie, instead of going to a retreat, had said to me, "I'm done with you and all of your silly weightlifting, doing things that hurt yourself, and going off and doing all the silly things that you do. I'm going away." If that had been the case, the longing that I felt for her would be very different. It would be mixed with guilt. It would be just an incredible, terrible feeling of angst and guilt-ridden loneliness. That's where the people were who were reading this story originally. They're in Babylon longing to be back in Jerusalem.

So I want you to understand as we're reading this: there is an adjustment, an application. The way we apply this text to us is that we also are in exile, brothers and sisters. Right? It started in the garden, but human beings were exiled from the presence of God. All of us are included in that. And those of us who are still God's people, we have this promise that God is going to restore that connection and bring us to heaven with him. But those of us who are here as the church—this is not where we live. This is not our home. This is not our world. We are waiting to be reunited, and that longing to be reconnected should be our heart's cry, similar to the Jewish people who were in exile in Babylon.

And in fact, if you read the New Testament, there is a kind of constant reference to Babylon as the world and Jerusalem as the church. Okay?

So with that in mind, I want to look at three different things this morning. I want to look at Daniel's dependence. I want to look at Daniel's independence. And then I want to look very closely at this den—this lion's den that Daniel is in. So that's all Ds for those of you who are paying attention: dependence, independence, and Daniel's den.

Daniel's Dependence

Let's look at Daniel's dependence. Here's where I'm going to go. Kids, you're going to see your pastor fight with every children's Bible you've ever read. Are you ready? I'm challenging them. I'm calling them out.

Because every children's Bible I've ever read—almost everyone anyway—teaches this story like this. It goes something like this: Daniel is an incredibly faithful prayer warrior, isn't he? He prays three times a day with his window open so everyone can see, even though they're going to judge him, even though the king has issued an edict, even though he's risking his life. He is a great prayer warrior. Isn't he so amazing? God is really lucky to have a guy like Daniel praying to him so much, so committed and so dedicated to him. And his dedication to God is so good that God is just like, "You know what? When his life comes into danger, I don't have a lot of guys that pray to me like that guy. So we're not going to let the lions eat him." And God comes in and saves him, right?

Have you ever read a children's Bible that's kind of like that? Like, hey, the point is, you should be an incredible prayer warrior like Daniel. Dare to be a Daniel. Now, I want to say, if you walk away from this text and your takeaway is like, "Hey, I should pray more"—that's not terrible. The Bible does say that in a lot of places. I just don't think that's the point of this passage, or it is at least an incomplete understanding of what this call to prayer really looks like.

I want you to go with me on this. Try to imagine that you've never experienced this thing called prayer and you suddenly see somebody do it, right? Like, imagine you are a rank pagan. You have never experienced a Christian. You are used to doing life on your own terms, figuring it out your own way, and then all of a sudden, you see this person who gets down on their knees, closes their eyes, no one's around them, and they start begging and pleading some invisible force to save them or do the things that they're asking for. Does that look like an incredibly impressive thing?

Here's my thesis: I think most of us, because we grew up in the American South perhaps where we're surrounded by Christendom most of our lives, we tend to think of prayer as this incredibly righteous activity. Like, it's this thing that shows that we are really good people. In fact, I knew a guy once who only prayed in King James English. "Dear lord, thou art mighty"—and I mean, just elaborated on all the things that he knew theologically in King James and then he would end his prayer and be like, "Hey, James. How are you?" And I'm like, "Why are you praying that way?" And it was clear that he was using prayer to kind of show off all that he knew.

Now, I do think, to be fair, he was really trying to show respect to God and I get that. But I contrast that with when we started praying with Mount Pleasant years ago. When you pray with those prayer warriors, there is no King James. There is no pretense. There is just absolute sobbing, absolute wretchedness before God where they are just pouring out their hearts. I think that's what Daniel's prayer probably looked like.

I think the reason why everybody knew what he was doing—he's up there on the second floor—I do think that's what the Satraps were trying to trap him with, right? But I think it was audible. I think Daniel was weeping. I think he was on his knees shouting. I don't think this was a King James kind of put-together Presbyterian kind of prayer. I think this was a Mount Pleasant—"I'm wrecked before you, oh Lord. Please bring us back to Jerusalem." That's why the window looks at Jerusalem. "Please bring us back to the temple where we can meet with you face to face. Please, oh Lord, deliver us. Lord, thank you for preserving us, but Lord, bring us back into your presence."

Do you see the dependence of Daniel? He's not the hero. He's the damsel in distress of this story. He's on his knees begging the hero to come and rescue him. Brothers and sisters, that's what real prayer looks like.

And I want you to understand too, I think we often have lots of misconceptions about prayer—like that it needs to be some sort of put-together thing in order for God to hear it. I want you to also see there's a contrast in this passage with the way that Daniel is praying and the way that the Satraps are praying. Did you notice that they pray too? Who are they praying to? They're praying to Darius. "Oh lord, king, great are you. May you live forever. Now, we will attempt to manipulate you into doing what we want."

Do you see? Sometimes we pray that way. But the prayer of the Satraps—it is a contrast for us in this passage. This is not what it looks like to interact with your king. You interact with your king in an incredibly personal way, regular way, and in a way that you understand that he is sovereign and king and lord and is not going to be manipulated by you, but instead knows what is best for you beyond what even you know. And so you get on your knees and you plead and you beg and you are in his presence and he is with you, and that is what prayer looks like.

Do you see how that shifts this story? And also notice too that their prayer is to a god who cannot give them the salvation that they want. Darius is very not sovereign in this passage. He gets tricked into issuing a decree and then, you know, "I'm sorry, guys. I'd love to save Daniel, but there's just nothing I can do about it."

We don't pray to a god like that. We pray to a god who is absolutely in control and in power and can do whatever he wants and will do whatever he wants because he is that powerful.

Now, I want you to understand, this would have spoken to the original audience, right? Like, "Hey, has our God abandoned us? Did we not pray the right way? Should we manipulate him in some way?" No.

We pray like Daniel prayed. Is our God not able to save us? Like Darius is unable to save Daniel? Is that the problem? Is He just not that good, that big? No. That's not the problem. Our God is sovereign.

Now, for us, those of us who are in this exile wandering through this life, how do you pray? And who do you pray to? Are your prayers the put together prayers of "Lord, I'm coming to you because I am your servant and you're lucky to have me"? Are yours the desperate prayers of someone who has been exiled, who needs a sovereign and powerful God to rescue you?

I think that we need to be praying before God in the latter way because that is the right understanding of where we are and that is where God meets us.

Daniel's Independence

Let's look at the second point. I want you to look at Daniel's independence. So we looked at his dependence. He's very dependent upon God. He's constantly going before Him. He is not the hero. He's the damsel but notice that he's also very independent in this passage. In fact, he is the most independent person in this story.

Notice to begin with that Daniel is a slave, right? The administrations have changed over the years throughout the book of Daniel. We start with the Babylonians. Now we're into the Medes and the Persians but that doesn't change his situation. He is not free to go back to Jerusalem. He is not free to do whatever he wants and even though he has risen in power and in rank, he's second in control, but he is still a slave.

And yet, and yet, he's the only one that demonstrates any kind of independence. Notice the satraps, right? They seem kind of independent at the beginning. They're operating kind of covertly, manipulating the king, doing whatever they want because they're going to get Daniel and try to bring him down to their level, right? They're going to trick the king and Daniel in order to elevate themselves. But if you read on past our passage a little bit, you find out that what happens at the end of this story is they get thrown into the lion's den and eaten. They're trapped by their own trap by the end of the story.

Now let's apply that to us. Do you who are in exile here ever feel like there are forces that are working to trick you and trap you based on your faith, based on who you are, based on the fact that you don't belong here, that are trying to work against you in every way, shape, and form? Have you ever experienced that?

Well, the Bible says you will if you haven't. It says that our enemies are the dark forces of this world and they are constantly at work trying to undo us. But you know what the end of the story is? The spiritual forces of darkness that work against us, that are trying to trap us, that are trying to kill us, wind up in their own trap. Satan who accuses you before the Lord every day for your sin is the one who winds up in hell imprisoned for his. So remember that. It's meant to be an encouragement to you.

Notice also that Daniel is free to ignore the commands of the king. That's something even the king can't do. Do you see? The king issues this decree: don't pray. Daniel's like, I'm praying. Don't care about what you say. The king's like, well, I don't really want to kill you, Daniel, but I gotta obey the law. Sorry. And Daniel's like, well, I don't really want to obey your law. So I'm going to pray.

Do you see his independence? Do you see how incredible that is? The forces of this world, they create laws for us. There's certain dynamics that exist within the human race. It's called our sin nature. There's a sin natural law, if you will, that is at work where there's a certain degree to which there are certain things that normal human beings can't just stop doing—like sinning, like continuing to have self-interest like the Satraps, or continuing to hide behind different rules instead of taking responsibility for their actions. "I'd love to stop this murder but I really can't because of the rule, right?" That's what normal human beings do but I want you to see Daniel's free from that.

He's free from all the rules, from all the need to excel at all costs of the Satraps. He doesn't care about any of that and why is he so free? Why is he so independent? It's because he's in love with something else. He's in love with someone else other than himself.

You see, Daniel has experienced the kingdom of love, hope, and joy. He's not going to settle for this kingdom. He's not going to abide by its rules. He's not going to be tricked or trapped by its snares. He would give up being second in command in the kingdom of Babylon to be a pauper in Jerusalem. Do you see that? Because he loves the temple. Because he loves the Lord. He'd die before he gives up prayer because he's not going to allow the world to rob him of one glorious second with his God. And he lives by a radically different set of laws.

The laws of love and of shalom, peace, and hope. In short, the reason that he's so independent and free is because he's not from this world. My parents, I mentioned, are in town. I'm instructing my children in the past of American pop culture. So my kids were treated to a television episode of the original Superman, the black and white one. I don't know if they enjoyed it. I haven't had a chance to debrief with them yet. But Superman is a great example, right? That is an example of how Daniel's acting in this situation. He's totally from another world. So he's totally able to do all kinds of incredible independent things.

Brothers and sisters, the more you gaze at Christ, the more you fall in love with his kingdom of love, right? As the song says, the things on earth will grow strangely dim and all of a sudden, you don't care about those things. You're suddenly set free from those things in ways that make you look very different than everyone around you. And that's what has happened to Daniel.

Daniel's Den as a Pseudo-Temple Experience

Okay, we've looked at Daniel's dependence. We've looked at his independence. Finally, I want to look at his den, this den that he's in. I think that there are some beautiful literary devices at work here that we just miss, I think, so often. I mean, here's my thesis. You'll see if you agree with me by the end, but I believe that Daniel in the lion's den—the original readers would have read this as though it was a pseudo-temple. It was a pseudo-temple experience. Okay. And some of you are looking at me like, yeah, okay. I hear you. Prove it. Let's do it.

Alright. Notice that Daniel gets thrown into this lion's den, right? And there's a very personal engagement that he has with God. He describes it to Darius as the Lord's messenger—a translation that we read said "angel," but that's all angel is. It means messenger. So the Lord's messenger meets with him in this den. Now understand that the temple was a very personal engagement with God. The most personal up to that date where the priest would go into the Holy of Holies, right? And he would encounter the Shekinah glory of God. Seated like what he would have seen, right, was the ark of the covenant with two angels covering what was meant to be the footrest of God's throne. So he would have seen angels or messengers, but the idea was that in between all of that, there was a more close engagement with God. So Daniel being in this lion's den and encountering the messenger of God is very similar to the temple in that regard, okay?

Now, I'm going to also say this. This is another spoiler. I think the messenger is Jesus himself. And I think lots of people disagree with me in the evangelical world, and I respect those people, but even they agree that this person, this messenger, is meant to represent Jesus. Daniel has been praying, begging for an intimate encounter with God his whole life. We're at the end of his life now—from Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, different administrations of oppression. He's been longing to be back in front of his king, his God, his Lord of love, and he gets thrown into a lion's den where he actually gets what he's been praying for.

Second thing that I want you to see that I think will help you see this as a temple is there's a judgment aspect to this, right? What does he say?

For I was found innocent before him.

Right? I was found innocent, right? So there's a courtroom aspect to this. By the way, was there a courtroom aspect to the temple? The priest would go and make atonement for the people, but you know, they would tie a rope around the high priest. Why? Because if he was found guilty, what happens? Dead. Drag him out so we don't have to go in there and die, right? That's how the temple worked. There's a very deadly aspect to the temple and a judgment aspect to it, and Daniel is experiencing that. Here he is in the presence of these lions, this almost certain death sentence that the king issued, but there's another judgment going on and he's found innocent, it says.

Now, this is particularly interesting because you know, Daniel's name—do you know what it means? The Lord is my judge. Let me ask you this. Can you imagine what it would be like to walk through life almost your whole life being a leader of a group of people that were kicked out of the promised land, judged for their sin and wandering from God, and then your name is "the Lord is my judge"? That's not a good feeling, I don't think. But I think when Daniel is in this lion's den and he encounters who I'm arguing is Jesus, and Jesus says, "Hey, I find you innocent," all of a sudden, that name shifts, right? It totally flips. It becomes a whole different kind of experience. "I, the Lord, am your judge." Believers, do we know what that feels like?

Do we know what it feels like to experience the risen Christ coming to us and saying, hey, you are sinners. You deserve to be found guilty but I find you innocent. Notice the language is found. He didn't say, God knows I'm innocent. He said, the Lord found me innocent.

There's one final aspect of this temple that I want you to see. There was a garden aspect to this temple. Have you studied the Old Testament? You know that the kind of adornments within the temple were like vegetables. They were flora and fauna, right? Flowers. Why? Because the temple was kind of viewed as a return of sorts to the garden back into the presence of God.

You know what else was true of the garden? There was no death in the garden prior to the fall. So this messenger shows up. He declares Daniel innocent and then he shuts the mouths of the lions.

In prophetic literature, it's very popular to symbolize this return to this fellowship with God where death and sorrow and sickness have no place. In fact, Isaiah 11:6 says this:

The wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fatted calf will be together and a child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. The young ones will lie down together and the lion will eat straw like cattle. — Isaiah 11:6

When the Lord comes and enters, he issues his kingdom. When we get into his kingdom, we no longer have to feel wild animals devouring us because death has no place.

Tim Keller made this point in a sermon I heard once where he talks about the miracles of Jesus. He says, if you evaluate the miracles of Jesus and you think about all of the things that Jesus could've done, they're pretty bad displays of raw power. God has in the Bible all kinds of examples like the pharaoh and the plagues, where there's just these raw displays of power. Jesus shows up and he's healing the sick. He's calming storms, casting out demons, raising the dead. Keller makes this point: the miracles of Jesus aren't just there to display his power and his divinity. They're actually places where he pulls back the veil and shows us what the kingdom that he's ushering in will actually be like.

Daniel is experiencing that in the den. If God wanted to show off his raw power, show that he was for Daniel, he could've brought plagues upon the Persians. He could've come down in a glory cloud and zapped everybody dead like in Indiana Jones, right? He could have done all sorts of things. But instead, he chose to bring Daniel into the lion's den where he experienced perhaps the most intense suffering and hardship of his life and he met with him there and he showed him that when you are with me, there is nothing to fear.

And isn't that how the Lord works? Isn't that where he meets with us in our suffering? Recently, we had a marriage conference and Elizabeth Alexander shared a little bit about the struggle that she's facing and the battle she's facing with cancer and what that has meant for their family. And the conference leader, Doctor John Cox—for those of you who are there, you remember this moment because we were all crying. I could see all of you. I was standing up there. And rather than just answering her question, Doctor Cox did something incredible. He paused. He stopped the conference and he said, you know what? I feel like I should take off my shoes because we're on holy ground.

Jesus Is Our Temple in Suffering

Brothers and sisters, when we experience suffering, we don't experience it alone. This part of Daniel was written to remind the exiles that even though they were away from the temple, the Lord had never left them. In fact, in the most intense moments of their suffering, they could encounter him face to face just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and just like Daniel. The temple was there in their suffering and you know why? Because Jesus is our temple. And when we are unified with him in his sufferings, we meet with him face to face. He is there and he is present in our sufferings.

Brothers and sisters, we need to hear that. We need to hear that if we are to live as free people like Daniel lived, as dependent people like Daniel lived. Because Jesus is there. He's meeting us in the places that are hard and there are a lot of places, brothers and sisters. I know this because I stand up at the front of the room at marriage conferences and I see tears. And because I have the privilege of being in a front seat and meeting with many of you over coffee, there are many places where the Lord is meeting with us in suffering.

And he wants to remind you that you're not alone, that he's there. I'm going to conclude with this illustration or this kind of point because I think this naturally—the story naturally lends itself to this question.

God delivers Daniel from the lion's den. But he doesn't always deliver everyone, does he? If you're any kind of student of church history, you know that in the early church, there was an emperor named Nero who was a sort of successor to Darius and Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar in many ways—an oppressor of God's people. And he liked to feed people to lions in the coliseum, particularly Christians. And they didn't make it. The lions ate them. And the reports of those saints as they were going to be eaten was that they were singing praises. They were praying. And a question I get a lot, sometimes back when I was teaching world history from a Christian perspective, is: Did they do it wrong? Daniel did it right. Did they do something wrong?

Here's what I want you to see. For those who are part of another world, death becomes like the satraps, right? For those who have been redeemed in Christ, death is not a trap for us. It's a trap for itself. When we die, brothers and sisters, those of us who are in Christ go to be with the Lord. We are set free. We are given life and death itself dies. Just like the satraps. Do you see?

So the point isn't: pray like Daniel so God will think he's lucky to have you on his team and he'll spare you from all the suffering in the world. No, the point of this story is: pray like Daniel so that you can benefit from the glorious benefits of Christ our Lord who gives us hope beyond this world. You can become a citizen of this world, and whether you live or you die, you get life eternal with your beloved.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we rejoice that you meet us in the lion's dens of the world. Lord, that you're there. And Lord, we confess that oftentimes we think of prayer as a way to manipulate you or a way to put ourselves together and show that we're impressive spiritual people. But Lord, we confess this morning that we are desperate for you. That Lord, even though we may look put together, Lord, there is every single one of us in this room who is desperate to be reunited with you in some hurt or some pain or some failing. Lord, we long to be in your presence where we can hear your words saying, "I find you innocent" for the sins that we've committed.

Lord, we are wracked with guilt over that. And Lord, we long to be in your presence. Lord, we feel the exile of this world, the brokenness, the pain, the suffering. Lord, the ways in which our bodies fail us, the ways in which the systems of this world fail us—just like Darius and his edicts. Lord, they may be well intentioned, but they can do nothing for us. So we're desperate for your administration to come. And Lord, there is danger all around us. The enemy presses in on all sides and we feel it, and we are desperate for your deliverance.

Lord, make the great enemy. Make his traps fall on him as you did on the cross. And Lord, bring us home face to face with you. Lord, we pray in your name. Amen.