The Book of Daniel describes a
difficult time period for the Israelite people. The nation of Babylon has
attacked. The Israelite army has been defeated, the City of Jerusalem is in
ruin and the Temple has been destroyed. Along with this suffering a large
portion of the population has been forced to march from Jerusalem to Babylon. These
exiles are to be integrated into Babylonian society and culture. Included in
those taken from Jerusalem was a Daniel. The King of Babylon wanted some of
Israel’s best and brightest. Daniel is recognized as a young talented leader
and administrator. After going through a three year Babylonian royal training
program Daniel has proven himself as a trusted leader and skilled
administrator. When the training program ends Daniel is appointed as an adviser
to the King.
King Darius decides that he would
like to reorganize his kingdom so he appoints 120 satraps and to oversee those
satraps the King places three administrators. These administrators are to report directly to
Darius. One of those administrators was Daniel. In short order Daniel proves
himself to be so impressive that the King decides he only wants one administer
reporting to him. The King places Daniel over the other two administrators.
The other two administrators are upset
about the arraignment of power so they conspire to dig up some dirt on Daniel.
If they could find some dirt on Daniel then they could get rid of him. Daniel
is a man of great honor and trustworthiness and the other administrators
quickly discover that there is no dirt on Daniel. The two administrators come
up with a new plot. They know that Daniel is a Jew and they know that three
times a day, while down on his knees, he faces Jerusalem and he prays to the God
of Israel. The two administrators go to King Darius and armed with a new tactic
against Daniel. They suggest to the King that he should issue a new edict that
no one could overturn including the King himself. The administrators tell the
King that he should insist that everyone in his kingdom pray to and worship
only the King. They further suggest that if anyone breaks this edict than they should
be cast in to the lion’s den. King Darius considered the two administrators new
idea and then issues the new edict they suggested. All of this get us from
Daniel chapter one to Daniel chapter 6:10-28.
The story of Daniel in the Lion’s
Den is one of those epic and famous Biblical stories. If you have ever seen any
artwork depicting the story of Daniel in the Lion’s den you might notice a
common theme. Most all of the artwork depicts Daniel as calm, unafraid, praying
and focused on God. Often the lions in the artwork are depicted as asleep or
gently keeping an eye on Daniel from the other side of the den. Why is this
interesting? Well, all of the artwork depicts a scene that the biblical story
never tells us.
In the story of Daniel and the Lion’s den all we are given
is the story from the vantage point of King Darius. We are not ushered into the
lion’s den. We have no idea what occurs in the den. The part of the story that
most artwork depicts is not part of the story that we are not told. All we know
is that Daniel is placed in the lion’s den and the King places a large rock on
top the den to close it. We have no idea what happens. Perhaps the author of
Daniel, by leaving out what happens in the lion’s den, is trying to make a
point. Could it be that this story is telling us something about ourselves,
about God and our relationship to lions. Since the story does not let us into
the lion’s den then we have a moment for speculation.
What is it about Daniel’s story that makes him different
from others that were thrown into the lion’s den and devoured instantly? Daniel
decided that even though there was a law that said he could not pray to his God
or he would be thrown into the lion’s den he decided to devote his heart, life
and gratitude to the God he served. Thus the story of Daniel in the lion’s den tells
us that it is important to put God first. The story is all about idolatry and
idolatry is an incredibly major deal in the Bible. The very first commandment
in the 10 commandments is Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.”
It is interesting that this first commandment uses the word before. That word
before in Hebrew can mean above. In other words this commandment implies that
God thinks that we have other gods. God is acknowledging that we have other
“gods” vining for attention and loyalty. Is that not strange? Shouldn’t this
command just read something like “you will have no other gods because they are
all false and fake.” God is suggesting that there might be other gods striving
to get your attention and allegiance yet I (God) am to occupy that position.
The number one thing we are supposed to know is that there are no other gods.
Seems to me that God recognizes the way we humans have been
made. We have this incredible ability to become incredibly attached to the
things in our life. We have this ability from a very young age to fall in love
with “that toy.” All the things in our life have the capacity to function like
gods our career, our bodies, our bank account, our relationships, our family. All
of these can function like a god when we they become the most important thing
in our lives. They become god like to us. We bow down to them. We serve them.
We hope they won’t hurt us. We hope it will continue on. We pay homage to them.
This is what God is confronting in us.
The Bible tells us that we humans
are created in God’s image and sometimes what we do is project onto God human
traits that we have. So we imagine that God has certain personality traits that
are similar to our own. So we might assume that the reason God wants to be
first is because he has some unmet needs. He needs praise and recognition
otherwise he is like a spoiled child. God needs our help to make sure that he
is secure in himself. God does not need us to put God first for God’s sake. God
is not in the business of nor does he have any interest in your and my praise
for his sake. God wants to be first for our sake. God does not need our help.
So why put him first? For our sake. It changes us.
God knows something that we kind of
know but we stay asleep to it most of the time. What we tend to forget is that
God has no birth date or death date. God does not have a beginning, middle or
an end. It is this God that created everything and called it good. Yet what God
created by its nature is passing away. It has a birth date and a death date. It
has a beginning, middle, and end. It is a beautiful and wonderful gift as long
as you understand that you are not to worship it because it will hurt you. You
and I will suffer if we get this out of order. If the created worships another
created element then that is when the pain starts. The only way for the lions
not to devour us is for us to put God first. This is difficult relationship to
sort out sometimes. Since God is invisible and the created world is visible. We
can look around at all of these wonderful things and forget that we have to get
our priorities straight. When we get this right things tend to go a little
better. When we get this wrong then suffering happens. We are experts at
getting our priorities mixed up.
I was helping my youngest son with some math homework when
he was in kindergarten. He was working on placement value. For example if you
have a 1 and a 0 next to each other that is a ten. My son was getting a little
confused because the teacher would add 0 before the one. So you had a 0 and
then a 1. He thought he was looking a 10. So we had to do a little lesson. I
can place as many 0 as I want before the 1 and it does really change the value
of that 1. (No decimal point involved here. Stay with me.) Yet, if I put a 0 to
the right of the 1 then the value of the 1 changes. You would have 10, 100,
1000 you get the idea. You could keep adding 0. The more 0 you add to the right
of the 1 the more value is given to the 1 and to the 0 as well.
That is a good illustration of
idolatry. Take your health, your body, your job, your imagined future, your whatever
in you your life and it is a zero. It is it’s nature. There a lots of these
zeros in our life. Every new thing that gets added to your life is a new zero.
Yet there is always and only a single one. That one is God, the creator not the
created. Anything in our life that we put before the one becomes valueless. Not
only that but it can lead to a lot of pain. Every time that we put a zero after
the one we become rich beyond our imagination.
The story of Daniel and the Lion’s
den is the story of a guy who got it right. The lions were just zeros and they
could not hurt him. Daniel focused on God. He prayed 3 times a day because he
wanted to be sure that he had the number 1 thing in the number 1 position in
his life. Then guess what – the lions (the zeros in our lives) don’t have to
devour you. The lions don’t go away but they can’t hurt you. Jesus promised that
in this life you will have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world
(John 16:33).
Put the 1 in the right spot. That
is what the first commandment is all about. You will have no other zeros before
this one. When you actually put the zeros after the one it becomes more
valuable. When you take your job, your family, your whatever in your life that
you would be incredibly terrified if you lost it and subordinate it to the one
it is actually raised up. This is what is possible.
Where does this start? It starts in
the lion’s den were nobody can see. It starts in the heart where you start to
prioritize God above everything else. The commitment to pursue the Kingdom of
God first and then add all the zeros. We all face problems and stress in our
lives. Many of those problems seem overwhelming. Some of those problems are no
larger than our head. They are these things that are in our head that like a
den of lions we fear will devour us. We think that they are the gods of the
universe and like a lion the problems and issues we face will devour us.
The moment we step out of priority
then then lions will devour us. The priority in those problems and issues that
we face is to devote our heart to the creator of the universe. Ask for that
help. God I am in the lion’s den so please help me to keep things in the right
priority. Now we will always get our ones and zeros in the wrong place. It is
not about fix this one time and be done. It is moment by moment keeping our
zeros behind the one. At the end of the story King Darius has this song where
he tries to describe the thing that has no beginning or end “For he is the
living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his
dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders
in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the
lions.”
As you face the various lion’s dens in your life keep in
mind that the God of Daniel does the impossible.
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