Kingdom Down: A Study in DanielSample

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the Lion’s Den

New chapter, new king. Enter Darius, who decrees that only he should be worshiped. Sound familiar? Anyone who infringes will be thrown into a den of lions. Behind all these kings is the same spirit trying to eradicate God’s people.

At this point, Daniel’s been serving multiple political leaders, multiple governmental agencies, multiple generations, and he is still chosen by Darius while in his 90’s because he's incredibly helpful. To give it some equivalency, they set up 120 satraps, which would be kind of like our 94 district courts. Then there is an appeals court over that, and this would be like the Supreme Court, which has nine justices. They had three, and Daniel is one of the three. That's amazing. He's a slave, not even part of this nation, and was part of the political establishment for the prior administration and prior nation.

Ultimately, God gives us His Spirit so that we can be worshipers of Him, witnesses to Him, bringing forth the character of Christ under pressure and duress. Character counts. This guy Daniel has been in politics for 70 years, and they do a big investigation to try to discredit him, and what do they find? Nothing.

Even with this crazy decree, Daniel doesn’t waver in his dedication to the Lord. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, this guy prays in his home with the windows open. He’s not hiding his faith. That’s a lot of nerve. When the king hears this, his heart sinks. He doesn’t want to hurt Daniel, but the decree he signed is irreversible.

So into the lion’s den Daniel goes. He spends the night there, and when he’s taken out in the morning, they see that he wasn’t harmed because he had trusted in his God. Faith, not fear, leads to deliverance, not to destruction. The next part you probably didn’t read in your children’s Bible: the king commanded that the men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions. The moral of the story is that you only get delivered if you know God. This is a precursor to eternal death in the pit of hell for those who don’t know Jesus.

Then King Darius sends out a national decree that everyone must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. The non-Christians are learning about Jesus here. Therefore, Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian. This is the beginning of the return of God's people back to their homeland 700 miles away in Israel, so that Jesus could one day come.

We see here that courage is infectious. So is fear. If you are afraid, everybody gets afraid. If you are courageous, other people get courageous. To encourage someone literally means to pour courage into them.

What pit do you find yourself in? How can you receive courage from God in it?