Daniel 6:10-12, 16-23 * September 6, 2009 * Pentecost 14 * Pastor
Pagels
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. And so it is with our summer sermon series, “A Great Cloud Of Witnesses.” For the past three months we have devoted ourselves to a study of a dozen Old Testament heroes of faith, people with names like Noah and Joshua and David and Solomon, and most recently Elisha.
This morning our series concludes with a closer look at another famous figure, a man God used to do great things, a man by the name of Belteshazzar. You might not recognize him by that name, but you are probably familiar with some of the things he did.
When Belteshazzar was just a boy, he was taken to a foreign land where he lived the rest of his life. As a young man he refused to defile himself by eating unclean food that had been sacrificed to idols. As an old man he refused to disobey God by obeying the royal command to worship no one but the king. And because he was unwilling to compromise his faith, he was thrown into a den of hungry lions.
If you didn’t know who I was talking about before, there is a good chance that you do now. Daniel will forever be connected with the lions' den, and for good reason. The fact that God sent an angel to shut the lions’ mouths and save Daniel’s life was a miracle. The fact that Daniel was willing to die before he would forsake his Lord was truly amazing.
But as amazing as that account is, it is only one chapter of what was an amazing life. Today it will be our privilege to look at some of the events that led up to that miracle, to review some of the other miracles that God performed for Daniel and through Daniel. And at the end of the day I pray that each of us will have a greater knowledge of and a deeper appreciation for…
DANIEL: THE STATESMAN PROPHET
If you can remember back to the time when you sat in history
class, or if you are a history student in school right now, you know that
history teachers are big on dates. Dates
make for easy test questions, but they are more important than that. Dates help us keep events in order. Dates can even help us put things in
perspective.
When it comes to Bible history, there aren’t too many dates to memorize. We don’t know exactly when Abraham lived. We can’t nail down an exact date for when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. But there is one date that is critical for understanding Old Testament history as well as the life of Daniel. That date is 586 BC.
In that year the Babylonians armies swept down from the
north and descended upon the tiny nation of
It would make sense to think (and many people probably do
think) that Daniel was among the exiles carried off to
When Daniel was still a young man (probably a teenager) the king handpicked him and three of his friends (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) to serve in the royal palace. It was an honor and a privilege, and it came with a number of perks. Besides receiving the best education money could buy for free, they were given a daily allotment of food and wine from the king’s table.
The problem was that the food that came from the royal table was unclean, and that put Daniel and his friends in a difficult position. They needed to decide: Should we keep our mouths shut (or at least full of food) and ignore God’s law, or should we refuse to eat it and risk everything?
Daniel couldn’t go against his conscience, so he went up to
the guard and made him an offer: “Please
test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and
water to drink. Then compare our
appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your
servants in accordance with what you see” (Daniel 1:12,13).
After ten days Daniel and his friends didn’t look as healthy as their peers. Thanks to God they looked better, and the guard allowed them to eat their vegetables and drink their water in peace. In addition to good health “to these four men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds” (Daniel 1:17). And that unique ability came in handy almost immediately.
In the second year of his reign King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, a dream that troubled him so much that he couldn’t sleep until he learned what it meant. He called in his magicians and enchanters and sorcerers and astrologers and demanded that they tell him his dream and its meaning, but they couldn’t tell him what it meant. They couldn’t even make up an explanation because Nebuchadnezzar either couldn’t or wouldn’t tell them what his dream was.
The king was so angry that he issued a decree that every one of his wise men be put to death, but before the execution order was executed Daniel intervened. He came before the king and said: “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come” (Daniel 2:27,28). And with God’s help Daniel explained in great detail both the king’s dream and its meaning (see the rest of Daniel 2 for the details).
Many years later Daniel was summoned back to the royal palace, but it wasn’t to interpret a dream. This time Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, was hosting a banquet. Even though the city was under siege, everyone was eating and drinking and being merry…until they saw the hand writing on the wall, literally.
The mood of the party changed when the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote: “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN” (Daniel 5:25) on the wall. When Belshazzar saw the mysterious hand and what it had written “his face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way” (Daniel 5:6).
Daniel’s interpretation didn’t make him feel any better either. He told the king: “This is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (Daniel 5:26-28). And that very night Daniel’s prophecy came true. Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede seized power.
That should have been the end of Daniel’s story. By this time he was an old man, and he was part of an old regime. Surely the new king would want to establish his own government. Surely he would want to surround himself with his own advisors. Right? Wrong! Darius not only kept Daniel on. He was so impressed by this Jewish exile that he planned to put him in charge of his whole kingdom (Daniel 6:3), a plan that didn’t sit too well with some of the king’s officials.
These men were jealous, and the seed of envy in their hearts
sprouted and grew into an evil plan.
First they tried to dig up some dirt from Daniel's past, but when they
couldn’t find any they came to this conclusion: “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel
unless it has something to do with the law of his God” (Daniel 6:5).
So the administrators and the satraps set a trap for Daniel. They went as a group to the king and said: “O King Darius, live forever! The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisors and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be thrown into the lions’ den” (Daniel 6:7). The king liked what he heard. He liked it so much that he put the decree in writing, and according the laws of the Medes and Persians once the decree was made into law it could not be repealed.
Daniel knew that this decree was aimed directly at him. Daniel knew that this decree put his life in danger. And Daniel knew that there was only one thing he could do. He prayed. Three times a day he prayed to the one true God. With the windows wide open Daniel got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God, just as he had done before (Daniel 6:10).
And when he did Daniel’s enemies thought that their prayers
had been answered. They used his faithfulness
against him, and they thought that it would only be a matter of time before
they were rid of him for good. They
reported to Darius what Daniel had done, and the king reluctantly threw him to
the lions with this parting wish: “May
your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you” (Daniel 6:16)!
That was a long night for Darius. He couldn’t eat. He couldn’t sleep, but Daniel slept like a baby. And when the king called out to Daniel early the next morning he found out why. Daniel said: “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king” (Daniel 6:22).
This account of deceit and divine intervention had a happy
ending, but instead of closing with the trite phrase “and Daniel lived happily
ever after,” the inspired record provides a more fitting conclusion. We are told that “when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because
he had trusted in his God” (Daniel 6:23).
Daniel was a statesman.
For the better part of seven decades he served as a loyal servant of the
king. God elevated him to a position of
leadership in
Daniel was also a prophet. Jesus said so himself (see Matthew 24:15). God not only gave him the ability to interpret dreams. His interpretations predicted the rise and fall of kingdoms, and the Lord allowed Daniel to see into the distant future to a time when he would establish an everlasting kingdom.
Daniel was a statesman and a prophet, but for us he is more than that. He is a model of obedient trust. As a young man Daniel stood up for what was right even when he felt the pressure to do what was wrong. As an old man Daniel refused to compromise his faith, no matter what the consequences. For all of us, young or old or in between, Daniel stands out as an example of a child of God who loved his Lord and lived his faith at all times.
If Daniel were here today maybe you wouldn't want to stand too close to him because he would be a little too bright. Maybe his shining example would reveal all of our faults and imperfections. Maybe you aren't so sure that you would be so strong if your faith was put to the test like Daniel. Maybe your conscience is sending you some guilty signals because you can remember a time when your faith was put to the test and you failed.
Guilt doesn't make us feel good, but guilt is good...when it exposes our sin and our need to be rescued from that sin. As faithful as Daniel was, he wasn't perfect. He wasn't saved because of the strength of his faith. He was saved by the object of his faith. Daniel prophetically referred to him as "a son of man" (Daniel 7:13). We know this man's name, Jesus.
Jesus lived a perfect life. Jesus declared to his followers: "I am...the life" (John14:6). Because Jesus took on himself the punishment we deserved, because Jesus suffered and died in our place, we have the hope of eternal life.
And so we look forward to the day when our Savior will descend from the clouds, when there will be a grand reunion of that great cloud of witnesses, people who were saved by God's grace and lived out their lives in obedient faith, people like Noah and Joshua and David and Daniel and you. Amen.