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All scripture is quoted from the New Living Translation.
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In 1876 a Chicago Sunday School teacher named Philip Paul Bliss wrote a song to help teach his students the book of Daniel.
Some of you learned it as a child:
"Dare to be a Daniel,
Dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
And dare to make it known!"
This song summarizes the message of Daniel not just for Sunday School children but also for the ancient Hebrew people– the Jews to whom this book was first read.
Except, that it wasn’t just about daring to be like Daniel. I mean, the people who were hearing these stories for the first time – were going thru tough times. They were captives in Babylon or were facing one of the other challenges that followed their return to Judah. Life was difficult. The enemies were big. The fields had been fallow for 70 plus years.
There were a lot of questions about how they could trust God – after all he had sent them into foreign exile for all those years. And the message of the book of Daniel is a response to these doubts and to these difficult times.
"Dare to be a Daniel,
Dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
And dare to make it known!"
Dare to go for it!
But not just because we’re inspired by great heros like Daniel – but because thru the stories of Daniel we see that God really is in control.
The reason we should dare to be a Daniel is because Daniel trusted that God was in control. This is the key point this morning.
The point of the story isn’t his wisdom or his bravery but that he had all of those things because he recognized who was in charge of the universe and he acted accordingly.
And as such he is a model for modern day believers, too.
Wednesday will be the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorists attacks. We’ll be remembering the horror and the heros.
And I’m sure that those memories are still fresh in your mind – where you were, what you were doing, how you felt – disbelief, anger, and that sense that things are out of control.
Tragedies happen...
People die...
The things we hold dearly are attacked...
But God is still in control and ultimately he wins! And since we know this – we can dare to be Daniels.
Dare to be a Daniel because Daniel trusted that God was in control – even in foreign territory.
That’s #1 – even in foreign territory.
So often we feel good about God and trusting him when everything is going well for us -- when we have good health -- when the people think that we’re brave heros -- when we’ve got a 20 game winning streak. But Daniel shines in foreign territory.
Note the unfavorable conditions – carted away from his homeland as a young man – forced to serve in the courts of foreign kings his whole adult life (all of whom seemed to have the brain capacity of turkey.) - threaten with death on occasion.
At the time of the lion story Daniel was in his 80’s or 90’s – without much hope that he would ever get to return to his homeland. Still, it’s in the midst of these less than ideal circumstances that he shines.
vs. 3 – “Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and princes. Because of his great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire empire.”
Kind of sounds like the story of Joseph, doesn’t it?
If you look back on the history of the Hebrew people you begin to realize that they spent a good portion of that history under foreign control or in foreign places -- Egypt, Babylon...
Life isn’t about having it together when everything is rosy – but how you deal with it when things aren’t working right -- when we’re in foreign territory.
Secondly, Daniel trusted that God was in control even when challenged.
All good people have critics.
People were not happy with Daniel. I mean, when you do well someone is going to get jealous and in Daniel’s case there seemed to be quite a few someones.
Vs. 4 – “Then the other administrators and princes began searching for some fault in the way Daniel was handling his affairs, but they couldn’t find anything to criticize. He was faithful and honest and always responsible. So they concluded, ‘Our only chance of finding grounds for accusing Daniel will be in connection with the requirements of his religion.’
“So the administrators and princes went to the king and said, “Long live King Darius! We administrators, prefects, princes, advisers, and other officials have
unanimously agreed that Your Majesty should make a law that will be strictly enforced. Give orders that for the next thirty days anyone who prays to anyone, divine or human—except to Your Majesty—will be thrown to the lions.”
You know how the story goes. The King, who is as dense as a block of iron, goes along with the idea.
Daniel’s enemies set-up a stake-out at his place and they catch him in the act of praying to the Hebrew God – the Lord – Yahweh – and not just once – but three times – a day!
vs. 10 – “But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God. The officials went together to Daniel’s house and found him praying and asking for God’s help.”
Daniel hears about this new less than half-baked rule– and what does he do? File a constitutional challenge? Appeal to the king? Set-up a Hebrew protest to march thru the streets demonstrating against the injustice of it all? Does he take out a newspaper ad? Does he set-up a petition drive.
No, he goes home and quietly ignores the rule. No grandstanding. No speeches.
He just prays according to the pattern he had adopted –three times a day – facing Jerusalem.
Why Jerusalem? It was the site of the temple – where God had made his presence known in a special way.
Why three times a day? That was simply his practice – as it was, and is, of many Jews.
Psalm 55:17 – “Morning, noon, and night I plead aloud in my distress, and the LORD hears my voice.”
I think it is interesting, too, that it says in vs. 10 he knelt down to pray.
Later Jewish practice – at least by Jesus’ time was to stand for prayer, hands lifted, eyes open toward heaven.
But that was apparently not how the Jews in exile prayed.
All I can think about is this 80 or 90 year old man kneeling to pray three times a day – and this was before the invention of Joint-Ritis.
The point being that Daniel didn’t try to hide his prayers (the window was wide open) but neither did he try to make a big deal out of it.
He just went on according to normal pattern of worshiping the Lord – much to the delight of his enemies.
They report his evil clandestine activities to the king.
Vs. 13 –“Then they told the king, ‘That man Daniel, one of the captives from Judah, is paying no attention to you or your law. He still prays to his God three times a day.’
“Hearing this, the king was very angry.” Or more literally distressed.
And as you read it you think he is ticked at Daniel for breaking the law. But no, he is angry “with himself for signing the law, and he tried to find a way to save Daniel. He spent the rest of the day looking for a way to get Daniel out of this predicament...”
Again, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. But he’s smart enough to figure out that he’s been sucked into this ploy. He tries to figure a way out – but to no avail. He’ll have to feed Daniel to the lions.
Daniel, of course, appears unphased by this whole thing. He is trusting that God is in charge – even when tried.
The king, who apparently likes Daniel is fasting and losing sleep.
He refuses to watch his favorite TV show the night that Daniel is down there in the lion pit – even though it’s the first week of a new season and he’s been watching reruns all summer.
He is totally distraught. He doesn’t sleep a wink. And in the morning he goes to see what has happened to Daniel.
Vs. 19 – “Very early the next morning, the king hurried out to the lions’ den. When he got there, he called out in anguish, ’Daniel, servant of the living God! Was your God, whom you worship continually, able to rescue you from the lions?’”
Now that is a loaded question! A perfect set-up, too.
You can imagine Daniel tucked back in the corner hearing the king call out, and with a very pregnant pause waiting to let the king squirm just a few more seconds.
“Ah yes,” your majesty, “I was just in the back here brushing my teeth. Did you say something to me?”
No, that’s not how he does it.
Vs. 21 – “Daniel answered, ‘Long live the king! My God sent his angel to shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, for I have been found innocent in his sight. And I have not wronged you, Your Majesty.’”
Apparently the whole lion thing wasn’t really considered to be an execution or a punishment but a trial.
If you survived a night with the lions – you were considered to be innocent but if they had you for midnight snack you were considered guilty.
...not exactly what we would consider to be normal jurist prudence – more along the lines of tying suspected witches into bags and throwing them into a river to see if they float.
If they float they’re guilty and are ready for execution but it they sink they’re innocent – and in no need of a trial -- because they drowned.
We’ve got some pretty bizarre legal practices in our history.
Anyway, Daniel is found innocent in the trial by lions. And just to make sure that it wasn’t a fluke – that the lions weren’t sick or something – the king has all Daniel’s accusers – along with their families thrown into the lion pit.
Vs. 24 – “The lions leaped on them and tore them apart before they even hit the floor of the den.”
In other words, the Lord really had spared Daniel is a miraculous way.
Now, as we’ve talked about, there are times when the Lord for whatever his reasons are, chooses to not spare his people.
How many early Christians were fed to the lions in Rome?
Ignatius, was the second bishop of Antioch, a contemporary of the Apostle Paul, wrote 5 famous letters to the church while he was en route to Rome where he was torn apart by wild beasts.
Polycarp, the bishop at Smyrna, was the recipient of one of those letters.
Latter in his life, Polycarp himself was arrested and told to recant his faith in Christ. “To which he responded – ‘I have served him eighty-six years and in no way had he dealt unjustly with me; so how can I blaspheme my king who saved me?’
“...The proconsul responded ‘I have wild beasts; I will throw you to them unless you change your mind.’ He replied: ‘call for them, for a change from better to worse is impossible for us; but it is laudable to change from evil to good...’”
The authorities never did throw him to the lions – instead they tied him to a stake and set him on fire!
Whether we are spared from the lions or the fire or not we rest in the fact that God is in control.
But the point of Daniel’s story is that he did rescue our faithful hero – and that he can and at times does do exactly that – because he is the one ultimately calling the shots.
So take heart!
Even the Persian king recognizes that the Lord is in control. And at the end of the story, reminiscent of the other stories in Daniel, the pagan king ends up making a declaration of faith.
“For he is the living God, and he will endure forever. His kingdom will never be destroyed, and his rule will never end. He rescues and saves his people; he performs miraculous signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”
Thus, it just makes downright practical, good, common sense, to trust the Lord with whatever it is that is challenging and trying you.
Dare to be a Daniel!
I mentioned Philip Bliss, who wrote the Dare to Be a Daniel song for his Sunday School class in 1876.
On December 29th, 1879, the train on which was riding encountered a collapsed bridge and plunged into a frozen riverbed in Ohio.
Bliss initially survived the wreck. But his wife was trapped in the wreckage. And when a fire started he rushed back in to save her. They both died.
Sometimes it works that way.
Sometimes the lion’s jaws are wired shut.
It doesn’t matter because we know that the Lord God is in control – the God of Daniel and his band — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The God of Ignatius. The God of Polycarp. The God of Philip & Lucy Bliss
The reason we should dare to be a Daniel is because Daniel trusted that God was in control – even in foreign territory, even when challenged, and even when tried.
