October 30, 2005 Daniel 6:10-12, 16-23 - Reformation Sermon
Daniel 6:10-12 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published,
Daniel was one of three administrators under King Darius of the Medes and the Persians. The book of Daniel is unique because it takes place outside of the walls of Jerusalem or the borders of Jerusalem. There is no national Israel at this time - it had been destroyed and taken captive into Babylon. So Daniel made the best of the situation, as he used his God given gifts and was raised to one of the highest positions in the kingdom. He had the rare opportunity to rule over foreigners and conduct the affairs and laws of the country in as God pleasing a way as possible. He realized that he couldn’t try to enforce Jewish law and regulations on these foreigners - he didn’t try to establish a federally regulated prayer time or a governmentally regulated Jewish school system where the Torah could be taught. All he did was try to work within the system of the Medes and Persians in a God pleasing way.
This worked rather well for most of Daniel’s time in office. However, in Daniel chapter 6 he was caught up in a political ploy. The other administrators and satraps became jealous because Daniel was performing admirably well as an administrator, and he was about to be promoted to be the top administrator. The whole political scene was abuzz with the news of Daniel’s near promotion. Therefore, his competition decided to use the sword they had come to rely on in order to cut Daniel down to size - the sword of the government. They all concocted a cockamamy law that said, “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.” (Da 6:7) They probably dressed this up as some sort of nationalism or patriotism - that praying to the king or refraining from any other public prayer would be showing allegiance to the king. In eastern countries prayer is much more visible - people will bow down in the middle of a room and start bowing to the Mecca five times a day. Jews also aren’t afraid to pray visibly in public. It’s much different from here where we afraid to say a table prayer too loud so that someone will hear us in a restaurant.
Today’s text says that “Daniel learned the decree had been published.” The other administrators lied to the king and made it sound like all of the governors, satraps and administrators were in agreement with this. Daniel obviously didn’t know anything about it. He hadn’t even heard about it until it was too late.
Martin Luther grew up in a world that enforced laws restricting the practice of a truly godly religion. Anyone who disagreed with the Catholic Church could be forced by the government to be burned at the stake as a heretic - for doing nothing more than proclaiming that you are saved by faith alone. The Pope and the Catholic Church were so influential in government that they could influence elections and force princes to allow the sales of indulgences in their lands - which basically pillaged their own people and brought the money back to Rome. Nobody could do anything about it!
This still happens in today’s world. I heard recently that a law was going through a court that would end up outlawing all worship services from the television airwaves. The Roe vs. Wade decision way back in the 1970’s caught the Christian community off guard and ended up demanding that states allow abortion. Just recently Topeka allowed a play to be held at the TPAC which was conducted in the nude. According to what I heard on the radio, nobody could do anything because there is no law outlawing such plays unless they are done in a sexually suggestive manner. There is no law against public nudity, in other words, it sounded to me. It is the duty of Christians who live in their society to pray for their leaders to make proper and God pleasing decisions and to take part in the voting process so that bad laws - like the one Daniel had to face - don’t get passed - and good laws do. I wonder how many more people vote for the American Idol than they do for the President of the United States! Then we complain when bad laws get passed and criminals get away with murder? Daniel was innocent of sin in this regard because they maliciously made this law behind closed doors. Many laws in our country are not - and yet we sit by and do nothing.
he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
Daniel had just found out that a law was passed that virtually outlawed the regular practice of his religion. There was nothing he could do to change it. So he went home and prayed. He didn’t flaunt his prayer life or go out on the street corners with his hands outstretched. He simply and quietly prayed in a very humble manner toward Jerusalem three times a day in his upstairs room. It was visible to the public. Daniel wasn’t ashamed of praying. He was simply reflecting his faith and showing his faith within the confines of his own home. Yet this governmental law broke into the very essence and practice of his prayer life and made him into an outlaw.
In the face of this, Daniel could have closed his windows. He could have prayed in private. He could have kept his religion to himself. Yet Daniel, in an act of boldness and confidence, continued to do exactly what he always did. I wonder with what expectation the other satraps and administrators waited to see what Daniel would do. Was there a group of them sitting on the roof next door, waiting to see how Daniel would respond? Were they saying to themselves, “we’ll see how ‘religious’ he is now?” Did they run bets? Most of them were quite confident that Daniel would not waver - that he would remain faithful. Imagine what kind of a witness it would have been if Daniel had NOT done the routine - if he would have - instead - decided to simply close those windows and pray in private. He would have been saying, “I fear King Darius more than I fear THE King of the Universe.”
But Daniel held his ground and he prayed - just like he always did. Notice his prayer stature and the words of his prayer. He got down on his knees. In a show of humility, he wasn’t afraid to get his knees dirty. Even though he was basically second in command of a foreign country, he wasn’t too proud to get on his knees before his Lord. Our liturgies offer us to stand or kneel during the confession. The last time I offered the congregation and encouraged us to kneel it was several years ago. You know how many did? I wasn’t watching, but I bet it wasn’t many. Maybe we’ll try it again next week during confession, and I wonder how many will be too afraid of getting their pants dirty or looking funny? Daniel wasn’t kneeling for show. He was just trying to show humility to his God. He realized in his prayer that no matter what position he was in, he was still under God. He was still a sinner who needed God’s mercy every day. He wouldn’t have been there if God hadn’t put him there. So he knelt before his God.
What did he pray about? “Oh, woe is me! How could you do this to me Lord? Where are you? What have you done? What did I do to deserve this!” There was no sign of panic. No sign of despair. It was an almost insane amount of calm and routine in Daniel, as he prayed and gave thanks just like before. That took an incredible amount of faith, didn’t it? When you find out you might get fired from your job, or you just look on the announcement board at school and find out that you didn’t make the team - how do you respond? Panic? Anger? Distress? You bet. Yet Daniel responded with a tremendous amount of calm and thankfulness.
How? He must have known God’s Word. He must have learned the history of the Israelites. When they were threatened with extinction due to a famine in Israel, God didn’t let them starve. When they were on the edge of the Red Sea, God didn’t abandon them or let them be slaughtered. Long before Daniel lived, God wrote the words through Psalm 91:14-16,
“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Daniel had the confidence that only God could bring through the promises of the Word. Luther didn’t seem to have such confidence as he faced the Emperor at the Diet of Worms and his life was at stake. He knew that if he didn’t recant he could very easily be burned at the stake just like Hus was a decade before. Therefore, in trepidation he asked for a day to deliberate his decision on whether to recant or not. But finally, after a night in prayer and more meditation on God’s Word - the Holy Spirit gave him the courage to boldly proclaim - “unless you can convince me from Scriptures that I am wrong - I cannot and will not recant. HERE I STAND. GOD HELP ME. AMEN.” He stuck in his conviction that he was saved by grace alone, by faith alone, through Scriptures alone. He almost died because of it.
There will always come times in your life when you are put in a scary situation - either you stand up for what you believe in or you cower in retreat. These examples are near as dangerous as what Luther or Daniel faced - it might be while you find yourself at a party - and all of those classmates who have seen you straight laced for so many years are just begging to see you drunk or high. How do you respond? Do you give in to the pressure or say, “here I stand?” Do you keep your “routine of religion” or give in to King Pressure? When the rest of the parents of your sons team and the coach are all going to prioritize the upcoming big tournament over worship - what are you going to choose? Do you keep your religious routine or change it for King Sports? When you are pressured at work to be mean and back stabbing in order to “get ahead”, do you instead keep a positive and loving spirit and remain behind, or break God’s law to get ahead? Sometimes these can be high pressure situations.
It’s not a time to panic. It’s time to stick to the routine. What’s the routine? The routine is to remind yourself WHO is still in charge. It’s a time to remember that God promises us deliverance. Even when we know we may get our own children or friends angry with us - He promises that he can work it out for good. Instead of panicking in such a situation, those are the times to cling to God’s Word all the more. If God wants you to give a promotion, He can give you one without being a back stabber. If God wants you to start on the ball team, He will give you the ability to do so. If God wants you to be ridiculed, you can grow in faith through it. You’ve got to trust that He will take care of you. Don’t panic. Stick to your principles. Stick with the Word, and pray for mercy.
Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or man except to you, O king, would be thrown into the lions’ den?” The king answered, “The decree stands—in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”
Satan is also called the “accuser”. That’s what his name means. It is his life long pursuit to get us to do evil so that he can accuse us before God.. It isn’t a mere coincidence then that those who are ruled by Satan use the same tactics. The minute that these men caught Daniel “breaking the law,” they immediately went and tattled to King Darius. They couldn’t wait to see Daniel dead. They went to their “god” - Darius - to bring down his wrath on the “unbelieving” Daniel.
You have to wonder what Daniel did that was so wrong - that these others wanted to see him eaten alive by lions? What was wrong with ruling with integrity? Even if Daniel was promoted above the other two administrators, what drove them to want him dead? It could have been anti-Semitism. Yet if you allow me a little bit of speculation here, I believe it gets down to the very core of what Jesus said years later. John 3:19-20 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. When these other leaders examined Daniel’s life, I can almost guarantee you that they felt GUILTY about their own lives. They were probably afraid that their own corrupt practices would be brought to light. This was most likely at least a partial RELIGIOUS persecution.
When Luther began his reforms against indulgences and the like, he wasn’t trying to hurt the Pope or the Catholic Church. He was trying to bring about a spiritual reform and bring about what was best for the souls of the people. But the Catholic Church just went rabid on him. Why? Because their power was being taken away. Their reputations were being scarred. Luther was making them feel guilty by exposing their sins and the way they were taking advantage of the people. Therefore, they wanted to put the light out. He was shocked when they responded the way they did.
As I look back on life I’ve recognized a rather peculiar and almost strange way that this still happens yet today. For instance, if in high school one kid is known to be as straight laced as possible, if the kids who are known to party can get the straight laced kid to get stinking drunk just once, there is great rejoicing among the kids who got the goody two shoes to do something wrong. It’s even better if the child was a professed “Christian”. They will all talk in laughter the next week about how they got someone wasted. Even back in the 1970’s in the movie Grease, Olivia Newton John’s character is ridiculed for not going to bed til she’s legally wed, and then glorified when she ends the movie with a cigarette and a leather jacket on. This is the way evil responds - because it loves to show how hypocritical the religious really are. It makes them feel better if they can bring down the righteous and drag them into the same cesspool as them. So they plot and plan on how to bring the righteous down to their level. With a religious zeal they attempt to bring believers into the mud with them. That’s how the devil works.
Daniel 6:16-23 So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep.
When Daniel served the King faithfully, Darius liked it. He didn’t like to see a good and faithful worker be thrown to the lions based on a law that he didn’t really think about it. Yet since he passed the law and he was supposed to be an enforcer of the law, there was no way he could repeal it. The same King that decreed the death of Daniel was troubled by the loss.
This reminds me somewhat of the situation Luther was in under Frederick. Frederick was expected by the papal law to be willing to hand over Luther to Rome to be tried as a heretic. The Emperor Charles also stated as much. Yet Frederick also liked Luther’s writings and wanted to defend his prized monk and teacher at Wittenberg. Luther found himself under the mercy of the government in some ways. If Frederick had handed him over like he was “supposed” to do, Luther could have easily died. When he went to original visit Cardinal Cajetan he expected as much. Yet Elector Frederick also felt constrained by the law of his land not to hand Luther over to the Pope, because he was supposed to be tried on German soil. Therefore, the elector actually ended up on Luther’s side and helping Luther to survive a certain death. Daniel wasn’t so lucky.
The officials of the government are not in and of themselves evil. There are some times where a judge or a jury may have to acquit somebody they know to be guilty, because the law won’t allow them to prosecute. In America today it seems the laws are so bad, either that or the judges are so blind, that the murderers and perverts are making the law abiding citizens seem like the criminals in court. That’s the way life is sometimes - where the bad manipulate the government and try to destroy the good. Any heathen can see when justice is not served.
At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?” Daniel answered, “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.” The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
By all accounts Daniel was a dead man walking. Nobody ever heard of living through a night in the lions’ den. These animals were kept starving a majority of the time until the victims entered the cave and ended up as lunch. Yet even the King recognized that Daniel didn’t just serve any God - but the living God. So he opened the cave in fear and hope that somehow Daniel’s God would have saved him - it was the ONLY way Daniel could have survived. Daniel answered that God sent an angel to shut the lions’ mouths, just as God promised in Psalm 91.
Why did God save Daniel? There are two reasons listed. First of all, Daniel told the King that he was found “innocent” in God’s sight - and had not wronged the king. Secondly, verse 23 states that he was found without a wound “because he had trusted in his God.” Daniel figured that since God had brought him this far, and God had given him so many blessings up to this point, God could certainly deliver him from the lions’ den. Even if God decided to let him be eaten by the lions, he still had the assurance that - as he said in Daniel 12:2 - “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel had FAITH. He knew by faith he would rise again from the dead - because his Savior would come and save him from his sins. Through faith, he knew that God wasn’t allowing him to be thrown into the lions’ den because he had done something wrong. He knew that if God wanted to he could save him from immediate death from the lions, or God could save him from the world through death with the lions. Either way, he would win. What a wonderful witness it was to God’s glory and Daniel’s innocense and faith when he came out unscathed!
Luther also, years later, came out unscathed in his battle with the Catholics. They wanted him dead. God kept him alive. When all was said and done, what was it that Luther gave the victory of the Reformation to? Luther said, “I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. Luther’s works, vol. 51: page 76. It was the Word of God that Luther clung to in this time of trial - the fact that God promised him salvation through faith in Christ - not by declaration of the Pope or any indulgences. Even if the Catholics were able to put him to death, he would still end up in heaven - because the Word promised him that in Christ. When he clung to that, it gave him courage to face the gauntlet, and he ended up unscathed.
Christendom is facing threats from both within and without the church. The very core of what we used to recognize as Lutheran - that we are saved by grace alone, faith alone, and Scripture alone - has long been rejected and lost by many Lutherans in today’s society. Those who used to proclaim Christ and faith now proclaim man and works. We are threatened by a society that looks at pure Christianity - salvation through Christ alone - as a close minded religion. Many are leaving confessional and doctrinal religions that proclaim Christ to go to churches that tell them how great they are and what they can do. We are threatened by many religions that want us to join in their ecumenical God loves everyone movement. With their open jaws they call us unloving and closed minded and bigoted right wing zealots. With a degradation of our very society our children are being devoured by their classmates who want to lure them into their world of materialism and every other sin known to mankind. They are roaring and getting more and more ferocious.
It often seems like the devil is winning and the lions are going to devour us all. At times like this, we need to remember what happened to Christ. He was attacked by the mouths of the religious leaders of His day - who called Him a radical, insurrectionist, drunk and every other word under the book. He was condemned on charges that weren’t even true - and charges that were true - that He proclaimed to be God’s Son. He also was distressed at the face of death and hell. He cried out in anguish as His own Father devoured Him with the wrath of God. Satan had his hour. Jesus’ heel was struck by God’s anger on the cross. But now Satan’s hour is done. Jesus died with our sins on his shoulders and left those sins in the grave. Jesus promises us salvation through FAITH in His sacrifice. We have the greatest Lion of all - the Lion of the tribe of Judah in our corner, who has stomped on the serpent and become the King of the world.
Now is not a time to cower from the threats. Now is not a time to put up the white flag. Now is the time to say “here I stand” - on Christ. Here I stand on God’s Word which promises me, “the righteous will live” - not by works - but “by faith.” No matter where the devil may throw us - he can throw us with the lions - and they can eat away our eyes, ears, hands, mouth and heart - but they can not tear out our soul - because our soul belongs to God - and so will our bodies. Cling to that promise - when the threats get worse. Cling to that Word - when the dangers become fierce. For then, when Jesus comes and subjects the world to fire and judgment, no wound will be found on you, because - like Daniel - you trust in God. As Paul said, “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.” Amen.
