willamette students

Over the last few weeks, the middle school group at Willamette Christian Church has been going through a series on the book of Daniel. This weekend I got the opportunity to teach on Daniel 6, in which we find one of the most well known Bible stories, Daniel in the Lion’s Den. You know, the one where Daniel prays when he’s not supposed to, get’s thrown into a den of lions, God sends His angel to protect him, and then everyone goes home happy (well, except for the conspirators who accused Daniel). Moral of the story is…?

As I was studying this story, the more I realized that most of us have had a misunderstanding of this story all along. It isn’t a story about Daniel or lions at all! It’s a story about King Darius, and the enormous lengths God goes to reach him. Daniel is purely a pawn in the story.

The story really begins in the last verse of chapter 5, when Kind Darius takes the throne of Babylon after King Belshazzar was killed (if you ever wonder where the phrase “the writing on the wall” came from, reach Daniel 5). The first thing that Darius does in his rule is divide the nation into 120 “provinces”, each with its own leader. Daniel was put in charge of these leaders. Darius respected Daniel so much, that he decided to put him in charge of the entire kingdom of Babylon. Daniel had gone from a lowly captive and servant in Babylon, to the 2nd most powerful person in the entire nation.

Well, the 120 leaders weren’t too happy about this. The text doesn’t say why, so it’s not important. The important thing is that they wanted to get rid of him. The problem was they couldn’t find anything wrong with him. He was “faithful, and no error or fault was found in him” (6:4). The 120 decided that the only way Daniel would fail is if there was a law against his religion, so they went to King Darius, saying that he should make a law that all in the nation could not petition or pray to anyone but the king for 30 days, and if someone did, he or she would be cast into the den of lions (It’s important to note that they weren’t forcing people to pray to Darius, they were just saying that people couldn’t pray to anyone else for that period).

Darius quickly signs decree. Why? The text itself doesn’t answer this, but one speculation was that Darius was attempting to do something to unify the kingdom that he had recently took reign.

Well, Daniel decides that his relationship with God was too important to not pray for 30 days, so he continues doing what he always does, praying 3 times a day. The 120 leaders were quick to report this to Darius, who was shocked that Daniel, his most loyal and trustworthy subject, had violated the decree. But instead of casting Daniel into the lions den, Darius first tries to get Daniel out of his punishment. This hints that Darius was starting to realize his decree was wrong. The 120 leaders, though, quickly reminded Darius “no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed” (6:15). This wasn’t exactly true. A king had every right to make a counter-edict to his prior decree, but to do so in that culture was considered to be devastating to a leaders reputation. For a new king, this would be dangerous for his rule. Darius was trapped, and ordered for Daniel to be arrested and cast into the den of lions. As Daniel was being shut in with the lions, Darius declares “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” (6:16).

It is this statement that we begin to see a transformation in Darius, and how we know that this story isn’t about Daniel. From here, the narrative doesn’t follow Daniel, it follow Darius. Darius returns to his palace, where he would have been accustomed to feasts and “diversions” (it shouldn’t be too hard to determine what is meant by that). But instead, Darius shuts himself away, fasts for the night, and does not sleep. When daybreak comes, He sprints to the den of lions and calls out with an expectation. “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions?” (6:21) Daniel responds with grace to the king, telling them how God sent an angel to protect him from the lions.

Darius’ response is the key to this story. He orders that Daniel be released, and that 120 leaders be cast into the den of lions. Furthermore he writes to all the provinces of Babylon with a new decree, stating: “I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end” (6:26).

What happened to the king not being able to change the law? What happened to worrying about the nation? Not only did Darius change the law, but he executed almost the entire government that he had put in place! His reputation as king would be ruined! But that’s the thing… Darius didn’t care anymore. God had revealed Himself to Darius that day through Daniel’s obedience. Darius walked away with a transformed heart, a new creation.

When we looked at the great length God went to transform Darius, we are reminded of the extraordinary things He has done to reveal Himself and transform us as Christians. Amazing.