Pastor Tim Patoka
God’s Zoo: Hungry Lions
July 25, 2021
Faithful, Even Before Hungry Lions Daniel 6:1-24 1) God’s Promises are Faithfully Given 2) Our Response is Faithfully Continued There are some animals we are naturally afraid of, animals that when you see them, you automatically take a step back and try to hide from. Think of the big, dangerous animals you often find in the movies– ravage sharks that can rip a boat apart like in the movie Jaws or ground-pounding, ear-deafening T-Rexes like in the movie Jurassic Park. Animals that, if we were to see them in real-life, would send us running for the hills. There are also those animals that just creep us out. I remember how my family had a fake, rubber cockroach that we would place it in unexpected places around the house to scare each another. But when the unexpected cockroach turned out to be real? Let me tell you, we reacted like anyone would! Whether it is these or your scary animal of choice, we generally go to great lengths to avoid them or even chance seeing them. But what would you do to avoid a den of hungry lions? Probably just about anything! But would you be willing to worship a false god to avoid death by lion? That’s the question that today’s Old Testament believer named Daniel had to answer. Do I remain faithful to God, even before hungry lions? Or do I hide my faith to live another day? As we consider our verses this morning from Daniel chapter 6, we’ll see more than just how Daniel remained faithful to God, even before hungry lions. In fact, we’ll hear how God himself continues to be faithful to us as he gives his promises to us as he did to Daniel. And because of God’s faithful promises, we continue to remain faithful to him, even if we were before hungry lions. 1) God’s Promises are Faithfully Given Before we get into Daniel’s continued faithfulness to God even before hungry lions, let’s first get up to speed on how Daniel found himself in this situation. It’s around 540 B.C. and the Israelites have been in exile for 60 plus years in the land of Persia. Even though this exile was part of God’s discipline for his children, he was still faithfully with them in all sorts of ways. One of which was Daniel himself. Daniel had been among the first group of exiles because of being one of Israel’s best and brightest young men who had been groomed for governmental service in the foreign country. For 60 plus years, God has blessed Daniel to be an excellent administrator and interpreter of dreams so that he was in the top levels of government. Even though Daniel is going on 80 years now, his sound mind and able body has King Darius eyeing him up for yet another promotion.
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Pastor Tim Patoka
God’s Zoo: Hungry Lions
July 25, 2021
Yet not everyone is as pleased with Daniel as King Darius is. There are some of Daniel’s pagan coworkers who want to get rid of him. And that’s where our verses pick it up this morning. I’ll rely on your memory of Daniel chapter 6 to explain how Daniel’s malicious conspirators got him thrown into a den of hungry lions. We know how Daniel’s night in the lions’ den ended up going. But up until then, it sure did seem that God had failed to be faithful to Daniel as promised. God had promised to protect Daniel along with all his believing children as he said ~800 years earlier in Deuteronomy 31(:6 EHV), “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid and do not be terrified before them, because the Lord your God is going with you. He will not abandon you and he will not forsake you.” Getting thrown into a den of hungry lions doesn’t seem to be very good protection. God had promised to provide for Daniel along with all his believing children as written ~500 years earlier in Psalm 145(:14-16 EHV), “The Lord lifts up all who fall, and he supports all who are bowed down. 15The eyes of all look eagerly to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16He opens his hand, and he satisfies the desire of every living thing.” Getting thrown in a den of hungry lions doesn’t seem like good providing. As Daniel himself had said as a younger man in chapter 2(:20-21 EHV) of his book, “May the name of God be blessed forever and ever, because wisdom and power are his. 21He changes times and eras. He removes kings, and he brings kings to power. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have good judgment.” God has power over all, including pagan kings and malicious conspirators! Getting thrown in a den of hungry lions because of some legally-binding words doesn’t seem like God is all that powerful. If we didn’t know how Daniel’s time in the lions’ den ended, it would sure seem that God’s earlier promises of protection, providence, and power had fallen short. That God had failed to give these promises to Daniel as he had faithfully done to believers in the past. We too can doubt if God has given us his promises of protection, providence, and power as he faithfully did to believers in the past. We can think this because of how far removed we are from Daniel’s time in history. Think about it, God’s miraculous rescue of Daniel in the lions’ den happened around 2,500 years ago. That’s a long time! And the promises of God that Daniel could have been thinking of go even further back. If we’re likely to doubt a company’s promise of “satisfaction guaranteed” for the products they’re selling today, how much more doubtful might we be about God’s ancient promises for us today? Or perhaps we question God’s faithfully given promises for us today because of how different our threats are today. We thankfully only hear about threats of government-sanctioned, life or death persecution in foreign countries. But that doesn’t mean we’re free from persecution. Rather, the persecution we face is of a subtle, veiled manner that is just as dangerous though different. Do we still have God’s promises of protection, providence, and 2
Pastor Tim Patoka
God’s Zoo: Hungry Lions
July 25, 2021
power for our different persecutions today? Sometimes we honestly wonder. Because whenever it seems that God has failed to do what he has promised, we question his faithfulness and promises for us today. Yet we can be sure that God faithful promises are given to us today as they were to David while before hungry lions. In fact, we hear how God renews his promises for us New Testament believers in greater clarity than in the Old Testament. When it comes to God’s promise to protect us, we heard about it in our 2nd Lesson (Ephesians 6:10-17) where the Apostle Paul talks about the armor of God that protects us today from every kind of persecuting threat. When it comes to God’s promise to provide for us, one place to look is Matthew chapter 6(:25-34) where Jesus tells us not to worry (We’ll talk more about this in a few weeks). When it comes to God’s promise of power over all, we think back to our Gospel reading (Matthew 10:16-31) where Jesus asserts God’s power over human authorities, family divisions, and Beelzebul’s demonic house. It is this protection, providence, and power that we likewise have promised to us. (Not to mention God’s promise of forgiveness we have through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ.) This all goes to assure us that God has faithfully given us his promises today as he has in the past, even if his children were before hungry lions. 2) Our Response is Faithfully Continued One of the things I find most remarkable from Daniel chapter 6 is not God’s miraculous rescue, but how Daniel continues to be faithful to God throughout it all. When he learned about King Darius’ persecutory decree, Daniel continued to do as was his custom – worship God by praying through opened windows towards Jerusalem 3 times a day. Daniel didn’t do this to provoke his malicious conspirators. He simply practiced his faith in an unassuming way. As Daniel waited to be thrown into the lions’ den, we have no record or reason to think he tried to escape or arm himself to fight off those hungry lions. When King Darius called out to him at sunrise the next day to see if he was still alive, Daniel responded in the customary and respectful way you would to your king without casting blame or lashing out in anger. Throughout the entire account, we see Daniel continue to be faithful to God, willing to accept whatever consequences, and content to let God be God when it came to his physical safety. Daniel continued to be faithful to God throughout his persecutions. Could the same be said of us? Do we remain as faithful to God as he is to us? When it comes to a literal life or death situation, I pray this remains a what-if situation. Not only because of the high stakes involved, but also because of how we may sadly answer in a moment of weak faith. But one area we regularly struggle to be faithful to God is in our customary areas of letting our light shine. Thinking of Daniel’s custom of praying, do we continue our customary table prayers before eating at a restaurant? Or do we skip it to avoid sticking out or say it as quickly and quietly as possible so no one will notice? Thinking of Daniel’s custom of 3
Pastor Tim Patoka
God’s Zoo: Hungry Lions
July 25, 2021
worshiping God, do we continue to worship God when out-of-town, with people who don’t approve, or had a late Saturday night? If we miss in-person worship, do we at least use the second best option of online and on-my-time? Thinking of Daniel’s custom of putting God first in a pagan society, do we continue to show ourselves to be Christians in an increasingly postChristian society? Or do we hide our faith where we work, play, and learn? While our faithfulness to God is less than desired, God’s faithfulness to us certainly is not. We saw how God remained faithful to his promises by miraculously rescuing Daniel from a den of hungry lions. But even if God had let those lions to have their way, God would still have been faithful to Daniel as promised. We know that Daniel had faith, that is trust, in God’s promises and he would have gone to heaven after passing away. It would be there in heaven that God would forever protect Daniel from every effect of sin and provide for him in full as he does for all his children now living in heaven. God would have also used his almighty power to subvert the conspirators’ malicious intent for Daniel’s eternal good, ensuring that Daniel would have had the last laugh. No matter what, God is faithful to his children as promised – including to us. In light of God’s faithfulness to us, we remain faithful to him as a natural result of all he has and will do for us. We have God’s promises of protection, providence, and power just as his Old Testament children did. We also have the ancient promise of Savior fulfilled in Jesus Christ who promises to give his complete forgiveness to all who believe in him. And there are still more promises for you to learn about recorded in his Word. With this assurance of God’s faithfulness to us, we look to Daniel who remained faithful to God, even before hungry lions. Count on God to do for you as he has promised regardless of the dangers that are threatening you and likely lack of miracles. Though we do not expect life or death persecutions, we still have plenty of opportunities to live for God in our customary ways. Don’t be afraid to be continue being faithful to God when the rubber hits the road. Rather, draw your strength from God’s faithfulness to you so that you may always remain faithful to him, even if it were before hungry lions. Amen.
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