Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Daniel 6 | Date: December 9, 2018 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Of course, and it’s a busy time of year, so many of you were not able to make it, but those of you who were able to make it to the memorial service yesterday, I’m sure will agree with me that although it’s strange to talk about a funeral this way, it was a blessing to be there. The Book of Ecclesiastes tells us that it’s better to go to a funeral than to a party. It’s not exactly the way it puts it. Better to go into the house of mourning than to the house of laughter. That’s what he means. It’s better to go to a funeral than a party because then we’re sobered to think and think about ultimate issues.

And the meeting yesterday was a blessed time for two primary reasons. One, to see a family like that who is solid in the faith and to be anchored at a hard time like that with the hope that they have in Christ. That’s just a blessing to see. And then also, Pastor Boyd’s ministry yesterday I thought was wonderfully blessed. I have been with Pastor Boyd in hospital visitation, I’ve been with him in funeral home or nursing home visitation, I’ve been with him in homes visiting, I’ve seen him at funerals, and I’ve seen him at weddings, and I’ve often been struck, just like I was yesterday, that in those kinds of pastoral, personal pastoral situations, he’s just extraordinarily gifted, and it was just a true blessed time yesterday. I was thankful for his ministry.

We’re still working our way through Daniel. Daniel chapter six this morning. Daniel in the lion’s den. Daniel in the lion’s den. Hardly an unfamiliar passage in the Bible, one of the most familiar. We want to look at it this morning and see what are the intended lessons that God would have us learn from this familiar event. Daniel chapter 6, I’ll take the time to read through the entire chapter.

“It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom and over them three presidents of whom Daniel was one to whom these satraps would give account so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other presidents and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom. But they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault could be found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.

And then these presidents and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, oh, King Darius, live forever. All the presidents of the kingdom—notice that by the way, all the presidents of the kingdom—the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any God or man for 30 days except you, O King, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O King, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, King Darius signed the document and the injunction.

When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making the petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction, O king, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any God or man within 30 days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, the thing stands fast according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.

Then the king, when he had heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. He labored till the sun went down to rescue him. And these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and the Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed. And the king commanded and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, may your God whom you serve continually deliver you.

A stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lord’s, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought before him, and sleep fled from him. Then at the break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?

Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion’s mouths and they have not harmed me because I was found blameless before him and also before you, O king, I have done no harm. And the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

And the king commanded that those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions, they, their children, and their wives. Before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions, who by now were very hungry, overpowered them and broke all their bones into pieces. Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you. 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. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus, the Persian.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, this is a remarkable passage of scripture, a remarkable intervention of your grace and of your power. It is one that is familiar to us since our earliest days in Sunday school. It is worth remembering. We pray that you will open this passage for us afresh and help us to see what lessons there are about you and our responsibilities to you and about your great purpose. Give us understanding by your spirit, we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Well, we have worked our way through each of the chapters, and you’ll remember last time we went through chapter five and we saw Belshazzar’s feast and the handwriting on the wall and Daniel’s prophecy and interpreting that handwriting telling Belshazzar that his time was up, that God had measured him and weighed him out, had numbered his days. His time was up. He didn’t count enough. His kingdom is done. And that very night, then, we saw at the end of Chapter 5, the Medo-Persian armies came in, overthrew Babylon, Belshazzar was slain. We see that at the last two verses, then, of Chapter 5. That very night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old.

So we come to Chapter 6 now. Remember in these first seven chapters we have them in chronological order, roughly, and then in the final chapters we have visions, which is chapter seven and forward, we have visions that are placed back into that time and we’ll see and try to see any significance to that as we work our way through them. But we come to chapter six now then and Darius is now in charge in Babylon. Now in terms of external sources outside the Bible, we really don’t know who this Darius was, and there’s been considerable discussion about that. I don’t think it’s an important question terribly. The bottom line is he’s the man in charge in Babylon.

There is some school of thought that say that this identified Darius with Cyrus himself, who is the king of the Medo-Persian Empire at this time, that this is another name for him. That is possible, and in fact, some have argued it from chapter 6, verse 28: “So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.” That word “and” can be translated “even.” So the reign of Darius, even the reign of Cyrus the Persian. That’s a possible rendering. There’s no way to prove it, I don’t think, and I don’t think there’s a way to disprove it really either. But the bottom line, as I say, is Darius is either Cyrus himself in Babylon, which I don’t see happening really, or he is at least the king that Cyrus has placed in charge in Babylon, which would have been a very normal course of events.

Now one of the first responsibilities for a new king in Babylon is going to put together a new administration and put the affairs of the kingdom in order again after this overthrow of the previous regime. And so verses 1 to 3, we have Darius working on the new structure of leadership in Babylon. And as we read, Daniel is at the top of it. There’s these 120 satraps. There’s three presidents over them. Daniel is one of those three, but now because of this excellent spirit in him, he’s outstanding among them. And the king is considering now making him the lead president over all of those three, essentially placing him as second in the kingdom, ruling under the king himself over all.

Daniel had long experience in the kingdom. He is the one who prophesied to Belshazzar, who brought down his rule. And his long proven acquaintance with everything Babylonian over the many years—he’s an older man now—and because, as I say, his prophecy against Belshazzar, and then in verse 3, also because of this excellent spirit that was in him, he stands out as the one who should rule over all of them. We’re not sure exactly what’s entailed with this expression, “an excellent spirit was in him.” It occurs a couple of times in Daniel. You were tempted to think in terms of the Holy Spirit, working through him and gifting him. I imagine that’s part of the picture, but it seems to have something to do with his demeanor. Here’s a man who is obviously highly intelligent, highly informed. He seems insightful. He seems full of wisdom. He’s proven himself a loyal and principled man. And he might have been one of those kinds of men that because of all of those gifts that he possesses, just has a demeanor that’s compelling; that could well have been part of it. I suspect it is.

But because of all of this, then, he’s considered for the top. And then, verses 4 and 5 and following, we have some political infighting, political jealousy. Subordinates now are jealous. Probably some racial element is involved. We find that when we get to verse 13, that this Jewish exile, surely this guy shouldn’t be in charge of all the rest of us. This Jew who is here and was essentially a slave and brought in as an exile, why should he now be put over all of us? He’s obviously inferior and he just doesn’t deserve it. And they resent him and so they try to find fault.

And it’s really a frustrating pursuit for them because they look and they look and they look. Where are we going to find something against this man Daniel? And verse 4 and following emphasize for us that there’s just no fault to find in Daniel. We just don’t know what to do to bring him down. And they finally decide that if we are going to find a fault with this guy, the only way we can do it is somehow to pit his loyalty to God against his loyalty to the king. Now there were no laws against Jewish monotheism, that was not the issue, but if somehow we can work in an inconsistency between his loyalty to God and his loyalty to the king, then we’ve got him, because we know he’ll choose loyalty to God first.

So they come up with a plan. We’ll say for the next 30 days you can pray, but you can only pray to the king. You cannot pray to anyone else. That was a slick move, by the way. It pads Darius’s ego, for one. And then politically, it’s a slick move as well, because it informs the entire kingdom that now Medo-Persia is in charge. It’s not Babylon anymore, or a Babylonian regime. This is a Medo-Persian regime. And it emphasizes all that. So it’s a slick move. And they come to the king with their proposal.

In verses six and following then, as I mentioned as we were reading through, they really misrepresent themselves before the king. They come to him as though they have a unanimous consent among all of the presidents and all of the satraps. And of course, there’s no way to say that truthfully if Daniel’s not on board. But in fact, Daniel has been kept in the dark, and they misrepresent themselves to the king. “We’ve all got this great idea. We’re going to have everyone pray to you, and we want you to make this a law.” And it’s emphasized three times over in the chapter: law of the Medes and the Persians. The law of the Medes and the Persians. Once it’s made, once it’s signed, once the document is there, it’s done, it’s settled, it cannot be revoked. It’s there for good. And so we want you to make this law. This law of the Medes and the Persians which cannot be revoked so that all will make prayer to you.

The trap is set. Verses 10 and following, just as they had hoped, Daniel is caught. It was his custom to pray with his face out of a window in his house where he lived, the house with a window facing Jerusalem, to pray toward Jerusalem. Not because there’s any particular spiritual power in praying toward Jerusalem. I suspect what this was on Daniel’s part was an expression of his own faith. Previous prophets had come along and gone, and they had made a promise that, yes, Israel will go off into exile, but God will bring them back. And so Daniel prays with his face toward Jerusalem, the place where the temple was, the place where there was the presence of God, and that place where he believed the presence of God would come again. And so he prays with this expectation, this anticipation of God coming good on his promise. And so just like every day, three times again this day, he went and prayed toward Jerusalem.

And well, it worked. And those who are out to get him, in verses 11 and following, they go and report to the king. And the way they put it to the king, you can see already that—you can see again that they’re manipulating the king. “King, didn’t you make a law? And isn’t that law a law of the Medes and the Persians that can’t be revoked?” “Yes, I did.” Gotcha. “Well, there’s this guy Daniel, that Jewish exile. He pays no attention to you, no attention to your law.”

And the king realizes he’s been had. There’s a difference here between the relationship between Daniel and Darius from what we saw with Daniel and Belshazzar in chapter five. You remember Belshazzar spoke to Daniel with real contempt and disrespect and Daniel in return had no time for Belshazzar and didn’t seem to mind the prophecy against him regarding the writing on the wall. But here we come to chapter six and Darius, it’s quite different. There seems to be even an affection on Darius’ part toward Daniel. And he regrets that he’s been had like this, but there it is; he had made the law. And it was a law of the Medes and the Persians, and you surely won’t go against that. If this is—if Darius, as he is called, is a Mede and he is not Cyrus, the Persian—well, surely a Median king put in charge in Babylon is not going to go against the Persian law. Remember, in the Medo-Persian kingdom, it is the Persian part that is superior. So he’s stuck. This law cannot be revoked.

Well, the king sees their motives, but it’s too late. And so in verse 16, after wondering how he might let Daniel get out of this, he decides he can’t. And so he orders Daniel to be lowered into the den of lions. And as he’s lowered in, Darius says something remarkable: “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you.” You’re in this mess because of your faithfulness, faithfulness to your God. And now may your God to whom you’ve been faithful deliver you.

He’s put in the den, verses 17 and 18, it’s sealed over, the king can’t sleep, he doesn’t eat. And it seems by the time we get to verse 19—if you don’t already have a hint of this in verse 16—by the time we get to verse 19, it seems that the king, remember this is a pagan king, but it seems that he had a genuine suspicion that Daniel’s God would deliver him from the den. “May your God deliver you.” And then he comes running back in the morning. “Daniel, Daniel, did your God deliver you?” So he has this hope, this anticipation that just maybe Daniel’s God will deliver him from the lions. And note in verse 20, he refers to Daniel’s God as the living God. Now that’s a common title and we find it often in the book of Daniel. What’s interesting here is that it’s Darius who calls him the living God, as though he himself has been brought, however, through whatever circumstances, has already been brought to see that Daniel’s God is different from the others. He’s the God who lives. He’s the God who actually can do what he wants to do.

And so Daniel responds, “Yes, the den has been sealed over with a rock, but no matter, the God who is everywhere was here, and he sent his angel to shut the lion’s mouths.” And so verse 23, the king is really very happy. He orders Daniel’s release, and notice verse 23 at the end of the verse: “So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his God.” Now that is picked up, you might remember, in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 33, where Daniel is not named, but he is certainly the one referred to when the writer of Hebrews says, “who through faith stopped the mouths of lions.” And what’s interesting here is the irony involved. The conspirators against Daniel had thought that they had found in Daniel’s devotion his only weakness, and here it was Daniel’s devotion that is credited with his safety.

Well, verse 24, if you haven’t suspected it by now, you certainly know it at this point. The king is aware that he has been manipulated, that he’s been lied to—”we all agreed”—and so he takes the accusers and he takes their families, even their children, and throws them all to the lions. This kind of thing was a common practice in Persian law, that when a malicious accusation like this was made and for whatever reason had to be turned around, the malicious accusers themselves would receive the same punishment. We see that, for example, in Esther chapter eight, where Haman hangs on his own gallows, you remember that. And if you are suspecting that maybe the lions just weren’t hungry that day, Daniel disabuses us of that notion immediately. We find that the family doesn’t even reach the bottom of the den before the lions are tearing them apart. You get the idea of maybe lowering down on a rope or something like that.

Well, in verses 25 and following, then, we have the climax of the passage. And here, Darius issues a decree to all the peoples, to all nations and peoples and languages, to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel. Why? “Because he’s the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed. His dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.” And so Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

All right then, what’s the point of the story? A fascinating event. One of those grand interruptions on God’s part; what is it that God is telling us? Is he telling us that if we get accused for our faith and persecuted for our faith and get thrown to the lions, God will save us? Well, we can be sure from this that he certainly can, but we are not given any assurance at all that he will. So what’s the lesson? Well, I think there are four that we have to see in this, and they fit right in the whole sweep of the book of Daniel as well.

The Continued Sovereign Rule Of God Over All

The one we’ve been emphasizing over and again, which I’m convinced is the overriding theme of Daniel, and that is the continued sovereign rule of God over all. We’ve seen that emphasized all through the book. We saw it in chapter one. God delivered the kingdom of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. This was his doing. We saw it in the intervention with the diet with Daniel and his friends in Daniel chapter one. We saw it in Daniel chapter two in the dream and the interpretation of it where God sets up kings, he puts down, he removes his kingdom. This is all God’s doing in the earth. We saw it in chapter three, saw it in chapter four when Nebuchadnezzar was put out to pasture. We certainly saw it in chapter five with Belshazzar with God ruling over the kingdom and giving it over to Darius. We’ve seen this emphasized all through the book and we’ll see it through the rest of the book. As I say, it’s an overriding theme in the book of Daniel.

We see it also here then in chapter six as well. It’s made the point at issue in verse 16 and 20: “may your God whom you serve continually deliver you.” “Has God,” verse 20, “has the living God delivered you?” The emphasis is this is a God like no other who can intervene at his will even in extraordinary events like this. It is the sovereignty of God over all things is the stated takeaway in verses 25 and following, with this decree issued to the kingdom that all are to tremble in fear before Daniel’s God.

It’s also brought out in this chapter, the sovereignty of God is brought out in this chapter in another way. It’s a little bit more subtle. But once you notice it, you think, well, it really wasn’t that subtle at all. And that is the three times emphasized: this is the law of the Medes and the Persians. This is the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. This is the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. So Daniel is shut up to the lions by the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. This is a done deal. Or is it? And so the king of Babylon now, Darius, with the law of the Medes and the Persians, makes his law which cannot be revoked. And at the end of the story, we’re wondering which king it is that rules after all. Clearly, we are meant to see that God rules even over the king of Medo-Persia. Also, we see here that God is sovereign not only over kingdoms and kings, but even over wild beasts as well. And he can very easily shut their mouths.

Well, this is the point, as we’ve been saying throughout Daniel, this is the point in the historical context that needed to be stressed. Because the Jews in exile in Babylon, defeated in Judah, carried in exile off to Babylon—it did not seem that God was in sovereign control over all things. And they needed this kind of reassurance if they are going to believe that God will keep his promise to bring Israel back home again. And Daniel writes this chapter, I’m convinced of it, to say to the people of Israel in exile that just because of this temporary setback, do not doubt that God is in sovereign rule over all things.

That’s something I think Daniel—the book of Daniel is one of the more contemporary to our own age, one of the more contemporary books for us to study because more and more it seems that we are living in Babylon, we are the ones in exile, we’re the ones being pressured to conform. And there may be setbacks in society like we have seen in our own generation, where it seems to be moving further and further away from its Christian moorings. And we may well wonder, is God really ruling over all things? And Daniel 6 is just one of those reminders by example to show and by illustration to show: don’t doubt it. God is in perfect control over all things. We may say it with regard to our families, we may say it with regard to our local church, whatever setbacks, whatever ministries you have, we may be sure that not for a moment and not even an inch is God’s program behind schedule. So the first lesson I think from it is the lesson that is hammered away over and again throughout the book of Daniel: the continued sovereign rule of God over all things.

The Continued Reality Of Spiritual Conflict

Number two, the continued reality of spiritual conflict. I suspect that if Daniel had been, you know, one of the gang, and not so perfect, they would have liked him a lot more. They’re jealous. It’s the same old, isn’t it? And there is that certain repetitiveness in the book of Daniel. Chapter one, people of God are taken away, taken as captives. They’re tempted to compromise. We saw it in chapter 3 with the fiery furnace. They’re demanded to give this false worship under threat of death. And there’s the spiritual conflict again. Here we have it with the conspiracy against Daniel in chapter 6.

And all of this emphasis on spiritual conflict, spiritual opposition, is in fact emphasized in these earlier chapters in order to prepare us and to encourage us with what we’re going to learn in the later chapters of the book of Daniel of this great opponent of the people of God who is coming to bring opposition against them. In chapter 7 we will find this horn on the fourth beast in that apocalyptic vision that we’ll see beginning next time, that he’ll come and he’ll “wear out.” That’s the expression that’s used in verse 25 of chapter 7. He will wear out the saints of the Most High. He’ll wear them weary. In chapter 8, we find it again, this great opponent of God’s people, which has the king Antiochus in view. Great havoc that will come to the people of Israel in a couple of centuries coming.

And all of that later in Daniel even, and then also in the New Testament to speak of this great opponent against the people of God who will rise, and he will rise up again, and he will rise up again, and he’ll rise up again, and he’ll rise up again throughout the history of God’s people until finally there’s this climactic opponent of the people of God who will come. And all of that to emphasize that this spiritual conflict is not an occasional thing. This is something that’s continually in the experience of the people of God. Precisely because we are faithful that opposition will come. It is something that started back as far as Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15: “I’ll put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.” And this has been the experience of the people of God ever since. An age-long conflict.

We’re told in chapter 2, as we saw, that one day, a stone will be cut out of the side of the mountain. It’ll roll down and crush the image. It’ll crush all the opponents of God and the kingdom of God will prevail. But until then, until then, the world will never be clamoring to have Jesus rule over them. And always, always, always, the world will be setting itself in opposition to Christ and opposition to those who are his. We’ve seen this in this larger series that we’ve been working through in Psalm 2. Let us break his bands asunder. Let’s cast his cords from us. We don’t want him ruling over us, and the nations in rebellion against God.

We find it in the New Testament as well. Jesus warns his apostles and by extension he warns all of us. “I send you out as sheep among wolves, and you’ll be dragged in before governors and before kings. You’ll be hated by all for my name’s sake.” There’s an encouraging job resume, isn’t it? Job description: you’ll be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he says that over and again. In Luke chapter 21, he says, “you’ll be delivered up even by parents and brothers, and mothers, and sisters, and my relatives, all because of me. And you will even, some of you, be put to death.” And again, he says, you will be hated by all for my name’s sake.

John chapter 15, Jesus makes this point in a very graphic way. “They’ve hated me,” he said. They hate me without a cause. And he draws it back. They hate me without a cause. Do you think they’ll love you? The more you look like me, the more they’ll hate you too. And in fact, they’ll hate you. Their hatred of you will be such that when they persecute you, and even put you to death, they will think they’re doing God a service.

We find this illustrated in the history of the church beginning in the book of Acts. Hauled before the authorities: “don’t preach anymore in the name of Jesus.” Whipped, put to death. We find it in Paul’s epistles. The regular experience of the churches that he writes to is one of suffering and persecution. Paul says even of himself, “we’re considered the off-scouring of the world.” They think we’re just the scum. John makes the point, reaching all the way back to Cain and Abel. Cain hated Abel. Why did Cain hate Abel, John says? Because Abel was righteous and Cain was evil.

The point is made, of course, in a particularly graphic way throughout the book of Revelation, where the dragon and the beast and the false prophets set themselves against the people of God. And again, the point is spiritual conflict is not occasional. It is the continued experience of the people of God, satanically inspired opposition. I would like to expound that further. I’ve decided I’ll put it off because we will have occasion to in the coming chapters in Daniel, but that is a prominent theme that comes up particularly now through the rest of Daniel. The Continued Reality of Spiritual Conflict.

Augustine, the towering theologian of the fifth century, one of his most influential, most noted books, was a book, The City of God, where he reflects on the history of the world, he reflects on society as we know it, and he pictures it in terms of two cities, or two kingdoms. There’s the city of man, and there’s the city of God. His imagery, I’m sure, was drawn much from the book of Daniel, the book of Revelation, as well as much elsewhere in the Bible as well. But we have the eternal city of God, where all of God’s people give themselves in unquestioned obedience and submission to the rule of their king, and they love him. And there’s the city of man, which although the city of God has come—the city of God has been inaugurated—they won’t recognize it. They contest his rule. And they fume and they sputter and they fight against it. And you have this continual conflict between the city of God and the city of man. And the city of man claiming their own autonomy and their revolt continually against the city of God. And that’s the nature of this age. We’ve seen it throughout in our series that the kingdom of God that was long promised has come. The king has come, but the kingdom has only been inaugurated. It has not yet come in its final climactic form. And during this time of the inaugurated kingdom, the city of man, kingdom of man continues to rebel and to express its contempt for the people of God.

Well, again, the point here is not to say that all of this is just evil. It is, but that’s not just the point. The point is that because of all of this, there is this demand to conform and there’s this continual pressure and a continual conflict against the people of God. So we have the lesson number one, the continued sovereign rule over God over all things. Number two, we have the continued reality of spiritual conflict.

The Continued Demand Of Faithfulness

And now number three, the continued demand of faithfulness. This is just the flip side of our previous point, the continued demand for faithfulness. And let me just put it this way, the continued demand of faithfulness at all costs. It’s obvious that here in chapter six, like in chapter one with Daniel and his three friends, like in chapter three with the three friends of Daniel in the fiery furnace—here in chapter six as well, Daniel is given to us not just to portray a hero of the faith, but to present for us a model whose example we are to follow. One whose faithfulness serves as an inspiration and an example for us. And that is why, again, he is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11 in the Hall of Faith chapter.

In verses 4 and 5, here in chapter 6, the conspirators seek to find fault. Verse 11, they find him seeking God. Verse 22, that God and the king find Daniel blameless. He’s faithful. There are obvious similarities here with chapter 3. In chapter 3, with the fiery furnace, the three Hebrew children were tested with regard to their loyalty to God. The stakes were high and they were faithful. The same theme here. They’re tempted with regard to their faithfulness to God. The stakes are high, but Daniel remains faithful.

But there’s this important difference between chapter 3 with the fiery furnace and this chapter 6 with the lion’s den. In chapter 3, the Hebrew children were pressured to give false worship. Bow to the image. In chapter 6, it’s not false worship in view. What we have in chapter 6 is the faithful simply refusing to allow his proper worship even to be interrupted. That’s a step up. And surely that is the message of Daniel to his audience in exile. They’re pressured to fit in. They’re pressured to forget the God of Israel. They’re pressured to bow to the image or to bow to the king or to pray to the king. And chapter six is given to us as an exhortation by example that we owe God our allegiance. God rules over all, and we owe him our faithfulness. He has not been left behind in Judah. God is still God over the nations. God still has his promise that he will keep, and we owe it to him to be faithful.

And again, for us, we don’t live in Babylon, but in another sense, we certainly do live in Babylon. We’ve been redeemed out of this present evil world, and yet here we are in this present evil world, and the message of Daniel is with all of the constant barrage that we have to bend and to bow and to compromise and to marginalize our faith, this is exhortation by example, that I will not allow the world to alter my course of faithfulness to God. The continued sovereign rule over God over all things. The continued reality of spiritual conflict. Third, the continued demand of faithfulness.

The Certain Triumph Of The Kingdom Of God

And now the fourth lesson, which really is just the flip side of the first, the continued rule of God over all things. The fourth lesson: the certain triumph of the kingdom of God. The certain triumph of the kingdom of God. This, with the theme of God’s sovereign rule over all things, is the thrust of the book of Daniel. It’s highlighted for us in several ways here in chapter 6.

First of all, most obvious, a certain triumph of the kingdom of God is emphasized in the closing verses of the chapter, the epilogue, where the king writes to all peoples, nations, and languages to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel. Remember, as we’ve seen before, this expression, “to all peoples, nations, and languages,” to all peoples, nations, and languages—it appears a few times in the book of Daniel. That’s picked up finally in the book of Revelation, where all peoples, nations, and tongues bow and give worship to God. We have a small picture at the end of chapter six of that big picture, where all peoples, nations, and languages are called to fear and to tremble before Daniel’s God. He’s extolling the living God, the God who delivers his people. He emphasizes that it is this God whose rule, whose kingdom will be forever.

There’s a hint of the final success of God’s kingdom also in the execution of Daniel’s accusers and their families. Daniel doesn’t offer us here any comment regarding the morality or the justice of that, bringing the families to judgment. But the underlying message, I think, is pretty plain, even if, again, it might be a bit subtle. I think the underlying message is pretty plain, and that is that all opposition to the kingdom of God must surely fail. All opposition to the kingdom of God must surely fail.

That really is the point of God’s miraculous intervention here in chapter six as well, at least viewed in the large picture of biblical history with regard to God’s miraculous intervention. Miracles are not something—you may have a wrong impression sometimes because we emphasize the miraculous interventions, but miraculous interventions and miracles themselves are not something that are scattered throughout the whole pages of biblical history. They’re not that frequent. What we find is them clustered in certain times. And they tend to appear—miraculous interventions tend to appear—at crucial moments in the establishing and the furthering of the kingdom of God. And so we have a cluster of miracles around the time of Moses and Joshua. We have it again the time of Elijah and Elisha. Here in the book of Daniel, we find it again with Jesus and the apostles. At each time, it’s a crisis moment in the establishing and the advancing of the kingdom of God. And these are like flashpoints. They are moments of the in-breaking of God’s kingdom, preliminary flashes of the powers of the age to come, which will surely come. And it’s noticing ahead of time: this is the power of God intervening, and he will bring his kingdom to final triumph. Kingdom of God will prevail. God is God over all and he will accomplish his purpose whatever the opposition.

Finally, a certain triumph of the kingdom of God is emphasized also even in the very last verse. Daniel prospers with vast authority in the kingdom. Hint: the people of God will win. The city of man is passing away. Actually the same is true with regard to the Medo-Persian takeover of Babylon. Cyrus doesn’t know it. Completely clueless, but it was for the advance of the kingdom of God that he now is the one in charge. He doesn’t know that. He overthrows Babylon by the mighty power of his great armies, so he thinks. But anyone who’s read the prophecies of God’s prophets knows that God had raised him up for just that purpose. God named him 200 years before he was born—Cyrus—and he’ll bring my people home.

All of this is prospective of the kingdom of God in its fullness, like a great stone cut from a mountain coming down to crush all opposition, or in chapter 3, the opponents may come and they may go, but the kingdom will be given to the Son of Man. Chapter 8, we’ll see it then too. There may be dreadful opposition, but God’s kingdom will prevail. His purpose will not fail. And all of that comes to the people of God with the message: be faithful, keep on, don’t give up. God delivered Daniel from the lion’s den and he will be able to bring Israel home and to keep his promises and to establish his kingdom.

Christians, I think, are often criticized, and you may well have heard this, for hanging on to a “pie-in-the-sky” religion. Kind of a pejorative term, isn’t it? A pie-in-the-sky religion, and the implication, of course, is that you have to have a miserable life here and give up all your fun in order to have a good life later. There are two ways I always want to answer that. Number one, you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. You don’t have a clue the joys that we have in this inaugurated kingdom. We’ve tasted of the age to come. We know the forgiveness of sins. We have fellowship with God. You don’t have a clue the joy that we have, even in just the inaugurated kingdom.

But then of course, on the other hand, I want to say, yeah, there is suffering in this life. And some of the suffering comes precisely because we are faithful. And yes, I’m glad to affirm and I’m glad to know that in the end we win. I’m not embarrassed about that. I’m happy to know it. That’s the great hope of the church. The kingdom belongs to God. He has sent his son. He has established the kingdom. He has earned the right to rule. And one day he’ll bring about that rule in full climax the world over. And the message then to us is we will be faithful until he comes. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, what a great God you are. Forgive us for our small thoughts of you. We pray that this study through the book of Daniel will, if nothing else, help us to see the greatness of our God so that we may trust you more firmly and we may serve you more faithfully. Give us the determination of Daniel, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Please take out your Trinity hymnal, open to number three, we will sing the second tune, second tune. Let’s stand together, please.

“From all that dwell below the skies let the Creator ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ Let the Redeemer’s name be sung ♪ ♪ Through every land, by every tongue ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ Oh”