Daniel In The Lions’ Den And The Cost Of Envy

A story you think you know can still catch you off guard. Daniel 6 isn’t just about surviving lions, it’s about surviving envy, unfair systems, and the slow burn of comparison. We dig into why the most powerful people in the empire can’t tolerate one faithful man being a step ahead, and how jealousy turns into a plan to trap Daniel by targeting his prayer life. If you’ve felt the tension of standing out at work, being misunderstood for your convictions, or watching someone else’s “blessing” mess with your contentment, this message lands close to home.

We also slow down on what makes Daniel so compelling: his integrity is so consistent that his enemies can’t find a real accusation. The only leverage they have is his devotion to God. That kind of faithful character can put a target on your back, but it also places you in the path of God’s grace. From there, we get intensely practical about building a durable prayer life, not as a last-second rescue plan, but as a daily rhythm. We share simple, actionable steps like choosing a time or season to pray, picking a quiet place, using your body in prayer, praying Scripture, praying boldly and specifically, tracking answers, and praying with others.

Then the story flips in a way most people miss: Daniel is calm in the den while King Darius panics all night on the palace bed. We explore the difference between having hope that God can act and having peace rooted in a prayer-worn relationship with him. Along the way, we trace the stunning parallels between Daniel’s unjust suffering and Jesus, from being seized while praying to the sealed stone and the dawn rush toward deliverance.

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Transcript

Scripture Reading And Opening Setup

Amber Williams 0:50

Good morning, Mitri. Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel chapter six. It's gonna be on page seven forty-three in the Pew Bibles, and then follow along as I read God's word. All right, Daniel chapter six, verse one. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom, and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom the say these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and 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 was 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. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, O King Darius, live forever. All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors, are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce the enforce an injection that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. This is the word of the Lord.

Will Hawk 2:26

Thanks, Abe. Appreciate that. We are in one of the most popular stories in the entirety of Scripture. You can't start the book of Daniel and not anticipate Daniel in the lion's den. I was hanging out with a couple of folks and I was telling them, I can't prove this, but I think the majority of it of the stories that we remember in Scripture have to do with animals. When you think of a story, Noah in the Ark, you got all the animals. When you think of Daniel and the lions, yeah, the only one that I think that like swings around it would be David and Goliath. Goliath was a bit of an animal himself. You can slide it in if you need to. But we're coming up on what is one of the most well-known stories in all of Scripture. And tucked into this are a couple of things that I wonder if you have ever seen them. If you want to grab the oh, by the way, today is a phone day. So if you've uh come to Midtree before and been like, man, they use their phones a lot, gonna happen today. Uh and so if you want, go ahead, grab your phone, just keep it next to you. If you would like, you can go ahead. Do you guys have my slides up and pulled up? There we go. Uh, if you want to go ahead, I was wondering why nobody was moving. I was like, what uh it's there's a lion staring at you. If you want to get today's notes, go ahead and grab them and uh keep your phones nearby because we're gonna use them for a couple of different things. All right, so the the chapter begins with a brand new ruler over the people of Babylon and beyond. If we go back and read in verse one, it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps. Those would be governors, so think of a state governor to be throughout the whole kingdom, and over them three high officials of whom Daniel was one. So when Darius takes over, he looks at this sprawling empire, and just to let you know, it may not seem big to you nowadays, it is three times the size of our state of Georgia. Now keep in mind, they don't have any cars, they don't have any airplanes. There's no way for Darius to get from here to there very quickly at all. They can't send an email, they can't send a text message. So if you're trying to communicate with somebody in an area three times the size of Georgia, if you're responsible for all of those people, what do you do? Well, you put together a hierarchy of leadership. He says, I'm gonna have 120 governors, we call them satraps, or they call them satraps, and then I'm gonna

Why Daniel Stands Out

Will Hawk 4:56

put three guys over them, 123 people to govern this entire area. Verse 4. Then the high officials and the satraps, 122 of them, sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel. From the drop of Daniel chapter 6, envy and jealousy begins to explode. Have you ever wondered why somebody else's blessing often feels like you are lost? Now it's a human condition. There's, in a sense, nothing you can do about it on the front end. Whenever you were sitting in grade school, uh, unless you were homeschooled, you'd have to be sent by your brother or sister, and the teacher is handing out tests. You were really pumped about your 91 till the kid beside you got a 97. And for whatever reason, those six points mattered more than the 91 that were on your page. Why is it that these 122 people that are over this sprawling empire see this one guy? And because he is slightly above, it's more than they can handle. Because jealousy is the natural state of the human heart. And Daniel 6 opens by showing us, in the event that we would have forgotten, that envy is never overcome by success. If you find yourself envious of someone else, you are not gonna succeed your way out of envy. You can't do it. These guys would have done that if that was an option. You're not gonna outstatus or outpower or out influence or outlike the people around you. There's one way to destroy envy and jealousy prayer and sanctification. But what was it specifically that would have threatened these already powerful people if envy doesn't disappear with advancement? Even the people sitting on top recognized that if there was one step ahead of them, it was too far. Because envy is costly and not just to the one it's poison. When I finish going through Daniel 6, I'm gonna show you this again. But I want you to remember this moment. I want you to remember 122 people who rule a massive empire feeling like I can't go to sleep, I can't be content, I cannot find peace because there is somebody one step ahead of me. Envy is costly, and it's not just costly to the one that it has poisoned. So let's dive into the story. They seek to find a ground for complaint against Daniel, and these men said, We're not gonna find any problem with this guy unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Just notice, eyes on the screen for just a minute here. We cannot find any ground for complaint against him. Not one little thing. The only way we're gonna find a problem with this guy is if we can tie it to how much he loves his God. That's gonna be our only hope. His integrity, Daniel's integrity, so consistent that his enemies can only weaponize his devotion to God. I just want you to imagine for a moment, we're reading an Old Testament verse. It's using wording that we don't typically use, like say traps and high officials, we shall not find. Like nobody talks like this. But I want you to imagine what that would have been like. Could you imagine knowing somebody in your life that you can't point to one thing that they fail in? The guy never gets angry. He's never shifty or shady in his texting

Envy And Jealousy Exposed

Will Hawk 8:51

or business deals or conversations. He's not lazy. You can't find one moment of his day where he's like, you know what? I've earned it. I'm getting on my phone. They cannot find this in him. He's not distracted when he's at work. He has no ego that they can point at. Imagine who this man was. And for them, how difficult it was to stand next to him. And because of this, a target is put on Daniel's back. Now, if you're a Christian, I need you to know that costly faithfulness might add a target to your back. I put might, but I'll be honest with you, I think it does. I don't think you can read the New Testament and anything that Jesus says and believe that you can live kind of a WWJD life and not have a target on your back. It's going to happen. But what I want you to realize as we walk through Daniel and the Lion's Den is that it simultaneously does put a target on your back and it just so beautifully positions you in the path of God's grace. You want that. To put it simply, it would be better to live with a target on your back on the path of grace than without a target on your back on the paths of this world. And you'll find that as we continue reading. Jesus would put it this way in Matthew: Blessed are those who are persecuted. Now you have to read all of Jesus' stuff because some of you get persecuted because you're lazy. You get persecuted by your spouse because you didn't make the bed, or you didn't do the dishes. You get persecuted at work and you're like, my boss is always on me. Yeah, well, you hadn't been on time in two weeks. And you're like, this whole being a Christian thing is so it has nothing to do with you being a Christian. It has everything to do with you just being a knucklehead. All right? When Jesus writes this in Matthew 5, read the word specifically. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. That's Daniel. You're persecuted because you pray too much. You're persecuted because you love Jesus in a way that steps on people's toes. You're persecuted because your agenda and your priorities do not match and line up with the rest of the world, and the world doesn't like that. They don't like that you're confident. They don't like that you get sick and you still smile. It doesn't make sense to them. They don't like that you pray for folks who are dealing with incredible difficulty and you sing Forrest Frank on the way to work and they can hear it on your way out. They do not like this because it doesn't make sense to them. Blessed are you, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you, when they persecute you, when they utter all kinds of evil against you. On my account, because of how big Jesus is in your world. Jesus would say, Rejoice and be glad. Why? Because it's easy? Uh-uh. No, none of the stuff that I've underlined is easy. And you don't have to be 45 to figure this out. You can be the kid who prays for his lunch in the cafeteria to figure this kind of stuff out. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is no small thing. What a difference it will make in the life of the believer if we could begin to glimpse or have faith for the size of the reward that every faithful action will bring in heaven. The bending over to pick up a piece of trash when nobody else does, simply because God created a beautiful world to be appreciated. The person who leans to the person next to them in a booth at Chick-fil-A and says, Hey, I'm about to pray over my meal. Do you have anything I can pray for? That 30 seconds, if you could see the cornucopia, the bountiful reward that waited for us in heaven, it would cause you to live in a different kind of way. He doesn't just say your reward's in heaven, because that's just a waiting game. He says, Your reward is great in heaven. And just so you know, you're not alone, that's how they have treated everyone who has loved me more than the world that they were in, just like Daniel. Back to Daniel. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, they fooled the king. Hey, king, what could be better than everybody honoring you, praising you, and praying to you? We're just gonna set it for 30 days. I mean, it's not even that big of a deal. We're gonna do this thing. What could go wrong? As soon as the document is signed, Daniel 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. He prayed and he gave thanks before his God. All right, keep your eyes up, keep your eyes up. Bonus points to the camp store, if you can tell me what I covered at the bottom of this verse. Is anybody willing to risk it and be wrong at church?

Integrity That Enemies Can’t Touch

Will Hawk 13:56

Three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he always did. This is who Daniel was. Daniel wasn't like this because the king was like, we should do this really cool, like lion pit thing and throw people in it. And then he's like, Man, I really need to be praying. He's not like this because all of a sudden he got a new job. Well, now I need to sort of take my prayer life seriously. This brother got up three times a day. We don't know what they were. I'm gonna guess morning and evening were two. I don't know where he sprinkled in the third one, but regularly, three times a day, in the same place, at the same window, facing the same direction. He went to the God he loved and he asked him for things and he thanked him for things. The reason this story plays out the way it does is because of that. I I truly believe that one, two, three, four, five words is why Daniel 6 is the way that it is. I think it's a different story. If the king writes this and Daniel's like, oh man, I really should have been praying about this, and then he decides to go and figure it out. What a strength, what a spiritual strategy to already be in a pattern of prayer when a storm strikes. Uh, I should have put the picture up. Darn it. Karen Ann, help me remember. We had a bunch of guys over to our house. Um, must have been Monday night. When that storm came through, how many of you guys were here for the crazy storm? By show of hands, everybody's on vacation. Ah, I'm sorry, you're back. All right, cool. Storm comes through. A three-hour storm squeezed into about three minutes. We live in the woods. All of our trees are bending in half. We're inside, praying. Lord, just pray there wouldn't be any massive damage. A handful of guys have come in, we're waiting on a couple other, and then all of a sudden, I hear Robbie scream like a little baby girl, and Robbie Moore, wherever he is. It's true. Like me and my kids talked about this. We were like, that was a really high-pitched scream that Robbie. And us, I measured the tree at 70 feet, but that was after I'd already started limbing the top. So we'll just say 85-foot tree, this big around, fell this far from our truck, and like just barely nicked the house. Just foo. Well, I just prayed, like, Lord, like, please, no damage. This story would be so much better if I had the picture. I'm so sorry. I'll show you the picture at some point. You're trying to send it to tech. Okay, my wife's gonna send it to tech. Good luck, Josiah. He's listening to music right now. I don't even whoa, you did it. Way to go. All right, hang on. There you go. Now, what you can't see is how close it gets to my house on the other side. The coolest part about this was that moments before we as a group of guys had gotten together to pray, as we always do, before we eat and spend time together. It was our habit to pray before the storm struck. And that is a strategy, that is a strength. In the event that you do not have a pattern of prayer put together. Yeah, there you go. You couldn't pay a guy $4,000 to lay that thing down. I don't care how long he's been in Arboris. It was awesome. Um, all right, give me back. Uh go ahead and throw me the screen back. Grab your phones. I just want to give you this. If you want the QR code, you can take a picture, you can just take the QR code. I want to make prayer for you simple. I think Daniel gives us an incredible model. Many of you may be doing all seven of these things. If you're not doing one of these, let me just tell you how simple steps, uh, seven simple steps to have a healthier prayer life. I'm not gonna read everything on the screen, but I will tell you this. I think you should set a time to pray.

A Pattern Of Prayer Before Trouble

Will Hawk 17:41

Daniel did. He said three times a day. He didn't have an iPhone to go off. He just knew these are my three times. If setting a specific time is tough for you because you have little kids, set a season of your day. As soon as the kids go to bed, I'm going to pray. Before I wake them up, I'm going to pray. As soon as we get home from school, we are going to pray. If a time doesn't make sense because your calendar of life moves a lot, pick three, uh pick one. Pick a season of your day. Pick a place and make it a place that is quiet. He went to the upper chamber, which means he probably found the quietest place that he could. Use your body to help your soul. If I could highlight or underline any of them, it would be this for you guys. It's because simply put, getting on your knees changes things. Praying with your hands up changes things. You are an embodied creature by God, soul, mind, spirit, and body. And when all you do is close your eyes and you feel like your eyelids are the greatest praise that you can give to God. I'm not serious, now I'm serious. I'm not serious, now I'm serious. God has given you an entire body. Use it, and you will find that it helps in your prayers. Those top three, by the way, are all about setting. The bottom four are about what you do. If you don't know what to say, pray scripture. You've been given 150 Psalms that you could literally read a line and just tell God what you're thinking, wrestling with, frustrated about, excited about. Put some effort into your prayer. Don't pray just easy stuff. Pray things that are hard to pray. Pray things that require a level of faith that stretches you. And pray specifically. If you really want to level it up, write down a few things. Put it in the notes app on your phone so that you can go back and put an asterisk every time God answers your prayer. Because if there's one thing we're prone to do, it's forget how good God has been to us when we ask him to show up. And then pray with and for others. In Daniel chapter 6, Daniel's praying all by himself. He may be by himself because he was literally alone as a believer of God in that entire kingdom. We know that when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo were around, they were praying together. So do both, not one or the other. That QR code, by the way, takes you to an article on desiring God that gives you a better explanation than I did. Boy, would I love for you to just circle one in your heart, soul, and mind and take a step in that in this coming week. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows toward Jerusalem. I think this is Daniel praying, Thy kingdom come before Jesus gave it to us in the Lord's Prayer. He is absolutely embedded in Babylon, but his heart and his mind and his posture are toward the kingdom of God. And that is true for you when you sit down at your desk at work. It is true for you when you pull out of your driveway. There is a coming kingdom that Christ has already inaugurated, that he has asked us to pray into existence. Whatever it means for you to turn your heart toward Jerusalem, to turn your heart toward the kingdom of God. I'm not just talking about a physical posture, I'm talking about a spiritual posture. But I thought it was worth noting that Daniel did even that. I've had you pull out your phones twice today because I didn't think you would for the third one, and it's the one I most wanted. So I was trying to build repetition in you. Would y'all do me a favor and just scan this QR code? I'm gonna give you a few moments to do it. Let me tell you why. I want us to be a church that prays, and if I can just shoot straight with you, I know how many people are in this room, and I know how many prayers you need. I know it because I talk to you. There's a piece of my soul that breaks when we invite people for prayer, and we do not have multitudes of people coming before the Father on a regular basis. We give God 60 to 90 minutes a week like this. 60 to 90 minutes. I want us to give him our best 60 to 90 minutes. You walking down for prayer doesn't make you a varsity Christian. It doesn't mean that your marriage is in the dumps. But I do think it would be wise for us to match our posture with what it is that the Lord is doing. And if there needs to be some level of repentance, like we're kind of at the end, I want to get a good spot for lunch, bump that. Y'all are first service anyway. Y'all beat everybody to lunch, okay? If there is something in here, I don't think it's here, if there is something in here that begins to chirp as soon as somebody comes and plays on the keys, fight that thing with whatever you have in you. Lord, don't let me detach from you. I don't even want to detach when I walk out that door. I don't want to detach when I take a left or a right at the stop sign. I want to live and marinate and dwell in you. And so what I thought we would do is take a moment and pray for one another as we wrap up the sermon, which is not right now. But I needed you to get your prayer requests in because I have too many teenagers in this room that are gonna put in something stupid, and I needed somebody to keep an eye on it. So here's what I would like for you to do. It already Says it, what is one thing that you can praise God for, or what is one petition or need that you need from Him? Keep it short, don't use any names. I want this to be anonymous. And as we close out our time and move toward communion, you're going to be able to pray for everybody in the room what God has for them, what is going on in and around them. Back to Daniel. These men came by agreement. Daniel went to his room to pray. They knew he would. That's why they made that the rule. They didn't make it if somebody gets angry, if somebody cusses, if somebody watches a rated R movie, they weren't going to catch that guy on this. They had to have him praying and not praying toward the king, praying toward Jerusalem. They knew he would do it. Then these men came by agreement and they found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and they said before the king concerning the injunction, O king, did you not sign an injunction? Have we forgotten about this? That anybody who makes a petition or a prayer to any God or man within thirty days accept you, O king, that they would be cast into this den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing stands. It stands fast. According to the law of the Medes and the Persians, you know this. I made it, and I can't veto it. This is one of those things that even I, as the king, cannot undo. He may have thought that he was being challenged in his willingness to stand by his word. And he says, No, no, no, I'll stand by my word. Then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, which is one of the exiles from Judah. I think that's how they would

Seven Simple Steps For Prayer

Will Hawk 24:21

have said it. Daniel, who's different than us, Daniel, who's not like us, Daniel who eats differently than us and walks differently than us and talks differently than us, who prays differently than us, this guy who's raised his hand to put a target on his back. That icky guy, he's not paying any attention to you, O king. He's not worried about the injunction that you have signed. He keeps making his prayers three times a day. Daniel's character is of such high caliber that this king, who has only been a king for a minute, most historians think the writing on the wall happened. Then we get this new king, and what happens is very fast. It makes sense because if you take over a sprawling kingdom, one of the first things you're gonna do is establish governors. Okay? That would be one of the first things you do. And as soon as he does it, they put this plan in action. They've lived with Daniel a long time. This new king has not. They may have been plotting this before the new administration came in. Watch the king's heart. This is one of the things in Daniel I think most people miss. This is one of the things in the story of the lion's den, I think most Christians who have gone to church for 40 years miss. Then the king, when he heard these words, was very much distressed. He set his mind to deliver Daniel, and he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. The king is distressed all night. He tries all day. Is there any way? They came to me, they reminded me, I'd signed this thing. Technically, I'm not supposed to be able to undo it. If I undo it, it's gonna make me seem partial, it might make me seem weak. I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'll try to come up with some plan. Does he? No. The king commanded, Daniel was brought in, and he was cast into the den of lions, and the king declared, May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you. Daniel, I just got here, and you're the most impressive man in my entire kingdom. I don't know a lot about you, but I do know this. I know your work ethic, I know your character, I know your integrity, and I know you love your God. I hope he's as big as you think he is. I hope he's as strong as you say he is. I hope he cares as much as you believe he does. May he be everything that you have said he is. And 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 lords. They probably think they've won right now. That nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace, he spent the night fasting with no diversions, and sleep fled from him. When we finally arrive at the test of Daniel and the lion's death, Daniel doesn't turn and run, he doesn't try to get out of it. What really ought to surprise us most, this is what I meant when I said, I think people know this story, but this is something they miss. It's not just Daniel's courage, it's Darius's panic. That's what you should notice. Daniel is calmer than the king. Daniel's on the inside with a bunch of lions. Darius is on the most cushioned bed in the kingdom, and the wrong one is stressing. The wrong one is anxious, the wrong one is nervous. Supernatural peace is often the fruit of a prayer-filled life. If you feel like peace has been eluding you, might I encourage you to go and check out those seven steps of prayer and really begin leaning in. Because it's not as though prayer makes the wave stop hitting, it anchors you firm before they ever do. That's what we see in Daniel. Now I just want you to imagine any scene in a courtroom. It used to be like Judge Judy and all that kind of stuff. Now all the courtroom scenes I see are on Instagram and TikTok. Like it and what plays out is exactly what you would sort of imagine. But is the condemned ever calmer than the judge? No. The judge is just sitting, chilling, while that person in an orange jumpsuit is wondering what the next 60 or 70 years or moments of their life are going to look like. In most courtrooms, a bailiff calls, all rise, and three things happen. A judge calmly walks in, the convicted or the accused begins to tremble and sweat and fear, and then the verdict falls. But in Daniel 6, everything's upside down. Daniel's condemned, but Darius is the one who's so troubled he can't even eat. Daniel is the one who's tossed into the den, but Darius is the one who's distressed to the point that he's like, I can't even watch Netflix tonight. Don't bring me a single distraction.

A Church That Actually Prays

Will Hawk 29:42

I can't get on my phone. I can't do scroll. I can't turn it off. Daniel is surrounded by lions, but it's the king that can't fall asleep. It's backward. The helpless king, more restless outside the den than Daniel appears to be inside of it. Why? Because Daniel didn't wait until the storm hit to start praying. He had a well-worn path to a God who knows him and loves him and has cared for him. And let's be honest, Daniel hasn't been tossed into a den of lions, but the past 70 years or so, he kind of has. It's been one thing after another. You have to imagine that as soon as this decree was made, Daniel's like, all right, cool. All right, we'll see how this one plays out. All the other ones have worked out just fine. I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and love God in a big way. And it'll probably play out as it always has. Darius has some hope, but he doesn't have any peace. I point this to those of you who have hope, but you struggle to find peace. I know God can do it. I know if God wants to step in, he will. I know he sees all things and knows all things. I know all the omnis, he's omnipresent and omniscient. I know all that. May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you. I hope it's going to happen. If you find yourself struggling to have peace in difficulty, if you feel like your prayers are often, God, I know you can. That's good theology. But many times it's separated from a heart that is set on fire. God, I know you can. Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abinega? I know you can. I fully expect that you're gonna. And you know what? If you don't, I'm not gonna change anything about it. It's that middle piece that so many of us miss. I expect, God, for you to do good, great, wonderful things. All the hope, but no peace. This is my favorite line. It's my favorite line because it reminds me of Robin Hood, the animated one, where uh King John. Isn't it King John? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like the lion and the crown doesn't fit right, and all he wears is that like red overcoat, and he runs around. If you hadn't seen it, don't worry about it. But that's who I imagine when I read this verse. Then at break of day, the king arose and he went in haste to the den of lions. Remember, he couldn't fall asleep. So at some point, with all of the crazy stress in his head, he finally like dozes off. And then I don't know if he had this soldier outside the door. He was like, As soon as the sun comes up, you knock on this, you come and wake me up. I'm not leaving him in that pit one moment more than this edict requires me to do. Or if all of a sudden, like a college student on the day of finals do, he goes, Oh no. Like I don't know which one it was, but he pops out of bed. I just imagine trying to get his crown on, throwing on his robe and slippers, and he is similar to David when he's worshiping God in a way that is not completely appropriate socially. This king is just trying to get there in the hopes that this injustice has turned into a miracle. And as he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. Daniel, oh Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, be able to deliver you from the lions? When would he have yelled this? Probably as the stone that was sealing that den is being rolled away. I don't know that he would expect him to be able to hear it through it. So you can hear the rock grinding to the side. Daniel, you who love God with all of your heart, was your God able to save you? And then silence.

Daniel Accused And Darius Panics

Will Hawk 33:32

The second thing in the book of Daniel, specifically chapter six, Daniel and the lion's den, that I think most Christians may not have realized. Daniel only says two sentences in the whole thing. He comes across as a minor character if you read the lines. But here is what he says. Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever. Be at peace. My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth, and they have not harmed me. Can I tell you why? It's because I was blameless before him. It's because these 122 people, knowing me for 80 years, couldn't find something to come at me with except they knew I prayed. They knew I loved him more than anything else. And because I loved him more than anything else, he wanted to use my life to show you something grand. I think what Daniel's saying here is God didn't save me because he liked me. God didn't save me because I was necessarily worthy. He saved me because God wants to underline, italicize, and put in bold the kind of lives he wants to bless, the kind of people he wants to platform, the kind of lives that he wants to tell the stories of his grace. I was found blameless before him. I was found blameless before you. Oh, King, you know I have done no one any harm. It would have been wrong for me to be thrown in here and died. And the king was exceedingly glad. He commanded that Daniel be taken out of the den. So he was taken up out of the den, and not one kind of harm, he didn't even smell like lion's breath, was found on him. Because he trusted in his God. It's the first time Daniel speaks. Now I want you to imagine for a moment you have been accused unjustly. It's happened to me. Has it happened to you? Usually you remember it. One of mine happened in the 10th grade where I got accused of something that I didn't do, and I was like, I am going to the mat. You can send me to the print, you can suspend me. I'm not taking a punishment for something I didn't do. Here's who I am. I'm an honor student, I'm a gifted student, I'm an academic cathlon. I play like, why would I do something to ruin my own life? I would have started mouthing off, but not Daniel. He doesn't plead his case, not one word of it. He doesn't argue for justice one time. He doesn't stand on the record of his excellence, even though the Bible points to it. He remains absolutely silent. Why? Because that is who we are. When we are persecuted for righteousness' sake, it is in heaven that we are waiting for a great reward. Christian, when you are treated unjustly, it is a gracious thing when, because you are being mindful of God, you endure sorrow while suffering unjustly. Let me just say that a little bit slower so that it sinks in because this goes against our American mindset. We love karma videos. We love justice immediately done when somebody runs a red light or cuts somebody off or does whatever else. Remember, mindful of God. It is a gracious thing when you are being mindful of God and you are enduring suffering because you're being treated unfairly. To this, you have been called. Christian, if you don't like being treated unfairly, you picked the wrong guy to follow. If it is always going to wreck you when you are treated unfairly, you picked the wrong Savior. His life was one of being treated unfairly, from beginning to end, especially end. Which is why Peter continues and he says, You've been called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, not just to look at, so that you might follow in his steps.

Peace In The Den

Will Hawk 37:56

And when it drives you crazy that you are treated unjustly, just remember you wouldn't be sitting here if he wasn't. When it drives you nuts that somebody doesn't know the whole story, when you can't plead your case, when somebody says something about you online and it would only make it worse for you to respond to it, just remember it was worse what you did to him. This is why Daniel points us in this direction. Oh king, live forever. I told you he has two sentences, and his first sentence is to comfort his convictor. That's the first thing he does. Comfort the one who brought about the injustice. The king didn't have to do it, but he did. And then he just praises God. That's who Daniel was. He comforts the man who failed him, just as Jesus comforts the people who crucified him. And that isn't normal. It's not supposed to be. It's grace. And you would have had to be paying very close attention because I barely made it noticeable. But Jesus is on every page in chapter 6 of Daniel. The high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel, but they couldn't, because what we're reading about is an innocent man. Sound familiar? These men came by agreement, and they found Daniel praying before his God, just as Jesus was captured, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. The king, when he heard these words, was distressed. Is there anything that I can do to set this innocent man free? Sounds an awful lot like Pilate. Hey, how about this? I'm gonna release somebody to you. And they start crying for Barzabbas. You've got to be kidding me. A murderer? You want him? I'm washing my hands of this, I'm doing everything that I can that an innocent man might not die. But it's pointing. A stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, as it was with the tomb of Christ. At break of day, the ones who care about him run to see might there be something more than death found here? And the blameless one goes from death to life. We really do need a savior. And Daniel is pointing to it the whole time. And in the

Silent Suffering And Christlike Grace

Will Hawk 40:41

event that there are some skeptics in the room, of which I tend to be one, and you're like, I don't know about this whole angel business. How do you know the lions weren't just very well fed? Well, in my favorite verse of the entire chapter, the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought, and they were cast into the den of lions. I love that part. I don't love the next part. I love that these 122 that were like, well, I just can't handle that. He's getting an A plus. If I've got an A, and then like lions just go and gobble town on them. I like that. There's something in the human heart that really struggles with them and their children and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces. Why include that? Justice? Yeah, maybe, but it proves that Daniel's safety was miraculous and not circumstantial. And it also reminds us, I told you I was gonna do this, that envy is costly. And not just to the one that it poisons. If I were to make this less pastoral and theological and just cut to the quick, I would tell you that wanting a life that isn't yours is a dangerous thing for yourself and everybody that you care about. Wanting a life that is not yours is a dangerous thing for yourself and everybody you care about. That's why it's in the top ten. Thou shalt not covet. By the way, coveting is the most defined of all the Ten Commandments. He then goes, Let me tell you what I mean. I don't want you to covet another man's wife. I don't want you to covet another man's home. I don't want you to look at your marriage compared to that marriage over there and want a life that isn't yours. I don't want you to look at that guy's business or that guy's bank account or her children or her car. I don't want you to look at that and want a life that is different than the one that I had given you. Can I tell you who would have wanted a different life? Daniel would have wanted a different life. All alone, probably made into a eunuch, sent by God. And do you do you know how often we hear him complain? Never. Not once. This is the life that God has given me. I will rejoice and be glad in it. And if I choose to, he is gonna do incredible things. In the story that he is writing, life's not always gonna be fair, and following Jesus won't make it fair. In fact, sometimes faithfulness is the very reason it becomes unfair. I'm not gonna read this to you, but there's this whole story in Luke where this guy comes up and he's like, Hey Jesus, tell my brother how he's supposed to deal with the inheritance. Like, step in, it's not fair. He's being unjust. And Jesus is like, you need to take care and be on guard against covetousness. Your life isn't about your stuff. Little flock, it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. But before you can receive it, what you have to realize is every man, every woman, and every child, even though you may struggle with it, deserve to be thrown into a pit of doom and death. Born with a sin nature, separate from him, screaming how unfair life is without realizing this is the true unfair thing. Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, because the wages of sin is death, but there is a free gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And when you find it, it changes things. And the king finally finds peace. King Darius wrote to all the people and the nations and the languages that dwell in all the earth, I found it, guys. I found peace. And I didn't just find it, I want you to

Envy’s Fallout And A King’s New Decree

Will Hawk 44:26

have it. I want it to be multiplied to you. I'm making a decree that in all my royal dominion, people are to tremble. They are to fear before the God of Daniel. What does it look like for you to tremble in fear before this kind of God? Might be on your knees, might be repenting, might be praying, might be celebrating. Because he is a living God watching you now in this moment. He endures forever, never going to change. His kingdom will never be destroyed. His dominion is never gonna come to the end. He delivers. Do you need that? He rescues. He's still doing that. He works signs and wonders. Ask for them. He does them in heaven and on earth. And he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions, this Daniel prospered. Because when the storms hit, he had already built a well-worn path to God. I want you to do the same. I'm gonna give you two ways to do it as we close this morning. The first one, assuming technology works, is I'm gonna put up a bunch of anonymous prayers, and Carrie's just gonna play for a minute so that you can pray for the people that you are worshiping with. Lean in. Don't just make this any normal Sunday. Lean in. And then we will stand and receive communion together. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.