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Faith

Daniel 6
A Faith which never gives up - and a God who never lets you down.
Daniel is a Jew who loves God - the one true and living God. Around him is a whole society, in fact an entire empire which covers most of the known world at that time and it is ruled by a crazy King, Darius, who thinks that he is God. Daniel is a lone voice, quietly worshiping his God, Yahweh, while 99% of the people around him think he's a bit crazy. But because Daniel does such a great job, the King loves him and the people respect him.

In fact the king thinks of Daniel so highly that he has his old name back, the one he was given at birth, not the one he was given by the previous King, Nebuchadnezzar. and Daniel has been appointed to one of the most priveleged postitions in the whole of Darius' kingdom. Daniel is given so much favour by the King that the other officials around him are really jealous and hate Daniel. They want him out of the way and, preferably dead.

So they plot against him. 

We have to realise that sometimes the good things which God brings about in our lives because he loves us and we follow him obediently, won't automatically bring a lot of love from the people around us. in fact, in following Jesus we can often find ourselves in a worse situation - not because God's plans are wrong, but because other people living a life of sin and brokeness don't like seeing people doing better than them! And satan himself will acrtively try and bring us down!

Question is - what then will you do about it? when life gets tough and people turn against you - what do you do about it?

Daniel chose to hold fast to God no matter what.

how did that work out for him?

Not very well it seems. The satraps plot a devious plan to trap him. They know they can't just tell the king to arrest daniel because the king likes him too much. They know too that they can't kill daniel, ... because the king likes him too much. they've got to be more cunning than that.

So they play on the king's over inflated big head - and encourage the king's thoughts that he is in fact some sort of god. They tell the king to make a decree that no one can pray to any god except the king. When the king likes the sound of this idea they get the king to put it in writing so that it can't be undone later on when the king realises he's been had.

Then the satraps run off and spy on daniel knowing full well Daniel won't be able to not pray to his god.

like little children they see daniel praying and they run to tell the king.

the king is distraught - he realises that his stupid law has just landed daniel in a whole heap of trouble - but even he can't do anything about it now.

Here's the great irony of the story. this is the king who was supposed to be a god. Surely a god can do anything right? Well, it seems that this god can't even undo his own stupid law. the king is shown to be powerless to act. he can't do anything to save daniel.

Who and what do we put our trust in? Who do we choose to follow? What do we put our faith in? So often we put our faith in the stuff and the people who seem to have it all - but ultimately are powerless to help us out at all. Here's a king of a huge empire! he has vast armies at his disposal - all the money in the world - quite literally, more power than we can imagine! He would seem like a good bet to put our faith in. The satraps want to be a part of his court and inner council like Daniel is. But their own plan to get there actually proves how wholly useless the king actually is. He can't stop the law that he himself has made.

And so daniel is arrested and thrown into the lion's den.

Now these lions should have ripped daniel to shreds before he'd even made it to the ground. They were wild lions - not zoo kept lions. they were hungry and they had a taste for human flesh no doubt. It was highly likely that these lions would have been used regularly for eating prisoners - people who didn't do what they were told - people who didn't think the king was god!

So daniel gets chucked in - a heretic, an unbeliever in the great god King Darius ... even while the king himself helplessly cries at the loss of his friend Daniel. the satraps meanwhile are looking on with smug grins on their faces no doubt.

But here's the thing ... Daniel has a faith which never gives up! and he has a God who never let's him down! Before Daniel has even reached the ground ... God is there.

In every situation we can find ourselves in ... God is there! If we're God's side then God can and will stand up for us!

there is a great verse in the New Testament, written hundreds of years after Daniel was thrown into the lions den which says this:
"37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39

Even lions couldn't seperate Daniel from the love of God!

So when Daniel is chucked in he finds himself in God's presence. God is already there.

But if Daniel had no faith then he would not have known that and he would have known great fear. and if Daniel had turned his back on God I wonder if God would have shown up? Maybe He would ... but God also respects our wishes. You see if we decide that God isn't there and we don't want him in our lives ... if Daniel had decided to follow some other "god" instead the one true and living God ... well, then maybe God would have respected Daniel's wishes and left him alone.

what then?

Are there any other gods our there who can stop lions from eating a helpless prisoner? No. there is only one God! our God.

So the angel of the Lord is there on God's behalf and shuts the lions mouths.

How awesome is that.

I wonder if Daniel slept with his head on a lions soft mane?

And what of the satraps great plan?

well, it was rubbish wasn't it?

We can live in fear of the plans and ideas of other people. people who hate us, people who want to get us, people who want us to bring us low and drag our names through the dirt. Tough!!! they don't stand a chance against our God.

Remember that daniel's name was dragged through the mud. he was arrested. he was convicted. he was thrown to the lions. And sometimes god does let us go through these tough times ... but the question is ... will we hang on to him like Daniel did, or let go when the going gets tough?

Daniel never let go of his faith in a God who would never let go of him. And ultimately the plans of the satraps came back to bite them ... or rather the lions ended up biting them instead of the daniel they'd wanted dead.

the people who are out to get you will ultimately be judged by God - the same God who will save us if we follow him, will judge us if we don't.

What do you want to happen in your life this week? Will you belief in false gods for a quiet and ultimately fruitless life? or will you trust in the true and living god who believes in you and will rescue you if you let him!

amen!

NOTE - I've not refered to Daniels speech to the king. It is worth commenting on somewhere, that he gives a two  pronged attack - 1)God CAN do this, he CAN save me  ... but 2)Even if he chooses not to (because he's king and can do what he likes), I still won't let go of Him!   It's an AWESOME response in the face of HUGE pressure to give up his faith. He's prepared to lose everything for God, even his life... because ultimately he knows that his life is in God's hands anyway.

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