Dan in the Den

God is calling for His people in this world is to be a faithful presence. God has promised, as we do this, He will be with us, defend us, and care for us. In one of the most famous stories of the Bible, Daniel descends into the lion’s den. In this story, we see a model for Christians and the church as we live in the secular world. In Chapter 6, Daniel is punished for praying to God. Many of the officials did not like Daniel and knew he was devoted to God. So they wrote a law saying everyone could only worship King Darius. Daniel knew he could not follow this law. Instead of trying to worship God in secret Daniel chose to worship God three times a day with his window open for everyone to see. When the high officials saw Daniel worshiping God they ran to tell the king. The king was very upset because he liked Daniel and did not want him to be in trouble. But the king had to follow the law so Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den. Daniel stayed in the den all night and the next morning the king ran to see if Daniel was still alive. He was! God had sent and angel to protect Daniel. After seeing this King Darius proclaimed Daniel’s God was the true God. Throughout the story Daniel was faithful to God. Another place we see this in the bible is in Mathew 26 with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. When Jesus is in the garden he knows he is going to be crucified. Jesus could have run or decided to go back to heaven right then. Instead he was faithful all the way to his death on the cross. In our lives there will be many times where God calls us to be faithful when it is not easy. We may never be surrounded by a pack of hungry lions but faith will be difficult. However, God’s faithfulness to us is unwavering. God’s faithfulness delivered Daniel from the lion’s den and his faithfulness delivers us as well.