Let’s begin at the most unlikely spot – verse 4: “Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was FAITHFUL, neither was there any error or fault found in him.” Have you ever wondered about the origin of the word “faithful”? “Faithfulness” is defined as “worthy of trust or belief,” and that is the meaning of the Aramaic word “am-AN.” Daniel could be believed; he was trustworthy. But if we split our English word apart into its two major components, it should mean “full of faith.” I won’t belabor the point, because I have mentioned it several times already, but Daniel was a trustworthy man, because he had placed his trust in the only God who is actually faithful and true.
The second point in our message this afternoon could have been in this – This chapter displays God’s faithfulness toward His consistent servant. Deuteronomy 7:9 – “Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.” “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” “The Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.” Even if “we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.”
But to be precise, faithfulness is not our subject; it is faith.
The two presidents and most of the hundred and twenty princes hated Daniel – he stood in their way. Perhaps for some of them, they wanted the position that he held, but there was no room as long as Daniel was there. And then for others, Daniel was keeping them from their embezzlement, graft and other forms of corruption. Mutually it was decided to get rid of this Jew. So they concocted the plan which we have sufficiently analyzed already. Their trap worked perfectly, as they knew that it would, because Daniel was an extremely faithful man. Once they had the evidence that they wanted, some of those people came storming into the king, demanding the execution of their victim. Darius fought tooth and nail to save his most faithful servant, but he had tied his own hands. With the gleeful enemy watching every move, Darius ordered that Daniel be cast into the den of lions.
Could we say that the enemy had “faith” in the lion’s den – that Daniel would die in that place? They knew the nature of lions – they can be blood-thirsty man-killers. Perhaps these particular lions had been mistreated to the point where they had previously attacked their keepers. And perhaps they were starved on this occasion, so that there was even more likelihood of a swift and vicious attack. These men had “faith” in the lions’ den, or more specifically in the lions, to carry out their nefarious plans.
But no matter how sure something may appear to be, there is nothing worth our absolute faith but Jehovah. How many people have gone into the hospital for minor or routine surgery and never walked out again? It doesn’t matter how skilled the physician, or how well trained the technicians are. What is paramount is the blessing of the Lord. A few months ago, there were several Toyota owners who were injured or killed because the accelerators in their new cars malfunctioned. It doesn’t matter how many millions of safe cars Toyota or Chevrolet or Ford has made. There is no such thing as a perfect man-made vehicle. They say that air is the safest way to travel, but that doesn’t stop the periodic plane from falling from the sky. Jackie’s dog insists on answering the door whenever a stranger is knocking. If he isn’t wearing his collar, then there isn’t much that I can do to hold him back, so I don’t even try. The poor JWs standing outside, don’t always believe me when I say that he won’t eat them. Perhaps they have heard that some dog’s can be wonderful with Baptist visitors but they can smell a JW a mile away. No one can be absolutely sure that a dog won’t bite. And then there are lions. You can trust a lion to kill every Baptist that he meets, can’t you? Well, ordinarily, I suppose that you can, but the Lord is more trustworthy than lions. These men put their trust in the wrong place. God told the lions to keep their mouths shut and to keep their smiles wide.
But then, those same men were cast into the same den of lions. Do you suppose at that point, they trusted the lions to leave them alone, just as they had Daniel? Probably not, but if so, it would have been another false faith. How many meals were the lions fed that day? One hundred and twenty-two? Unlikely. The scripture says that those who had accused Daniel the day before were executed by lion. Maybe it was just the other two presidents and their families. Maybe it was a few more than that. But whatever the number of families, the scripture says that the lions made short work of their lives, “and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den.”
Point number one is this: nothing in this world is worthy of our absolute trust. Only faith in the Lord is worthy faith. Only the Lord is perfectly faithful and worthy of our faith.
Daniel was addressing Jehovah, the Creator of the universe. He was praying to the One who sustains all things according to His power in Heaven. Daniel was praying to the God who had proven himself a million times before to thousands of Daniel’s ancestors. And Daniel had experienced miraculous answers to prayer himself. I have no doubt that he was sending his supplications to the Lord with as much confidence as he was sending his praise for Lord previous answers.
Since there is nothing actually and specifically mentioned about Daniel’s faith in regard to his prayers, let’s move on.
But then there are some of the statements that Darius makes elsewhere in this chapter. What lay behind what he said in verse 16 – “The king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.” Was this the language of a friend who, knowing that his friend has a fatal wound, simply says what his foolish heart desires? Or does he really believe what he is saying? “Your God IS sufficiently powerful to deliver you.” Do I hear just a tiny hint of faith in the omnipotent God? If I do, then I also hear an echo – “Lord I believe, help thou mine unbelief.”
We are told that Darius spent a sleepless night following his execution of the law’s demand. “Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went from him.” Does this mean that he felt so guilty that his conscience kept him awake? If he was awake, and he wasn’t listening to music, and he wasn’t watching TV, then what was he doing? Is there any likelihood that the man spent that night in prayer for the deliverance of his friend? And if he did, to Whom did he pray? My heart wants to say that if the man had the slightest respect for Daniel’s testimony, and if he had the slightest faith in the true and living God, then he would have been praying to Daniel’s God – because he was Daniel’s God.
Early the next morning – very early the next morning – Darius was up and running to the lion’s den. If you were the king, and you believed that the lions had done their worst, would you have personally gone to the zoo that morning? If I thought that my friend’s blood was going to be all over the mussels of these beasts, then I would have sent someone else to learn the truth. But Darius went to the mouth of that den because he had a hope, perhaps a hope built upon a modicum of faith, that Daniel was still alive. Then he called down into that early morning darkness with a very lamentable voice, a lugubrious voice… “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” “Daniel I believe, answer thou mind unbelief.” And of course Daniel answered.
Let’s say for the sake of argument, that Darius had been listening to Daniel’s testimony about the Lord. He knew the stories of Nebuchadnezzar – about the dreams, and about the insanity. He had heard about Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah and their deliverance from the burning fiery furnace. He knew about the divine writing on the wall and the fall of Babylon. He was on the verge of throwing aside the religion of his parents and his youth, but he hadn’t done it yet. What is the likelihood that Daniel’s deliverance from sure death would have ignited the little faith that he had into a conflagration of trust in Jehovah? I would like to believe that here is another servant-king in Heaven because of the testimony of Daniel.
When he was going to prayer during those days after the signing of the decree, we can be reasonably sure that he was praying for strength under the circumstances. At first he may not have known what was going to happen. The Lord could have protected him so that he wasn’t detected and arrested. Or he could have been arrested and the Lord somehow delivered him prior to the execution. Or God could have given him a painless death either at the paws of the lions or in some other way. Or the Lord could have brought him through the night with those lions.
When it became obvious that he was going to be cast into the lions’ den, Daniel trusted the Lord. And the Holy Spirit says that he was “taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, BECAUSE he believed in his God.” This is not a definite statement that Daniel believed that he would be delivered. We are only told that he believed in his God. He believed and trusted the Lord to do what is best. And in answer to his faith the Lord delivered him.
He is able, he is able to deliver thee….
Initially, I thought that Darius destroyed what little hope that I had of his genuine faith. No man can command the faith of others. That is Catholic doctrine; that is Muslim doctrine; but it is completely opposed to Baptist doctrine. But I was wrong about Darius. He didn’t command people to believe, but only to consider and to respect the God of Daniel.
As he said, Jehovah is the living God – the only living God – that sounds like true faith on Darius’ part. He reached the same conclusion as Nebuchadnezzar – God’s is the only eternal kingdom. And as I said months ago, Darius’ reference to “dominion” suggests sovereignty over all men. The God of Daniel has the ability to deliver and rescue from the most dire and dangerous circumstances. He works signs wonder, and miracles in Heaven and on earth. Why, just look at what He has done with Daniel.
In the same way that David in his Psalms exhorts us to worship the King, Darius does the same thing with a little less finesse and perhaps a lot of spiritual immaturity. There is the possibility that David, Daniel and Darius have formed a trio in Heaven, singing praise to the King of Kings.