Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
19Then the king in the dawn arose in the daylight and in haste to the pit of the lions he went. 20And approaching to the pit to Daniel, the king cried in a grieved voice answering and saying to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living God, your God whom you serve constantly, was He able to deliver you from the lions?” 21Then Daniel with the king said, “O king, live to ages. 22My God sent His angel and He shut the mouths of the lions and they have not hurt me because before Him innocence was found to me and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” 23Then the king was very good upon him and he said to take up Daniel from the pit and Daniel was brought up from the pit and all of harm was not found in him because he trusted in his God.
What different worlds Darius and Daniel live in! Darius lives in a world he cannot control and which leaves him miserable. Even though he is the king of arguably the richest empire in all of human history and he would seemingly have all power at his disposal, yet his own nobles have deceived him and his own legal system has bound him to execute the one man he knew he could trust. Now that one man is in a pit full of ferocious hungry lions and all Darius can do about it is lie awake in misery and worry, waiting for the dawn. He lives in a world which, in the end, he cannot control, and he has no assurance how things will turn out.
Daniel lives on the exact same planet, yet he lives in a completely different world. The difference is summed up in those last words of v.23, “he trusted in his God.” Daniel also lives in a world he cannot control, but he knows the Someone who does. Daniel lives in God’s world. He lives in a world where he can return again and again to the promise, “I know the plans I have for you, plans not to harm you but to give you a future and a hope.” Those words were the OT equivalent of our Romans 8:28, “And we know all things work together for good to them that love God…”
Daniel lives in the marvelous assurance that whether in death or in life, His God is carefully, minutely, and very deliberately working everything for His glory and for Daniel’s greatest eternal good. I don’t know at Daniel’s age if he felt any fear as they carried him to the mouth of that den and threw him in. If he did, I’m sure he was wrestling with his own heart, telling himself to just trust the Lord, that the Lord would either deliver him from the lions or use those very lions as the means to free him from this vale of tears and deliver him instead to heaven. In truth, Daniel could be quite happy with either prospect. He could say with Jesus, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done.”
It would be so interesting to know more about Daniel’s night. All we know is what he tells Darius, that the Lord “sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths.” I’d like to think that angel actually appeared to him and spent the night with him there in the pit. If so, wouldn’t it be interesting to know what they discussed? We’ll see from chapter 7 on that Daniel has many interactions with angels, so he certainly is familiar with them. On the other hand, it only says the angel shut the lions’ mouths. It’s possible that’s all that Daniel ever knew. He literally might have just crawled up against one of those big warm beasts and went fast to sleep, only to be awakened by the poor king’s anguished pleas the next morning. Either way, Daniel spent a pleasant night in this world, while Darius’ world was a miserable prison. And again, the difference? Daniel “trusted in his God.”
Interestingly, the word translated “trust” is the same word from which we get our “Amen.” Daniel “amen-ed” in his God. He could say his prayers and be done with them, be done with the fears, be done with the doubts, and simply step out of the boat and walk on the water with Jesus. Darius is left still asking the question, “Has your God been able to rescue you from the lions?” Able? Able? That isn’t even a question in Daniel’s mind. He’s already said “Amen” to that question. He only had to watch and see the turn of events, knowing all the while His good God was quite in control.
The wonderful news for you and me is that, once again, Daniel has nothing on us. We may not be prophets, but what made the difference for him was not his gifts, but rather that simple little phrase, “he trusted in his God.” He did what you and I can do too. If we would be more like Daniel, let us realize what we need are not his actions, but rather the reason behind them. As you and I would learn more and more to trust our God like Daniel did, we’ll, in fact, ourselves become more and more like him.
What Darius didn’t have, but Daniel did, was “blessed assurance!”
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