Daniel Series:
Dynamic Faith in a Deluded World
Part VI: "When They Call For the Lions"
"If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?" -Jeremiah 12:5
Introduction
I want to read to you an excerpt from a recent Washington Times article called SUFFERING FOR THE FAITH by Mona Charen.(1) Many of us have probably not given much thought to believers suffering for their faith in the twentieth century. Yet this article indicates it is much more common than most of us think.
Lai Man Peng was a 22 year-old Chinese Christian evangelist. In 1994, at a meeting one of China's "house churches" (a non-government-sanctioned prayer meeting), he and four other evangelists were seized by agents of the Public Security Bureau, China's KGB.
In front of the congregation, Mr. Lai and the others were beaten severely. The security officers next handed the truncheons to the congregants and ordered them to beat the preachers, on pain of being beaten themselves. Mr. Lai was so badly injured that the security team feared he would die in their presence (leaving too much to explain), so they released him. He crawled and hobbled for several miles, attempted to reach his home, but finally collapsed and died on the road.
Such persecution is commonplace in China, where only a fraction of the estimated 30 million to 70 million Christians belong to government-approved sects. Amnesty International reports cases of Christian women hung by their thumbs from wires and beaten with heavy rods, denied food and water and shocked with electric probes.
Elsewhere in the world, Christians face other tortures and persecutions. In Egypt and Pakistan Christians have been imprisoned and tortured merely for preaching their faith. Pakistan recently passed a blasphemy law that forbids speaking or acting against the prophet Mohammed. The punishment for violators is death. A 12-year-old Christian child was recently sentenced to death under this law and was freed from Pakistan only by international pressure. He is now hiding in a Western country with a bounty on his head similar to that which keeps Salman Rushdie on the run.
Sudan is perhaps the worst violator. Its Islamic government has engaged in a policy of forcible conversion. Many of the black Sudanese in the southern part of the country (the north is Arab) have resisted conversion, in many cases because of adherence to Christianity (a criminal act under Sudanese law). As punishment, the Sudanese government has denied food and medicine to Christians in famine areas and has sold thousands of Christian children--some as young as 6--into slavery.
The article goes on but I’m going to stop reading there. If you are interested in learning more about what is going on around the world right now with regard to persecution of believers, I have printed both an Internet address and a mailing address in your hand out notes where you can get more information.(2) It’s a real eye opener to learn that everyday, believers with families and loved ones just like you and me are paying the ultimate price for their faith.
Here in the U.S., of course, when we talk about persecution, our idea is having people call us names or City Hall refusing to let us put up religious symbols in the park, or hand out Bibles in the public schools.
What do you think would happen to churches in America if it became illegal to be a Christian as it is in China and Moslem countries? How do you think your own faith would fare under such circumstances?
In one sense, there is really no way to know until you’re there, and "there" is a place where most of us, myself included, don’t want to have to go to find out. Is there anything a person can do to prepare in the event something like that might happen here? None of us would want to lose our faith under such circumstances.
In the earliest days of Christianity, when enemies of Christ wanted to put a stop to the testimony of someone who refused to compromise his faith, they would call for the lions. Christian men, women, and children were put into the arenas with hungry lions when they refused to recant their faith. In much the same way, as we come into the sixth chapter of Daniel this morning in the last message of our series called "Dynamic Faith in a Deluded World," that is what has happened. Daniel has refused to violate the basic tenants of his faith, so they’ve "called for the lions."
What can we learn from Daniel that might help us in the event it ever comes about that someone should "call for the lions" in the good old USA? Said a little more plainly, what can we do to prepare in the event that the ultimate sacrifice was called for in our lives? How could we remain faithful under that kind of pressure?
Before we read Daniel six, let me inform you of a couple of things that will help you understand what is happening here.
First, Daniel was nearly 80 years old when they called for the lions. Don’t picture a young man as we read this chapter.
Second, the lion’s den was the primary form of capital punishment to the Medes and Persians just as the furnace of fire was to the Babylonians, stoning was to the Jews, and crucifixion was to the Romans. It was a means of certain, violent death.
A little girl was showing her playmate through her new home. "And here's my daddy's den," she said. "Does your daddy have a den?" "No," was the answer, "my daddy just growls all over the house."
Let’s read the chapter together.
(Read v. 1-2)
Apparently Darius used some of the men from the cabinet of Belshazzar, the king he conquered.
(Read v. 3-4)
We see here a simple case of jealousy with these men. Daniel was appointed over them and they didn’t like it, so they set about to get him out of their way. When they could find nothing immoral or shady in his public service, they decided to frame him in the one area where he might be vulnerable.
(Read v. 5-9)
Darius fell for their scheme.
(Read v. 10-15)
Instantly the king realizes he’s been had. I can imagine him calling in his lawyers trying to find some way around this frame-up. But they could find nothing.
(Read v. 16-23)
Daniel is safe. Now the king turns to the guys who framed him.
(Read v. 24)
Those lions were even hungrier because they hadn’t eaten all night!
(Read v. 25-28)
O.K. We’ve seen what Daniel did when they called for the lions. Let’s look more closely and consider what we should do under similar circumstances.
I see first that we should
I. Keep on Being What You've Been.
As we read through this chapter, there is a consistency revealed about Daniel that shows what kind of person he was.
He was one who "distinguished himself" among the others, according to verse 3. Daniel wasn’t a slacker. He had worked hard in the courts of two kings already. Now he was doing the same in the third.
Verse 4 tells us that his opponents could find "no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption" in him. He was morally consistent. The set up a "sting" operation. They went through his files and his trashcans. They hid in the bushes and watched him at home. But they could find no hidden dirt.
The next phrase says "he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him."
Daniel didn’t suddenly realize he was under surveillance and scramble to cover his tracks like we’ve seen many governing officials do in our day. There was no "Watergate," "Whitewater," "Travel Gate," "Nanny Gate," or any other kind of Gate in his life! He was free from corruption in the present because he had been free from corruption in the past.. He was already faithful. We’ve seen these things in his life since we began this series. When they called for the lions, he had merely to continue being what he had been.
Occasionally, when watching an interview with athletes before an important game, you’ll hear a reporter ask, "Well, how do you intend to handle this biggest game of your career?" Looking for a story, he’s hoping the athlete will reveal some bright, new, never-heard-of strategy. To that the athlete will say something like, "I’m just going to go out and do what I’ve been doing every day in practice since the beginning of the season." Nothing new to him. He’s been doing it all along.
You don’t wait until the day of the race to start getting into shape. You don’t wait until the day of the game to start learning to pass the football. You don’t wait for the day you’re investigated to start living a life free from corruption.
A twelve-year-old boy was a key witness in a high profile lawsuit. One of the lawyers, after questioning him most severely, asked, "Your father has been coaching you, telling you how to testify, hasn’t he?" "Yes," admitted the boy. At that point the lawyer knew he had his case. "Now," he continued, just tell us what your father told you to testify." "Well," replied the boy modestly, "Dad told me you lawyers would try to tangle me in my testimony, but if I would just be careful and tell the truth, I could say the same thing every time."
What do you do when they call for the lions? You don’t change a thing! You keep on being what you have been. If you’ve been faithful, you’ll continue to be faithful.
Of course, the assumption behind that is that you have been working on being what you ought to be when the pressure isn’t on so that when they call for the lions, you don’t have to change anything.
II. Keep on Doing What You've Done. (v. 10)
(Re-read v. 10)
Prayer and thanksgiving were nothing new to Daniel. His windows were already open. (The Jews of the captivity always faced Jerusalem when they prayed.)
Daniel’s habit was to pray three times a day and he always gave thanks when he prayed.
Upon hearing the news of the edict, he didn’t panic, run upstairs to his room, get out the crowbar because the window on the east side of the house was painted shut or stuck. It was already open because he used it three times a day! The keywords in that sentence are "as he had been doing previously."
What do you do when they call for the lions? Keep on doing what you’ve been doing - provided you’ve been doing what’s right.
By now you may have heard the true story about the retired couple who cashed in their stocks and bonds to purchase one of the finest motor homes available on the market. One of the great features was the cruise control. As they were traveling up the West Coast, the husband became tired and asked his wife to drive while he went in the back to take a nap. As she was driving she put the camper on cruise control and it worked perfectly. After an hour of straight highway driving, she got up to go to the bathroom.
She thought the cruise control was the same as automatic pilot, she told the California Highway Patrol after the accident. The motor home was totaled, but thankfully, neither partner was hurt.
Being ultimately able to face the lions is a lot like cruise control. You set the speed where it ought to be, then keep it there, consistently. You don’t start and stop. That gets you the best mileage and gets you there the quickest.
But it isn’t like an autopilot. You can’t just tell it where you want to go and take a nap. You still have to pay attention!
Making a big trip consists of covering a lot of little miles. Preparation for facing the big trials of life consists of a whole lot of facing the little ones. If you are listening to this message hoping to find some profound secret about the faith, there isn’t one, unless it is profound in its obvious simplicity. Keep on doing what you’ve done.
III. Keep on Trusting Whom You've Trusted.
(Re-read v. 16)
Daniel’s unabashed trust in God is obvious here. Even the king knew about it.
(Re-read v. 19-23)
Was this level of trusting something new in Daniel’s life? Hardly. Remember chapter one and the issue of the king’s food? Remember chapter two and the confidence Daniel had that God could interpret the king’s dream? Remember chapter four where Daniel had the confidence in God to tell the king the truth? Remember chapter five when Daniel trusted God enough to turn down honor and prestige?
Whenever someone fails to trust God in the clutch, it is probably because he hasn’t trusted God in the days when the pressure was lighter.
When the army of Saul was cowering in fear of the Philistine giant, Goliath, and David stepped forward and volunteered to fight him, do you remember what he cited as his confidence? It’s in 1 Samuel 17:36-37…
36 "Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God."37 And David said, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
David fought the biggest battle of his life successfully because he had learned to trust God in the smaller battles of his life. He simply kept trusting Whom he had been trusting.
Polycarp, was a first century disciple of the Apostle John. He was one of the early Christian martyrs. Just before his execution, he was asked if he had anything more to say. He said "Eighty and six years I have served Christ and He has done me nothing but good; how then could I curse Him now, my Lord and Savior?" He was burned alive.
Do you want to be strong when they call for the lions? How are you doing trusting God in the lesser things?
Jeremiah 12:5 asks, "If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?"
We learn to compete with the "horses" of life by running with the footmen. We learn to negotiate the "thickets" of life by concentrating on not falling down in the land of peace. We trust God when they call for the lions by being faithful with the lesser things we are facing now.
Conclusion
A Nashville newspaper carried a story about Mrs. Lila Craig who hasn’t missed attending church in 1,040 Sundays, though she was in her eighties at the time of the article. The editor commented, "It makes one wonder, what’s the matter with Mrs. Craig? Doesn’t she ever have unexpected company? How is it that she never goes anywhere on Saturday night so that she’s too tired to attend morning worship service the next day? Doesn’t she ever ‘beg off’ to attend picnics or family reunions, or have headaches, colds, nervous spells, or tired feelings? Doesn’t she ever oversleep or need time to read her Sunday newspaper? Hasn’t she ever become angry at the minister or had her feelings hurt by someone and felt justified in staying home to hear a good sermon on the radio or TV? What’s the matter with Mrs. Craig anyway?"
I suggest to you that Mrs. Craig was doing the same thing Daniel was doing when they called for the lions:
Being what she’d always been Doing what she’d always done Trusting Whom she’d always trusted When they called to interview her, she didn’t change a thing.
When they call for the lion’s what do you do? Take a lesson from Daniel’s journal. Don’t change a thing!
How about it? If you were investigated right now for integrity, what would be found? If you kept on being what you are right now, would it get you through the ultimate test?
Are the prayer windows in your life open or shut? If you kept on doing what you’re doing right now, would it carry you through?
How about this issue of trust? Consider the last two or three crises in your life. When it was all said and done, did you trust God?
If you said "no" to any of these, you need to get to work! If you said "yes," then don’t change a thing!
1. Quoted in an email message sent to me by Ed Nolen of Springfield, OR [Back)
2. International Christian Concern, 2020 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., #941, Washington, D.C., On the World Wide Web, http://www.wingnet.net/~icc/ [Back]
Author's Note: This sermon is part of a six message series based on the book of Daniel. Though written by the stated author, research for it was done in a sermon study group made up of four preachers: Alan Walker, Ron Rasmussen, Kent Mayberry, and Dave Redick. At the conclusion of the research, with the results available to all participants, each preacher wrote his own sermon. [Back]
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
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All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.
