Daniel 6:23

The king was overjoyed and ordered that Daniel be lifted from the den. Not a scratch was found on him, for he had trusted in his God.

King Darius governed and managed his kingdom by setting 120 leaders over it; these leaders were overseen by 3 presidents of whom Daniel was the greatest. We are told in 6:3 that Daniel was chosen because an excellent spirit was upon him, Daniel trusted and relied on the Lord. This trust in God created a jealousy and the other princes sought to find fault with Daniel but they could not. So they petitioned the king to create a law forbidding people to pray to anyone other than the king. Daniel, knowing that the law had been passed, still prayed to God and so he was thrown into the lion’s den.   Daniel 6:23 records that God delivered Daniel, we marvel at this miraculous protection and we talk often about Daniel in the lion’s den. What we often fail to talk about is the role that trusting God played, there are some truths about trust that will tame the lions in the den of life.

• Facing the lions starts before we see them.

Those who really trust God know that they don’t face the lions when they face them. We usually focus on Daniel’s courage in the lions’ den but what’s curiously missing from the whole story is a detailed description of Daniel’s experience in the den. All we really know is what he tells the king that God had shut the mouths of the lions, we don’t really know if he was brave in the den or not. There are 153 verses on his life before the lions’ den yet little to nothing about his time in the den. Why, is it because Daniel wasn’t facing the lions when he was in the lion’s den, instead, he faced them before he faced them. We are all going to face the lion’s den at some point and we want to be like Daniel in the den but will we live like Daniel before the lion’s den? How did Daniel live before the lion’s den?  He faced the lions head on even before he could see them. He prayed every day, he lived in integrity, he served God through every aspect of his life, and he courageously walked in faith. The bottom line is that Daniel trusted God with his life long before the lion’s den. Daniel’s trust is what God used to provide a platform to show off His power and faithfulness to a watching world. Why do we wait until bad things happen to try and develop a prayer life and implement an emergency faith?  Is it because we don’t really trust God until we feel like we have too? Daniel’s den experience turned out the way it did because of his ordinary everyday trust, a trust that said I will walk by faith and commune with God through prayer.

I think most people want a lions’ den experience, minus the danger. We want to see God do huge things in our life, we want God to come through in big ways and we long to experience His decisive display of deliverance. We want to show people that our God is still a God who can accomplish the impossible and deliver from danger. But most of us will never get the opportunity to prove God’s faithfulness when we face the lion’s den because we won’t trust in God and walk by faith in our everyday life. We will not see an increase of favor at work because we segregate God from our work. We will not see God come through for us in a huge way financially because we won’t trust Him with 10% of what we have now. We will not see God use us in powerful ways because we live in such a way that no one knows that we even believe in God. Daniel’s courage and faithfulness was shown in the way he lived and that is what got him thrown into the lions’ den. Your ability to face and defeat the lions will be determined by how you live and prepare before you ever see them. The truth is that your victory or defeat is actually determined prior to the actual fight. You had better square off against lust before you square off against lust. You had better deal with the anger and revenge before you are given the opportunity to get mad or get even. You had better deal with pride before you are promoted. Do you know that you face the lions long before you look into their eyes, that the battle is determined long before the den? Are you trusting now in the everyday circumstances of life or are you going to institute an emergency trust when you are next thrown into the den?

• Facing the lions means living a watched life

The Bible as it reveals one of the greatest testimonies ever told tells us that Daniel’s enemies were looking for a way to accuse him “they couldn’t find anything to criticize or condemn. He was faithful, always responsible, and completely trustworthy” They couldn’t find anything in his life worthy of digging up, scripture makes it apparent that they were watching Daniel. So when they can’t find anything they make up a law forbidding prayer to anyone but the king to get him thrown in with the lions. Daniel keeps praying because he keeps trusting. People were watching Daniel long before the lion’s den and they are going to watch us. The question we need to ask is, If I were going to be convicted based on a visible relationship with God would I be found guilty?  The problem is that most of our enemies don’t have to make anything up, we live so close to the edge, refusing to avoid the very appearance of evil, that they don’t even have to lie to get us attacked. Are you living in such a way that all your enemies have to do is to tell the truth about you and your witness and testimony will be diminished?

Jesus set the example for us, his accusers had to pay people lie about him. Today there seems to be very few who are forced to face bogus lions because their enemies have to make everything up. We may not like it but our life is on display and our testimony will either be established or destroyed based on our daily walk. You will face the lion’s den I Peter 5:8 says, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” Is God able to deliver those who trust in Him? Ask Moses who watched God’s children be delivered from Egypt or David who experienced the deliverance of God’s army with a single stone, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego delivered from the flames of the fiery furnace. Will you trust God and live in such a way that people have to lie and make something up? Remember, trusting God in your everyday life will get you in trouble for things that you didn’t do, but God will deliver you.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

5 This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. 6 They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land. 7 “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. 8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.

Jeremiah was called by God to pronounce God’s judgment on the southern kingdom of Judah for their sins of idolatry. Jeremiah starts by reminding us that he is just a mouth piece for God and that this is what the Lord says so we would be wise to listen. Through Jeremiah the Lord reminds us that the beginning of this sin of idolatry is found where Jesus said all sin begins, in the heart. The people of Israel had turned their hearts away from the Lord into idolatry which is not limited to just idols of wood and stone. Idolatry comes in many forms; the children of Israel had become confident and comfortable with their own accomplishments.

Jeremiah had told them that destruction was going to come from the north but the people ignored him because their kings since the time of Solomon had made political alliances with these nations. Their confidence and trust was in themselves and what they had accomplished, so instead of relying on God they tried to secure their own safety through trusting in their own works. At this time their idolatry focused on a political alliance with Egypt which they were trusting in to be their protector from Babylon. In Jeremiah 2:18, 36 God asks them “Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile and why go to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates? Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria” Judah’s attempt to enlist the help of Egypt was just one more example of their trust and confidence in others to fix their problems instead of God’s promise. How about us are we focused on our problems and how we can fix them or are we focused on His promise? Will we rely and rest in God’s promise? Psalm 50:15 “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me”.  Are we really any different from Israel, sinning against God in the idolatry of our self-sufficiency, trying to be the masters of our own fate. How many times do we shake a defiant fist in God’s face telling Him we know better than He does? How long will we blatantly disregard His word because it does not fit with our way of thinking or our plan?

When God speaks to us through His Word will we be like Samuel and say, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” Not if we are lost in the sinfulness of our flesh, deceived through our misplaced trust and confidence. No, when our trust is not in God instead we will say, “Listen God, your servant is speaking!” Don’t miss the grace of God here, He was still willing to send His servant Jeremiah to warn them of the consequences of turning their hearts away from Him and trusting in themselves. The results of self sufficiency are always the same, isolation, deprivation and condemnation, it’s the best we can hope for. We say a picture paints a thousand words and its true God paints them a painful and pitiful picture of self-trust. A small bush in the desert, its growth stunted because it is cut off from the life giving rains.   Without God and His Word, the well of living water, we also will become like the dry lifeless bush trying to survive in a parched wasteland. Yet this is not the only picture, when we trust in God for all things, we experience a very different picture. After the revealed picture of rebellion, we are shown the real picture of relying on God, and in every way it is the exact opposite of a barren wasteland. Jeremiah writes, “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.  They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.”  (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

The incredible grace is that even though they had sinned against God and turned away from Him, those who repented and turned back to the Lord would find peace, security, and life. The contrast between plants is the difference between a shrub and a tree, brown and green, withered and fruitful but what is it that creates such a difference? It is where they are growing, the ground they are rooted in, self or the Savior. So, where is your trust and confidence placed? Is it in the sinful flesh, which brings harsh desert living or the Lord, who brings life? God’s grace to us is that He not only recorded this for us so we wouldn’t have to live in the desert of self-reliance but that He also sent Jesus to save us. Yet still today we turn away from fully trusting in Jesus. We want His salvation so that we can live with Him in eternity but we want self-reliance so we can live for ourselves in the present. How deep is your trust, where are you really planted? How deep is the soil that your roots are relying on? Is it time to trust fully to go deeper to wait on the refreshing rains of God’s promises, to experience the water of His word? Put another way, what kind of plant do you want to be, a shriveled shrub or a fruitful tree?