Dive deep into the intricacies of power, pride, and humility as discussed in this enriching episode of Theology Thursday. Explore how a king’s manipulation and ego led to Daniel being cast into the lion’s den. Witness the powerful miracle of deliverance that affirms Daniel’s devotion and illustrates God’s mercy and humility in contrast to human pride. Reflect on the timeless lessons about integrity, faith, and divine intervention that resonate even today.
Greetings to the brightest audience in the country and welcome to Theology Thursday. I’m Nicole McBurney. Every weekday we bring you the news of the day, the culture, and science from a Christian worldview. But today, join me and Pastor Bob Enyart as we explore the source of our Christian worldview, the Bible.
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And the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm. Now, Word would get out of that, right? If there’s just a company and there’s a director of marketing and the president is thinking of making him the CEO, pretty soon everybody knows, unless the president keeps it in his own mind. But pretty soon, even then, people have a knack of figuring out what’s coming. And so then what would happen if the king wants to put Daniel above even the others, right? then knowing human nature, envy is likely to set in. So verse four, so the governors in Satrap sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no charge or fault because he was faithful, nor was there any error or fault found in him. What a beautiful testimony from Daniel’s enemies. This is similar to Joseph. We know that with Jesus, even his enemies had such a hard time bringing an accusation against him that they had to just make it up. And here we are today, 2,000 years after Christ, and the vast majority of people who reject Jesus Christ have nothing but good things to say about him. That is quite a testimony to who Jesus Christ is. Even Muhammad, who is an enemy of God, heaps praises on Jesus Christ, as do a billion Muslims around the world. So Jesus Christ is the ultimate example, but Daniel here is also an example of someone who is honorable, and therefore even their enemies have a hard time bringing an accusation. Then these men said, We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God. Wow. Remember that Jesus said, Blessed are you when men speak evil of you concerning my namesake. For my namesake, if you do righteous and you are persecuted, you’re blessed. And so here is Daniel being set up to be blessed. They don’t realize this. They think they’re setting him up to harm him. They’re setting him up to bless him because they’re going to speak evil of him for Christ’s name’s sake. Verse 6, so these governors and satraps thronged before the king and said thus to him, King Darius, live forever. All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors have consulted together to establish a royal statute and and to make a firm decree. Now remember, Nebuchadnezzar made a royal statue. This is not a royal statue. This is a statute. This is a law. There are Christians who study common law and they get very invested in a discussion of the difference between laws and statutes. And there are laws that are eternal laws, like do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness against your neighbor. And then there are regulations of use for infrastructure. like when the government builds roads and they say, well, you drive on the right side of the road. So that doesn’t have the force of God’s laws. That is a convention among men. which governments have every right and authority to establish. And so most of the world drives on the right side of the road. Is that true? Except for island nations. Island nations have the flexibility, like England and Australia and New Zealand. They drive on the left. And if you’re an island nation, then there are no bridges usually connecting to you, so people won’t get in head-on collisions, like when they drive from France to Germany. But island nations, they have a different convention. That’s fine. So they are saying to the king, King Darius… We have consulted together to establish a royal statute, a law, and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions any god or man for 30 days except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. So they are appealing to his pride, his ego. So that often works. And they are manipulating him. And he supposedly is their friend. They’re supposedly on his side. What is manipulation? How do you know if you’re manipulating someone? If you’re manipulating the enemy and you are in the right, then it’s okay. Like if you’re at war against the Germans and you manipulate them to thinking that there’s an army amassing for an invasion and we’ve actually built up paper airplanes and paper trucks and ships made out of cardboard. That’s a manipulation and that’s fine. The Bible even shows that as when God advises Joshua to take the city of Ai. And he suggests that they use a manipulation. Well, when it’s your enemy and it’s a just war, you could manipulate the enemy. Or if you’re fighting against abortionists and trying to save a child from being killed, you could manipulate the enemy. But it’s wrong to manipulate your friends, to manipulate your family, or try to manipulate believers or ministries. When you are saying something wrong, and asking someone to do something or to think something, but you have an ulterior motive. It’s not the reason that you’re giving, it’s for another reason, then you’re manipulating them. And this happens all the time, and we need to be very aware and ask God to identify, Lord, help us to see, search my heart, see if there’s any wicked way in me. Am I manipulating my loved ones or friends? Am I telling them something because I want to accomplish something else? And so isn’t that exactly what they’re doing? They’re saying, King, you’re so great, we need a law that no one could pray to any god other than you for 30 days. And the king thinks, wow, I like that law. Now, he also likes Daniel. He doesn’t know that they’re trying to set up Daniel to be killed. So they’re manipulating him. And he is… foolish, for being seduced by their manipulation, and his great sin of pride is what causes him to be vulnerable. That whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.” And if you recall, the Romans had a theme on that because they would take innocent people, Christians, and feed them to the lions. Verse 8, now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which does not alter. Now, do you notice that? If a king of the Medes and the Persians, Media Persia, if he issues a decree, it cannot be changed no matter what. Not even he could change it. That was their custom. That was their law. Now what is that based on? Ego. An ego and pride to the max. If the king says something, then that something must be done. Even if he finds out that he’s about to do something that should not be done, something that’s terribly unnecessary. Still, that’s just too bad. It must be done because he said it. God is not like that. God is not like that. That is Calvinist theology. Calvinist theology is, if God says something, it must be done. Doesn’t matter what. Well, remember Nineveh? God said that there’s a prophecy from God through his prophet Jonah that in 40 days Nineveh would be destroyed. That’s the prophecy. So God said it. It has to happen in 40 days. But Nineveh repented. And so the book of Jonah says explicitly, and God repented, and he did not do that which he said he would do. Unlike pagan kings, God is eager to display humility. But Calvinists, if they could remake God in their image, in their theology, they would turn God into a pagan king whose words cannot be altered and to a stone idol who cannot be changed. Why? Because they say that his power, because of his power, everything must happen by his power. They elevate that. Omnipotence and sovereignty and control above everything else about God. But God values humility more than power. Think about that. Which two, if you were asked, what does God value more, power or humility? Well, imagine if God gave to Satan, to the devil, all power. So God, he could delegate power. He does that. He created powers and principalities and authorities and thrones and dominions. And he created Satan as a great and powerful angel and archangel. Well, what if God gave to Satan all power? Do you think Satan would use it? You better believe he’d use it. Do you think he would show humility and be humble? No, not at all. To God, humility is so much greater than power. And humility is a greatness that cannot be given. God, throughout all eternity past, had all power. And what he truly valued was being merciful and humble and ultimately becoming a man. And the victory over his enemies is won under the banner of a lamb that was slain. How can you get more meek or humble than a lamb that was slain? It’s not possible. And also, not only does God love men, And so we are asked to be humble as Christ was humble. We read in Philippians 2. But God loves one title, almost it seems more than any of his other titles, for the Son, for God the Son. He loves the title, the Son of Man. He just loves it. He uses it over and over. Jesus refers to himself constantly as the Son of Man. Because for eternity past, he is God. But something extraordinary happened in that he humbled himself and became a man. Now he’s the son of man. So he refers to himself. We don’t think of that title as one of the Lord’s greater titles because we’re surrounded by men. And we’re all sons and daughters of man. And to us, it’s not a big deal. To God, humbling himself and becoming a man to be the son of man is huge. And so God is the opposite of pagan kings. Verse nine, therefore King Darius signed the written decree. He was manipulated and made vulnerable by his pride and was seduced. Verse 10, now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. What would you do? What if we had a Republican a candidate for president who was this close to winning the election. Then he could be the president, he could appoint Supreme Court justices, and not only that, it could be the beginning of Republican landslide. And so then there’s a law that says that you cannot pray on a certain day. And if you pray on that day, you’re not qualified to be president. What if there was a law like that? So then we had all our national ministries coming to advise the Republican candidate. And what would they tell him to do on that day? National right to life. and focus on the family sadly and family research council and on and on and on all these multi-million dollar some of them hundred million dollar annual budget ministries what would they tell him to do well we know based on what they’ve done for the last thirty years They would say, there’s no command in the Bible that you have to go out publicly on that day and pray. You can pray in your prayer closet. The Bible says pray in your prayer closet so nobody sees you. Don’t tell anybody you’re praying on that day because you’re this close to having the White House, the administration, and we could fix the whole country. So this is a minor compromise. Just do what is pragmatic, what is politically savvy to do. And who can doubt that a pro-family, Christian, political advisor would give that kind of advice today? Who could doubt it? That’s the only kind of advice they give. Well, I’m glad they were not there to advise Daniel. Because if they were, and if Daniel took their advice… he would not be the writers of one of the books of the Bible. We wouldn’t have the book of Daniel. We wouldn’t have his heroic stand to trust God, regardless of the political enticements of being in charge of the entire empire. And so Daniel knew that the writing was signed and he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, so to the west, So he’s been in Babylon. He was carried away captive from Israel. He’s been there for 40 years. He’s never forgotten his God. And he’s always prayed to God. Always. And so he opens his windows so that everyone could see that he is disobeying the king in order to obey God. And so just on Friday, I got an email from some guy who’s very involved in politics, conservative politics. And he says, haven’t you ever read Romans 13? Render unto Caesar. And that’s not Romans 13, of course, but that’s what he wrote. And he’s upset at us for fighting against abortion. He’s a conservative Republican, and he thinks abortion, we should ignore it. And so render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s does not mean the murder of the innocent. And so here… We have Daniel who is this close to taking over the entire empire, and he wants everyone to know that he is going to disobey the government. Render unto Caesar does not mean obey the king, whatever the king commands, or obey the government. The Bible says we must obey God rather than man. That’s in the New Testament. The hall of faith in Hebrews is filled with people who disobeyed the governing authorities in order to obey God, as Daniel’s done right here. So verse 11, then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. And they went before the king and spoke concerning the king’s decree. Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any God or man within 30 days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, the thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which does not alter. So they answered and said before the king that Daniel, who is one of the captives from Judah, does not show due regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day. And the king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased with himself and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. He wanted to put Daniel in charge of the entire empire. And now he realizes by his own decree, Daniel is to be put to death. So he thinks, I’m going to find a way to deliver Daniel. But he could not. He couldn’t figure a way to get out of his own trap because of the pride and ego of their custom and their culture. And he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. So he thought all day how to save Daniel. Then these men approached the king and said to the king, Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and the Persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed. So the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, Your God, whom you serve continually, he will deliver you. So the king is hoping, he remembers what has happened with Daniel’s three associates. Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Their Hebrew names, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And that they were thrown into the fiery furnace and God delivered them. This idea of throwing a person into a lion’s den… the Romans had this variation on that theme. And when we took our Bible tour of Greece, we went to Philippi in northern Greece in Macedonia. And there is the Agora, the center of town. And on one end of the Agora is where the temples were and the altar for the imperial cults. And at that altar would be a flame that was always burning, and the citizens of the realm and others would come by, and they would be told, take incense and throw it into the flame to bow down to worship Caesar. So that’s the imperial cult. And Christians would refuse to worship Caesar or to throw incense into the flame. And if they refused, they would be killed. And so we walked from there, from the Agora, the town square, just a short distance up a hill to a theater, which was an ancient Roman theater with the ancient, you could just picture a Roman theater, not the Colosseum. but an outdoor theater with stone seating for maybe a couple thousand people. And it had been excavated over the last century or so. And the historians and archaeologists, they thought most likely Christians and others would have been fed to the lions here at this theater, but they never found the cages. Normally the theater is built with the infrastructure to work the animals into the show. And they never found how that would have happened until just a few years before we went there. Lo and behold, archaeologists found out on the floor of the theater, we were there. You sit in the seats, you get down on the stage of the theater, you put on your own show for your friends and all, you study the Bible there. Well, they found a trap door in stone beneath the stage floor and down that led to a passage where they brought the animals up onto the stage to kill the Christians. So this is a real part of history. What started here became systematic eventually. So verse 17, Then a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring, and with the signets of his lords, that the purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed. So the king, they put wax around the stone, and he took his ring, and he put a seal in the wax to make sure that no one removed the stone to save Daniel. And undoubtedly then, it was a lion’s den, and it would have gone down to the bottom of a pit where there would be ferocious and hungry lions verse 18 now the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting and no musicians were brought before him also his sleep went from him then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions and when he came to the den he cried out with a lamenting voice to daniel the king spoke saying to daniel Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions. Then Daniel said to the king, O king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion’s mouths so that they have not hurt me because I was found innocent before him. And also, O king, I have done no wrong before you. Wow. And as with Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, if God had let them die in the furnace, so be it. They would go to be with the Lord. But he is able, if he chooses, to deliver them. But if not, either way, we serve him. Verse 23, now the king was exceedingly glad for him and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no injury whatever was found on him because he believed in his God. Now for us to apply this today and think that if kids go camping in the wilderness, then therefore coyotes or wolves or no animal could hurt them because they’re Christians. That is a false teaching, and it’s a very poor interpretation of the Bible. Many of these stories appear in the Bible because they’re so unusual, so unique. Everything doesn’t happen the same way every time. God is a person. He healed the leper. Then he healed 10 lepers. That doesn’t mean he heals every leper. He does not. And so we need to realize that. Verse 24, And the king gave the command, And they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions. This is just like with Esther and Mordecai. Remember that? And Haman ends up being hung on the gallows that he prepared. They cast them into the den of lions. And ask yourself if you think God would have wanted the king to do this, Darius. Them, their children, and their wives. I don’t think God would have wanted him to do that. But this is an accurate account of the history of what happened. And the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den. Then King Darius wrote to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth. Remember what we’ve already read. You got to worship the true God, otherwise you’ll be killed, right? This is not what God is telling these pagan kings to do, but this is what they did and what they said. This is the accurate account of their history. Darius wrote to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. Can you command that people fear the Lord? You can’t command that. It’s not possible. No earthly king could pass a law saying you must worship Jesus Christ. You can’t do it. There are many conservative Christians who want to have a religious test for holding government office. They want to say that unless you affirm that you believe in orthodox Christianity, you cannot be the mayor or the governor or the general or whoever. But when you have a religious test for public office, you don’t help the government, you hurt the religion. Because then all men of ambition become Christians magically, and you dilute what it means to be a believer. The Roman Empire tried this under Constantine. It did not work. So I make a decree that men must tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God. Now that’s true. And steadfast forever. That’s true. His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed and his dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues and he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. So Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. And so the story will continue with a flashback to the reign of Belshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar. May God bless you guys.
Dive deep into the intricacies of power, pride, and humility as discussed in this enriching episode of Theology Thursday. Explore how a king’s manipulation and ego led to Daniel being cast into the lion’s den. Witness the powerful miracle of deliverance that affirms Daniel’s devotion and illustrates God’s mercy and humility in contrast to human pride. Reflect on the timeless lessons about integrity, faith, and divine intervention that resonate even today.
