Daniel: Silent Confidence
Daniel is often remembered as the man God saved from the lion’s den. The man who, after spending a night in a pit of hungry beasts, proclaims to Darius the very next morning that, “my God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king” (Dan. 6:22).
Even as his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said earlier in the book, when faced with death in a fiery furnace for refusing to bow down to an idol set up by King Nebuchadnezzar, “if we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Dan. 3:17-18).
These are friends Daniel surrounded himself with, for certain in his early years, and though he never spoke these words with his mouth, we can surmise from his actions that Daniel made every decision in this same line of thought: that God was able to save or choose to let him die, yet Daniel would worship Him the same.
Daniel is a man of great character, and great faith, in his youth and old age. So much so that King Darius appoints him not only over a small portion of his kingdom, but over the whole land - a decision that festers jealousy in the hearts of the other administrators and satraps of the kingdom, and moves them forward in murderous intent. But what charge can these jealous officials bring against Daniel? “They could find no corruption in him,” the author of the book of Daniel writes in 6:4-5, “because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, ‘We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of God.’”
So the administrators find a reason to put him at fault, manipulating King Darius to order a decree that worship would be directed at him and him alone for 30 days, at threat of being thrown into the lion’s den.
And what does Daniel do, when faced with bowing down to as easy a thing as worshipping the king, or facing death at his hands? “He went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem,” the author writes in 6:10, and, “three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.”
He did not panic, nor hide away. He prayed, and worshipped, with the same heart of gratitude, with the same posture of reverence, and with the same humble devotion he had held before the decree, and now, even after.
Daniel knew the God he served. He knew God’s mighty hand to rescue and to save, and he also knew that this did not mean he would save him by sparing his life on earth. Daniel was not shaken, because he knew his God. That even if God chose to let him die, he would forever remain the living God who endures forever, whose kingdom would not be destroyed like all kingdoms of the earth, and whose dominion would never end (Dan. 6:26).
May we face life with this same growing confidence in the magnificence and majesty of our God.