Our God Saves

Sermon Transcript

A friend of mine is into scuba diving, and I recently learned from him that there are different ranks of scuba diver. The first level of certification is just called “Scuba diver,” the next is “Advanced open water diver,” which allows you to do deeper drives, but the third is called “Rescue diver,” the idea being that once you attain that certification, you can be trusted to rescue both yourself and other divers if something goes wrong.

 

As we continue our series through the book of Daniel this morning, we are going to see our title character, Daniel, in need of rescue. And we’re going to see the one with the highest rank in his kingdom, the king himself, willing to rescue Daniel, but unable to do so. In one of the Bible’s most famous stories, one so famous I saw at least two paintings of it at the National Gallery in DC just weeks ago, Daniel faces a peril from which no diver or king could save him. And the peril came upon him not in spite of, but precisely because of, his faithfulness to our God. Who would Daniel trust to save him from this peril? As you look ahead to an uncertain future, as you consider the actual peril we all stand in before God, who will you trust to save you? In this story we’ll see that the one Daniel trusted is the one whom we also can trust, because our God saves the one who trusts in him. We’ll see that from this story by first looking at the character of the one who trusts in him, then why we can’t ultimately trust in anyone else, then we’ll look at the salvation our God gives, and finally we’ll consider the application to us.

 

The character of the one who trusts in him

 

Our passage this week takes place in the reign of Darius, who we saw in chapter 5 was the first king of the Medo-Persian Empire that conquered Babylon. Darius was probably another name for a king we more commonly know as Cyrus, but as he’s called Darius throughout this passage, we’ll stick with that for today. Once Darius got into power, he reorganized things in Babylon and set over the kingdom 120 satraps, what we’d call governors, who oversaw different territories within the empire. Over the 120 satraps, though, he set three officials, of which Daniel was one. But Daniel began to exceed the rest, because the text tells us that in him was an “excellent spirit.” We know from where this excellent spirit came, as chapter 1 told us, referring to Daniel and the other three Jewish kids who were taken into exile with him, that “God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams” (Dan 1:17).

 

We’ve also seen Daniel demonstrate a sincere concern for the good of even the enemy kings under whom he served. In chapter 2, when God gave Daniel a revelation of the king at that time, Nebuchadnezzar’s, dream, and the interpretation, Daniel shared it with Nebuchadnezzar, rather than keeping it to himself. When in chapter 4 Daniel interpreted another of Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams that foretold disaster for Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel grieved it, and wished instead that it was for Nebuchadnezzar’s enemies. By the time of Darius, Daniel was in his 80s, having served in Babylon since his teenage years. So here’s a guy with excellent wisdom, the ability to interpret dreams, 60+ years of experience, and a genuine concern for the well-being of the king; isn’t that the kind of guy who, if you were king, you’d want to promote?

 

And isn’t that also the kind of guy others sometimes resent? When word gets out that the king plans to set Daniel over all the kingdom, the other two high officials and the satraps tried to find some way to charge Daniel before the king, but verse 4 tells us they could find no ground for complaint or fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him. Mind you that these are Persians; they are not assessing Daniel against the standard of our God’s law. They’re assessing him by the standards of Persia, the rules of that kingdom for officials, and even by that standard, they can find no flaw in Daniel.

 

When you go to work this week, your boss is probably not going to assess you by the standard of God’s law. How well you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength isn’t going to show up on your next performance review. But your boss does usually have other expectations of you: That you work a certain number of hours, that you show up by a certain time, that you don’t leave before a certain time, that you take a certain amount of time for your lunch break, but not more, that you tell the truth, that you do the tasks they tell you to do, that you treat co-workers with a basic modicum of respect and kindness, and so on. Consider: If you ever had a co-worker who began to resent you, and they assessed you even just by the standards of your workplace, would they find a ground of complaint against you?

 

It is possible for servants of our God to make the mistake of thinking that because our greatest allegiance is to him, it doesn’t matter whether we submit to the earthly authorities we find ourselves under. That’s not true. It’s precisely because we are servants of our God that we both should and can submit to the earthly authorities he places over us. First, we should submit to them precisely because our God has placed them there. When my wife and I have one or two of you come babysit our kids, I tell my kids that for the time we’re gone, you are in charge, and they need to submit to you the way they submit to mommy and daddy. If they don’t, that doesn’t just reflect a lack of submission to the babysitter; it reflects a lack of submission to the parents. So also God tells servants to submit to their masters (Eph 6:5-9) and citizens to submit to their government (Rom 13:1-7) (Darius was both in this case to Daniel). If you won’t, it reflects not only a lack of submission to your boss or your government; it reflects a lack of submission to your God.

 

So if you trust in our God, you should submit to the authorities he places over you, but if you trust in our God, you also can submit to them. Why do we struggle to submit to those in authority over us? The basic reason is pride, but two symptoms of it are: 1.) The desire to be the boss; 2.) Assuming you know better than the boss. But if you’re trusting in our God, you’ve already accepted in an ultimate sense that you are not the boss. You’ve already rejoiced that our God is the boss, and if this is the boss he’s chosen to give you on earth, you can submit to that boss, out of submission to him. And second, if you’re trusting in our God, you’ve already admitted that you don’t know better than the boss. To trust in our God explicitly means to no longer lean on your own understanding, as Proverbs 3:5 puts it – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” So even when you think you might be right and the earthly boss might be wrong, you can submit to the earthly boss out of submission to our God, because you don’t assume the infallibility of your own understanding, and you know even if the earthly boss gets it wrong, our God never will. He will take even your earthly boss’ mistakes and work them for your good.

 

The amount of gifting you have for your job is in the Lord’s hands. God gave Daniel exceptional gifts; he has not gifted most of us in that way. But the one who trusts in the Lord will use whatever gifts God has given her for the good of whoever God has put in authority over her, and the one who trusts in the Lord will generally try to do whatever those in authority over him direct him to do. That’s why when Daniel’s co-workers want to find something with which to charge him, they come up empty.

 

And yet, it is true that if you are a servant of our God, your highest allegiance is to him, and Daniel’s co-workers know this. So they say in verse 5 that they shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless they find it in connection with the law of his God. In addition to his faithfulness to the king, the other thing they know about Daniel is that if his God commands it, Daniel is going to do it. Would the unbelievers who know you best say the same about you?

 

Daniel’s co-workers knew that about him, so they go to the king and, with purpose concealed, entice the king to make a law that for 30 days no one in his kingdom is allowed to offer prayer to anyone but him. Now even for the times, that’s a pretty heinous law—the Persians believed in a priestly class that would intercede on behalf of the people to their gods, but now for 30 days they suggest all prayers have to go through Darius, and amazingly, Darius just goes ahead and agrees. He doesn’t seem to have needed any persuasion, though later he is going to really regret this policy. We’ve talked about submission to authority, but to those of you who are in a position of authority over others, let this be a caution to you to not let pride have any place in your heart. Darius had to already have a significant degree of pride in his heart to go along with a suggestion like this, and it led him to adopt a really foolish policy. Don’t let that same pride rule in your heart, cloud your judgment, and entice you to extend your authority beyond the bounds in which God has given it. And, don’t let a desire to please the people you lead rule in your heart. A decently sized group of Darius’ highest officials and satraps are coming to him and with one voice telling him to do this; that can be hard to resist! But sometimes the job of a leader will be to look at those he leads and say, “No. That may be what you want me to do, but God put me in authority over you, not you over me, and I am not going to do that.” But Darius failed as a leader. He passed the law, and signed the injunction, and according to the law of the Medes and Persians, once the law is signed, it cannot be revoked.

 

What will Daniel do now? Verse 10 tells us: Daniel just kept doing what he always did. He’d already had a pattern of praying three times a day in his upper room, with the windows open and facing Jerusalem. When King Solomon centuries earlier had built the temple in Jerusalem, he asked God specifically to hear the prayers of his people when they prayed toward that land (1 Kings 8:48). As the temple was meant to be the place where God specially made his presence known, so when people wanted to pray, they would pray facing the temple, and though that temple was destroyed at the time Daniel was praying, he still had a discipline of praying three times a day toward that land. So when the king’s decree was handed down, though Daniel clearly knew about it, and though Daniel was faithful to the king, this is where his higher allegiance was revealed: He had submitted to the king out of submission to our God, but now he could not submit to the king instead of submitting to our God. He knew it was his duty to pray to our God and to no other, and so he just kept doing it, trusting that our God would care for him, whatever happened to him.

 

What disciplines are you building into your life now, such that if someone in authority over you did ever try to prohibit you from doing them, you’d just keep doing them anyway? A few weeks ago we looked at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three other Jewish exiles who were told by the king of their day that they had to bow down to an image. He told them to do something God told them not to do. But here the king tells Daniel not to do something God had told him to do. Daniel’s friends had to say “no” to something they were told to do; Daniel had to say “yes” to something he was told not to do. Our God not only prohibits sinful actions; he commands certain duties, one of which is private prayer, and the one who trusts in our God will devote him or herself to it regularly.

 

Daniel himself and his nation were in exile under a foreign power, but what does Daniel’s action reveal about his heart? The fact that his response to that was regular, disciplined prayer reveals that his hope for the future still rested upon our God. If he trusted in other people, he wouldn’t have been praying three times per day; he’d have been writing letters to other nations pleading with someone to come rescue them from exile! If he trusted in his own might, he wouldn’t have been praying three times per day; he’d have been training himself for battle and hatching a coup with the other Israelite exiles in hope that they could overcome the Persians themselves. I often feel like I don’t have time to pray, but funny enough, I always seem to find time to work. What does that indicate about what my trust is in? If you feel like you don’t have time to pray, but you always do find time to work, to exercise, to sleep, to scroll, or even to read, what does that indicate about who or what your trust is in?

 

Not only did Daniel keep praying; he didn’t even try to hide it! He’d always prayed with the windows open so he could see in the direction of Jerusalem, but you might have expected him to at least shut the windows now that he knew he could get thrown into a den of lions for praying to anyone but Darius! Even this he did not do. He remained obedient to our God, and he didn’t try to keep his obedience to our God a secret. Jesus warned us about the dangers of praying in public in order to be seen, and more generally about the dangers of practicing our righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, and that’s not what Daniel was doing here. He was just praying like he always did. So also we should not be trying to parade our righteousness before others, but neither should we be trying to hide it! Just live a life of sincere service to our God, and as you live life in the world, don’t turn it off just because you know it’s different or some people might not like it. That’s what the one who trusts in the Lord is free to do. He knows that even if others view it negatively and go so far as to throw us into the den of lions, which almost certainly won’t happen in your case, our God is able to deliver us, and so he can keep doing whatever our God commands. As I mention how unlikely it is for you to be thrown to the lions for doing what God commands, I hasten to remind you that we do have brothers and sisters throughout the world for whom an analogous fate is a real threat if they simply continue doing what God commands. Many of you have heard the reports already from our brothers and sisters in Northern India who fear imprisonment and physical violence for simply continuing to gather for the public worship of God; many brothers and sisters in other places face similar threats. As we discipline ourselves to pray regularly, let’s not forget to pray for them.

 

So this is the character of one who trusts in our God: Submissive to the earthly authorities our God has placed over them, steadfast in prayer, unwilling to stop doing what God requires, whatever the pressures, and unwilling to hide their ultimate allegiance to our God. But next we’ll see why we can’t put ultimate trust in anyone else.

 

Why we can’t put ultimate trust in anyone else

 

So after Daniel’s co-workers see him praying, they report him to Darius, and we read in verse 14 that when the king heard this, he was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. He even labored until sundown, verse 14 says. Darius was clearly a proud king, but he wasn’t an abject tyrant like Belshazzar of the previous chapter or even a hot-head like Nebuchadnezzar before him. So we should also recognize that while the world is in rebellion against our God, not every individual in the world will oppose us as his people with the same vigor. We can recognize that things in Philadelphia aren’t hard for us as Christians in the same way as things in Northern India or Northern Nigeria. It’s natural and good that we’d be thankful for that and even desire to see it continue that way. Darius seems to have not actually minded at all that Daniel continued praying to his God, and was rather grieved at the possibility of casting Daniel into the lion’s den. We can reasonably speculate that some of that is because Daniel was such an asset to his empire, but the story as a whole also suggests that a relationship of mutual affection had developed between Darius and Daniel, and by God’s common grace, that sort of relationship can develop between believers and unbelievers in our world, and often does.

 

Darius wants to save Daniel from the den of lions, but alas, he cannot. The law was clear, and it could not be changed: If anyone offered prayer to anyone but Darius for those 30 days, he was to be cast into the lion’s den. So Darius threw him into the lion’s den, and as he did so, he even expressed his dependence on Daniel’s God to do what he could not do. He said in verse 16, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” A constant temptation that Israel faced when they were in trouble as a nation was to turn to the apparently powerful kings of other nations to get them out of it. But Darius serves here as a warning to them and to us, that we cannot put our ultimate trust in anyone but our God, because even if they wanted to help us, every king is limited in what he is able to do to save us.

 

When you are anxious, worried, or afraid, what triggers it? It’s always something future-oriented: I’m anxious I’ll never get married, I’m anxious I’ll never have kids, I’m anxious the kids I have won’t be safe, I’m anxious the money will run out, I’m anxious my health will deteriorate, I’m anxious I won’t get a job, I’m anxious I’ll end up alone. So what do you do? You look for something you can trust, something you can fall back on, something you can always say, “But at least I’ll always have _______” or “at least I know ______.” Israel wanted to fill in that blank with, “But at least we’ll have Egypt helping us,” or someone else. Here Daniel might have been tempted to fill in that blank with, “But at least I’ll have Darius wanting to help me,” and that really was there, but it wasn’t enough. How does your heart fill in the blank? When you look ahead to a scary future, who do you rely on to keep you safe? Is it a certain political party, an alarm system, a diet, or a doctor? Lately I’ve found it’s my ability to project an alternate future that’s still satisfying to me. But if it’s anything other than our God, it’s not worthy of your ultimate trust.

 

Because there is a real salvation you and I need, and it’s far greater than salvation from loneliness, poor health, joblessness, poverty, crime, or even the loss of ones we love. All of us were by nature in a situation similar to, and even more desperate than, Daniel’s. We were born under the authority, not only of an earthly king, but of our God, and he too has a law that threatens a curse for disobedience. Only the law of our God is not the petty whim of some proud king—it is the holy, just, and good revelation of his holiness, justice, and goodness. When our God requires us to pray to him and to no other, he’s requiring us to aim our prayers in exactly the right direction, like a parent who requires their children to eat enough food and drink enough water. Yes, it’s a command, yes, it’s an exercise of authority, but it is a command given in accordance with the child’s nature and aimed at the child’s flourishing. It is an authority that aims to author life, and in that way it is just an image of the authority of our God, whose intention in giving us his law was to give us life.

 

And because he is just, with that law we find statements like this: “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them” (Gal 3:10). A law with no consequence for disobedience isn’t a law at all; it’s a suggestion. But our God is a truly just judge, who gives a good law, and pronounces a curse on whoever does not abide by all things written in it, and do them. Here’s why that’s a problem for us: We haven’t abided by all things written in the book of his law, and done them. Even if you’ve convinced yourself that you’ve never committed murder, Jesus taught that if you’ve been angry with your brother, you’re guilty of murdering him in your heart (Matt 5:21-22). Even if you’ve convinced yourself that you’ve never committed adultery, Jesus said if you’ve looked on a woman with lustful intent, you’re guilty of adultery in your heart (Matt 5:27-28). To bring it closer to this passage, who among us can say that we really have always submitted to the authorities our God has placed in our lives? Who among us can say that we really have remained steadfast in prayer? Who among us can say that we have continued in obedience to our God, and have not hidden it, when the world around us pressured us to give up obeying our God? If God were to view the film of your life, including even the thoughts that go through your mind, the things you don’t let anyone else see, do you really think you’d be found righteous by his standard?

 

God’s law is clear, and so is our violation of it. What, or who, then, will you trust for salvation from God’s curse? A priest? A parent? Kids in the room, if you are here today it is probably because your parents want so badly for you to be saved from God’s curse, but they are no more able to save you than Darius was able to save Daniel. You may even really want to save yourself from God’s curse, but you also are no more able than Darius to do so. No amount of, “from this day forward I’ll do better, I’ll live differently” can change the fact that God’s law is clear, and you have already violated it. Even our God, who amazingly loves us and wants to save us, with a purer love than Darius loved Daniel and wanted to save him, even our God, cannot change his own law. But can he save? That’s the question Darius went to bed unsure of, and his uncertainty about it meant he didn’t sleep a wink that night, nor did he accept any distractions, verse 18 tells us. So also, if you are here today and you are not a Christian, recognize that the question of how you could be saved when God’s law is clear and you have violated it is of the utmost importance. Don’t let it get drowned out by the pressures of your job, your relationships, or the distractions of your phone. Keep seeking until you find the answer.

 

The next morning, Darius got his answer. So let’s turn and look at the salvation of our God.

 

The salvation of our God

 

So verse 19 tells us that at the break of day the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions, and he cries out to ask Daniel whether his God, whom he serves continually, has been able to deliver him from the lions, and sure enough, the answer that comes back is not the roar of a lion, but the words of Daniel, starting in verse 21: “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lion’s mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” Our God here demonstrates both his power and his justice, his power to stop the mouths of lions by sending his angel, and his justice in being willing to do so because Daniel was in fact blameless before him, and also before the king, Daniel had done no harm. Our God could not be coerced into enforcing Darius’ law. Instead, our God judged Daniel on the basis of his law, found him blameless, and it was his verdict that had the final say, and determined Daniel’s outcome. So the king then ordered that the stone that sealed the den be rolled away, and Daniel be lifted up to safety, as he then was.

 

God saved Daniel from Darius’ lions because, Daniel says, God found him blameless. Daniel violated Darius’ law, not our God’s. And do you see now why our situation is even more desperate than Daniel’s? We are not blameless according to God’s law. But then again, was Daniel really? No doubt he was faithful to pray three times a day, but what was he doing in those prayers? In chapter 9 of the book of Daniel we learn that one thing was doing was confessing his sins. Daniel was not perfect according to the standard of God’s law, and yet God treated him as such, and gave him the reward of one who is blameless. How could our God do that?

 

Our God could do that because our God had a plan to send not only one of his angels for Daniel, as he did here, but to send his own Son for Daniel, and for us. Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became man, was the one appointed by God to the top position in the kingdom (Heb 1:2). And just as Daniel’s co-workers resented him, so Jesus Christ went to his own, and his own did not receive him (John 1:11). Just as Daniel’s co-workers could find no legitimate grounds on which to charge Daniel, so the people of Jesus’ day could find no legitimate grounds on which to charge him. And yet, as Daniel was sentenced to death, so also was Jesus. Except, where Daniel never died, Jesus truly did! On the cross Jesus took the curse that God’s law required in our place. God loved us and didn’t want to curse us, but God could not change his law. Unlike Darius, though, our God could still save us. God the Father sent God the Son to bear the curse his law required upon our disobedience, so that he both saved us and did not change his law.

 

And because Jesus Christ was truly blameless, the only human who had no sins of his own to confess, God saved and delivered him from an enemy even more powerful than lions: Death itself. On the third day the stone of his tomb was rolled away, and he walked out, victorious over death, never to die again. Why, then, was Daniel saved? Why was he taken up out of the den, with no kind of harm on him? Verse 23 tells us: Because he had trusted in his God. His blameless conduct before God and his faithfulness to the king were the outworking of his faith, but Daniel was saved by faith, just like we are. God only treated Daniel as blameless because Daniel was covered with the righteousness of his blameless savior, Jesus Christ, and that same savior is our only hope before our God whose law we have violated, and whose law cannot change.

 

As this God saved Daniel according to principles of justice, so we see next in this story a preview of how our God will judge his enemies according to principles of justice. Now Darius sees clearly who the real evildoers in the story were, and so he sentences the men who had maliciously accused Daniel into the den of lions, along with their wives and children, the implication being that their wives and children continued to side with them over against Daniel and his God. Only when they were all thrown in, God sent no angel to deliver them. Before they even hit the ground, they were all devoured by the lions.

 

And so this will be our God’s just judgment on all who refuse to trust in him for salvation. His law is clear, your violation of it is clear, and his law cannot change. If you reject the one who satisfied the demands of that law, if you reject the one who bore the curse threatened in that law, then you will bear the curse. I mentioned that many of you kids are here today because you have parents who want you to be saved, but some of you did not grow up with parents who trust in our God, and others of you may even be married to a spouse who does not trust in our God, as these wives and children were. Don’t follow them into judgment. Trust in our God, though it means you must now follow him, even when it creates distance between you and your family. And if you are single, don’t even entertain uniting yourself to someone who isn’t trusting in our God. Look at where this story suggests that will lead you. Remember that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego at least had each other when they went into the fiery furnace. Here Daniel is all alone trusting in our God, and even if it leaves you all alone, trust in our God. Better to have him and no one else, than to perish eternally with your loved ones. And that brings, us, finally, to the application to us.

 

The application to us

 

With Daniel now risen from the den, and his enemies cast into it, verse 25 tells us that Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth. Of course this is hyperbolic, but Persia did rule over most of the known world at the time, so it’s not crazy hyperbolic, but it means this would be addressed to all the people, nations, and languages over which he ruled, as he specifically says in verse 26 that this decree is for all in his royal dominion, and the decree is that they are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. Where previously he had decreed that all prayers be offered to him, by the end of this story he requires that everyone fear, or give respect to, the God of Daniel.

 

He then lists his reasons: First, he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. Darius is alive when he says this, but it wouldn’t quite be right to call Darius the living king. The day would come when he would die, along with his kingdom, just like Belshazzar before him died, and his kingdom was transferred to the Medes and Persians. But our God is not like that. He is the living God, because it is his very essence to exist. He will never die, he will never change, and therefore his kingdom will have no end.

 

And that means he will always deliver and rescue. Darius says here that God did, past tense, save Daniel from the power of the lions, but he also says that what this reveals about our God is that he is a God who in general delivers and rescues. His action here in Daniel’s life is the rule, not the exception. That’s why we have a very similar story in Daniel 3 when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace, where we also read Nebuchadnezzar, the king at that time, saying, “Blessed by the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him” (Dan 3:28). Our God was alive in Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, our God proved then that he was able to deliver us from whatever the world throws at us, and here we see that though the empires of men had changed, our God was still alive, and was still delivering those who trust in him.

 

This same God is still alive today. And after he saved our Lord Jesus from death, Jesus commissioned his disciples, saying to them that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and they are therefore to go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all Jesus commands. And he promised to be with them always, to the end of the age (Matt 28:18-20). So what is the application to us who are among the tribes, nations, and languages of the earth? It is to trust Daniel’s God and Savior, the Lord Jesus, to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and to observe all that he has commanded. Don’t trust a priest, a parent, a pastor, or any of your own efforts to save you from God’s curse. Trust God to save you from God. His law is clear, our violation of it is clear, and it cannot be changed. But God himself has so loved us that he provided himself as the savior. He is the God who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions, he is the God who has risen Jesus Christ from the dead, and he is the God who delivers and rescues still today. Trust in the Lord Jesus, and you too will be saved. Then go, and take the good news of our God’s salvation to every people, nation, and language.