The Israelites in the desert for 40 years when the trip to their paradise was like 10 days long.
The Israelites giving into their flesh, ignoring God.
The Israelites asking God for a king, so that they can be like everyone else who had a earthly ruler.
The Israelites constantly crying out to God to help them from the messes they willing walked into.
They really had me shaking my head. The Israelites made their lives difficult by not following and fully trusting the one true God.
So according to my logic based on these observations, if I abandon myself to His will, if I have full faith in Him then my life would be easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, right?
No... not even a little bit.
Does in a sealed den with hungry lions ring a bell?
In Daniel 6, we find that Daniel gets a promotion because the king sees that Daniel's gifts far exceed his current place as an administrator, so the king creates a new position for Daniel.
But once that happened, his co-workers decide to bring him down several knotches.
Despite their best efforts, his co-workers find nothing. Daniel was an outstanding guy. He didn't wrong anyone, he didn't cheat on his job; there was nothing to use against him, except one thing:
"We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God." (verse 5)
They don't find anything to tarnish Daniel with so they know that God would be a stumbling block for him.
How many types of messed up is that?!
So his co-workers go to the king. They convince him to create a decree in which it would be illegal to worship any god for the next month. He goes along with it, not realizing their true intentions.
When Daniel hears the new law, he goes up into his room and prays to God, "just as he had done before." Daniel didn't change his tune. He remained true to God.
And that's where his enemies find him: praying and asking God for help. Therefore, they go back to the king and snitch on Daniel.
Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day.Although the king favors Daniel, he cannot undo the law, so when the time came, the king had to follow through with what he said.
Daniel is then captured and thrown into the lion's den. Before the king seals up the mouth of the den, he says to Daniel, "May your God, who you serve continually, rescue you."
 |
| You said what now?! |
So let's do a quick recap: Daniel is so amazing that he gets a higher pay grade but the people around him plot his downfall by using his God against him. He then goes against the law of his superior and asks God for help. He is caught breaking the decree and promptly served to the lions as a meal.
I guess it is true when it is said: "He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
You're damned if you do, damned if you don't, huh? And Daniel, the good, the innocent guy was especially damned!!!
Well, not exactly... The story isn't over yet.
The king after a sleepless night goes to the den and says, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?"
When I first read this chapter, I wanted to knock this king upside his head. Like how are you going to send me into an impossible situation and say "Yea... This sucks for you but I hope your God comes through." I would have felt like the king was mocking me and my God but no...
Not at all. The king is praying for Daniel's well-being. The king is placing hope in Daniel's God to deliver him because he, as the ruler of the kingdom, couldn't. The king wants Daniel to survive but he couldn't help, his hands were tied, so he relies on a God he wouldn't have acknowledged if he hadn't seen Daniel's faithfulness throughout all the years they have known each other.
And what an amazing God our God is!
Because God showed up after the ink dried up and everything else was set in stone. Daniel and the king's faith were not in vain because God saved Daniel that day.
Therefore I want to encourage you to not give up during any trial in your life, to keep pressing on towards Him and realize that He will never forsake you. No matter what man says or what your circumstances tell you, His word is final and will be fulfilled in your life.
I don't care how your life may be looking; maybe you're in your own lion's den too but trust in God that He will deliver you come morning.
People are watching you: they are either holding their breaths to see you succeed or fail.
Some may even go out of their way to bless you or curse you but regardless of their intentions, God makes it all work for your good and His glory.
God could have rescued Daniel before he was sealed into the lion's den but then Persia wouldn't have come to know the one and only true God, The Great I Am.
The trouble that you are in and the way you react to it may be someone's breakthrough to God. So don't throw your hands up and mumble defeat. Do what Daniel did. Pray, continue seeking His face, don't turn away because even when it's dark, His light will shine the brightest.
You just have to look up.
No comments