Sermon Text: Daniel 6:10–12, 16–23
Date: October 29, 2023
Event: Reformation Day (Observed), Year A
Daniel 6:10–12, 16–23 (EHV)
Now, when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went to his house. It had windows on its upper story that opened toward Jerusalem. Three times each day he would get on his knees and pray and offer praise before his God. He continued to do that, just as he had been doing before this. 11Then these men came as a group and found Daniel praying and seeking favor from his God.
12They then went and asked the king about the decree. “Your Majesty, did you not sign a decree that anyone who prays to any god or person for thirty days except to you, Your Majesty, would be thrown into the den of lions?”
The king answered, “Indeed I did. The order is established as a law of the Medes and the Persians that cannot be revoked.”
Then the king gave the order, and Daniel was brought and thrown into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you.” 17A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the pit. The king sealed it with his signet ring and the signet rings of his nobles so that nothing could be changed with regard to Daniel’s situation. 18Then the king went to his palace. He spent the night without food, and no entertainment was brought before him. But he could not sleep.
19At dawn the king arose as soon as it was light and hurried to the lions’ den. 20As he came near the pit, he cried out in a fearful voice. The king said to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living God, was your God, whom you serve continually, able to rescue you from the lions?”
21Then Daniel spoke with the king. “Your Majesty, may you live forever! 22My God sent his angel and shut the mouth of the lions. They have not hurt me because he found me innocent in his presence. Also before you, Your Majesty, I have committed no crime.”
23Then the king was very glad and said that Daniel should be brought up from the pit. So Daniel was brought up from the pit, and he was unharmed because he trusted in his God.
Lord, Keep Us Steadfast In Your Word
It had been a long, almost-70 years. Daniel had been taken as an exile to Babylon in the earliest wave of deportations from the Southern Kingdom many years before. In fact, we heard that very event in our First Reading this past Sunday. Very quickly, the king of Babylon noted Daniel’s unique, God-given gifts and put him in a high rank in the government. So great were Daniel’s gifts and God’s blessings that he even survived a whole world-power shift when the Medes and Persians overthrew the Babylonians and took control of their empire. Despite an entirely new people leading the government, Daniel remained in his high-ranking position. And many people did not like that.
Those who were against Daniel, who were jealous of his gifts and favored position, sought ways to undermine him and take him down. They zeroed in on the one Achilles heel they could find in Daniel’s life: his dedication to his God. Despite being far removed from his homeland, despite the temple that was the center of their worship being destroyed decades before, Daniel remained faithful to God, even in this pagan land. So, if his enemies could weaponize that dedication against him, they might win out over Daniel. So that’s what they tried.
Just before our First Reading begins in Daniel chapter 6, we hear their plan. Daniel’s enemies approached King Darius with this flattering request: “Darius, Your Majesty, may you live forever! All the supervisors of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the advisors and the governors advise the king to establish and enforce a decree that prohibits anyone to pray a prayer to any god or person for thirty days except to you, Your Majesty. Anyone who does so will be thrown into the den of lions. Now Your Majesty, please establish the decree and sign a document that cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians that cannot be revoked” (Daniel 6:6-9). They were able to praise the king and inflate his ego while at the same time making Daniel’s faithfulness to God illegal for 30 days. It seemed like a win-win for them, didn’t it?
What was Daniel’s reaction to this decree? Now, when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went to his house. It had windows on its upper story that opened toward Jerusalem. Three times each day he would get on his knees and pray and offer praise before his God. He continued to do that, just as he had been doing before this. Nothing changes for Daniel. Note that he doesn’t throw a hissy fit; he doesn’t whine and complain about the government persecuting him; he doesn’t try to stage any sort of revolt or even get petitions signed to show his displeasure. No, he makes no changes at all. He continues his quiet, faithful service to God and lets the cards fall where they fall.
Daniel doesn’t compromise on God’s Word. He is dedicated to the truth no matter what the consequences. And for Daniel, the consequences were dire—being tossed into a den of lions overnight. That would mean certain death.
Daniel’s faith and dedication are extraordinary. Years before, Daniel’s countrymen and fellow workers Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced the fiery furnace for a similar dedication to the true God. Those three men had no promise of protection from God and readily admitted that God may not save them from the flames at all, but still, they would not compromise. Likewise, Daniel has no promise from God for his protection. God didn’t come to Daniel in a dream saying, “Don’t worry about those lions; you’ll be fine.” As Daniel was taken to the lion’s den, for all he knew, this was the end. But Daniel’s dedication to God was more important to him than even his own life.
It can be easy on a day like today, Reformation Day, to miss the point a little bit. While we are certainly thankful for Martin Luther and the other reformers who sought to bring the truth of the gospel back to light in an era where it had been hidden for so long, today’s celebration is not about a person or group of people. Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthaon, Martin Chemnitz, and so many others were men dedicated to God. But today, we don’t celebrate them, but the faith that God gave them, the strength of conviction they received from God, and the dedication to the truth no matter what the cost.
Luther was excommunicated from the church as a heretic and eventually declared an enemy of the state. He could have been killed on sight, no questions asked, and the person who killed him wouldn’t be in any trouble; in fact, that person might be celebrated. But still, that did not deter Luther from writing, preaching, and translating so that the people could know the truths of God, no matter what it cost him personally. The gospel was more important to Luther than his own life. God never promised Luther he would be safe. For all Luther knew, he was just the tip of the spear of this work and he would not live long.
Like Daniel, though, Luther did live a long and productive life. God protected him from the assaults of church and state so that the gospel could flourish, so the people could be reminded that it was not their work that provided them with the forgiveness of sins or the confidence of eternal life, but it was Jesus alone who provides all that we need for eternal safety and security. God allowed that message of sins forgiven in Jesus’ death on the cross to ring out with a chime that we still hear today, some 500 years later. We hear clearly God’s promise that Jesus’ perfect life has been credited to us, that for Jesus’ sake, God views us not as sinners but as the perfect people he expected us to be.
All of this is true for us today as well. The gospel remains unchanged. You and I will be in heaven only because of God’s undeserved love for us. You cannot get rid of any sin; I cannot make up for any failure on my part with God. We must lean on Jesus and on Jesus alone.
We may not be in the position to reform an erring church. We may not have to bravely take a stand for the truth against rulers who make our faith punishable by death. But our Christian faith is always counter-cultural. There will never be a time or a place where living our faith is going to be easy or pleasant. We’ve recently heard Jesus describe the life of a Christian in this world as one of cross-bearing. Life on this side of eternity will be difficult for those dedicated to the truth.
We may look back on our life and see times when we have not been so eternally minded. Perhaps we compromised our values for the sake of fitting in with friends or coworkers. Perhaps we’ve not let our light shine in public or in the private parts of our homes or our own minds. Perhaps we are shamed by Daniel’s dedication to God because we know that we do not have that. And likely, if we think we do, we’re not quite thinking hard enough about how dedicated we truly have been.
But in Jesus, there is forgiveness for all of those faltering times. When we haven’t been Daniel or Luther or anyone else whose dedication and faith amaze us, when we have compromised, made excuses, or even tossed God’s will out entirely to do what we wanted to do—it is for those times that Jesus died. It was to prove his victory over those sins that Jesus rose from the dead. You and I have not been perfectly dedicated to God—neither was Daniel nor Luther—but where we have failed, we have been forgiven. And that forgiveness gives us the strength to recommit our hearts and minds to God and his truth yet again.
We don’t compromise on our faith, but we don’t go looking for fights either. We stay dedicated to our God but accept that there will be earthly consequences for that course of action in this fallen world. God will be with us, but he may not keep us from all harm. God rescued Daniel from the lions, but he didn’t prevent Daniel from being thrown into the den in the first place. Our goal as Christians in this life should not and cannot be a happy-go-lucky life living our faith. We will face pressure in one way or another to turn from the truth and embrace false teachings or totally jettison our faith altogether. We can’t take this stand alone. We need God to ignite this fire of dedication within us, and to keep the fires burning brightly through his Word.
So, Lord, keep us steadfast in your Word! Let us never abandon what you have done for us, no matter what the consequences are in this life. Keep us ever-focused on the eternal goal in front of us, not giving up eternal treasures for temporary “peace.” We can only do this with the strength you provide. Please pour it out on us all in abundance. Amen.
