August 25, 2024
Then Why Not Everyone
Daniel 6:16-23
Would you join me in prayer?
God, thank you for this opportunity we have to listen carefully for your voice. Speak to us now by your spirit, wherever we are, to each of us, young or old and far in between. Speak a word that is on target for us, needed for us, that will strengthen our faith and hope through Christ our Lord. Amen.
“Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel? Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, and why not everyone?”
The key imagery of this song is drawn from Daniel’s experience in the lion’s pit, trapped with no way out, utterly dependent on God’s justice and help, and miraculously delivered from certain death. The song poses a question, repetitively driving it home to our souls, calling for an answer: “Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel? Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, and why not everyone?”
The song catches up other imageries of deliverance from scripture: Jonah in the belly of the fish before he was vomited out onto dry land; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were asked to walk in the fiery furnace, a place of certain death, until they saw a fourth one walking with them, and they were delivered untouched and unharmed. The song is a call to prayer for deliverance and help for all people, with the image of a large ship that will safely take the faithful across the dangerous river and across the boundary to the promised shore of Canaan.
“Did my Lord deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel? Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel, and why not everyone?”
The final question brings it home to us, asking us to hope, to believe, to resist despair. Why not everyone? Why not you or me? Why not the promise of deliverance for everyone who is bound and desperate to be free?
You see, enslaved African-Americans picked up this thread of the story of Daniel to speak to their experience, but they were not the first ones to see power and strength and hope and faith in this story.
There is a synagogue in Palestine from the sixth century where a mosaic of Daniel was placed on the floor in front of the shrine to the Torah. In the sixth century, Byzantine Christians were persecuting Jews, and there in the synagogue, the rabbi would stand on the mosaic of Daniel—Daniel, naked, surrounded by lions—and the rabbi would lift the prayers of the synagogue, joining their experience of suffering and being threatened and desperate for survival to Daniel’s prayer in the lion’s pit for deliverance.
The early Christians saw in Daniel in the lion’s den an image of personal resurrection. In the catacombs of Rome, which are caves sort of underneath the city where folks are buried, there are depictions throughout of Daniel, once again naked (which means vulnerable), surrounded by lions and praying. It was an image of resurrection and hope when a family would come to visit the body of their loved one.
The image would capture all of the promises that God will inexplicably rescue us from danger and even death, to make a way out of no way. The image of Daniel praying in the lion’s den is hope of resurrection for the person who is deceased, and it is hope of a new chapter, a new way through a dark place for the family that is grieving and trying to find a new path.
Many centuries later, the image of Daniel praying in the lion’s den was used by the French Huguenots who were persecuted for their faith in Catholic France. The French Huguenots were Reformed Christians, like we Presbyterians are, and they were persecuted violently by King Louis XIV in the 17th century for practicing their faith. So Charles Brousson wrote a book to all of his French citizens to explain their courage in worshiping and praying publicly, even though it meant violent repression. The image that Charles Brousson used was the image of Daniel praying publicly and then being delivered from the lion’s pit by a faithful God.
For centuries, this has been an image of resistance in the face of evil. In 1909, Mahatma Gandhi was released from a South African prison. He said that he took great comfort reading the book of the prophet Daniel because “Daniel was one of the greatest passive resistors that ever lived, and the Indian people must follow his example.” Gandhi saw in Daniel an image of nonviolent resistance. When Gandhi was leading the people of India against British colonial rule, a German newspaper drew a cartoon that had people sitting at spinning wheels, which is what Gandhi asked his people to do, surrounded by lions in a pit.
For centuries, the image of Daniel in the lion’s den has brought strength, hope, courage, and determination to faithful people. And the question that kept rattling around for me this week, as we seek to do something with this story in our own lives and time, is do we really know the story of Daniel in the lion’s den? Do we know all of it or maybe just that he got out?
Join me on this journey. Go back with me to the land of the Medes and the Persians. Daniel is an enslaved Jewish person serving in the court of King Darius. Daniel is an exceptional human being, and King Darius was a good man, good enough, but he was a lazy man. Darius ruled this kingdom, but he did not want to do the work of the kingdom, or pay attention to the kingdom, so he assigned other people to do the work for him.
King Darius was a decent enough person, but he was easily manipulated. King Darius had the besetting sin of so many people in power: he was subject to flattery. So in Darius we see this kind of all-powerful person, who is in truth trapped. He was trapped by his own ignorance, by his refusal to do the work, by his laziness, by his lack of attention, and ultimately, King Darius was trapped because he was afraid of looking small.
Now Daniel, Daniel was a wise person. There was an extraordinary spirit in Daniel. So the king appointed 120 nobles to make decisions for the kingdom and three ministers (or secretaries) who would be an executive council. Daniel was one of those secretaries, or ministers. Daniel was, in fact, the best of them, and King Darius wanted to promote him to be in charge of everyone.
Now the other ministers and the satraps (the nobles) were jealous. How dare this upstart, up-jump Daniel, a servant from way over in the middle of nowhere, take control of our kingdom? And so they plotted to bring Daniel down a notch. They could find no flaws in his character—there was nothing in the opposition research that they could use against Daniel—but they thought, “He’s so faithful to his religion; surely there’s something in his faithfulness that we can turn against him.”
So they barged into the king—remember, the king is a decent person but subject to flattery, kind of lazy, and not that sharp. They barged into the king, and they said, “Oh King, live forever! You are so wise, and you’re looking well, and you’re looking very strong and healthy today. We have this idea of how you can, you know, help the kingdom. We think that you should create a decree that says that no one in the kingdom may petition anyone other than you.”
“No prayers, no requests, or anything like that for 30 days upon penalty of death because, oh great one, you are so great, and this will help everyone else to know how great you are.”
Well, this was absurd on its face. I mean, how do you police something like this? But the King was really subject to flattery and afraid of looking weak. He didn’t want to say no, so he said, “Well, golly, I think that’s a good idea.” And they said, “Yes, it is a good idea. In fact, we think it’s such a good idea that you should write it down and sign it because, you know, a written decree from the law of the Medes and the Persians cannot be undone.”
And he said, “Well, well, sure, sure. Bring me the paper; I’ll sign it.”
So they wrote it down for him, and he signed his name.
They had talked to everyone about it except for Daniel. Daniel heard about this new decree, and he went to do as he always did: to pray in his house.
Now, here’s where the ancient sources of our story disagree. Some ancient sources said that Daniel did what he always did. He went to the upper room of his house where he had some open windows and latticework, and he could look out toward Jerusalem. He knelt and prayed like he always did.
Some sources said that Daniel heard about this law, and he said, “Huh, that doesn’t sound right. I’m going to put it to the test.” And he went to his upper room, opened the windows so everyone would hear him, knelt down, and intentionally prayed so they could hear. You could call that nonviolent resistance.
Either way, this group of conspirators came barging in on Daniel, and they said, “We’ve got you!” Then they ran back to the king. They barged in on the king and said, “Oh, King, you’re looking so well today. You’re so wise. Thank you for all the good decisions you’ve made for us. Do you remember—I know you’re busy—but do you remember that decree you signed?”
And he says, “Yes, I remember.”
They say, “Well, there’s this person who’s violated the decree, and don’t you think that means they should be thrown into the lion’s pit? Isn’t that what you said?”
He said, “Yes, I remember. That’s what I said.”
And they said, “Well, Daniel has been praying to his God.”
The King was trapped.
You see, he was a man with immense power, but he wasn’t that sharp. They trapped him in his own ego, and insecurity, and laziness. In this plot to get Daniel… when he actually liked Daniel. He wanted Daniel to live, so the king started to sweat . He spent the whole day trying to figure out how to save Daniel, but he could think of nothing.
Later that night, the conspirators once more barged into the King’s Room and said, “Oh great one, King, live forever. It’s time. Daniel needs to be thrown into the lion’s pit.”
And so the king reluctantly agreed.
Now, the king wished Daniel well. He was predisposed to like Daniel and even maybe to believe in Daniel’s God.
This pit of lions was kind of a thing you only get in a book, really. It was like an hourglass thing with a narrow top, and there were lions down there, and they were hungry. They threw Daniel down into the pit and then rolled a rock over top. The king hollered down the pit and said, “Daniel, may the God that you serve so well and faithfully save you. Good luck!”
Then he took his signet ring and sealed the wax around the stone, and all of the nobles took their signet rings and sealed the wax around the stone. So that the king would not conspire overnight to save Daniel, and the nobles would not conspire overnight to kill Daniel.
Daniel was well and truly stuck.
And the King went to bed. He tried to sleep that night, but he couldn’t get much sleep, and nothing helped. They brought him food, but he didn’t want food. They brought him music, but no music. They brought him friends, but no friends. Nothing would help him. He tossed and turned all night long.
Then, in the morning, he ran out as soon as dawn broke, rolled the stone away, and anxiously said, “Daniel, did you make it? Are you there?”
Daniel said, “Oh King, live forever! My God sent an angel to shut the mouths of these lions and save me because my God knew that I had done you no harm and that I had done nothing wrong.”
You see, Daniel knew what was going on. He knew that this law was not just about a power play. He knew this was about injustice. Daniel knew that the law preventing him from praying was deeply unjust, that his prayers harmed no one, did not harm the king, and did not harm the nation.
So, he saw this in the right lens and said, “King, I didn’t hurt you, and I didn’t hurt God. God defended me, not just because God likes me or because I worship God. God defended me because God is just. God is on the side of the innocent. The Living God rescues the innocent.”
Overjoyed, the king pulled Daniel out of the pit. Then the king went and got those other two ministers—the ones who had tricked him—and he got them and their families. He threw them all down in the pit, and those lions had not eaten all night long. It says they were devoured before they hit the ground.
Then the king published a decree that said, “Truly the God of Daniel is the Living God.” That means the true God, the real God, the God who is able to rescue, save, and deliver. Truly, the God is Daniel is the living God.
Now, that’s a fun story that ends in an important truth, a truth that strengthens and encourages faithful people.
It’s meant to be a fun story, but you can see why, down through the centuries, it has brought faith and strength and hope to faithful people. You can see why Palestinians struggling to survive in the sixth century stood on the image of Daniel praying in the lion’s den to join their struggle to survive with Daniel’s story of rescue. You can see why early Christians who were grieving the death of their loved ones put the image of Daniel praying in the lion’s pit over their graves because they said, “If God could rescue Daniel, and God could bring Jesus out of the tomb, then there is resurrection hope for us.”
You can see why those French Huguenot Christians, who needed so much courage and faith to worship in the face of violent repression, said, “We’re following the example of Daniel, who was faithful and delivered.” You can see why enslaved African-Americans caught this story of Daniel in their struggle hope in the chains of slavery. You can see why Mahatma Gandhi, as he led his people nonviolently from the oppression of colonialism, said, “Daniel is the one to learn from.”
You see, friends, in Jesus Christ, the deliverance that God so wondrously made possible for Daniel is available to all of us.
In Jesus Christ, we have been delivered from death to life. Whatever we face, when the lions surround us and we are struggling to survive; when injustice presses in on us, and we must choose to bear witness to the truth, whatever we face we can face with faith, courage, and hope in the living God who delivers. The God of Daniel.
Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel? Deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel. Didn’t my Lord deliver Daniel? Then why not everyone?
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. Patrick W. T. Johnson, Ph.D.
First Presbyterian Church
Asheville, North Carolina