DANIEL'S INTEGRITY

Daniel in the Lion’s den: a Bible study children know and love. Daniel is still praying to God and not to the king. The lions are hungry but never touches Daniel. The King up all night distressed that Daniel is with the lions. God’s miracle of saving Daniel. But let’s roll back the story to the beginning and look at why they are so set on finding some ground on which to accuse Daniel.

Daniel has faithfully served more than one king in Babylon. By the time Darius is king, Daniel is an old man. He has a position of commissioner that others had to answer to. I am sure they were not happy about answering to a foreigner and a Hebrew. So they plot to find grounds for accusing Daniel, but they find no “skeletons in his closet.” So they go after his faith and integrity. They have forced Daniel to make a choice between God’s Law and man’s. To break the first commandment.

The relationship Daniel has had with God, all his life, sustains him through this trial. He chooses to stand for truth no matter what it is going to cost him. Do we have that kind of relationship with God to not worry about the consequences of speaking the truth? Here in the U.S. we are starting to see persecution of Christians, but not like other countries. I think about how I would handle speaking the truth even if it cost me my life. In my mind I believe I would, but I have never truly faced that choice.