When reading scripture, it is easy to get the facts right and the application wrong. Take the story of Daniel and the lion’s den for example.
Five hundred years before Christ, a man named Daniel lived in the Persian Empire. God blessed him, and he eventually rose to be second in command in the entire kingdom. This displeased some of his coworkers because he was a foreigner and they decided to get rid of him. After digging through his history and work records, they could find nothing wrong, so they came up with a different plan.
They convinced King Darius that it would be a good idea to have everyone in the kingdom pray to him for the next month. This would be unifying, and it would show loyalty to the king. Darius thought this was a good idea and issued the order.
In response, “Daniel… went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10-11). The punishment for not following the order was that he was thrown into a den of lions. As you likely know, God protected Daniel and the next morning he was found safe and sound.
The application that we often make about this story is, “You need to be like Daniel!” There is even a song called “Dare to be a Daniel” that encourages people to stand up for God, be courageous and do the right thing. The problem is that I am not normally courageous, strong, and brave! Telling me to try harder, be better and act like Daniel is discouraging.
Interestingly, though, nothing in scripture tells us that Daniel was brave on his own. In fact, we know nothing about how he felt. All we know is that he had confidence that his God could help him (see verses 11 and 23). This story, like most others in the word of God, is not about a brave follower who stood up, but rather about someone who trusted God and got a much better result than they could have ever imagined.
That is a much more encouraging lesson!
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