Shutting the Mouths of Lions

Then King Darius wrote: To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God, And steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, And His dominion shall endure to the end. He delivers and rescues, And He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.” Daniel 6:25-27

Today, I read the story of Daniel in the lions’ den. It’s a story I’ve heard and read many times through the years. I assume if you’re reading this, you probably have too, but this morning, I read it with fresh eyes.

The first thing I noticed is how we take this story for granted. We’re like, “Oh, yeah, Daniel survived some lions. Cool.” I’m pretty sure that’s more than cool. The average weight of a male lion is anywhere from 330 pounds to 570 pounds according to http://www.pbs.org. Can you even imagine? The scripture says, “no injury found on him, because he believed in his God.”(verse 23) I think we take the miracles in the Bible for granted. We forget that God can shut the mouths of lions or we don’t even understand or grasp the magnitude of what He did. We also think that only happened in the Bible. But Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” God is still shutting the mouths of lions. God is still working in mighty ways. We just have to get out of the way and let Him.

The second thing I noticed is how Daniel stood for his beliefs without becoming a political zealot. When King Darius made a decree that went against God, Daniel didn’t march up to the palace and demand that people who didn’t believe in God to change. Daniel continued to worship God and honor Him no matter the consequences. Today, I see Christians expecting nonbelievers to behave like Christians while not honoring God themselves. We have to be true to the Word of God. We have to stop trying to push our beliefs on others and introduce them to our Savior. Do you know why King Darius responded the way he did to Daniel’s encounter? Because he saw firsthand how awesome our God is. When is the last time we tried to show someone the awesomeness of God and how mighty He is?

We need a fresh encounter with God where we realize how awesome and mighty He is. If we don’t understand how big of a God we serve, we can’t share Him with others. We get so caught up in rules and regulations and checklists and thinking everyone needs to follow those. But the nonbelievers of this world want nothing to do with a set of rules to follow especially when they see we don’t always uphold them either. We need to fall in love with Jesus again. We need to surrender to His power and let Him work in us.

Trust me, He’s a big enough God to shut the mouths of lions, whatever your lions may look like. He can take care of it. We just have to submit to Him and trust Him.