Scripture Daily

Context No. 2470 of 4322 · Daniel (Greek)

Context · Reflection

Daniel (Greek) 6:19-23: in context

19Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste to the den of lions. 20When he came near to the den to Daniel, he cried with a troubled voice. The king spoke and said to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God, whom you serve continually, able to deliver you from the lions?” 21Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! 22My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not hurt me; because I am innocent in his sight. Also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” 23Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

At first light the king hurries to the lions' den, dreading what he will find, and calls out in a troubled voice: Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God been able to deliver you? And out of the pit comes the answer: my God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, so they did no harm, because I was found innocent before him. The king is overjoyed, and Daniel is lifted out without a scratch, because, the text says, he had trusted in his God.

The final line is the explanation the narrator wants us to keep: no harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. The trust did not spare him the den; he still spent the night among lions. But it carried him through it. Deliverance here was not the absence of danger but God's keeping in the middle of it, mouths shut, a man unharmed in the one place that should have killed him. The king asked whether God was able; the empty-mouthed lions answered.

Do I believe God can keep me unharmed in the very den I am dreading, and will I trust him through the night rather than only hope to avoid it?

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