Wed.’s Deco - Daniel’s Deliverance From Lions

Read: Daniel 6:1-28; 2 Peter 3:1-18; Psalm 119:129-152; Proverbs 28:21-22 Darius organized his kingdom into 120 provinces with three men in charge of them. One of the three was Daniel. Darius was planning to promote Daniel to be in charge over all of them. *** The other officers and high officials were jealous and looked for a way that Daniel would not be over them. They looked into all of his affairs and couldn’t find any fault with his works so they looked for a way they could attack him in his religion. *** They appealed to the king’s vanity and enticed him to make a law that for the next thirty days any person who prays to anyone, divine our human except Darius should be thrown into the den of lions. They had him sign it so it could not be changed. *** When Daniel heard the law, he went about his praying as usual, praying to the only one who could help him. He had been set up and when he went up to pray according to his usual schedule, his enemies were waiting for him. *** They went straight to the king and reminded him of his law and how it can’t be revoked. Then they told him that they had caught Daniel praying to his God. The king was stuck and very upset. He realized he had been manipulated and worked all day to find a way to save Daniel. Darius fasted and prayed. That evening the men came to him and demanded he follow his own law. He finally gave the order to arrest Daniel and throw him into the lion’s den. He told Daniel when he was brought in, “May your god, whom you serve so faithfully, rescue you.” *** That night, Darius couldn’t sleep. He ran to the lion’s den at the first light of day and called out in anguish, “Daniel, servant of the living God: Was your God whom you serve so faithfully, able to rescue you from the lions?” *** Daniel answered him. He told him that God had sent angels to shut the lion’s mouths so they never hurt him. Then he proclaimed his innocence. *** Darius was overjoyed and ordered Daniel to be lifted from the den. Then he ordered that Daniel’s accusers be thrown into the lion’s den along with their wives and children. The lions tore them apart before they even hit the floor of the den. *** Then Darius sent out a message to the people of all his kingdom decreeing that everyone should tremble with fear before the God of Daniel. This God is a living God and will endure forever. His kingdom will never be destroyed and his rule will never end. *** Peter gives his reason for his letters and they are to stimulate our wholesome thinking and refresh our memory of what the holy prophets said long ago and what Jesus commanded through the apostles. *** He reminds us that in the last days scoffers would mock the truth, following their own desires. They will mock us with the fact that Christ hasn’t returned and that nothing new has happened. They forget that God made the heavens by the word of his commandant. he brought the earth out of the water and then surrounded it with water. He did this very thing again when he put the earth back into the flood. He destroyed the orderly arrangement of things with the flood and will cleanse the orderly arrangement of the earth in the end with fire. *** In a nut shell, at the right time, we are going to be given fresh skies and fresh soil because the chemical induced air and soil we have now will be burned up with God’s cleansing fire. We can take this as a picture of what he is doing in our lives and allow him to burn out all the impurities in our lives. *** Lord, you told us that you would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. We ask you to do that in us today. Make us pure vessels worthy to be your Temple.