Fri.’s Devo - The Lion’s Den

Read: Daniel 6:1-28; 2 Peter 3:1-18; Psalm 119:129-152; Proverbs 28:21-22 The enemy has the same strategy always. Darius, the Mede was the ruler and he chose Daniel and two others to be his administrators to supervise the high officers and protect the king’s interests. When Daniel proved to be the wisest and most capable, he was up for a promotion over all of the administrators. They knew about this and looked for a way to discredit Daniel, but couldn’t find any dirt on him. The only chance they had was to find something, had to do with his religion. *** They cooked up a plan and had the king sign an order that said for the next 30 days, no one could pray to anyone except the king. They appealed to Darius’ pride. It worked, and Darius signed it. The penalty for disobeying the order was to be thrown into the lion’s den. *** When the king signed it, Daniel went home and immediately prayed as he had always done. The men went straight to the king and told him. They reminded him that Daniel was not their race - a captive from Judah - to separate him even more from them, even though he had been in Babylon now for over 50 years. *** By the end of the day, the king had no recourse but to obey his own order which made him very upset. When the king was pressured to arrest Daniel, he finally did and told Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve so faithfully rescue you.” *** Darius fasted that night and couldn’t sleep. Early the next morning, Darius ran to the lion’s den and called out to Daniel asking if his god was able to rescue him from the lions. Daniel replied that God’s angel shut the mouth of the lion and found him innocent. He assured the king that he had not wronged the king. *** The king was so overjoyed, he had him taken from the den immediately and had the men who had maliciously accused Daniel to be thrown into the den. The lion’s leaped on them and tore them apart before they even hit the floor of the den. *** The king sent out a ruling, praising Daniel’s God whose kingdom would never end and who rescues his people and performs miracles and signs and wonders. *** Daniel prospered during Darius’ reign and the reign of Cyrus. *** In Peter’s second letter, he told them not to give up when Jesus didn’t come when they thought he should. God created the world out of water and would destroy it with fire. *** God’s timing is not our timing. A day to the Lord, is a thousand to us and a day to us is like a thousand to the Lord. God isn’t slow, like we think, but is patient for our sakes, wanting everyone to repent. That day will come and it will come unexpectedly. The heavens will pass away and disappear in fire and the earth will be judged. God has promised us new heavens and a new earth filled with God’s righteousness. *** While we are waiting for that to happen, we are to live peaceful lives full of purity and righteousness. We are to remind us that God’s patience to return is so that people will repent. There were those who twisted Paul’s letters to mean something they didn’t mean. We are to have discernment and not be distracted by heresy or enticed by error. *** Lord, may we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.