Daniel in the lion's den

“My God sent His angel and shut the lion’s mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.” Daniel 6:22.

We like to take Sebin to the zoo to see the animals. Sebin likes to see the monkeys, peacocks, tigers, lions, bears, and many more animals at the zoo. The other day, I showed Sebin a youtube video of a lion roaring and she was trying to follow its roaring. I mean, she wasn’t scared of the lion roaring in the video. Rather, she was enjoying it. It’s because Sebin knows that it’s only a video.

I am sure many of you have seen bears in the wild before. I saw one in the wild, too. It was about 3 years ago when I was still pastoring in California. This one Sabbath afternoon, the youth group went for a hike on this mountain. There were about 6 of us walking and we were busy talking on the way. Then suddenly Alvin shouted out, “There’s a bear!” I was walking in front of the group and when I lifted my eyes, I froze. This bear came down to the trail and it was about 30 in front of us. You know what I thought when I saw this beast? Nothing. My mind went blank, my feet seemed it was rooted to the ground. None of us knew what to do. Thankfully, it left.

I wonder what Daniel was thinking when he was thrown into the lion’s den. As much as bears can be scary, hungry lions are pretty scary, too. The Bible doesn’t tell us how Daniel felt. But it tells us how it ended. Verse 23 tells, “So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God.” I think that last statement is really powerful. ‘Because he believed in his God.’ I wonder how many of us can do that when we are facing death. I know Daniel would have been still faithful to God even if he was eaten by the lions. So should we.