LION'S DEN ORDEAL -- Devotional for September 23, from "Good Seeds"

Then King Darius sent this order throughout the land, “I now decree that all my subjects will fear and tremble before the God of Daniel, for He is the living and eternal God; His dominion will be forever, and He works wonders for His people, as we have seen today when He delivered Daniel from the jaws of the lions.” (Daniel 6:25-27)

Human logic tells us that good things happen to good people, while bad things are reserved for bad people. And the Bible seems to corroborate this thinking with verses like Galatians 6:8 and Hosea 8:7: “Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap; he who sows to the flesh shall of his flesh reap corruption. Sow the wind and you shall reap the whirlwind.” Surely it is a universal axiom that “God has made misery to be the child of sin.” Okay, but then why does it so often turn out quite differently in the real world? The pages of history are strewn with stories of wicked men who nevertheless lived long and prospered, before dying peacefully in their sleep, while others abhorred evil and followed righteousness their whole lives long, only to meet trouble at every turn. Daniel is a perfect example of one of these. He lived a life of quiet faithfulness, serving God and man uprightly, earning a reputation of flawless integrity – and yet he continually faced unjust persecution, and sometimes grave bodily danger. Of course we know that it was his clean record that got him in so much trouble. Noticing his pristine character, the king decided to promote Daniel to the rank of prime minister. When his fellow advisors got wind of it, jealousy drove them to contrive the wicked scheme that led to Daniel spending the night in a den of hungry lions. They could have consumed him in a matter of minutes (which is just what they did with the next human meal served up to them – verse 24), but it wasn’t Daniel’s day to die – even if it would take a miracle to prevent it. Since Darius had always thought so highly of Daniel, he was extremely relieved to find his favored servant still in the land of the living. But things were not back to normal – not for the king, and not for the kingdom. Not knowing people cannot be forced to believe in God, he tried anyway, if only because his own belief had become so strong. For years he had believed in Daniel – but now, because of the lion’s den incident, he believed in Daniel’s God! In a movie I viewed recently our hero had not lived such a noble life as Daniel, but after enduring a “lion’s den ordeal,” his father, who had been praying for him for years, came to him and said, “Son, I have asked God to show how strong He can be in your life, and that through you people will see just how good and great He is.” Then both men wept tears of joy, and praise to God, not only for rescuing His child, but for bringing a witness to the world through him!