Den Of Lions (part 3)

Daniel knew that there were lions waiting to devour him if he violated the satrap and governor induced order of the king. He, however, continued the course on which he had been set, praying openly and without shame, as he always had. Daniel continued in steadfast faithfulness to the God that had chosen him, that had used him over and over, that had preserved his life, that had raised him up to a position of power and prestige, and had put him in the place where he had much to lose by continuing to walk the path of a prayerful trust in God. If we were to read these last few lines again, could we not simply replace “Daniel” with “Jesus”?

As was said before, Daniel did not make any attempts at persuading the king to change the order or to issue a new decree. Daniel did not attempt to start a rebellion to overthrow the king and install himself as king, which he might very well have been able to do. No. Instead, he trusted in the faithful, covenant God, to provide him with salvation (deliverance, exodus), regardless of what might occur. The same can be said for our Lord Jesus. Both Daniel and Jesus would move forward with a confident reliance on promises granted. Daniel continued to travel the route on to which he had been placed by God, which had brought him to the position in which he now found himself, which had caused him to be hated, and which had caused his enemies to want to destroy him. The life of Jesus echoes in these statements, through and through.

What, specifically, was Daniel’s response? “When Daniel realized that a written decree had been issued, he entered his home, where the windows in his upper room opened toward Jerusalem. Three times daily he was kneeling and offering prayers and thanks to his God just as he had been accustomed to do previously” (6:10). From this point, the analogies and similies to Jesus present themselves in rapid fire succession. We read that Daniel prayed in the direction of Jerusalem, and that he did so three times each day. The men who stood against Daniel, and who wanted to destroy him, knew that Daniel did this, and were counting on the fact that he would continue, and that he would not hide himself in his praying, even with the issuance of the deadly decree. What can we say about Jesus in this regard? We know that His betrayal took place in the Garden of Gethsemane, which was just across the Kidron Valley, opposite the eastern walls of Jerusalem. The record of Jesus’ activity in that garden is that He went off by Himself, on three individual occasions, to pray. We can imagine that He prayed, like Daniel, facing Jerusalem, and the fact of three prayers cannot be written off as mere coincidence. In addition, just as Daniel’s opponents knew that he openly prayed in the manner that is reported, we read that “Judas, the one who betrayed Him (Jesus), knew the place too, because Jesus had met there many times with His disciples” (John 18:2).
With such knowledge in hand, “Judas obtained a squad of soldiers and some officers of the chief priests and Pharisees. They came to the orchard with lanterns and torches and weapons” (18:3). In the case of Daniel, this can be read as “Then those officials who had gone to the king came by collusion and found Daniel praying and asking for help before his God” (6:11). This stands as a stark reminder of what it was that had been Jesus’ plaintive prayer, as He prayed and asked for help in the time of testing that was coming to Him, saying “My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from Me! Yet not what I will, but what you will… My Father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, Your will must be done” (Matthew 26:39b, 42b). To this, some manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke add that “an angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him” (Luke 22:43), which should immediately draw our attention to the words of Daniel, in the wake of his night spent in the den of lions, that “My God sent His angel and closed the lions’ mouths so that they have not harmed me, because I was found to be innocent before Him” (6:22a). To these words, we shall pay a return visit.