Following Daniel’s Psalm-ic declaration, the king is obviously quite thrilled. We read “Then the king was delighted and gave an order to haul Daniel up from the den. So Daniel was hauled up out of the den. He had no injury of any kind, because he had trusted in his God” (6:23). If we remember, one of the first similarities that we saw between Daniel and Jesus was that Darius had intended to appoint Daniel over his entire kingdom. This, of course, was God’s intention for His Messiah, Who was to be appointed over the kingdom of God on earth. So Darius, in essence, gets to play multiple roles, which helps to explain why he does not disappear from the story of Daniel’s suffering to vindication in the way that Pilate disappears from the story of Jesus’ suffering to vindication. Because of the desire to bequeath dominion over a kingdom, Darius, in the context of the analogy, and in the telling of Daniel’s being pulled from what was to be his tomb, is here positioned in the role of the Creator, covenant God of Israel.
What is here said in the story of Daniel, not surprisingly, is also to be said of the story of Jesus. Darius was delighted, and he gave an order for Daniel to be hauled up out of the pit of death into which he had been sent. This is what the Lord God did for Jesus, the Son in Whom He delighted. Not only did Darius give the order, but Darius had the power to execute the order, so Daniel was taken out of the den. Naturally, God had the power to pull Jesus up out of death and the grave as well, and so He was. It is written that Daniel had no injury of any kind, and this, because the lions’ mouths had been closed. Jesus, of course, had been subjected to a terrifyingly painful ordeal, in which He suffered grave injuries that resulted in death. However, when He came forth from the grave, apart from the marks of the nails in His hands and feet, it appeared as if He had been subject to no injuries. Why was this? Had the lion’s mouths been closed? Well, if we think of His accusers and opponents as the lions, then they were most certainly not closed. However, if we consider those men to have been little more than the physical manifestations and pawns of the lion of man’s ultimate enemy, that being death, then yes, the lion’s mouth had been closed.
Why were both Daniel (figuratively) and Jesus (literally) resurrected with no injury? The answer that was given in Daniel’s case, as we have already seen, was “because he had trusted in his God” (6:23b). True of Daniel, and true of Jesus. At this point, Daniel could have easily retreated once again into the words of the Psalmist, saying “For He did not despise or detest the suffering of the oppressed; He did not ignore him; when he cried out to Him, He responded” (22:24). This crying out would be based upon a trust in the delivering power of the faithful, covenant God. We can certainly find such words, reflecting that same trust, on the lips of a risen Jesus as well. Trust was paramount.
Now, the fact that Jesus’ ordeal of suffering is so closely linked to the story of Daniel’s ordeal of suffering, with both sharing the controlling, compelling narrative of the twenty-second Psalm, what now follows in Daniel’s story helps to shed a great deal of light on the response to the stories of Jesus’ Resurrection. If Jesus has successfully connected Himself to the story of Daniel, and it seems that He has, then this does not bode well for those who were directly responsible for His death. For “The king,” who is positioned as the sovereign ruler desirous of appointing this now “resurrected” Daniel to a place of rule over his entire kingdom (with all of the connections to the kingdom-related desires of the God of Israel and His Messiah that are implied and which would have been well understood in Jesus’ day), “gave another order, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the lions’ den---they, their children, and their wives. They did not even reach the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones” (6:24).
With such a fate in mind, there is little wonder that the chief priests and elders began telling the story that “His disciples came at night and stole His body” (Matthew 28:13b). We can understand why these same men would later order the disciples “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18b), and later reminded the disciples of this order, saying “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name” (5:28a). The words that immediately follow the reminder of the order draw direct attention to the men that were cast into the lion’s den, as well as the shouts of the people upon Pilate’s washing of his hands, as they said, “Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood on us!” (5:28b)
When we consider that the story of Daniel, for a number of reasons, was so incredibly important and significant to the Jews of the first century, and that Jesus had so well seized upon that fact (especially during the whole of His ordeal), it makes sense that those who stood to find themselves identified with Daniel’s accusers (and therefore identified with those thrown to the lions) so furious with and desirous of executing (Acts 5:33) those who said things like (noting the parallels with Daniel) “The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you seized and killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him to His right hand as Leader and Savior” (5:30-31a). If we were in that position, we would be just as unwilling to allow this story to be told.
Ultimately, as was said of Daniel’s God by Darius, as he echoed what was said by the Psalmist, would be said of Jesus and His God, by the church, with this communicated to us by the Apostle Paul. Jesus experienced and overcame His own den of lions, and (noting the parallels with Daniel) “As a result God exalted Him and gave Him the Name that is above every name, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee will bow---in heaven and on earth and under the earth---and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
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