Den Of Lions (part 8)

Not only would Daniel have spoken the words of the Psalm in the ears of Darius, but like Jesus, also in the ears of all of his accusers as well. Darius heard and responded to what we can believe to be Daniel’s strange choice of words, which spoke of help, deliverance, rescue, and answering that would enable him to declare the Name and praises of his God following the ordeal. Naturally, the others responded to the words as well. So upon Daniel’s having been thrown into the den of lions, and subsequent to the king’s reassuring words to him (spurred by Daniel’s faithful referencing to a song of His people), “a stone was brought and placed over the opening to the den. The king sealed it with his signet ring and with those of his nobles so that nothing could be changed with regard to Daniel” (6:17). This quickly puts us in mind of Matthew’s reports of what followed Jesus’ death (surrounded by “dogs” and “lions,” with His allusions to Psalm 22), after Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus and placed it in his own tomb.

We read that “The next day (which is after the day of preparation) the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive He said, “After three days I will rise again.” So give orders to secure the tomb until the third day. Otherwise His disciples may come and steal His body and say to the people, “He has been raised from the dead,” and the last deception will be worse than the first.’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take a guard of soldiers. Go and make it as secure as you can.’ So they went with the soldiers of the guard and made the tomb entrance secure by sealing the stone” (Matthew 27:62-66). Jesus had indeed spoken of rising again after three days, and His recent reference to the twenty-second Psalm (while on the cross) in an atmosphere in which there was great awareness of the book of Daniel, as well as a constant looking forward to a Davidic king not unlike the king that had been said to have spoken that great Psalm, would have induced this exchange between Pilate and those responsible for Jesus’ journey into the lion’s den that was crucifixion and death.

Just as a stone had been placed and sealed over what was to be Daniel’s tomb, so too was a stone placed and sealed over the tomb of Jesus. If Daniel had indeed spoken the twenty-second Psalm in the ears of all who were there to hear him, which we have good reason to believe, then Daniel spoke of something akin to a resurrection; and Daniel did indeed come out of his tomb, unscathed by the lions. Jesus’ reference to the same Psalm, coupled with His own talk of rising again, together with His references to Daniel and the “Son of Man” tradition that it contained, caused a bit of worry. The main difference, however, was that nobody was able to witness the events inside the lion’s den, whereas all and sundry were able to be witnesses of Jesus’ horrific death. Therefore, in the minds of the bringers of death, the only way that Jesus could be said to have risen again, was for His disciples to come and steal His body, and simply lie about why the body had gone missing and why the tomb was now empty. This precipitated the sealing of the tomb. In the case of Darius and Daniel and the sealing of that tomb, it was probably sealed at the insistence of the nobles, so that Darius himself, since he had been quite desperate to spare Daniel, would not come and attempt to retrieve Daniel from the den.

Do we truly have reason to believe that Psalm 22 was spoken by Daniel? We know that Jesus spoke the words of the Psalm, but did Daniel do the same? Is there any other evidence that such a thing took place? Following from his suffering and his vindication and his declaration of praises, the Psalmist goes on to say, “Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to Him! Let all the nations worship You! For the Lord is king and rules over the nations. All of the thriving people of the earth will join the celebration and worship; all those who are descending into the grave will bow before Him, including those who cannot preserve their lives. A whole generation will serve Him; they will tell the next generation about the sovereign Lord. They will come and tell about His saving deeds; they will tell a future generation what He has accomplished” (22:27-31). This is said, again, after talk of help, deliverance, and rescue. Turning back to Daniel, and skipping over the events that are reported (though we shall return to them), we read that “King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and language groups who were living in all the land: ‘Peace and prosperity! I have issued an edict that throughout all the dominion of my kingdom people are to revere and fear the God of Daniel. “For He is the living God; He endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed; His authority is forever. He rescues and delivers and performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of lions!”’” (6:25-27) The words of the Psalmist and of Darius are astonishingly similar.