Faces - 2 - Daniel (Part 2)

This week we are going to finish looking at Daniel, last week we saw how he stood by his beliefs even when this went this went against the norm. This week we step up a gear and look at how he and his friends remained loyal to God even when their very lives were in danger, and how God protected them.

The king of Babylon had complete power in his kingdom, he was able to create any law he wanted, regardless of whether it was good for the people of his nation or not. One of the laws that the king passed as pretty bad for the Jews, which included Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

The king built a giant gold statue about 27 meters tall (about half the height of Nelson’s column in London) and ordered that whenever music was played that everyone has to worship it. If they didn’t they would be burnt alive.

We are going to pick up the story just after Daniel’s friends had been accused of not worshiping the idol and had been sentenced to death by burning and Nebuchadnezzar had just asked the trio “how’s your God doing to save you now?”

Daniel 3 : 16 - 28

God used the intolerance of the king and the loyalty and faith of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to demonstrate the awesome power and authority of God to the king. It took great faith, and bravery for these three men to stand up for what they believed in even at the very moment when situations looked very, very bleak.

Today it isn’t very likely that the Queen or a politician will force you to worship a golden statue but this doesn’t mean that we are not pressured day by day to worship idols.

Can you think of any things that people tend to worship in our society, and how can we avoid worshipping these things ourselves?

Daniel’s friends did not compromise their belief in God to worship anything else, even when they faced real threats against their lives.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego have shown us a key lesson in standing up for what we know to be right, and refusing to go along with other people’s beliefs just because they have told us we should.

Even today we live in a world where there are still many different beliefs and a culture which encourages everyone to accept and tolerate everything. As Christians we need to remember we should love and care for everyone no matter what they believe.

However, we should not adapt what we believe to fit in with other people and we should not be afraid to oppose and refuse to follow anything that is not reflective of God and his word we find in the Bible.

Daniel was renowned in the king’s court for being a model citizen. No matter how hard people who didn’t like him tried really hard to get him into trouble. However, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t find any reason to convict him. So they decided that the only way they would be able to get him in trouble would be if they attacked his loyalty to God which we can read in Daniel 6 : 6 - 28.

Although Daniel was a law-abiding citizen, he was also unwaveringly loyal to God, to the extent that he was willing to flout the law, and even risk being mauled to death by lions to maintain his relationship to God. For Daniel ignoring God for 30 days to comply with the Kings demands was not an option.

If you were in Daniel’s sandals how do you think you would feel? How do you think that you would react? Would you feel that it would be fair for the king to a law like this? As Daniel’s friends have shown it is better to be different but right in God’s eyes than follow the crowd and water down our trust in God.

Has anyone had any experiences where they have felt pressured to follow something that is different to what you know to be true?

Like Daniel we can sometimes face people who disagree with us, or want to try and force us or scare us into doing things which are against God’s great plan for our lives. We have seen that king Nebuchadnezzar tried to bully people into worshiping the ‘god’ that he built out of gold, by threatening to feed those who didn’t to the lions.

Daniel knew the truth, he knew that our God is more than a sculpture, more than a bit of artwork or a set of rules in a book. Daniel knew that our God was alive and was the only one who was worthy of his worship.

Daniel trusted God more than he feared the lions. Because of this God kept their mouths shut and kept him safe. We all have lions in our own lives, things that scare us, or make us fearful of living in the way that God has intended for us. Have a think about what is the biggest fear, the biggest lion in your life. Then write this down in the middle of your sheet.

Whatever your fears might be, you can take comfort knowing that God is bigger and more powerful than them. Just as your fears are written deep within your lion and with your fingers you can force it shut in the same way that God force shut the lion’s mouths for Daniel. It is the same today that God can also overcome the fears that you have and disarm those who are trying to harm you.

In our lives we will all face people who don’t like us, or want to do us harm. However, what is important is how we face these attacks, and that we remember to turn to God, our defender who is always there for us.

If you have something that you are worried or fearful about, no matter if it is big or small God wants to comfort and strengthen you. It might be someone at school who is mean to you, maybe it is the results of your exams, maybe it is the violence taking place in our country or across the world or something completely different.

Whatever it might be God is interested in it. We are going to spend a few minutes praying for each other, asking God to give us strength and courage like Daniel to not be changed by fear, but to instead continue doing the good things that God has intended for us.

In pairs or small groups pray for your own situations, or if you would prefer situations around the world that you are aware of that are filled with fear, and ask God to bring his peace into each situation.