“I think it teaches me that God is going to fix all my problems, even the ones I think will ‘eat me up’!” says 10-year-old Hillary. “However, I know that, like Daniel, I must remain faithful to the Lord.”
Problems have a way of eating our lunch, especially when we try to handle them in our own strength. In this case, Daniel was supposed to be the lions’ lunch, but God had other plans.
“The lesson is to keep your mouth shut and trust God in every way and every day,” says 11-year-old Elizabeth.
Is this the lesson from the lions’ perspective?
Although Daniel was one of the three governors of the Medo-Persian Empire, he did not protest against the law that prohibited him from praying to God for 30 days. He quietly went about his routine of praying three times a day on his knees with the windows open towards Jerusalem.
Andrew, 8, says we should “always pray to God, even if you will be punished.”
According to the book that bears his name, Daniel “prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom from the earliest days” (Daniel 6:10). No wonder Daniel distinguished himself as a young man.
“Sometimes God doesn’t answer your prayers, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you,” says 9-year-old Adriane. “He just sometimes doesn’t think it’s time to do what you ask.”
God always answers the prayers of a righteous person, but not always in the way we expect. Would God be less powerful or compassionate if he had not shut the lions’ mouths?
Many Christians were eaten alive by lions in the Roman Colosseum. His testimony in death undermined the resistance of those who watched.
Jenny, 7, says: “The king has learned that he needs to learn a big lesson and a good one.”
King Darius signed a law that said he was the only god to whom a petition could be made for 30 days. After realizing that it was a plot to get rid of Daniel, he could not change the law because it would violate a custom of the Medes and Persians. Just before he threw Daniel to the lions, he said, “Your God, whom you continually serve, he will deliver you.”
Judging by the subsequent decree of the king after Daniel’s release, it seems that he learned a great lesson. Darius decreed that all people on earth should “tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God.”
Taylor, age 6, best sums up the lesson from Daniel and the lions: “Always pray and forgive people.”
Daniel could easily have been embittered by the humiliation of being offered as a lion’s lunch. When the king inquired about his safety the next morning, most standards would justify Daniel speaking sarcastically to the king.
But Daniel didn’t live by most standards. He lived in communion with the living God. When Darius asked Daniel if God had delivered him from the lions, Daniel’s first words were, “O king, he lives forever.”
Think about it: when we face problems, we can either blame others or trust God to work everything out for his purpose.
Memorize this truth: “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2-3).
Ask yourself this question: If God lives and we know him, shouldn’t we follow Daniel’s example by living before him boldly and confidently?