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[0:00] Let's do this. Let's pray. I want to thank you for the opportunity to gather tonight. And I pray that you would direct our hearts and our minds to your word and to understand. Give us illumination so we understand.

[0:15] Because we want to follow you. We want to know you. We want to think the way you think. And I pray that you would help us do that tonight. In Christ's name. Amen. Alright, so, we're Daniel chapter 6.

[0:29] This is probably one of the most famous stories in Daniel for sure. And maybe pretty close to one of the top four or five in the Old Testament.

[0:43] And so, it really doesn't need a whole lot for me to say other than let's read it. And I'll get a couple people to read for me. We're going to break it up into two readings.

[0:54] We'll do like verses 1 through 15. And then we'll talk about that for a little bit. Then we'll hit the next section. So, got somebody want to read for me?

[1:08] Evening. I almost said morning. Don't know why. Alright, Daniel 6, 1 through 15. Who wants to read? Go for it.

[1:21] Alright. Through what? Verse 15, it says? Yeah, this is verse 15. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be over the whole kingdom.

[1:33] And over these three governors of whom Daniel was sworn. That the satraps might give account to them. So that the king would suffer no loss. Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him.

[1:48] And the king gave thought to sending him over the whole realm. But the governor and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the king. But they could find no charge or fault because he was faithful.

[2:00] Nor was there any error or fault found in him. These men said, We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God. So these governors and satraps thronged before the king and said thus to him, King Darius, live forever.

[2:17] All the governors of the kingdom and administrators and satraps, the counselors, the advisors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute to make a firm decree. That whoever petitions any God or man for thirty days except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.

[2:35] Now O king, establish the decree and sign the writing so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which does not alter. Therefore King Darius signed the written decree.

[2:48] Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home and in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times a day to pray and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

[3:03] Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplications before his God. And they went before the king and spoke concerning the king's decree. Have you not signed a decree that every man is sufficient as any God or man for thirty days except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?

[3:22] The king answered and said, The thing is true according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which does not alter. So they answered and said before the king, That Daniel, who is one of the captives from Judah, does not show due regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.

[3:42] And the king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased with himself and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. And he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him.

[3:54] Then these men approached the king and said to the king, Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and the Persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed.

[4:05] Okay. So what's interesting about this story is how much people try to pull from it to do other things and to think about other thoughts that really the story wasn't meant to do.

[4:20] But really the story as a whole is really talking about our faithfulness to the Lord. And so this first part, I want to look at it, kind of breaking it down.

[4:31] There's a few things that we definitely need to look at, but it really is about Daniel remaining faithful to the Lord and our needing to remain faithful to the Lord. Verses 1 through 3 is this new kingdom.

[4:43] We've got verse 1 that says Darius. All right, so let's deal with Darius then. Who is this Darius? Darius. This Darius is most likely Cyrus the Great.

[4:56] He was the first king of the Medes and the Persians as a collective group. Cyrus was the king of Persia after his father. Darius is the Median name.

[5:08] Cyrus is the Persian name. Here's a couple of reasons why I say this. Number one, in Daniel chapter 6, verse 28, it says, So this Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius.

[5:21] And in the reign of Cyrus, and I've put on the screen, even. And the reason I've put that is because there's one Hebrew letter. It's a va consecutive is what it's called. And it's an and.

[5:32] But like you interpret it based upon context. It is just a connective. So it can sometimes mean but, it can sometimes mean or. It can mean lots of things.

[5:44] Here's the thing. In this same chapter, verse 9, somebody read from a different translation, verse 9 for me.

[5:54] wherefore king garius signed the writing and the decree okay writing and the decree are those two different things okay right so he's signing one wall right the document the decree it's the document on which the decree is right so what's what's in the middle of that is this same exact letter okay so so what you get in this verse is the possibility it's just a possibility of being able to translate it as darius even in the reign of cyrus the persian or namely in the reign of cyrus the persian something like that but there are other other reasons the there are a couple of outside sources outside of daniel kind of outside of daniel that show that darius is cyrus as well how many of you know what the septuagint is okay septuagint is a greek translation of the old testament that was done way before jesus's time as a matter of fact jesus the apostles you'll look sometimes you'll read the new testament they're quoting from the old testament it doesn't seem to exactly match it's because they're probably quoting from the septuagint the greek instead of the hebrew old testament okay but uh if you'll if you read any biblical studies books and they have the letters lxx the roman numeral for 70 that that is the abbreviation for the septuagint okay so the septuagint is greek and in the septuagint there's a few people that have a couple different versions of it in daniel chapter 11 verse 1 in the in the in our translation the aramaic right or this would be the hebrew it says in the first year of darius the mede but in the septuagint it says in the first year of king cyrus okay so that's one thing uh and the the person who did that was a this guy named theodosian he was a hellenistic scholar the other thing has to do with the apocrypha okay in the apocrypha you have the story of bel and the dragon the story of bel and the dragon basically is daniel's in babylon and there's bel the statue of the god and you know the king thinks the statue lives and actually does things and there's this statue of this dragon supposedly that lives and does things and daniel destroys both of them in the first story nothing really happens much to daniel the second story all the people get mad and they throw daniel into a lion's den and he stays there for six days okay now the point of telling you that story is that in the uh translation of the bel and the dragon it's cyrus is mentioned as the one who throws daniel into that lion's den or he's there to pull him out i should say the people threw him in so it's the king astages was gathered to his fathers and cyrus the persian received his kingdom and astages is actually his grandfather okay um so the the other thing is just that it was pretty common for people to have two titles so with all that the reason that we would go into that and talk about that is because just like in chapter five with bel tshazzar people think that the bible is just making stuff up and it's not historically accurate therefore not reliable it's just not true the bible is accurate and time and time again we see its its accuracy um the big point of all of this is that this is a new kingdom i mean this guy darius cyrus and i'll probably say his name either way throughout the evening so don't get confused he's setting up a whole new kingdom that's why you see all this about the the satraps and trying to set up you know how this this is going to be structured

[9:57] so that's the new kingdom the new reputation has to do with daniel is still the man you know he is still the guy who is um uh the one in whom is this extraordinary spirit it's recognized and he gets put in charge of several then we get into the next section verses 4 through 9 and 12 through 15 there's this enemy that comes up and it's interesting that the enemy uh they are the ones that uh speak the most in this chapter uh daniel barely speaks at all um chapter 6 verse 4 then the commissioners and the satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against daniel in regard to government affairs that's the first level but they could find no ground of accusation or second ground evidence of corruption and as much as he was faithful and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him he is a man of integrity doing things the way he's supposed to do here's the law he follows the law he does what he's supposed to so they decide to try to manipulate daniel because they say we will not find any ground of accusation against this daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his god now i think this is interesting because they don't just come right out and try to outlaw his religion what they attempt to do is set it up so he's got to be the one to to break the law um they they come to darius then they make the false appeals right because they say that all of the prefects and governors are in agreement well that's a lie right why is that a lot exactly daniel's not there he would not have agreed to that um it says in verse six that they came by an agreement that word agreement is the word throng and when you're talking about a mob it's like a it's like mob rule you know you can think of the riotous protesting kind of thing but when it's something like this it's more like a concert of conspiracy so they've come by conspiracy to uh to him and it's interesting that they come to darius with this idea and and darius ends up agreeing and people can pray to him for 30 days i mean that all seems sort of strange one of the explanations for that as a possibility has to do with sort of the difference between the way the medes and the persians the babylonians would do babylonians capture all these people all these different nations bring them here with all of their religious stuff and so you had this massive boiling melting pot of religious stuff going on in babylon because they didn't want you to stay in your hometown they wanted you here so bring all the religious artifacts that's why he goes to the temple takes out the artifact from the temple and brings them back to babylon the medes and the persians however don't like that they want people to be able to go back to their homeland stay there we don't need you here take your religion back with you and so he's he's eventually going to be taking all these different people back to their different nations with their religious things letting them go back that's just the way that they worked the problem is it takes time to do that so one of the things that is suggested is that there were periods throughout history where he would serve as a priest king so that as people were in flux between here and there they could pray to him as a priest king right because you you can pray to god or you can pray to a priest that's the way a lot of the different religions work in their mindset that so you could pray to darius and that would be the same and so you wouldn't be out your religious activity so darius agreed to this pretty simply probably because there is at least a little bit of arrogance but also probably because it fit in with some of the things that they you know

[14:00] would be doing in order to help people get back to their homeland and the the law that they write is the law of the medes and the persians why is it unrevocable it doesn't say precisely but you might be able to logic it out yeah it's similar to that it's it's a little bit more like our magna carter that you know uh or england's that that uh king john signed where he said the king is subject to the law as well so darius all the kings they're they're subject to the law themselves they're they'll speak it but then they have to do it too they can't just be above it and so that's that's the reason that it was uh it couldn't be um revoked okay all right now we're verse 10 the the new resolve daniel knows the document has been signed verse 10 um as a matter of fact here's verse 10 it's interesting uh when daniel knew that the document was signed he entered his house now in his roof chamber he had a he had windows open toward jerusalem and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day praying and giving thanks before his god as he had been doing previously why do you think he has his windows open to jerusalem it's kind of interesting i just have a note in my bible it says that he uh did it to conform to solomon's prayer that the lord's people would do so such a cheater that's exactly right so so here's here's here's what we're talking about here it's first kings chapter eight when solomon builds the temple he has this really lengthy prayer right and in it he prays all kinds of things this is where we get in chronicles where he says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways i will hear and heal and stuff okay same kind of prayer is going on here but this is the version in first kings he says when they sin talking about uh the people of israel against you for there's no man who does not sin and you are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy so that they take them away captive to the land of the enemies far or near uh if they take thought in the land where they have been taken captive and repent and make supplication to you in the land of those who have been take who have taken them captive saying we have sinned and committed iniquity we have acted wickedly if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who have taken them captive and pray to you toward their land which you have given to their fathers the city which you have chosen and the house which you have built for your name okay so what's the land what's the city what's the house jerusalem the temple and israel right okay uh then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven your dwelling place and maintain their cause so if they're there and they pray toward the land toward the city toward the house then hear their prayer so that's what daniel's doing he knows that this has been prayed by solomon he's leaning upon that and he is praying as he had been right so probably from the time he had gotten into the land i think your translation even said from early days from the time he'd gotten into the land this had been a habit of his because he was well versed in what had gone before him now this is this is this whole thing you got to be careful when you see a biblical character do something um you have to be careful not to all of a sudden say this is what we have to start doing now my pages are completely out of order

[18:06] it just they just are we're going to pause for just a second because i went from chapter from page four to page nine that is crazy hold on one second there's page five the five i was putting huh well you know i have page numbers on there so i don't get lost and when i was putting it back together today i looked at him very carefully looking too yeah i know um so when you see a biblical character do something oftentimes we're tempted to say we need to emulate that and do that ourselves and one of the things about this particular story is that the story is not about prayer prayer was the means by which daniel was faithful and we're going to look at that but this is not then a pattern for us to say oh well we need to pray in front of our windows three times a day with the windows open towards jerusalem like you know there's a lot of people who are superstitious and in that superstition will take up things like that and say well it worked for daniel it should work for me you know it's the same thing that we said about the diet back in chapter one they ate this thing so that must be the diet god wants us to have those though that is not the way we're supposed to be reading the bible we we really need to do differently because if you think about it daniel is praying contrary to some degree to the way jesus suggested right in secret not in public right he's he's got his window wide open people can see it um the new testament talks about praying without ceasing and daniel's only praying three times a day that's a little stretch but you see what i'm saying like the point is is that this is not a pattern for prayer right um but this daniel he's leaning on solomon he's leaning on the faithfulness of the lord and wanting to stay faithful to the lord um it would have been far easier for daniel to just shut the blondes i just want you to think about that why did he have to keep the blondes open because he was being told he couldn't do this and so he doesn't shut them i i just that is that is such a mind-boggling thing to me you know and and once once they find out he's praying that's the the last part verse 11 through 15 a new pressure they come back to the king they force him to fulfill the law he's deeply distressed he tries to deliver daniel i mean he's working all day long to try to argue for daniel's freedom but he can't and that's very different from nebuchadnezzar we're going to see that again here in a little bit and the king is left with no options and so that's that's this first part let me just pull out a couple of of application thoughts from this one is that here's daniel he we know that he's been in enemy territory for a while but all the stories we've seen have been about him versus a king right now it's him versus the culture it's a little bit different battle that's going on the culture is against him here they don't like him they don't like his success they don't like anything about him they want what he has they're going to do all that they can to tear him down and take what he's got and you know that's the thing about us is that we we always have enemies you know we start as we think about our enemies as christians we always start with something like ephesians that tells us that our our enemy is not flesh and blood right for our struggle is not with flesh and blood but against rulers against the powers against the world forces of this darkness against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places all of that is referring to some invisible cosmic forces we would call the demonic forces out there that are against us and and that's where that starts it it goes then into our sin as a part of that and then the world system is a part of that

[22:07] that is our enemy but it's not just the spiritual forces in in in here paul is talking about somebody who's his enemy he talks about there are many for many walk of whom i've often told you and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of christ he's viewing specific people and so what i'm saying is this is that our enemies start with satan sin in the world and sometimes the people around us represent them right sometimes they are following after sin satan in the world sometimes they're possessed by sin satan in the world and so our enemy though primarily is sin satan in the world even though it may manifest as humanity in front of us or like daniel the culture around him and like it does for us our culture like the culture around us is terrible like there's all kinds of nasty things and when you look at that you see these people you know that this trans whatever or this this this gay whatever or this you know evil whatever you want to talk about is there yes that person is there and there is evil there and they're enemies of the cross of christ but as paul talks about even weeping i'm telling you this we know that behind them is another enemy the greater enemy and and so as we battle as we think about you know um trying to remain faithful to the lord we're going to encounter all of these enemies and we just have to remember that this this is a battle and so we're going to be fighting and sometimes it means coming in conflict with those are who are uh human um it's it's a little bit like what peter says be of sober spirit be on the alert your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour but resist him firm in your faith that's the reason the devil's out there seeking christians is to get them off their faith either for them to lose faith or them to believe false things and he's doing that not not just as himself but through other instruments right and so as our enemies seek to uh beset us and and sometimes they come in fleshly garb we just have to remember that that's there because our faithfulness is sometimes going to bump right up against them um and that'd be the second thing i would say is that faithfulness to the lord looks like daniel refusing to close his blinds looks like daniel refusing to close his blinds um a lot of times our behavior is not about a lot of times our behavior and and what's going to get us in trouble is not about trying to make a massive public protest and display as much as it is just simply being obedient to the lord you know there there are ways in which if we are going to take god seriously and take his word seriously and say i love the lord then we're going to do things that are going to make people around us uncomfortable you know um it can be it can be as simple as you know somebody in our family they're not married and they want to come stay under our the roof of our house and it's like i'm sorry that would be me condoning adultery so um so you can't you know and that's going to rub people the wrong way and and we're going to have to make that choice of saying and do i want to do i want to risk offending sinners in my family or do i want to be faithful to the lord um it it could be that moment that you excuse yourself out of workplace gossip and just go somewhere else and don't participate and don't listen it's hard not to because if you don't listen i mean then you're the one being talked about right if you stay next to gossip they don't

[26:08] talk about you that's just the way it works you know it works in families that way too you know at christmas time if you stay around the longest then you're the last one anybody ever talks about right but like staying there with it says that you give approval to it and so sometimes you have to just say you know hey listen we're not coming um anyway there's all kinds of examples that we could we could put forth i'm just saying that for for daniel faithfulness was a very simple thing and sometimes for us it's going to be that same thing it could also be big too i mean if you go to another country in saudi arabia it is illegal to share the gospel with someone and so if you go over there we we got people in in the imb we got people in other mission organizations that are overseas someplace sharing the gospel where it's illegal for them to do so and if they were to find out they would at best be arrested and at worst they might even be executed but there's that faithfulness the lord um anyway so um let's let's move on then let's look at the second um second half of this story and uh let's go 16 through 28 and get somebody else to read it can i have a question no okay yes i i don't know is it easy it might be easy i don't know yes you let her out it's really i don't know if we have time but you were talking about the the satan sin of the world being the enemy sort of the the ultimate enemy yeah and that the people that we face who are acting in sin who are instruments of that are you know just sort of accessories to things you know i don't know how to put it exactly okay how do you think that that helps us somehow when we're really irritated with the because we can't see satan we can't see his actions but we can see this really annoying person you know and we're struggling to do what's right with them yeah i think i think uh paul's statement as he's saying they're enemies of the cross of christ he says i say this now through tears i think it should help us to be more compassionate to them you know that we see them locked in sin you know and we we know that that's the case and so like it's it's pretty easy if you don't think about that and just think about the person's behavior it's pretty easy to become condescending hateful ugly about it even even mocking you know um and they can be so antagonistic and right just you know yeah you know i think i think that um one of the biggest um problems i guess that most christians are tempted with is is that because it is so ugly and because sometimes it's so in our face when we have a moment to mock it in a way that is i do think there would be mockery that would be okay but that's a whole nother discussion we can talk about um we can talk about um my my man my main man in idaho um i can't think of his name i was telling you about him earlier yeah doug wilson yeah we'll talk about that later but i think by and large we we shouldn't be mocking sinners for for their sin you know i think that that's not a not a right thing to do particularly particularly somebody we know somebody we're relating to uh it's one thing if you look at the the agenda and you talk about the agenda right and then you you show the ridiculousness of that through mockery but the person is the is the is the one that i would not want to mock yeah does that make sense yeah i kind of i just felt like that helps because it is difficult to deal with people like somebody read 16 through 28 for us then the king commanded daniel was brought and cast to the den of lions the king declared to daniel may

[30:10] your god whom you serve continually deliver you and the stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords that nothing might be changed concerning daniel's people then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting no the virgins were brought to him and sleep fled from him then to break the day the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions as the king knew the den where daniel was he cried out in the tone of anguish the king declared to daniel oh daniel servant of the living god has your god whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions then daniel said to the king oh king live oh king live forever my god sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth and they have not harmed me because i was found blameless before him and also before you oh king i have done no harm then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that daniel be taken up out of the den so daniel was taken up out of the den and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his god the king commanded and those men who had maliciously accused daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions they their children and their wives and before they reached the bottom of the den the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces then king darius wrote to all people nations and languages that dwell in all the earth peace be multiplied to you i make a decree that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the god daniel for he is the living god enduring forever his kingdom shall never be destroyed his dominion shall be to the end he delivers and rescues he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth he who has saved daniel from the power of the lions so this daniel prospered during the reign of darius and the reign of sirius the person okay so we have the king in the pit um the king is sure daniel is going to daniel's god will deliver him stone is rolled over it the pit is sealed like like with a signet ring kind of a thing probably because the king's afraid that these bad guys are going to try to come do something to daniel in the night the king fasts all night and prays and and again no sleep but again i'll tell you i don't think that's necessarily a formula for getting god to do things okay um everybody's with me on that right okay good um all right the next morning he runs there and tries to see what's going on and now we get the report of the deliverance verse 20 to 23 this is the only time daniel speaks and it's very short oh king live forever my god sent an angel shut the lion's mouths and they have not harmed me as much as i was found innocent before him and also toward you oh king i've committed no crime i think what's interesting here is daniel's not harmed because he's innocent and god has found him innocent god weighed him in the balances and found him innocent of these crimes and therefore unworthy to be to be punished with this um it's uh you know god sends the the presence of the angel there um and so you you end up with basically this an innocent man is thrown into a pit is raised up out of it because he's because of his innocence and lives it's a little bit like the pattern of christ there you know and so i find that uh i find that fascinating um the king's response is first of all retribution verse 24 has a bit of irony in it um the king then gave orders and they brought those men who had maliciously accused that is those who had bitten to peace pieces daniel uh and he had them thrown in and they were crushed all their bones or they were crushed to pieces and listen to this this is this is judgment okay the king cast them their children their wives

[34:19] into the lion's den and they when they reached the bottom before they did the lions overpowered them and crushed them one of the things about that that that i think about is just judgment is always a sad picture it's it's a it's a reality and we know that god's a god of judgment and we worship him as a god of judgment and a god of holiness and righteousness and we we never apologize for that we never downplay that but it is a sad picture and it is a difficult picture and many times there's other places in the old testament that people struggle with as they see god requesting or asking and commanding judgment to be done and um it's uh god is a holy god and our problem with these things is not god and his judgment but it's our view of ourselves and our innocence we we think we think that we're all innocent and we're really not so the king comes along and makes this new law um and what's interesting is kind of if you compare nebuchadnezzar and darius just for a second nebuchadnezzar is at odds with daniel because of the things that the king wants to do darius is fooled into this right he kind of gets pulled into this scheme not really his doing nebuchadnezzar's angry with the three hebrew children for failing to worship him but darius is saddened that daniel doesn't do this and gets accused of this crime nebuchadnezzar is bent on destroying the three hebrews and darius is bent on delivering daniel and and you you got two kings who both to some degree think of themselves as godlike to some degree all this power all this ability to do things and yet neither king no matter no matter their attitude neither king can deliver from god's hand it takes god himself to deliver darius makes this law he says i make this decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the god of daniel nebuchadnezzar says don't say anything bad about daniel's god now darius is saying you need to fear and tremble before this god that's two different kinds of things uh the the point is is that it seems that something's happening in cyrus and darius changing his heart it's different i mean look at the praise that he gives right the praise did i put that verse up there no i didn't the praise it's it talks about the nature of god that he's a living eternal god he is the living god who endures forever his authority his kingdom is eternal it cannot be destroyed his dominion is forever talks about his work that he delivers he rescues he performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth i mean that praise just seems to to be a little different from what we see in nebuchadnezzar and i think this gets to kind of the point daniel's faithfulness ends up with this opportunity of rescue not just for daniel but a rescue in osiris's life as well and that is sort of the way that that god has rescued you think about joseph's life how does joseph's life compare to what's happening with daniel here they both they were both start off basically slaves in a new world a new land right and then they both rose to prominence and in both both kingdoms that's right that's right some of the other things is that you know they're both falsely accused right and they're thrown into pits and they're both brought back out of those pits um what about israel in egypt you see the same pattern israel's enslaved right and they're they're underneath the uh pharaoh and the people

[38:23] the firstborn or the boys are all thrown into the nile a little bit like being thrown into a pit yet god comes and he rescues them the point is is that um god god rescues and when he rescues he rescues in similar ways you know something we're we're seeking to be obedient to him something happens that comes across that and then god comes along and delivers us and it's really neat to see in scripture and through church history how that sometimes is played out in very physical ways how people have been you know delivered i mean there's stories about certain martyrs who were put on a pike and the fire was lit and they didn't even burn you know and there's all kinds of stories like that that go that go through history but i think it's fascinating when um uh paul says here in second timothy that may be too small should have put that on a couple of slides alexander the coppersmith did me much harm the lord will repay him according to his deeds be on guard against him yourself for he vigorously opposed our teaching and my first defense no one supported me but all deserted me may it not be counted against them but the lord stood with me and strengthened me the lord stood with me a little bit like the angel standing there with the uh daniel and with the three huber children so that through me the proclamation but might be fully accomplished and that all the gentiles might hear so so i'm having to defend the lord stands with me so that the gentiles might believe okay so so the trouble he's going through the defense he's having to give is for somebody else's benefit and then he says and i was rescued out of the lion's mouth i think he's referring to daniel here as as the trouble he's going through having to give a defense for himself what alexander's done to him the lord will rescue me from every evil deed okay just pause there and think about that what is what is paul saying the lord will rescue me from every evil deed and he goes on to say and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom so so oftentimes what we want to see is we want to see that really miraculous sort of thing you know we we are faithful to the lord that faithfulness ends up getting us in trouble and we think to ourselves okay we want the lord to rescue us from this and so it's like we'll solve that problem that got me into trouble you know get me out of the lion's den and sometimes what he doesn't do is take us out of that but still delivers us from the evil of all of that because because what does he do he he provides for us he protects us in our faith keeping us faithful to him and one day we have that final full rescue that's coming right and so the question of the whole passage really is are we going to remain faithful to the lord even even in the face of the enemy being somebody we know the enemies behind them right sin satan in the world and yet it could be our children it could be our grandchildren it could be our cousins a brother a sister it could be father mother that's what jesus says right he says you know that that fathers and mothers will be against their children and children against their fathers and mothers and and they'll be delivered over by their children now would you be would you remain faithful to the lord if it were your children turning you over to the authorities that's a hard question that's a difficult thing but that's the reality of the christian life is that not everyone is going to follow after christ and sometimes it may even be our own kids and so our faithfulness to the lord doesn't come by our own power you know how was daniel able to be faithful because he depended upon the lord that's what the prayer tells us he depended upon the lord so my encouragement is as we seek to try to be

[42:24]  uh faithful to the lord don't don't count even small things as something to just poof off daniel closing the blinds would have been tiny but he didn't even do a tiny thing all right let's pray lord thank you for the opportunity of looking at your word and for being challenged by it we we want to remain faithful to you always even in the face of the enemy being people in our own family lord that is hard and that that takes a supernatural work of your spirit in us to help us to be loyal and faithful to you and so we pray that you would work that in us and you would encourage us and help us and we pray this in christ's name amen