The Unmuzzled Kingdom: Daniel in the Den Text: Daniel 6:16-28
Introduction: Two Decrees, Two Kingdoms
We come now to one of the most famous stories in all of Scripture. It is a story that has been relegated to the flannelgraph boards of Sunday School, which is a great shame, because this is not a tame story for children. This is a story about the raw collision of two kingdoms, the kingdom of man and the kingdom of God. It is a story about political intrigue, the impotence of earthly power, the steadfastness of true faith, and the absolute, untroubled sovereignty of God over every detail of His world.
The stage has been set. Daniel's enemies, jealous of his integrity and his favor with the king, have weaponized the law. They have engineered a situation where Daniel's piety has become a capital crime. They have manipulated King Darius into signing an irrevocable decree, a law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be altered. This is the pinnacle of human arrogance. Man thinks he can create a law so absolute that not even the king can change it. They have built a legal cage, and they believe they have trapped both Daniel and his God inside it.
But what happens when the unalterable law of man comes into direct conflict with the unshakeable law of God? What happens when the decrees of a pagan king run headlong into the decree of the King of Heaven? This is not just a historical account of an old prophet and some hungry lions. This is a paradigm for the people of God in every age. We are constantly confronted with the decrees of our own Babylons and Persias. We are told that our faith is fine in private, but it must not spill out into the public square. We are told that the laws of the state are absolute, and our allegiance to God must bend the knee. This story is God's answer to all such nonsense. It teaches us that when the state sets itself up as God, it is the duty of the Christian to calmly, openly, and cheerfully disobey. And it teaches us that our God is in the business of spectacular deliverance, not for our comfort, but for His glory and the advancement of His unshakeable kingdom.
This passage is a tale of two decrees. The first is the foolish, arrogant decree of Darius, which leads to death. The second is the glorious, worshipful decree of Darius, which testifies to life. And in between these two decrees, we see the power of the living God to turn the tables, to vindicate His servant, and to make the wrath of man praise Him.
The Text
Then the king said the word, and Daniel was brought in and cast into the lions’ den. The king answered and said to Daniel, “Your God whom you constantly serve will Himself save you.” And a stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel. Then the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought before him; and his sleep fled from him.
Then the king arose at dawn, at the break of day, and hurriedly went to the lions’ den. When he had come near the den to Daniel, he cried out with a troubled voice. The king answered and said to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to save you from the lions?” Then Daniel spoke to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, inasmuch as I was found innocent before Him; and also toward you, O king, I have done no harm.” Then the king was greatly pleased and said for Daniel to be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no harm whatsoever was found on him because he had believed in his God. The king then said the word, and they brought those men who had brought charges against Daniel, and they cast them, their children, and their wives into the lions’ den; and they had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.
Then Darius the king wrote to all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue who were inhabiting all the land: “May your peace abound! I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to fear and be in dread before the God of Daniel; For He is the living God and enduring forever, And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, And His dominion will be unto the end. He saves and delivers and does signs and wonders In heaven and on earth, Who has also saved Daniel from the power of the lions.” So this Daniel enjoyed success in the kingdom of Darius and in the kingdom of Cyrus the Persian.
(Daniel 6:16-28 LSB)
The King's Reluctance and Daniel's Sentence (vv. 16-18)
We begin with the execution of the foolish law.
"Then the king said the word, and Daniel was brought in and cast into the lions’ den. The king answered and said to Daniel, “Your God whom you constantly serve will Himself save you.”" (Daniel 6:16)
Darius is trapped by his own pride. He has been outmaneuvered by his underlings, and now he must enforce a law he despises against a man he deeply respects. This is the nature of godless law. It is a machine that, once started, grinds on without reference to justice or mercy. The king, the most powerful man in the empire, is impotent. He is a slave to his own decree. This is a profound commentary on the nature of sin. Sin promises freedom and power, but it always delivers bondage.
But notice the king's strange confession of faith. He says to Daniel, "Your God whom you constantly serve will Himself save you." This is not the robust faith of a true believer, but rather a desperate, wishful hope. Darius has seen Daniel's character. He has seen the fruit of Daniel's faith, his consistency, his excellence, his utter lack of corruption. And he reasons that the God who produces such a man must be a powerful God indeed. This is a kind of foxhole faith. He hopes there is a power greater than the law he has foolishly enacted. The testimony of a godly life is a powerful thing. It preaches a sermon to the watching world, even to pagan kings, long before any words are spoken.
The sentence is then carried out with all the legal finality the state can muster.
"And a stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel." (Daniel 6:17)
The scene here is thick with foreshadowing. A man, condemned by the state despite his innocence, is cast into a pit, a place of death. A great stone is rolled over the entrance. And the state seals the stone, using all its authority to make the situation permanent and unchangeable. Does this sound familiar? This is a clear and stunning type of the death and burial of the Lord Jesus Christ. The tomb of Christ was sealed by the signet of Rome, the greatest empire of its day. The state did everything in its power to ensure that death would have the final say. But the seals of men are nothing to the God who raises the dead. The state's effort to make Daniel's fate irreversible only serves to make God's deliverance all the more spectacular. They are unwittingly setting the stage for a display of divine power that will make their own authority look like a child's game.
Darius then returns to his palace, a man tormented by his conscience.
"Then the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought before him; and his sleep fled from him." (Daniel 6:18)
The king's grief is genuine. He fasts, he refuses entertainment, he cannot sleep. His conscience is eating him alive. This stands in stark contrast to Daniel, who we can be sure is sleeping quite soundly, likely using a lion for a pillow. The world thinks that the righteous man in the place of suffering is the one to be pitied. But the Scriptures teach us that it is the powerful man in his palace, tormented by his sin, who is truly in prison. It is better to be in a den of lions with a clear conscience than on a throne with a guilty one.
The Morning After (vv. 19-23)
The king's sleepless night gives way to a frantic morning.
"Then the king arose at dawn, at the break of day, and hurriedly went to the lions’ den. When he had come near the den to Daniel, he cried out with a troubled voice. The king answered and said to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to save you from the lions?”" (Daniel 6:19-20)
Darius rushes to the den at the first crack of light. His question is filled with anxiety and a sliver of hope. "Has your God... been able to save you?" The world is always asking this question of the church. When we are persecuted, when we are mocked, when we are thrown into the various lions' dens of our age, the world watches and asks, "Is your God real? Is He able to deliver?" Our steadfastness in the trial is God's answer.
And then, a voice from the tomb. A voice from the pit. A voice that should be silenced by death.
"Then Daniel spoke to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, inasmuch as I was found innocent before Him; and also toward you, O king, I have done no harm.”" (Daniel 6:21-22)
Daniel's first words are remarkable. He doesn't say, "Get me out of here!" He doesn't rebuke the king. He begins with the customary, respectful greeting, "O king, live forever!" Daniel's conduct is impeccable from start to finish. He is a model of respectful civil disobedience. He disobeyed the king's unlawful command to cease praying, but he never disrespected the king's lawful office. He then gives a crisp, theological account of what happened. God sent His angel. This was a supernatural intervention. The lions were not suddenly full; their mouths were shut. God did not violate the nature of lions; He governed it.
And Daniel gives the reason for his deliverance: he was found innocent before God. This is crucial. Daniel's deliverance was a vindication. It was God's verdict, overturning the verdict of the Persian court. Daniel also adds that he has done no harm to the king. He makes it clear that his disobedience to the edict was not an act of political rebellion, but an act of ultimate loyalty to the King of kings. This is the posture we must learn. We obey God rather than men, not out of a spirit of anarchy, but out of a spirit of higher allegiance.
The king's reaction is one of pure joy, and he immediately reverses the sentence.
"Then the king was greatly pleased and said for Daniel to be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no harm whatsoever was found on him because he had believed in his God." (Daniel 6:23)
The stone is rolled away, and Daniel emerges from the den without a scratch. The text gives us the ultimate reason for his preservation: "because he had believed in his God." Faith was the instrument. Daniel trusted God, and God honored that trust. This is the principle of the Christian life. We are not saved by our works, but we are saved by a faith that works. Daniel's open prayer was the work, and the faith was the root. He believed God was sovereign over Persia, sovereign over kings, and sovereign over lions. And he acted accordingly.
The Great Reversal and the King's Decree (vv. 24-28)
What follows is a swift and terrible judgment, a perfect reversal of fortunes.
"The king then said the word, and they brought those men who had brought charges against Daniel, and they cast them, their children, and their wives into the lions’ den; and they had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones." (Daniel 6:24)
The trap that the wicked set for the righteous becomes their own doom. This is a consistent biblical pattern. Haman is hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai. The Egyptians who sought to drown the Israelite boys are themselves drowned in the Red Sea. The wicked fall into the pit they dug for others (Psalm 7:15). The inclusion of their families is harsh to our modern sensibilities, but it was standard practice in the ancient world and demonstrates the principle of federal headship in a terrifying way. The sin of the fathers brought judgment upon their entire households. And notice the ferocity of the lions. They were not tame. They were not sick. They were ravenous. This proves that Daniel's deliverance was not a fluke of nature, but a miracle of God. God did not change the lions' nature; He restrained it for Daniel and unleashed it on His enemies.
The story culminates in the second decree, a decree that undoes and utterly eclipses the first.
"Then Darius the king wrote to all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue who were inhabiting all the land: “May your peace abound! I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to fear and be in dread before the God of Daniel...”" (Daniel 6:25-26)
The first decree forbade prayer to any god but the king. This second decree commands all men everywhere to fear the God of Daniel. This is a stunning reversal. Daniel's faithfulness has resulted in a global evangelistic proclamation, issued by the most powerful man on earth. God's purpose was not simply to save Daniel, but to make His own name known throughout the world. Our personal trials are never just about us. God is always working on a much larger canvas.
The king's decree becomes a magnificent doxology, a pagan's confession of the true God's attributes.
"For He is the living God and enduring forever, And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, And His dominion will be unto the end. He saves and delivers and does signs and wonders In heaven and on earth, Who has also saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”" (Daniel 6:27)
Darius has learned his theology in the school of hard knocks. He confesses that God is living, eternal, and sovereign. He confesses that God's kingdom is indestructible and His dominion is ultimate. He confesses that God is a God who saves and delivers. This is the fruit of Daniel's uncompromising faith. One man's courage led to an empire-wide theology lesson.
The chapter concludes with a simple summary of Daniel's subsequent life. He didn't just survive; he thrived. "So this Daniel enjoyed success in the kingdom of Darius and in the kingdom of Cyrus the Persian" (v. 28). Godliness is not an obstacle to true success; it is the foundation of it.
The Greater Daniel
As we noted, this story is a magnificent type of our Lord Jesus Christ. The parallels are too precise to be accidental. Like Daniel, Jesus was a man of perfect integrity, against whom His enemies could find no fault, except in relation to His God (John 18:38). Like Daniel, Jesus was delivered over to the authorities by the jealousy of his rivals. A weak and vacillating ruler, Pilate, like Darius, knew He was innocent but condemned Him anyway to placate the mob.
Jesus, the greater Daniel, was cast into the pit of death. A great stone was rolled to seal His tomb, and the authority of the Roman empire was affixed to it. The state did everything it could to ensure that the grave would be His final resting place. But on the third day, at the break of dawn, the stone was rolled away. God sent His angel, not to shut the mouths of lions, but to shatter the jaws of death itself. And our Lord Jesus Christ walked out of that tomb, alive and unharmed.
His resurrection was His ultimate vindication. It was the Father's declaration that this man was indeed innocent, that He was indeed His beloved Son. And just as Daniel's enemies were destroyed, so Christ's resurrection sealed the doom of His great enemies: sin, death, and the devil. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (Colossians 2:15).
And what was the result? A new decree went out, not from a Persian king, but from the King of Heaven. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew 28:18-19). The deliverance of the greater Daniel resulted in a global proclamation, a gospel that is still going out to all peoples, nations, and tongues, declaring that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Daniel's story is our story. We live in a world of hostile decrees and hungry lions. But we serve the living God. We belong to a kingdom that cannot be destroyed. And we follow the greater Daniel, who has already been into the den and come out victorious. Therefore, we do not need to be anxious. We simply need to be faithful, to believe in our God, and to watch as He turns the world upside down for the glory of His name.