"Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, 'I have prevailed over him,'
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me." Verses 3-6
Daniel 6:6-10
In these devotions, we aren't going to make a stop in the lion's den. But we are, today, looking at what got Daniel thrown in there.
The political leaders below King Darius hated Daniel, baically. They were, I think, jealous of him. So they cooked up this scheme to get him in trouble. Talk about your conspiracy theories! They went to the king and played on his ego. "King Darius, live forever! We've convened your vice-regents, governors, and all your leading officials, and have agreed that the king should issue the following decree:
For the next thirty days no one is to pray to any god or mortal except you, O king. Anyone who disobeys will be thrown into the lions' den.
Daniel heard the decree. Daniel's reaction to the decree was that he didn't change a thing. He continued to pray, facing towards Jerusalem, three times a day.
That's where our passage ends for today. This story makes me feel excitement and thrills. I rejoice to think that there was a man bold enough to go against a decree that would have forced him to stop praying to God.
I wonder what I would have said to Daniel if I had been his friend at this time. I hope I would have encouraged him to go ahead and pray. I hope that I would be right next to him in that window.
I know that if my government today issued a law that made praying illegal, I would continue to pray, regardless of the consequences. I wouldn't go out and pray out loud on the street corner, though, because I don't do that now. I think what Daniel did was very significant. The Bible says that he "continued to pray just as he had always done." You see, he didn't just start praying in that window because of the decree, so everyone could see him disobeying the decree. He had always prayed that way. In the same way, if a similar decree were issued today, I would continue reading my Bible and praying every day, just like I do now. I would probably keep posting here, until D-land refused to publish it.
Come what may, I will always worship God. There is nothing anyone can do to make me stop. You might object, saying that they can kill me. Yes they can, but that will only hasten my acts of eternal worship before the throne of my God. It wouldn't stop the worship at all. It would, in fact, make it better! So bring it on! Heh.
Grace and peace, friends!