At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. 20 When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?”
King Darius was at the lions’ den at the crack of dawn. In the dim light he called out to Daniel, unsure whether Daniel would be able to answer him or not. “Daniel, . . . has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you?” The king knew that Daniel had not been disloyal to him, but that Daniel had spent his whole life, including 60 years in government service, in continuous service to God.
The king’s words strike us once again as typical of a heathen. Although he called Daniel’s God “the living God,” he was very likely using a name he had heard Daniel use for God. He himself, however, had not accepted this one and only true God as his God. By reemphasizing that Daniel had served God continually, Darius expressed the typically heathen view that when a person had fulfilled his obligation to the gods, he stands a good chance of being rewarded by his gods. There is no true faith here.
21 Daniel answered, “O king, live forever! 22 My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king.”
23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
The king was first surprised and then delighted to hear Daniel’s answer from the dark pit below. “O king, live forever!” This was not the dying gasp of a man mauled by wild animals; this was the cheerful greeting of a man who knew the proper way to address his king. Daniel had been accused of disloyalty to the king, but even under these trying conditions, he declared his willingness to be subject to Darius. There was no disloyalty on Daniel’s part and no resentment over the unfair treatment he had received. Daniel’s cheerful reply indicates that he had probably slept better in the lions’ den than Darius had in the palace bedroom!
“My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me.” The only true God, the God who had made himself known to ancient Israel and had even given them his written Word, had sent his angel to rescue his faithful servant and to frustrate the evil plot that the conspirators had hatched.
Why had the Lord delivered Daniel from the teeth of the lions? Half a century earlier, the prophet Jeremiah had stated the reason clearly:
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning
(Lamentations 3:22,23).
Daniel knew this, even though he didn’t say it here in just so many words. What Daniel did say showed that he felt it necessary to clear up another misunderstanding. Daniel’s loyalty to the king had been called into question, a terribly serious charge to bring against the chief officer of the kingdom. Daniel explained to the king: God’s act of sending his angel to deliver me shows that I am innocent—not sinless, but innocent of the charges raised by the enemies.
“My God sent his angel.” The angels are God’s ministering spirits, whom he sends to serve those who will inherit salvation. Daniel knew that.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them (Psalm 34:7).
Surrounded all night by wild beasts, Daniel remembered his Lord’s promise:
"If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the LORD, who is my refuge—
then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways"
(Psalm 91:9-11).
We don’t know whether the angel who shut the lions’ mouths appeared visibly to Daniel in the den, as he did to Daniel’s three friends in the fiery furnace. Even though Daniel may not have seen God’s angel, he knew that God had sent one to rescue him.
“The lions have not hurt me!” The king couldn’t believe his ears. Could this be true? He quickly gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den and had him examined. Not a scratch was found on him, “because he had trusted in his God.” The king was convinced that the stern requirements of MedoPersian law had been fully met. A man had been sentenced to death, but God had very obviously overruled the death sentence. The king’s hands were tied by his decree, but God’s hands were not. Darius was powerless to reverse a royal decree; God was able to nullify it.
24 At the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.
The morning that brought good news to King Darius brought bad news to the families of the conspirators. They had gone to bed the previous evening confident that Daniel, the hated Jewish official, would soon be dead. Now they learned to their dismay that not only was Daniel alive, but they themselves were going to receive the awful fate they had planned for him.
Although it seems foreign to our system of justice, Medo-Persian law extended the punishment even to the wives and children of those who plotted Daniel’s death. The Greek historian Herodotus gives us this description of Persian laws: “Some laws are abominable, through which, because of the crime of one person, all his relatives are put to death.” The king’s decree now cost the lives of many of his top government people—probably not all 120 satraps, but at least the ringleaders in the plot against Daniel. But the king apparently felt that anyone who would sentence an innocent man to death was not to be trusted with government office.
The men who had planned for Daniel’s death were themselves thrown to the lions, along with their families. “Before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.” There is no gloating here on the part of the writer. He is simply reporting the gruesome details, because they provide a striking example of divine justice. These details also illustrate how great the miracle of Daniel’s deliverance was. If God’s angel had not shut the mouth of these lions, Daniel would have suffered the same fate his enemies did.
The psalmist David, who knew from personal experience what it means to be persecuted while innocent, wrote:
He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made.
The trouble he causes recoils on himself;
his violence comes down on his own head (Psalm 7:15,16).
The jealous politicians who had tried to dig a pit for Daniel managed to fall into it themselves. Saint Paul expressed the same truth this way: “A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7).
The Bible contains dozens of accounts that illustrate how God delivers his children from physical danger, as he did Daniel. Perhaps it ought to be emphasized, however, that God does not always reward his children’s trust the way he did Daniel’s. Think of Stephen, the first martyr (Acts 6,7); he did not experience God’s deliverance the way Daniel did. God has different ways of delivering his children. Sometimes our gracious God keeps harm and danger away from his children. Then again, he may permit it to come to us (as he did to his own dear Son on Calvary) and makes it serve our lasting good and our eternal welfare. Whichever way the Lord chooses to protect us, the child of God will pray:
My times are in your hands. . . .
Let me not be put to shame, O LORD. (Psalm 31:15,17).