Sermon Notes — June 28, 2026
“Daniel in the Lions’ Den”
Based on Daniel 6
June 28, 2026
Rev. Dr. Mary Beth Bernheisel
Get excited because I have…More maps!
The story of Daniel, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is a story of exile. In the ancient world, systematic deportation was one way that an empire made money. In one sense they did that by plundering the lands that they conquered and taking their treasures. In another sense, they took human resources in the form of enslaved labor and in the form of smart folks who could serve as advisors.
Here’s a map of the Babylonian empire at the time of Daniel and his friends.
The Babylonian empire stretched all the way from the Mediterranean Sea in the West to the Zagros Mountains and the Persian Gulf in the east. The Zagros Mountains currently form the border between Turkey and Iraq. Here is the city of Babylon. It can be a bit confusing since the empire is named after Babylon and Babylon is also a city.
You can see that the Babylonian Empire included the region of Judah, where Daniel and his friends lived. So, when the Babylonians took control of the region of Judah, Judah became part of the Babylonian Empire. And to make sure that Judah would stay part of the Babylonian Empire and not cause trouble, the Babylonians deported the smartest, wealthiest, and most able-bodied people to the city of Babylon. The people they left behind could do little more than simply try to exist.
That’s part of how the city of Babylon became such a splendid city. King Nebuchadnezzar brought skilled labor from all over the empire into the city to fortify it, to build up its palaces, and to make it, essentially, a work of art.
But for Nebuchadnezzar to get the most out of the people he imported from all over the empire, he had to assimilate them. Not necessarily the forced labor, but people like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were the upper crust of Judah needed to be convinced that they wanted to share their wisdom and talents with the King.
In chapter one, you’ll remember, King Nebuchadnezzar told his guy Ashpenaz to pick the cream of the crop and educate them for three years so that they would be assimilated and prepared to serve King Nebuchadnezzar in the capital city of Babylon. The king’s first attempt at assimilation was around food. Daniel and his pals were to be fed from the king’s table. Whatever rich, tasty, expertly prepared food the king ate, Daniel would eat. And Daniel said No thanks. I’ll have vegetables and water. It was Daniel’s way of remaining tied to God even though he no longer lived in the holy land and no longer worshiped in the Jerusalem temple. He did the thing that he could do to stay loyal to God while living in a foreign land.
Today’s story is about another way that Daniel chose to remain connected to God.
Will you pray with me and for me?
By the time we get to today’s story, King Nebuchadnezzar is no longer in charge of Babylon. In today’s text it’s King Darius that’s in charge. You may remember from last week that because Daniel was able to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams, King Nebuchadnezzar thought Daniel was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Well, Darius is an even bigger Daniel fan.
When the story begins, Darius has restructured his kingdom. Now he has chosen 120 governors for the kingdom and three vice-kings. Daniel is one of those three vice-kings. And Daniel is so good at being a vice-king that Darius wants to promote him even higher. Essentially Darius wants to make him the Chief of Staff.
As you might imagine, this does not sit well with the other two vice-kings and the 120 governors who report to the vice-kings. Daniel is a foreigner. But they know that they will never find anything actually wrong with Daniel, or his behavior or his character. The only thing they can do to sabotage Daniel is encourage Darius to enact a law that they know Daniel won’t follow. Here’s what they come up with:
We’ve talked it over, King Darius, and we agree that you 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 lion’s den.” Issue this decree, O King, and make it unconditional, as if written in stone like all the laws of the Medes and the Persians.
See, the conspirators know that Daniel prays to his God three times a day, and they know that no matter what law Darius enacts, Daniel will still pray to his God three times a day. And that’s exactly what he does. Daniel continues to go upstairs three times each day, get down on his knees in front of the westward facing window, picture the holy city of Jerusalem and the holy temple in his mind, and pray. It’s what he’s done since he got to Babylon. It’s what he’ll continue to do, no matter what the law says.
Because this is how Daniel remains connected to God, even when he’s 900 miles from home.
As we expect, the tattletales run to King Darius to snitch on Daniel.
And Darius is heartbroken. Daniel is his favorite. And so Darius does everything he can think of to defend Daniel’s behavior, or at least save him from the consequences of it. But there’s nothing to be done, and so Daniel is brought before the king. Right before Daniel is tossed into the den of hungry lions King Darius boldly says:
Your God, to whom you are so loyal, is going to get you out of this.
Daniel is dropped into the pit of hungry lions and a stone is rolled in front of the exit. King Darius seals it with his ring and the rings of all the kingdom officials, and he leaves to spend a miserable night. He is hungry but refuses to eat. He is exhausted but he can't sleep. As soon as the sun peeks over the horizon he runs to the lion’s den and as soon as he thinks he might be in earshot he begins calling out:
Daniel, has your God whom you serve so loyally saved you from the lions?
To King Darius’ unimaginable relief, Daniel shouts out to Darius that he is alive. He shouts out that God’s own angel came and shut the mouths of the lions.
The story ends with King Darius offering his own praise to Daniel’s god, declaring that Daniel’s god should be worshiped and feared in all parts of the kingdom.
Daniel is a story of faith and miracles and doing the right thing even when it can cost you your life. But the deeper story is a story of hope. Hope in the middle of exile. Hope in the middle of disruption.
We stylize these stories to make them appropriate for children. And that’s the right thing to do, because in truth these stories are terrifying. Yes, God put a rainbow in the sky and all the animals were saved on the ark, but what about everyone who wasn’t on the ark? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood in front of the fiery furnace not knowing whether they were going to live or die. I do have to say, though, that when we went to see the movie David in the theaters, the animators did a great job of making Goliath absolutely terrifying. My heart skipped several beats.
The same is true of exile. Yes, Daniel was faithful. Yes, he obeyed God. But we rarely ponder how terrifying exile is. Being away from your home and wanting nothing more than to go back. And for our Jewish brothers and sisters in the time of Daniel, it is impossible to overstate the importance of the temple in Jerusalem. While they believed in an infinite and uncontainable God, the Jerusalem Temple was God’s throne room, God’s footstool. It was the absolute center of their life. That was especially true for Daniel and his pals because they lived in Jerusalem. Everyone had to make the trip to the Jerusalem temple for particular festivals, but for Daniel and his buddies, the Jerusalem temple was the literal center of their lives. So they are cut off now from everything that matters, and they don’t know if they will ever be restored.
So when the scripture tells us that Three times a day Daniel knelt to pray in front of the windows that opened toward Jerusalem, thanking and praising his God, we are reading a story of hope. For Daniel and the exiles, Jerusalem not only symbolized God’s salvation of the world – Jerusalem was the place where that salvation would happen.
The prophet Isaiah says in the second chapter,
In the days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
will be the highest of the mountains.
It will be lifted above the hills;
peoples will stream to it.
Many nations will go and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,
to the house of Jacob’s God
so that he may teach us his ways
and we may walk in God’s paths.”
Instruction will come from Zion;
the Lord’s word from Jerusalem.
(Isaiah 2:2-3)
The prophet Jeremiah spoke of the day that
…they will call Jerusalem the Lord’s throne, and all nations will gather there to honor the Lord’s name. (Jeremiah 3:17)
But the Babylonians destroyed the temple on their way out. How could these promises come to pass if there was no temple where the people could gather, if there was no temple where the world could learn the ways of God?
And yet three times a day, Daniel goes upstairs, kneels in front of his open window, and prays.
I was listening the other day to Phil Williams interview Jemar Tisby, who is an historian, author, and speaker, and Jemar Tisby said this to Phil:
Most of us categorize hope as a feeling. I think it’s more accurate to say that hope is an action.
For Daniel, hope was going upstairs, kneeling in front of his open window, and praying. No matter how long Daniel lived in Babylon he would never place his hope in King Darius or in Darius’ kingdom. He would never place his hope in his position in the kingdom or in Darius’ favor.
He places his hope in the very heart of God, and this hope is the only thing that matters — more than titles, more than success. It even matters more than the threat of being eaten by lions. And so, Daniel continues to pray, three times a day, in front of the windows that face Jerusalem, because there is no source of hope for his life other than his hope in God.
Here’s why hope matters.
Someone needs to know – maybe it’s you or maybe it’s someone else you know – someone needs to know that no matter what the circumstances are, God is still working in the world to save the world. Nothing is yet as it should be – people are still hungry, people still grieve, people in the world still feel unsafe and wonder if they belong. People are still lonely and left out. People still wonder if they bring any value to the world. Nothing is yet as it should be, but God is still working. And will continue working until everything is as it should be. That is our hope.
And so we get up every morning and we keep living out that hope in our bodies. We take casseroles to overwhelmed neighbors, we offer a word of encouragement to a stranger in the grocery store, we do the little things that embody the world as we believe God wants it to be. Because we believe, despite any and all evidence to the contrary, that God is making it what it should be.
Scholars are fairly certain that Daniel never made it back to Jerusalem. He never saw the city restored or the temple rebuilt. But he trusted that one day it would be.
We don’t get to see Daniel before he is thrown in the den of lions. He doesn’t make an impressive statement of faith before he meets his fate like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did. But he does make a statement of faith. He professes his faith with his life, by his actions, by remaining faithful to God even in a foreign land, in the middle of his heartbreak.
Hear this good news that Daniel lives so faithfully. When it feels like God is far away, when we can’t see God or feel God. When we’re waiting for the world as it should be, God is still with us. God is still working. God is shaping us, making us ready for whatever comes next. God is shaping the world to be what it should be. Until that day, we will put our hope – our trust – in God who never leaves us. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.