Daniel 6:14
“Then, as soon as the king heard this statement, he was deeply distressed, and set his mind on rescuing Daniel; and until sunset he kept exerting himself to save him.”
Daniel was a blessing to the king. I imagine Daniel had a good sense of humor. He was humble and didn’t seek his own fame. The king loved him. This verse says it all. He spent the whole day trying to rescue him.
At night he failed and sent him into the lion’s den. In a heart broken way he says to Daniel that his God would rescue him. I don’t think he believed it. He was sending his friend to his death.
The king was tricked by those jealous of Daniel. He was out performing them. They wanted what he had. They were unable to get it by normal means. So, they sought to catch Daniel in a wrong doing. They could find none. They come to this conclusion in Daniel 6:5, ‘Then these men said, “We will not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him regarding the law of his God.”’ They appealed to the king’s ego and proposed that no one would be able to worship any God except the king for a month. The crafted it and he signed it. Daniel couldn’t obey this.
We will run into evil people who seek to put us down. We have to keep our behavior upright and trust in the Lord. Sometimes their actions will succeed and we live through the bad result. I had this last fall. I feel like I’m finally come out of the bad result. God is good.
The king made a mistake that he couldn’t fix. We’ll run into that as well. He worked at a frenzied pace trying to fix his error, but couldn’t. I can relate to this. It’s sad because someone he loved got into trouble. This is a bad feeling. There is nothing we can say. The best we can do is cry out to God and ask that we don’t reap what we have sown. With Daniel He answered that prayer.
God is bigger than any problem. He will rescue Daniel. He allowed the lions to be uninterested in Daniel. The entire night he was amongst them and they acted as if he wasn’t there. We know they were hungry as they ate those who tricked the king. God interrupted the natural course of things. He does this. What a great miracle. Thank You, God for doing this. I feel like You’ve done it for me many times. The bad results didn’t happen or not nearly as bad as they could have. David says in Psalm 51:1, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.” He asks God to erase what he’s done. Thank You, God for doing this. You are so merciful.
Lord, this is such a difficult story to read as I’ve made mistakes that have hurt others. Thank You for rescuing me. Some of the bad results didn’t come back to me. You blotted out my transgression. Thank You!