In the Lions Den

As a young boy, I went to the barn and crawled over a wall into the bull pen’s feeding trough. Next I crawled onto the floor with the bull standing in front of me. Taking a stick I would poke the big bull that snorted and made me feel like I was the ringmaster in a circus. The crowd was made up of my brother and sisters who were standing in the walkway outside the pen.  In a moment’s time the bull suddenly picked me up with his head and slammed me against the wooden wall of the pen. If it had not been for my brother Wilbur’s quick reaction to scare the bull away, it may have been my death. The bull dropped me and I felt like God had sent Wilbur to pull me off the floor and into the safety of that manger.  For about an hour I was unable to stand on my legs to walk.  God spoke to me in a powerful way through that experience and probably also to my siblings who were watching. This experience came back to me as I was reading through the book of Daniel.

Daniel had a similar experience in the Bible when he was probably in his early eighties.  King Darius had chosen Daniel to be one of three administrators who kept an eye on 120 bureaucrats so they would not try to cheat the king out of tax money they were to collect from the people. Now Daniel was an exceptional administrator. Even though he was eighty, he was very healthy and wise. The king intended to make Daniel the Prime Minister and it angered those other leaders. They envied him, so they tried hard to find out where Daniel had done something wrong, but were unable to find anything. They initiated a ridiculous law that said everyone had to pray to the King or be thrown into a den of hungry lions. To obey that law would have meant that Daniel would violate his conscience in praying to the living God. In spite of the law, Daniel went to pray in his customary place facing Jerusalem. His fellow workers saw this and reported it to the king. The king had no choice but to follow through with the law he had signed with his own signet ring. So Daniel was thrown into the hungry lion’s den.  King Darius regretted having made the law and could not sleep all night long. Early the next morning he came to see if Daniel was still alive.

The King called out in an anxious voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?"

Daniel said, "O king, live forever! 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."

(Daniel 6:20-21)

The king had Daniel pulled out of the den, and then the King ordered the men that instigated this law to be thrown into the den along with their entire families.  Before they even hit the floor, the lions devoured them.  God had truly shut the lions mouths for an innocent man, and brought vengeance on the evil minded men who opposed him.
Unlike Daniel, I was not entirely innocent entering the bull pen, but God sent an angel to deliver me with my brother’s quick reaction. However, let’s not crawl into the den intentionally! If you happen to find yourself being taken advantage of by some people in your life, remember Daniel and cry out to our God.  He is still able to send an angel to shut up the mouths of the lions when we get thrown into the den or even as in my case, when having crawled in on our own volition!
Selah…
Al Yoder
1/26/2011