Daniel 6 • Listen for the Broom
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Turn with me now, if you will, in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 6. In Daniel 6, we end the long narratives of the life of Daniel. The following chapters will begin the prophecies. But even as you look at Daniel 6, it may surprise you with this famous chapter of Daniel and the lion's den to recognize that now Daniel is an old man. Still the Lord will work through him in mighty ways, but to put yourself in the perspective of Daniel, you might think, "Oh, Lord, why now?" Surely I can relax now. Surely we can let other things and other people take over. But the Lord still has important work for Daniel, important words for us.
Daniel is under another king, Darius now. Still he is serving well. He's been made a governor again, it appears, over the land of Babylon. But despite his expertise and his integrity, it seems he is getting little respect from his peers. Instead, he gets from them jealousy and hatred and bitterness. And so a plot has hatched against him. The advisors say to the king, "King, why don't you issue a decree saying that no one is to pray to anyone but you?" And for the pagan king, that sounds like a good idea, not thinking of the implications for a friend like Daniel. And so he issues the decree, a decree that cannot be changed.
We'll pick up the account from there, verse 10 of Daniel chapter 6. "Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree. Did you not publish a decree that during the next 30 days anyone who prays to any God or man except to you, O king, would be thrown into the lion's den?" The king answered, "The decree stands in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians which cannot be annulled." And they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day."
When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed. He was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him. Then the men went as a group to the king and said to him, "Remember, O king, that according to the law of the Medes and the Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed." So the king gave the order.
And they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God whom you serve continually rescue you." A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lion's den. 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?" Daniel answered, "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." 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 in him because he had trusted in his God. At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lion's 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.
Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language throughout the land,
"May you prosper greatly. I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom, people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed. His dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves. He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions. So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian. Will you pray with me now as we begin to study God's most holy word? Heavenly Father, from your very heart we would ask that these words would come to our hearts. You tell us that these words are our God-breathed, your very words spoken to us. Now we pray. Let your sheep hear your voice and take us to the shepherd we pray. In Jesus name, Amen. Four more days and she would be 17. It would be her father's birthday too, but there was not going to be any party this year. It was the death of the depression and her father was dying. Instead of gathering presents together for her, the family gathered together, mother and seven children around a rickety old bed and prayed against the background of his breathing, labored, slow and then gone. On the day of the funeral it rained.
The mother's friends came. The father's friends couldn't afford it or didn't bother.
The girl who was working as a maid had to even borrow a dress because she had none good enough for such an occasion. When the funeral was over and she went home, she carefully folded the dress, lay it on her bed and then lay down beside it. It was all over. Everything was over. Seven kids, no income, even the house so heavily mortgaged it would not be theirs for long.
And the sense of desolation was overwhelming and just crushing. Even the silence of the room seemed to press down on her and choke her and push hope out of her. And then she heard it. Breaking the silence, it was tentative at first. Whisk, whisk. Her mother had picked up a broom in the kitchen. A widow now she had not spoken for the last three days. And this was the first sound she was making. It was more determined now. Whisk, whisk. The girl would later write in her diary. How powerful was the gentle noise of her mother taking up that household duty and giving her new hope and faith. Somehow that whisk, whisk seemed to be saying, it's not all over. The world's not shattered. It's not all lost. Life is going to go on. Her mother was pressing on. The assumption of the duty somehow was itself the expression of a faith that things were going to work out. That somehow things were still worth doing. And it was the faith that things would work out that brought out the duty. Faith and duty seemed to join hands in the gentle rhythm of that broom and it sang of hope and triumph. Whisk, whisk. Faith and duty. Faith and duty. And for the time it was enough. All about things were still very wrong. But somehow now no longer purposeless, no longer empty. All the what shall we do's were being answered in the sound of a broom. A broom that said, faith and duty. Faith and duty. I suppose at the end of every conference like this there's the temptation to end with a boom. But today as you listen to this account from Elizabeth Elliott, I prefer to end with the sound of a broom. Because the words that seem to characterize the actions of Daniel in this chapter that lead to his triumph and are meant to lead to ours to me seem to be the words faith and duty. Against the adversity that threatens to crush us and crush us. The adversity that threatens to crush us and causes us to cry out to God for new answers and new visions and new courses of actions. And God tell us what to do. Tell us what you expect of us in the light of all these things that press us down. Comes this gentle but powerful echo from the past sweeping away the complexity of our situations and the complexity of our questions. God says simply through Daniel faith and duty. This is what I ask. That you would know triumph through adversity
by faith and duty. Faith and duty. The duty that God ask of us is evident in verse 10 is it not.
When the decree comes, when the doing of God's will could seem only to bring disaster to Daniel, Daniel did as he had always done. He did his duty to God. The scriptures tell us three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed giving thanks to his God just as he had always done.
Perhaps such pursuit of duty on the part of Daniel again will strike you as somewhat insignificant or irrelevant to our situations. After all he's still a prophet. In Old Testament wonder a super saint at this point in his life. He's supposed to do these kinds of things. But by making Daniel superhuman and unreal and his duty unrealistic, we rob ourselves of the help he can truly be to us. He is teaching us God's triumph comes through duty even in the face of great personal triumph or great personal tragedy and failure.
Maybe you don't see tragedy and failure here in Daniel the sixth chapter. I think we more often hear Daniel referred to for his great victory of faith in Daniel chapter six. But that's something of a selective perspective on his life. Oh yes there is a miracle here and there are other miracles performed in the lifetime of Daniel. But to be more honest with the facts that cover the spectrum of his life we would not refer to Daniel the great. But to Daniel the great failure. No victory was lasting. No miracle changed much for long. No triumph changed anything so far as Daniel could see in his own lifetime at least any change that lasted. Daniel is now 91 years old. He's been ministering in this pagan land all his life and what's different? Nothing. Babylon's not changed. Kings and kingdoms have come and gone and still the nation is idolatrous. The ruler is wicked and cruel. For his lifetime of godly service of wise administration of integrity and faithful service what's Daniel's reward? Jealousy. Hatred of his peers. A plot and a death sentence in the lion's den. Still you know it might seem all worth it if there was some evidence of spiritual fruit from his many years of ministry. But there's not even that. Not only is Babylon unchanged, Israel seems unchanged. The nation is still in captivity. That's not different. But their spiritual understanding seems also to have changed little. So much has their understanding of the things of god eroded that when Daniel will die and the people of god will return to Israel
they won't even be able to remember the words of god. Daniel has served long and hard and faithfully
for what? And god expects more duty from him now? Why? The reason of course is hidden in the last phrase of the last verse of this chapter. Because of his extraordinary commitment to duty, Daniel prospered under Darius this king but also under Cyrus the Persian. What do you remember about Cyrus the Persian? Cyrus would be the ruler of Babylon who would allow the children of Israel to begin to return to Judas. Daniel's influence touches even until the time of Cyrus and Cyrus will return Israel to the land from which the savior of the world will arise. God will use Daniel's faithfulness to prepare for the bringing of salvation to the world. So Daniel cannot see it now. Well perhaps all Daniel can see is fair. God teaches him and us through him. That triumph is not in what we can see but in duty. God will use our duty to do his good purpose even beyond our seeing it and knowing it and understanding. God does not ask that we understand or see or know
but that we do our duty to him and he will take care of the rest. God says do what is right and leave the rest to me. Do what is right and let me take care of the rest. In a church I served for a number of years there is a man named Clifford. He is one of those special men that pastors come to identify as cornerstones of their churches. Pastors may come and go. Churches may go through triumphs and tragedy disputes and wrangles but the cornerstones don't move and the church stands because of that. Clifford is one of those cornerstones.
He is simply there week in and week out year after year after year. He is there and he is there and he's always been there at sea. When pastors have made mistakes, when they have become too old
or come too young, when sheep have wandered, when he has been personally attacked by others who were immature or jealous for the respect given him, he has simply been faithful. He is there. He simply does his duty day in and day out year in and year out. He is simply there honoring the Lord. But despite his great contributions to the larger body of that church, I recognize that in some ways Clifford's own life has been characterized by little more than tragedy. He married late in life not because he was unattractive or unintelligent or without ability. He excels in all of those areas.
He put aside his own interest though in his own career as a young man to take care of the family farm for his ailing parents.
He spent his early years taking care of their waning years. In later life though, it seemed as though some of that sacrifice might pay off. The farm deeded to him was in a part of the county where there were rich deposits of coal and a coal mining company offered a premium price to buy the whole thing, farm and all its buildings. Now having sacrificed all his life, it seemed that Clifford was finally going to have something and so he sacrificed again. Children that he had had late in life, he bought homes for. Still he had money left over and investing it wisely, he built homes. Built homes that he would sell, used the money for additional investments. They were quality homes characteristic of the man. But no one knew that the high sulfur content of southern Illinois coal would soon make it virtually unmarketable. And many miners would be put out of work and no one knew would be moving into the area. No one anticipated that in addition to the mining crisis, a farming crisis would hit our nation with family after family going bankrupt and moving away from the small rural communities that this church was located in. No one knew that Clifford's homes would never sell. And at the age of 74 or so, he would go broke losing not only his homes but his children's homes. No one knew. And Clifford never said. But week after week as a pastor you see what's in the eyes of people. And I began to read Clifford's eyes. Though he was still a cornerstone and though he was there week after week you see in the eyes these days some sadness and frustration
in the eyes that say I'm a failure. I'm just a failure. Everything I have put my hand to is gone, has accomplished nothing. Even for my own family what I've tried to do has been undone. I'm just a failure. And it hurts me even to tell you that and to tell you of the hurt in his eyes. But there it is. But I see more in the eyes of Clifford, at least in the life of Clifford, that I wish he could see. There are times when I believe we stayed a church because of him. When there were transitions and crises that were difficult for us and we needed more than any pastor could do, he did it. He stood firm. He was there. He just did his duty. Even in the face of his own great personal tragedy. He did his duty. And I believe that in many senses we stayed a church because of him. And now from that church there are three young men studying for the ministry at Covenant Seminary. One young minister teaches there in part because of supposed successes he experienced at that church. But this young minister realizes the successes were not his own. The successes were those of people who did their duty. God asked us even in the midst of great personal tragedy to do our duty. And he can then bring salvation to many. That's what he's doing through the lives of these young men, the products of a church that stood on a cornerstone like Clifford. And the Lord can still do that work bringing triumph not merely through the successes the world sees it, but through duty that our God sees. Clifford knows that. He would want you to know as I would want you to know, God uses duty. He does not ask for your great success. He does not ask in a sense that you would have all the answers, that you would solve all your problems.
God asks that you do your duty and let him take care of the rest.
But Daniel's duty was not just performed in the face of great personal tragedy. There were other challenges which we can perhaps more readily identify and identify with. Daniel did his duty in the face of great sin, institutional, national, cultural sin around him. And Daniel still did his duty. Look at how large are the problems that Daniel faces. He is alone against all the other king's advisors we learn in verse seven. The law, the unchangeable law of the land is against him. Even the king has no power against this law. Injustice is rampant. Israel is in slavery. And Daniel is still an Israelite. What can one man do against all this? What difference will one standing against an entire nation, culture, and institution of sin make? Who will even notice if he does what's right? So why do it? Why? You know the temptation of that question. It's the temptation that says because it will make no difference what I see or read or do. It does not matter what I will see or read or do. It's the game children play with parents when there's a movie at the local movie house and it's got questionable or even wrong content in it and yet all their friends are rushing to see it and so our children approach us and they say, "Mom, let me go. Dad, let me see it."
And we as parents say, "No, we don't support things like that." And our children say,
"Come on, Mom, Dad, they're not going to close the movie house because we don't go." Do you hear it? It won't make any difference. Therefore, there is no obligation.
It's the game children play with parents and adults play with God, which says this entertainment, this product, this practice will go on whether or not I participate. What I do will affect nothing, so there's no duty required. Daniel teaches us in the face even of institutional sin larger than us over which we have no power and which threatens even to overpower us that God still requires duty. I suppose there are a number of areas that we as Christians could spotlight in our society where institutional sin seems so great it hardly seems possible or even meaningful to stand against it. The violence of our society that seems so ingrained even from our children's earliest years in the programming that is on TV and in the way in which we play games as a society,
the way in which we program our children to violence. Materialism. Sometimes it's so discouraging to see the priorities of church and family abandoned in this day to chase a fluence. Lots of things I suppose we could pick. But today because some of you have expressed an interest just in the comments of last night, I want to speak about the institutional sin
of sexual license that is so much around us and has been such a sadness in the pastoral ministry that I have had among the people that I have ministered to. You know several weeks ago when I went to prepare for my doctoral defense at the university the summer temperatures were just beginning and I was on the top floor of the library looking out over the quadrangle and of course could not help seeing the young people there seeing what they were wearing and what they were not wearing and it struck me how ridiculous we can be as believers. We believe that we can inundate Christian teens or allow them to be inundated with sexually explicit songs and movies and literature and then have them move many miles away from family influences and church influences
and Christian peers and Christian leaders place them among people of different values in institutions where sexual immorality is the order of the day and then believe that our children will remain sexually pure and it's just craziness we're just being silly and you may say they have to grow up sometime and I agree but when even as adults will they be submitted to so much immorality with so little family or church influence we put our children in a lion's den of sin such as they will never again face in their entire lifetimes and then we call that a rite of passage so that it must be okay. I don't buy that. I don't have all the answers to what we do to educate young people at the same time not place them in situations where we just know or can virtually know that there will be great problems in their lives but you see that's the nature of institutional sin it's it's overwhelming and and so we say well there's nothing we can do so there's nothing we're expecting to do it's that which we cannot accept I'm not saying you don't send your children to college but I am saying we must at least choose carefully as much as we examine programs for their training in secular matters can we not examine whether or not there are Christian influences on or around that campus whether or not there are sound churches or mature Christian leaders or some sort of Christian organization or Christian peers that our children can relate to and at least have some friends among a society of great sexual license where they're not oddballs and ostracized and put away from any sort of respect or friendship simply because they're going to stand for Christian principles. I know it's overwhelming but that's the nature of institutional sin and it's some of what we face today maybe you don't recognize how great it's the institution and how much it threatens our young people but we are being devastated by sexual licenses as a society and it is our children who perhaps are more at risk than anyone else. Do you know that national studies now indicate that 81 percent of all young men
and 60 percent of all young women are sexually active prior to marriage in their teens?
No those are just overwhelming statistics. They are by the way are growing statistics for now about five years I have quoted 75 percent of young men and 50 percent of young women are sexually active in their teens prior to marriage and those figures now newly updated are still growing. That's not the world that you and I attended high school or college in that's a different world that our children face and we as parents as Christian leaders had best be aware of it because the institution of sin in sexual license is so great and the figures by the way do not vary widely in the church. Josh McDowell a name many of you recognize as a leader among Christian evangelicals who works primarily with Christian youth of college age reports that his own findings indicate 60 percent of evangelical young people are sexually active prior to marriage.
Unless you think that figure is way off even the government reports and it's wise wording of some sort. Religious conscious girls are only 14 percent less likely to be sexually active prior to marriage than non-religious conscious girls.
We cannot say that the institution of sin that sexual license that pervades society does not touch us or does not touch our children so we don't need to be concerned. We are talking about our children. We are talking about the fact that our children are having children
or are having abortion. It's not just the world out there our children too.
We are talking about our children being influenced in ways that that sometimes just amaze me. You know I was invited to an elder's home recently and when dinner wasn't quite ready I went out to an area where his adolescent boys have a basketball hoop it was beside a small barn or shed where they in essence have a little clubhouse inside and as I went in to get the basketball out of the clubhouse I saw that those young teens had around the inside of the house pin-ups
from some magazines. I was amazed. I was angry. 50 percent of today's sexually active teen males have their first sexual experience between the ages of 11 and 13 and this elder seems to believe that by letting his boys get their sexual kicks at home somehow they'll be able to stay more in control when they're outside of the home and it's craziness. It's just ridiculous but many of us is ridiculous. If you're anywhere near my age or older you remember your first exposure to pornographic literature or your first dirty movie don't you? How old were you? 10, 12, 13.
Still it's etched in your brain. That's the nature of that sort of thing. You can't remember perhaps all the later experience but you remember the difficulty of handling that first experience and how it just seared itself into your mind and consciousness and experience. When we were in our
young teens or slightly young but now what are we doing? Even as Christians we bring cable TV into our homes so that our children begin seeing or see us seeing sexually explicit material even in their preschool years. You know if we had trouble handling such things maturely at ages 11 and 13 what will be the effects of such things on children at age three or four or five?
We had our boys recently visit some Christian friends. Our boys are ages three and five.
And when our boys came home we could not believe the crudities they had learned in just one afternoon of playing with some other children. Our boys didn't even know what they were saying but in a Christian household they picked up some amazing things because of the sexual license that is apparently a part of the entertainment of that household. We are just beginning to find out the results of a society inundated with sexual materials and sexual literature and license. Even the ways affecting our children. We are conditioning our children more and more to think of other people even their future spouses as objects of their own pleasures or else as just plain objects. And when you begin as a society to think of other people as objects when that happens the fabric of family and society begins to break and we see the results of that too in the society. Though we are told by those who work and lobby against such things as the president's commission on pornography and other things that pornography does not really affect the lifestyles and actions of a society we know the opposite it's true. Do you know that right now if statistics hold one in every four girls born today will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime.
One in every seven boys. The way in which we are sexually out of control as a society amazes us at times. We don't even want to look and see what is happening. It is so devastating. You know my brother-in-law is served for some time a few years ago not many years ago about three as chief of urology at one of the nation's largest naval stations overseas and was commissioned to do a study
of the sexual habits of enlisted men in the naval fleet.
The study revealed that the venereal disease rate among enlisted men in that naval port was in excess of 90 percent. Our young people are being affected and the sexual license and practices of our society are so great that any young people young person who would stand alone is the exception by far and to stand alone requires such spiritual maturity that it may virtually be beyond all all but very very few who have Christian parents who are aware of the problems and are taking some steps to say we know what the rest of society is doing what the rest of young people are saying is okay and what the rest of the world's parents say is all right to do but not our children. We will not let it happen. We will not let them participate in things that even the rest of the people in the church say is okay because they have been so indented with some with society's view of what sexuality is and should be that they say it's okay in the church. It does not matter. We will stand alone in the face of institutional sin. We as a family will do our duty because for him that knows to do good and does it not to him it is evil
even if everybody else says it's good. It's not just society at large. I spent time in the home of one of our PCA elders a few weeks ago. He is one of the most powerful lawyers in the state of Indiana heading a law firm with over 40 staff lawyers. You know what he says his fastest growing caseload is at this moment suits against churches brought for child molestation in those churches
whether by sitters or whether they're daycare centers and the staff there it doesn't matter it is in churches that sexual license has seemingly grabbed the minds the hearts and habits
of even adults and that too is affecting our children.
Defecting our children in other devastating ways suicide as you now know is second only to accidents is the leading cause of death among our young teens growing by nearly a hundred percent in each of the last three decades and you know now what we are being told as Christian parents to look for as a prime indicator that a teen suicide may be in the making about to happen
the breaking of a romantic relationship. It seems that sexual expression is now so likely to be a part of dating life that it is just to be expected but adolescent emotions and psyches seemingly are not prepared to handle the involvement of a whole being whole person sexual expression and then to have that relationship break off and experience rejection they simply seem not to have the ability to cope and therefore the inability to cope turns to depression and self-hatred and self-hurt
and I wonder how they can exist without what they have been existing with
and our young people take our own their own lives it's not just the world out there
our young people our young people day in and day out even if they are not participating are inundated with a society of which this is now apart and we must be aware we must be aware
if we had trouble with our own imaginations and emotions at age 13 handling sexually explicit literature for the first time what must be the results of children who now from their earliest years are having to deal with such material well we're seeing that too our own children hardly
even hear the sexual references in popular movies that are out this summer like Top Gun or that was last summer the explicit explicit sexual references that young people christian young people pay good money and flock to sea and see nothing wrong with it if that is the nature of christian young people think about the secular world and think about non-christian young people who influence day in and day out our teens
what's the influence on them we know the new pop trend among teens we are told is horrible is horror porn videos videos that portray sexuality with violent perverse images
it's the latest craze because there are seemingly few regulations on videos now our children on weekends have parties in which violent perverse sexuality is shown for fun
what happens when people become objects
sex becomes selfish and the expression of it virtually inhuman people and children
lose the capacity to love or to think they can be loved apart from being objects
and so they go from relationship to relationship looking for fulfillment
never finding it only becoming more and more warped irreparably the results of a whole generation
growing up in this society with this type of literature and license around them we can only begin to postulate still we see broken homes parentless children increasing selfishness that we are recognizing in so many different kinds of statistics one in every two marriages failing why
well there's lots of reasons for that but surely people looking at one another as objects and for fulfillment instead of for sacrifice as the object of that marriage is one reason
we know even by the end of this decade over half of all children in public schools will no longer be living in a home with both natural parents
it's a different society than the one in which adults grew up just this past generation or even even 10 or 15 years ago it is a different world because of the geometric
expansion of the statistics among a population where sexual license is so so much apart the daily experience of both young and old
you know when you begin to get even a glimpse of the big picture it's frightening it's overwhelming it's depressing and you want to say what's the use why fight it it's just hopeless
but you see that's why we need daniel
the lord teaches us through daniel what to do when faced with institutional overwhelming sin
what do we do do we do our duty yes it's overwhelming and yes it seems unstoppable but god says our commitment is to duty despite what the world may say or do as for me and my house we will serve the lord we will serve the lord and let the lord take care of the rest because with duty which stands fast
the lord can do amazing things you know a few days ago we went with some of you to the great sand dunes national park in colorado there's a highlight of our trip our kids loved it those dunes are are as high as 900 feet st louis where i'm from has that huge arch and it's only 600 feet dunes that are 900 feet high are just amazing you look like an ant on top of a sand dune that tall
circling the dunes there's a river that is dispersed by so much sand into many different rivulets so that it broadens and shallows out and even children can wade across the river and that's what our boys loved the best going across that river just wading across and what the three-year-old particularly loved was standing in one of the rivulets and trying to keep from moving it was silly in a sense a three-year-old trying to hold back a river
but when he stood there long enough if he just stood there firm and just stood there long enough he found out something amazing could happen the sand would begin to pile up against him as the water pushed it would push more sand against it and keep pushing it and keep pushing it and the sand would pile up and would heap and heap up at his feet until finally the river would go around him a three-year-old standing against a river and as long as he stood firm eventually the river went around him
I know that there is sin like a river that sometimes seems to be overwhelming us perhaps it is the sexual pressures of our society and it may be something else for you maybe I'm just concerned about it because I have a three-year-old and a five-year-old perhaps the problem that is overwhelming you is something in your marriage things have gone wrong and they have been going wrong for so many years and so much time and they are so bad that you say this is unstoppable nobody can correct the situation nothing can God surely there is something else that you expect of me and God is whispering duty stand for and duty and duty society says just clear out and
God is saying I can turn back a river do your duty
God says through Daniel stand fast perhaps the problems are not in marriage perhaps they are at work or at school where others are doing or asking you to do things that are so commonly accepted so much a part of everyday experience and what everybody else does to make it through that you can't afford to buck the trend you can't see how bucking the trend would change anything you might lose but nobody else would change
all you're going to get is misery and ridicule and God says duty and duty and duty
I recognize that asking a lot for me to say just do as God asked do your duty and let God take care of the rest and if it's just dumb stubborn blind duty you're right it makes no sense at all but you see God is not asking us for duty just for duty's sake with biblical duty is joined faith in verse 10 when Daniel did his prayer duty did you notice how particular the scriptures are to identify the direction of the facing of his windows Daniel prayed at the windows open toward Jerusalem now I don't think that's because Jerusalem is like Mecca you got to be facing the right way or it doesn't take remember Daniel is a prophet and following this chapter are amazing prophecies of what will happen in Jerusalem how it will be restored and from the ruins a savior will come who will defeat him that roams the entire earth seeking who he may devour as Daniel does his duty he can see before his eyes currently only ruin and despair and danger but with the eyes of faith he sees victory and hope and triumph as he does his duty it is duty that opens the windows of faith and faith that makes the duty worthwhile Daniel is assured that God will bring out of his duty that which is appropriate and right and the same is to be true for us there is a wonder in this chapter which is that God shuts the lion's mouths so that Daniel is not overcome and overwhelmed but you see God has already done that for you and for me when he sent his son to die for your sins and for mine he shut the lion's mouth not the lions in a den but the lion satan who sought to destroy you for an eternity to take you away from your God and now that same God says to you stand fast and see me do your duty because of the faith that I am the God that shuts lion's mouths
through duty I can turn back a river and you need not fear doing that because the danger that is even more great and precipitous against you which is that roaring of the lion against your very soul
I've already taken care of I have saved you beyond your own doing I shut the lion's mouth that is my nature I am that God and I am the one who provided that savior and you can entrust yourself to me and do your duty because of the faith in a God who shuts the lions now if Daniel does his duty he sees a God who will bring out of that duty
a people a nation a church
who will have the lion's mouth shut against us God says to us against the raging of the lion satan do what is right and let God take care of the rest oh it's not such a terrible risk not such a terrible terrible pain or hurt it is your joy because to do your duty for the God who shuts lion's mouths
is to know triumph and to know victory when the world cannot see it and even you cannot understand the immediate it is to know that the triumph is yours because you are your God and he will only bring victory as he did with Daniel and as he did with his own son when he shut the lions now
our duty is worthwhile and meaningful and joyful even in the face of overwhelming odds
because we have faith in God who changes the world through faith and duty
a few months ago a pastor friend of mine Wyatt George who serves down in southern Illinois
told me the account of a missionary couple friends of his and his wife Betsy their names these missionaries are Vincent and Margaret Crossett in the 1940s they were missionaries in mainland China struggling to present the gospel in a pre-pagan and backward culture and the work was hard but after some time they did start some small church work
we might even call it just a bible study though it was a church for those times and it seemed on the threshold of of really getting rolling
and then came the Chinese cultural revolutions of 1948 and 49 and they along with all foreign missionaries were forced to leave how they hated it this fledgling group of believers amidst an atheistic and cruel and dictatorial government a government that would soon be dedicated to wiping out any sort of Christian influence and they could do nothing about it seemingly the walls of China were closed and for nearly 40 years they heard nothing
what could they do faith and duty faith and duty they prayed they prayed daily for their friends back in China the believers so young in the faith the church so small they just prayed they just expressed faith and duty and it was all they could do finally as you all know through political and governmental changes the walls of China have come down again and when they did the crosses did all they could to get information from the village that they had left so long ago and prayed for so often and finally the news did come there was no small church in the village anymore
instead from that bible study there had grown a church of four thousand people in that village and in the surrounding region planted by that church were 11 other churches each with a membership of no less than a thousand people all the crossets could do was pray all they could do amidst a flood of wrong and institution of sin against the personal tragedy of being driven out of the land where they had friends and believers in their life's work existed all they could do was their duty and in faith trust God to take care of the rest and the Lord turned back the flood he shut the lion's mouths
he brought salvation to many
by faith and duty which is what he asks of us
Christian what are you facing today?
is it sent around you or in you that is so great that you cannot see the sense of fighting it fight it stand fast do what is right and let God take care of the rest he can he will because in his time and for his glory and for your own good he shuts the lion's mouths and I know
I know that even as you would look at your life and you would see the problems in the adversity and even the sin there is so much clutter and confusion around you that you wonder what to do and what's the use no matter how cluttered the circumstances may be or if it's so dirty
and dusty that you think there must be something new God expects of you no matter what the trial
pause and listen to the broom sweeping away all the clutter and complexity of your questions and situations do you hear it? Whisk, whisk it whispers faith and duty faith and duty
this is what God asked of you this the path swept clean to his triumph faith and duty
no matter what the triumph Christian no matter what the tragedy or the sin
faith and duty faith and duty faith and duty will you pray with me? Heavenly Father even as we leave this place we would recognize we return to situations that for many of us are difficult
it may be things that overwhelms that now Father make us ask you questions about
new things we should do or old things that we need not do
Father we would ask that now through your spirit you would work in our hearts and in our minds and in our lives that we would have this new commitment to the old principles faith and duty
we hurt even to think Father of what some of us will face again the questions are great sometimes the situation is so hard
Father we want new answers from you we cry out what do you want us to do
may this still be enough to hear your word speaking gently but clearly to us sweeping away our confusion our hurt and our questions
faith and duty you say faith and duty oh Father work in us that work that triumphs
work in us faith and duty we pray in Jesus name amen