Daniel: Faithful In The Lion's Den

Refreshing wild cherry cola meets smooth cream the tree you deserve Pepsi wild

cherry and cream treat yourself it's live in the brain with the host of Fox

News Sunday Shannon Bream this week on live in the brain we are talking

about yet another chapter in my new book nothing is impossible with God and

these stories are all about people who faced incredible overwhelming odds

challenges in their lives places that you may be now you may soon find yourself

or you've been through and I'm super grateful that one of my favorite

pastors pastor Gary Hammrich is with us I leaned a lot into much of his

teaching he's a fantastic Bible teacher about Daniel so that's who we're

going to talk to talk about today we can't talk to Daniel but maybe one day

that would be sort of interesting if he was on this podcast but we got

pastor Carrie Hammrich for you today he is the pastor of Cornerstone Chapel and

he has his own recent new book out too about the end times which I find

fascinating standing on the edge of eternity the end times according to

Revelation pastor welcome to live in the brain well thank you Shannon I think

Daniel would be a better guest but thank you for having me we weren't able to

book him but you are a very close second if we're gonna talk about you thank you

there's so many things about Daniel's life but I think it's important to sort

of set the stage that he and his friends that are a big part of his story they

were young Jewish exiles taken away to Babylon tell us a little bit about

their backstory yeah these were young Jewish men when I say man barely I mean

some scholars believe that that Daniel and his friends and I as a Ryan Misha

out may have been 15 years old so they were still youth they were living a

Jewish life in Israel and Jerusalem and the Babylonian Empire came to world

power and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem for about 20

years it took him from about 606 BC to 586 BC to eventually conquer the whole

city but he would take captive those that he was able to subdue at any point

during those 20 years and Daniel and his friends were some of the first to be

taken captive in around 606 BC and deported to ancient Babylon which is modern

day Iraq yeah and the idea with the Babylonian Empire was often in contrast to

some of the other really brutal you know military campaigns and torture of

people those kinds of things that these roaring and roaring powers would do it was

a little bit different I mean with Babylon you would get there and they wanted to

show you how beautiful and wonderful their city was I mean really divorce you

from your old life and convince you when they would take away these best young

men to Babylon to show you what we offer is much better but you're not going to

be who you were you're not going to eat what you ate you're not going to worship

the guy that you did you're now going to be changed into what we want you to be

part of us well that's that's right the Babylonians had conquered the

Assyrians and the Assyrians were were known for their ruthless barbarism I mean

they would historically we know that they would skin men alive and then use the

skin as wallpapers of their homes but the Babylonians when they conquered

the Assyrians they had a much different approach just like you said they they

seduced people with the wonder and the beauty of Babylon and it was Herodotus

Greek historian and you mentioned Herodotus in your book I mean he describes the

beauty of Babylon that it was a city it was roughly 200 square miles along the

Euphrates River the the walls of the city were 30 stories 80 feet thick in

fact Herodotus wrote about how they would have chariot races along the top of

the walls of Babylon and then inside Babylon they diverted the Euphrates

River so that it meandered all through the inside of the city of Babylon and

they had this beautiful tall pyramid known as a Ziggurat and of course the

Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the seven wonders of the ancient

world and so you're introduced to this beauty I mean it's it would be like

stepping into magic kingdom a Disney world you know and you're you're

subdued as one taken captive but yet you are seduced by the wonder and the

beauty and the luxury you you you talk about in your book from Daniel chapter

one about the fine food and and the delicious wines and so that's how they

subdued those that they took captive it was it was really not by force as

much as it was we're going to indoctrinate you into our culture and we're

going to present you with the beauty and the wonder so that you will be

assimilated into our culture into our lifestyle and for these young men they

decided no that isn't what they were going to do and I'm sure it seems very

attractive and you're thinking well I'm powerless I might as well enjoy the

finest of these things they've chosen me to sort of be taken into this

elite consideration or training program that I may serve the king and you

know Daniel and his friend said when this wine and the food came forward they

knew that King Nebuchadnezzar would be offering it likely that food have been

likely offered to idols it would not have been something that was kosher for

them literally or figuratively and that's the test where we see Daniel

stand up and take a stand yeah that's the first time we see him do this and

what is a remarkable is again the age of Daniel and and his young friends 15 to

18 somewhere in that range and I mean who among us if we were presented with

the luxuries of the world and we were in our teen years would not be tempted to

engage in that and yet Daniel stood firm at his convictions he knew who he was

in the Lord he worshiped God and he was not going to bow down to any false

idols or any cultural demands that would have caused him to compromise his

integrity his faith and so yeah he refused the fine foods and and the fine wine

and and he just said give me give me water and vegetables and and and in that

way he honored the Lord but in that way he also proved that he was not going to

cow-tow to whatever the demands were if he felt that in any way it was going to

compromise him yeah and God really honored that I mean the man who was in

charge of them said listen I'm getting in trouble with the king if I go back

and you guys look weak or you're not like I we haven't been taking care of you

and giving you the best of the best and Daniel said we'll just give me a chance to

do this and at the end of that period Daniel and his friends stood out among

everybody I mean clearly the Lord honored their faithfulness to him and we'll

see that over and over again but that first test proved that what they chose

was the right route yeah absolutely and and I believe that's how God still

operates that when we live to honor him he will take care of us and if if we

compromise in our lives in any way that would dishonor him we can't expect his

favor I mean it doesn't work that way we can't be living however we want and

then say okay God bless this anyway I mean he he wants to be honored and when we

honor him he'll take care of us just like you did Daniel we'll have more live in

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talk about honoring there came a time when it was clear that Daniel was gifted

from the from the Lord to be able to do things like interpret dreams and you

see this so much throughout the Old Testament folks who enjoy reading it

studying it I mean they saw visions and dreams kings and leaders would be

very troubled by these they would be looking for people to be among their

magicians or diviners or people who could tell them what these dreams were

and Daniel is called in a couple of you know big stories where he is the one

to come in and explain what is happening but I note every single time he

doesn't say when people come to him oh we've heard you're the one and we saw

this with Joseph too we know you can interpret dreams Daniel does the same

thing that Joseph does where he says it's not me this is coming from God my God

the Lord and again and again we see this lesson from Daniel that it's his own

humility that the Lord places him exactly where he needs to be at the right

time but he never takes the credit or the earthly praise from self yes so true

he I love that humility about him the courage of his convictions his humility his

his willingness to stand alone when necessary and his consistent walk I mean

he is he's one of my heroes of the Bible too so that's why I'm honored that you

would invite me under your podcast to talk about him because when the book of

Daniel opens again he might be as young as 15 when the book of Daniel ends he's

about 82 so I mean this guy lives consistently for like seven seven decades in

in captivity in Babylon and and he just continues to honor the Lord give God

the glory stay humble and and walk consistently I mean what's not to love

about this guy yeah and even when it could be a problem for him we see that

repeatedly throughout this that he's not afraid especially when he has to go

and in one particular dream that he's got to interpret for King Nebuchadnezzar

he knows it's not gonna be good news he's gonna tell him that some bad things

are coming to him because of his own choices and his his refusal to acknowledge God

or to worship God but Daniel doesn't hesitate even when he has a tough

assignment which I think is a good lesson for us there's plenty of modern day

application for that too yeah absolutely because we are often we often are

tempted to water things down when we are concerned that we might be

disliked or in dangerous case killed and and so you know the here he is his

life is always on the line whenever he's saying things that may not be you know

easy to hear but he just he never compromises and that that does speak to me

in that same way that you that you mentioned just this idea that you know

here today how often do we water things down or we afraid to say things or

and look it nobody wants to be abrasive but there's a way that we can tell the

truth and and still be doing it in a respectful way but

but to do not tell the truth is showing a disrespect to the person that we're

trying to speak to but Daniel is just never intimidated by that

by the way I'd love if I can just quote out a Daniel 2

I love in when he interprets the king's dream

how he says in Daniel 2 21 that he that's the Lord changes the times and

seasons and he removes kings and raises up kings

I always quote this to my congregation whenever there's a change in

governor or or president that it's it like no matter who occupies the governor's

mansion or who occupies the white house that the god is in control he

he raises up leaders he removes them and we can trust in his sovereign

leadership yes I love that I think I've posted that on many an election day and I

try to do it early so you're going to be mad or happy about what happened

that night I'm trying to get ahead of it like hey just remember whatever happens

today god clearly has all the positioning in mind he controls

their hearts and moves their hearts with his hand

and so nothing is a surprise to him but he constantly positioned Daniel where he

could be in a place with these various rulers and leaders

to offer words of truth there are times when it it actually saved Daniel's life

and his friend's life when the king was so furious at one point because

he was asking what was basically impossible for somebody who didn't have some

supernatural or divine help he'd had a dream and he wanted to know what it meant

but he told all the magicians and sorcerers first you have to tell me what

the dream is then you have to tell me what the dream means

and when they couldn't do it he says all right that's it everybody's getting killed

all of my magicians everybody it would have included Daniel and his friends

so Daniel must have had some favor because he continually was put in a place where people showed him

respect and as you mentioned over the years I always thought of every story involving Daniel

as the way I thought of it in Sunday school when I was a kid

and I want to talk about when he's thrown into the lion's den because there's a lot to that

story but in my mind he was 20 when that happened and obviously as you said when you read through

the word he's well into his 80s probably at that point but let's backtrack a little bit about

what came from that Daniel we don't hear from him for decades we don't know what's going on with

his life we can only assume that he is living a faithful godly life all of these years

something happens when there is a party with a different king who is throwing a party decades

later and he's not a good guy God's not happy with him and there's literally the appearance

of a hand that shows up and starts writing on the wall as this guy is having this raucous

party using instruments from the temple from Jerusalem and everyone is terrified and stunned

and doesn't know what to do but there's a queen who remembers Daniel and says let's find that guy

then what happened yeah so so Daniel this is in Daniel 5 and then into chapter 6

bell shazard was the king at the time and he gets this it's where we get the expression

don't you see the hand writing on the wall there was literally this finger this hand that was writing

and it was a it was a writing of warning from the Lord that the kingdom was about to fall

and and so you see the end of the Babylonian kingdom at the end of chapter 5 because the

Medes and the Persians come in and they subdue the Babylonian empire by here's a remarkable

thing they they realized that since the Euphrates River was diverted under the walls of Babylon that

the Medes and the Persians just damned up the water and then they crawled in under the walls

and that's how they subdued the the kingdom of Babylon and and so Daniel stays during the reign

of the next Middle Persian kings of Cyrus and and Darius and and he he he is remains in an

important position but they they conspire against him even in the next administration if you will

they they conspire against him and some of the the kings the satraps the those who were

servants of the king they're basically jealous of Daniel and so they they

have forced the king through manipulation to sign an order that no one can pray to any god

except the king Darius and and of course Daniel is going to violate that that order that

by the way that reminds me too of just how the book of Daniel sometimes does give us examples

of civil disobedience whenever man's laws contradict the higher law of God you have to always

defer to the higher law of God you see that in Exodus 1 the midwives when Pharaoh said kill all the

Hebrew baby boys the midwives defied the king's order because it says they feared God you see it

in the New Testament 2 and Acts 5 where Peter and John were preaching the gospel they're thrown into

prison and they are commanded not to preach the gospel and they reply by saying we must

obey God rather than man you see that in Daniel Daniel he does not follow the the orders of the

king whenever it contradicts the higher law of God and he's just faithful to the very end but he's

thrown into a lion's den that's the long version to your question well and the king was so upset

because when he realized he'd been tricked by these other people who were jealous the haters

I guess today yeah Daniel that he'd been tricked into signing this law into effect with the king's

signate reign you couldn't reverse it then these people knew that like okay by the time he figures

out what we've done it's too late he's going to have to kill Daniel anyway right and we read that

the king was just so distraught he couldn't eat he couldn't sleep and when Daniel got thrown into

that lion's den he basically said may your god protect you and he was up all night he runs there

in the morning to see dawn if Daniel's still okay and Daniel says yeah the Lord is in an angel

and I'm down here safe and it turns out as I note in the book nothing is impossible with God

that you know in the story of Esther where Heyman the bad guy is plotting against Mordecai and

tries to get him and all the Jewish people killed it's the same structure that Heyman had set up

to kill Mordecai that gets end up ends up being used against Heyman and the same thing here

these guys who wanted Daniel thrown in the lion's den well they got their own chance there yeah

they they became lion meat themselves um and I'm with you too when I was in Sunday school I

and I'm going to date myself but it was the felt board days oh I love the planal grass yeah the

flannel grass I loved it and and they would and they had this picture of Daniel you know this

little paper figure of Daniel and he looked to be about 20 years old but in the actual story he was

probably between 82 and 85 years of age thrown into this pit with these lions but yeah the Lord

protected him and by the way liberal theologians loved to dismiss the whole miraculous story of

how Daniel survived the lions den I read one article that said that the lions weren't hungry

I read another article that said well Daniel must have hid himself in a crevice of the cave

and then I read one other example that said Daniel must have hid himself under some straw

on the floor can you believe that I mean like I don't have the nose of a lion but if someone threw a

stake into a room and hidden under some straw I could probably find it exactly this was a this

was an outright miracle of the Lord he preserved Daniel's life because Daniel was faithful to the Lord

yeah so my hope with the book nothing is impossible with God is is twofold I want to encourage people

because I think these stories are very encouraging looking at different things that people did have

to walk through and overcome but I want to equip people to give them some practical principles and

when it comes to Daniel I think of him very much as being somebody who stood up against the culture

I mean he wasn't home we're not home we're away from our true home as believers so what can we

do to apply Daniel's story to 2026 well I think you said it well there we're not home this is not

as Christians this is not our ultimate home where our citizenship is in heaven

Philippians 320 tells us there tells us that Hebrews 13 14 talks about how this world is not our

home we're looking forward to home yet to come so I love your book because it is a book of encouragement

and and I hope that your readers and your listeners to this will just be encouraged to stay strong

in their convictions don't don't allow the pressures of this world or the chaos of the culture

to dominate the way they think or the way they live that they can be men and women and young people

of integrity with convictions nobody has to be abrasive nobody has to be unloving or unkind but

you can still stand firm in your faith and be true to the Lord no matter what the culture says no

matter what your circumstances if we just have an ounce of Daniel's courage God will be honored

well listen I don't know what they're using now in Sunday school I know it's not playing on

behalf from our ages but let's hope that the graphics are updated to show the fullness of Daniel's

long life and just how he was truly faithful for so many decades such an encouragement to us and

pastor you're always an encouragement to me I so enjoyed all of your sermons on Daniel and all

your teachings on him and they just for a big contributor to this book as well so thank you for

joining us on live in the dream and God bless oh thank you Shannon thanks for having me God bless

you and may the Lord use this book to really encourage people amen listen ad free with the Fox

news podcast plus subscription on Apple podcasts and Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad

free on the Amazon music app this is Ainsley Earhart thank you for joining me for the 52 episode

podcast series the life of Jesus a listening experience that will provide hope comfort and

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