The Bible - 6 Short stories

The pit of lions

"That Daniel!" they said angrily. "We had looked hard for something against him! Nothing!"

The two supervisors and their sympathetic governors are annoyed how Darius the Mede is considering making the Jewish captive Daniel in charge of the whole Medo-Persian Empire!

They looked for something damaging to proclaim to the king. But no weakness at all can be found!

"Not idle! Not dishonest! He's just too sound for the kingdom," said one.

"We are not going to find anything of which to accuse Daniel unless it is something in connection with his religion," stated one.

"What?" said someone.

"I'll tell you what I mean," the supervisor said. "Daniel regularly prays three times a day to his God. We can use that against him."

"In what way?" asks a governor. "Must we ban prayer?"

"Sure."

"I am not certain the king will ban his religion," said another governor.

"Not if we make it all forms of worship! Think: praising the king!"

+ + +

"King Darius, may Your Majesty live forever!"

They had made up a plot against Daniel, but the king is not aware of it. He is seated at his throne room. "Yes?" he asks them.

"Ahem," answers a supervisor. "All of us who administer your empire—the supervisors, the governors, the lieutenant governors, and the other officials—have agreed that Your Majesty should issue an order and enforce it strictly."

"And? What order should I enforce?"

"Give orders that for thirty days," explains the supervisor, "no one be permitted to request anything from any god or from any human being except from Your Majesty."

"Me?" asks the flattered king. He is deeply considering this idea. Everyone has to pray to him!

"Anyone who violates this order is to be thrown into a pit filled with lions," continues the supervisor. "So let Your Majesty issue this order and sign it, and it will be in force, a law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed."

"I will," says the king. "It will be signed. Thanks for this idea."

"Oh, it's our pleasure," they say. And they think: Yes! Now all we need to do is to count on Daniel to defy the order! Knowing just HOW religious he is, it is absolutely certain he will.

+ + +

The order is read out all over the city of Babylon. So there is no one in the whole city who has not heard the king's order.

That includes Daniel.

Daniel thought long about this. Disobey the Lord, or disobey the king? The answer was simple: he would risk anything for his God. And God would sustain him, as he had been his whole life.

So Daniel went home. He went up the steps to his upper room. Here are windows that face where Jerusalem is—or was, since it had been destroyed for many years. It is part of Solomon's dedication prayer that repentant exiles would pray toward Jerusalem, in the hope that one day they may return.

Now Daniel will claim this promise.

He kneels down at these open windows, as he has always done. He made his prayers, and added a desire for strength in restraint. Soon he will be found out.

Soon.

+ + +

One whole day had passed. The supervisors and their governors had observed Daniel praying three times that day. There! Now they got him.

They all went to the king's palace. Darius is in his throne room, as usual sitting. He hears some footsteps. It's those who had earlier requested him for the order for all to petition to Darius.

And they talk about just that. "Your Majesty, you signed an order that for the next thirty days anyone who requested anything from any god or from any human being except you, would be thrown into a pit filled with lions."

"Yes," admitted the king, "that is a strict order, a law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be changed."

Then came the blow. "Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah," says a supervisor, "does not respect Your Majesty or obey the order you issued. He prays regularly three times a day."

"W—what?" went the king.

Now it is all coming together. This is a plot against Daniel! How upset I am with myself! I must find some way to save him!

He tried, tried, tried, to find a way--a legal way--to save Daniel from the pit of lions! This would be sending his friend to his death! He shunned himself for having been easily deceived.

Evening. Nothing as of yet. There may be some way as simple as invalidating the order he just made—

"Your Majesty knows," says the supervisors and governors, "that according to the laws of the Medes and Persians no order which the king issues can be changed."

The king sighs. It has come to this, alas. He summons Daniel. "I am so sorry," said the king. "I have no choice."

+ + +

They are around the pit filled with lions. They can hear it. The lions roared. Frightening!

Darius turns to Daniel just before the Medo-Persian guards toss Daniel inside the pit, "May your God, whom you serve so loyally, rescue you."

Now the large stone covers the mouth of the pit. Daniel is stuck in there.

To ensure no one can get access into the pit--either to save his life or to kill him by some other means--of lions, Darius sealed the stone. He also had his noblemen seal it with their seals.

Tomorrow will prove whether the God of Daniel will protect his servant.

+ + +

Sleepless night. Morning rays start. The sixty-two-year-old king had hurried over to the spot where the lions are held. "Oh, please let Daniel still be alive!"

Darius had been fasting. Now he calls out the guards to come, to ensure the pit can be uncovered. As they are doing it, Darius shouted anxiously, "Daniel, servant of the living God! Was the God you serve so loyally able to save you from the lions?"

Silence. Silence.

Darius trembled. What if he didn't make—

"May Your Majesty live forever!"

That came from inside the pit. Daniel's voice!

"Daniel!" exclaimed the king, joyful that Daniel had survived a night in the pit of lions!

"God sent his angel to shut the mouths of the lions so that they would not hurt me. He did this because he knew that I was innocent and because I have not wronged you, Your Majesty."

"Quick!" ordered the king. "Pull Daniel out of the pit! And safely!"

The guards immediately got their ropes and pulled Daniel out. When the light of the sun finally got to the prophet, Darius and all could see that Daniel had no harm.

Daniel's accusers got what's coming to them, and Darius made another order for all to "fear and respect Daniel's God."

(Daniel 6; Good News Translation)