GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
DANIEL 6:22
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22 My God sent his angel and shut the mouths of the lions, and they have not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king. I have done no wrong.”
What danger was there from the lions to Daniel? He tells us with his own words: “My God sent his angel and shut the mouths of the lions, and they have not hurt me.” We can take this to heart in three ways: In God’s treatment of Daniel, in God’s treatment of Christ in the tomb, and in God’s promise to us when we, too, will face the grave and the pit.
First, God rescued Daniel without a scratch. It must have been evident to the prophet in the first few seconds what his imprisonment was going to be like. Amos asks, “Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing?” (Amos 3:4), but these lions were under the command of God’s holy angel, and they had taken nothing for themselves. So Daniel spent a quiet night with the cats, peaceful, even restful, since there was no threat but only the protection of God’s own angel. For “Where is the lions’ den, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with none to disturb?” (Nahum 2:11). Is it hidden from God who sees everything in his omniscience and who himself is everywhere in his omnipresence? It would not even be out of the question to assume that Daniel slept curled up against the mane of the biggest male, the king of pride, and slept as peacefully as he would have with a kitten purring on his pillow. Didn’t the Psalmist foresee? “The lions steal away and lie down in their dens” (Psalm 104:22). The darkness brings out the dangerous animals to hunt, but the light of God kept both their stomachs and their throats from growling.
As for God’s treatment of Christ in the tomb, “He does great things that we cannot comprehend.” He brought his Son Jesus back to life, breathing his own breath into the nostrils of his one and only Son, to restore the life that he had given up for the sins of mankind. “God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24). For Christ was innocent, not guilty of any of the charges brought against him. Jerome says, “These words might be uttered by every saint, for he has been snatched from the mouths of lions unseen and from the infernal pit, because he has trusted in his God.” Therefore Christ’s innocence and holiness are applied to everyone who believes in him, no matter what her sins were in life, no matter what his transgressions. They are forgiven in Jesus, the Lamb of God, who gave himself to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2).
This is God’s promise to us, when we too have died, like all of those who have gone before us. He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies through the Spirit, who lives in us (Romans 8:11), and he will give us immortality. One the last day, it will be our own Jesus who says to his faithful dead, including you and me who have died with faith in him, “Come with me, my bride. from the dens of lions…” (Song of Solomon 4:8), and he will bring us home to the place prepared for us, in the clean, fresh air of Paradise, where “no wind of blame shall breathe,” for he has made our hearts strong in faith, “so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). Do not fear, dear Christian, but learn from the foreshadowing words of Daniel, “I have done no wrong,” and the confirming words of Jesus: “Has no one condemned you? Then neither do I condemn you” (John 8:10-11). “No blame belongs to thee.”
It seems almost unthinkable that a man as sinful as me could even dream of standing before Christ my judge at his judgment seat and say, “Before you, O King. I have done no wrong.” But this is his gift, paid for with his own blood. All of us with faith in him will be as safe as Daniel, removed from our graves, with the breath he breathed back into our rejuvenated and perfected bodies, to be brought safely up from the pit to live with our Lord and King forever in eternity. This is most certainly true.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2025
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Daniel 6:22 No blame belongs to thee