Sermon Snippets: Daniel in the Lion's Den

If someone were to survey churches across the country and poll members on what bible stories they are most familiar with, I'd guess Daniel in the Lion's Den would be in the top 5.

I'd guess the results would turn out something like this:

1. The Cross/Easter
2. David and Goliath
3. Daniel in the Lion's Den
4. Jonah in the belly of the Whale fish
5. Noah's Arc

The challenge as a pastor is when you come to those stories in your sermon series. How do you preach them in a fresh way? How do you hold the audience's attention when they've seen this movie a hundred times and have all the lines memorized?

This week, I'm going to organize my sermon around both the story structure, as any good expositional preacher would, and around facets of the story that may get overlooked or forgotten.

In this week's edition of "Sermon Snippets", I'm including some info. that I find interesting, but failed to make the cut in the sermon because it has the potential to distract from the focus of the message.

The experience of Daniel and the Lion's Den is similar the experience Daniel's friends had to endure with the Fiery Furnace in chapter three. Both events forced our faithful heroes to stand up for their faith under the threat of death. Both events record the miraculous deliverance by God of his faithful servants.

However there are several differences between the episode with Daniel's friends and the episode with Daniel himself:

• With the Fiery Furnace account, King Nebuchadnezzar is the enemy, whereas King Darius is Daniel's sympathetic friend in the story of the Lion's Den.
• In the Fiery Furnace account, the King expresses doubt any god can help them (3:15), while Darius hopes Daniel's God will rescue him (6:16).
• In chapter three, Daniel's friends get in trouble for not worshiping an idol. In chapter six, Daniel gets into trouble for worshiping his God.

Many people over the years have also drawn comparisons between Daniel and Jesus. Some of the similarities include:

• Both were blameless, but had enemies conspire against them.
• Both had sympathetic authority figures who were unable to help them (Darius, Pilate).
• Both fully submitted to God during their suffering.
• Both Jesus' grave and Daniel's pit were sealed with a large stone.
• Both were discovered to be ok during morning visit's to the grave/pit.
• Both were saved by God and prospered upon their return to normal life.

Major differences cannot be ignored though. Especially the fact that Jesus actually died and was raised. Along with the fact that he alone was sinless, his faithful endurance of his trial enabled the salvation of all men. While Daniel was great, Jesus was greater.