Sunday School Lesson 12: Faith In Times of Trouble, February 18, 2024, Daniel 6:10-11, 14,16,19-23, 26-27.
Key Text: My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt (Daniel 6:22).
When Nebuchadnezzar died his son Belshazzar became king. The new king made a great feast for a thousand of his noblemen. He ordered the sacred vessels of gold and silver that his father had taken from the Temple of Jerusalem to use at the banquet. Belshazzar also sinned by worshiping idols and not honoring God. God decided the number of days that Belshazzar’s kingdom was to last and the division of it through its new leader. Belshazzar was slain when the city of Babylon was attacked and it fell to the Medes and Persians. When Darius the Mede became king, he appointed 120 governors to take charge of the kingdom and three chief ministers for the governors to report on the state of affairs within their territory. Darius made the Prophet Daniel head over them all. However, the other ministers and governors were jealous of Daniel and in desperation, they hatched an evil plot against him. Daniel would go to his home and pray three times a day in front of the window that faced toward the city of Jerusalem.
So the nobles and the two ministers went to Darius and persuaded him to sign a law that no one could pray to any god or man for thirty days, except to the king himself. If any person disobeyed, he was to be thrown into a den of lions. The king was flattered and he signed the decree. In spite of the law, Daniel continued to go to his house to pray three times a day. The officials reported him to the king for disobeying the law. Daniel was ordered thrown into the den of lions and a great stone was rolled at the mouth of the pit. The next morning, the king hurried to the lion’s den, hoping that Daniel would somehow be alive. To his amazement, he found Daniel unharmed. Daniel explained that God had spared his life because he had done no wrong. God had sent an angel to shut the lions’ mouths. The king ordered the villains themselves and their children and their wives fed to the lions. The king was also struck with the power of God and he decreed that all people in the kingdom worship Daniel’s God. AMEN!
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