26 TIME-LIFE MIRACLES OF FAITH
A
round 586 B.C., the mighty Babylonian king
Nebuchadnezzar II conquers Jerusalem
and expels most of the city’s Jews, sending
the best and the brightest, including skilled
workers and scholars, to the city of Baby-
lon. Nebuchadnezzar instructs the palace master to bring
him a group of the most outstanding conquered Jews to be
his servants: “Young men without physical defect and hand-
some, versed in every branch of wisdom, endowed with
knowledge and insight,” according to the Book of Daniel.
The elite attendants are given new names, taught the
conquerors’ language and customs, and assigned jobs. One
man, Daniel, is a devout nobleman with a talent for proph-
esy and interpretation of dreams. He is assigned to work for
Nebuchadnezzar and performs his tasks admirably. Daniel is
so respected that he keeps his position after a new people, the
Medes, rise to power and their leader, Darius, takes over the
throne. He is even allowed to continue practicing Judaism.
As time passes, Darius relies increasingly on Daniel’s
wise guidance and thinking, and makes plans to elevate him
to second-in-command over the entire kingdom. Three of
Daniel’s peers areconsumed with jealousy and try to ruin
him by digging for examples of wrongdoing or corruption.
Finding none, they instead concoct a plot to use Daniel’s pi-
ety against him.
The servants know Daniel goes up onto the roof of his
house three times a day to pray and give thanks to God.
They approach Darius and suggest
that the ruler test his subjects’ loyalty
by forbidding all in the kingdom from
bowing before any god or man for 30
days. Anyone caught doing so should be
thrown into a den of lions, the servants
say. In his vanity, the king is pleasedwith the idea and signs it into law.
Because Daniel has developed a special relationship
with the king, he believes he is exempt from the decree
and allowed to continue to pray. He goes as usual to his
roof, where the conspirators lie in wait. They observe
Daniel bowing before God and rush to Darius to report
what they have seen: “Daniel, one of the exiles from Ju-
dah, pays no attention to you, O King, or to the interdict
you signed.”
Distraught, King Darius seeks a way to excuse his most
trusted advisor, but the conspirators remind him that
the injunction cannot be changed—not even by the king
himself. The king realizes he has been tricked. “May your
God, whom you faithfully serve, deliver you!” Darius tells
Daniel.
In accordance with the edict, guards bring Daniel into
Darius’ den of lions. A stone is placed over the mouth of
the den, and the king himself seals it with his signet. Af-
ter a sleepless night, Darius hurries to the lair to see if his
advisor has survived. “O Daniel!” he calls. “Has your God
whom you faithfully serve been able to deliver you from
the lions?”
Daniel’s voice rings out strongly and clearly: “O King,
live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’
mouths.”
The king is overjoyed. He orders Daniel to be raised
from the lions’ den and replaced by the men who have
plotted against him. The lions leap upon
the men as they fall, catching them out of
the air and devouring them. And Darius
issues a decree that the whole kingdom
respect the God of Daniel, for “He deliv-
ers and rescues, he works... wonders in
heaven and on earth.” ▪DANIEL&THELIONS'DEN
MASTER OF THE
BEASTS
A Babylonian king is tricked into betraying Daniel,
but God intervenes to save the devout advisorOLD TESTAMENTTHE LION’S DEN
Faith in his eyes and in his
pleas, Daniel prayed to God for
deliverance from the beasts
surrounding him. Illustration
fromBrown’s Self-Interpreting
Family Bible (c. 1880).