My God sent His angel and shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, for I was found innocent in His sight, and I have done no wrong against you, O king." Sermons
I. THEIR EXISTENCE. Say there are angels; and some would receive the statement with scepticism. But the evidence is: 1. The analogy of the case. The interdependence of material worlds points to a similar interdependence of moral worlds. The commerce of earth to a commerce between the varied worlds of God. 2. The craving of the human mind. There is a craving for the knowledge of creatures higher than ourselves. The craving universal. It points to an objective satisfaction. 3. The testimony of Scripture. Previous argument, only presumptive; this conclusive. Fulness of Scripture on the subject. II. THEIR NATURE. 1. They are spiritual. "Are they not all spirits (πνεύματα)?" 2. But "clothed upon with some organization. Of a material kind, for it may become an object of sense; men may see the angel-form. Note: (1) Angels appear in the human form. But: (2) Glorified. (Daniel 10:6.) (3) Men after the resurrection are to become like the angels. (Luke 20:36.) We may infer that the organism of angels is well adapted to second the life abiding in it. Incorruptible, for the angel never dies; fit servant of high intelligence; offers no obstruction to their mighty power; no impediment to their swiftness; beautiful with immortal youth. The angels, like ourselves, are capable of everlasting intellectual and moral progress. III. THEIR PUBLIC LIFE. Its essential characteristic is given in the question, Are they not all liturgic (λειτουργικὰ)?" But what is the meaning? We must go to Athens, the home of the Greek tongue, for the answer. A few words, then, on: 1. The Greek liturgy. It was a public service - a ministration of the citizens to the commonwealth. Certain citizens were bound to contribute money, labour, time, towards making Athens splendid at home, triumphant abroad. Such a contribution was a "liturgy;" it stood for the public service of the Athenian people. 2. The Hebrew liturgy. The word was transferred from things Greek to designate the public ministration of the priests in the temple. As the liturgy of the Athenians was for the glory of the Athenian commonwealth, so the liturgy of Hebrew priests was for the glory of the Hebrew commonwealth - a ministration to its awful King. 3. The heavenly liturgy. Here thought ascends to a higher state, to a grander temple, in which angels contribute to the public service. Their wealth, energy, time, are given for the glory of the Eternal, and for the majesty of his kingdom. "Are they not all liturgic? Do they not minister to God in the exalted service of the heavenly temple? Are they not employed in the administration of the celestial government? Do not ' thousand thousands minister to him, and ten thousand times ten stand before him '?" "The chariots of God are twenty thousand," IV. THEIR APOSTOLIC CHARACTER. "Are they not all... sent forth?" Where he appoints, they go. Describe their coming and going as recorded in Scripture. But all this mysterious appearing and disappearing was not at all of their own self-moved will; they were "sent forth." They came on embassage, and the love that sent them was the Lord of angels and ours. V. THEIR MINISTRATION. They are "sent forth" to bring us help, to aid the otherwise helpess. Look at this: 1. Negatively. Their main object is not any of the following, though angels have been commissioned for them all. (1) To glorify some great event; e.g. the incarnation. (2) To answer prayer. (Daniel 9:21.) (3) To terrify enemies. (Matthew 26:53.) (4) To destroy the doomed; e.g. the Assyrian army. (5) To advance their own knowledge. (1 Peter 1:12; Ephesians 3:10.) 2. Positively. To bring help. The lesson for us - not to live in the light that shines from superiors, not to enjoy the company of equals, but to minister to those below. (Why not include in this lesson from the angels, our duty of ministration to races of life below man?) VI. THEIR RELATION TO REDEMPTION AND THE REDEEMED. 1. Their general attitude. (1) With reference to redemption generally. The attitude is one of anxious interest, which was typified in the aspect of the cherubim over the ark, "towards the mercy-seat shall the faces," etc.; and declared in the New Testament (1 Peter 1:12). (2) With reference to the redeemed particularly. Interested are they in the beginnings and developments of regenerated life (Luke 15:7, 10; 1 Corinthians 4:9). 2. Their critical services. Angels are prominent through all the great epochs of Divine revelation - in the patriarchal, legal, and prophetical dispensations. Keep watch and ward about the Person of Christ. (The annunciation to Zechariah, to Mary; the anthem at the birth; one in Gethsemane, twelve legions in waiting; two at the sepulchre.) They were active at the founding of the Church; are now agents in providence; will add to the glory of the last assize. 3. Their combined action. Militant action, we may call it. Much in the Bible to imply that the angels are ever exerting, on behalf of the saved, a moral influence, equal in extent, though opposite in kind and greater in degree, to that exerted by evil spirits. They are not idle spectators of the long-drawn-out moral conflict of this earth. 4. Their individual ministration. (See John 1:51; Matthew 18:10; Psalm 34:7; Psalm 91:12; 2 Kings 6:17; Daniel 6:22; Acts 27:23.) (The "Angel-god" passages not referred to, because his appearances were those of the Lord Jesus.) CONCLUSIONS. 1. The majesty of their King. Christ the Lord. Such a retinue. 2. The greatness of the object of angel solicitude. Salvation. 3. The brightness of the Christian prospect. "Equal unto the angels." - R.
My Lord hath sent His Angel. These words are Daniel's religious and thankful acknowledgment of his deliverance.1. Here is a reverend compellation. "O king." Darius was a heathen prince; an enemy to God's people; and he here makes a wicked law, forbidding religion, and inforcing to idolatry. Yet the prophet acknowledges and honours him, as his king and sovereign. 2. A loyal and pious salutation. "Live for ever." He prays for him, wishes him both length and prosperity of life here, and eternity of life and felicity hereafter. He upbraids not the king with tyranny and impiety; charges him not with the cruelty of his usage; threatens him not with vengeance, and judgments from God. He will not pray to the king, but he ceases not to pray for him. 3. Thankful declaration of his marvellous deliverance.(1) The author; "My God." Two things: his helper — God. His hold that he lays upon this helper. "My God," by special service and religion, the God of my faith, and piety, and devotion; by special trust and affiance; by present evidence and experience; by resolution, and engagements of holy thankfulness.(2) The Instrument. "Sent His angel." Not my angel, but God's angel. It is not "the angel came," but God sent him. This ministry of an angel, in the delivering of Daniel, adds unto it three excellencies. It makes a comfortable deliverance. As a forlorn and forsaken man, he is visited by an angel. It makes a glorious deliverance. Such a saint shall have not only safety, but honour. It makes an irresistible deliverance. There is no disappointing of this salvation.(3) The manner of this deliverance: how it was wrought. "He shut the mouths of the lions." God delivers not from the den, but when in it. How did he shut the mouths? By a secret power, weakening or restraining them; or by taming and allaying their fierceness; or restraining or slaking their hunger; or by making the prophet appear awful and dreadful to them.(4) The measure of the deliverance. Complete.(5) The motive which God graciously respected. A double innocence of the prophet. General, and particulars to this incident. (Geo. Stradling.) Outlines by a London Minister. I. THE ANTECEDENTS OF DANIEL'S MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE.1. They remind us that the penalty of greatness is the envy of inferiors. Daniel was as the sun in the Persian kingdom, showing to all who come under his influence what a good ruler really was. But the intense light of his character was too strong for men whose conduct he then condemned, and who were thus made painfully conscious of their own shortcomings. 2. Envy will seek an opportunity of false accusation. It was the envy of the Jewish rulers which was the foundation of their false accusations against Christ. 3. They remind us that it may be the penalty of moral greatness to be condemned by legal greatness. The law of a nation may be a very strong law because of its great antiquity, but it may be a very wicked law notwithstanding, and whoever obeys it may bring himself under the penalty of a much more powerful and a much older law, the law of moral rectitude — a law older than the creation of man. II. THE MIRACLE ITSELF. The lions did not act according to the instincts of their nature. This holding back of the appetite of the lions is the more remarkable, because the instinct returned as soon as Daniel's persecutors took his place in the den. Lessons: 1. The most pressing demands of business are not incompatible with daily waiting upon God in prayer. 2. Escape from trial of our constancy at one time is no guarantee that we shall not be called upon to prove it at another. 3. Sometimes disobedience to man is the highest virtue in the sight of God. When man's laws are in opposition to God's, the breaking of them is righteousness. 4. We are in the path of obedience to God, even though the obedience leads to death. (Outlines by a London Minister.) I. THE CONDUCT FOR WHICH DANIEL WAS THROWN INTO THE DEN OF LIONS. Daniel's enemies contrived to obtain the king's consent to a wicked decree, binding all men to abstain from worshipping any god, or asking a petition of any god or man, except the king himself, for thirty days. But the prophet, knowing that when human laws are found to clash with the divine commands, it is right to "obey God rather than man," continued, regardless of consequences, to pray to his God three times a day, as he had heretofore done. In the discharge of his duty to God, he had no real cause for dismay. God, he knew, was with him. Having, therefore, faithfully performed his duty, he submits to the will of his enemies, commits himself to Him that judges righteously, and calmly and steadily leaves the event in His hands. II. THE EXTRAORDINARY FACT RECORDED, THAT DANIEL WAS TAKEN UP OUT OF THE DEN UNHURT. By this signal preservation of the life of Daniel among the lions, God displayed at once His power over the creatures of the forest which He had made, and His care over His servants when He calls them out to suffer for His cause. Under the protection of the Almighty, Daniel was as safe in the den of lions as he would have been in the palace, and under the protection of Darius. This God is our God for ever and ever. He will still honour and preserve them that honour Him, still bear up and support His faithful people. III. The reason assigned for the miraculous interposition of God on Daniel's behalf. "Because he believed in his God." Mark what honour God puts upon faith. Faith was the spring of Daniel's holy obedience to God. Faith gave him peace and comfort, and brought down the angel of God into the lions' den. This holy principle has never failed to attract the divine regard, and to insure the approbation of God. This subject may teach us: 1. The importance, under all circumstances, of stedfast adherence to the path of duty. "Duties are ours, events are God's." One common duty of Christians is that of calmly resting under affliction, in patient submission to the will of God. 2. The importance of steady trust in God, especially in the great event of death, that last trial of the Christian. 3. This subject affords a ground of consolation to all faithful Christians in tribulation, and to the surviving friends of the departed saints. (J. Jaques.) His case at first seemed very hard to flesh and blood. But here we see the end of the Lord. All was so over-ruled, that Daniel had no reason to repent of his conduct, or lament the result of it. How much did Daniel's stedfastness conduce to the glory of God, and the advancement of his cause! Christians never honour God more than in the fires. But the result terminated in Daniel's own honour and welfare. When taken up, how would every eye be drawn to him. What influence would be attached to his character! What weight to his advice and counsel! He is restored. He is promoted by his Sovereign to a higher station. And who would not have done what Darius did? He who had been faithful to his God, was more likely to be faithful to his king. This is indeed one of the ways in which Godliness naturally conduces to a man's present advantage. Constantius, the father of Constantine the Great, wished to know the character of those about him. He, therefore, called together before him, all the chiefs in his suite, and ordered them to offer Sacrifices to his gods (he was a heathen), on pain of being deprived of all their honours and functions. The trial was severe. Many sunk under it. They could not give up everything that was dear and valuable. But some were inflexible. They had bought the truth, and they would not sell it at any price. Whatever they suffered, they were resolved to have a conscience void of offence. But what happened? Those who basely complied, he drove from his presence, while those who nobly refused, he entrusted with the care of his person, and placed them in the most important offices, saying: "On these men I can depend — I prize them more than all my treasures." And we know who hath said: "Them that honour Me I will honour; but they that despise Me " shall be lightly esteemed.(William Jay.) People Cyrus, Daniel, Darius, PersiansPlaces Babylon, JerusalemTopics Angel, Blameless, Committed, Crime, Damage, Forasmuch, Further, Harmed, Hurt, Inasmuch, Injured, Injury, Innocence, Innocency, Innocent, Lions, Messenger, Mouths, O, Purity, Shut, Sight, Sin, WrongOutline 1. Daniel is made chief of the presidents.4. They, conspiring against him, obtain an idolatrous decree. 10. Daniel, accused of the breach thereof, is cast into the lion's den. 18. Daniel is saved; 24. his adversaries devoured; 25. and God magnified by a decree. Dictionary of Bible Themes Daniel 6:22 4017 life, animal and plant 1320 God, as Saviour Library A Tribute from EnemiesThen said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.'--DANIEL vi. 5. Daniel was somewhere about ninety years old when he was cast to the lions. He had been for many years the real governor of the whole empire; and, of course, in such a position had incurred much hatred and jealousy. He was a foreigner and a worshipper of another God, and therefore was all the more unpopular, as a Brahmin would be in England if he were … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Faith Stopping the Mouths of Lions The Story of the Fiery Furnace The Jordan: the Decisive Start. Matthew 3:13-17. Mark 1:9-1Luke Appendix v. Rabbinic Theology and Literature The Early Ministry in Judea I Will Pray with the Spirit and with the Understanding Also- Of Antichrist, and his Ruin: and of the Slaying the Witnesses. A Cloud of Witnesses. Divine Support and Protection Daniel Links Daniel 6:22 NIVDaniel 6:22 NLT Daniel 6:22 ESV Daniel 6:22 NASB Daniel 6:22 KJV Daniel 6:22 Bible Apps Daniel 6:22 Parallel Daniel 6:22 Biblia Paralela Daniel 6:22 Chinese Bible Daniel 6:22 French Bible Daniel 6:22 German Bible Daniel 6:22 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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