Standing alone in Crowd: A study from a book of Daniel    (Chapter 6)

What is religious freedom or freedom of religion..???

Why a country needs Secularism…???
First of all, we need to grasp a concept of Freedom of religion. Freedom of religion is a right of a people that allows him or her to express their faith on Entity they choose. According to Wikipedia, Freedom of religion or freedom of belief is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom to change one’s religion or belief.

On 10^th of Dec, 1948, United Nations General Assembly published a document called “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)” in order to protect Human rights. In that document, there is an article which deals with the Freedom of Religion. And it goes like this:

Article 18
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Daniel chapter 6 deals about the Religious freedom or Secularism. In this chapter we will read how Daniel is persecuted for his religious beliefs and how He stands apart from the Crowd that dishonors God’s name and How Lord protects Him. This chapter is the last chapter in the historical part of the book of Daniel; it deals with the time of the Medes and Persians. From chapter 7 on we will deal with the prophetic part of the book.

Let’s forward with Today’s lesson…

Discussion of the Chapter

1. The Background of the story

Daniel is able to retain his high position, even though the Babylonian Empire has just fallen to pieces. He continues to serve as one of Darius the Mede’s top three men—presidents who supervise the one hundred twenty satraps that help govern the kingdom (a “satrap” is basically a state governor). But other two satraps get jealous of Daniel because Daniel is good in things He does. So they plan to overthrow him. But all their plans went in vain because He is the best in what he does. They started to look for mistakes or corruption in his conduct of government affairs but they failed because he was trustworthy and he was not corrupt or negligent.

Let’s pause for a moment and ponder upon paragraph above. They (Government Administrators and Satraps) tried to find mistake or corruption against Daniel in His works. Here is a lesson or us, when we do things right we should be ready to accept the fact that we will make enemies in our workplace and no matter how good we work it’s hard to satisfy some people nevertheless we should do right things. And They failed to find Mistakes and corruption in Daniel.
Why They failed to find mistakes and corruptions in Daniel…????
They failed because He was trustworthy and he was not corrupt.

Here is a great Lesson for those who have chosen to work for the Lord. How workers for Lord should be..???
Ans- They need to be Trustworthy and should have no corrupt in them and should never be negligent. In simple words, they need to be faithful in things they do.

1. The Ridiculous Decree and the Persecution

After failing to find faults, they attacked on the faith of Daniel. Attack on the faith of One can be expected when you stand or your faith. Freedom of conscience and religious liberty are constantly threatened in this world. That happened in time of Daniel and it still happens now. Again and again there are persecution, imprisonment, and killing of people for their religious convictions.

So they convinced King to issue an decree that states for 30 days only King should be worshipped and nothing else. Now here was a test for Daniel. For other people it was a simple decree but to Daniel it was direct attack on his beliefs. But he never complained. From Daniel 1 till 6 we have been learning that there was a direct or indirect attack on the faith of Daniel and his friends. But they never saw it as a problem but they saw it as an opportunity to serve Lord and get closer with Lord.

Here is a lesson for all of us. Whenever problem comes to our life all we do is to complain to the Lord but we should never see it as a problem but to see it as an opportunity to serve God and get closer to Him.

Even After the decree is issued, Daniel continues to pray to the Lord of Heaven and Earth. In His life, prayer is the first thing. Daniel was a man of prayer. Here is another lesson for us. We all should live a life of prayer. Prayer is the one thing that connects us with our Creator and gives us strength to face our problems. To make long story short Daniel was punished for violating the decree. And he was cast into Lion’s den.

1. From persecution to Victory

The verdict was executed. Daniel was cast into lion’s den. But the God who fought Goliath with David, who saved Noah and Family from the Flood, who saved Jonah from the fish, came to save Daniel in Lion’s den. He sent His angels to save Daniel.
If we keep on praying and stand for the Lord, no matter what happens He will save us.

On next day morning, King went to Lion’s den to confirm whether Daniel was still alive or not. When he came to know that Daniel was still alive he had him pulled out and he punished those who plotted against Daniel. later in the end of the chapter, we find that King praises the God of Daniel. Amen

Lessons to be learnt from Daniel’s prayerful life

1. For Daniel, praying was a necessity. He prayed regularly.
2. Even under difficult circumstances Daniel turned to God in prayer with faith.
3. For Daniel it was more important to pray than to live.
4. Daniel‘s prayer consisted of petition, praise, thanksgiving, confession of sin, and intercession.
5. He experienced marvelous fulfillments of prayer.
6. In spite of his many duties and all the stress that he may have had, he made time for prayer.
7. Prayer may have been the key to his success.

Lessons to be learnt from today’s chapter

The Lord does not leave His people alone, even at the end of time when they have to go through “lions’ dens” and suffer the loss of religious liberty. They remain faithful in prayer and witnessing. Some of us still enjoy liberty. Therefore we can freely pray, serve God and fellow humans, witness about God, and study Scripture. We should take advantage of this situation. But should never forget those who have hard time to pray or preach gospel due to lack of freedom of religion so that they will be able to have freedom we share.

Amen….
God Bless you all….