“Daniel: Intercession” (continued) - part 3

We will be viewing chapters 6 and 9 of Daniel tonight and the next few times together, Lord willing.

And, as we do, I would like to point out three grand activities, or perhaps, functions of the ministry of prayer and intercession that are evident in these accounts of the prophet.

We will examine the function of the restraint of evil, and the changing of men’s hearts; then, second, that of preparing vessels; and third, the function of its outworking in the Church for the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

This evening, I would like to start with the first of the three  - that of spiritual reconciliation, of exchanging God’s salvation for the destruction that evil always propagates.

We can begin in Daniel 6, where we see a group of conspirators who have approached the king to accuse Daniel of breaking the law.

The record tells us that Daniel was one of the presidents over the group of 120 princes and v 2 enlarges that by saying, ‘...Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.’

This did not please this elite group at all, and - in v 3 - we find them trying ‘...to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so; they could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.’

Finally these men said, ‘We will never find any basis against this man, Daniel, unless it has something to do with the law of his God.’ (v 5)

It was certain they were well aware of the bent of Daniel’s life and heart and the effect it had on his behavior, specifically of his high moral and ethical standards he applied in his governmental position.

Thus, in their jealousy of him, his conspirators sought to bring him down by finding some connection with his relationship to his God to try to trap him.

So, in collusion with the king, they came to an agreement ‘to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree.’ 
(v 7)

The king signed the law and established the edict.

The weight of the state stood behind this new Persion law to carry out the punishment for its violation: once it was put into place, it could not be changed.

And what was that decree?

We find it in the last part of v 7: ‘...that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days save unto thee, O king, shall be thrown into the lions’ den.’

In other words, they tried to entice Daniel into idolatry; is that not what the enemy of our souls seeks to do to the Lord’s people, to those wavering ones, ‘...seeking whom he may devour:’? (1 Pet 5:8)

There was nothing healthy about this scene with Daniel: here was a king who kept lions to dispose of his enemies, and - probably, quite unknowingly, was sacrificing his own loyal advisor, Daniel, for the sake of the letter of the law, his very own law, as the sovereign principle of the empire.

This incident repeated the concept of the unchangeable laws of the emperor but, from chapter 2:21, we have learned that God changes what humans consider unchangeable as the direct outcome of prayer and intercession by His faithful own.

It is in this scene that Daniel clearly demonstrated himself as the man who was a faithful witness of holiness in God’s service, one who could not be moved from his established place in his Lord, - a witness that marked him as a man whose praying counted in God’s sight.

This was a man who held fast his righteousness and would not let it go; he took his stand upon God’s integrity and would not relinquish it, for - do we not see in Daniel’s life - in how he conducted himself - a burning love for God’s honor?

And, awakened in him was that priceless consciousness of his right to the most intimate access to God and the full assurance that his intercession made the difference. 

And do we not also see the giving up of all in Daniel’s life so that the saving purpose of God’s love is accomplished among men?

Yes - we certainly do!

Of course, he could have restrained himself during the next thirty days, compromised himself, by just not praying to his God for this short while.

But here was a choice Daniel once again made concerning his own spiritual standing before the Lord - to obey the law that was forcing him to idolatry or to obey God.

A man stands on one side of the fence or on the other side.

The issue was either worship or deny God, the same issue he and his friends faced under Nebuchadnezzar’s rule, where they told the king - in no uncertain terms in 3:17:
‘...our God is able to deliver us...but if not...we will not serve thy gods...’.

‘He who is not with Me is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad,’ the Lord Jesus said in Mat 12:30.

He also spelled it out very clearly in Mat 4:10
when He said to Satan: ‘Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve.’ 

In Mt 22:37-38, He reminded His listeners: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first great commandment.’

‘But let him ask in faith, not wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.’ (Jas 1:6-8)

If a man’s heart is earnestly yearning for the Lord’s optimal power and operation in his life, he must come to this point - either Jesus Christ is Who He says He is, does what He says He would do, in which case a man must follow on with Him all the way, or - He is not the Lord at all for this life but only for the life to come in eternity - and thus, there is no good reason why a man should not go the world’s ways.

Every believer must - sooner or later - come to this one fork in the Christian road - to have and to hold Christ near and dear within the heart or to cheapen His salvation by settling for a ‘double-mindedness’ kind of salvation.

The heart of the matter is - we either worship God through and through, or we give Him up for our own private, puny, ineffectual, worthless gods, and are, thus, ‘...weighed in the balances and found deficient.’ (Dan 5:27)

Daniel held fast and he held true to the living God - away with the nonsense of trying to straddle the fence of compromise - of disloyalty - of duality.

When Daniel prayed, every fiber of his being prayed in him - heart, mind, and soul, - and as he prayed, he fully expected God to hear, to honor His own Name however He deemed fit to do it.

It is in v 23 that we read: ‘...Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God.’

This is exactly what is required of an intercessor - a fence-straddler can never fulfill such a holy calling and profession - let that be known abroad, here and now. 

We have no idea what exactly Daniel prayed about when he prayed as he did in v 10.

Notice v 10: ‘...three times a day, he got down on his knees and praying, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before...’.

Perhaps Daniel prayed for his own safety, but - in following through in the chapter, it may be more probable that, among other things, the Lord placed Darius upon Daniel’s heart for prayer and intercession. 

It is true, that the king was extremely concerned about losing his right hand man to such a foolish, irrevocable decree.

But we also note Darius voicing a nervous hope in Daniel’s God to save Daniel: ‘May your God, Whom you serve continually, deliver you.’ (v 16)

‘Could it be that his God could actually save Daniel?’, he wondered with skepticism.

He suffered through a sleepless night over that question.

Can we just imagine this moment for Darius - tense, still filled with uneasiness, having acted so hastily, so disturbed, suffering, perhaps, from the pang of a guilty conscience - is this not the perfect picture of the sinner who is yet to experience salvation by the grace of God?

In v 20, when he checked the next morning, he cried out to Daniel from the mouth of the lions’ pit, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, Whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’

‘Daniel, servant of the living God’ - notice, the ‘living God’: this was the test of whether Daniel’s God was really alive or if He was just an unproven speculation - like the gods that Darius worshipped - If the Hebrew God really existed, He would save His servant, Daniel - and - ‘yes, He did - He really is the living God!’, he must have hastily concluded when Daniel answered him.

Yes, a change of heart has taken place in Darius, the king.

When he saw that his hope was met, he made a public proclamation giving God all glory - even commanding that the citizens under his rule respect and honor Daniel’s God. (vs 25-27)

‘This is the true and living God Who Daniel serves - now hear Him!’

Listen to his decree in vs 25-27: ‘May you have abundant prosperity,’ he wrote. ‘I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom, people must fear and reverence the God of
Daniel: for He is the living God and He endures forever; His kingdom will not be destroyed, His dominion will never end. He rescues and He saves; He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.’ (vs 25-27)

Daniel, through his praying intercession, released God’s saving power for deliverance - not only keeping Daniel safe (that was a side benefit actually) but in reaching Darius’ heart - Darius, who freely acknowledged that Daniel’s God is alive, that He lives and shows that He lives by the way He acts in history, that He responds like a real person to the needs of His people and to the requirements of justice, that He rules and that His rule is eternal which will last forever, never be destroyed - He gave objective proof of His eternal power, in contrast to the lifeless forms of Darius’ heathen gods.

This is also the Darius, in his new vision of the living God, who quickly kept destruction and evil at bay by his drastic action of casting it out - the sure evidence of having been transferred from the domain of sin into the Kingdom of God. 

In v 24, as absolute monarch of his kingdom, he took the drastic step of ordering Daniel’s conspirators along with their
families, to be cast into the lions’ pit. 

It may seem harsh and unjust but it probably was done to minimize the danger of revenge by any surviving relatives of the perpetrators.

However you may think about it, it does give a commanding example of the way believers are to take measures with sin.

It is the key to spiritual increase - sin is to be dealt with in this way - put away - every root dug up and cast out - judged without compromise.

This is the heritage secured by the saving power of Jesus Christ through His ministry of reconciliation - ‘...He made reconciliation for the sins of the people.’ (Heb 2:17)

As a quick observation, this, concerning Christ’s work of reconciliation - was actually revealed to Daniel, long before Christ came.

You can find it in Dan 9:24, of the Messiah coming ‘to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness...’

Now - how does this all apply to intercession?

Let me remind you that no man can come to such a conclusion, as Darius did, in making such a decision concerning the things of God, except God draws him - ‘...with loving kindness have I drawn thee...’ God said of Israel in Jer 31:3.

And the Lord Jesus, when the Jews challenged Him in 
Jn 6:44 said: ‘No man can come to Me, except the Father Who sent Me draw him...’.

And - no man is drawn except the Lord places upon the hearts of His people the seriousness, the urgency, the value of prayer - of prayer that extends the work of Christ’s present work of intercession and of the power of prayer that releases the force of the Gospel upon those drawn by the Lord.

For it was Daniel who prayed - it was Daniel who stood firm in holding high the honor of his God in his own heart and life - it was he who was the effective witness of the saving purpose of God’s love.

God’s mercy intervened, He shut the lions’ mouths, but - more importantly - He touched Darius’ heart to acknowledge, esteem, and give Jehovah His rightful place in the order of governing the earth.

This is exactly what one of the functions of what prayer and intercession is designed to do - to resist evil, to rescue from its destruction, and to replace it by changing the hearts of men toward God.  

To stand with God the Most High on behalf of the unsaved, to be one with Him on behalf of those who say they know Jesus Christ, yet whose lives do not manifest Christ’s ‘excellent spirit’ within, to be so attuned with our Lord’s will on their behalf, and so bless them in His Name by praying for them - that is one of the activities that intercession brings forth.

And in that power of life, that Christ-like giving up of all the temporal, unimportant worldly enticements, the saving purposes of God’s love is accomplished among men.

But - we must be willing to seek out Christ in this ministry - to walk in the full consciousness of having been set apart for such a holy calling.

Do not think that you are not included in this - yes - yes - yes you are - just be willing to be so consecrated to our Lord Jesus so that He opens this door for you.

In Luke 18:1, He gave a parable to encourage men to pray, to show how necessary it is for people always to pray.

Do we have any idea what this world would be like, even as discouraging as it may look at times, if the Lord had not put this one principle for restraint and for change into effect for His people to employ?

Prayer and intercession are shown to be the prime, all-engaging forces in God’s divine course of salvation history - in keeping evil at bay, in healing from sin and rebellion toward the Lord, and in saving.  

Any substitute for such sacred ministry puts God below His rightful and supreme place, puts Him on an earthly level that materializes His entire plan and purpose.

A politician, on the news several weeks ago, in speaking of a competitor in assessing his political career, said of him (and I quote loosely): ‘He thinks he is the city’s savior; he shows himself as a savior to all, but the problem is that as a savior, he is not saving anyone but himself - his own political career. A savior is someone who makes sure everyone benefits from his saviorhood, but his problem is that nobody is benefitting. Praying for a savior does no good if the savior who benefits himself cannot benefit everyone else who is expecting him to save them.’ (unquote).

I thought - ‘how like this world’ and ‘how unlike of the true Savior of the world Who benefits all who come to Him, for those who acknowledge Him through the seeking of His face in prayer.’ 

The fact is that God is at work in the world, calling His own people - men and women - to His service, placing upon their hearts the burden of prayer, empowering them to do so - so that the true, divine Savior, Jesus Christ, is uplifted as the only Savior of the world Who truly saves and Who benefits all those He saves - believe this, or not - this is the world’s great and only hope today.

Again, I urge you to think seriously about these truths tonight.

Let them sink deeply within - embrace them - love them - and you will find yourself, more and more, absorbed into our Lord Jesus Christ to this end of His purpose!

Lord willing, next week we will consider the next function of intercession - that of preparing the vessels.