There are few things more emotionally painful in life than to be falsely accused. When you act with integrity, and other people question your actions or motives, it’s an attack on your identity – on who you really are – down to the core of your being. It can be even more painful to the soul when you’ve had past failures, even crimes, that would cause others to doubt your integrity, and therefore be reluctant to give you unqualified support.

As a prison chaplain, I work in the gray area of becoming acquainted with a lot of convicted felons who I know have wounded others and society in a way that merit imprisonment. In the past few months I’ve seen a couple good clerks, present or former, sent to the hole from MSU and elsewhere. I want to be believe in their innocence, but I don’t know the whole truth. Nor does any police detective, prosecutor, defense attorney, judge or jury. We have an imperfect system that usually, but not always, convicts the right people for crimes that were really committed.

I also know there are some who may have been wrongly accused; and I’ve heard my share of stories from offenders alleging as such. I try to listen empathically to these stories without judging the honesty of their claims. God knows the full truth, and I believe that God doesn’t make mistakes with Providence – His governance of the human race, of the universe, and every person who lives on earth. I’ve been lied to by offenders several times. I may be naïve for the moment; but they are wounding their souls much longer and deeper than they know. All liars are heedless that “all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of” God, the Supreme Judge of the World.

Yet God allows an enormous amount of injustice, pain and loss to occur on earth; and He must do so. For to not allow human injustice would be to deny us our birthright of freedom to make and be responsible for our choices. And it would also deny those who aspire to righteousness the honor of combatting injustice and so living a heroic life. It’s for the Martin Luther King Jr’s, the Mother Theresa’s, the honest cops’ and firefighters’ and all who strive to make this world a better place that God gives us challenges in confronting a sinful, broken world.

Above all, it gave God the right context to reveal Himself through the humanly vulnerable life of Jesus of Nazareth as the best and most profound revelation of His character and love to the creation God loves. And every victim of injustice who nobly overcomes that injustice through faith in Christ becomes an addition to the glorious revelation of God that will shine throughout eternity as God’s personal trophy case of redeemed humanity. That’s where you and I fit in God’s purpose for Providence that moved the Apostle Paul to write, “I consider the sufferings of this age not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us.” It’s what makes my service as a prison chaplain worthwhile; for though I know I will never bat 1.000 in guiding even “Christian” inmates to faithful obedience, I know that many of you will. Others may fail again, but still have God’s saving grace in the end that brings the sin-scarred soul into heaven rather than eternity in hell. And for those who reject the gospel altogether, their tragedy affirms how terrible sin and rebellion against God really are; and where I know I should be apart from Christ’s love for me.

Only in the gospel of Jesus Christ are the most painful, personal questions of justice answered satisfactorily – God’s justice in the face of human injustice. No, I’ll never be able to explain why you suffered something that I have not, or why some countries or communities are hit worse than others by devastating loss. This life, and all of creation, are governed by forces that naturally end in death and disorder. No one gets out of this life alive. Yet the promise of everlasting life shines even brighter because of this stark reality. It gives all of us who love Him a hope that transcends this Earth, because this Earth and the universe are destined to be replaced by better ones that will never decay or know death.

In the last five months, we’ve covered Daniel’s journey from being a teenage exile brought to Babylon to be trained as a court advisor to his declaring “the handwriting on the wall” for the doomed Babylonian Empire. Daniel was by this time an old man in his 80’s; but he was still highly esteemed as a court advisor.

His reputation for brilliance, his Jewish ethnicity and foretelling of the fall of Babylon must have reached the ears of the Emperor Cyrus the Great and his subordinate King Darius. For Daniel was spared the slaughter that befell King Belshazzar and much of his court.

Cyrus made a magnanimous gesture in ordering the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. The ancient Jews believe he did this when he learned of Isaiah’s prophecy, 150 years earlier, of his conquest of Babylon. You can read about Cyrus in Isaiah 44:28 to 45:3.

But even though Daniel survived the conquest of Babylon, and was elevated to a high position among the satraps of Babylon, he was once again in a politically perilous position. Daniel’s prominence and non-Persian ethnicity made him the object of court jealousy among his Persian subordinates. Let’s read Daniel 6:1-5.

‘It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, ² with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. ³ Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. ⁴ At this, the administrators and the satraps tried 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. ⁵ Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”’

It appears that Darius’ plan to elevate Daniel as his Prime Minister, or chief of the 120 satraps, moved the nobles in the court to plot his downfall. You may have heard the phrase, “throwing someone under the bus.” It refers to co-workers who blame or attack another co-worker for a job failure in order to fatally compromise their reputation within the organization. In our country, these actions are only fatal to a co-worker’s career; but in dictatorial kingdoms like the Persian Empire, being thrown under the bus usually meant death or banishment from the court.

This was the conspiracy of jealous, mediocre nobles against the excellence of one exceptional man. In Gulliver’s Travels the tiny Lilliputians tied down Gulliver, as a metaphor for small-minded people who tie down those who excel them. Daniel’s accusers realized they would be unable to topple Daniel from the king’s favor unless they could accuse him in relation to his obedience to God’s law. In doing this, the satraps became types of the devil’s work of accusing the believers in the minds of other people and of those susceptible to the devil’s lies. The Greek word for the devil, diabolos, from which we get the word “diabolical”, means “accuser” – literally, “one who hurls against”.

This episode is a type of Satan’s strategies against godly believers. If the devil can’t seduce a believer into compromising himself morally or intimidate him into silence or even denial of his faith, he will set others against the Christian who are offended by the Christian’s commitment to biblical righteousness.

“So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: “May King Darius live forever! ⁷ The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den. ⁸ Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.” ⁹ So King Darius put the decree in writing.”

The satraps cunning plan was to play on the king’s vanity, to require that people pray to the king for a month. They then used the law of the Medes and Persians that once a king issued a decree in writing it could not be altered to bind the king from changing his word. They intended to use the authority of the king to trap the king into killing his most trusted advisor.

It’s also astonishing that the king was gullible enough to consent their suggestion without asking why this was useful to good governance. The nobles may have assured him that the newly-conquered Babylonians needed to fear the king as if he were god. From the time of Egypt’s first pharaohs, and perhaps going back to Nimrod and the Tower of Babel, this notion that kings were divine beings was used by ruling elites to create an aura of invincibility and awe around the throne. They did this to ensure compliance by the people, by inculcating the belief that kings were superhuman to their common subjects.

Centuries later, the Roman emperors also tried to create a religious cult around the Caesars, which brought the early Church into direct conflict with the Empire, because Christians would not offer incense to Caesar as an act of nominal civic worship. The devil used this pro forma act to persecute Christians, but God used the persecution to refine the Church and strengthen it through martyrdom. The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church.

The persecution of Christians by Rome became a type of Antichrist, who appears in 2 Thessalonians and Revelation as the Man of Lawlessness and the Beast, who exalts himself above every God. This Antichrist figure appears prophetically in the later chapters of Daniel, as we shall see in the coming months. All these men unwittingly follow Satan, who first sinned when he sought to exalt himself into being like God (Isaiah 14:13-14).

Jesus contrasted the arrogance of earthly rulers and nobles with the humility He demands of His servants in Matthew 20:25-28: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. ²⁶ It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Daniel exemplified the humble leadership that Jesus modeled to perfection. We read in verse 10: “Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.” 

Why did Daniel disobey the king’s foolish decree this way? First, Daniel had lived a godly life without deviating for over 80 years; he was not about to change simply to save his life. Second, Daniel had seen God’s supernatural hand in delivering him or his three Hebrew friends from imminent death; so why would he be intimidated into silence by the threat of execution. The only difference in this threat was the mode of death – being thrown to the lions. Third, Daniel understood that prayer was the one avenue provided him and all believers in the time of distress.

One commentator observed: “Daniel made no attempt to hide his daily prayer routing from his enemies in government, even though he knew this would be disobeying the new law. Hiding his daily prayers would have been futile since the officials surely would have caught him at something else… Also, hiding would have demonstrated that he was afraid of the officials. Daniel continued to pray because he could not look to the king for the guidance and strength that he needed during this difficult time. Only God could provide what he really needed.”

Finally, Daniel was familiar with the Psalms and the prophets and God’s promises of deliverance.

Psalm 3:1-3 declares, “O Lord, how my adversaries have increased! Many are rising up against me. ² Many are saying of my soul, “There is no deliverance for him in God.” ³ But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.”

Psalm 32:7 says, “You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.”

Psalm 34:7 says, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and rescues them.”

Psalm 43:1 pleads, “Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!”

Here’s one of my favorite promises in scripture, Isaiah 54:17,
“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.”

Daniel continued to pray to God the way he’d always done, because he trusted that the God who had delivered him before would do so again. He lived with the understanding of his heritage as a Jewish man in covenant Yahweh, the God of Israel; and he prayed with the conviction that no accusation or attack on him would succeed.

If there is one overriding theme in the Old Testament, it is God’s covenant faithfulness and lovingkindness to His people. The Hebrew word for this covenant goodness of God is chesed; and it’s used hundreds of times in reference to God. Chesed is translated in various ways in English, depending on the context of its usage, as lovingkindness, lovingkindnesses or “steadfast love” in the NIV, good, goodness, favor, faithfulness, loyal deeds, loyalty, mercy, mercies, merciful, righteousness and unchanging love. Every one of these usages of chesed is true about God – ALL THE TIME. That’s why the African-American church popularized the declaration and response: “God is good… All the time! All the time… God is good!” Daniel understood that God is good and true to His chesed all the time: His favor, goodness, kindness, loyalty, mercy and unchanging love.

When people are in covenant with God, God’s covenant loyalty is guaranteed and unwavering. Psalm 100 closes with this assurance, “For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness [chesed] is everlasting, and His faithfulness endures throughout all generations.” For this reason, I don’t think Daniel was seriously afraid that the satraps plot against him would succeed. Compared to God, he knew his accusers were like chaff before a hurricane.

Reading again from verse 11: “Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. ¹² So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human being except to you, Your Majesty, would be thrown into the lions’ den?”

The king answered, “The decree stands—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”

¹³ Then they said to the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, Your Majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day.” ¹⁴ When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.

¹⁵ Then the men went as a group to King Darius and said to him, “Remember, Your Majesty, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed.”

The Persian satraps had successfully manipulated the king into using the king’s own authority and Persian law to impose their will upon the king to eliminate his chosen Grand Vizier, Daniel. It’s astonishing that these Persian satraps didn’t consider how angry the king would be at them for undermining his authority in the kingdom by their cunning. They obviously reasoned that once Daniel was out of the way, King Darius would never be able to turn against all the nobles who plotted Daniel’s death. They must have reasoned that since Daniel wasn’t a Persian, he was dispensable; but to King Darius this was a none-too-subtle act of deceit and treachery toward himself. Ironically, they were soon to find out, quite literally, the truth of King Solomon’s proverb: “The king’s wrath is like the roaring of a lion.”

¹⁶ So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!”

There is a historic irony here in God’s dealings with His children. Just as Daniel as thrown to the lions, so were early Christians who were condemned as criminals for treason. Being killed by wild animals in the Roman Empire was called damnatio ad bestias – damnation by the beasts. In their case, God glorified Himself through the death of the martyrs.

¹⁷ A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed. ¹⁸ Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep.

¹⁹ At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den.²⁰ When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?”

²¹ Daniel answered, “May the king live forever! ²² My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.”

God’s answer, as before, to a deadly plot against His anointed was to send an angel, or perhaps Himself as the Angel of the Lord, to deliver Daniel. Among all the beasts on land, none was more feared in the Middle East than the lion. But no earthly creature is a match for a guardian angel, the most powerful creatures in the universe. I wonder if Daniel if claimed the Psalm 91’s assurance of angelic protection:

“He will give His angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up with their hands lest you strike your foot against the stone.” Now list to the words that follow this promise of angelic protection: “You will tread upon the lion and the cobra. The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.” God undoubtedly foresaw the danger that would befall his prophet Daniel when He inspired the Psalmist to compose those words over four centuries before.

Angelic protection is something every believer has a right to claim, and should claim, as an act of faith. I recite Psalm 91 every day over myself and my family for divine protection. I strongly encourage you to memorize and quote Psalm 91 over yourself the same way. Your faith in divine protection will increase as you do; and your guardian angel is God’s appointed shield of protection over you.

As convicted felons, you are not authorized to own a gun for self-defense when you release from prison. But you may well live in neighborhoods where criminals pack, and will use a weapon either to rob, or even kill out of sheer anger or hubris. Your only protection in such circumstances is the intervention of God. Most often, your angels will protect you by silently guiding you away from thugs, or steering them from you. You should never go looking for trouble; but if you ever do street ministry, trouble may find you. If you’re staring down the barrel of a gun, take your stand upon the word of God and declare to the thug: “IN JESUS’ NAME, I REBUKE YOU!” If God intends for you to live, your angel will keep that gun from firing.

But if he doesn’t, you’ll either take a bullet and survive, or you’ll be promoted to heaven; and your angel will be standing there to escort you there, because you successfully completed all that God intended for you to achieve on earth. You will be granted the highest honor of the persevering saint – to be selected for martyrdom, and to stand in the ranks of prophets, John the Baptist, most of the early apostles, and Jesus Himself.

Just as an angel shut the mouth of lions, I have heard many testimonies of angels that have prevented guns from firing, knocked flying bullets down or caused them to miss at point blank range. Professor Chuck Pollock, with whom I went to Belize on a mission trip, was saved from a Palestinian mortar attack in Southern Lebanon in the 1970’s when he saw an angel pluck a mortar round out of the sky and hurl it back at the attackers. They never fired a round at him again.

In 1983, I heard a little Hispanic lady testify in Lawton, Oklahoma, how she claimed every day Psalm 91:11-12 that I just quoted and Psalm 103:20: “Bless the Lord, you His angels, might in strength; who obey His word, performing the voice of His word.” She testified that some months earlier she had been out jogging in her neighborhood and passed by a house when suddenly she was confronted by a snarling Doberman pincher, crouching and ready to spring in attack. Suddenly, her arm shot forward and pointed at the Doberman. It shrank away in fear! She knew it wasn’t her that caused that dog to run away; it saw her guardian angel glaring fiercely back at the dog.

Then she testified to what had happened only a few days before. She was driving north on a divided four-lane road called Fort Sill Boulevard. I drove that road hundreds of times when I lived there. She was driving under another four-lane road at the speed limit of 55 mph. The road dips down and then slopes upward. Suddenly, she saw a car driven by a young soldier come flying over the divider directly at her. The next she knew, both cars were stopped a foot apart from each other. Other cars passing by stopped and the drivers stared in amazement at what they had just witnessed. She said, “I don’t remember stepping on my brakes.” That is the power of a guardian angel.

You don’t need a weapon to protect you from violent assault. All you need to know is that God has assigned you a guardian angel, and that angel is charged to protect you until your work on earth is complete. As long as you are living by faith in obedience to Christ, your angel will be watching over you 24/7/365. You are indestructible! Now getting back to Daniel 6, reading form v. 23:

²³ The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

²⁴ At the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

²⁵ Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth: “May you prosper greatly! 26 “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. ²⁷ 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.”

²⁸ So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

This was the last of Daniel’s tests of faith in God’s sovereign protection, and covenant loyalty, His chesed. Daniel is a model of faith, holiness and excellence for all believers. God spoke to the prophet Ezekiel, citing Noah, Daniel and Job as three of the most righteous men who ever lived. They all lived under older covenants; but it’s the same God who honored and protected them. We, however, live under the most excellent covenant of all, the New Covenant that was sealed in Jesus’ own blood. That’s why you and I can believe that God could deliver us from danger by the power of his angels.

If you have faith in Christ, he looks at you as a spotless, blameless child of God. You bear forever the righteousness of Christ. It is well said that to be justified by faith in Christ is “just-as-if-I’d” never sinned! You never did and never could earn His righteousness. God gives it to you as a free gift of grace; but then you have to respond by faith to that free offer by repenting of your sins, and by daily offering yourself to God, in the words of Romans 12:1 as a “living sacrifice, acceptable to God, as your spiritual service of worship.” When you do this you are standing in your rightful position as a sinless child of God, because God the Father only sees His son Jesus within you.

Being in a position of sinless righteousness before God gives you authority to claim all the promises of God under Jesus’ New Covenant, and that includes the lifetime protection of your guardian angel. Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ as a living sacrifice? If you can’t honestly say to God that you have, are you willing to do so today. If so, I want to pray with you.

That protection doesn’t absolve you from personal responsibility. We’re still accountable to God for our words and deeds; and so we should always conduct ourselves with humility, as Daniel did. He could truthfully say to King Darius, “I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you.” Make that your confession, too.

Early in my Christian walk, I memorized a verse on honesty, spoken by the Apostle Paul before his accusers in court, Acts 24:16: “I do my best to maintain a blameless conscience both before God and before men.” Make that your confession by faith in Christ today, and you will shut the mouth of the devil, the Accuser of the brethren, and trample Satan under your feet! Let us pray.