Daniel 6:10-16
David A. Davis
October 22, 2023
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Our encounter with prayer in the Old Testament this morning comes from the Book of Daniel. In terms of biblical literature, scholars categorize the book of Daniel as apocalyptic. Like the Revelation to John at the end of the New Testament, Daniel is full of visions and dreams. At the top of the list of theological themes of apocalyptic literature is the affirmation of the sovereignty of God. In the midst of a world full of suffering, violence, and evil, the world and the people of God, still belong to God. As the psalmist puts it, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Ps. 46) When trying to wrap one’s head around the memorable stories of Daniel’s friends in the furnace and Daniel in the lion’s den in the first half of the book and Daniel’s visions in the second half, that affirmation of the ultimate reign of God, that kingdom that cannot be shaken, is a helpful foundation.
When it comes to the furnace and the lion’s den, to King Nebuchadnezzer, King Belteshazzar, and King Darius, to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when it comes to Daniel, for most of us, what likely comes to mind is a chancel drama, a Vacation Bible School theme, a Sunday School flannel board, a classic piece of art work, or perhaps, an African American spiritual like the one soon to be offered by the choir. But this morning, we are being to asked to focus on Daniel and his prayer. I would like to invite you to join me in thinking for just a few moments this morning about the theme of prayer as resistance. Prayer as resistance.
You will remember that King Nebuchadnezzar threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the furnace because they refused to worship and bow down before the King’s gods and the golden statue he set up. “We have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let our God deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue…” The three walked out of the furnace unharmed and the king promoted them and began to praise, extol, and honor the Lord, the King of heaven.
Daniel faced a similar choice under the reign of King Darius. The king showed favor to Daniel because of his gift for interpreting dreams and as the text says, “because an excellent spirit was in Daniel.” Some translations suggest that “excellent” spirit connotes his wisdom, his keen mind, his dream interpretation ability. But the Hebrew word is “spirit”. Daniel had an exceptional spirit. In light of his gifts, the king was planning appoint Daniel as president over the whole kingdom. That created quite a bit of jealousy among others and a conspiracy was launched against Daniel to try and bring him down. But the conspirators could find nothing against Daniel because he was faithful and there was no evidence of negligence or corruption in him. The conspirators had to go to plan b and make something up. They went to the king and convinced him so sign an edict that no one in the land could pray to anyone at anytime except to King Darius. They clearly knew that Daniel, like his three friends, would refuse to pray to the king and would continue to pray to his God, the God of Israel, the God who made heaven and earth.
The Lord did deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel, deliver Daniel. King Darius spent that night fasting with no food or sleep. He rushed to the lion’s den the next morning hoping Daniel had survived. After hearing the king call out to him, Daniel responded “O king, live forever! My God sent an angel and shut the lions’ mouths so that they would not hurt me, because I was found blameless before God and also before you…I have done nothing wrong.” Like Nebuchadnezzar before him, King Darius offered praise to Daniel’s God and the bible says Daniel prospered.
Daniel, knowing the king had signed that edict, continues to go to his house three times a day as he always does, to kneel and face Jerusalem, and to pray to his God. In clear violation of the new royal edict and apparently in plain view through the window. Daniel prays and seeks mercy before his God. Scholars of biblical languages disagree about whether the windows in Daniel’s upper room would have normally been open in the warm climate or whether her opened them defiantly so that the conspirators could see him praying. It has to do with grammar and variances in the ancient texts. In the big picture, however, Daniel is simply leading a faithful life of prayer. Praying at the various times of day when faithful Jews were called to pray. A life of faithful prayer that nurtures and sustains the “excellent spirit”. The excellent spirit that so defines Daniel. Edict or no edict, it is Daniel’s life of prayer. Unlike Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego whose resistance to a king’s order was a single act of defiance, Daniel’s resistance is his life of prayer. His resistance is “praying and seeking mercy before his God.” His resistance is nurturing a spirit within that allows him to affirm that he and the world he lives in now and forever belongs to the God who gave him life.
Daniel praying in his upper room was not some kind of political act intended to strut a first amendment right. Daniel praying daily prayers in his upper room was not a public act intended to draw attention. Daniel kneeling and facing Jerusalem in prayer was not the same as street preacher at the crowded corner preaching a “turn or burn” sermon. It was his embodied life of prayer and coming into God’s presence to nurture and sustain his walk of faith in a foreign world. Yes, refusing to pray to the king alone but in praying and seeking the mercy of God refusing to let the world’s ways erode his identify and relationship as a beloved child of God.
I have confessed this before from this pulpit but it has been a long time ago. In college I failed DQT. The leaders of the campus Christian fellowship where I spent a lot of time were very big on DQT. Daily quiet time. Daily quiet time for prayer and scripture reading. It wasn’t that I didn’t spend time in prayer and reading the bible, it was that I couldn’t find the discipline to do it at the same time every day. For me it was more like offering a song of prayer in my head walking across campus, spending an afternoon by myself on a rock at Marble Head outside of Boston looking out over the ocean, singing texts of scripture in weekly choir rehearsals and in daily morning chapel, and starting a bedtime prayer always shortened by sleep. When it came to DQT I carried quite the guilt for years, even years into being a pastor.
Two books helped rid me of the guilt related to my under-performing piety. I first read a book on preaching in my doctoral program hat affirmed sermon preparation as prayer. Then someone shared with me the book Practicing the Presence of Prayer by a 17th century monk named Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence discovered that it was a mistake to think our prayer time was different than any other time in our experience of the presence of God. He described his life in the monastery and how serving others in the kitchen became a palpable experience of the presence of God. To push it just a bit, Brother Lawrence was suggesting that washing dishes was an act of prayer. Or closer to his own language, he experienced the presence of God there as meaningfully as he did praying the daily office in the chapel. He tells of a life of continually, consciously, intentionally drawing near to God. Brother Lawrence, Daniel, and a life of prayer.
A life of prayer that seeks the presence of God in all the places of your life as over and over again the world’s ways seek to eat away at your identity and relationship as a beloved child of God. A life of prayer that nurtures a spirit within that while the world near and far may feel so contrary to what God intends, way down deep your spirit affirms that you and the world you live in now and forever belongs to the God who gave you life. A life of prayer in the presence of God. Something of what the Apostle Paul meant when he exhorted the church in Rome to be “constant in prayer” (Rom 12). Something of what the Apostle Paul meant when he exhorted the followers of Jesus at Philippi that “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God” (Eph 4). A life of prayer that gives you strength in resisting the powers and principalities. What the Apostle described in the Letter to the Ephesians as “the cosmic powers of this present darkness”. A life of prayer in the presence of God that seals somewhere in your excellent spirit that you are now and forever a Beloved Child of God.
This life of prayer to which Christ himself calls is so much more than piety. It is the only way that any of us can live with the assurance of the psalmist that “weeping lasts for the night but joy comes in the morning.” The life of prayer in the presence of God forms the very foundation for how any of us can offer some ray of light when the darkness feels so strong. Basking in the presence of God is the only way any of us can be a sign of love in world so full of hate.
Daniel. Brother Lawrence. You and me. Yearning, craving the gift of a spirit within formed in and through a life of prayer. A life of prayer in the presence of God so that we can rise tomorrow and offer a bit of morning glory, and breaking light, and world conquering love.