The Gospel In the Lion’s Den

I was doing my daily reading the other day, which included Daniel 6.

Daniel in the Lion's Den... it's a story that many of us have heard since before we could walk, and usually it is ripped out of the context of a righteous man living in pagan Babylon.

As I was reading through it this time, new insights flew off the page for me that I had never noticed before.

The chapter opens with King Darius elevating Daniel to a high position.  This is the third time Daniel was promoted; it happened with Nebuchadnezzer after interpreting the king's dream, and then with Belshazzar after interpreting the writing on the wall.  (Granted, the second promotion only lasted an hour or two).  I wonder what Daniel did to impress Darius?  Maybe Darius just heard testimonies about Daniel, his God, and his steadfastness.  Who knows?

Anyway, Daniel's promotion irritated his fellow governors and satraps.   They knew Daniel was a righteous and faithful man, filled with integrity - so they declared that they would have to trip him up in regard to his God's law.

So these schmucks approached Darius with a piece of legislation that they knew Daniel would disobey.  They appealed to Darius' ego, suggesting that for 30 days, nobody be allowed to worship any man or god but Darius himself.

Darius fell for the ploy, and signed the bill into law.  The unchangeable Law of the Medes and Persians.  It was a ridiculous law that Daniel rightfully refused to obey.

Daniel prayed toward Jerusalem

I have often had this fleeting thought while reading about the Law of the Medes and Persians:  why exactly were the laws unchangeable?  Why then, at that point in history?  Many despotic rulers have come and gone and have had no problem changing laws.  Several modern guys come to mind - Stalin, Mao, Kim Jung Un, Hitler.

King Darius was the head honcho.  Why  could he not reverse the law with a kingly declaration?  (This happens again later in the Persian Empire, under King Artaxerxes in the Esther story).

Maybe God is showing us something with the Law of the Medes and Persians.  Maybe it is to demonstrate how His own law is set in stone and unchangeable.

When evil comes, another route must be taken because of the unchangeable law.

C. S. Lewis speaks of this immutable law and the way around it in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  The White Witch declared, "You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a right to a kill … that human creature is mine. … His blood is my property."

The Witch in the story was quite right. She had legal claim to Edmund's soul because of his treachery. But Edmund would not die for his sins. Instead, Aslan offered to lay down his life in place of the boy.  In the story, the unchangeable law is called the Deep Magic From the Dawn of Time.  Aslan had to take a different route.

Daniel was condemned by an unchangeable law. The king was forced to obey his own law, even though he liked and respected Daniel. Against his wishes, he had to toss Daniel into the lion's den, because the law required it.  Verse 17 says that a stone was put in front of what looked to be Daniel's tomb, and sealed. (Where have we heard that before?)

Daniel in the cave with lions

Thankfully, YHVH intervened and closed the mouth of the hungry felines.  Daniel was spared.

God has made a law that declares the penalty for sin is death. It is immutable. It cannot be changed. And unless we still happen to be on earth when Yeshua returns, we will pay that penalty through the first death.

But, God did provide a means to get around the immutable law. He provided Himself. He came to earth in the flesh as Yeshua, the Son of Man,  and He paid the penalty for the broken law for us, so that by accepting His payment, we will be raised to life immortal.  We will not suffer the second (and permanent) death.  Yeshua came as the sacrificial Lamb of God. in order to circumvent God's unchangeable law for us.

But Yeshua is no longer the meek Lamb.  Someday soon, He will return to earth as the mighty Lion of Judah, and He will destroy His enemies - just as the enemies of Daniel were destroyed by the lions in Babylon.  He will then rule and reign from Jerusalem, and those who belong to Him will rule and reign with Him.

Fiddler and Confessions

This post isn't very theological... more observational (and confessional).

This week, we went to see the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof.  This is my third time seeing it live, and if you count the number of times I've seen the movie starring Topol, it probably comes closer to about thirty or forty. 

The first time I saw Fiddler live was in the late 1980s.  I met my cousin in NY for the weekend and we got same-day half price tickets. I was coming down with a fever and sore throat, so I sat suffering through the musical, wondering when it would be over and I could go to bed.  I didn't even remotely get what it was about.

Ironically, I met this same cousin in Boston for a fun weekend during that same era.  I don't remember if it was before or after the weekend in NY.  Anyway, we spent about seven hours in the Bull and Finch Pub (the bar that inspired Cheers), and I have a memory from there that I believe was a turning point in my life.  A couple had joined us at our table, and we laughed and joked with them for a long time.  To my deep shame, I told a totally racist and disgusting joke about the Jewish people.  Suddenly the couple got up and left.  I looked at my cousin in dawning horror and wondered aloud if perhaps those people were Jewish.  (I was not following the Lord during this time in my life, in case you were wondering).

I will NEVER ever forget that night.  If I could find those people today and tell them how deeply sorry I was, I would.  Who knows?  Perhaps someday one of them will stumble on this blog, read this, and know how much I regret those careless, hurtful words.

I believe God used that shameful episode in my life to begin to open my heart toward the Jewish people.  I had grown up in an area where there were no Jewish people at all... I think I met my first one at around age 21.  I knew absolutely nothing about them, even though I was raised in the Catholic church.  I vaguely remember hearing the word "Israel" in church, but didn't know much else.

Okay, back to Fiddler.  Every time I see it, my love for the Jewish people grows, and the other night was no exception.  I found myself with tears in my eyes many times throughout the play. 

A little history:  Fiddler debuted on Broadway on September 22, 1964 (a mere month after I made my own debut into the world), and set a record with a run of 3,242 performances.  The play was based on two things. The plot stems from a series of short stories written in the late 1800s by Sholem Aleichem called "Tevye the Milkman and Other Stories." The painting by Orthodox Jewish-raised Marc Chagall around 1912 called "Le Violiniste" gave the musical its title.  The Fiddler is a metaphor for survival, through tradition and joyfulness, in a life of uncertainty and imbalance. Chagall painted the face of his fiddler green - in the artistic world, this signifies importance.  In Orthodox Jewish culture, the village fiddler was an important figure, playing his music for all pivotal life events:  Births, weddings, funerals, and other cultural and religious celebrations.

As I study Jewish history and culture, I keep finding myself comparing what I learn to what I already know from Fiddler.  They are a people who, sadly, are used to persecution.  Tradition is extremely important to them, so much so that it causes Tevye to disown his daughter when she marries a gentile.  This still happens today.  Recently I was reading the difference in prayer styles between Jews and Christians.  While Christians tend to close our eyes and bow our heads in a more solemn way, the Jewish people tend to pray with their eyes open, talking aloud to God as if He is in the room.  "Wow!" I thought.  "Just like Tevye!"