Deeper Reflection
When Daniel was taken up out of the lions’ den at Darius’ orders, “no injury was found on him, because he had trusted in his God” (v.23). God delivered Daniel miraculously because Daniel trusted in Him. How did Daniel show his trust in God?It is possible that God spoke to Daniel personally or through Darius (v.16), before he was led to the lions’ den that He was going to deliver him, and he trusted in God to keep His word. It would be like Paul in Acts 27, when God spoke to him that he was safe in the dangerous storm-tossed sea voyage, that Paul could say, “I have faith in God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told” (Acts 27:23-25). But the text in Daniel 6 does not tell us anything like that.Daniel’s act of trusting in God is: “when Daniel knew that the document was signed”, he continued his daily practice of praying to God (Dan 6:10). God’s miraculous deliverance of Daniel in Daniel 6 corresponds to that of Daniel’s three friends in Daniel 3. Daniel was like his three friends, “who put their trust in Him…and yielded up their bodies” (Dan 3:28). Yielding our lives to God, especially in difficult and uncertain times, is trusting in God. It is like the Psalmist: “I trust in You, O Lord…My times are in Your hands” (Psa 31:14-15a). And note the repeated “his God” and “your God” (Dan 6:5, 10, 11, 16, 20, 23), which point to Daniel’s close relationship with God that is marked by mutual commitment.