Outlines by a London Minister Daniel 6:21-22 Then said Daniel to the king, O king, live for ever.… I. THE ANTECEDENTS OF DANIEL'S MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE. 1. They remind us that the penalty of greatness is the envy of inferiors. Daniel was as the sun in the Persian kingdom, showing to all who come under his influence what a good ruler really was. But the intense light of his character was too strong for men whose conduct he then condemned, and who were thus made painfully conscious of their own shortcomings. 2. Envy will seek an opportunity of false accusation. It was the envy of the Jewish rulers which was the foundation of their false accusations against Christ. 3. They remind us that it may be the penalty of moral greatness to be condemned by legal greatness. The law of a nation may be a very strong law because of its great antiquity, but it may be a very wicked law notwithstanding, and whoever obeys it may bring himself under the penalty of a much more powerful and a much older law, the law of moral rectitude — a law older than the creation of man. II. THE MIRACLE ITSELF. The lions did not act according to the instincts of their nature. This holding back of the appetite of the lions is the more remarkable, because the instinct returned as soon as Daniel's persecutors took his place in the den. Lessons: 1. The most pressing demands of business are not incompatible with daily waiting upon God in prayer. 2. Escape from trial of our constancy at one time is no guarantee that we shall not be called upon to prove it at another. 3. Sometimes disobedience to man is the highest virtue in the sight of God. When man's laws are in opposition to God's, the breaking of them is righteousness. 4. We are in the path of obedience to God, even though the obedience leads to death. (Outlines by a London Minister.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever. |
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