Courage

Below is the message at the WOW (Worship on Wednesday) service in Gettysburg August 28, 2013.  The Bible verses are Daniel 6:1-23.

In these Wednesday night services, we've been looking at Old Testament stories.  And those of you who've been coming regularly may have noticed a theme that goes through a lot of those stories:  courage.

Courage plays a big part in a lot of the stories we've looked at.  And when you think about what was going on at the time, it's easy to see why.  The people of Israel went through a lot of tough times.  There were times when they were in exile, unable to live in the land God had promised them.  There were times when they were made to be slaves.  And even when they were free and in their homeland, they still usually had all kinds of enemies around them, threatening them, wanting to take over.  So they needed these reminders to stay strong, to have courage, and to stay faithful to God.

We need those reminders, too, don't we?  We go through our share of tough times, too.  Life can be hard.  There are times when we feel like we have enemies threatening us, too.  Not necessarily physical enemies, although it certainly can be that.  But life makes demands on us, and those demands take their toll.  Sometimes they take a physical toll, and we deal with injury or disease.  Sometime they take a financial toll, and we wonder what's going to happen and whether we'll have enough.  Sometimes they take an emotional toll, and we deal with people who don't like us or who try to hurt us.  Sometimes they take a spiritual toll, as the culture around us tries to tell us to do things we know we should not do.  When those things or others come along, we need to remember to stay strong.  We need to remember to stay faithful to God and have courage.

The story of Daniel, which we're talking about tonight, is a story of courage.  It took great courage for Daniel to do what he did.  But that courage was not necessarily shown in the way we might think.

Daniel was living in Babylon.  That was not his homeland, but it was where he was living, and he was serving the king there, King Darius.  Most people in Babylon did not worship God.  They had their own “gods” that they worshiped.  But Daniel stayed faithful to God.

As you heard, Daniel was not real popular among some of the high officials in Babylon.  The king liked him, but a lot of the others did not.  So, they got the king to sign a decree that for thirty days, if anyone prayed to anyone other than the king, they should be thrown into the lions' den.

Now, try to put yourself in Daniel's place at this point.  You're a foreigner, but you've earned your way into a high position in government.  That's good, but you know there are people who don't like you and are out to get you.  But you trust God, and believe God will take care of you.  Then, you hear about this decree from the king, who you thought was your friend, that says if you pray to God, you'll be thrown into the lions' den, which of course means certain death.

I have to think Daniel was really scared.  He knows that he's supposed to stay faithful to God.  He knows he's supposed to pray to God and no one else.  But he also knows that if he prays to God he'll be killed.

Daniel had to be afraid.  And yet, somehow, Daniel found it in him to pray to God.  He gave thanks to God and he asked God for help.  And he did it at the same time and at the same place he always did, knowing that people would see or hear him, knowing that everyone would know what he was doing.

And think about this.  He did it not knowing whether God was going to protect him if he did it.  God did not make any promise to Daniel, at least not one that we know about.  God did not say, “Daniel, if you stay faithful to me, I'll protect you and you'll survive the lions' den.”  We know, because we've heard the story before, that God protected Daniel, but Daniel had not heard the story before.  We're not told that Daniel thought God would protect him and he'd survive the lions' den.  He may well have thought that he was going to be die there.  And yet, he did prayed to God anyway.

That took an incredible amount of courage.  Daniel could've come up with all kinds of reasons not to do what he did.  He could've come up with all kinds of rationalizations for why not praying to God was okay.  He could've said, “If I pray to God now, they'll kill me.  That'd be almost like committing suicide.  God certainly does not want me to do that, so I'll stop praying until this thirty day period is over.”  Or, he could've said, “I'll pray to God, but I'll do it secretly and silently.  Nobody will ever know about it.  That way God'll know I'm still faithful, but I'll be safe.”  There are all kinds of things Daniel could've done to keep himself safe and avoid what happened to him.

This is why I say the courage Daniel showed was not necessarily shown in the way some of us might think.  Going into the lions' den really did not take a lot of courage.  He did not have any choice about that.  The Bible does not say he walked into the lions' den.  It says he was thrown into the lions' den.  He had to go in there, whether he wanted to or not.

The way Daniel showed courage was in praying in the same place and in the same way he always did.  The way Daniel showed courage was to pray in a way and in a place where he knew people would find out.  That was the part he had a choice about.  That was the part where he had to choose whether he was going to stay faithful to God, regardless of what the consequences might be.  To put it bluntly, that was the part where he had to decide whether he truly believed in God or not.

When we're going through our tough times, when our lives are hard, when we feel like there are things threatening us, that's the decision we have to make, too.  It's not hard for me to stay faithful to God when things are going the way I want them to go.  It's not hard for me to stay faithful to God when I'm not facing any penalty for staying faithful, and when in fact I'm likely to be praised for it.  That's pretty easy.

What's hard is to keep praying and stay faithful to God when we our a loved one of ours has a serious injury or disease and none of our prayers seem to make any difference.  What's hard is to keep praying and stay faithful to God when people around us criticize us or make fun of us for our faith.  What's hard is to keep praying and stay faithful to God when the culture around us mocks our faith and our sense of right and wrong.

When those things happen, we make a choice.  Whether we think of it that way or not, we make a choice.  We can come up with all kinds of reasons for why not praying to God and not staying faithful to God is okay.  We can come up with all kinds of rationalizations for why it's okay for us to just keep our prayers and our faith secret and silent, so nobody knows about it.  Or, we can stay faithful to God by making our prayers and our faith known, regardless of what the consequences may be.

We can show the courage that Daniel showed, the courage that shows up in story after story in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  We can show the courage that says, “I am a Christian.  I worship the Lord, and I have accepted Jesus as my Savior.  Therefore, I am going to do what a Christian is supposed to do, and I am going to live the way a Christian is supposed to live.  And whatever happens is what's going to happen.”

That does not involved being obnoxious or getting in people's faces about our faith, of course.  Daniel did not do that.  He did not go out into the middle of the street and make a big show of praying so everyone could see him.  But he did not hide his faith, either.  He had the courage to do what he knew God wanted him to do, to live the way God wanted him to live, and let happen whatever was going to happen.

That's real courage.  That's the courage Daniel had.  It's the courage God wants you and me to have, too.