The Story of Daniel and the Lion’s Den, Part 1 (Daniel 6)

Darius was king of Persia. He ruled by setting 120 princes over his entire kingdom. He also set three presidents over the 120 princes to make sure they were doing what was right in ruling the kingdom. Daniel was one of the three presidents, and he was preferred by the king over all the presidents and princes because the Bible says “an excellent spirit was in him.” In fact, the king was even thinking about setting Daniel over the whole kingdom. You would think everyone would be happy with the way the king had things set up, but not so. All the other presidents and princes became jealous of Daniel being favored by the king, and they did not want him to be put in charge of the entire kingdom of Persia. Now boys and girls, jealousy is not a good thing. It can cause people to do things that are wrong, and it can hurt a lot of people. It can even destroy those who are jealous, and that will happen in this Bible Story about Daniel and the Lion’s Den. Anyway, because they were jealous everyone tried to find something wrong about the way Daniel was doing his job so they could report him to the king and get him into trouble. They searched and searched for something bad about Daniel that they could report to the king, but they could not find one thing Daniel was doing wrong. Daniel was an honest man and faithful in his service to the king. The Bible says “he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.” Do you think the jealousy of these men will find a way to get Daniel into trouble and even get him thrown into a den of lions? Yes, it will, and tomorrow we’ll find out how it all happened.