The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den.  And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

At the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lion’s den, along with their wives and children.  And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.  Daniel 6:23-24

Today’s scripture passage comes from the story of Daniel in the lion’s den.  You may have heard this story as a child.  Daniel had been brought into Babylon as a captive in his youth.  He had found favor with the king and had been appointed to a high position.  Some of the locals were jealous and had set out to find something against him, but could find no corruption.  The only thing they could use against him was his praying to God.  They found a way to manipulate the king into signing an order against praying to God and well you know the rest of the story.  Of course, Daniel continued to pray to his God as he had always done and was thrown into the lion’s den.  When the king realized that he had no choice because of the order he had been tricked into signing, he was greatly discouraged.  The next morning he went to the lion’s den and was delighted to find that Daniel had escaped without even a scratch.  The scripture passage tells us that Daniel had no wound on him because he had trusted his God.

So, the first part of this story is extremely important.  Trust God.  We will be amazed at what God can and will do for us when we trust in Him.  Daniel had been a faithful follower of Christ his whole life and he went into the lion’s den knowing that God had this.  He didn’t go in fearful, he went in faithful.

Daniel had basically been falsely accused of not honoring the king.  Those that had falsely accused him were then thrown into the lion’s den along with their wives and their children.  I thought it was a bit harsh to also throw the wives and children in but this is what happened.  They did not fare as well as Daniel in that they were basically destroyed within seconds of entering the den.

You see the bottom line here is that God doesn’t like ugly.  If you have children, then you probably know how it feels when someone does something against your child.  Well God loves His children and He really doesn’t like it when someone comes against one or more of them.

Nowhere in this scripture does it say that Daniel prayed that God would deal with them.  God just did.  There is a movie line that says, “you mess with me, you mess with my whole family”.  Well, I have learned that if someone messes with me, then they mess with my God.  I have also learned that Romans 12:19 which tells us “Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for His wrath.  For it is written:  Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord.”  is alive and well today.  I have seen people go against God’s children and suffer horribly.  People that commit evil against a child of God has set themselves up to suffer and there is nothing we can do to stop God’s wrath.

There is however, something we can do to turn God’s wrath away from them.  Proverbs 24:17-18 tells us “Don’t gloat when your enemy falls, and don’t let your heart rejoice when he stumbles, or the Lord will see, be displeased and turn His wrath away from him.”  You see God doesn’t tolerate his children being ugly either.

When we see our enemy suffer our natural inclination is to rejoice.  We want to say, “see I told you so”.  But the Bible clearly tells us that God will not honor this type of behavior.  Not only will he not honor it, but He will turn his wrath away from your enemy.  So if you gloat about their sufferings, you basically give them a “get out of jail free” card.

I’ll admit that when people come against me my first thought is usually what I can do to seek revenge, but then I pray.  God reminds me that He will take care of everything.  All I need to do is stay righteous.  Trust in Him.  You see when we set out to seek revenge, it’s like we are telling God that we don’t trust Him to handle it.

So if someone has come against you or wronged you in some way, pray for them.  Pray for God to change their heart and pray that they repent, because if they don’t God is going to deal with them.  When God deals with them it will be so much worse than anything you could have done to them.  When they fall, be there for them.  They are going to need a friend.  Romans 12:20 tells us that if our enemy is hungry to feed him, if he’s thirsty give him something to drink.  It goes on to say that doing so will be like heaping hot coals on his head.

So basically the Bible tells us this.  We are to love even our enemies and pray for those that persecute us (Matthew 5:44).  God will handle the whole revenge thing.  We are simply to love God and trust in Him and He will handle everything else.

So today if there is someone who is causing you trouble, pray for that person.  If they fail to repent and get right with God, their day is coming and it won’t be pretty.  Be there for them, they are going to need a friend.  I know all this goes against our human nature, but well that’s God’s way.  He made us to have a human nature that goes against what He would have us to do.  I guess if He had made us to do the right thing then we wouldn’t have to lean on Him so much, right?  So trust in God, he’s got your back.

Have a great day!