Focus: Know Your God

Text: Dan.6:22

"MY GOD hath sent HIS angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt."

God is looking for those who know and possess Him personally. It is written that the "eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him" (2Cor.16:9). After all that Job went through in his life, he finally exclaimed, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee" (Jb.42:5). At a point in his suffering he said, "For I KNOW that MY REDEEMER liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth" (Jb.19:25). That is the intimate knowledge of God. He knew God for himself and advanced in that knowledge. 

Martin Luther said, "Christianity is a word of personal pronoun." No one goes to heaven on another person's back, and it is so true what another has said that God has no grandchild. You are either his child or you are not. You can't come through the back door.

The background for this morning message is the book of Daniel. Daniel's faith exposed him to persecution and peril plotted by his political enemies who were jealous and envious of his position and the royal favors he enjoyed from the kings. They wanted him out of the way, and so they plotted for his death by means of the Lions' Den. The king made frantic efforts to free him, but all to no avail. Daniel wrote, "Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him" (Dan.6:14). When it became obvious to him that success was no where in sight, he said to Daniel, "THY GOD whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee" (Dan.6:16). The king's words make it clear that Daniel's faith was not only personal, but also public. His faith was not a private affair only. People knew he believed in God, including the king. He did not hide his faith. Everyone in the kingdom knew about Daniel and his God.

The king was devastated that he couldn't save Daniel, but he arrived in the morning to find out if he was still alive. We read, "And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is THY GOD, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?" (Dan.6:20). Daniel replied, "MY GOD hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me…" (Dan.6:22). The king said, "Thy God," and Daniel said, "My God." He knew his God and knew that he knew his God. God was the main thing about Daniel. God was the center and circumference of Daniel's life. Daniel's God sent an angel to the den to shut the mouths of lions. Daniel refused the king's meat, and now in the den of lions, the lions couldn't feast on him. 

A man who knows his God cannot be meat for lions.

God's angel also knew that Daniel knew his God. Daniel wrote, "Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before THY GOD, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words" (Dan.10:12). Heaven and earth bore witness that Daniel knew his God. When Daniel arrived in Babylon, he was stripped of his name by Nebuchadnezzar. The king replaced his Jewish name with a Babylonian one. Many years later, another king acknowledged his Jewish name. He said, "O Daniel…" His name was officially restored because he held on to his God. The name of Daniel refused to be buried and forgotten. His name stuck with him.

Concerning Daniel's friends, we read, "Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the GOD OF Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent HIS angel, and delivered HIS servants that TRUSTED in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their OWN GOD" (Dan.3:28). The king of Babylon acknowledged the God of the three Hebrew men. He identified them as God's servants "who trusted him." Their God nullified and made nonsense of the king's words. Their God made sure that their bodies were unaffected by the fire, even the smell of smokes was not felt from them. The king decreed that everyone should serve their own God. Before they were thrown into the furnace, the king said to them, "Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" (Dan.3:15). But they boldly and confidently answered the king, "If it be so, OUR GOD whom WE SERVE is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king" (Dan.3:17). At the end of the day, their God was in the fire with them and kept the fire from burning or hurting them. Finally, the king said, "Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the GOD OF Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort" (Dan.3:29).

Let me close with Paul's words. He says, "For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I KNOW whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2Tim.1:12). In another place, he says, "But MY GOD shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Phil.4:19). Paul knew his God. He believed in his God, faithfully served Him, was firmly convinced of His ability to keep things, and unreservedly committed things into His hands. He was fully assured of the boundless resources of his God and His superabundant supplies.

Know your God and trust Him all the way! Know God and be known by Him! Let people identify you by your God! Be faithful to Him, and you will never regret it! He will be there for you at all times. He will always come to your rescue and defense.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter