Bible Story Lessons

King Darius of Babylon admired and respected Daniel, and made him a governor.  Now, Daniel loved God and served Him.  He was honest and treated the people kindly, and so the people liked and obeyed him.  But there were less important rulers in the country who had to take orders from Daniel, but they did not like this as they were very jealous of Daniel.  They wanted the high position which the the king had given to Daniel.  When people are jealous they often do very bad things, don't they?

And so these wicked men tried to discover some way in which Daniel was doing wrong and report it to the king.  But found that Daniel always did what was right.  "He's a goody-two-shoes!" they said, "The only way we will find fault with Daniel is in the way he serves God!"

They kept a close watch on Daniel as they knew that he was faithful to our God.  They watched as he prayed every day.  Daniel had a special place in front of a window in his home where he prayed.  "Got him!" chuckled those wicked men and made a plan to get Daniel killed.

What do you suppose they did?  They went to the king and suggested to him that it would be a good idea if he made a law that no one was to ask any favour of any god or any man, except the king for the next thirty days!

They rubbed their hands in glee as they saw how this pleased the king.  "Oh king," they said as they bowed before him, "You must make a law that anyone who disobeys this command must be thrown into a den of lions!"  The king thought this was a good idea and immediately had the law made, and it was put down in writing and the king signed it.

Daniel wanted to please the king whenever he could, but he was determined to please God more, even if the king got angry.  So he continued to pray.

Those evil rulers spied on him and when they found him praying they rushed to the king and reported Daniel to the king.   When the king realised what a clever and wicked trick these men had played on him, he tried to save Daniel.  The king wasn't angry with Daniel and didn't want him to throw him into a den of lions to be eaten up, but he could not change the law he had made.

The king couldn't change the law which he had made, because it was a law of the Medes that any command issued by the king could not be changed, so there just wasn't anything he could do about it.  But Daniel was not afraid.

King Darius sadly gave permission to have Daniel thrown to the lions.  They pushed him into the den of fierce, hungry lions, and then rolled a large stone over the entrance to keep him from escaping.  "That's the end of Him!" they shouted, "Now we will be chief rulers!"

That night the king couldn't sleep, and tossed and turned on his bed the whole night long.  He knew that Daniel had a wonderful God, and hoped that Daniel's God would deliver him.  But the king wasn't sure that he would because he didn't know much about God.

When morning came, the king rushed to the den of lions to see what had happened to Daniel.  The king called out, "O Daniel, servant of the living God, was your God who you continually serve, able to save you from the lions?"  The king clapped his hands with joy when he heard Daniel answer, "O king, live forever.   My God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths, so they haven't hurt me!"

And we are glad that we can go to Sunday School and sing praises to God.  We are safe because Jesus loves us and said He would always be near us.  Let's say thank-you to Jesus for His love and kindness to each one of us.

God bless!