English: Daniel’s Answer to the King (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My person started telling me about that Daniel guy again – you know, the one who likes to eat vegetables, but I told her that if there wasn’t any meat in this story, and maybe some animals too, I didn’t want anything to do with it.

And you know what my person said? She said Daniel was the meat in this story and there are animals in the story too. I guess I have to let her tell me the story now.

When Darius was king of Babylon he had three governors over the land and Daniel was one of them. But Daniel did so well that King Darius thought about putting him over everything. The other people in charge didn’t like this at all so they tried to find something Daniel was doing wrong, but they couldn’t.

Hey person, this story isn’t going so well. Where’s the meat and the animals? I don’t have much patience person. You’d better get to it quick or I’m leaving the room. Talk fast.

The other governors and people in charge figured the only way they could find fault with Daniel was through the law of his God, so they tricked King Darius into signing a decree that said for the next 30 days no one could petition any god or man except the king, and if they did they would be thrown into the lion’s den.

Lions? There are lions in this story?

Okay person, you can keep going.

Daniel knew about the decree, but he went and knelt down and prayed to his God like he always did.

The men who had talked King Darius into signing the decree went and told on Daniel. King Darius was very upset because he liked Daniel, but the law of the land said that once a decree had been signed it couldn’t be changed, even by the king.

So Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den.

Now I get it. Daniel really was the meat. Hey person, I might not like that Daniel only eats vegetables but that doesn’t mean that I want him to be eaten by lions.

Okay, I’ll keep listening. But please don’t put all the scary details in. I’m kind of starting to like Daniel.

When they threw Daniel into the lion’s den the king said to him, “Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.”

The king couldn’t sleep all night and early in the morning he went to the lion’s den and called out to Daniel, asking if his God had been able to deliver him from the lions.

Daniel told the king that God had sent an angel to shut the lion’s mouths so they wouldn’t hurt him, because Daniel had done no wrong before God or before the king.

The king was very happy and declared that the God of Daniel is the living God.

Hey person, I bet those were friendly lions and they just cuddled up with Daniel all night.

They were what? They were so hungry that they started gobbling their next meal before it hit the bottom of the den?

I’m sure glad an angel doesn’t shut my mouth.