Live for God’s Approval, not for Man’s Approval
Introduction:
Most people spend too much energy being concerned about what other people think of them. It is bad to not care at all, but most of us don’t have that problem. Instead we care too much.
We worry we will say something foolish. We worry they won’t like what we wear. We do things we know we shouldn’t do in order to impress people. We avoid doing things we should do because we are afraid of what people might think.
This problem can be so deep that it can even affect your prayer life. We worry about what other people think of our prayers, rather than what God thinks. Prayer can be done to impress people. In certain situations prayer might even be avoided for fear of what other people might think. We don’t want to be “too spiritual” or to make someone uncomfortable.
This is not a satisfying way to live. It takes constant effort trying to please people who might still not like you even though you do everything right. Sometimes people might not even like you because you do everything right. Or they might grow to take you for granted or look down on you as a people pleaser.
Building your life around pleasing people is a trap, and the Bible says so:
Proverbs 29:25 says “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.”
It is ironic that our choice to fear people is something we do to try to protect ourselves. We fret because we don’t want our feelings hurt or we don’t want confrontation. But instead the Bible says, that fear is actually laying a snare for you. It is not keeping you safe. True safety is found in trusting the Lord.
Nowhere in the Bible is this illustrated more dramatically than in the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Men lay a wicked trap for Daniel. But Daniel does not fear them. Instead He trusts the Lord and goes to pray. The trap is sprung – but not upon Daniel – the Lord keeps him safe.
Text: Daniel 6:1-10
Theme: Live for God’s Approval, not for Man’s Approval
Verses 1-10
Things had turned out better for Daniel than people could ever have reasonably expected.
When you open up the book of Daniel and start out, things do not look good. Daniel was a young man whose home nation had been conquered and viciously subjugated by one of the most oppressive and powerful empire the world had ever seen up to that point.
When Babylon conquered Jerusalem, they killed many people. They took back with them into Babylon many they deemed talented in order to put them to work. Daniel and his three friends were three such people.
That doesn’t mean they were lucky to be chosen! The Babylonians changed their names and attempted to change their beliefs and diet. They even made them into eunuchs to make sure their interests were spent working for Babylon. They took everything from them and effectively made them into slaves.
But then, over time, through God’s gracious help and blessing, the situation changed and they grew in power and influence. Daniel in particular made strong advancement.
Now, Babylon itself has been subjugated and the Medes and the Persians have conquered. Darius is the new king over the land. Daniel became one of three high officials over the satraps. That was a very big deal. A satrap was basically a small king in a local region. Darius is the big king and the satraps are the little kings. Darius calls himself the king of kings. And now, overtop of many of these little kings is Daniel.
Who could have imagined that Daniel, who had lost everything at such a young age, would now be overseeing 40 different satraps over the largest and most powerful kingdom on earth?
And now he is being considered for appointment to a position second only to the king. He will be right under Darius overseeing the whole kingdom. It is the highest possible position of human achievement and recognition available to anybody in the entire world who is not Darius. The best of food, clothing, comforts, responsibility, love, and glory will be his.
And he is an absolute shoe-in for this position. Those who don’t want him to have this position can’t find a way to stop it. The king loves Daniel. Everything Daniel does is right. He never makes mistakes in the work that he has been given. He is the clear choice.
Daniel has got this position in the bag. It is all but his.
But then Daniel’s enemies find a way to jeopardize the position. And not only do they find a way that they believe can keep Daniel from becoming second to the king, they believe they can see him die a gruesome and painful death in the process. How awful, painful, graphic, and degrading to be slaughtered and eaten by a pack of lions?
King Darius signed the order and Daniel knew it. So Daniel has a choice – he can either choose to obey the order and so ensure his climb to ultimate power and glory. Or, he can choose to disobey the order and be killed by lions.
What a choice! It is comfort, power, and prestige – or becoming lion food! Is that even a choice?
For Daniel, it is not a choice. As soon as he becomes aware that the document had been signed he immediately disobeys it and even leaves his window open allowing his enemies to see him disobey. He disobeys it flagrantly, repeatedly, and makes himself visible to whoever might want to look into his window. He allows himself to be easily caught red-handed by many witnesses.
There is no note of hesitation. There is nothing about fear. There is no consideration or weighing of possible consequences for this action. There is no anger about being outwitted by his opponents. There is no remorse over the things that will be lost by making this choice.
So little does he care about this law and its consequences that he doesn’t even bother to make a fuss about it. He doesn’t even say “I don’t care,” so little does he care. It is nothing to him. He goes and he does just as he always had done and just as he always would do.
How is choosing one of the worst deaths imaginable over glory and prestige so easy for Daniel? The clue is a little phrase in verse 10 – “he gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.” Not once but many times and daily would Daniel give thanks before his God. This tells us about how Daniel viewed his life and how he viewed the God of his life.
God is the source of all things worthy of thanksgiving. “Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variance or shadow due to turning.” Daniel believed that and believed he had reason to be thankful to God every single day.
The content of his thanksgiving is between Daniel and God. Certainly I would imagine he was thankful for the other times that God had preserved his life. He could have been thankful for his other believing friends. For the honors he had enjoyed. For his food. Things great and mundane, there were many things to be thankful for. What he gave thanks for, we don’t know, but he was thankful to God all day every day good days and bad.
And he was thankful to God. Not to Darius. That is the key issue at stake. He recognizes all good things – including his position – are given to him by God. So he gives his thank filled prayer to God, not to Darius.
Application 1: What about you? Is your life marked by thankfulness to God? The more you come to recognize that God is the source of all good in your life, not man, the more you will trust the Lord over fearing man.
Link: Ultimately, Daniel’s thankfulness points to the truth that Daniel considered life worth living because of God. Not because of any man, not even Darius, but because of God. His life was filled with gratitude to God.
And so, when the choice becomes – Do I want the approval of men or do I want the approval of God? Am I going to fear man or am I going to trust God? – without hesitation he chooses God.
Here Daniel is fulfilling the commandment of Jesus concerning prayer where Jesus said “and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” – Matt 6:5-6
But interestingly, he is fulfilling it by being seen by others. It is not his goal to be seen by others, but neither is it his goal to not be seen by others. He is in his room and his window is open, so they see him.
Daniel fulfills the command of Jesus because he is seeking the approval of God, not the approval of man.
In Jesus’ day, the circumstances had flipped dramatically to where being seen to be praying was something that would win the approval of men. People would see others praying to God and say “oh wow! Good for them.” Because of this, many people were turning prayer into a public act to win the approval of others. They weren’t really giving thanks to God. They were saying words that sounded like it so that people would like them. They liked to hear people say “good praying there champ!”
For people like the Pharisees, praying three times a day and being seen to do it was something that would help to advance their career. And some did it for that very purpose.
But in Daniel’s day, the situation was the opposite. To be seen by others to be praying to God did not win approval and pats on the back. It was not a good move for Daniel’s career. Doing so could cost him everything. And to be betrayed by his peers to the teeth and claws of lions.
They are two different sets of circumstances, but the choice is essentially the same in both – I choose the love and reward that God gives, over the love and reward that people give. I choose to trust the Lord rather than to fear man.
Application 2: And so it ought to be in our prayers and in our lives. Praying is something we ought to be doing, but not because others think we ought to be doing it. Whether people approve of your praying or disapprove, we ought to pray. It ought to be done because the approval of God and your relationship with God make prayer worth it.
Link: That it is better to trust the Lord than to fear man is shown by how this story continues…
*Summarize up to Daniel 6:19*
Verses 19-24
Conclusion: Daniel chose to trust the Lord over fearing man. For him, praying was something that he had always done as an act of trust in the Lord. He found it easy to turn to the Lord instead of man because his heart was filled with thankfulness to the Lord. We should treat prayer in this same way – for the approval of God and in thankfulness to God.
At the start of the story, it looks like a trap has been laid for Daniel. But the wicked men really laid a trap for themselves. God kept Daniel safe because of his trust in Him. It does not always work out like this in our lives. Some day we will all pass away to return to the Lord. But God did this special thing to show us that He will ultimately take care of us when we trust in Him.
Proverbs 29:25 says “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.”