f the tone of the latter part of verse
22 is somewhat strange to us, the historian's summary in verse 23 gives
the eternal truth of the matter: 'No manner of hurt was found upon him,
because he had trusted in his God.' That is the basis of the reference
in Hebrews xi. 33: 'Through faith ... stopped the mouths of lions.'

Simple trust in God brings His angel to our help, and the deliverance,
which is ultimately to be ascribed to His hand muzzling the gaping
beasts of prey, may also be ascribed to the faith which sets His hand in
motion. The true cause is God, but the indispensable condition without
which God will not act, and with which He cannot but act, is our trust.
Therefore all the great things which it is said to do are due, not to
anything in it, but wholly to that of which it lays hold. A foot or two
of lead pipe is worth little, but if it is the channel through which
water flows into a city, it is priceless.

Faith may or may not bring external deliverances, such as it brought to
Daniel; but the good cheer which this story brings us does not depend on
these. When Paul lay in Rome, shortly before his martyrdom, the
experience of Daniel was in his mind, as he thankfully wrote to Timothy,
'I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.' He adds a hope which
contrasts strangely, at first sight, with the clear expectation of a
speedy and violent death, expressed a moment or two before ('I am
already being offered, and the time of my departure is come') when he
says, 'The Lord will deliver me from every evil work'; but he had
learned that it was possible to pass through the evil and yet to be
delivered from it, and that a man might be thrown to the lions and
devoured by them, and yet be truly shielded from all harm from them. So
he adds, 'And will save me unto His heavenly kingdom,' thereby teaching
us that the true deliverance is that which carries us into, or something
nearer towards, the eternal home. Thus understood, the miracle of
Daniel's deliverance is continually repeated to all who partake of
Daniel's faith, 'Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation ... thou
shalt tread upon the lion and adder.'

The savage vengeance on the conspirators and the proclamation of Darius
must be left untouched. The one is a ghastly example of retributive
judgment, in which, as sometimes is the case even now, men fall into the
pit they have digged for others, and it shows the barbarous cruelty of
that gorgeous civilisation. Th