Over 500 years before the time of Jesus, there was a man called Daniel who believed in God. He lived in Babylon for most of his life, and he always obeyed God. He was always honest and did things in a way which would please God, but he also pleased the king, Darius. King Darius was so pleased with him that he made Daniel the next most important person in the whole of his huge kingdom, and everything Daniel said, the people had to do.However the time came when some of the other people in charge, who weren't quite as important as Daniel, became jealous of him, and they set out to find fault with him.
They knew that the only fault they could find to tell the king about was the way Daniel always worshipped God, so they went to see the king with a scheme. They made out that they wanted to honor the king, and asked the king to make a rule that for thirty days, no-one could worship anyone else besides the king; and if they didn't obey they would be thrown into the den of lions. Of course the king thought that it would be great if everyone worshipped him, so he signed the law.

They carefully watched to see what Daniel would do, and they saw that Daniel still kneeled down to pray to God three times a day as he always did. They saw Daniel open his windows and pray towards Jerusalem, God's city, just the same way he always did. So they were pleased they had finally caught Daniel out, and they reported him to king Darius.

When king Darius heard that Daniel had continued to worship God, he was very annoyed with himself for not seeing through their scheme, and all day he tried everything he could think of to save Daniel from his punishment. Daniel was an old man, and everything he had ever done for several kings, had always been right. So king Darius was very upset. Sadly he had to agree to the punishment, and that evening Daniel was thrown into the den of starving lions.

Darius was so worried about Daniel that he wouldn't have anything to eat and he couldn't sleep all night. As soon as it started to get light early next morning, he hurried to the den and called out:
"Daniel, God's servant! Has your God been able to save you from the lions?"
He must have been very surprised to hear Daniel's voice reply to him:
"Yes, King Darius, my God sent His angel to shut the lions' mouths, and they haven't even touched me. That's because I never did any wrong to God, and I haven't done any wrong to you either."

King Darius was so happy to hear Daniel and got the guards to pull him out immediately. Then he ordered that those wicked men who had accused Daniel, as well as all their famillies, be thrown into the den of starving lions instead. So all the hungry lions had a big feast after all.

Afterwards, king Darius sent out a law that everyone should worship the God of Daniel instead, and he sent copies of the new law to every part of his huge kingdom.
The new law said that Daniel's God was the true God and that He would rule the world for ever and do whatever He wanted with it.

You can read this story for yourself in Daniel chapter 6.

See if you can answer these questions:
1. Why were the men jealous of Daniel?
2. What did the men watch Daniel do every day?
3. How was Daniel saved from the lions?
4. What happened to the wicked men?