We come to Daniel 6, the last of the narrative chapters of Daniel, containing the story of Daniel and the lion’s den. Of course, again, every Sunday School kid has heard the story, usually picturing Daniel as a young man.

He was not. Most estimates have him in his late 70s or early 80s.

While popular art and children’s books often depict Daniel as a young man or teenager during this event, historical and chronological tracking through the reigns of the Babylonian and Medo-Persian empires place him as an elderly man.

And how did he get there? By ignoring a command of the king.

All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. (Daniel 6.7 – 10, ESV)

Daniel accepted the captivity, he embraced his education, he resisted a change in diet, and he ignored this command of the king. Different responses to different challenges.

And, just like in chapter 3, God does deliver, in this case, it’s what the king wanted!

Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” (Daniel 6.16, ESV)

And the king comes back the next morning and, in an act of faith, calls out to Daniel:

Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”

Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” (Daniel 6.19 – 22, ESV)

Super cool! We don’t always experience miraculous deliverance, but sometimes. And the deliverance underscores the theme of Daniel we’ve seen from the beginning:

Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth:

“Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.” (Daniel 6.25 – 27, ESV)

Nebuchadnezzar said the same thing:

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. (Daniel 4.34, ESV)

And Daniel said it early in his tenure in Babylon:

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. (Daniel 2.44, ESV)

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4.17, ESV)

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11.15, ESV)

Time flies. I remember 9/11 like it was yesterday. I had arrived on church staff in Montgomery, Alabama, in March 2001, as Minister of Discipleship. On the morning of September 11, we had our first Tuesday morning men’s Bible study. 200 men at 6:00 a.m.! We met until 7:30, and I went to my office, turned on my computer, and soon received a news update via email.

One of those unforgettable days, a day when everyone remembers where they were: I was a senior in high school on November 22, 1963, when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was working in the Air Force’s Space Command Headquarters on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. And now this.

I turn 80 this year, and these are the only such days in my lifetime, I think. Days characterized by:

• Unexpected
• Tragic (it’s bad news)
• Universal (it affects everyone, at least in the US)

The previous such day was probably Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

I should give thanks that I’ve experienced only three such days. I’m sure folks in other countries have a longer list.

And maybe we should think about the resurrection:

• Unexpected
• NOT tragic!
• Universal (except few knew about it!)

And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4.33, ESV)

Maybe we look to another day…

Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24.29 – 31, ESV)

We come to Daniel 5. God has spoken by dreams, once in chapter 2 and again in chapter 4, and in a vision. In chapter 5, he writes on the wall!

Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. (Daniel 5.3 – 5, ESV, emphasis mine)

Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar, is the “king” in chapter 5. What to do with this writing? The “…king’s wise men…could not read the writing…” The Queen Mother knew about Daniel:

The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, “O king, live forever! Let not your thoughts alarm you or your color change. There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him, and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father—your father the king—made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers, because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.” (Daniel 5.10 – 12, ESV)

Daniel is a man after my own heart: he explains riddles and solves problems! He’s also not afraid to confront authority. He reminds Belshazzar of the events of chapter 4 involving his father, Nebuchadnezzar, and concludes:

He was fed grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will. And you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored. (Daniel 5.21 – 23, ESV, emphasis mine)

Therefore:

“…from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter:

• MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;
• TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting;
• PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Daniel 5.24 – 28, ESV)

Note the word change: PARSIN in verse 24, PERES in verse 28. I was told decades ago that the first one was future, but by the time Daniel read it again, it had happened.

In the narrative of Daniel 5, the city of Babylon was already surrounded by the Medo-Persian army while King Belshazzar was feasting. According to ancient historians like Herodotus, the Persians literally diverted the Euphrates River that very night to march under the city gates.

And the conclusion is inevitable:

That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. (Daniel 5.30, ESV)

The message of Daniel remains clear:

…His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom is from generation to generation…and those who walk in pride He is able to put down. (Daniel 4.34, 37, NKJV)

We moved into our neighborhood just over a year ago. A 20-unit complex, and as of a neighborhood picnic on August 29, I’ve met everyone. (There was one lady who NEVER comes out of her house, but she was at the picnic. She was the last one.) The number and length of conversations with neighbors has increased dramatically since we got Paddy the Dog Memorial Day weekend.

I’ve been asking God why we’re here, and a few days ago, Marvin Campbell, US President of The Navigators, shared the game plan. I reproduce it here. It’s a play anyone can run. Marvin writes:

Over the last several years, I’ve had short conversations with one of my neighbors — often standing in the driveway. These conversations were cordial and friendly, but rarely very deep. From time to time, he would share something going on in his life. I would offer to pray, and the next time we crossed paths, I would try to remember to ask how things were going.

Nothing dramatic. No obvious breakthroughs. Just brief encounters over time and an effort to be present and engaged.

Then, a few weeks ago, everything changed.

He experienced what could easily have been a fatal head-on collision while driving on a narrow road. Miraculously, the collision was avoided; he can’t recall doing anything that prevented it. Not long after, he was sitting alone in a hotel room and had an overwhelming sense that Jesus was there with him — and that Jesus was his friend.

Since he knows I follow Jesus, he reached out and asked if we could get coffee.

As we sat together in our local Starbucks, he recounted these events and shared that he sensed Jesus reaching out to him. He wanted to understand what it might mean.

So, on a Starbucks drink label, I drew out The Bridge illustration and had the privilege of sharing the gospel with him. In a few weeks, we plan to meet again to talk through several passages of Scripture he agreed to read.

As I reflect on this interaction, I’m struck by the simplicity of it.

I did not orchestrate my neighbor’s circumstances. I certainly cannot explain everything he experienced, nor do I need to. God is the One who draws people to Himself. My part over these years was much smaller: 

• Be a neighbor.
• Listen.
• Care.
• Pray.
• Remember.
• Follow up.
• Be available when God opens the door. – Marvin Campbell, The Navigators

Marvin closes with two questions:

• Where is God inviting you to notice, care, pray, follow up, and be available more intentionally?
• Who has He already placed in the ordinary spaces of your life for a divine appointment?

Any of us can run this play…and we should. One of my neighbors asked me a couple of weeks ago to pray that she can find a new job that’s less intense than the one she has now. Time to follow up!

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22.36 – 39, ESV)

Permit me one more family- related post…

We are thrilled beyond words that our grandson, Taylor Ewell, son of our oldest, Mark, is a newly minted PhD in Exercise Science from Colorado State University! As this comes out, he and his wife, Marissa, have just moved to Rochester, Minnesota, where he has been awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at Mayo Clinic.

Taylor defends his dissertation, August 25, 2026, title as shown. I don’t understand it either!

Mark summarized Taylor’s journey in a Facebook post:

Is there a doctor in the house?

From his first day at CSU in August 2013, to finishing his doctorate this August 2026, Taylor has spent the last 13 years of his life at CSU. The same amount of time as he spent kindergarten through 12th, and all at one school instead of bouncing around multiple schools and multiple states.

He went from having challenges early on, to finding a path (and mentor) he really liked, to not accepting “no” when he decided to pursue a masters degree, to staying on and earning his PhD.

As a scientist, he has already published a dozen papers, and as the newly minted Dr. Ewell, he is headed to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester to continue his research under one of the top sports scientists in the world (Dr. Michael Joyner). I’m always proud of Taylor’s work, and he has pursued this dream with a focus and determination that inspires me and everyone in the family.

In the Facebook post, Mark didn’t mention that when Taylor’s college experience didn’t start out so well, he joined the Marines, serving in the reserves for five years.

Discipline, persistence, success. Well done, Taylor! We’re proud of you.

A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul. (Proverbs 13.19, NKJV)

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. – Calvin Coolidge

Happy Labor Day! The Labor Day blog came out yesterday to make room for something more important:

It’s our 58th wedding anniversary!

I usually post a picture from one of our August hikes, but this year, a local magazine treated us to a professional photo shoot to be used in an article coming out next spring. So here we are at Glen Eyrie, home of The Navigators’ Conference Center, standing near the castle with Queen’s Canyon in the background.

OK, I’ll throw in one pic from Rocky Mountain National Park. She doesn’t look 80, does she!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1.17, ESV)

Happy Labor Day…one day early. Tomorrow, I have to write about something else.

If you’re a regular reader of the Ewellogy, you know I admire work in all its forms. This year, I want to focus on tools. A few months ago, one of my neighbors moved out, and they used “U-Boxes” to do it. I regret I didn’t get my own picture. This one comes from the U-Haul site.

The U-Box is like a PODS container, only smaller:

I was fascinated with the process. Six U-Boxes were dropped off in my neighbor’s driveway. I watched them load the last couple of units. Then, the interesting part. A lady, just as in the U-Box picture above, drove a flat-bed trailer up and using a forklift, picked up each container and put it on the trailer. Six units, one lady, and a special forklift. If you’re wondering where the forklift goes when the trailer is loaded, she just pulls up behind the trailer, inserts the forklifts’ blades into a special slot, and the forklift lifts itself up and rides behind the load.

Amazing. The pickup lady I watched was 63 years old. The Labor Day lesson? The power of tools. One person of no special strength or ability (other than training, of course) with the proper tools – a flat-bed trailer and a forklift – loaded and transported a whole houseful of belongings in a very short time.

In India I’ve seen labor without tools. I’ve seen small men carrying 100-pound sacks of potatoes on their backs. Bless them for their effort, but it takes a long time to move potatoes that way.

I saw guys in India laying a foundation for a house by hand using 50-pound sacks of concrete. It might take a month to build that small foundation.

By contrast, my friend, house-builder Gary, poured a 3600-square-foot foundation before lunch with four men, a caravan of cement mixer trucks, and a device that pumps that cement through a pipe directed by one guy to exactly where he wants it. (Not a picture of the process I saw, but they used a machine like this one.)

Tools: the labor multiplier.

We are blessed in this country with tools, built by labor assisted by yet other tools. I give thanks for the men and women who invent and build tools. A huge factor in our productivity. And, of course, thanks as always to the folks who use those tools to serve us.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1.31, ESV, emphasis mine)

Last Sunday our church celebrated its annual picnic in the park service with an emphasis on enjoying God’s creation. Scripture included:

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1.24, 25, ESV)

During our recent time in Estes Park, Colorado, we saw our share of “beasts” as well as birds, beginning with the turkeys: mamas and their offspring…

…deer and their offspring…

…cow elk on the road into town…

…and finally, on the day we left, the dog and I were walking up to the chapel to drop off a key, and there he was – exactly where I needed to go.

We waited… Fortunately, he kept going.

And when we got home, this spider had built the most intricate web under the light outside our garage. I’m impressed:

Is the wild ox willing to serve you? Will he spend the night at your manger? Can you bind him in the furrow with ropes, or will he harrow the valleys after you? Will you depend on him because his strength is great, and will you leave to him your labor? Do you have faith in him that he will return your grain and gather it to your threshing floor? (Job 39.9 – 12, ESV)

As we move into Daniel 4, we’ll get another lesson supporting the main theme of Daniel. If you understand nothing else, you’ll be OK if you remember what Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2:

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. (Daniel 2.44, ESV)

God is making sure that Nebuchadnezzar gets the message. In chapter 1, his best guys are those who worship the God of Israel:

And the king spoke with them, and among all of them none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king. And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. (Daniel 1.19, 20, ESV)

We saw the message from chapter 2. In chapter 3, this God delivers men who refuse to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image:

Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” (Daniel 3.28, 29, ESV)

But the king still doesn’t fully grasp the message until the events of chapter 4, narrated mostly by Nebuchadnezzar himself.

The chapter opens with the conclusion:

King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation. (Daniel 4.1 – 3, ESV)

And how did he come to this conclusion? It started with another dream:

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. (Daniel 4.4, 5, ESV)

He saw a great tree that was cut down:

“I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches…” (Daniel 4.13, 14, ESV)

The language changes from “it” to “he”:

But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. (Daniel 4.15, 16, ESV)

Seven years…until he learns what lesson?

The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’ (Daniel 4.17, ESV)

Essentially, the lesson from chapter 2. And Daniel interprets the dream as a warning. “This will happen to you, king…Best you change.”

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity. (Daniel 4.27, ESV)

But after a year, pride kicks in:

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4.28 – 30, ESV)

Oops. All the predictions of the dream kick in:

Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws. (Daniel 4.33, ESV)

And we come full circle to the end of the story, forecast in verse 3:

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4.34, 35, ESV)

“His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation…” And…

…those who walk in pride he is able to humble. – Nebuchadnezzar, quoted in Daniel 4.37)

That final lesson applies today…to kings, dictators, presidents…business leaders, religious leaders…the rest of us.

We come to Daniel 3, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which every kid that ever attended Sunday School knows. (Although few would be able to tell you the historical context or whether the event was before or after, say, Samson or David and Goliath.)

Anyway, we’re here in the exile, Daniel and his three friends are captives, subjects of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar to whom God had given a vision. Apparently Nebuchadnezzar missed the part about “the God of Heaven” and heard only:

You are the head of gold (Daniel 2.38, ESV)

So chapter three opens:

King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. (Daniel 3.1, ESV)

90 feet tall! And the command went out:

And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. (Daniel 3.4, 5, ESV)

And you all know what happened next. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to play:

“There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3.12, ESV)

…

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Daniel 3.16 – 18, ESV)

This, of course, is the most important paragraph in this story. The deliverance from the fiery furnace is nice and the presence of the fourth man “like a son of the gods” is encouraging, but what if there’s not miraculous deliverance? “…if not, we will not…worship the golden image…”

This is the choice that faced Alexei Navalany in Russia who was murdered for exactly the same crime. Refusing to bow to the king. And his testimony was clear:

Faith makes life simpler… are you a disciple… of the religion whose founder sacrificed himself for others…? If you can honestly answer yes, what is there left to worry about? – quoted by Joseph Nangle, October 26, 2024

There have been many…

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised… (Hebrews 11.35 – 39, ESV)