Daniel s Den Last week we talked about Jonah. His book in the Bible is only two pages and really he just has one story. The book of Daniel is much

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Jemima Harmon
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1 Daniel s Den Last week we talked about Jonah. His book in the Bible is only two pages and really he just has one story. The book of Daniel is much longer and has many stories. I am going to talk about two of the stories; one you probably know and one you may not know. We re going to do some metaphysical bible interpretation and some of my own interpretation. So let s begin. Who wrote the book of Daniel? The literalists will say Daniel. But scholarship is pretty clear there never was a Daniel. The book of Daniel is one of the apocryphal books prophesizing an end time and it was also a book of encouragement. It was a Jewish elders response to the persecution of the Jews by the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes at the end of his reign, around 164 BCE. The first six chapters are folklore from the late Persian/early Hellenistic period. Chapters 7-12 are the vision and prophesy of vindication of the Jews. Daniel s den is a time of challenge but his first challenge begins in the very first chapter. Let me set up the story. Daniel is one of several youth, healthy and bright Hebrew boys taken by their captors to Babylon to be trained to serve in King Nebuchadnezzar s palace. Daniel has three friends taken with him: Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Now the youth being trained are feasted with fine meats, the king s wine and all sorts of delicacies. Daniel resolves that he will not defile his body and that he and his friends must eat only vegetables and drink only water. So he goes to the guard over them, Ashpenaz, and tells him. Ashpenaz is a little leery of this diet and tells Daniel he is afraid he will be punished if the boys get faint or do poorly. Daniel says, Put us to the test for 10 days and see how we compare to the others. At the end of the ten days, no one was more fit or wiser than the four boys. Ashpenaz gave them Persian names and they were put in charge of many things. Their Persian names may sound more familiar: Shadrach, Meshack and Abed-nego. Daniel s name was Belteshazzar, in honor of the king s god Bel. And yes, the three friends were the men thrown in the fiery furnace for refusing to bow to the little golden god Bel. And they walked out unharmed. The first six chapters of folklore are all about stories of overcoming. Before we move on to the next story, let s look at the metaphysics of this story. Our cast of characters all have meanings we find in the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary. Daniel represents spiritual judgment or pure judgment and conscious integrity ; the clear, penetrating insight of Spirit. 1

2 Charles Fillmore says Daniel humbled himself to Universal Mind and made himself receptive to the cosmic consciousness. We all have this capacity. What struck me about Daniel is that he was firm in his spiritual identity. We hear a lot lately about gender identity, which most of us take for granted. We have our work identity; our family identity; and many other identities focused on our transient, material world. How often do we focus on our identity as the I AM in expression? How often do we contemplate our potential and power? Firmly planted in his spiritual identity, Daniel was able to maintain conscious integrity through many trials. What about his friends? They also represent aspects of ourselves. Hananiah means God is grace and mercy. According to Fillmore, this signifies knowledge of the indwelling Christ as love, goodness and the channel of all power, wisdom and Truth in the manifest man. Hananiah is Spiritual Understanding. Mishael means who is like God; what God is. Fillmore says he signifies Love, Godlikeness or that which is greatly desired and is prayed for by all persons who have been awakened to the Christ Truth, in any degree. So Mishael is Spiritual Love. And finally Azariah. Fillmore says he signifies that which recognizes God as a very present and efficient deliverer and help at all times, whatever the need may be. Azariah is Spiritual Strength. And what about the guard, Ashpenaz? Literally, his name is Persian for Horse s nose. Fillmore links the immediate nature of the sense of smell to his metaphysics of Ashpenaz. He says he signifies a keen and quick perception of the importance of vital forces in man but without recognition of one s innate power and ability to use these forces to build up one s true spiritual being. We speak about and study 12 Spiritual powers but in this story we call upon Wisdom, Understanding, Love and Strength. In the face of the temptations of the manifest world, we have to discern and understand the power of standing in our Truth. We must resolve to be our Christ nature in expression. It takes perseverance and strength and we keep our spirituality loving and not righteous. How easy is this? Yet are we not all called to live our Truth; not as a test but as a testament to the true power of the I AM. Living our Truth will demonstrate time and again, not weakness but wisdom, power and strength. Coming out of this first den finds our fearless four in charge of many things. They were foreigners and Hebrews and the other satraps were not happy. They conspired to get them in trouble several times. Satraps were provincial governors in the Persian empire and our four got more power than many of them. 2

3 Daniel served under several kings through the book. King Darius liked Daniel and promoted him to the position of one of three presidents over the satraps; which of course, got under the skin of the satraps. Knowing Daniel s prayer habits and his devotion to one God, they laid a trap. They went to the King and told him they thought they should have an ordinance to enforce that says no one shall petition any god other than the king for 30 days. The punishment would be to be placed in the lion s den. And without really thinking it through, Darius signed it. Now Daniel heard about the new ordinance and what did he do? Three times a day he went to an upper room with a window, knelt and prayed. The satraps wasted no time running to the king and reminding him about the order he signed. Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah pays no heed to you, O King or the ordinance you signed, but makes his petition three times a day. Well, Darius is beside himself. He didn t mean Daniel when he signed it. Without much choice, Darius places Daniel in the den but prays all night that Daniel s God will deliver him. The next morning, Darius rushes over to the den. Daniel steps out to report: My God sent his angel and shut the lion s mouths, and they have not hurt me because I was found blameless before God and also before you, O king, I have done no wrong. Darius changes the ordinance to say, Daniel s God is the living God, enduring forever. Anyone ever found themselves in a lion s den, through no fault of their own? Fillmore says Darius represents the central ruling ego of sense consciousness but gives value to spiritual judgment, represented by Daniel. The story is really good news for our sense consciousness because it says even when we mess up, we can redeem ourselves by acknowledging the value of our spiritual wisdom and letting that spiritual wisdom prevail. I have gone to the book of Daniel several times. It reassures me when it feels like I am struggling to maintain my conscious integrity in the face of doubts and in the face of naysayers. I had an early experience in college that has continued to instruct me. In our clinical science program, at the end of our year of internship there was a state academic competition, like the old college bowl. The team was the top four grade holders in our class of 12 and I was on the team. We had an alternate so there were five of us practicing in the weeks leading up to the competition. A couple weeks into practice my friends stopped speaking to me. No one would go to lunch with me and they avoided eye contact. I was baffled but no one would say anything about what was going on. At practice, one girl was frequently absent. If I said anything about getting Susan to come to practice I was told not to worry about Susan. 3

4 I studied, answered my share of the questions at practice, and ate lunch by myself. As I reflect on this time in my life, it was the last year of my mom s drinking and I watched her spiral down to rock bottom. I was trying to maintain the first serious relationship I had ever had and that ended badly. I felt very isolated. Although this was before I discovered Unity, I had a deep early spirituality. So it was just me and God. Which it really always is. Three days before we left for the competition, Susan was found in the director s office, copying tests. I guess she d been doing this all year. To divert attention from her lack of answers she was telling the other team members and the program director that I was unprepared. She had her own evidence about what that looked like. They believed her even tho I was at practice and knew my answers. We did not win the competition and all the way home everyone was apologizing for how they treated me. It didn t feel very comforting. The only solace I could find was that I had stayed in my integrity. I did not abandon the team purpose and I did not lash out at anyone. In the end, I demonstrated my truth. Charles Fillmore distinguishes his definition of lions as representing courage to say in Daniel s story they represent our animal nature lashing out at being wrongly accused. I disagree. I think the lions in the den are all those doubts and fears; all those challenges that call us to courage. It is not always easy to stay in integrity and sometimes ego gets in our own way. Our hope and our strength is our ability to stand firm in our spiritual identity and continue to pray. Prayer is our connection with the I AM of our being. Prayer is our opportunity to become receptive to that cosmic consciousness and remind ourselves of the powers available to us. We all have our den of lions. We all have those times we are called to courage and called to demonstrate our spiritual truth in the face of those who doubt us. Even in the face of those who may plot against us or speak unfairly about us. Sometimes it is our own thoughts that plot against us and speak unfairly about us. Our inner critic can be worse than our outer critics. Babylon represents chaos and mixed thoughts. These stories all have elements of the conflicts that arise within us and in our thoughts. We are not just Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. We are Babylon, Darius, and Ashpenaz. We are success and failure. We are spiritual and material so we are in and out of integrity as we learn the lessons we need to stay on our path of growth. Let Daniel s story be one of encouragement to you. Know that your spiritual identity will support you as you learn to turn to it. Know that spiritual 4

5 integrity may not be the path to popularity and yet, demonstrating our spiritual truth is our truest nature. Ultimately the angels come to shut the mouths of those doubting critics. Angels are just spiritual messages. Listen to your inner wisdom and understanding. Pray. Stay steadfast in your spiritual identity of love. 5

DANIEL & HIS FRIENDS OBEY GOD

Bible Story 155 DANIEL & HIS FRIENDS OBEY GOD DANIEL 1:3-15 Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, prove thy servants, I beseech