Daniel 6:21-23

Daniel’s voice was untroubled. He even sermonized a bit from his unlikely chapel amid his subdued animal companions. After greeting the king courteously, he explained that his God had sent His angel who had shut the lions’ mouths (cf. Hebrews 11:33). This may have been the same angel, or the Angel of the Lord, who had visited Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:28). Daniel believed that God had had mercy on him because he had not sinned against God or Darius in what he had done. True, he had violated the king’s edict, but he had not done anything that really harmed the king. God had rewarded Daniel’s trust (Daniel 6:23), which Daniel demonstrated by obeying God’s will. Darius had Daniel extracted from the den, and undoubtedly marveled that he had sustained no injuries whatsoever (cf. Daniel 3:27). Compare the accounts of Peter and Paul’s releases from prison in Acts 12, 16.