Up Against the Wall

A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed.       
—Daniel 6:17

Daniel prayed under the shadow of Babylonian law that demanded the death penalty upon those praying to anyone but the king.  When Daniel was seen praying, the king stated, “The decree stands … [and the law] cannot be repealed” (v12).  Daniel was up against a wall, his fate seemed to be sealed when a “stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den [of lions]… so that no one could rescue Daniel” (v17).  Daniel’s wall was the ferocity of mankind’s intolerance of God, not of lions in the den.

You may be facing a wall, a rock barrier blocking your only way out of a dire situation.  It blocks your every effort, threatens your very life, it overwhelms you, it looks insurmountable.  But, what of our hope; how is your faith?  On Easter Sunday we celebrated the removal of a huge rock barrier at the entrance to a burial tomb, ah, and, who walked out!?!  God removes barriers, and overcomes death with life.  Daniel, like Christ Jesus, walked out of a place of death into life.       

Daniel’s fate wasn’t sealed by a rock, nor blocked by a wall in denial of God.  Daniel had been praying.  Though the king had his rock in place, swearing it “cannot be repealed,” he soon learned about the power in prayer—prayer that moves barriers.  Today, prayer—as with Daniel—prayer is a moving force.  Being up against a wall is nothing, as, Jesus said, “you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matt 21:21-22).      

Praying, rolling stones, going through walls, tossing mountains aside,

Owen <><