00:00Have you ever been thrown into a scary situation with no way out?
00:07No one ever wishes for such a thing to happen, but sometimes we don't have a choice.
00:12In today's story, we learn about a man called Daniel, who found himself in a very scary situation.
00:20But this is not just any ordinary man.
00:23Daniel was a man of God who never stopped praying to his God, even when it was against the king's new law.
00:30Long ago, God gave the nation of Israel a warning.
00:34He said, Don't turn your hearts towards the gods of other nations, and don't make yourselves unclean by worshipping them.
00:42But some of the Israelites did not listen.
00:45They served idols and worshipped other gods.
00:48This made God very angry.
00:50So he gave them into the hands of their enemies, and they were taken away from their homeland.
00:56Some time after this, a powerful king called Cyrus conquered Israel.
01:02He became the ruler of Judah and allowed the Israelites to return to their land.
01:07He also built a great city wall around Jerusalem.
01:11But even after all this, the people still did not turn back to God.
01:16There was one man, though, who was different.
01:20His name was Daniel, and he was one of the leaders in the king's court.
01:25Even though Daniel was in a position of great power and influence, he never forgot about God.
01:31Every day, no matter what, he would get up before sunrise and pray to God three times a day.
01:38He did this with his window facing Jerusalem, the holy city, with a view of the temple where God's presence dwelt.
01:46Now, there were some other leaders who were jealous of Daniel.
01:50They hated the fact that he was always praying to God, and decided that they had to find a way to trap him.
01:57One day, they went to King Cyrus and said,
02:00Your majesty, please make a law that says anyone who prays to any god or anyone at all except you, O king, should be thrown into a den of lions.
02:11The king agreed to this wicked request and wrote the law.
02:15It was then sealed with the king's ring.
02:18When Daniel heard about this, he knew that he would be in great trouble because he couldn't stop praying to God.
02:25But Daniel was a brave man.
02:28He knew that God was more powerful than any king, so he kept on praying, even after the law was made.
02:35One day, those jealous officials saw Daniel praying in his room.
02:40They ran to the king and said,
02:42Sir, you have made a law that anyone who prays to any god except you, O king, shall be thrown into the lion's den.
02:50Now this Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, does not obey your orders.
02:57He prays in his house to some god.
02:59When the king heard this, he was very upset.
03:03He liked Daniel and did not want anything to happen to him.
03:07But once the law was written and sealed with the king's ring, he could not go back on his word.
03:13So he said,
03:14This is the law, and the law must be carried out.
03:18And so Daniel was taken away and thrown into the lion's den.
03:23The king ordered that he should be left there for the night, and that meant that Daniel had to spend the night with the lions.
03:31Now, as the night went on, God sent an angel to shut the mouths of the lions, so that they would not hurt Daniel.
03:39In the morning, when the king came to see Daniel, he found that he was not hurt at all.
03:45The king was so happy and praised the god of Daniel.
03:49As for those wicked officials who wanted to hurt Daniel, the king found out what they had done.
03:55He had them put into the lion's den, and they were mauled to death by the lions.
04:00The king then made a decree that everyone should fear and respect Daniel's god.
04:05So you see, no matter how powerful or influential people are, if they do bad things, God will always bring them to justice.
04:15And for us who believe in God, we should always remember that God is in control, even when it seems like everything is going wrong.
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