Thirty Days to Slow... the Faith?

The devil's in the details

I wish I could tell you I learned something new about scripture as I immersed myself faithfully in my Lenten devotional, but the truth is I was reading a book aimed at three-year-olds. Incidentally, if you have young children, I cannot recommend this series more highly. We haven’t read them all, but so far, so good. Anyway, we were reading Jesus and the Lion’s Den before bed, and something stuck out to me, something I had never noticed before. I checked the source, and sure enough, it’s true. See if you can spot it, here, from the book of Daniel:

Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever.

All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.

The movers and shakers in King Darius’ court (including, most scholars now believe, members of the Babylonian Academy of Pediatrics) are jealous of Daniel and plot his downfall. They trick the King into signing a decree prohibiting prayer to the one true God. Thus far, nothing new to anyone who’s heard the story of the lions’ den a zillion times, as I’m sure y’all have. But did you notice that one little legislative detail? The royal statute is only to be in effect for thirty days.

Why? Why go to all the bother of plotting, only to put a one-moon limit on the villainous decree? Would the meaning of the story, or Daniel’s actions, have been altered in any significant way had the statute been of limitless duration? Not that I can see.

 Yet, at the risk of venturing into the uncharted territory of prehistoric Persian politics, I have one possible answer, inspired by our own recent history.

Perhaps the Babylonian plotters understood the nature of their not-quite-so-God-fearing opposition. Human nature being as unchanging as it is, much of that less-than-resolute cohort remains with us today. What do I mean? A thought experiment: let us pretend a similar law were to be passed today. I guarantee – guarantee – you would read the following in the pages of leading Christian magazines, or hear the following from the pulpit of a nearby mega-church:

-          Jesus fasted for 40 days, surely we can obey our lawful authorities for 30!  

-          Loving your neighbor means not wanting him fed to zoo animals – don’t be a stumbling block, don’t try to pray with friends and family!

-          Do you think my dear friend and book club host Francis Collins would support this law if there weren’t a faithful, Christian reason for it? Let’s give our rulers the benefit of the doubt, it’s what God would want. Don’t worry, we can pray extra hard when the 30 days are up!

-          Guys, I get it, this isn’t an ideal situation, but I think our neighbors really don’t appreciate your tone. Being ripped limb from limb by wild beasts isn’t winsome.

You get the picture. Except we don’t even have to posit a hypothetical. Do you know that in parts of England, for example, it is currently illegal to pray silently? Yes, that’s right, this very year, citizens of Shakespeare’s blessed plot, that other Eden, demi-paradise… are now being arrested when suspected of praying in their own heads:

Then several police officers approach her. One officer asks her, "Can I please ask you to step away from here and step outside the exclusion zone?"

Vaughan-Spruce replied, "But I'm not protesting. I'm not engaging in any of the activities prohibited."

"But you said you were engaging in prayer which is the offense," the officer responded.

"Silent prayer," Vaughan-Spruce counters.

"No, but you were still engaging in prayer. It is an offense," the officer explained.

Why aren’t all decent Brits up in arms over this? Maybe because prayer isn’t forbidden everywhere, just in certain small(ish) zones. So it’s no big deal, you know?

We don’t even need to cross the pond to find other examples of a Babylonian bent. In accord with millennia of Jewish and Christian scholarship, CS Lewis called pride “the great sin,” “the essential vice, the utmost evil”: “it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” But don’t worry, folks, our official, government-supported celebration of pride only lasts for a month, so it’s no biggie. All the polite religious leaders will tell you so!  

In fairness, this is often a case of misunderstood motives. Our not-quite-allies view each offense against the Lord not as an abomination, but as an act of moderation. After all, as I’m sure Daniel’s friends told him, it’s only thirty days! If the enemy really hated us, they would have made the law last much longer; the short duration is proof positive of a conciliatory streak!

Of course it is anything but; the enemy simply understands that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and so it is one step at a time that they lead us along the path to Hell. I would have more sympathy for our mistaken allies… but it’s getting awful hot around here lately. Time to wake up and smell the sulfur, don’t you think?

So, put yourself in Babylon, under a government that hates you and hates God (I don’t want you to exhaust yourself with that imaginative effort). The statute is passed. Christianity Today tells you to cool your sandaled heels, this ain’t the hill to die on. What do you do?

Let’s return to Daniel. What happens, as soon as the law goes into effect?

Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.

 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for their ostentatious prayers. Indeed, if you ever find yourself living in a Biblical theocracy, where rewards and riches are handed out to the most outwardly pious, praying loudly with your windows open might be something to guard your soul against. When you’re in a Godless land, however, don’t mistake cowardly acquiescence for faithful discipleship – swing those shutters open wide.

To quote CS Lewis again, because you cannot quote him too often:

We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is least in danger and fix its approval on the virtue nearest to that vice which we are trying to make endemic. The game is to have them all running about with fire extinguishers whenever there is a flood, and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under.

Or, as Elizabeth Rundle Charles put it:

It is the truth which is assailed in any age which tests our fidelity. It is to confess we are called, not merely to profess. If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.

Easter is fast approaching. Next time you feel pressured, by pastors or peers, to compromise (even if only for thirty days!), remember that God died on a hill to save you from all your sins, and ask yourself: isn’t it only fair to die on a hill for Him every now and then?