Interesting...

Tonight was my night to teach in Youth Club at church. The first half of the year, our class studied women in the Bible, comparing the "good girls" with the "bad girls". For the second half, we're studying Bible stories that involve animals. I decided to teach on Daniel and the lions' den, and in the course of my preparations, came upon something that I had not noticed before. The internet is a wonderful tool... it started as I was looking up the location of Babylon, where the story takes place. It's located about 50 miles south of modern day Baghdad on the Euphrates river. I'm sure I've heard this piece of information before, but it had never dawned on me that Iraq is an odd place for lions to be. Unless I am mistaken, that is not their natural habitat, and even if I'm wrong, it still led me to the discover something new.

This is part of the Ishtar Gate, a section of the "Processional Way" leading out of Babylon. Ishtar was the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war. Her symbol: a lion.

This statue is known as the Lion of Babylon. The lion, depicted trampling a man, symbolizes strength.

This picture, taken in the 1930s, held the caption "The Lions' Den, Babylon". You can see the Lion of Babylon statue on the hill above the ruin. Could that ruin be the site of the actual lions' den into which Daniel was thrown? Possibly- it's uncertain.

Daniel was thrown into the lions' den for ignoring the decree given by king Darius and continuing to pray to God openly thrice daily. Knowing that the lion is the symbol of the Babylonians' pagan goddess, doesn't it seem that by throwing Daniel to the lions, in a way, it was actually a challenge to God? I had never considered it in that light. But just like the story of God and Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, God is once again shown to reign victorious when he shuts the mouths of the lions, allowing no harm to come to Daniel. Daniel went through all this so that the name of God could be glorified, and indeed it was. In the end, king Darius makes another decree:

I make a decree, that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for He is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

Daniel 6:26-27

Cool, huh!?!