Envy

Today,  my devotional covered the story of Daniel and the lions' den. We all know the children's story, right?

Well,  today it was the grown up version The focus was on the sin of envy. The straps were jealous of Daniel. He was wise. The king had made him second in comman, power, because he trusted him and knew he was wise...even though he was a Jew and not of the Medes and Persians. All of this made the sattraps jealous, so they wanted to do something about it. It never occurred to them that Daniel was supposed to be in charge of them and that they should accept this and do their best for him. 

So,  they knew Daniel was ethical and did what was right; the only way they could attack him was by his faith.  They talked the king into unwittingly proclaiming that everyone who prays to any god but the king would be thrown in the lions' den.  They then went over to where Daniel lived and "caught" him praying to God...which they already knew he did three times a day. They then go back to the king and tell on Daniel. The king is upset because he trusts Daniel, so he puts off the decision. The satraps come back and remind him he made the law, so he must throw Daniel in the Iions' den. The king does it and hopes Daniel's God will protect him. God does, and the king throws the instigators into the lions' den with their families, and they are torn apart by the same lions that did not harm Daniel. 

So, in the end, envy cost the satraps and their family their lives. The same is true of us. We can easily start down the slippery slope of sin by envying our co-worker's work, success, financial gain, appearance of easy promotion, etc. We can envy our friend's house, cars, vacations, appearance of a happy put together family, etc. 

Once envy takes hold,  we start to head ourselves towards the lions' den.  We insist on things we don't really have a right to insist on. We stomp our feet and insist on more.  We insist others be jealous with us, or dislike them if they don't.  All so we can feel better about our envy, or jealousy. That is a very slippery slope. Unless we realize what we are doing and stop, we will end up in the lions' den ourselves! 

So, do you still think Daniel in the Lions'  Den is just a children's story?