Yet the Bible says God put eternity into the hearts of mankind and the knowledge of His existence is there too. The idea that God is dead is popular only with those who do not want to be accountable to a living God, or to those who have made demands and discovered that they cannot control or tell the living God how to run His world.
Today I read this short verse where a pagan king tried to punish a godly man for his faith. However, throwing Daniel in a lion’s den bothered his conscience. He was convinced that this man served Someone with more power than he had as a king.
As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” (Daniel 6:20)
Darius saw something in the life of Daniel that convinced him that God is a living God, even a God who could stop the mouths of hungry lions. He knew that God is real and his understanding was reinforced by the behavior of someone who believed and lived out his faith.
Perhaps Nietzsche drifted from belief in God because he didn’t have any examples in his life of a firm faith, a faith that changed lives and gave those who believed credibility. This is suggested in several quotes about him, such as: “God has lost whatever function he once had because of the actions taken by those who believe in him.” He believed a god is merely a mirrored reflection of its people, so the “Christian God is so ridiculous a God that even were he to have existed, he would have no right to exist.”
He also saw that religious people were going against their beliefs and coinciding with the beliefs of mainstream society, that their moral thinking was “debased and poisoned by the influence of society’s weakest and most ignoble elements, the herd.”
He has a point. If the people of God do not act as if God is alive and involved in our daily lives, how can we expect those who wonder about God to pursue Him? Daniel served God continually. He was not a Sunday Christian or one who obeyed God only when convenient. His testimony influenced a king. What has happened to our holiness? Our zeal to be like Jesus Christ and live for His glory? Why do we so often put God at the bottom of our priority list?
Lord, a Sunday school song has the line, “Dare to be a Daniel” yet as I think about this verse and the life that You give, it isn’t a dare. Living like Daniel should be the norm of my life. People should know that You are the Living God because I live in light of that reality. No one would think that You are dead if all who believe in You acted like it all of the time.
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