Petty politicians,
irritated by integrity,
consumed by mongrel jealousy
that an upstart immigrant
should get the biggest bone,
they schemed and deceived,
then smirked when it worked.
But it didn’t.
In the end,
the only bones being given
were theirs.
To the lions.
2 Daniel
Integrity, honesty,
devotion to God—
all of this was true.
Even so we can’t assume
that Daniel wasn’t afraid,
that as he prayed in the window
he was not stinking with fear,
throwing up to God
his panic. Help me!
We can’t even assume
he was sure
God was listening.
3 King Darius
Friendship with the Hebrew
had subtly changed him.
Exposure to light
in a dark place
does that to people
over time.
Thus his distress
at his own foolishness,
thus his sleepless night,
thus the mixture of doubt and hope
in his anguished question,
Daniel, did he rescue you?
4 The lions
What was this scorching ball of light
thrown down so suddenly,
causing them to scatter to the peripheries?
What terror drove out hunger,
shut their jaws?
Or did the glory so overwhelm them
that God’s dumbstruck beasts
simply went to sleep?
5 The people
Forced by royal decree
to add the God of Daniel
to the Persian pantheon,
how did the citizens respond?
Did anything eternal happen
in the homes and streets
of downtown Babylon?
Perhaps a ray of light entered
the collective consciousness?
Did the foreign deity ever
become more than Daniel’s God?
Or did he only add another hue
to their already rainbow spirituality?
Does conversion by coercion
ever work?
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