WHO CAN STOP THE LION?

“Don’t play with the lion’s tail.” Iran’s president Ahmadinejad told foreign journalists the West “should be aware that Iran is a big country. Some say Iran is like a lion sitting calmly in the corner. We advise them not to play with a lion's tail." Can anyone stop Iran? That’s the question on the table in the world today – and it’s one we believers can answer. This is Charles Morris, the speaker on Haven Today, where we tell the Great Story, it’s all about Jesus.

MAIN PART
Who can stop Iran?
Nobody, according to Iran’s president Ahmadinejad. He’s refused to respond to threats, warnings or sanctions from the UN. Instead, in a recent news conference, he issued his own warning – “Iran is a lion, we advise you not to play with his tail.” He also said Iran’s nuclear program has passed the point where anyone can stop it and I quote, "With God's help, the countdown button for the destruction of the Zionist regime (that’s Israel) has been pushed by the hands of the children of Lebanon and Palestine."
Who can stop Iran? Can anyone? The U.S. and other Western nations are considering their limited options. Meanwhile, we believers in Jesus Christ know the answer.
Daniel has spelled it all out for us. Daniel and the famous “lion’s den” is not just a children’s story buried in the dusty pages of the Bible. From beginning to end, chapter by chapter, the book of Daniel declares that the Most High God is in complete control of the world.
CHAPTER ONE
The first line in the book of Daniel is a fact of history – the history of that very same region of the world where Iran exists today:
“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzaar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.”
It sounds like the king had power to do whatever he wanted and that no one could stop him, but the very next line gives the real story, “The Lord gave Jehoikim king of Judah into his hand.”
The Lord is the one in control; he’s orchestrating events, allowing and disallowing, directing and working, ruling over history. That’s the message of the book of Daniel and it’s no less true today than it was then.
The king commanded that young, Israelite noblemen be brought to his palace and educated in the language and literature of the Chaldeans. But Daniel makes it clear that it’s God working behind the scenes who’s really issuing the commands and carrying out his plans. Daniel and his friends are taken into captivity according to what God has determined to do to reveal himself to the world.
God is in control.
CHAPTER TWO
The king, Nebuchadnezzar, has a dream and it troubles him, but to keep his magicians and soothsayers from faking an interpretation he’s not going to tell them the dream – they have to tell him both the dream and the interpretation or else they’ll be cut to pieces. No one can do it, the wise men are on their way to their death, and Daniel intervenes. He asks the king for time, he asks his three friends to pray, God gives him the answer, and he goes into the king.
These are the first words out his mouth, “There is a God in heaven, who reveals secrets.”
What a majestic statement!
He goes on to give a view of history that’s just as relevant today as it was then. He explains that it’s God who allows the king his power and that in the future he will allow one kingdom to succeed another, rising and falling until ultimately God will set up his own kingdom -- a kingdom (Daniel 2: 24) “that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”
God is in control, his kingdom will endure forever.
CHAPTER THREE
The king decides to set up an image of gold and commands everyone to worship it. Daniel’s three friends refuse. Nebuchadnezzar gives them time to think it over before they’re thrown into a furnace so hot no one can get near it, but they tell him they don’t need time to think. “Our God can deliver us and if he doesn’t, so be it, we still won’t worship anyone but him.”
They’re thrown in the furnace, a mysterious fourth figure, one like a Son of God, appears and walks in the fire with them, and the king ends up praising their God. Daniel 3: 29, “There is no other God who can deliver like this.”
God is in control, his kingdom will endure forever, and he’s able to deliver his people.

CHAPTER FOUR
The king has another dream about a tree that gets chopped down and he calls in Daniel for an interpretation. Daniel explains it: The tree in the dream represents Nebuchadnezzar and his dominion, strong and high and lovely. But he’s going to be chopped down, and exist like an animal until, Daniel says, “you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.”
A year later Nebuchadnezzar is bragging about his great power – sort of like Ahmadinejad bragging about his nuclear program -- and the dream comes true, he lives like an animal, probably insane, for seven years and when he comes out of it, he’s bowing to the sovereign power of The Most High God. He says,

Daniel 4: 34, 35, “His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done? Those who walk in pride he is able to put down.”

The Most High God is in control, his kingdom will endure forever, he’s able to deliver his people and to humble the proud.

CHAPTER FIVE

Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar, is king and he hasn’t inherited his father’s respect for God. During one of his drunken parties, a hand appears and writes on the wall. Suddenly the party’s over, the king’s weak in the knees with terror, but the queen remembers Daniel and sends for him. He explains the handwriting on the wall. There are three words:

Dan. 5:27-29 “Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” Mene: “God has numbered your kingdom and finished it.”

Short and to the point.

God is in control, his kingdom will endure forever, he’s able to deliver his people and humble the proud, and he’s going to judge the world and weigh everyone in the balance.

CHAPTER SIX

Darius is now king and Daniel is thrown into the lion’s den because he persists in praying even though there’s a new law forbidding prayer to anyone but the king. God sends an angel and shuts the lions’ mouths and, by the end of the chapter, Darius is praising God, too. He says:

Daniels 6: 26, 27, “he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth.”

Darius just summed up the book of Daniel so far:

God is in control, his kingdom will endure forever, he’s able to deliver his people and humble the proud, he’s going to judge the world and weigh everyone in the balance, and he performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth.




CHAPTER SEVEN

Now we come to the big surprise – God pulls back the curtain and let’s us in on the big secret. This time it’s Daniel who has the vision and he sees something brand new – something he hadn’t known up until now –

Daniel 7 : 13,14 “I saw One like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

Did you catch that?
Daniel saw Jesus.
He’s at the heart of the whole matter – he’s what history is all about – Jesus. If you’ve ever wondered why Jesus refers to himself as “the Son of Man” the answer is right here in these verses. He’s this Son of Man, the one that Daniel saw, who comes from heaven, who’s given all the authority, glory and sovereign power of the Ancient of Days, and who’s worshipped by people from every nation on earth.
There’re more chapters to Daniel – prophecies outlining the course of history -- but we’ve got the main points:
God is in control, his kingdom will endure forever, he’s able to deliver his people and humble the proud, he’ll judge the world and weigh everyone in the balance, he performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth and -- it’s all about Jesus!

He’s at the center of the vision of God’s sovereign control over history. Jesus.

The answer to the question of who can stop Iran is this: Jesus is the Lion who cannot be stopped!

One last thing.
I said that Daniel and the Lion’s Den is not just a children’s story. But it is a story for children and sometimes it’s good for us grownups living in a complicated, dangerous world to become like little children. Let’s do that as Sally Lloyd Jones reads from her lovely, profound “The Jesus Storybook.”.
(Sally)