"My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions.

They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight."

-Daniel 6:22 (NIV)

 

On last week we discussed how the very things that take us into our trials are often the same things that bring us out of them. We expounded on the story of Daniel in the Lions' Den and reflected on how God shielded Daniel. Not only was Daniel innocent, but he trusted God. Even when all odds were against him and his enemies seemed to have placed him in a situation that would surely destroy him, Daniel did not stop trusting God. Daniel stood firm in his faith and God in turn, shut the mouth of the lions, which brings us to the question that will lead this week's discussion. If God can shut the mouths of beasts as strong and powerful as lions, can God not shut the mouths of our haters as well? Let's Explore!

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Because we are human, it is very easy to get caught up in our feelings when people speak ill of us or when they inflict harm upon us. It is easy for us to find ourselves feeling burdened and disheartened when we are being attacked by our enemies. Especially when we are being attacked without cause. There are those who hate on others because of who the other person is or because of what the other person has. There are those that may hate on others simply because somebody else thinks highly of or adores the other person. There are those who hate on others because of the other person's connections or relationship with someone else. There are those who hate on others because of what the other person has achieved. The sad reality is that there are people who will find any reason to hate on someone else. There are people who are "verified" haters and don't even know why they hate on the people that they do. In all honesty, there are some people who hate, simply because they can.

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When people hate on us and try to defame or discredit us by convincing others to think ill of who we are, what we have accomplished, and where we are going, it is often difficult not to defend ourselves. Not many of us could simply ignore these individuals and take it straight to God like Daniel did.

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Daniel was favored by King Darius and had a close relationship with him. However, he did not find his comfort in how close he was with King Darius, but he found his comfort and his strength in how close he was to God. Daniel could have gone to King Darius before his haters did and pleaded his case. But instead, he chose to stay the course, pray, and let God do what God does best. He stepped out of the way and let God fight his battle.

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We know that God moved on Daniel's behalf but imagine the level of trust it took for Daniel to move out of the way and LET GOD BE GOD! Part of the reason that we often find ourselves in our feelings thinking that God does not fight for us in the way that He fights for others and part of the reason that we read about the pillars in the bible such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Joseph, and David and question why it seems like God doesn't give us those type of victories is because unlike them, we keep putting on our boxing gloves, jumping into the ring to fight our enemies for ourselves when God keeps taking his hand and pushing us out the way saying, "I got this!" But because we don't like the feeling of being attacked without providing a response to our haters that lets them know that we're not scared of them and because we don't want to be seen as or feel like a punching bag, we keep going head-to-head with them. We decide to 'double down' and show them that we can go 'blow for blow'.​ Meanwhile, God is standing, watching us put on all this fighting gear. We have gloves, hand wraps, and headgear, that all equates to "fire with fire" when the only armor we truly need is GOD AND HIS WORD! And our attempt to fight and defend ourselves leaves us throwing punches that have no effect all while losing our strength, our patience, and our trust in God during the process.

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While we are exhausting ourselves and spending weeks, months, and for some of us, maybe even years fighting our enemies back, at some point we realize that we have no fight left. At some point we realize much like God already knows that our punches are ineffective, and we finally decide to move out of God's way and turn the fight over to Him. And with simply blowing His breath, BAM! A FULL KNOCKOUT! And here we were wasting all this energy, when God did it "JUST LIKE THAT!"

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When we let God fight for us, He acts as both fighter and referee. At times God will allow us to get knocked out but so many times and He'll call a TKO when He sees we're just about to give up because we are physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually drained. But our problem is that we keep getting up trying to prove to our enemies who we are. Sometimes God will step out of the ring and let us do what we think we can do until we are ready to allow Him to control the fight His way. We must understand that God knows more about us than we know about ourselves. Even when we feel like we are close to the edge, God knows for sure how close or how far we truly are from losing it, throwing in the towel, destroying ourselves, destroying others, or allowing ourselves to be defeated, which is why He is the only person fit to referee our fights. Family, friend, significant other, counselor, mentor, all these people are valuable to us, but God is the ONLY ONE who has a SAFE and FOR SURE WINNING STRATEGY! We must hand the battle over to HIM AND HIM ALONE! We must learn that God only operates in omniscience so He can never lead us astray.

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Daniel knew how to let God fight for him. Daniel's TKO moment was when King Darius ordered him to be thrown into the lions' den. As it concerns the battles that God fight for us, TKOs work a little differently than they do in the natural sport of boxing. When God fights for us, anytime our haters place us in a pit, a fire, or a lions' den, that placement becomes our TKO moment because God sees that our enemies have placed us in a place of destruction. However, instead of declaring victory for our enemies, He calls the TKO and steps into the place that we are in and fights for us head-on. Before calling the TKO, He acts as referee because He watches while He orchestrates, but once He has had enough, that TKO becomes our saving grace. And this is when God steps in going from referee to fighter and that FULL KNOCKOUT occurs leaving everyone confused as to how we just won a fight that was declared a TKO in favor of our opponent! They were confused because they were looking at it from their seats and not from where God stood. When that TKO was called, they naturally thought it meant that we were the ones that lost.

 

Vindicate

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“Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Who are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea? May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.”

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We have to stop wasting our time and energy trying to destroy those who are trying to destroy us. IT WILL GET US NOWHERE! We must accept the fact that our haters are here to stay. No matter how good or bad we are, no matter how mean or nice we are, no matter how wealthy or pinching pennies we are, we will all have haters whether known or unbeknownst to us.

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There are many of us who, because we consider ourselves to be good people and because we don't involve ourselves in drama or the mistreatment of others, think that no one hates us. There are some people who are wholeheartedly oblivious to the fact that they have haters because they know that they haven't done anything to be hated. We all must realize that it is quite often the ones who don't hate on others and who do good toward others that receive the most hate.

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People have become obsessed and distracted by the idolization of 'bad girls', 'bad boys' and villains. At some point, people became fascinated with evil. At some point people became 'cult followers' of the tv personalities that wreak havoc and inflict harm upon others. There are many people who have become the fans of bullies. And due to this fascination, people have started to consider it 'cool' to be messy toward people without cause. There are some people who feel a sense of power and accomplishment when they can destroy others.

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We might often see that the people that are innocent become the most hated. The innocent ones are considered weak if they don't fight back with the same negativity as the guilty ones. At some point we have become lost in the lie that watching the innocent be destroyed by these 'larger than life' personalities is entertaining. Far too often, it is the ones who take a stand that become the target to inflict hatred upon.

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It sometimes feels like the evil, conniving, self-loathing, and manipulative people are the ones that gain the most. It can at times feel like the bad guys are constantly winning, constantly rising in fame and popularity. Yet here we are trying our best to stay the right path, experiencing trauma after trauma, setback after setback, loss after loss, trying to figure out if God really said that we were conquerors or did we interpret that scripture in Romans 8 all wrong. Conquerors? Yes, we are! However, conquering is only achieved by means of overcoming. By definition, a conqueror is:

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• someone who has solved a serious problem or dealt with an extremely difficult situation

• the winner of a war

• one that defeats an enemy or opponent​

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This means that in order to be conquerors, there must be some type of opposition involved. Whether that opposition exists in the form of a person or a circumstance, conquering involves overcoming something. We all WANT TO WIN but at the same time WE DON'T WANT TO EXEPRIENCE WARFARE! We all want God to fight our battles, but we don't want enemies. WE ALL WANT VICTORY, but we don't want to be challenged. How can we conquer, win, or be victorious without facing the opponent, challenge, trial, or test? HATERS ARE INEVITABLE! However, they still can't be our focus. Our eyes must REMAIN FIXED ON GOD!

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Even when David was on the run from Saul, he did not stop seeking God nor did he stop being a warrior which is why GOD NEVER STOPPED BEING GOD TO DAVID! We must stop allowing our haters to halt the things that God has both gifted and called us to do. Being hated on should not change who we know we are in God's eyes. Being hated on should not separate us from God nor should it cause us to disobey what it is God is calling us to do. And this is why our ability to trust God is both important and imperative. When we trust God, we can hand the battle over to Him without as much of a second thought. When we know we have done what's right and we know that God is on our side, we can have complete competence that He will judge fairly. He will vindicate us and put our haters in their place. As hard as it is, we must learn to let God be the judge. Even when we know our haters are guilty, it is not for us to sentence them.

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If we read 1 Samuel 24:14-15, we know that David was frustrated with Saul. David had always been loyal to Saul yet, Saul was determined to destroy him. However, David was determined to let God handle Saul in His own way. David tried to emphasize to Saul that he was not a threat to him. David tried to get Saul to realize that he was harmless, but Saul was stuck in his own ego and the backlash of his own disobedience. David remained resilient and obedient, and he did not repay evil for evil. Could we do the same? Could we wait patiently and let God handle our haters His way?

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God has His own set way and time to expose the truth. And in many cases, there's a good chance that He won't do it when we want Him to. In many cases, it might not be until our name and character have been completely slandered that He with all His Power and Might, will then step in and SHUT THE MOUTH of our haters by exposing the truth. Sometimes God has to allow them to destroy our truths in order to expose their lies. And God will do it in a way in which they won't be able to defend themselves. At some point your haters will stop talking about you all together because the more that they talk, the more of their falsehoods they will bring to the surface. They won't stop hating you, but they will recognize that they've been defeated. However, instead of bowing in defeat, they'll pass it off as "you are no longer worth the time or energy" and their only answer to people as it concerns your name will be, "believe what you want to believe" because they now realize that at that point everything they do or say will be held against them. At other times they'll simply move on to their next victim. And then there are times in which they might just become a victim of their own crime.  

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When Your Detour becomes Their Den

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"At the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones." -Daniel 6:24 (NIV)

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Messy people tend to forget that it is very much possible for them to fall into the very trap that they set for someone else. Sometimes God SHUTS THE MOUTH OF OUR HATERS by what we call "the art of consequential reciprocation". In other words, what they did to you will come right back to OVERPOWER THEM, much like what happened with those who falsely accused Daniel.

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If we really think about it, by the time Daniel's haters and their families were thrown into the lions' den, the lions had to be both hungry and irritable. They could not harm Daniel, so they were perhaps ready to attack the next thing that crossed their path. We simply don't know. And what is even more astounding and speaks to the omnipresence of God and how He was with Daniel even before he went into the lions' den is the fact that Daniel told the king that God sent His angel to close the mouth of the lions. According to that fact, we know that Daniel was completely lowered into the lions' den. We also know that Daniel was completely lowered into the lions' den because he had to be lifted out. However, for the ones who brought false claims against Daniel, the scripture states that before they could even reach the floor, the lions overpowered and crushed them. Yet here it was, Daniel being thrown into the lions' den and surviving overnight without not even a scratch.

 

God had already prepared the way for Daniel. I honestly believe that God tamed those lions before Daniel even reached the entrance of the den because they did not try to attack him as he was being lowered into the den like they did the ones that were put in after him. Those lions were under complete submission to God. Although many of us use the saying, "What goes around comes around", how easily we forget this when we dismantle the lives of others.

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The story of Samson and Delilah is another example of how you can be destroyed by the harm you inflict on someone else. The Philistines hated the fact that no matter how hard they tried, they could not destroy Samson. They were so desperate to defeat Samson that they paid his wife Delilah to entice him and get him to reveal what the secret of his strength was and how he could be subdued. If we read Judges 16, we will find that after numerous attempts, Delilah finally gets Samson to reveal his secret to her and she in turn tells the Philistines this information which leads to Samson losing his strength and being captured by the Philistines. We read that as they are gathered in the temple, celebrating and making a mockery of Samson, Samson prays to God asking God to give him his strength one final time so that he can get revenge on the Philistines for what they had done to him. After positioning himself in the perfect position, we in part read the following:

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            Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, “Let me die with                the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it.                   Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived (vs. 29-30, NIV).

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The Philistines paid Delilah to destroy them without even realizing it. They thought they were paying for Samson's demise but look at what it cost them. They tried to stop Samson, to reroute him, to destroy him, but Samson killed more people in what was meant to destroy him than he did when he was unbound and free. When your haters think that they have you trapped, God always has the final say-so.

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For the Judgers and Philosophers Too

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Understand that God shutting the mouths of your haters doesn’t always mean that they're going to stop talking about you. It does not mean that they will stop hating you. As a matter of fact, much like King Saul, they just might keep trying to destroy you, but God has the remedy.

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God shuts the mouth of our haters in different ways as He sees fit. He can shut their mouths by vindicating us and exposing our truth and their lies as He did for Daniel or He can allow the same trap that our enemies attempted to use to destroy us to destroy them instead, as evidenced by Daniel.​ God can shut the mouths of our enemies by using their destruction of us to put them in the path of their own destruction as He did with Samson and the Philistines. Or God can make them a first-hand witness in how He both rescues and prospers us as He did for Job.

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Job's issue was not necessarily haters with ill-intent. Job's situation involved his judgmental friends who thought they knew more about him than he knew about himself and thought they knew more about God as well. We all have at least one judgmental philosopher in our lives. That one person who always has an explanation, philosophy, theory, and untruth about you, everything you go through, and everything that's connected to you.

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Job's friends were trying to help him make sense of where he was at. They may have perhaps meant well, but their thinking was flawed and had Job not trusted God, they could have caused Job to give up on both himself and God. Regardless of what any of their arguments were, ONLY GOD KNEW THE TRUTH! God also knew the intent of their hearts. God shut their mouths not by destroying them but by bringing them face to face with their own flawed opinions and philosophies. After all of their criticism of Job, God humbled them by making them offer a sacrifice and having Job, the one whom they all criticized, to be the one to pray to God on their behalf. In Job 42:8, we read in part that God states to Job's friends, "My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly…" (NIV). And then God prospers Job. Most importantly, regardless of what Job's friends thought they knew about Job or God, God still referred to Job as "[His] servant Job"!

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At times there are individuals that are close to us that are not haters nor are they trying to destroy us, but they are very opinionated about our lives in a way that does not speak into our spirits what needs to be heard. These individuals may even be very matter of fact about what they think concerning where we are, what led to our trials, whether we should have made the decisions that we made, and if what we are experiencing is a punishment brought about as a consequence of our actions or lack thereof. But even with all of "their assurance" as to why we are where we are, they are far from knowledgeable of what's really at hand and even further from the truth.

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As it concerns our friends, family or other loved ones, we might find that no matter how much we defend ourselves, it does nothing but make them more opinionated and makes us want to ignore their calls or avoid their invitations to 'catch up'. We must learn to turn our 'judgers' over to God as well. At some point we have to stop frustrating ourselves trying to make our loved ones see what they think they already know about us and let God justify and defend us as He sees fit. There are times that just like in the case of Job, God may instruct us to simply pray for them and keep it moving. At times it is not our job to drill our truth about ourselves into our loved ones as much as it is about not allowing what they think our truths are to cause us to stop trusting in who God is and what He can do.

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God does not only shut the mouth of our haters, but He can also shut the mouths of anyone who speaks against us. He can shut the mouths of all those that falsely judge us. He can shut the mouths of all those who seek to classify or box us. He can shut the mouths of anyone who speaks against Him and His plans and purposes for us.

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God's Got Our Back

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Remaining calm and allowing God to defend us is not always easy. However, as evidenced by the likes of Daniel, David, Job and many others, it is not only valuable but NECESSARY if we want the battle to be won. Being attacked, criticized, lied on, and slandered is not going to feel good. When we have not done anything wrong and are attacked without cause, it might at times make us feel like God does not care about us. It might make us question if God is mad at us or if He's turned His back on us. But we must remember something about God. Not only is God Our Guardian, Our Keeper, Our Shield, Our Shade, Our Light, Our Salvation, Our Stronghold, Our Strength, Our Lion Tamer, and Our Vindicator, but God has promised us that He protects and fights for the upright. He will defend the just.

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Psalm 35 speaks to allowing God to both protect and vindicate us in our innocence. In the following excerpts from Psalm 35, David pleads to God saying:

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         Contend, Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. Take up shield and                             armor; arise and come to my aid. Brandish spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Say to me, 'I am your                       salvation.' (vs.1-3, NIV).

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         Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about. They repay me evil for good and               leave me like one bereaved. Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting (vs.11-13, NIV).

         

         Do not let those gloat over me who are my enemies without cause; do not let those who hate me without reason                         maliciously wink the eye. They do not speak peaceably, but devise false accusations against those who live quietly in               the land. They sneer at me and say, 'Aha! Aha! With our own eyes we have seen it.' Lord, you have seen this; do not

         be silent. Do not be far from me, Lord. Awake, and rise to my defense! Contend for me, my God and Lord. Vindicate                 me in your righteousness, Lord my God; do not let them gloat over me. Do not let them think, 'Aha, just what we                         wanted!' or say, 'We have swallowed him up' (vs.19-25, NIV).

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David understood that even when we both know and can proclaim our innocence, the only one who can truly vindicate us is God. The only one who can truly rescue and defend us is God. We must believe that God is a God of justice. We must believe that God protects those who trust in Him. We must believe that God will fight for the innocent.

 

Isaiah 54:17 is a popular verse. We often recite it or might hear it highlighted in sermons. Isaiah 54:17 states:

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            No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou                 shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord (KJV).

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Isaiah 54:17 tells us that God will declare those that come against us as wrong and evil. Those who serve God will be both protected and vindicated by Him. We must realize that this scripture is not full of empty words, but IT IS TRUTH! GOD WILL FIGHT FOR US!

 

We don't have to fear or worry about the harm that is being inflicted upon us. Nothing that those that hate against us try to inflict upon us will overtake us. Our enemies won't be successful in destroying us. They can slander our name, get us fired, cause us to lose some things and go through some things, but it won't destroy us. Others might turn their back on us because of their wickedness and their lies, but it will not destroy us. No matter how much it may look and feel like THEY ARE WINNING, rest assured that when it is all said and done, THEY WILL MOST DEFINTELY LOSE! We just have to trust God with all our hearts and BELIEVE that He will do as His Word promises.

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It might take some time before we see or feel like we have the victory, but we must know that it is ours even before we experience the full manifestation of it. Whether it be days, weeks, months, years, or decades, YOUR BATTLE WILL BE WON! You cannot allow the length of the fight and the results of the rounds to discourage you. No matter what the spectators may think is happening, GOD WILL WIN! YOU WILL WIN!

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GOD CANNOT LIE. If His Word promised it, LOOK, WAIT, and WATCH BECAUSE IT'S COMING!