Most of us are familiar with the account of Daniel in the lions’ den. We know he wasTossed into the den for not worshiping King Darius. In the morning he was found to be unharmed because God had shut the mouths of the lions during the night. This, of course, is a story of faith and obedience and God’s care for those who serve him faithfully. However, there is another element of the story I want to focus on in this blog.
In Daniel 6, we discover that a number of King Darius’ officials were envious of Daniel because he had the king’s favor and was given a very high position in the kingdom. These officials schemed against Daniel. They knew they would never be able to find him negligent or guilty of any mishandling of the king’s business, but might be able to accuse him on the basis of his relationship with his God. Appealing to the king’s vanity, these officials encouraged him to make a decree that for the next 30 days, no one could pray to their God or another human other than Darius.
These officials knew that Daniel would continue to pray to his God and so “catching him the act,” they reported him to Darius and reminded him of the decree he had issued. The text says, “When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel, and made every effort until sundown to save him” (Dan. 6:14).
Darius was caught by his own words. He had declared the edict without thinking through the possible ramifications. Because he was king, his words had authority and once spoken, could not be revoked. I assume that his “every effort” was a hasty search of Medo-Persian law to find some legal loophole that would allow Daniel to avoid the death penalty. He could find none, however, and Daniel was tossed to the hungry carnivores.
When Daniel survived the night, scripture says, “The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him because he had trusted in the Lord. At the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions’ den” (Dan. 6:23-24).
There are numerous lessons in this story, but my focus for the moment is the danger of declaring things we have not thought out when we are people of authority. Once spoken, these words can become law and will be enforced whether we want them to or not. Many of us, as we were growing up, may have ventured to talk back to our mothers. If we did, we probably her tell us to “watch your mouth.” That is a biblical concept.
In Matthew 12, we are told, “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt. 12:36-37). We tend to discount our words and expect we will never be called to account for the things we say. We declare that we didn’t mean what we said, we were taken out of context, we were misunderstood, we misspoke, etc. How many of our government officials have “plead the fifth” on words they have spoken as they deny what was even caught on video.
So, if we give little thought to our words and expect no real consequences for our verbal declarations, why is Jesus giving such a stern warning? It is because, in the heavenly realm, our words as believers carry authority. When we speak, spiritual beings may well act to enforce what we have declared over our families, our health, our finances, our marriage, our children, our nation, our church, etc. We can plead we didn’t mean it, but if we didn’t mean it, like Darius, we should not have spoken it.
Our words often bring unintended consequences, but we spoke them just the same and we, as followers of Jesus, have authority. If we have the authority to command demons in an act of deliverance, then our other words can command them as well…even if we “didn’t mean it.” How often do we declare curses over ourselves and others because we have not thought through the ramifications of our words
Proverbs counsels us over and over to measure our words and to be thoughtful about everything we say for “the tongue has the power of life and death.” The New Testament writers counsel (command) us to speak blessings rather than curses, even over our enemies. Our words have power and authority. Too often we are like Darius who spoke something without considering the ripples his words would send out. I know better, but I often become careless with my words and speak negatively over situations and outcomes. I forget that I am speaking death rather than life and that Jesus warns me to measure every word.
May we pray for wisdom and the Holy Spirit to convict us of our words before they even leave our tongues when we begin to speak carelessly. Our words have consequences for us, our families, our children, and our nation as we move into the days ahead. We should submit to the spiritual discipline of measuring our words and always speaking life rather than death over any person of circumstance. It is also true that so much of what we say is so automatic that we are not even conscious of words we say throughout the day as we “pop off” to others. If we are wise, we may want to invite the people closest to us to remind us when we have been careless and thoughtless with our words so that we may repent and redirect our own tongues.
