The Window Daniel Didn't Shut

Story · Upper elementary · 10 min

Kidology

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STORY · Ages 9–11 · 10 MIN · Daniel 6

The Window Daniel Didn't Shut

  GENERATED WITH 1 EDITOR NOTE · READ THEM AT THE END BEFORE YOU TEACH

THE STORY AT A GLANCE

TOPIC	telling the truth when it costs you something
SUMMARY	Daniel could have shut his window, prayed silently, or waited out the thirty days without technically lying — instead he kept kneeling at his open window in plain sight, was thrown to the lions for it, and walked out alive the next morning because God shut the lions' mouths.
CHARACTERS	Daniel — An older man, living far from his homeland, so good at his work that the king wants to put him over the whole kingdom King Darius — The king who signs a law he later regrets and cannot undo The other officials — Men who envy Daniel and go hunting for a way to bring him down
SETTING	Babylon, an upstairs room with windows that open toward Jerusalem

THE STORY

YOUR NOTES

HOOK — Thirty days. That's all it was.

SAY	Thirty days. That's all it was.

SAY	No praying to anybody — not your gods, not your neighbor's gods, nobody — except the king. For thirty days. Break the rule, and you get thrown into a den of lions.

SAY	Now if that law showed up in your house tomorrow, what would you do?

DO	Let a few kids answer out loud. Somebody will say something like "just stop praying for a month, it's not a big deal" — that's the point. Don't correct it yet. Just let it sit in the room.

SAY	Thirty days isn't very long. You could probably pray with your eyes closed instead of out loud. You could pray at midnight when nobody's watching. You could just... take a break.

SAY	That's exactly the choice one man had to make. His name was Daniel.

An old man with a window

DO	Tell this part at a normal, unhurried pace — we're building the world before anything goes wrong.

SAY	Daniel had been living far from his homeland of Jerusalem for a long time, in a foreign empire, working for a king named Darius. The Bible doesn't tell us exactly how old he was by now — just that he'd been there for years and years.

SAY	And Daniel was good at his job. Really good. So good that King Darius wanted to put him in charge of the entire kingdom — over everybody else.

"Then this Daniel was distinguished above the presidents and the satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm." (Daniel 6:3, WEB)

SAY	Daniel had a room upstairs in his house. It had windows — and they opened toward Jerusalem, toward home, toward the place he hadn't seen in a very long time.

SAY	Three times every day, Daniel went up to that room, knelt down in front of the open windows, and prayed. He'd done it for years. He didn't shut the windows and he didn't hide. That's just where he prayed.

The trap is built out of his honesty

SAY	Not everybody was happy that Daniel was about to be put in charge of everything. Some of the other officials were jealous. So they went looking for dirt on him — some mistake, some shady deal, some corner he'd cut.

SAY	They looked. And looked. And found nothing.

"They could find no occasion nor fault, because he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him." (Daniel 6:4, WEB)

SAY	So they said it plainly, right out loud to each other:

"We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God." (Daniel 6:5, WEB)

Think about that for a second — the only way to trap Daniel was through the one part of his life he'd never hide. What does that tell you about him?

DO	Take a couple of answers. Somebody will land on "he had nothing to hide" — good, let that stand.

SAY	So they went to the king and got him to sign a law: for thirty days, nobody prays to anybody but the king. Once a law like that was signed, it couldn't be changed — not even by the king himself.

SAY	They weren't guessing. They knew exactly what Daniel would do about that window.

What Daniel could have done instead

SAY	Let's slow down here, because Daniel had options. Real ones.

SAY	He could have shut the window. Nobody would have seen anything. He could have prayed silently, in his head, no words out loud, no kneeling. He could have waited until midnight, when the street was empty. He could have just taken thirty days off — started again once the law expired.

Would any of those have been a lie, exactly?

DO	Let the room actually argue about this — that's the point of asking it. Some will say no, it's not lying, it's just being smart. Some will say it feels like lying even if the words are true. Both are honest answers. Don't settle it for them yet.

SAY	Here's the thing — the Bible doesn't tell us Daniel sat there weighing all this out. It doesn't tell us he was scared, or that he wasn't. It doesn't tell us what he was thinking at all.

SAY	It only tells us what he did.

He goes home and opens the window

SAY	Daniel found out the law had been signed. He knew exactly what it meant. He knew exactly who was watching for him to break it.

"When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his room toward Jerusalem) and he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did before." (Daniel 6:10, WEB)

SAY	As he did before.

SAY	No speech. No standing on a rooftop shouting that the law was wrong. No dramatic confrontation with the king. He just went upstairs, to the same room, with the same open window, and knelt down at the same time he always did.

DO	Pause here. Let it be quiet for a second before moving on.

SAY	He didn't do anything new. He just didn't stop doing the true thing.

The cost is real, and then the morning

SAY	The men who'd set the trap were watching for exactly this. They found Daniel praying, just like they knew they would, and ran to tell the king.

SAY	King Darius was upset — he actually liked Daniel and didn't want this. He spent the whole day trying to find some way around his own law. But a law of the Medes and Persians could not be changed, not even by the king who signed it.

SAY	So Daniel was thrown into the den of lions. A stone was rolled over the opening and sealed shut. That part of the story is real — Daniel telling the truth cost him exactly what everyone said it would.

SAY	The king couldn't eat that night. He couldn't sleep. As soon as the sun came up, he ran to the den himself and shouted down into it.

"Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God, whom you serve continually, able to deliver you from the lions?" (Daniel 6:20, WEB)

SAY	And from down in the dark, a voice answered back.

"My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, have I done no hurt." (Daniel 6:22, WEB)

SAY	Daniel came up out of that den without a scratch on him.

SAY

This is worth saying honestly: not every faithful person in the Bible gets pulled out of the den. There are others who trusted God and were not rescued the way Daniel was. This isn't a trick where God promises to save you every time you do the brave thing. God rescued Daniel here. That's what happened. It's not a rule we can count on for every hard thing we go through.

Where honesty costs a nine-year-old

SAY	You're probably not going to get thrown to any lions this week. But honesty still costs something, doesn't it?

If you were Daniel, which of those safer options do you think you'd have picked — shutting the window, praying quietly, or waiting the thirty days out?

DO	Let several kids answer. There's no wrong pick here — the goal is to feel the pull, not to shame anyone for feeling it.

Is there a difference between 'I didn't technically lie' and 'I told the truth'? Where's the line?

SAY

Maybe it's owning up that you broke the thing, instead of letting someone else get blamed. Maybe it's saying you're the one who said the mean thing, instead of staying quiet while somebody else gets in trouble for it. Maybe it's not hiding that you're a Christian when everyone else is laughing about it.

SAY	Think of one thing right now — something true you've been letting slide, something you haven't said out loud to the person who needs to hear it. Pick one person. Tell them by tomorrow.

The open window

SAY	Picture that window one more time. A man, upstairs, kneeling in the same place he always knelt, at the same time he always prayed, windows open toward home.

SAY	Daniel didn't shut the window.

SAY	And he didn't have to be brave first to belong to God. He was already God's, long before that law was ever signed. The praying didn't earn that. It just showed it was true.

THE PASSAGE · Daniel 6

Daniel is one of three leaders over the whole kingdom, and he's so good at his job that jealous officials go looking for something to accuse him of. They can't find anything wrong with his work, so they trick the king into signing a law that no one may pray to anyone but the king for thirty days. Daniel keeps praying at his open window anyway, gets thrown into the lions' den for it, and God shuts the lions' mouths so Daniel comes out without a scratch.

STILL BEING FINISHED · 1 EDITOR NOTE

This piece is usable as it stands. An editor has flagged the points below — read them before you teach, and use your judgement where they apply.

NOTE

In the 'trap is built out of his honesty' section, the line 'Some of the other officials were jealous' states a motive as narrative fact. Daniel 6:3-5 gives the officials' actions (they sought an occasion against him, found none, and turned to his religious practice) but never says why — it does not use the word jealous or describe their feelings. Elsewhere the piece is careful to flag what the text does and doesn't say ('the Bible doesn't tell us... he was scared'); this line should get the same treatment — reword as a suggestion ('maybe they were jealous,' or 'we're not told why, but...') rather than stated outright.

BEFORE YOU TEACH IT

Please review and adapt all generated content before use.

Kidology · STORY · The Window Daniel Didn't Shut KIDOLOGY.ORG

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