Lessons from Daniel

Being Deceived (Daniel 6:1-24)

At some point in our lives every one of us has been deceived in some way or another. There is deception by others, deception by circumstances, and even self deception. No matter what the source deception is no fun and I don’t think anyone truly enjoys being deceived. Satan is a master at deception and many lives have been damaged through his deception. In this lesson we will look at ways that are used to deceive us.

In the passage for the lesson we see that King Darius was deceived. The tricky thing with deception though is that his deception put Daniel in the den of Lions. Sometimes when we are deceived other also pay the price for our deception. The princes and leaders who wanted to get rid of Daniel were also deceived. They deceived themselves into thinking that they could get rid of Daniel and not be punished. Their self deception led to them and their families being thrown into the den of Lions.

We are warned in the New Testament against being deceived (Galatians 6:7-8). In this passage we also see the principle of sowing and reaping. We must remember that we will reap what we sow and we will always reap more than we sow. Therefore we must guard against deception.

Ways that Satan uses to deceive :

1)  Flattery (verse 6)

• The first thing that the leaders said to the king was “live forever”. One might ask how is this flattery? What they are saying is that they want him to be king forever they are puffing him up.
• People use this same approach. Usually when someone is telling you how good you are, they either want something from you or are covering up something they have already done.
• Young ladies should take special heed to this. Guys will tell you anything to get what they want from you and deception many times starts with flattery.

2)  Lies (verse 7)

• The leaders said that they were all in agreement on the new royal statute. But Daniel was not included in the meeting, because they were trying to get rid of him.
• Usually after the flattery comes the lie. Flattery is designed to get us thinking how good or wonderful we are and then we will fall for the lie every time.
• Young ladies once again the guy tells you how beautiful and wonderful you are then he tells that he loves you and will always love you. Don’t fall the lie.

3)  Pressure (verse 8)

• After the lie, comes the pressure and this is just what the leaders did to king Darius.
• Ladies as we stated above don’t believe the lie. But after the lie will come the pressure. Many a young man has said if you love me then you would do what I want. The truth is if he truly loved you then he would not have you do anything that you do not want to do.

4)  The mistake (verse 9)

• Darius falls for it, hook line and sinker. Then it is too late. No matter what he does he cannot save Daniel from the lion’s den.
• Note in verse 14 that when he realized what had happened he was displeased with himself.
• In the end it is truly self deception. And that is the case with us most of the time. We may blame others and they may have been involved, but in the end we made the decision and we were the one who was deceived.

Lessons from Daniel

Being Deceived (Daniel 6:1-24) : Handout

1)  Give examples of things or ways that we can be deceived.

2)  List the people in the passage who were deceived and the consequences for their deception.

3)  What is a New Testament verse that applies to us today in regards to deception?

4)  Give an outline showing how King Darius was deceived and how Satan uses these same methods.