A Lion's Tale

[Taken from the book, “Sheep Tales” – the Bible according to the animals who were there. By Ken Davis]

So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually rescue you!






Dandy lived in an old home – one with quite a history. Dandy’s home had been formed thousands of years earlier, when a river used to flow beneath the mountain. Over time, the churning motion of the water had cut a huge cavern beneath the surface of the earth. From there, the water hurried on through a vast underground river system. Eventually the river headed away in some other direction and disappeared, leaving a cave that had been dry for more time than any animal could remember.


Above the cave, erosion had washed the soil out of a huge group of interlocking boulders, leaving a ragged hole high in the ceiling. Except for a rock embedded near the entrance of the den, the floor of the cave was smooth. The walls extended upward and inward toward the shaft in the ceiling. And down at the bottom – well, that was the place the lions now called home.


The lions couldn’t reach the opening, but they enjoyed the light and fresh air that streamed in. Dandy’s great-great-grandfather had been one of the first lions to make the cave home. Years ago the king had sealed off all the exits except for the elevated opening where the river had entered the mountain. This was used as an entrance. There were many little passages that led back into the mountain, but the lions rarely ventured there. Over the years the kings had used the cave for two purposes: as a kind of royal zoo, and as a place to dispose of garbage. On the night the man named Daniel came, it had been Dandy’s home for three years.


Every day just before noon, the sun would stream through the shaft high in the ceiling. It created a spotlight of warmth that would move slowly across the floor as the day grew older. The lions often fought for the privilege of lying in that wonderful brightness. Not only did they relish the warmth, but they also knew that late in the afternoon, when the sunlight touched the smooth stone embedded near the entrance, it would be feeding time. The men from the palace would appear with dinner. It was a first-come, first-serve arrangement. A lion had to be quick to eat.


When the lions heard the sound of voices, the smell of men would begin to filter into the den. The roar of the lions would shake the walls as they fought for position in the patch of light and waited for the food to fall from above. Usually it was leftovers from the palace tables. Sometimes it was a dead or a sickly sheep that men considered unfit for their table. On very rare occasions the meal was even a man! The man might be someone who had attacked the nephew of the king or had broken some law. It didn’t matter to the lions whether it was beast or man, dead or alive; whatever entered the den was quickly ripped apart before it touched the floor.


By the time the lions finished fighting over the scraps, the sun had usually moved low enough so that only a sliver of light remained on the floor, then disappeared altogether. For the rest of the evening, the den would be filled with a softening glow until finally darkness claimed the cave. Dandy hated darkness. It was during those dark nights that he most longed for freedom.


It was on one of those nights when a great disk of light shone in the sky that something happened that Dandy would never forget.


It was a Sunday, Dandy remembered, because on Sundays the lions usually got ribs. He was awakened out of a sound sleep by the murmur of voices. Someone was coming. The light streaming through the hole in the ceiling was brighter than Dandy had ever seen it before. He rushed to the spot where it illuminated the floor. Was it feeding time already?


Still half asleep, Dandy’s brain scrambled to make sense out of the confusion. The other lions were just as bewildered as Dandy as they opened their sleepy eyes. They all charged toward the circle of light, their eyes fixed on the opening. The dust they kicked up took on an eerie glow as it boiled through the shaft of evening light. Dandy decided it couldn’t be feeding time; the lions were always fed in the daylight, never at night when the special light appeared.


Still, snarling eagerly, Dandy joined the others. Every eye was fixed on the entrance where the shapes of three men appeared out of the darkness. Two of them where pushing and pulling a taller man who walked between them. With an outburst of cursing and laughter, they shoved the taller man through the opening. Dinner would be tasty tonight! Every lion sprang forward as the flailing body fell into the den. These were ribs as fresh as they come.


Dandy was the first to reach the man. He opened his jaws for the first delicious bite – but he couldn’t close them. Somehow Dandy’s jaws were stuck, wide open.


Although the man lay just inches from Dandy’s nose, he couldn’t touch him. He lashed out to drag the man toward him, but his claws wouldn’t work properly. His paws floundered in thin air as though he were a harmless kitten batting at a ball of string.


Dandy began to tremble with fear and embarrassment. The other lions were watching. He would be teased mercilessly for this. He lunged again, but this time his mouth, which had finally snapped shut, wouldn’t open at all! His growls were turned into a deep, throaty hum. Dandy slunk away to a corner of the cave in humiliation. What could be worse than a humming lion?


The meal lay right in the center of the circle of soft light. He was curled into a ball, his hands shielding his head. Dandy glanced around curiously. Amazingly enough, not one of the other lions was tearing at the man either. In his entire life he had never seen anything that had entered the den last more than a few seconds. Something very strange was going on.


Sitting beside Dandy was his scared and scraggly friend, Leopold, the bully of the den. This old warrior would often wait for the other lions to do the killing for him, then seize the parts he wanted. Tonight his eyes were fixed on the meal that lay before him and his mouth was watering. He cocked his head to one side as he watched the man slowly uncurl. The lions’ dinner was very cautiously lowering his arms to take a look around.


Leopold’s eyes narrowed to slits and his ears lay flat against his head. But rather than leaping, the old lion could only twitch and slobber. A chuckle escaped from Dandy’s throat. He couldn’t help himself – Here was Leopold the killer lion, the terror of the den, helplessly drooling all over himself. The hunger in his eyes was plain to see, but there was also a look of confusion and apprehension. Dandy didn’t dare say anything, for fear that it would come out as a hum again, so he nudged Tawny, the lioness standing next to him.


As Dandy and Tawny chuckled together, the enraged Leopold leaped forward and with a mighty swipe of his paw sent Dandy sprawling across the den. “What are you laughing at?” he snarled. “Tear an arm from this man and bring it to me.”


Dandy nodded and crept toward the man. Leopold was in no mood not to be taken seriously. But he discovered, to his surprise, that the man was now smiling – another thing the lions had never seen an evening meal do; he was kneeling with his uplifted face bathed in the light and his arms lifted toward the place where the light came from.


Something else was odd: No matter how hard Dandy tried, he could not break into that patch of brightness. Every time the tip of his nose touched the light, he quickly lost the ability to move. Then he noticed that one of the man’s hands had lowered slightly and was sticking out of the shaft of light. This was an opportunity. Dandy curled his lips into a snarl and lunged. He could take hold of the arm with his teeth and drag the man out of the light – and the lions would finally be able to enjoy a gourmet dinner. Dandy might even be hailed as a hero.


What happened next haunted Dandy for the rest of his life. He lunged forward with a roar – and started licking the man’s hand. When Dandy’s rough tongue touched the man’s hand, the man jerked it back so fast that he fell over backward.


Dandy was mortified. His friend Tawny thought this was the funniest thing she had ever seen. “If you can’t eat ‘em, lick ‘em,” she roared as she rolled over on her back. Dandy sulked, He was hungry, but he was beginning to wonder if this particular meal was worth the trouble.


He looked over his shoulder, expecting Leopold to tear him to pieces for his failure. But Leopold had other problems – he was still drooling like an idiot. What was going on here? Every few minutes another lion would try to attack the man. As long as they were still within the den’s gloom, the lions had that fierce, hungry look that terrifies all other animals. But once they reached the light, they would slink away in fear or suddenly lose interest.


Perhaps the man’s smell would provide a clue to what was happening, thought Dandy. Maybe he was poisonous. Dandy had just stretched his neck out for a good sniff when the man began to do something else meals never did: He began to sing.


The lions fell all over each other as they scrambled back, trying to get away from the strange sound. Dandy had never heard singing before, only screaming.


The man was standing now, with his arms still thrust high above him, and he was singing at the top of his lungs. And he still looked delicious.


Leopold didn’t much care for music. He’d had enough. He pinned Dandy against the wall and growled, “Kill him or I’ll kill you!”


“Kill him yourself,” Dandy heard himself saying, surprised at his own foolish courage. He had never stood up to Leopold before. For a brief second, Leopold looked at him as though he were deciding where to sink his fangs. Then he turned and walked toward the back of the cave, growling orders for everyone to follow him. In the darkest corner of the den, the lions huddled and argued over what strange power could be keeping them from enjoying the meal that stood there singing before them.


Finally Raja, the oldest and wisest of the lions, spoke. He pointed out that each lion who tried to destroy the man lost his or her power at the point of entering the ray of light. The light, Raja argued, must be what was protecting the man. There were low growls of agreement. A plan began to form. In a few hours, the special night-light would vanish, as it always did, and with it would go the strange power that protected the man. When the light disappeared, the entire pride would dine in style. Just the thought of it caused Leopold to begin slobbering again.


The lions lay down to wait. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. As Dandy lay there he wondered why the special light had not moved. One by one the lions dozed off. But the man seemed to be talking to someone in the sky above him, where the light was coming from. Maybe he was talking to the light. It still hadn’t moved when Dandy finally closed his eyes.


He was startled from a deep sleep by Tawny’s cry. Her neck was stretched upward and her eyes were wide with fear. Soon all the lions were awake, and their eyes followed her gaze.


High up in the cave, sitting in a crevice, was a beautiful creature of light. From this creature there shone a wonderful light that streaked down and bathed the man in a protective glow even more radiant than the light of the sun.


A soft sense of peace filled the den, and suddenly, amazingly, no one was hungry anymore. Dandy looked around and was surprised to see all his friends lying down; many had gone back to sleep. Then he saw the most amazing sight of all. Leopold and Boris had moved into the circle of light and were lying down right beside the man. Then the man smiled and sat down by the lions. His lips moved in a silent prayer as he reached out and stroked Leopold’s mane. The man’s hand was still buried in the coarse hair when he too fell asleep. That’s the way the kings’ guards found them in the morning.






At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?”


Daniel answered, “O king, live forever! 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. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king.”


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 HIS GOD.


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