Adult Lesson Plan

Nebuchadnezzar has set up a golden image on the plain of Dura and ordered every official in the empire to fall down when the music plays. Three Jewish officials stay standing. The king is furious, but he gives them a second chance, and he ends it with a challenge: "who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" (Daniel 3:15). Read their answer aloud:

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. (Daniel 3:17–18)

Ask: what do you notice about how they answer the king's question? He asked who could deliver them. They answer that God is able, and then they say their choice does not depend on whether He does. Their loyalty is to God Himself, so a different outcome would not change it. They also do not argue or insult the king; they speak plainly and respectfully.

Then the furnace is heated seven times hotter, the men who throw them in are killed by the heat, and the king looks in and sees four men walking free, "and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Daniel 3:25). God did deliver them, and He met them inside the fire rather than keeping them out of it. Ask the class where they have felt the Lord with them in a trial He did not remove.

This is the second voice the week needs, and three minutes is enough. In Ammonihah, believers and their scriptures were thrown into a fire while Alma and Amulek were forced to watch. Amulek wanted to use God's power to save them. Alma answered that the Spirit constrained him, "for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory" (Alma 14:11). Read verse 11, then ask one question: how do Daniel 3 and Alma 14 together answer the question "what if my faith doesn't lead to the miracle I seek?" The two passages show the same faith with two outcomes. In both, God is with His people and they belong to Him.

Decades later, under Persian rule, jealous officials trick Darius into a decree that no one may pray to anyone but the king for thirty days. Read:

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

Ask: what do you notice about the last three words? Daniel did not start a new protest. He kept doing what he had always done. He faced Jerusalem, where the temple had stood, and he gave thanks, even with a death decree signed. When Daniel came out of the den unhurt, the record gives the reason: "because he believed in his God" (Daniel 6:23).

Faith in Jesus Christ is trust in a Person. If our faith rested on getting certain results, every unanswered prayer would weaken it. Because the three friends trusted God Himself, they could say "but if not" without losing their faith. This also explains why their example changed a king: Nebuchadnezzar blessed their God because they "yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God" (Daniel 3:28). Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught that faith grows when we choose to believe and act even while afraid ("Be Not Afraid, Only Believe," Oct 2015 general conference). The three friends were probably afraid, and they chose anyway.

• When has a "but if not" outcome deepened your trust in God instead of weakening it?
• Is it harder to say "God is able" or to say "but if not"? Why?

Nebuchadnezzar's image shows world empires in descending metals, gold to clay. A stone "cut out without hands" strikes the feet and becomes a mountain that fills the earth (Daniel 2:34–35). Daniel explains: "the God of heaven [shall] set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44). "Without hands" means no human effort built it. Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught, "The Church is that prophesied latter-day kingdom, not created by man but set up by the God of heaven and rolling forth as a stone 'cut out of the mountain without hands' to fill the earth" ("Why the Church," Oct 2015 general conference).

• If God set up the kingdom without hands, what is our part in its rolling forth?
• Daniel lived his whole life in someone else's empire. How does knowing which kingdom lasts change how we live in ours?

In Daniel 7 four beasts rise from the sea, then the Ancient of days takes His throne and "one like the Son of man" receives "an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away" (Daniel 7:13–14). Jesus used this title for Himself more than any other. Before the high priest He said, "ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62), and they condemned Him because they understood He was claiming Daniel's vision. Moses 6:57 explains that the Father is "Man of Holiness," so His Son is "the Son of Man."

• Jesus knew this claim would cost Him His life. What does that tell us about how He viewed His mission?

A class member's manager asks her to shade the numbers in a report "just this quarter," and everyone on the team seems fine with it. Like Daniel with the steward, she can stay respectful and propose an alternative, perhaps offering to present the honest numbers with a clear plan. She may lose standing, or she may earn trust, as Daniel did when his enemies found "none occasion nor fault" in him (Daniel 6:4). Ask: what would a respectful, firm answer sound like in your own job?

A father prayed for years that his adult son would return to church, and the son has not. He wonders whether his faith was too weak. Daniel 3 and Alma 14 show that faithful people do not always receive the rescue they ask for, and God remains with them. Invite the class to think of one prayer they are still waiting on and to consider what keeping covenants "but if not" would look like in that situation.