God’s Word for You
Daniel 6:20-21 Has he been able?
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, November 6, 2025
20 As he approached the den and Daniel, he cried out in an anguished voice and said to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, the God you serve constantly—has he been able to deliver you from the lions?” 21 And then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever!
Here is a question from an unbeliever in agony about God’s abilities and omnipotence. His agony is such that he does not even know whether the one he asks is alive or dead; it is almost a rhetorical question, the kind of thing a man in mourning does when he speaks to a loved one who has died. It is not a prayer, since it is not worship. But it is a conversation with only one side.
The king phrases the question in terms of God’s attributes. He does not ask, “Daniel, did you escape the jaws of the lions?” or “Daniel, are you all right?” Instead, he asks, “Has your God been able to deliver you?” Daniel’s response shows respect in a way that few of us would have expected. The prophet does not say, “Yes, you wicked tyrant—now, get me out of here!” He does not say, “I’m still living; no thanks to you!” No, not at all. He says with respect and giving the king all the honor demanded by God in the Fourth Commandment, “O king, live forever!” This was the greeting given to kings of Babylon and Persia (Nehemiah 2:3; Daniel 2:4, 3:9, 5:10).
As for the king’s question and the theology behind it, what shall we say? The words in question are these: “Has he been able…?” In Aramaic this is hayakil (הַיְכִל; the first letter is the interrogative pronoun showing it to be a question). To be able to do a thing is to have the power and ability to do it. “I am able to endure much,” but I cannot do or endure everything.
But God, our God, is the Almighty. He is able to do everything and anything. God’s powerful and almighty omnipotence is confirmed in Scripture in four important ways: (1) By the direct statements of Scripture. He is “mighty and awesome” (Deuteronomy 10:17). Elihu says to Job, “God is mighty, and firm in his purpose” (Job 36:5). And along with marvelous and accurate terms like “mighty” (Psalm 24:8), “strong” (Psalm 89:10) and “fierce, great, and powerful” (Isaiah 27:1), he is called “all-powerful, almighty” in the Greek word pantokrator (παντοκράτωρ, Revelation 1:8). This word is only used of God in any serious literature. Our God is the LORD God Almighty (Hosea 12:5; Amos 3:13).
(2) His omnipotence is also confirmed when it is a witness that he can do all things. “He can raise up children for Abraham from these stones” (Matthew 3:9). Jesus prays: “Father, all things are possible for you” (Luke 18:27). He divided the Red Sea to make dry land (Exodus 14:22; Psalm 78:13). He creates faith in man’s heart with baptism (Colossians 2:12). He raises the dead. He made the universe and our world (John 1:3).
(3) Nothing is difficult or impossible for God. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14). “Ah, LORD God! There is nothing that is too difficult for you” (Jeremiah 32:17). And Paul rightly says: “Who has ever succeeded in resisting his will?” (Romans 9:19).
(4) Finally, God’s omnipotence is depicted in many symbols and word-pictures in the Scriptures, such as his powerful hand: “In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all” (1 Chronicles 29:12). And his outstretched arm is used to describe the same thing: “You are the one who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm” (Jeremiah 32:17).
Therefore the answer to the king’s question is, yes, of course, God is able, powerful enough, strong enough, to do anything. This includes the small matter of keeping his prophet safe from some lions. For the same God who kept his people alive in the desert for forty years giving them bread from his own hands and water from the rocks in the wasteland is surely able to close the mouths of a couple of his own creatures for twelve hours, the cats or kittens that wrestle at his feet and chase the yarn of his divine sitting room.
It is this same all-powerful God who watches over us. He shows us with a Gospel passage like this one that he has the ability to save us, not just from the jaws of lions in their den, but from the jaws of death itself and the grave. He is able and mighty, with power to save and deliver us. Put your trust in him.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.