One of the realities of the world in which we live is the important roles that the nonhuman created beings play. I was raised on a farm. We had cattle, ducks, chickens, dogs, stray cats, wolves, opossums, and the occasional crawl on your belly kind of trespasser who wouldn't last long, but would become the focus of many of a "dad's home, let's scare him..." prank. Most of the time I think dad knew something was up and just went over the top in his reaction to see us laugh. 
Rarely, did all of these inhabitants of our farm reside there at the same time. While it wasn't a big farm, it was big enough to keep us busy yet small enough for us to grow fond of some of the other creatures, except the aforementioned trespassers.
The impact on our world from our fellow multilegged inhabitants is immense. Their influence has trickled over into virtually every part of our culture, including the music portion. The Byrds, The Beatles, The Animals, The Monkees, Three Dog Night, John Cougar Mellencamp, Adam, and The Ants, Def Leppard, Modest Mouse, Alien Ant Farm, Gorillaz, are all examples of bands who adopted specific species to make an impact on the popular music world. The website ranker.com has in fact a listing of 100 bands with animals in their name. Some of which we confess, we have never heard of, but will be checking out! The Best Bands With Animal Names, ranker.com, September 21, 2022
Songs themselves have even been inspired by and chronicled the exploits of our fellow earth beasts. Examples include 1825's, " Duetto buffo di due gatti (“Humorous duet for two cats”)" (attributed to Rossini). Most of the hearing world has been exposed to Nicolae Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblee" which at some point or another has been used as the soundtrack to many a frenetic scene in movies, television, and animation. Maestro Minnie Flight of the Bumblebee 1999
This trend continues as evidenced by the myriad of music that features Kingdom Anamalia finding its way up the charts and in blogs, including your own Tuesday's Musical Notes. Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Fly Like An Eagle" (Steve Miller Band), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Talk To The Animals" (Rex Harrison), and Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Union Of The Snake" (Duran, Duran) are all examples of songs that have become standards for many a playlist and the source for blog inspiration.
But one song, in particular, seems to find its way into popular culture every 20-30 years or so with a resurgence...You probably already have the earworm, but let's do it anyway, got your falsetto ready?...wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh...
The Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit by The Tokens, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" has one of the longest histories of any popular song. It was written and recorded originally in South Africa in 1939 (making it 83 years old) and has had covers all the way up to 2020.
Its original title was "Mbube" and it was put together in the Zulu language by Gallo Record company cleaner and record packer Solomon Linda. "Mbube" by Solomon Linda, a single from 1939
Since its inception, the song has been recorded under four different titles, its original "Mbube" (13 times, 1939-2020), "Wimoweh" (18 times, 1952-1999), "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (42 times, 1961-2019) and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) 1 time, 1997). But most notable to a generation of young adults (ok, so they're in their 30s and 40s now) is the rendition given by a certain meerkat and warthog who serenaded a jungle with their pal, Simba...
or in the CGI retelling of the story:
The popularity of Disney's The Lion King brought to light the fact of a copyright dispute between Solomon Linda's family and the publishing company which had the rights to the song. Claims that South Africa did not recognize the copyright laws of the US, further convoluted the argument. At one point, the lawsuit stated the royalties would have been in excess of 1.6 million dollars. As of 2006, the family settled with the owner of the worldwide publishing rights, Abilene Music Publishers (who had licensed the song to Disney), and placed all received monies into a trust. One can only imagine the difficulties this family had to go through to do what was right and receive what was legally theirs. It just shows that when you are in the right, you may very well have to spend a night or two with that sleeping lion...
So, welcome back to Daniel! He and his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have been under the microscope for their wisdom and their intense desire to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They have navigated a "jungle" of visions of gold, trees, escaped fiery furnaces, and witnessed the deposing of 2 different kingdoms as we interact with them today. They continue to be held in high regard even as citizens of a conquered nation and find themselves in circumstances today that seem familiar. Not much time has passed under the new rule of the Persians, led by King Darius.
According to the historicity of the Biblical narrative, Daniel would now be in his early to mid-80s and spent most of his life as a captive. By God's providence in his life, Daniel has lived far past the life expectancy of many of those in his era. Because of his age, and leadership experience in the kingdom, Darius appoints Daniel to be one of 3 commissioners. These commissioners are the leadership for 120 satraps, the provincial governors over the Persian empire, THE world power of that age.
As has happened in the previous kingdoms, Daniel distinguishes himself from the other commissioners. The ensuing jockeying for political position and jealousy ensure that Daniel is about to get into more trouble than he has ever experienced. Their efforts were thwarted as Daniel's character could not come into question in any way. In fact, verse 4 says, "Then the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel regarding government affairs; but they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption, because he was trustworthy, and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him." Perhaps this is a standard in which we should be very aware in the upcoming midterms and next Presidential election... but I digress.
This tandem was frustrated by Daniel's righteousness and purity. They were thwarted by Daniel's honesty and integrity. So they devised a plan that would guarantee that Daniel would violate a life-threatening law. They wrote the legislation and sent it to the king. (hmmm...seems vaguely familiar, writing laws to benefit yourself...shall we all email our representatives a copy of Daniel 6?...sorry honey, I know I promised...but this isn't Facebook!)
The law that these rulers wrote played into the vanity that is inherent in all of us, our Pride! Who wouldn't sign off on a law whereby everyone in the kingdom prays to them? Notice something else. In verse 7 these co-commissioners tell King Darius that "all" of the "satraps, counselors, and governors" had counseled together. Would it be safe to assume that Darius thought Daniel would be a part of that "all"? With that in mind, we find Darius signing off on this law that will stand for 30 days. Breaking of the law resulted in being cast into a lion's den, a precursor to the persecution seen by early Christians under Roman rule.
Daniel, knowing full well about the injunction against praying to anyone other than Darius, proceeded to his home, went to the chamber on his roof, and with his windows open toward Jerusalem, prayed to the ONE TRUE GOD, 3 times a day. O that believers in 2022 would have that sort of devotion and dedication to prayer. And no, I don't think "let's throw some words down on our meal" counts.
These "rulers" go into Daniel's home, find him praying to God, and bring him before Darius. (Oh, the places we could go with this, but alas, time does not allow a full unpacking of this particular suitcase...) When they reported this to Darius, the king spent a sleepless night attempting to find a way of rescue for Daniel. Darius however, had allowed himself to be manipulated into an action in which he could not back down. Actions have consequences...
Before Darius has Daniel punished, the king affirms to Daniel something which to Daniel would not have seen as a surprise. "Your God whom you continually serve will Himself rescue you." Daniel had made such an impact by the life he lived, that this pagan, multi-god serving king, affirmed that Yahweh would be Daniel's salvation. This raises the question, do we live such a life that those around us affirm our God back to us? Even those who don't profess a belief in Him at all?
Darius' affirmation soon becomes a question as the next morning, with urgency, Darius goes to the lion's den, and apparently, the lions did sleep tonight...
Actions have consequences... Daniel's God-serving, God-fearing life, testified to his integrity in everything he did. The other commissioners, well, not so much. Because of their deception, the accusing commissioners were thrown into the den lions who were undoubtedly hungry after a long night's sleep. The consequences don't stop there. Notice that the Bible also indicates their entire family was included in the punishment. The Bible also says that the lions didn't allow these folks to make it to the floor before administering the final punishment on them for their wickedness. The lesson here is that not only can our righteousness spill over to others in our lives, so can our wickedness. All of our actions, our works good or bad, have consequences which we should consider.
Because of God's salvation of Daniel, Darius goes on to issue another decree that everyone should "tremble and fear" before Daniel's God. Imagine, the leader of the known world just told everyone to acknowledge God. Darius, in a declaration foreshadowing Phillipians 2:9-11 NASB/AMP/KJV,
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
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