Activities for Daniel & the Lions Den

The Bible story of Daniel is about a man who was thrown into a den of hungry lions because of his refusal to stop praying to God. Although the lions would have devoured the average person, Daniel was safe because he had a relationship with God. While this Bible story is an easy one to remember for many, there are some people who tend to retain information better through hands-on participation in group activities.

"Daniel Says" is an activity that is geared towards children. The story tells how Daniel was thrown into the den of hungry lions and one of the reasons that Daniel was not eaten by the lions is because Daniel had a relationship with God. When you have a relationship with God, you stand in the authority of God in the earth. Life and death was in the power of Daniel's tongue. In the game of Daniel Says, have all of the children create lion faces out of paper plates. Attach a Popsicle stick to each paper plate so that the plate can be held in front of the face as a mask. Choose a child to represent Daniel. Place Daniel in the presence of all of the Lions, with the masks on their faces. Whenever the child chosen as Daniel gives the command, "Daniel Says" followed by an action, the lions must obey and do whatever Daniel tells them to do. If one of the lions perform an action that was not preceded by the words, "Daniel Says," then they are out of the game. The last child standing in the game gets to play the role of Daniel the next time around.

"The Lion's Ring" is another children's activity that will remind the participants of how the lions ended up sleeping in the den instead of harming Daniel. In order to play this game, there must be a group of lions connecting hands to form a circle. Daniel must stand in the center of the circle. Daniel's goal is to break through the arms of the lions by finding a weak link in the circle. The child who is the weak link has to lay down and go to sleep in the den. Every time Daniel finds a weak link, that lion has to go to sleep. The last two lions standing must answer a trivia question pertaining to the story of Daniel. Whoever answers the question properly gets to play the role of Daniel the next time around. If you like, you can make lion masks to place on the faces of the lions.

If Daniel did not have a "Safety Base" in God, the lions would have eaten him alive. "Daniel Tag" teaches that God is a safety base and that when people are close to him, like Daniel was, the lions (also known as trouble) can't harm them. It teaches that when people are away from the base of safety, which is God, then trouble will harm them, so don't be caught away from God. To play this game, first designate a "counting base" and a "safety base." While standing on the counting base, Daniel must count while the Lions go and hide. After Daniel finishes counting, his goal is to get from the counting base to the safety base, without being attacked by the lions, who have come out of their hiding places. If one of the lions successfully tags Daniel on his way to the safety base, that person gets to play the role of Daniel the next time around.