The book of Daniel relates a series of miracles that happened to Daniel and to his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, while they lived in captivity under the kings of Babylon and Persia. Notably, the three friends were thrown into a hot furnace but were not burned, and Daniel was left all night in a den of lions but survived. The kings who presided over these punishments were stunned in both cases. King Nebuchadnezzar said, “There is no other God that can deliver after this sort” (Daniel 3:29). And King Darius said, “The God of Daniel … delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions” (Daniel 6:26-27).
Three of the twelve disciples chosen by Jesus in the Americas as described in the Book of Mormon experienced deliverance from the same circumstances:
And thrice they were cast into a furnace and received no harm.
3 Nephi 28:21-22; see also 4 Nephi 1:32-33
And twice were they cast into a den of wild beasts; and behold they did play with the beasts as a child with a suckling lamb, and received no harm.
Moroni later explained the source of these kinds of miracles. Referencing the incredible stories of faith among his people, he wrote:
[God] knoweth their prayers, that they were in behalf of their brethren. And he knoweth their faith, for in his name could they remove mountains; and in his name could they cause the earth to shake; and by the power of his word did they cause prisons to tumble to the earth; yea, even the fiery furnace could not harm them, neither wild beasts nor poisonous serpents, because of the power of his word.
Mormon 8:24
Because of the power of His word and because of their faith. And as the ancient kings testified, because they worshipped the true God.
Moroni taught that stories of past miracles provide evidence that God is mindful of us:
If there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.
Mormon 9:19
This week, as we study the book of Daniel, let’s view the miracles as precedents for the miracles in our own lives.
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