Who Do You Listen To?
Let me start with a question, especially for the children, but I think the adults might enjoy this too.
Who has the loudest voice in your family?
(Allow a moment for responses.)
Now here’s the next question, and this one is even more important:
Whose voice do you actually listen to?
(Allow a moment for responses.)
Sometimes the loudest voice isn’t the one we should follow, is it?
There are lots of voices in our lives. Voices telling us what to do, what to think, what really matters.
At school… among friends… on our phones… on television… even in our own thoughts.
Some of these voices are loud. Very loud.
But today we’re going to think about a man named Daniel, and he teaches us something very important: The most important voice is not the loudest one. It’s the one you can trust.
Daniel lived a long time ago, and when he was just a young boy growing up in the land of Judah, he would have learned God’s Word. He would have heard the Scriptures read. He would have been taught who God is, faithful, good, and true.
But here’s something important: Daniel wasn’t the only one who heard those things. Lots of people did. Lots of his friends did. But not everyone listened.
And because people stopped listening to God’s voice, something very serious happened. The Babylonian army came, invaded the land, and took many people away into exile, including Daniel.
Now imagine that for a moment.
You’re taken from your home… your country… everything familiar… and brought into a powerful foreign empire. And suddenly, there are new voices everywhere.
The king’s voice. The culture’s voice. The crowd’s voice. And all of them are loud.
Some people might have said, “God has abandoned us. God doesn’t care anymore.”
That was a loud voice. But Daniel didn’t listen to it, because he already knew a better voice. A quieter voice. A steady voice. The voice of God, speaking through his Word.
And so Daniel made a choice, even when he was very young. Even when it was difficult. Even when it would have been easier to go along with everyone else. Daniel chose to listen to God.
We see this when Daniel is given the king’s food.
Now that might sound like a good thing. Special royal food! YUM! But there was a problem. This food had likely been offered to idols. And Daniel knew from God’s Word that this was not right.
So what should he do? Listen to the king? Or listen to God?
Daniel chose to listen to God and God honoured that choice.
Later, he had to make another choice. A law was made that no one could pray to God, only to the king. And anyone who disobeyed would be thrown into a den of hungry lions.
That is a very loud voice.
What would you do? Would you stay quiet? Would you hide? Would you follow the crowd?
Daniel didn’t.
He went to his room, opened his window, and prayed to God, just as he had always done.
Why?
Because he listened to God’s voice, not the loudest voice.
And yes, he was thrown into the lions’ den, but God did not abandon him.
God shut the mouths of the lions. The voice Daniel trusted proved to be the voice that was true.
Daniel’s friends made the same choice.
They were told to bow down to a golden statue. Everyone else was doing it.
The voice was loud. The command was clear. The consequences of not listening were terrifying…a fiery furnace.
But they said, “We will not bow down.”
Why?
Because they listened to God’s voice. And even when they were thrown into the fire, God was with them.
Now here’s the most important part of all. Daniel and his friends point us forward to someone even greater.
To Jesus.
Jesus also had many voices speaking to him. Voices telling him what kind of king he should be. Voices telling him to avoid suffering. Even when he faced the cross, his inner voice was saying, “Save yourself if possible!”
But Jesus listened to his Father, even when it meant suffering. Even when it meant the cross.
Because he knew that his Father’s voice was the one he could trust.
And because Jesus listened perfectly, he has saved us.
So now we come back to the question.
Whose voice do you listen to?
When your friends try to make you to do something you know is wrong… whose voice will you follow? When society tells you what matters most… whose voice shapes your life?
Is it the loudest voice? Or is it God’s voice?
God still speaks today. Not usually in loud ways. But clearly, faithfully, through his Word: the Bible.
As we read it… as we hear it… as we learn it…we begin to recognise His voice. Just like Daniel did.
So here’s something to take with you this week:
When you hear lots of different voices…
Pause and ask:
Is this the voice I can trust?
And then remember Daniel. Remember the lions’ den. Remember the fiery furnace. And remember Jesus on the cross.
And choose to listen, not to the loudest voice, but to the voice of God, whose voice you can trust because he has never let his people down.
Image: Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Catacomb of Sts Marcellinus and Peter, 2nd -3rd Cent.
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2026
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