DANIEL 6-
DANIEL IN THE LION'S DEN
Is Your God Able?
It had been a long
time since the boy Daniel was brought to Babylon as a slave by Prince
Nebuchadnezzar. He had served long and faithfully and was now well up in
years. Having just been made chief ruler in the kingdom just before Belshazzar's
death had brought him to the attention of the conquering ruler Darius, placed
over the city by Cyrus.
1,2 It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom;
And over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first: that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage.
Darius took a
liking to Daniel, and felt he could trust him. He too was an older man being 62
when Babylon fell and he valued the experience and godly wisdom of the faithful
Hebrew captive. Quickly Daniel found himself once again as first ruler next to
the King.
Daniel 6:3 “Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes,
because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the
whole realm.”
He set up
120 Princes and over them was to be three presidents. Daniel was the chief of
the three. Daniel was the one they all had to answer to.
4,5 Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.
So now we see him
again in a position where heathen rulers were forced to have a worshipper of the
True God as head over them. Satan didn’t like it. The heathen rulers didn’t
like it. But they were stuck with it. Darius was very pleased with his new
friend, Daniel.
Then they got a
nasty idea. They decided to watch him very closely and surely they would be able
to catch him making a mistake or being dishonest. They watched him in everything
he did. They wanted to catch him in something that they could use to get him
fired or better yet, executed. But they couldn’t get anything to report that
was bad about Daniel.
Now you would
think that they would have been ashamed to try to harm this dear old man who did
his work so well and faithfully; but they were jealous and determined to get rid
of him. They realized that the only way they could trap him would have to be
“concerning the law of his God”.
The keen eyes of
jealousy were fixed upon Daniel day after day; their watchings were sharpened by
hatred; yet not a word or act of his life could they make appear wrong…The
more blameless the conduct of Daniel, the greater was the hatred excited against
him by his enemies. They were filled with madness, because they could find
nothing in his moral character or in the discharge of his duties upon which to
base a complaint against him.
6-8 Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever.
All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.
Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.
So they got their
heads together and they started to flatter king Darius. They told him what a
great king he was and what he could do to make himself even greater. “Why
don’t you make a law that says for 30 days nobody can ask anything from any
man or even any god except you; and if they do, they will be thrown into the
lion’s den.”
9 Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.
That was really
silly, don’t you think? But they had flattered him so much and made him feel
so proud of himself that he just fell for it. Quickly they put the
‘law’ before him and he signed it and sealed it. He never dreamed it was
just a plot to get rid of his best friend.
Daniel
6:10 “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his
house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled
upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as
he did aforetime.”
Daniel was a man
of prayer. Three times a day he knelt before the Lord; and Satan told his
enemies that they could use this to destroy him. Daniel knew about the decree,
he knew it was designed for one reason only - to get him.
Now Daniel could
have just prayed secretly for a month. He could have just prayed in his head in
the bathroom or something. But he would not dishonour his God like that. He knew
also that no man has any right to tell another man how he is to worship his God.
To even pretend to go along with it would deny and insult God.
So he opened
his windows just like always towards Jerusalem and he prayed. Not once, not
twice but three times a day, just like always. And hiding where they could watch
the whole thing were those wicked, jealous rulers. Daniel knew it; but he
committed himself to the Lord and went about his business anyway. He was no
different in this time of danger than when all was well with him. Just like his
three friends had years before, he trusted God and left the problem in His
hands.
That law
seemed silly, but it was meant to destroy God’s faithful one; the Sunday Law
in the last days will be silly also; but it is Satan’s plan to get rid of God’s
true children.
CONTINUE- PART 2-
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NEW?