Darius
Daniel 6:2”……that the king (Darius) might not suffer loss….”
Have you heard of this statement, “All brawn and no brains”? This means, ‘to have great power or physical strength but lack mental acuity or intelligence.’ This exactly describes king Darius and also many ‘smart-computer-era-smart-phone’ generation. Anybody listening to me? I saw a smart, young, woman engineer who was sitting near the window seat in the train working on her project up to 12 midnight and then dozed off with her laptop on her chest and earphones plugged to her ears – snoring away to glory, unaware that her laptop (along with the project) could be stolen if luck does not favor her since she has already thrown ‘caution’ out of the window.
Coming back to king Darius, from the opening verses of chapter 6, we see that he was quiet shrewd and calculative, he appointed 120 satraps and also 3 presidents over the 120 satraps to supervise them so that he might not suffer loss. This guy was smart to calculate the loss in terms of material resources but was foolish to allow his soul to be corrupted. Daniel being one of the three presidents and also the fact that Darius was considering to make Daniel head over the entire kingdom reveals the brainpower of Darius because he was able to see the ‘potential and goodness’ in Daniel. Smart boss! When Daniel’s colleague heard of his favor with the king, they boil with jealousy and plot to fix him; however, since they were unable to find any fault in Daniel, they now approach the problem from a different angle. The devil saw the weakness inside king Darius, and that was his PRIDE! The devil knows your weakness, he provokes the satraps, presidents, leaders, ministers and princes to invoke a law that prohibits people from worshipping none other than the king himself, this seemed good to the stupid king. Imagine people from 5 different ranks gathering to kill a righteous man, but if God is for you , who can be against you? Clap hands for God! How could this smart guy be so foolish as to allow his subordinates to take an important decision and also make him sign in it? The Bible says, 1 Corinthians 3:19” For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God…” After signing the death warrant, he was silly to go to the lion’s den and yell, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions?"
Even after the judgment was signed, Daniel turned to God as usual! Hallelujah! Trusting God in the midst of chaos is divine wisdom. Knowledge-seekers and globe-trotters need to understand that without the knowledge of the true God they become silly fools.
WORLDLY WISDOM: There are huge bunch of people like king Darius who cry over spilt milk. People are paranoid or even resentful when they find out that they didn't measure up for a job or promotion, they blame God and curse the society for abandoning them, but they do not take a minute to analyze their life and how they have failed to bless the Lord with their finances. When Christian marriages end in divorces, there is none to own up to their faults and their nonchalance to the commandments of God. We don’t ‘get along’ is not the answer, you ‘better get along’ is my advice; if not curses would follow you. 100 percent! Beware!
Huge gamut of people are running in the wrong direction for counseling and direction and alas they are frustrated and lost without a clue. The conundrum is that why we stiffly refuse to go the right way? Are you listening? Today we get to hear some of the best preachers speak to us right into our living room through a wide range of Christian networks. We just have no excuse other than our own stubbornness of closing our ears to the truth!
Ephesians 1:17”..that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.”
