DANIEL 6 - IN THE LION’S DEN
The title to this chapter is symbolic of the situation in which Daniel found himself. Here we have a character study of three types of people, the Good, the Bad and the Indifferent - as symbolised by Daniel, his enemies and King Darius. All three types are met in daily life and what is more, all of us fall into one of those categories. Let us see if we can identify ourselves as we explore their actions and motives. Firstly:
THE BAD
There can be no doubt that the men who had been appointed by Darius to administer his kingdom, apart from Daniel, were very wicked men. The Persian empire stretched over a large area covering many of the lands we know as the "Middle East", often unwilling members of the empire, so it was necessary to impose law and order with a firm hand. As Darius could not possibly rule by himself he divided the kingdom into 120 provinces, each with a governor who reported to three administrators, one of whom was Daniel.
It is clear from the story that Daniel was far superior in ability to his two colleagues and the king was so impressed that he toyed with the idea of appointing Daniel as the prime minister. That is when the trouble started. In addition to jealousy we should remember that these men knew that Daniel belonged to an alien race, for he was a Jew. It is easy to imagine the thought process of his fellow administrators and governors: "Why should this fellow take precedence over us; he’s not one of our countrymen. Daniel’s about to become the top man. He must be stopped!"
They began to watch Daniel like a hawk, but to their great annoyance he was "squeaky-clean"; he never put a foot wrong. Human nature has not changed much in two and half thousand years. In so many countries of the world corruption is rife and the only way to get on or to get permissions is to slip an official a "backhander", a bribe, perhaps disguising it as a commission. But Daniel would not touch that kind of thing. Try as they may, his colleagues could not find any trace of negligence or of improper dealing.
What a testimony to have, not from friends who might be rather more tolerant and turn a blind eye to some imperfection, but from enemies on the lookout for some fault. The reluctant conclusion of the close scrutiny of Daniel’s conduct was, "They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent" (4). How do we match up against such a standard? Personal integrity is not connected with being spiritual. There are many non-Christians who are upright of character, but how much more should Christians be beyond reproach.
The wicked administrators, the Bad, came to the conclusion that any attempt to prove disloyalty, corruption or negligence by Daniel was doomed to failure. If they were going to find any way of trapping him, it must be in some other direction. It was the same when the Lord Jesus was brought before his judges - he was without fault. What an accolade! What a standard for us to follow!
These evil leaders of Babylon were not to be defeated. By "hook or by crook" they were out to have him killed. The devil must have told them to "play the religious card". If they were going to find some way of trapping him, it must be in relation to his religious faith, but they were determined to find a chink in his armour. If we are Christians, whether we like it or not, we are marked people, we are under observation.
Right from the beginning of their history, the people of Israel were set apart from the surrounding nations because they were given a different set of values through God’s revelation to them - he had chosen them by his grace to be a light for all others. Even though they often failed miserably they were hated for being different. In the case of Daniel, it was his purity of life which could not avoid giving offence to his wicked contemporaries, the Bad, because he showed them up for what they were.
When anyone makes this claim for his religion by his righteous living, he is bound to face the same problems as Daniel faced. Jesus warned his disciples that if they witnessed to him clearly and faithfully and served him loyally they would never be able to avoid presenting the same kind of offence to those who opposed that way of life. The same thing happen to Jesus himself. His very perfection only served to increase the hatred of those who were conscious of their own guilt.
Of course we must not set out to make ourselves martyrs by "going over the top" or acting stupidly or out of harmony with Scriptural standards, but there are times when we may have to offer ourselves as targets for evil men. I recall the example of John Wesley when he felt called to preach in the open air - something unheard of in those days - because he was refused the pulpits of the established church. He wrote in his journal that he chose "to be made more vile" for the sake of the gospel.
To be true to the gospel can bring persecution. The apostle Paul spoke of "the offence of the cross" (Gal 5:11). To those who refuse to believe it is offensive to believe or preach that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and all that ever came before him were "thieves and robbers". In our multi-faith society the non-Christian is upset when he is told that Jesus alone is "the way, the truth and the life" (John 10:7-11; 14:6), and that all men need to be saved, and that he died on the cross as the one and only atoning sacrifice for sin and rose again from the dead by the power of God. Have you ever been ridiculed for your faith? Ever been told you are naive for being a believer?
The wicked men concocted the idea of bringing Daniel under condemnation by a law that violated basic human rights and that was grossly unreasonable. His accusers had to get the king to make and sign such a law before they could trap their man. They told the king that the proposal was the unanimous decision of the administrators, but of course they had not consulted Daniel, so it was a lying deception. It just showed the depth of their evil cunning. This leads us from the Bad to:
THE INDIFFERENT
King Darius was a mixed-up character. He had the good sense to promote Daniel to the top job in the kingdom although he was not a native of Babylon. Unfortunately this was the cause of tension in the cabinet and Darius was not aware of the hatred that Daniel’s peers and fellow statesmen had for him. We might wonder why God should allow this to happen to Daniel. Here he was, a man of God, a man who stood head and shoulders above his fellows in ability and integrity, and yet he was the subject of a life-threatening attack. The apostle Paul had wondered about this too, for in writing to the Thessalonian church he refers to the "mystery of lawlessness" (2 Thess 1:7).
The mystery of evil lies in the fact that through the mystery of freedom given by God to his created beings, to respond in love, liberty and joy, there has arisen a reaction which can only be called satanic. It has no place in God’s original purpose or in his final triumph, but is allowed to work its havoc until the time of its final destruction. Daniel found himself caught up between the Bad and the Indifferent, the wicked schemers and a morally weak king. It is a repeat of the principle seen in the life of Joseph whose brothers tried to kill him, and it finds its culminating expression in the cross of the Lord Jesus himself, where we can identify ourselves with one of the guilty parties.
The men who plotted against Daniel did not want to have his blood on their hands. They would not want to be branded as assassins. Their policy was to do the same thing but in a more subtle and complex way, but with the same result. Their wickedly clever intention was to appear innocent while laying the death of Daniel at the door of the king. The plan was to take advantage of a change in the law so that Daniel could be condemned to death. It was all carefully planned, so that the system would do for them what they would have been horrified to do themselves.
Darius was completely taken in by their flattery that no one should be allowed to pray, except to him alone, for thirty days under penalty of death. It was to be under a law which when made could not be revoked. What a responsibility people in authority have, especially our legislators. How rightly it has been said "evil flourishes when good men are silent". The innocent and the weak have sometimes been harmed when those with the power to do something about it have turned a blind eye to wrongdoing.
It happens in all areas of life - personal, community and national. What solves the problems of some can make slaves of others. People do not have such a bad conscience about it when the system can be blamed. If we carelessly cast our votes or forget to do so, there is always the chance that things will be done which we would refuse to have anything to do with it personally. We need to examine all the issues of life in the light of Scripture guided by the Spirit of God. Unless we do that we can easily be hoodwinked, as was Darius.
When Darius realised he was trapped by his own action, he did his best to wriggle out of it. The conspirators had thought of that too, for they were quick to remind the king of the inviolable decree he had thoughtlessly signed and now was binding upon him. They knew the king held Daniel in high regard and so they began to insinuate that he was not faithful to the king who had raised him to such a high position in the land.
Darius saw through the plot, and to his credit it is recorded that he tried as hard as he could to find a way to save Daniel but there was no way of escape. The Indifferent had been beaten by the Bad. Perhaps this is an illustration of how the devil can flourish and work as effectively in those who society regards as "the great and the good" as those who make no attempt to disguise their evil ways. Our Lord himself fell foul of the religious establishment, the Pharisees and Sadducees. But it makes no difference whether we fall into the category of the Bad or the Indifferent, for everyone of us "has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). So far the picture has been one of intrigue and failure, and it is with some relief that we move from the Bad and Indifferent to:
THE GOOD
Daniel was coming to the end of a long life - he must have been well over 80 when this event took place. We can call him Good, not because what he did, but in the sense of what he was - he was a man of faith. His relationship with God was the most important thing in his life. Nothing was allowed to get in the way. Here we have a man who had his priorities right. No matter how Babylonian he was in his life-style, no matter how loyal he was in all his duties to his adopted country, he never failed to let it be known to all around him that what was most precious to him was not to be found in Babylon but in Jerusalem.
Daniel was separated from his homeland by many miles just as we who are believers are living in an alien society because our real "home", our citizenship, is in heaven. God had allowed the people of Israel to be exiled from their homeland to teach them that their relationship with him did not depend on external things like a temple, however valuable that was, but rather that of personal obedience and love. The prophet Jeremiah wrote of God’s covenant with his people, "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people" (31:33).
Daniel was one of God’s success stories. There was a real bond between them, but it was something which had to be maintained. How did he do this? It was through his habit of daily communion with his God. There were no Hebrew places of worship in Babylon, only heathen temples, so Daniel had to take the initiative himself. The story tells us that he had set apart a room in his house as a place where he could meet with his God. This is a pointer to us that we must choose to make space in our daily schedule for prayer. It does not just happen by itself.
We are told that Daniel kept his windows open "towards Jerusalem" (10). There is a lovely symbolism here. It speaks to us of an attitude towards God. Daniel’s heart and soul were opened God-ward. So often our souls are facing the "Babylon" of life - we’re bogged down with the problems and perplexities of life, and we forget the great God whom we love and worship, the God who is on the throne. Facing Jerusalem was a conscious act of faith in God that he would work out his purposes even though outward circumstances were far from favourable.
Daniel did not mind who saw him at prayer. It may have been a cause of mockery to start off with: "What on earth does he think he can achieve by doing this?" Of course, they could not understand because, as Paul wrote,"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him" (1 Cor 2:14). Those who saw Daniel at prayer accepted it at first with an amused tolerance, but when he was promoted over their heads it was a different matter. He then became a threat and his faith in God an opportunity of venting their hatred.
But what did Daniel do when he heard of the evil scheme? Did he panic? He did not: "Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God, just as he had done before." Let us examine what he did. "He kneeled down on his knees." When we pray the posture we choose is not important. We can pray walking or standing, while we are working or while resting, but the attitude of our hearts must be that of kneeling, for this indicates humility and reverence and submission. Our God invites us to come freely, but not flippantly, to the throne of grace.
Did Daniel kneel in prayer "occasionally"? No, he prayed "three times a day". Daniel’s life must have been filled with the affairs of state. No man had a more valid excuse for not giving much time to prayer, yet he clearly made it one of his priorities. For Daniel, prayer was not something supplemental, an add-on after everything else had been seen to; it was a fundamental part of his life. Dr W E Sangster wrote: "If you are too busy to pray then you are too busy", and hear the words of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones: "There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christians so much as our prayer life."
Yes, Daniel was a man of prayer. There is a hymn that tells us: "Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try; prayer the sublimest strains that reach the Majesty of high" (James Montgomery). That is wonderfully true, but it must be practiced. The habit of prayer is something to be cultivated. It requires a deliberate decision on our part to devote time and energy. Jesus taught his disciples that prayer demanded persistence and hard effort.
Prayer is often the carrying of a burden to the Lord, as Daniel did with earnestness "asking God for help" (11). There is a thought here of intense entreaty. Daniel was a man burdened, for his own need but also for that of his country. He lived among a pagan people who were godless, sinful and desperately needy in a spiritual sense, and he was moved by their condition and longed for their salvation. Surely this is the situation today? The world groans in wickedness. It is deaf to the claims of God and only a great spiritual awakening can remedy the situation. John Wesley said, "God does nothing but in answer to prayer." God is looking for intercessors.
There is one more feature of Daniel’s prayer life that shows the secret of his success: he prayed "giving thanks to his God". What had he to be thankful about? Everybody was against him and it seemed certain he was about to meet a horrible death. Yet he gave thanks, not for his circumstances, but for his trust in God, his certainty that God would be with him. He would recall with joy the tight corners that he and his friends had been in over the years when his God had proved utterly faithful and he knew that God was with him whatever happened. We need to follow this pattern, expounded by the apostle Paul in writing to the Philippians, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (4:6).
Daniel’s prayers were answered. His God knew all about the danger that threatened him and he "found grace to help in time of need" (Heb 4:16). This did not mean that he was to escape the lion’s den, but rather that God was with him in the lion’s den. It was his faith which sustained him in that perilous place. Nothing but the power of God could have saved him from the hungry lions. King Darius spent a sleepless night worrying about Daniel, while all the time Daniel was at peace because the angel of the Lord was with him.
Our God is one who can protect his people; he can deliver us when we are in danger, whether physical or moral. What a great thing it is to learn and experience the delivering power of God - from fear, from doubt, from anxiety and from the power of evil. Whatever "den" we may be in, God is able to deliver us if we put our trust in him, the living God. King Darius was tremendously impressed at the amazing deliverance at the hand of the living God and made a further decree that the whole nation should "fear and reverence the God of Daniel" (26,27). It seems incredible he was unwilling to abandon his heathen gods - he remained the Indifferent even after God’s hand had been seen so clearly in Daniel, the Good.
This account of Daniel has been seen as a picture and type of the resurrection from the dead. After Daniel had been placed in the den, a stone was placed over its mouth and officially sealed but from which he emerged triumphantly, foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus himself, and believers who die in the faith. It has brought great comfort to Christians facing persecution. It is there to give us hope, not only in the crisis experiences, but also in the ordinary situations of day-to-day life. Our God is able!
Once again the story of Daniel is the story of mankind. It is the account of:
- the Bad, the wicked whose end is destruction;
- the Indifferent, those who are careless of the real values of life and yet are capable of receiving the truth but all too often miss their opportunity; and
- the Good, as seen in Daniel, a man of God who does justice, and loves kindness, and walks humbly with his God.
May we ever choose the right course.
