Daniel Six ... A Background Study 
 

Chapter six of Daniel is a study in dirty politics. It begins with an explanation of the political climate in the nation of Medo-Persia, where Daniel served as a government official. The Medes and the Persians had seized power from Babylon, and Daniel had been absorbed into the new government. As before, he was recognized by the king as a faithful and wise servant. So when the government was restructured, Daniel sat high on the organizational chart.

Scripture tells us that the king’s new bureaucracy allowed for 120 governors, called satraps, with three administrators over them. If the political climate resembled our own in any way, the satraps would have immediately lobbied for the best possible appointments and plotted the easiest way to rise to the level of administrator. The administrators would have competed for supremacy and moved to block any rising star from taking their power. 

The fury of this infighting seems to fall primarily upon one individual: Daniel. He was given one of the first administrator jobs, and because he served so well, the king was planning to reorganize again, this time with Daniel alone at the top of the chart, above even the administrators. The response of the other officials would have played equally well in Washington today. The politicians started to look for a scandal. They set out to find something in Daniel’s life that could lead to an accusation before the king. They checked his job, but there were no faults there. He was not corrupt, in any way. And so they looked at his private life. Still, they found nothing. Nothing wrong. Nothing illegal. Nothing that could be indicted by a grand jury.

The next step was to manufacture an offense. They went to the king to set a trap for Daniel. They asked for a new law that would be in effect for the course of one month. On the surface, the new law would honor the king. For thirty days, no one in the kingdom would be allowed to pray to anyone, god or man, except to the king. Some scholars see this as a hasty decision, rushed through the political process before the king could see the shallowness of the law, like an amendment hidden on the coattails of a much larger and totally unrelated bill. At any rate, the king signed his name, and the idea became law.

This political culture was different from the Babylonian world of Nebuchadnezzar. He would have issued law without any input from advisors, and at the moment that the law displeased him, he could change it with a word. Darius, the king of Medo-Persia, is not so powerful. The law takes precedence in his world. So once the law has been placed on the books, he will be powerless to change it or to excuse anyone from its penalty. The trap set by the politicians was quite efficient. The only way to avoid the penalty of death would be to keep from breaking the law.

Daniel does just the opposite. The wording is interesting. When Daniel heard about the law, it appears that he went home immediately and prayed. On the one hand, we can see an unbroken habit. He prays as he has always prayed, three times a day, with his face toward Jerusalem. It is a simple declaration that a new threat will not change his worship, even if it is directed specifically at his obedience to God. After all, he has been threatened with death before, and the answer has always been to pray. More specifically, the answer has been found in the power and grace of God. So why not seek God at this time, as he has for so many years.

On the other hand, I have to wonder if there is a hint of challenge here. There is no command in scripture that Daniel must pray before the open window. He could have withdrawn a few paces to a place that was less visible, or prayed with his head unbowed, or prayed as he drove his car to work. Jesus implores his disciples to pray in secret, where the only audience is God. But Daniel kept to his visible prayer schedule, probably knowing that the law was intended for him. His prayers, then, were a testimony, a visible declaration that God is higher than law, even here among the Medes and the Persians.

In that sense, the battle takes place here, in Daniel’s room. The victory is not waiting at the lion’s den. The victory takes place when one man stands up and declares that God is God, no matter what it costs. The added miracle at the lion’s den is confirmation that God has more to say to the Medes and the Persians. He authenticates Daniel’s testimony at this moment, but he will also allow Daniel to speak yet again to this pagan culture.

When the trap was sprung, the king learned too late what he had done. He tried to undo the damage, but the law was established, and he had no choice but to allow the officials to arrest Daniel and throw him into a cage or a cave with hungry lions. Give the king credit for trying. And as Daniel was taken away, Darius hoped that Daniel’s God might still rescue him. Who knows if that was merely wishful thinking or if Darius had a glimmer of understanding of the power of God. If he did not, he soon will.

The entrance to the den of lions was covered with a stone and sealed with the king’s signet ring and those of the nobles. The nobles may have sealed it so that the king could not release Daniel in the night. Someone suggested that the king’s seal prevented the nobles from throwing in more lions, just to make certain Daniel did not survive. It was night, so the king returned to the palace. But he could not sleep, and he could not eat.

In the morning, the king hurried back to see what had happened to Daniel. He called into the den, hoping to hear a voice answer him back. Had Daniel’s God, whom he had served his entire life, really been able to rescue him?

Perhaps to his surprise, a voice answered him back. Daniel had not been eaten. Much like his friends in the fiery furnace, there was probably no cat hair on his shirt and no smell of lion on his clothes. The Bible doesn’t tell us that, specifically, but there is a sense of a total absence of lion activity. Daniel had not spent the night cowering before the hungry, snarling beasts, or sneaking around so that they would not see him. Apparently the animals were fully aware of his presence. They just did not eat him.  

Daniel told the king quite clearly that God had provided his deliverance. As proof, the king offered the lions a selection from an alternate menu. The officials that had accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lion’s den in his place. The starving lions grabbed these poor people before they could reach the floor of the den and tore them apart. Just as God furnishes a picture of grace in the experience of Daniel, he offers a terrible picture of divine retribution in the lives of the corrupt officials. They suffered for their cruelty, and as the law of their culture dictated, the wives and children suffered as well.

The chapter ends with a marvelous poem of praise that Darius delivered to his people. The subject is simple. Fear the God of Daniel. He is powerful and enduring. He rescues and rules. Something here has touched the heart of Darius. No one can know how completely he may have turned his own heart to God, but that is the purpose of every declaration of God’s power and mercy. Even in Medo-Persia, far from Jerusalem, God acts in the lives of men to draw them to himself, whether kings or officials or common souls.