Daniel 6:12-18 “Pathetic”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹²Then they approached and ones saying before the king, “upon the ban of the king, not a ban did you sign, which all of a man who he asks from all of a god and a man upon thirty days except from you, O king, he shall be cast to the pit of the lions?” The king answering and saying, “The certainty of the thing according to the law of the Medes and Persians which cannot pass away.” ¹³Then they answered and ones saying before the king, “Daniel, who [is] from the sons of the exile which Judah, he does not set attention upon you, O king, and upon the ban which you signed and three times in the day one asking his request.” ¹⁴Then the king, when he heard the matter, it was very evil upon him, and upon Daniel he set [his] mind to deliver him, and until the setting of the sun, he was one striving to rescue him. ¹⁵Then the men those stormed in upon the king and ones saying to the king, “Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians that of a ban and statute which the king set up, not to change.” ¹⁶Then the king said to bring Daniel and they cast [him] to the pit of the lions. The king answering and saying to Daniel, “Your God, whom you serve to Him constantly, may He deliver you.” ¹⁷And a stone was brought to be set upon the mouth of the pit to seal it. The king in his signet ring and in the signet ring of his nobles that not it would change concerning Daniel. ¹⁸Then the king went off to his palace and passed the night fasting, and entertainment was not brought in before him, and his sleep fled from him.

What a completely pathetic story. We have before us a prime example of the world created by men without God. Here are a bunch of godless nobles scheming and lying and manipulating their king. Then we have that godless king helplessly trapped by the consequences of his own inept, godless rule. In the middle of it all, there is good, godly Daniel, a completely innocent man who has done nothing but serve this king (and these nobles) and yet he is to be executed while the rest of them go on living their miserable godless lives. Who will be next? This whole bunch of men who ought to be governing an empire, instead spend their time lying and scheming and plotting who they need to kill. The legislation they pass is not in any way intended for the good of the people they’re supposed to be governing. It has nothing to do with anything except the personal interests of this bunch of dirty crooks.

Is it any wonder that the whole story looks just like our government today? This is exactly the same story we see played out every day in the politics of our own country. Enoch described them as “all the ungodly” and “all the ungodly acts they have done in their ungodly way” (Jude 14). In a government without God, all any nation has is a bunch of men with absolutely no moral compass, doing what they do for no higher motivation than their own personal advancement. They lie and steal and kill, then get caught in the crossfire of the very evil world they themselves have created.

Sadly, this plays out not only in government, but anywhere human leadership exists, in corporations and companies, and even in churches and families. Daniel has the freedom to actually serve his fellow man and to be a man of sterling integrity, precisely because he has a God to trust and a God to provide him with that moral compass all these other men lack. Anywhere we find ourselves in places of leadership, we need the Lord to help us know what is right and to do it. Without Him, we’re just left drifting in the pathetic sea of our own selfishness.

What is sad to see too is something I’ve often noted—that the Lord’s worst judgment on us human beings is simply to give us what we want, to not interfere in our godless machinations. Look at these men, the nobles. They’re all a bunch of dirty crooks. They all realize, with Daniel in charge, they won’t be able to wheel and deal and embezzle the public coffers. They’ll actually have to live on their salaries!! Rather than acknowledge that Daniel is exactly the man they all should be, instead they hatch a plot to murder him. In order to make it happen, they have to deliberately manipulate their own king, deceive him into passing a law they ought to know he will regret. They ought to know, if they succeed, he will realize they deceived him. They think they can get away with it. In this case, the Lord just sits back and gives them all the proverbial rope they need to utterly hang themselves.

Then there is this king. We don’t know why he so easily agreed to their evil law to begin with. As most people seem to suggest, perhaps it flattered him to be considered a god for thirty days. However, I suspect it was more a matter of simple negligence. When they presented it to him, he was probably being spoon fed caviar out of a gold bowl by one of his hundreds of beautiful wives or concubines and really didn’t want to be distracted with all this bothersome governance. “Whatever,” he probably said, signed the document (whatever it was), and went back to his caviar. He should not be so negligent. He is a king. He has an empire to rule. However, he would rather just dally in the pleasures his high position has afforded him and, once again, the Lord sits back and just lets him.

Where does that get him? First of all, he finds himself cornered by his own nobles and their own ridiculous legal system. The men who are supposed to be helping him instead have deceived him. Now he deeply regrets his own inattention to his job, but then finds he cannot escape. Hmmmm. Didn’t someone say, “Sin always takes us further than we wanted to go, costs us more than we wanted to pay, and holds us longer than we wanted to stay”? This king’s negligence was not just poor governance. Under God, it was sin. This man is supposed to do his job. The Lord expects him to do his job. The people need him to do his job. But in his god-lessness, he didn’t do it, and now he’s cornered.

What a pathetic picture as this king has finally no choice (he thinks) but to agree to the whole evil outcome and order Daniel thrown into the pit. He can only sheepishly say to this man of sterling integrity, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you,” then return to his palace to spend the night in misery and sleeplessness.

It's interesting too to see that all the manipulation doesn’t even stop once they’ve thrown Daniel in their pit. Next, they have to get a huge stone to cover the pit, then everyone needs to seal it. We don’t know what they were thinking, but in all likelihood, the nobles are afraid the king might somehow yet fish Daniel out of the pit, while he’s afraid they might do something more if in fact the lions don’t eat him. Basically, just like Jesus’ tomb, they need a big rock in place to make sure their sins really work.

All just plain pathetic. These guys should have realized that it is very bad business to corner kings. They’re just about to find out just how bad a business that is. But then that is the blindness of sin.

What we should all take from this is the warning that we desperately need God in our lives. Regardless of our positions in life, we need His moral compass. We need Him to protect us from ourselves. We need Him to “interfere” with our plans. Without Him, whoever we are, we will end up one way or another just like this bunch of scoundrels—caught in the trap of our own manipulations.

There is no other word for this but “pathetic.” Sadly, it is also tragic.

The good news for us is that it doesn’t have to be this way. We do not have to be slaves to our own foolishness. The Lord will help us. He’s as close as a prayer. May we all invite Him into our every days and not live lives over which the final word is “pathetic.”

 

Daniel 6:10,11 “Rocks”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁰And when Daniel knew that the writing was written, he went to his house and windows being opened to him in his roof-chamber toward Jerusalem and three times in the day he [was] one kneeling upon his knees and one praying and praising/thanking before his God as he was one doing from before this. ¹¹Then the men those stormed in and found Daniel asking and requesting before his God…

There is so much in this passage, it’s hard to stop. Another thing we see here is a living illustration of David’s question in Psalm 11:3, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” David’s answer in v.4 was, “The Lord is in His holy temple.” What can the righteous do when the world seems to be falling apart around them? Actually, the answer is not in what we do. As the very next line in that Psalm says, “The Lord is on His heavenly throne.” What is most important to us is remembering just that – the Lord is on His throne. That is exactly what Daniel is doing. When he hears the frightening news, when suddenly this world threatens his very life itself, what does he do? “When Daniel learned the decree had been issued, he went home…got down on his knees and prayed…”

The lesson he watched Nebuchadnezzar learn was simply this, “The Most High rules in the nations of men.” It’s that simple. Belshazzar wouldn’t learn it and now he’s dead. For Daniel, that very truth was the rock on which he built his faith. “The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord is on His heavenly throne.” That was Daniel’s hope in 539 BC and that same truth flows into our New Testament invitation: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). The rock of that truth is what made Daniel a rock, and it will do the same for you and me if we’ll only let it.

Another thing that is perhaps instructive is to notice the difference between Daniel and Esther. When Daniel hears of the evil decree, he simply goes home and prays. There is no indication in the passage that he made any effort to appeal to the king. That is a huge contrast to Esther and Mordecai’s response to Haman’s evil decree. There, godly Mordecai “tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly” (Esther 4:1). We learn too that “there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing” (v.3). In that case, the answer came down to Esther risking her own life to go to the king and plead for her people.

I personally don’t believe that Daniel’s apparent calmness means he had more faith, nor that Mordecai and Esther’s weeping and wailing and going to the king means they had any less. There is no doubt much to learn just in observing the difference. For one thing, in Daniel’s case, that was exactly what the decree demanded—that Daniel should go to the king, rather than to God. Daniel may have simply felt he needed to make his choice clear. In Daniel’s case too, he was the only one threatened. Yes, the decree would technically apply to all believers, but Daniel knew he was the only real target. For Mordecai and Esther, their story very quickly shows their alarm was not for their own lives but rather for the lives of their people. Haman’s decree was an attack on the Jewish people as people. Now the decree in Daniel is very specifically an attack on faith itself.

I’m sure Daniel could have prayed for deliverance and perhaps even gone to the king about it all. Even Jesus could pray, “Let this cup pass from Me.” However, what we learn from both Daniel and Esther (and Jesus!) is that faith may prompt very different responses in very different situations. The important thing, again, is not in what we do, but in what we believe, what we remember: “The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord is on His heavenly throne.” Being confident in the Lord’s wisdom and power and goodness allows you and me to rise above our fears and decide what we truly believe is the best way to respond, in whatever specific situation we find ourselves, whatever is today’s terrifying threat—and that whether it is in reality big or small. Again, our invitation is, ““Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”

Let us then “come boldly before the throne of grace.” Daniel did and you and I can too. That is where we’ll find our Rock, and that is what will make us rocks…like Daniel.

 

Daniel 6:10,11 “Our Man”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁰And when Daniel knew that the writing was written, he went to his house and windows being opened to him in his roof-chamber toward Jerusalem and three times in the day he [was] one kneeling upon his knees and one praying and praising/thanking before his God as he was one doing from before this. ¹¹Then the men those stormed in and found Daniel asking and requesting before his God…

There are several observations from this passage I’d like to record, although not necessarily in any order. Just some random thoughts. Everyone of course notices how he prayed toward Jerusalem and that that is exactly what Solomon had portended back in his prayer of dedication (I Kings 8:47,48, for example). One could suggest Daniel is doing it specifically in response to Solomon’s words and that is certainly possible. However, I’d like to suggest another explanation, and that is this: Remember Daniel lived in Jerusalem essentially always in sight of the Temple.

His pious family along with everyone else in Jerusalem would naturally pray “toward” the Temple as they were very aware that was where the Holy of holies was, with the Ark inside, and it being specifically where the Lord told them He would dwell. Daniel then grew up literally in the shadow of the Temple and would have naturally and habitually prayed in that direction. I would suggest, that being the case, no matter where he was for the rest of his life, the most natural thing to do would be to pray “toward the Temple.” Solomon’s words certainly offered Scriptural sanction to Daniel’s habit, but I really suspect the real reason is much simpler and personal than that. It's simply what he grew up doing and, as we all know, those early habits have a way of becoming simply the fabric of who we are.

It's also possible, the reason he prayed three times a day was because the daily sacrifices were offered three times a day—the sixth, ninth, and twelfth hours of the day. Once again, one can imagine that anyone living in Jerusalem and being aware those sacrifices were being made would naturally see that as a time to stop for a moment and pray. That may be where the Jews (particularly the ones living in Jerusalem and always in sight of the Temple) got the tradition started and now it is just the most natural thing for Daniel to do. We are also aware that was David’s practice (Ps. 55:17), which certainly encouraged godly Jewish people to do the same. On the other hand, as I explained in my last post, I think those prayers (at least for Daniel and for David) were far more than just a tradition of “offering prayers.” I strongly suspect those were very deliberate and strategic times of communing with God about exactly what they had going on at that very time—the equivalent of Adam’s “walking with God in the cool of the day.”

I have been trying myself to deliberately emulate Daniel’s example. So far, I have enjoyed mentally doing so in my mornings, but so far haven’t had much success adding in the noon/evening opportunities. Our frantic American lifestyle certainly doesn’t lend itself to quiet times of prayer! Early in my Christian life, the Lord helped me to establish the habit of getting up early in the morning to study the Bible and pray, which then over the years has impacted my sense of when I need to go to bed (which is probably quite a bit earlier than most people), so that comes pretty easy – I’m just trying to be more immediately focused in those prayers. Squeezing the second and third prayer times into the rest of the day, though, has so far been a different story. Will keep at it.

Also, I notice in v. 12, when the goons rush in to catch Daniel, it says they found him “praying and asking God for help.”  In Hebrew, the first word, translated here “praying,” is exactly what the king’s decree had forbidden in v.8. Then the second word is definitely an “asking for help.” Verse 11 leaves it to where Daniel is “praising and thanking,” leaving you wondering if he’s at all even acknowledging what a terrible threat he is under. When it adds, in v.11, that he was definitely “asking,” it certainly leaves open the door that he was asking for the Lord to deliver him. That said, one probably cannot make too big a case for Daniel to be totally calm or definitely apprehensive.

For the rest of us, we’d probably be shaking in our boots and pleading with God to save us. It would probably be inhuman to imagine that Daniel isn’t afraid, but then I can also imagine at something over 85 years old, he could easily have reached a point where he just doesn’t get worked up about things anymore. When you’re young, everything is an emotional roller coaster, but aging (and especially godly aging) definitely puts a temper on all the drama. It’s like someone asked the old guy, “When you get old, does criticism still hurt?” He replied, “Nah. New bullets just go through old holes!” Daniel has seen it all. Living in the palace, he’s lived in a world of absolutely constant drama with all the intrigues and complete changes of power and all the rest. Maybe just through time, but definitely with having to constantly go to God in prayer, he’s just reached a point where he so totally trusts God, he’s just not worried. Another factor too is just the general miseries of life at age 85. It might be Daniel is so ready to go, he would welcome an exit, even if it has to be as lion food. I can see any or all of the above figuring into Daniel’s thinking.

One other factor in Daniel’s calmness (if we can read that into the passage) is perhaps to be found in his perception of the much larger spiritual battle raging around him. Starting in chapter 7, we actually go back to the time under Belshazzar and find Daniel having visions of the future and glimpses into the heavenly warfare going on. Now in chapter 6, it is several years later and I really wonder if Daniel, by this time, clearly sees those much larger spiritual battles and just doesn’t get too bent out of shape about how they seem to be playing out today.

For you and me, the encouragement would be to be like him, and learn ourselves to see those spiritual battles. That of course is what we’re called to in Eph. 6:11,12, to “put on the whole armor of God” since we “wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” I don’t get to have “visions” like Daniel, but I can read about his. I’m actually looking forward to studying from chapter 7 on, just for that reason—to try to learn to see what Daniel saw—that in the hope it will help me to be a calmer, more trusting person. Such a study will take several years and I may not live that long, but I’m really looking forward to however much I can do and all I can learn.

It is enormously encouraging to see what a fine man our Daniel was and then to know I can in time learn from him and maybe share a little tiny bit of his great faith!