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.”
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