Daniel: Week 6

Daniel: Week 6

Daniel is still in Babylon, but a new empire rules as Persia has replaced Babylon. The new king, Darius, in order to try to bring some continuity and stability to his government, sets 3 high officials (administrators) and 120 satraps to govern. The administrators watched over the satraps so that all tax money was properly collected and so that none of the satraps could steal from the king. Daniel was selected to be over the whole kingdom as one of the 3 administrators, which caused friction from the other leaders.

Verse 4 says, "Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him." Since the men couldn't find fault with Daniel, they had to create some chaos in order to create a problem.

The men went to the king and played to his ego by getting him to make a decree "that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions." The men lied because they said "all the hight officials" agreed, but Daniel was not a part of the discussion.

Verses 8-9 show how they signed this document in a way that it could not be revoked. The Medes and Persians had this custom that once a law was passed, it couldn't be changed. Historians say they did this to keep kings from passing arbitrary laws because they were in a bad mood.

Verse 10 shows us that Daniel "got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously."

Courage for today is cultivated by our convictions built yesterday.

Daniel continued to do what he had always done. He had a conviction that his prayers to God were the most important thing in his life.

The officials told the king that Daniel was praying to his God and that the decree must be followed. Reluctantly, the king had to follow through with the law (vs 15-20). The king came the next day hoping to hear from Daniel that he was alive (v21-23) and was "exceedingly glad".

The king made a new decree "that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for his is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed,and his dominion shall be to the end."

Courage is fueled by seeing Jesus as our better Daniel

Daniel was framed on a false charge by the Persian administrators. Jesus was framed by the jealous religious leaders of his day.

Jesus, like Daniel, was arrested while at prayer in a private location. Pilate, like Darius, worked for His release. Pilate attempted to do everything in his power to see that Jesus was released, but, like Darius, to no avail.

In the end, both Daniel and Jesus are turned over to be executed. The BIG difference between the two is that Daniel emerges without a scratch, while Jesus dies. But that difference is what underlines the superiority of the reality of what was to come. Jesus dies, but He emerges victorious from the tomb!

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