Daniel and the Lions

Daniel 6 tells a compelling story of incorruptibility, integrity of conviction, and the faithfulness of God in response to the faithfulness of his servant, Daniel. 

We don’t know a lot about Darius the Mede, as corroborating historical records have yet to be discovered about the man. Some think he might actually by Cyrus the Persian, or perhaps a high-ranking governor serving under Cyrus’ reign, but it remains a matter of dispute. Regardless of Darius’ background, we do know that this was right after Belshazzar’s death and the transition of political power from Babylon to Persia, which means that Daniel was actually in his eighties when these events took place! (Holy cow!)

Not only that, but Darius is described as being in his sixties, which means that neither of these key players were “spring chickens” when these events transpired.

The satrapy was the primary administrative geographical division of the Persian empire, although given the numbers here (120 satraps and 3 commissioners) are more than the typical Persian designation (which typically ranged between 20 and 30). This may instead be a general term used for all of the senior governing leaders of the empire. In Daniel 3 (during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon), we see that the king had assembled all of the satraps, prefects, governors, counselors, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and other rulers of the provinces. While Daniel 3 seems to include a much larger crowd than the 120 satraps presented in Daniel 6, it may have represented a similar make-up of the positions involved.

Impressively, Daniel (a captive Israelite) was numbered as one of the three commissioners who oversaw all of the 120 ruling satraps. 

Belshazzar’s promise to Daniel (in chapter 5, verse 29) was that he (Daniel) would be the third ruler in the kingdom. According to John Wesley, the first ruler was the general of the army, the second was the president of the palace, and the third oversaw the land and all its provinces. If this is correct, it means that Daniel would have been overseeing all of Babylon’s (now Persia’s) lands and provinces! Astounding! Don’t let anyone tell you that excellence in your workplace isn’t important, or that the gift of administration isn’t critically important. 

Indeed, Daniel was an administrator of the highest quality (similar to Joseph, back in the book of Genesis), Nehemiah was a civil engineer, and even Daniel’s friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were standouts in their respective fields, being accredited as “ten times better” than all of the other counsellors of the king. The fact that they were included in the list of Nebuchadnezzar’s satraps and other rulers in Daniel 3 bears witness to the fact as well.

However, anytime we excel in an area there’s bound to be opposition from the enemy. He often moves the hearts of others to envy and jealousy, as we see in Daniel 6. The other commissioners and satraps were jealous and sought to remove Daniel from his lofty office. And so it might be (or so it might feel, in any case) when we pursue excellence with integrity and a steadfast spirit.

Remarkably, in verse 4, we discover that his opponents “could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption, inasmuch as he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him.”

May we follow Daniel’s example in this, determining within ourselves to live, act, and operate in a spirit of excellence and incorruptibility (ie – integrity).

But jealousy is a stubborn old mule. Having found no legitimate grievance against Daniel, his opponents decided to instead create a law by which to justify their petty jealousy.

We get the impression that Daniel was a very boring person. A sweet old soul with unwavering convictions and an extra-ordinary spirit. Daniel regularly prayed while facing Jerusalem (as outlined in 1 Kings 8:44, 48, 49), but had also adopted the Persian custom of praying three times a day. The windows of his roof chamber were open, so it was easy for his opponents to witness his regular, faithful behavior.

Persian kings, and by reasonable inference, Darius, were/was not inclined toward self-deification (unlike the Pharaohs of Egypt, or the Caesars of Rome). Furthermore, they believed the gods were too important to ignore. On top of all of this, Darius had the utmost respect for Daniel, and even planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom (see verse 3), so he certainly would not have signed a decree that he knew would prohibit Daniel (or most of the population of the empire, for that matter). It seems far more likely that the satraps tricked Darius by slipping this little clause into another injunction – perhaps an injunction having to do with an existing religious or political problem of the time.

We have to remember that Daniel was an administrator (and a gifted one at that). Whether he wrote the book of Daniel personally, or simply shared his experiences with a different author/scribe, the old man would have immediately recognized this dastardly little clause, choosing to emphasize its most dramatic and preposterous elements. For most of us, as non-administrators, this would’ve been far less obvious. Hence, it’s reasonable to infer the same of Darius, who was either untrained in reading such documents (unlikely) or else too busy to read every detail on every page of every document that came across his desk (far more likely). This is later reinforced when the satraps confront Darius and demanded he execute Daniel for “breaking the law.” Darius wass surprised and grieved by the news, which is not what you would expect from a narcissistic hedonist with a God-complex. Ergo, he had been tricked.

The “irrevocable laws of the Medes and Persians” seem to actually be referring to the royal code of honor – the idea that the king would probably think it humiliating to go back and reconsider something he had already decreed, or signed into existence. This is reinforced later in the chapter when Darius retrieves Daniel from the lion’s den, repeals the injunction, and executes the insidious malcontents instead. In other words, the “irrevocable” law was revoked, meaning that “irrevocable” in this case means something other than the literal definition of the word would suppose.

Poor old, eighty-something, Daniel was lowered into the lions den and expected to die. But God had other plans for Daniel, just as He had other plans for Darius and Cyrus. He preserved Daniel, proving “innocence by ordeal.” Ordeal was a judicial situation in which the accused was placed in mortal jeopardy and assumed to be guilty unless the divine hand of providence intervened and said otherwise. Daniel was preserved against all odds, proving both his innocence and his favor in the sight of God.

And what was the result of all these events? Well, Darius, the “heathen” king, praised and worshipped the living God, issuing a decree to all the people of the empire that all should revere and give deference to the God of Daniel! 

Hallelujah and amen! Such is the point and purpose of all our work, all our ministry, and all our pursuits of excellence, whatever those might be.