Daniel Chapter 6 Introduction Part Two (Daniel 6: 10-22)

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Introduction to Daniel Chapter 7 | Adult Sunday School

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But this morning we'll be in Daniel, and so if you will with me open in a word of prayer. Father, every part of your book is illuminating and exciting, and it's the same time difficult and wonderful.

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And so this morning, as we look into chapter six of Daniel, we ask for your teaching, for your illumination, and that our hearts might be set to fully do those things you command us to do, whether they be explicit or implicit.

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In the text, for it is the text that is most important. We thank you that your son, the

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Lord Jesus Christ, is indeed the living word of God, and has given us life and godliness, and all the things that we need to live lives that will be pleasing to you.

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Might some of those things happen this morning. We look to you for that in Jesus' name, amen.

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So let's read chapter six of Daniel from about the beginning to about verse 27.

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28's the last, so let's just read the whole chapter. That'll give us good context, because I'm going to start with a continued introduction, some stuff that I like to have you think

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I set this up, that I did a partial introduction, and did some things the last time

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I was here so that the rest of the introduction would be more flavored. What I did was I put the beginning of the chapter in the wrong place in my text.

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So now you know. He's an idiot, why is he teaching us? But Daniel chapter six.

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It seemed good to Darius to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom, that they should be in charge of the whole kingdom, and over them three commissioners of whom

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Daniel was one, that these satraps might be accountable to them, and that the king might not suffer loss. Then this

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Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps, because he possessed an extraordinary spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom.

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Then the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs, government affairs, but they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption in as much as he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him.

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Would that we could have government officials like that today. Okay, but I digress.

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Then these men said, we shall not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his

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God. Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to him as follows. King Darius lived forever.

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All the commissioners of the kingdom, all the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any

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God or man besides you, O king, for 30 days shall be cast into the lion's den. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the documents so that it may not be changed according to the law of the

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Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked. Therefore, King Darius signed the document that is the injunction.

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Now, when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house, now in his roof chamber, he had windows open towards Jerusalem, and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his

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God as he had been doing previously. Then these men came by agreement and found

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Daniel making petition and supplication before his God. Then they approached and spoke before the king and asked him something about the king's injunction.

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Did you not sign an injunction that any man who makes a petition to any God or man besides you, O king, for 30 days is to be cast into the lion's den?

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The king answered and said, the statement is true, according to the laws of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked.

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Then they answered and spoke before the king. Daniel, who was one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you,

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O king, or to the injunction which you signed, but keeps making his petition three times a day.

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Then, as soon as the king heard this statement, he was deeply distressed and set his mind on delivering

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Daniel, and even until sunset, he kept exerting himself to rescue him.

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Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, recognize, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or statute which the king establishes may be changed.

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Then the king gave orders, and Daniel was brought in and cast into the lion's den. Then the king spoke and said to Daniel, your

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God, whom you constantly serve, will himself deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles so that nothing might be changed in regard to Daniel.

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Then the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought before him, and his sleep fled from him.

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Then the king arose with the dawn at the break of day and went in haste to the lion's den. And when he had come near the lion's den to Daniel, he cried out with a troubled voice.

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The king spoke and said to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions?

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Then Daniel spoke to the king, O king, live forever. He probably went.

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My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths, and they have not harmed me inasmuch as I was found innocent before him, and also toward you,

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O king, I have committed no crime. Then the king was very pleased and gave orders for Daniel to be taken up out of the den.

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So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him because he had trusted in his

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God. Then the king gave, the king then gave orders, and they brought those men who had maliciously accused Daniel, and they cast them, their children and their wives into the lion's den, and they had not reached the bottom of the, they had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

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Then Darius the king wrote to all the people's nations and men of every language who were living in all the land, may your peace abound.

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I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel, for he is the living

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God and enduring forever, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and his dominion will be forever.

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He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has also delivered

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Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the

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Persian. May God bless his reading, reading of his word. So we talked a little bit about the introduction to this book, this particular chapter.

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So we talked about the fact that it may very well be the most, possibly the most famous chapter in the

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Bible, because it has the story of Daniel and the lions, and many, many know of this story who haven't been in a church ever.

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It is a beloved chronicle of the protection by Jehovah of a man who has no peer in his day, had no peer in his day, and yet it is also a chapter in the

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Bible that has had its own share of controversy. Much has been made of the fact that the name

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Darius appears nowhere else in history, and thus liberal scholars use this to again assail the accuracy of the book of Daniel.

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How many of you remember me when I did the introduction using the words Darius, Cyrus, Cyrus, Darius?

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That was on purpose, that was on purpose, and we'll talk about that here in a minute. So the scholarship that has been put into either supporting or debunking

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Daniel based on this chapter is prodigious. It's just unbelievable how much writing has been done about this particular chapter.

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We will see in this chapter that Darius organized the kingdom of Babylon systematically so that 120 satraps, or a type of governor, would be in charge of the entire kingdom.

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They would each have their own province, and would answer to the three commissioners, one of whom was Daniel. The Septuagint translates verse 28 of this chapter to read that Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the

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Persian. This seems to imply that a Median kingdom under Darius was followed by a

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Persian kingdom under Cyrus. Extrabiblical sources tell a different story. As we work our way through this, it must be remembered that the critics are building arguments upon silence.

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The simple fact is that the Bible has the only reference to Darius, and that does not in itself make the

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Bible untrue, although secularists will hammer on that. It's the only reference, and therefore it must be untrue.

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They will flock to a text that is 1 ,000 years removed, and there are only five of them in existence to prove a point.

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When the Scripture has prodigious documentation, whether it did or not, it's the word of God, but it has documentation, and they will say that it's untrue.

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We will believe something that is 1 ,000 years removed and only has five sources before we will believe something that has tremendous documentation, but also is the word of God.

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I should have said that in reverse, is the word of God, but also has documentation. So even secular scholars often recognize that the

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Bible is a reliable record of ancient history, yet they are unwilling to give it any credence if they can't substantiate it with 7 ,000 other documents, and for some reason, the silence of other ancient texts is used as an indictment of the biblical record.

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They didn't say anything about this. Therefore, the Bible must be wrong. You can't win for losing.

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It is always improper to build a theory or a doctrine upon silence, whether it is sacred or secular.

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As John Walvard notes in his commentary, he says, it must be emphasized that there is no established fact.

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Let me get my clicker here and see if I can figure out how to work this. There is no established fact that contradicts a person by the name of Darius the

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Mede reigning over Babylon if Darius is an alternate name for a known ruler. So the historian

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Wiseman, who has done a great deal of research, had done a great deal of research on this, based on his findings on the

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Nabonidus Chronicle. So as you remember, Nabonidus was one of the kings who reigned in Babylon, and he reigned, he actually left town because he was working on a temple in another city, and so Belshazzar ruled in Babylon.

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Am I getting that name? Yeah, Daniel's is Belteshazzar. I always wonder if I got that name right. It's like,

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I'll leave that alone. So here is Wiseman's chronicle about what happened with Nabonidus. Babylon was conquered by Ugbaru, the governor of Gutium, who led, let's see, let's get something going here, who led the army of Cyrus and entered the city of Babylon on the night of Belshazzar's feast.

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Nabonidus, who was Belshazzar's father, had fled Babylon the day before, only to be captured and later die in exile.

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When Babylon fell on October 12th, 539 BC, Cyrus himself had remained with other troops at Opus, and not until 18 days later,

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October 30th, 539 BC, did he arrive in Babylon. He then appointed a man named Gubaru, probably an alternate form of Ugbaru, to rule in Babylon.

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Eight days after Cyrus arrived. There's the entire kingdom.

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Eight days after Cyrus arrived, Ugbaru died. If this history of the events following Babylon's fall is correct, it is obvious that there is no room for Darius the

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Mede to rule over Babylon. Through time, here's how the problem has been distilled, down to three likely situations.

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The first view is that the Bible is in error, and whoever wrote it confused Darius the

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Mede with some other person. The second explanation is that Darius is the same as Gubaru, whom

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Cyrus appointed to rule in Babylon until he could take the throne. The third view is that Darius the

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Mede is just another name for Cyrus. This is based upon the translation of Daniel 6 .28 that reads,

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Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, even the reign of Cyrus, the

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Persian. And it is this third view that is most widely accepted by conservative scholars, and it answers the question perfectly.

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It was common in the ancient world for rulers to have more than one name. It is proposed that Darius may have been a name of honor, and that it translates the ancient

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Aramaic word for bearer of the sword, or bearer of the scepter, which is king.

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It's the translation of a word that means king. This was replicated in the

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Roman Republic when rulers were given the name Caesar or Augustus along with their given name. So most, if not all, the following rulers of Rome had the name

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Caesar or Augustus. Julius Caesar, his name wasn't Caesar. He was the Caesar. He was the ruling elite, the ruling head of the

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Republic of Rome. The fact is the most robust information we have comes from the biblical record.

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Liberal scholars navigate a great scarcity of information in building their attacks on the Bible, mostly from the silence of history.

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Until there is compelling evidence pointing specifically to the fact that Darius never existed, it is appropriate and in keeping with proper scholarship to assume that the references in the book of Daniel to Darius the

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Mede are accurate. There is no reason to reject it unless you just don't like the fact that Daniel is a true book of scripture and predicts the future, which is what most liberal scholars are attacking.

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It can't be accurate. Nobody could be this prescient about the future. It had to be written in 166

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BC after these things happened. And that is their argument. It is based on foolishness and silence.

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The fact is the scriptural record is accurate. Darius the Mede existed and he most likely was a title, that was a title for Cyrus the

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Persian. They were the same person. And that is why I talked about Cyrus Darius, that is the accepted biblical scholarship.

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The structure of the chapter is chiastic as the book of Daniel is.

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It describes a golden ray in his commentary. Someone was asking this morning about the commentaries

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I use. I'm using three main ones, but I'm studying a whole bunch of them because a lot of them refer to other commentaries of scholarship, like the scholarship of Wiseman, which occurred decades ago, where he really researched all the information about the

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Naboninus Chronicle. So I use as much as I can to get the historical access.

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So A, introduction, Daniel's success, verses one through three. B, Darius signs an injunction and Daniel takes his stand.

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This is the chiastic overview of the chapter. C, Daniel's colleagues plan his death.

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D, Darius hopes for Daniel's deliverance. Now back down the chiasm. D, Darius witnesses

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Daniel's deliverance. C, Daniel's colleagues meet their death. They plan Daniel's death. They meet their death.

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B, Darius signs a decree and takes his stand. And A, the conclusion, Daniel's success.

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That's how the chapter is structured. So in this chapter, the 80 -plus -year -old

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Daniel, as a result of his stellar performance in his life previous to the Medo -Persian takeover of Babylon, is placed in another significant position of importance and responsibility.

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This immediately results in jealousy among the political appointees of the king, of the empire.

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Scurrilous men, I talked about this last time, form a dark plan and they decide how they're going to kill

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Daniel. They're gonna take him over. They're gonna ruin him. They're gonna have him destroyed. Obviously, this man of principle is standing in the way of their machinations, of their attempts to ingratiate themselves to king, to rise in prominence, to rise in power.

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That's what they want to do. Daniel wanted to serve the king. He wanted to be a good political ambassador to the sections of the provinces that he was supposed to be responsible to.

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He wanted to take care of his duties and he wanted to be honest. And they couldn't find anything against him.

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Remember what it said in the scripture. Very few people enter politics and remain unscathed.

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It's very difficult to do, to enter politics and remain unscathed. Daniel not only remained unscathed, he was innocent.

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He was pure in this particular area. That is not to say Daniel never sinned. Every man who ever lived, every woman who ever lived needs the death of the

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Lord Jesus Christ to pay for their sins, including Daniel. But in this particular part of his life where he was a commissioner over who knows how many satraps, he was innocent, he was pure, he was righteous.

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And they were gonna remove him whatever it took. So last time we were together, we made it all the way through,

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I believe, chapter six, verse nine.

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And what we finished up with was just before him being cast into the lion's den.

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Therefore King Darius signed the document that is the injunction that the commission.

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Now remember, the ones that came to Darius in his chamber, in his room, in his throne room, they kind of tumbled in over each other and they made it look like an emergency.

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That's the translation of that Persian word for to enter an agreement. And they had to make it look like an emergency because tyrants need emergencies to subject their minions to control.

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And so here was an emergency. Darius, we want a 30 -day injunction against anybody praying to anybody but you.

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And it's important. And who knows what else was said during that meeting. But Darius fell for it and he signed the injunction.

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And it's gonna come back to bite him and he's gonna realize it too late. He didn't ask questions, he didn't pay attention.

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He assumed all of his commissioners and satraps had the best interests of the kingdom in mind.

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And plus, we talked about the fact that no way all of them got together, all the satraps, all the provincials, all the governors, all the, they were probably most, look how big that empire is.

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Some of them were over here, not over here.

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Some of them were over here. And they didn't have Wi -Fi or email.

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What they had was horses and camels. It would take, it could take months to travel across that kingdom.

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Information would not get to the capital from the farthest flung parts of the kingdom, possibly for weeks or months.

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Actually, the battle, as an example, the song of the Battle of New Orleans, how many of you are familiar with that?

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Originally, it was called January 8th. On January 8th, that battle was fought after the war was over, the

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Revolutionary War was over because word didn't get to Jackson. So, and that was in the 1700s.

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Imagine what it was like back then. So therefore, verse nine, King Darius signed the document, that is the injunction.

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Now we're looking at verse 10. So now Daniel knows the document's signed. What do you think he did?

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I better not pray, they'll kill me. That's what probably

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I would have done. I'm a chicken, I hope I wouldn't. But you know, you never really know what you're gonna do until your skin is on the line.

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Daniel, when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house. Now, in his roof chamber, he had windows open towards Jerusalem.

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Shut the window, Daniel, just shut the window. He didn't do that. Because his normal course of life in following the

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God whom he loved was to pray three times a day through an open window towards Jerusalem.

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Remember, we talked about that probably, maybe we didn't talk about that. Yeah, we'll talk about that this morning. When it started, he entered his house and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his

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God as he had been doing previously. Now, think about what he did changed because his method of life in his obedience and his love towards his

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God was to pray three times a day, open window towards Jerusalem. And he continued to do that, fearlessly.

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That is remarkable, I mean, that is remarkable. Do you know what? He knew about lions. The kings, they would gather these lions and they would use them for this kind of thing.

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They would fight them so they could write chronicles about how brave they were. Usually they would send in another warrior to kill it and then they would stand over the dead body and photo op, you know.

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So, what would be the harm of Daniel simply putting off praying for 30 days? Really?

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I mean, he still loves God, right? The only people that would be upset would be the political enemies that tried to trap him.

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Daniel could have avoided the conflict with the king and it most likely wouldn't have affected his responsibilities much.

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Yeah, yeah, once we change the way we normally are, if it's a biblical way, to appease somebody, it changes something about us in a remarkable and devastating way.

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Daniel didn't do that. But the simple fact is it was a part of his character to be obedient to God and to pray.

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So in fact, putting off praying would have had a huge effect on Daniel himself. Those who were used to seeing him do exactly what was right every time would soon begin to doubt who he said he was.

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That would have been the least of the difficulties that would have occurred. Well, he always did it this way. And then when there was an injunction signed, he stopped doing it.

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Maybe it's okay to stop doing stuff like that. Maybe it's not a big deal. It was a big deal and Daniel knew it.

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But I think, honestly, I mean, if I get a chance to, in glory,

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I'm gonna ask him, I think he did it because this is who he was. And he loved his

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God and this is how he showed his love and he just continued doing it, come what may. Daniel didn't cease praying even one time.

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He had been following this process most likely since he was very young. The idea of praying three times a day towards Jerusalem, it probably originated with Solomon.

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Whoops, I'd already gone there. Now we see if he can undo it.

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Yeah, there we go. It probably originated with Solomon. We don't know for sure, but most likely.

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So in 2 Chronicles 6, 21, listen to the supplications of your servant and of your people

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Israel when they pray toward this place, Jerusalem, and hear from your dwelling place from heaven and forgive.

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Now, do you have to pray towards a particular place in order for your prayers to be answered or heard?

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Of course not. This was an act of devotion. And in that sense, it was fine.

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It was fine. As long as it was an act of devotion. 2 Chronicles 6, 34 through 39.

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When your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you towards this city which you have chosen, and the house which

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I have built for your name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication and maintain their cause. When they sin against you, for there is no man who does not sin, and you are angry with them and deliver them to an enemy so that they take them away captive to a land far off or near.

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If they take thought in the land where they are taken captive and repent and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, and we have acted wickedly.

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If they return to you with all their heart, there's the key, and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been taken captive and pray toward their land which you have given to their fathers and the city which you have chosen and toward the house which

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I have built for your name, then hear from heaven, from your dwelling place, their prayer and supplications and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

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So there's probably the foundation, the basis for why in this time of captivity, the faithful Israelites would pray towards Jerusalem.

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It may have dated to David, Psalm 55, 16 through 18. As for me,

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I will call upon God and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur and he will hear my voice.

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He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle which is against me, for there are many who strive with me. By the way, it's okay to complain and murmur when you're praying, but you probably should finish it with thanksgiving.

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But God knows we live in this moral coil that is subject to many things and we have many things coming against us today and they're difficult, but he is a

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God who answers prayer. Sometimes his answer is no. Are you good with that? Daniel would have been good with that.

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If Daniel had been eaten by those lions, he would have died a hero, but God shows a different way.

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I'm wrecking the story. The fact that Daniel continued to pray even though he knew he stood a chance of dying a horrible, painful death, evidence the character that he had and the love that he had for Yahweh, for Jehovah.

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His co -workers knew, now get this, his co -workers knew they could count on him to do the right thing.

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All we gotta do is get this king to sign an injunction that'll put him in danger of violating some devotion to Jehovah and we've got him.

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Would to God that we would be that kind of faithful people that co -workers would know that we're going to do the right thing.

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It was that very character quality that they were counting on to bring him down. Daniel's robust prayer life and his relationship with Jehovah had protected him from the corrupting influences of Babylon.

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Now it seemed that his devotion and his prayer to Jehovah would be to his death. That's what it seemed like.

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Finally, Daniel did have a copy of the book of Jeremiah and in that book in chapter 29, the exiles were instructed to pray for the city of Jerusalem and their prayer would be heard by Jehovah.

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Jeremiah 29 one, seven and 10. Now these are the words, these are the words of the letter which

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Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets and all the people whom

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Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Verse seven, seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the

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Lord on its behalf for in its welfare, you will have welfare. Pray for Babylon. Verse 10, for thus says the

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Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to bring you back to this place.

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It was a promise of Jehovah. So Daniel, true to his character, refused to knuckle under, even though he knew it may mean his death, a horrible death.

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I mean, you know, it's, I just, I can't think about what it would be like to be ripped to shreds by big lions.

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It probably would be somewhat painful. You know, I don't think it would be a fun death.

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Oh, I'm gonna be eaten by lions. Verse 11, then these men came by agreement and found

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Daniel making supplication, petition and supplication before his God. So the word agreement here is the same as in verse six, and it indicates an assembly that was chaotic and disorderly.

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They descended upon Daniel in this manner, most likely to communicate disrespect. They were haughty and probably just a little bit excited about the fact that they were gonna clear the way for their personal gain.

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It's just about done. We're gonna take care of this jerk. We're gonna get rid of him, and then we can start getting political favors and money and power again, like we used to.

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They expected to find Daniel praying, and they found him doing just that. In their minds, he had played right into their hand.

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The fact was, who's sovereign in all of this? Jehovah is sovereign over everything.

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Jehovah was, again, orchestrating a demonstration of his sovereignty. It was a beautiful thing. Well, any questions or comments about 10 and 11?

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I got kind of carried away there. Verse 12, then they approached and spoke before the king about the king's injunction.

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And I can just hear him, did you not sign an injunction? That's probably how they said it.

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And say that any man who makes a petition to any God or man besides you, oh king, for 30 days is to be cast into the lion's den.

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The king replied, I can picture Darius Cyrus going, well, the statement is true, according to the law of the

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Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked. Why are they saying this to me? The group gathered before the king and questioned him about the injunction.

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The question was not to determine whether it was done or not. It was rather to remind the king that it was done in the manner of the

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Medes and Persians and could not be changed or revoked. It was also done to remind the king of the penalty.

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The king confirms the question, stating that the injunction was enacted and that it was irrevocable. They positioned the king so that he would have no choice but to issue a decree of death against Daniel when they revealed

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Daniel's disobedience of the injunction. What do you think about these guys' devotion to the king? They put him in a corner that he couldn't get out of.

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It was pretty tricky. You gotta give it to him. They had this really well figured out very, very well.

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They knew exactly what they were doing. They didn't anticipate that they might become

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Purina lion food themselves. They didn't anticipate that. Then they answered and spoke before the king.

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Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, that's how they said it, pays no attention to you,

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O king, or to the injunction which you signed, but keeps making his petition three times a day. Daniel does this,

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Daniel does that. Any parents have experience with that?

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I thought so. My kids were all angels. My son said to me, he said,

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Dad, you're gonna die. Now they act like the tattletales they are.

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They don't even use Daniel's official title, but they rather contemptuously refer to him as one of the exiles.

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He ain't one of us. As a representative of the gods, Darius would have to enforce the injunction.

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Remember we talked about how this came to be, that if the king was either deity or representation of deity, anything that he created a law about had to be done because if he changed it, well then that means the gods were wrong.

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The gods fouled up and they can't, so Darius is trapped. They positioned him so he'd have no choice.

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The conspirators assured the king that Daniel was flagrantly violating his order, not only one time a day, but horror of horrors three times a day.

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This could not be tolerated by the tolerators. Verse 14, then

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Darius's reaction to this is remarkable for a king of Babylon who was used to putting multitudes to death in the most horrible ways possible.

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As soon as the king heard this statement in verse 14, he says, he was deeply distressed and he set his mind on delivering

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Daniel and even until sunset, he kept exerting himself to rescue him.

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It is only now that the king finally realized that he has been played. His prime minister elect must be destroyed and he was not happy about this at all.

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He began casting about for some method of stopping this from happening, but he could find nothing.

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And so he was compelled by his own law to throw his most trustworthy servant to certain death.

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That must have been very difficult for him. Normally, the king would have had some sort of entertainment between dinner and bedtime and lights out, but this night, he spent seeking for ways to save Daniel.

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The Chaldean word that is translated exerting has the idea of laboring. He probably consulted books. He probably consulted other people and he'd have to probably swear them to secrecy.

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If somebody knew that Darius was consulting some way to revoke what he had done, well, that makes him less than deity.

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This happened later on to some Chaldean kings who did the same thing. The one I talked about that put that general, that warrior to death.

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He was so sorry that he had done that, but there was nothing he could do. Same thing with Daniel. He probably consulted some other wise men looking for ways to circumvent this law of the

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Medes and Persians. This simple statement shows just how much the king had begun to respect and appreciate

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Daniel. He actually cared for Daniel. He cared for this Judah exile from Judah.

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It was clear to him that Daniel had his best interests at heart and these others didn't.

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Now, I'm not going to be advocating that we deal with political appointees who don't have the best interests of our republic in mind, but it's an interesting way to deal with them.

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We'll see about that in a minute here. That's right, we're online, aren't we?

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Well, okay then. Verse 15. Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, recognize, oh king.

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Really, they talk like that. It is that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or statute what the king establishes may be changed.

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Don't you think Darius knows that? Of course he does. In the same manner as they came before the king to set the trap, that is tumultuously and chaotically, the conspirators clamber back into the chamber, to the king's throne room, and remind him of something that he has been working on all night.

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It probably infuriated him, which would give an understanding of how he deals with them later on, in that interesting way.

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That is that no law that is established in the kingdom may be changed. In this case, it would have to run its 30 -day course, and Daniel was already trapped in it.

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He was already trapped. It most certainly must have irked the king that they would remind him of this. By now, it was clearly evident to him that they had conspired to get rid of his favorite official, and this would set the basis for what he does to them later on.

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Hopefully, this had the effect of reminding Cyrus Darius that even the advice of his counselors must be questioned and thought through before taking action.

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After all, they're just people. Any comments or questions about that? We're about to get to the meat of the story.

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Can I say that? I guess I can. Verse 16, then the king gave orders, and these must have been some of the hardest orders he ever gave in his entire reign.

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And Daniel was brought in and cast into the lion's den, and the king spoke to Daniel and said, your

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God, whom you constantly serve, will himself deliver you. So despite the king's best efforts, despite the king's best efforts, he could come up with no way of saving

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Daniel. He couldn't save him from the lion's den. We have no accounts of just how these dens were constructed in ancient times, but there are descriptions of dens that were found in Morocco.

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In his commentary, John Walvor describes them thusly. He says, Keel gives an interesting account of a lion's den found in more modern times.

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We have no account of the ancients of the construction of lion's den. Host, in his work on Fez in Morocco, describes the lion's dens as they have been found.

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According to this account, his account, they consist of a large square cavern under the earth, having a partition wall in the middle of it, which is furnished with a door, which the keeper can open and close from above.

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By throwing in food, they can entice the lions from one chamber to the other, and then, having shut the inner door, they enter the vacant space for the purpose of cleaning it.

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The cavern is open above, its mouth being surrounded by a wall of a yard and a half high over which one can look down into the den.

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The description agrees perfectly with that which is given here in the text regarding the lion's den of Daniel's time.

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So they could look down in, and there was a way to move them from one part of the pen to another to clean it, and then they were able to seal the front as well, which also had a wall in front of it.

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The den would have had a drainage system since it was underground to keep the lions from being drowned in a heavy rain, and there would have been a stone to roll across the upper opening to keep people from falling in accidentally.

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It was not at this time unusual for kings to keep lions for many reasons, including the ability to do combat with them and to prove their deity, the kings, that is.

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The words of the king to Daniel here are very instructive. He had spent the night trying to come up with a method to free

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Daniel and could not do it. Now he says to Daniel, your God whom you constantly serve will himself deliver you.

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The form of the verb translated will deliver leaves the option that God may, must, will, may, or even can rescue

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Daniel. It seems possible from verses 18 through 20 that Darius Cyrus, that's their name put together,

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Darius, Darius Cyrus had no real faith that God could do this. He really didn't have any faith. He hoped, but he didn't have faith.

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Daniel knew. Just like the three, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew God could save them from the firmament.

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Whether he chose to or not was unimportant. He could, he may not, but whether he does or he doesn't, we will not kneel to you, they said.

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Daniel, same thing. He knew God could deliver him, but what was important to him was that God be honored.

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Darius certainly hoped that God would deliver him. Darius was not giving up worship, was not giving worship or consideration to Jehovah.

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Rather, he was simply expressing the common pagan belief that the gods intervened in situations where humans were subjected to great injustice.

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He saw this as a mistake he had made, and as such, a great injustice. He most likely believed that Daniel's God was simply a local

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God of the Hebrews. This isn't Darius getting saved. This is Darius, in his pagan mind, hoping that this local

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God over in Jerusalem is powerful enough to save him. I hope he is. I think he can. I hope he is.

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Verse 17, a stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring.

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He sealed it with his and the signet rings of his nobles so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel.

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The laws of the Medes and Persians cannot be revoked. Daniel is sealed into the den. The stone is rolled over.

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They seal the wax over the stone with their rings. In keeping with the specific wording of the statute

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Darius had enacted, he had the den sealed with the stone and verified with his signet ring, and the signet rings of his nobles stamped into the wax on the stone.

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This was so that no one would tamper with the stone and allow Daniel to escape, even him. The purpose that the nobles must have had in adding the requirement of their signet rings testimony was most likely to prevent

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Darius from coming in in the night and releasing Daniel. They trusted him no more than he trusted them, which is pretty common.

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That's, unfortunately, that's how politics is. But only back then, not now. It's a wonderful place now, somewhere.

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Verse 18, then the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought to him, and his sleep fled from him.

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Darius Cyrus left the den and went home for the night. Normally he would have spent the evening in revelry, but this evening he couldn't bear to do that because he was concerned about Daniel.

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This is really unusual for a Babylonian king, for a Persian king, excuse me. They were good at killing people without a peck on their conscience at all, nothing.

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He spent the night in fasting and he couldn't sleep. This probably was something he had never experienced before.

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It was completely out of character for a king of this sort to have any compassion whatsoever for the victims he had condemned to whatever fate he had condemned them.

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Nebuchadnezzar had no compassion whatsoever on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. As a matter of fact, his response was to heat the furnace seven times hotter, kill the guys throwing it in.

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We'll take care of those idiots, that was his thought. And this is the same mindset that the

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Persian kings would have had. Verse 18, that was 18. Verse 19, then the king arose at dawn, and at the break of day he went in haste to the lion's den.

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So in the early morning hours, we see this king shuffling along, hurrying along to the lion's den from the palace.

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Unfortunately for the conspirators, they didn't make the law specific enough about the punishment being required to end, to result in death.

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It was just that he had to be cast into the lion's den. The law didn't say he had to die, just said he had to be cast into the lion's den.

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Keep that in mind. And laws are specific like that. Apparently, Darius considered the injunction he signed as only requiring one night in the lion's den.

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Frankly, under normal circumstances without the intervention of a miracle from God, one night would be all that was required.

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In fact, as we will see, only a few moments would be required. They would keep the lions purposefully not quite full, purposefully hungry, purposely keep them hungry so that they would be much more vicious.

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Predators, when they're hungry, are far less likely to become even some sort of docile if they were full, if they were kept full.

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So these are upper African, they're nasty lions, they're big guys, and they'd have no problem killing a dozen men.

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So when he had come near the den, verse 20, he cried out with a troubled voice.

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The king spoke and said to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God whom you constantly serve been able to deliver you from the lions?

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He expected to hear nothing but the breathing and munching of the lions. He had no faith that Daniel would be alive.

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This is seen in the fact that he cried out with a troubled voice. The word means lamentable, sad, or pitiable.

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He knew it was all over. There's no way. I hope, but there's just no way Daniel could survive this.

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Nobody else has ever survived it. Why would he? He wanted Daniel to be alive, but he had no hope that he would be so.

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He also referred to Jehovah in the same way he would have referred to any one of his non -omnipotent gods.

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He asked if Jehovah had been able to save Daniel, implying that he may not have had the power to save Daniel.

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He didn't know the God of the universe like Daniel knew. Here, he uses the language of Daniel when he refers to the living

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God. He is actually probably only expecting, as I said, to hear the growl of the lions in return, but he cries out in this lamentable voice, trying to find out if Daniel was still alive beyond all hope.

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He references Daniel's faithful service to Jehovah. If God chose to save Daniel, it would have been out of his own sovereignty and grace.

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Even Darius would recognize that. Daniel knew it. Verse 21, then

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Daniel spoke to the king. Now, can you imagine what the king thought when he heard these four words?

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Oh, king, live forever. Oops, I went backwards. That was pretty cool. Oh, king, live forever.

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He probably breathed a huge sigh of relief and actually probably became a bit excited.

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In contrast to the king's anguished question, Daniel answers calmly with a standard greeting for the king.

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That's the standard greeting. Whenever you came into his throne room, first thing you would say, the satraps and governors all said that, oh, king, live forever.

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Oh, king, live forever. They knew he didn't mean that. Daniel meant it in a way that as much as he could mean it, he meant it.

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He meant for the king to have a good life. And here's what he says to the king in verse 22. He said, my

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God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths and they have not harmed me.

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Inasmuch as I was found innocent before him and also toward you, I have committed no crime. In the same way that God did not put the fire out for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he did not ameliorate the lion's hunger, nor did he remove them from Daniel's presence.

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Rather, his angels shut their mouths and controlled their paws so that they could not harm

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Daniel. This angel was most likely another pre -incarnate presence of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. Daniel reminds the king that he had done nothing wrong to deserve this punishment in the first place.

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His decision to pray, even after the king's decree was not wrong. In fact, it was the right thing to do.

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He states that he was found innocent before Jehovah and that he had committed no crime against the king. Did you get that?

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There was a law passed that you couldn't pray and Daniel ignored it and violated it. And his statement was, he did nothing wrong.

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When the state mandates something against Christians that will cause them to violate their conscience or violate the word of God, and Christians remain obedient to God, they are doing no wrong.

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Daniel did no wrong. He did no wrong. It is never a crime to follow biblical mandates.

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Daniel points these things out in something of a mini sermon. The fact that the lion's mouths were shut is referenced in the

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New Testament book of Hebrews. Verse chapter 11, it says, and what more shall I say for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions.

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Who do you think the writer of Hebrews was talking about? He was talking about Daniel. And we're gonna stop there.

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Next week, we'll talk about the fact that scripture does not authorize punishment against families.

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Scripture talks about punishment against individuals. Individuals pay for their sin, not families.

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Pagan, horrifyingly pagan realms, kingdoms, have a different standard.

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And we should be grateful for that. Can you imagine being the wife of one of those guys? What did

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I do? You idiot. It was not a very good position to be in.

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Any comments or questions before we close? So Daniel's saved. Did y 'all know that was gonna happen? You do?

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Okay. It is a famous chapter. God's sovereignty was vindicated.

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Darius is now put in a position to do something different. And we'll talk about the next time we're together. Let's pray. Lord, thank you that you can choose to save.

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Sometimes you do not. You are still the same loving God. You're still the same God of grace, the same God of glory.

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For whatever brings you the most glory is what we would choose, what we would want. And if we were in that position, we would choose it ourselves.

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Sometimes from our positions of difficulty, we don't see the things that are happening to us as good.

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Daniel most certainly knew that his potential end was very difficult, was painful, was horrifying.

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But he trusted you. Lord, might we become people who trust, who trust in the sovereignty, if we are not already, trust in the sovereignty of Jehovah, of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, of the Holy Spirit. We look to you for you to glorify yourself in whatever way you choose to do in our lives.