Daniel Stands Firm…
(6:10-15)
10 Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously. 11 Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God. 12 Then they approached and spoke before the king about the king’s injunction, “Did you not sign an injunction that any man who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, is to be cast into the lions’ den?” The king answered and said, “The statement is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked.” 13 Then they answered and spoke before the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the injunction which you signed, but keeps making his petition three times a day.” 14 Then, as soon as the king heard this statement, he was deeply distressed and set his mind on delivering Daniel; and even until sunset he kept exerting himself to rescue him. 15 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.”
The potential evil of this law may have gone farther than even its authors ever conceived.7
2. Daniel's Thrown in the Den of Lions (6:10-17)
10 The new ordinance mandated a very severe sanction: death by caged lions (v. 12). When the aged Daniel received notice of this new law, which had been enacted without his knowledge, he was faced with a dilemma. It was this prayer-fellowship with Yahweh that had safeguarded Daniel from the corrupting influences of Babylonian culture. To be sure, he might have compromised his integrity by ceasing to pray to God during the month the decree was in effect--or by praying privately, perhaps in the night, when no one could see him worshiping at his window. To rationalize such compromises to preserve his role in government would have been easy. But Daniel could not compromise. For him the issue was whether he was going to please man or obey God. Daniel had to choose between loyalty to his Lord and obedience to a sinful government commanding him to perform idolatry. So he was willing to risk his life for the Lord, trusting him for deliverance even as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had been delivered years before.
Daniel was in the habit of praying toward Jerusalem, for it was there in Solomon's temple that the glorious presence of Yahweh had come to reside (1 Kings 8:10-11). Even though this shekinah cloud had forsaken the temple prior to the Fall of Jerusalem in 587 (Ezek 11:23), Daniel knew that the Lord had promised to return there (cf. Ezek 43:2) and to restore Jerusalem (Jer 29:10, 14).
Chapter 9 tells us how earnestly Daniel was concerned about the return of the Jewish captives to Jerusalem and their land; 9:2 refers to his diligent study of the prophecies of Jeremiah concerning the seventy-year limit to the Exile--a study he undertook "in the first year of Darius son of Xerxes [Heb., `Ahasuerus']" (9:1). This concern for the captives' return may have been on his prayer list as he knelt at his window.
Or was it?
I believe Daniel consistently prayed toward Jerusalem three times a day for the more than seventy years of his sojourn in Babylon. Ironically, we can confidently assume that many of those prayers of petition were for the blessing of the king and kingdom of Babylon (see Jeremiah 7:13-17; 11:1-14; 14:11; 29:4-7).
The conspirators passed a law intended to prevent the very prayers which brought God’s blessings on this nation and its people.
vs. 10-11
When Daniel heard it was signed, he went upstairs and prayed.
The book of Jeremiah was in Daniels possesion according to 9:2.
he probably read: Jeremiah 29:1-12
The tradition of praying 3 times a day facing Jerusalem was adopted by David in Psalm 55:16-17 & Solomen (II Chron. 6:34-39) and continued until Jesus gave new instructions in John 4:20-24.
One such prayer recorded for us is Psalm 137. There, from Babylon, the psalmist cries out to the God of Israel. The eyes of the psalmist look toward Jerusalem and long to return there to worship God. Jerusalem is in ruins, but the psalmist is not deterred from looking toward that city.
Daniel learned about the legislation the king had foolishly signed and executed. What options did he have? Several must have come to mind, all of which he rejected:
(1) Obey the new law, making his petitions to the king.
(2) Continue to pray in secret.
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Cease praying altogether, making no petitions for 30 days.
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Limit his prayers to thanksgiving and praise, simply setting aside his petitions for 30 days.
This is a great text to use when interpreting the following scripture:
1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. 5 … And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you” (Matthew 6:1, 5-6).
This is to say we are to pray with right motives, not to be seen by men.
Why then does Daniel pray publicly? What compelled him to pray publicly, knowing it would bring him to the lion’s den?
Should we encourage Christians in China to pray publically and not hide or meet in secret?
- vs. 12-
Notice that the King was not mad at Daniel, but attempted to find a loop hole to not send Daniel to the pit.
Also notice that Daniel is called Daniel here, no remembrance of Belltashazzar is given!
Daniel - The Sanhedrin 93b states that Is. 56:5 refers to Daniel.
Note, in Daniel Media is put before Persia since Darius is from Media, and in Esther(1:3,14,18 etc.) Persia is put befor Media, except in Ch. 10 when the chronology is listed.
11-12 Verse 11 indicates that a group of the hostile officials had waited for Daniel to pray and then had burst in on him to catch him violating the new decree. It is clear that the officials were in collusion to make a public test-case of Daniel's violation of the royal decree. They "found him praying and asking God for help." It is not clear whether they arrested him on the spot or first referred the matter to the king. In any event, they lost no time in reporting to Darius (v. 12). They reminded him that he had forbidden all petitions to anyone but himself during the thirty-day period. Darius acknowledged that the decree was still in force and that the "laws of the Medes and Persians" could neither be changed nor revoked
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12). This verse incidentally, proves that Darius the Mede was serving under the authority of the Medo-Persian Empire, for no independent Median ruler, reigning before the Persian regime, could possibly have been subject to the law of the Persians.
Obviously the idea of a Median Empire ruling over Babylon before the Persian conquest was unknown to the author of the Book of Daniel and is merely an ill-founded hypothesis.
The same truth is later affirmed by Solomon at the time of the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. God’s dwelling place was not the temple, Solomon confessed. Even the heavens were not able to contain God, much less a temple in Jerusalem. But Jerusalem was the place where God chose to meet with men and to bless them. Solomon spoke in his prayer of men praying toward Jerusalem, the place where God would meet with men to bless them. He specifically spoke of God’s people praying toward Jerusalem from the lands where they were captives.
The Jewish captives brought the blessings of God on the kingdom of their captors. The city of Jerusalem not only symbolized the hopes of the Jews, but it is the place their God met with them and heard their prayers. God chose to mediate His blessings through His chosen people, the Jews, and through His chosen place (Jerusalem).8
While the king may not have thought through the implications of the injunction which he made law, Daniel did. The law passed by the conspirators, in effect, made Darius the mediator between all “gods” and men. I do not believe the king was declaring himself to be a “god.” Neither do I believe he put himself above all “gods.” But his injunction did make him the link between all those in his kingdom and any “god.”
Here the conflict between Daniel’s faith as a Jew and the injunction of Darius became irresolvable. According to the new law, the king was “mediator for 30 days.” According to Daniel’s Law, the Old Testament Scriptures, the God of Israel is God alone, and those who would be blessed will be blessed through His people, Israel. Their petitions must be directed to God, but through the place of His blessing, Jerusalem. There was no way Daniel could redirect his petitions to the king, rather than to God, by facing Jerusalem.
It does not seem possible for Daniel to pray to God, toward Jerusalem, other than by literally looking in that direction. This meant his window would be open and he would be visible when he prayed. He prayed publicly, in defiance of the law of the Medes and the Persians, because he believed there was no other choice.
I can almost see the conspirators deciding how they will catch Daniel breaking their law. His prayer life was so consistent they could literally pick the time to gather outside his window to catch him in prayer.
Although, it was no great accomplishment to catch Daniel in prayer, the conspirators approached the king very carefully with this news. Accusing a man of the king’s favor was dangerous. They began by asking the king about the law which had just gone into effect. He reiterated that he had indeed passed the law forbidding any petition be made except to him. He further acknowledged that the penalty for breaking this law was to be cast into the lion’s den. Only at this point did the conspirators shock the king with the announcement that Daniel has been found violating this very law. Their accusation was meant to impress upon the king that Daniel had not merely broken the law once, he was persisting in violating this law, showing in their minds complete disregard for the king and his authority.
King Darius responds to this report very differently than his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar. When told of the refusal of the three Hebrews to bow down to his image (see Daniel 3:13-18), Nebuchadnezzar became furious and intent on putting them to death. Darius was greatly distressed and spent the remaining daylight hours trying to find a way to deliver Daniel from the lion’s den.
The conspirators refused to be put off by the king’s resistance. After spending the day seeking to arrange Daniel’s release, they returned and reminded the king the law Daniel had broken was a “law of the Medes and the Persians” and thus irrevocable. Essentially, they told the king he had no choice. He was bound by the law he had signed and subject to the plot of the conspirators who had convinced him to sign it.
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