2007-05-10 - Daniel

Installment 50 ~ Chapter 6

Verses 6-9: So, the politicians came up with a great idea, one that would appeal to the king's ego. The idea was to celebrate a month of "Worship the King." Anyone who chose not to worship the king but worship anyone or anything else would be tossed to the lions.

Well this sounded great to the king. The conspirators knew they had Daniel. Again, as we noted last week, Daniel must have had a tremendous testimony for God because these men knew exactly how he would react.

Verses 10-15: "Well now we've got Daniel." It appeared that the administrators were right. Daniel was turned on, turned in and thrown down. He had no intention of changing his behavior. He continued to pray three times a day towards Jerusalem.

"When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance." (1 Kings 8:35-36).

The conspirators, which would have numbered 122, waited for their opportunity. They caught Daniel praying and immediately ran to the king to let him know that Daniel had broken the law. You can just hear their resentment, "That Judean exile!"

Darius probably realized what had happened. His response was anger. Anger at the loss of a faithful aide, and anger at being used by the satraps to destroy one whom they hated.

Darius' wanted to prevent Daniel's execution. But the king wasn't the final authority in the kingdom. The law was. He could not change that which was part of the law of the Medes and the Persians. Here the principal was "Lex Rex." The Law was king. And as you can see, the power of a ruler had already declined since the days of Babylon.

To be continued.

Comments or Questions?
Geoff

GKragen@aol.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org