Daniel (1)
1It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom one hundred twenty satraps, who should be throughout the whole kingdom; 2and over them three presidents, of whom Daniel was one; that these satraps might give account to them, and that the king should suffer no loss. 3Then this Daniel was distinguished above the presidents and the satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. 4Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find occasion against Daniel as touching the kingdom; but they could find no occasion or fault, because he was faithful. There wasn’t any error or fault found in him. 5Then these men said, “We won’t find any occasion against this Daniel, unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.” 6Then these presidents and satraps assembled together to the king, and said thus to him, “King Darius, live forever! 7All the presidents of the kingdom, the deputies and the satraps, the counselors and the governors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a strong decree, that whoever asks a petition of any god or man for thirty days, except of you, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. 8Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it not be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which doesn’t alter.” 9Therefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree. 10When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his room toward Jerusalem) and he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did before. 11Then these men assembled together, and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God.
I often think how quickly time passes. Of all the things we meet in life, perhaps the most fearful and the most saddening is time that cannot be held back. Even this very hour will soon be the past. That is why we must live well in every moment, so that our lives leave no regrets. May you always live according to God’s will, and be blessed with health, with wisdom, and with thanksgiving in all things. And I hope you will not forget that in every circumstance we must hold on to the word and to faith.
I want to set out the history of Babylon, where Daniel served as prime minister, and of Media and Persia after it, and to tell it alongside Daniel’s faith. Israel’s history shows that when the people did not repent, they were attacked by the nations, struck by plagues, and oppressed by wicked kings. Watching them refuse to turn back even then, I found myself thinking of the many problems we are now facing one after another. Of course, even if this pandemic spread around the world by chance, in times that change so fast we need to examine where our faith stands. We must not dismiss what happens around us as circumstances beyond our control. Only if we look at these things with spiritual eyes, asking what we are to learn and what we need to repent of as we go through them, will our faith stand unshaken.
In the life of Daniel, whom I will introduce to you today, God revealed himself through Daniel’s faith, even though he was a captive in Babylon. Because God knew that Daniel would judge and act by faith, he was able to show the world a wonderful miracle, just as he had planned. Daniel lived his whole life in Babylon as a despised captive, yet God raised him up to be prime minister and, through the faith Daniel held, made himself known to the world.
For many years Daniel served as prime minister in an idol-worshiping nation, shouldering secular affairs and displaying God’s glory. What made this possible was his conviction that the instruments for displaying God’s glory were none other than himself and the world. Though he lived in Babylon, his hope was set on heaven, and that is how he could bear it.
It was by no means easy for a man of Judah to hold the office of prime minister of Babylon, but precisely as prime minister he could do a great deal. It was the same with Joseph: as prime minister of Egypt, he was able to save his father, his brothers, and all his relatives when they were suffering in the famine.
Some might think that if Daniel became prime minister of Babylon, he would be serving the world with God’s wisdom, and for that reason he should not take the post. But since this is the plan of God, who uses human history, all Daniel had to do was to obey in the work given him. When Joseph served Egypt faithfully, he was not laying the groundwork for Israel to be enslaved for 430 years. He had been sold into Egypt and simply did his best in the place he was given. As prime minister, he used the power he had to do a good thing, keeping his relatives alive in Egypt, and that was all; but as time passed, people who did not know Israel made them slaves and afflicted them for 430 years. God draws up the whole plan and leads it through, so Joseph had only to fulfill by faith the calling he was given. Of course, there are also people who work with evil intent, aiming to obstruct God’s work. The wicked turn to evil ends what was done for the good purpose of advancing society. So we must pray that the work we are doing now will become an instrument for giving life, and develop the spiritual eyes to read world affairs.
Isaiah 44:28
28Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’ even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”
In 539 BC, on the night Belshazzar king of Babylon was holding a feast, Cyrus, the first king of Persia, overthrew the Babylonian Empire and founded the Persian Empire. Cyrus was the king who, as God had commanded, sent the people of Judah held captive in Babylon back to their homeland and governed them kindly so that they could rebuild the temple. Remarkably, a hundred fifty years before Cyrus was born, God made known through Isaiah that he would help rebuild Israel’s temple. Those who do not believe God works in history claim that the book of Isaiah was written later. But according to the Jewish historian Josephus, Cyrus saw with his own eyes the scripture in which Isaiah had prophesied him by name, and he helped rebuild the temple in Jerusalem just as the scripture had foretold.
To tell you about Cyrus, who fulfilled the prophecy, I think I should first introduce the kings Daniel served, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar.
Nebuchadnezzar, together with his father Nabopolassar, the founder of Babylon, attacked Assyria, the mightiest power of the day, and destroyed the Assyrian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar came to the throne in 605 BC, conquered the southern kingdom of Judah, and carried first Jehoiakim and then Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. He took Jerusalem, which had held out to the last, carried King Zedekiah and many of the people of Judah away captive, and then took Tyre, Syria (Aram), Moab, and Ammon one after another. He put his captives to work repairing the walls, the palaces, and the temple of Marduk throughout Babylon, and he also built several great canals. For his wife Amytis he built the Hanging Gardens in Media, which are counted to this day among the Seven Wonders of the World.
One day the mighty Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, and to have it interpreted he asked the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, but none of them could interpret it. Then the king called Daniel and said, “Belteshazzar (his Babylonian name), I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and that no secret is too hard for you. Interpret for me the visions I have seen in my dream.”
This is the dream Nebuchadnezzar told Daniel. There was a tree in the middle of the earth. The tree grew and became strong, and its height reached to the sky. Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit plentiful, so that there was food in it for all; the animals of the field rested in its shade, the birds of the sky lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. As he watched, a watcher, a holy one, came down from the sky and cried aloud: cut down the tree, cut off its branches, shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit; let the animals get away from under it and the birds from its branches. Yet leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and brass, in the grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of the sky, and let him take his portion with the animals in the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from a man’s, let an animal’s heart be given to him, and let seven times pass over him. The reason for doing this to him was also given: so that people would know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever he will, and sets over it the lowest of men.
When King Nebuchadnezzar had finished telling his dream and asked for its interpretation, Daniel hesitated and for a while could not speak, because the king’s dream carried such an immense meaning. Then the king told him not to be troubled but to tell him the truth.
Daniel interpreted the king’s dream. The tree the king had seen, Daniel told him, was the king himself: his power had grown great and reached to the sky, and his dominion stretched to the end of the earth. And the words of the watcher who came down from the sky meant that this dream, being the plan of the Most High, would surely come upon the king. The king would be driven from among people to live with the wild animals, eat grass like an ox, and be wet with the dew of the sky, and he would be put through this fire for seven years. God would do this, Daniel said, so that in the midst of his ordeal Nebuchadnezzar would come to realize that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he will. That God had warned him beforehand through a dream was a chance to turn back, and a reason for deep gratitude. Daniel also told him that the stump of the roots had been left so that the king’s kingdom could be restored to him once he understood that it is God who rules.
But the king only listened to the interpretation; he did not take Daniel’s words to heart. Even after hearing about the dream God had given him, he went on for a year boasting of his own power and living in pride. One day, looking down on great Babylon from the roof of his palace, he rejoiced greatly, thinking that all of it was the work of his own power, might, and glory. Before the words were out of his mouth, a voice suddenly came from heaven, telling Nebuchadnezzar that the kingdom had departed from him. The voice said he would be driven from among people and live like the wild animals for seven years, the very words Daniel had spoken in his interpretation.
God gave Nebuchadnezzar a chance through the dream, gave him another through Daniel’s interpretation, and waited a year for him to turn back. But he did not repent. He ate grass like an ox, his body was wet with the dew of the sky, his hair grew like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws, and for seven years he went through the trial just as he had been told beforehand. As the trial drew to a close, he realized that Babylon, which had been his pride until then, had not been built by his own power but had been entrusted to him by God.
Daniel 5:24-28
24Then the part of the hand was sent from before him, and this writing was inscribed. 25“This is the writing that was inscribed: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ 26“This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE: God has counted your kingdom, and brought it to an end. 27TEKEL: you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting. 28PERES: your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Babylon was now ruled by Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson. Belshazzar was proud and insolent. Using the vessels of the temple brought from Jerusalem, he threw a drinking party with a thousand or so of his nobles, wives, and concubines and praised his idols. Just then the fingers of a man’s hand suddenly appeared and wrote on the wall. The king, who had been drinking and making merry, was so shaken at the sight of the fingers writing that his joints seemed to melt and his knees knocked together in terror.
At this point Amytis, Nebuchadnezzar’s wife, came to Belshazzar. Since she had seen Daniel interpret her husband’s dream and seen it come to pass, she told Belshazzar that Daniel was a man in whom was the spirit of the holy gods, a man of insight and understanding, and that he should send for him. When Daniel came in, Belshazzar treated him with contempt, saying, “Are you that Daniel, of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Judah? I have heard of you, that you have wisdom and understanding. If you tell me the interpretation of this writing, I will make you the third ruler in the kingdom.”
Belshazzar offered to make Daniel the third ruler because he was ruling Babylon jointly with his father and was himself the second.
Daniel said he had no need of rewards, and he interpreted the writing. But before he did, he rebuked Belshazzar sharply: “You knew everything that happened to your grandfather at God’s hand, and still you have not humbled your heart. You have lifted yourself up above the Lord of heaven, dared to drink wine from the vessels of his temple, praised your idols, and not given glory to God.”
Then he told him that the words written on the wall were “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” MENE meant that God had already numbered the days of the king’s kingdom and brought it to an end, so his kingdom was finished; TEKEL meant that the king had been weighed in the balances and found wanting; and PERES meant that the kingdom would be divided and given to the Medes and Persians. (Peres is the singular passive participle of upharsin and means “divided.”)
Daniel 5:30 tells us that Belshazzar king of Babylon, who had sunk into wine, women, and idolatry while insulting God, was killed by Cyrus, and his last night was also the last night of the great Babylonian Empire. Belshazzar knew from the life of his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar how fearsome God is, yet he did not turn back. He was on the verge of being conquered by Cyrus, and even when something as staggering as fingers appearing and writing on the wall took place, he was still drunk. Even as he asked Daniel about writing that God himself had written, he did not see how urgent the hour was. He would not let go of his pride, and he behaved arrogantly, promising a reward if Daniel interpreted well. Though he was sternly rebuked for his arrogance toward God and God’s servant, Belshazzar went on blaspheming to the end, mocking Daniel, the very man who was giving him the chance to turn back. God gives even a king of Babylon the chance to serve him. Those who are cast away are cast away because they did not choose his word; to all who confess their sins and turn back, whoever they are, God shows grace.
Babylonian history tells us that after King Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 BC, the kingdom went through twenty-one years of turmoil, with king after king, until Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians, took Babylon. Through all those changes of king, Daniel remained prime minister of Babylon.
Daniel 6:1-2
1It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom one hundred twenty satraps, who should be throughout the whole kingdom; 2and over them three presidents, of whom Daniel was one; that these satraps might give account to them, and that the king should suffer no loss.
According to the historian Josephus, Cyrus king of Persia and Darius king of Media were father-in-law and son-in-law, and they fought side by side and took Babylon together. Belshazzar was holding a feast in a time of national emergency, when the allied armies of Media and Persia had already captured many of Babylon’s cities. He trusted only in impregnable Babylon and failed to read the state of the world rightly. His pride kept him at his feast, enjoying himself even after he had heard Daniel’s prophecy, and he was killed. We need to respond with spiritual alertness to the warning signals that sound in our lives, since any one of them may be our last chance to turn back.
According to Daniel 5:31, Darius, who took Babylon, was sixty-two years old. It was while he was ruling Babylon that the incident of the lions’ den took place. Not knowing the affairs of Babylon, Darius set Daniel over the others as chief of the presidents; but the other presidents and the satraps envied Daniel and were deeply resentful. They tried to find some fault in his public conduct so that they could bring a charge against him, but because Daniel always worked honestly, they could find none. Knowing that Daniel kept the law strictly, they made his faith, which would never bow to an idol, the point of their attack. The world reckoned that Daniel’s own unbending faith would be a highly effective tool for bringing him down. When the presidents, the deputies, the satraps, the counselors, and the governors gathered, their conclusion was to set up an occasion of idol worship and thereby remove Daniel from office.
To win Darius over, they told him what he liked to hear. They said they had consulted together: so that the king might be honored as a god, anyone who asked anything of any god or man other than the king for the next thirty days would be thrown into the lions’ den. Pleased by their proposal to make him a god, Darius put his royal seal on the decree.
Daniel was aware that the king had sealed the decree and signed it with his own hand so that no one could alter it; even so, he went home and, three times a day, knelt facing Jerusalem, prayed, and gave thanks to God. Now, if his praying were discovered, Daniel was as good as dead. He had been carried off to Babylon and had lived a hard life until he was nearly eighty, yet, knowing that God is almighty, he always gave thanks. Though he understood that he might die once this prayer was over, Daniel gave himself wholly to prayer, because he was sure of God’s unchanging love. His enemies, certain that Daniel would pray whatever threats he faced, had been watching for their chance, and when they saw him praying they accused him.
When Darius heard that Daniel had defied his authority, he was displeased, knowing it was a plot, but he had no way to save Daniel. Had Darius known God, he would have seen through their scheme to get his seal on the decree and could have prevented all this. He realized too late that the man they had accused was Daniel, but he could not revoke the unjust outcome his own command had brought about.
Darius must have heard that Daniel’s friends had come out of the fire alive. That is why, as Daniel was led off to the den, he said with sorrow, “Your God whom you serve continually, he will deliver you.” Because his accusers too had seen Daniel’s friends come out of the fire alive, they blocked the mouth of the den with a great stone and sealed it, so that Daniel could not get out. If they knew how God works, they too could simply have served him; but evil spirits labor all the harder to keep people from realizing God’s grace.
The king, who had thrown Daniel into the den with his own hands, went back to his palace and passed the night fasting, refusing every comfort a king could enjoy, and did not sleep. So close was the personal bond between him and Daniel. Darius probably blamed himself, asking why he had listened only to them and set his seal on the decree.
At dawn the next day he hurried to the den and called out to Daniel in a loud voice. He cried out to Daniel, the servant of God, asking whether his God, whom he served continually, had saved him from the lions. How badly must the king have wanted Daniel to live, to have run there without stopping?
Then Daniel answered, “O king, live forever,” and said that his God had sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they had not hurt him. He declared that his being alive made his innocence plain; that it was true that God lives, the God who keeps life safe even in the mouths of lions; and that he had never meant the king any harm. Overjoyed, King Darius had Daniel taken up out of the den, and he had the men who had accused Daniel thrown into the den, together with their wives and children.
Daniel’s faith, the faith that says “if I perish, I perish,” displayed the glory of God. When the king saw that Daniel had come out of the lions’ den alive, he made a proclamation in praise of God: all who lived under his rule must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, steadfast forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, and his dominion will have no end. The God who saved Daniel, the God who delivered him from the mouths of the lions: this is the God Darius the Mede is now praising. Through this event Daniel gave great hope to the people of Israel, worn down by long years of captivity, and it became an occasion for their faith to be set right again.
At this time Cyrus was in his late thirties, and hearing that Daniel had survived the lions’ den would likely have given him reason to think about God once more. Daniel’s true faith exalted God’s name and made the people resolve to return to Israel. Seeing this, we can consider what kind of faith we ought to live by.
May you, too, live by faith, so that the people you meet will think of God and praise him when they look at you.