4 Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
5 Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.
6 Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever.
7 All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.
8 Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not.
9 Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.
There are two factors that can be brought out from these texts. One is, when you are in a political environment there is a lot of mudslinging going on, false accusations that takes place, and a lot of lying. In that context, they are trying to find some mud on Daniel and cannot find anything. So, they decide to go after him through his relationship to God and God’s law. When they came before Darius, they lied when they said “all the presidents of the kingdom…” because Daniel was not a part of the ‘all’. Daniel would have lifted up his voice and would have said, ‘that decree is not going to work for me’. Politics are based on deception and lies. Second is, there was a lot of flattery involved. The reason Darius signed the decree is because he was flattered by the idea that all had to petition him alone for 30 days.
These men were diabolical in that they knew that the decree, once signed, could not be undone. Through this conspiracy, they trapped the king.
Keep in mind what happened in the first four chapters of Daniel. Babylon is in power and the major worship issues deal with the bowing down to an image (Dan. 2-3) under the threat of death. Again, we see this same set up in chapter six, having prayer (petitioning) other than to the king results in death. Prayer is a form of worship. Darius decrees a law that forbids prayer under the threat of death, so we see that the Medo-Persian Empire follows unknowingly the footsteps of Babylon. The issue is of a law that cannot be changed.
God has a law that cannot be changed which are the ten commandments. These patterns are so interesting. God in his infinite wisdom weaved scriptures together for our learning and appreciation of his might, power, and love.
Where do we see Christ in this scenario? ____________________________________________________________________________________________
Going back to heaven, we know that Lucifer went on a campaign to mar Christ and His goodness. He portrayed Christ as a dictator and used deception and lies to convince one-third of the angels to rebel against Him. John 8:44 calls Lucifer a murderer and a liar…in fact, he is the father of lies – meaning he created the concept of lying.
The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes also used deception and lies to bring about the death of Christ, even when Pilate said that he saw no fault with Jesus.
What is the prophetic parallel? ____________________________________________________________________________________________
These men of leadership wrote a law that could not be changed. As they spied on Daniel, they found that he has a time for worship, with this knowledge they set up a law regarding praying (petitioning) which could not be changed or altered.
This should make us think about worship of the Lord our God and His law that never changes. In Daniel 2 and 3, we have a situation that deals with the second commandment – not bowing down before graven images…a matter of worship. Here in Daniel six there is an issue dealing with worship. And, Daniel 7:25, says “he will think to change time and laws”. He will make it so the change to time and laws cannot be altered. The prophetic implication to the end times, is in regards to worship as it related to time and law. This will further develop as we continue our studies of prophecy.