Daniel 6:1-28

One of the most impressive things about Daniel is his consistent success under multiple regimes.  Daniel’s leadership and character was recognized by different kings from different countries and they all promoted him to the highest levels of responsibility.  This kind of faithfulness is greatly appreciated by authority but can be very unpopular amongst co-workers.  Our job is simply to be faithful no matter what others might think.  God is constantly looking for faithful men to use in the advancement of His kingdom.

AN ENVIOUS PLOT: Daniel was one of three leaders in the kingdom but was quickly distinguishing himself above the others and it was the king’s intention to make him the leader over all the others.  This, of course, was not very popular with the other leaders.  They were envious of Daniel’s success and were determined to find something out about him that they could use against him.  They could not find anything because Daniel was above reproach.  The only thing they could come up with was His faithfulness to the Lord.  So they made up a law appealing to the king’s pride that nobody could pray or petition any god besides the king for thirty days.  The king was flattered to the point of stupidity and signed the Law.  I wonder how many of us could withstand the type of scrutiny Daniel survived.

AN EVENING OF PRAYER: Even though Daniel must have been aware of the law, he chose to be faithful to the Lord and continued to pray as was his custom.  The envious leaders drug him before the king and the king was powerless to change the law.  Despite spending the entire day looking for a loophole, at the end of the day he had to throw Daniel into the lion’s den.  That was an evening spent in prayer.  We are not told of Daniel’s activities during this night, but we can only assume he was praying.  We are told about the king’s inability to sleep and even as he had Daniel thrown to the lions he prayed for God’s deliverance.  I find it ironic that the law to prohibit prayer only ended up promoting prayer.  God answered those prayers and in the morning Daniel was still safe and sound.

AN EVIL IS PUNISHED: Now the envious plotters were about to see their evil plan punished.  Daniel was spared be the Lord from the lions, but when the king’s wrath was raised against them; he had them and their families thrown to the lions.  These same lions that left Daniel in peace all night attacked these people ferociously and they were consumed.  It is a dangerous thing to go after a man of God.  Sin is often very stupid.  These men knew of the king’s affection for Daniel, they should have known he would not have been happy with their evil scheme.

AN EVENTUAL PRAISE: The result of this entire story is the God of Daniel being praised by a pagan king.  We have seen this happen over and over again in the book of Daniel.  When God’s people are faithful they will be used to promote the praise of God in the nations of the world.  God delights in showing Himself strong in the lives of His people and using them to spread His fame to people all over the world.