Daniel 6:4

These verses follow straight on from Daniel 6:1–3. Darius had set a hundred and twenty princes over his kingdom and three presidents over them, and Daniel was one of the three. Because of his “excellent spirit”, the king thought to set him over the whole realm. A Jew from among the exiles was about to stand above every other official in the empire, and their envy drives everything that follows in Daniel 6.

“The presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom.” They went through his handling of the king’s business looking for a charge. In the Aramaic, “sought” is two words: hâvâʼ, the ordinary verb “to be”, and bᵉʻâʼ, to seek or ask. Together they say that the men “were seeking”, and they kept at it with one aim. “Occasion”, ʻillâh, is a pretext, a ground for bringing a charge against someone. They wanted any handle they could take hold of.

They found “none occasion nor fault”, and the verse gives the reason: “forasmuch as he was faithful”. The word ʼăman means firm, reliable and trustworthy. Daniel could be relied on in the king’s service because he was faithful to God, and his record held up under the eyes of men who wanted it to fail. The verse closes with two words for what they hoped to find. An “error” is a slip or a piece of carelessness, and a “fault” is corruption, so Daniel was found both careful and honest.

There is a quiet irony here. The investigation was meant to bring him down, and it became the clearest witness to his integrity in the chapter, given by his enemies. “The integrity of the upright shall guide them,” says Proverbs 11:3. David asked the LORD to judge him according to his righteousness and his integrity (Psalm 7:8), and Peter urges believers to live honestly among unbelievers, so that those who speak against them as evildoers will see their good works and glorify God (1 Peter 2:12). Daniel’s devotion to God showed in the work he did for a pagan king, in the whole of his life and in his public duties as much as his prayers.

In verse 5 the officials say out loud what their search had shown: “We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.” “Occasion” is the same word, ʻillâh, as in verse 4. The sentence is an admission, from the mouths of his enemies, that Daniel’s work and character were beyond reproach.

So they turned to the one place where they were sure he would stand firm. “Law”, dâth, is a word for a royal edict, a decree or a law, and here it means the commands of Daniel’s God. “God” is ʼĕlâhh, the usual word for God in the Aramaic chapters of the Old Testament, which corresponds to the Hebrew ʼĕlôah. Daniel’s enemies understood him well. His loyalty to his God came first, and he would keep God’s law whatever a king commanded. Their plan was to arrange things so that his obedience to God became a crime against the state, and his greatest virtue became the charge against him.

The plan sets two laws against each other. Here it is “the law of his God”, and in verse 8 it is “the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not”. The two share the English word, and the rest of the chapter shows which of them stands. The empire generally allowed its peoples their own gods, as long as their worship stayed clear of the king’s authority, so the officials needed a law that would turn Daniel’s prayers into a challenge to the king.

Daniel and his friends had stood at this crossroads before, in the court of Babylon (Daniel 1) and when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego faced the fiery furnace (Daniel 3). Jesus said, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” (Matthew 5:10), and Paul wrote that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). Daniel’s enemies came at him through his righteousness, because it was the one part of his life they could reach.

“Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king.” The verb rᵉgash is used of people gathering as a crowd, with a sense of commotion. They came as one body, by agreement, with their proposal ready.

Their first words were “King Darius, live for ever.” This was the customary greeting to a king, a wish for a long and prosperous reign, the same words the Chaldeans used to Nebuchadnezzar: “O king, live for ever.” On these lips it was flattery. The men who wished the king endless life were about to hand him a law that would bind him to condemn his most trusted servant and bring him great distress. Their courtesy was meant to put him at ease and make him ready to agree.

Scripture warns about this. “A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet” (Proverbs 29:5). A psalm laments those who speak with flattering lips and a double heart, and says that the LORD shall cut off all flattering lips (Psalm 12:2–3). Another says that the wicked plot against the just (Psalm 37:12), and that is what is happening here behind the bows and greetings.

Verse 7 is the officials’ proposal. They list five ranks, “the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains”, which together stand for the whole government, and they claim that “all” of them have agreed. Daniel was one of the presidents, and the plot was made behind his back, so the “all” passed over the one man the law was aimed at.

“Have consulted together” is yᵉʻaṭ, to counsel or advise, used here of men advising one another and agreeing on a plan. The decree was planned with care. They wanted “a royal statute” and “a firm decree”. The word for statute, qᵉyâm, is a noun from the verb qûwm, “to rise” or “to stand”, and it means an edict, a statute set up in law. They wanted the king’s full authority behind it.

The decree forbade anyone to “ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king”. It covered every request, whether made to a god or to another person, so that for a month the king alone would be the one to whom anyone could bring a need. That put a man in the place that belongs to God, who said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). The psalmist warns against trusting in princes and calls the one whose help is the God of Jacob happy (Psalm 146:3–5), and these officials asked the whole empire to look to a prince for everything. Revelation describes the same demand at the end, when the image of the beast causes those who refuse to worship it to be killed (Revelation 13:15).

The penalty was the “den of lions”. The word gôb means a pit, especially one for wild animals, and here it is the pit where lions were kept. It was a known and dreadful way to put someone to death, and it made the law a matter of life and death. The officials built the whole decree around a habit of Daniel’s that they knew well, his prayer to his God three times a day toward Jerusalem (Daniel 6:10).

In verse 8 the officials press for action: “Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing.” “Establish” is qûwm, to set up or appoint, and “decree” is ʼĕçâr, an interdict, a legal prohibition. “The writing”, kᵉthâb, is something written, the document itself. They wanted a written law with the king’s name on it.

The reason they give is the heart of the trap: “that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not”. The verb shᵉnâʼ means to alter or change. The book of Esther speaks of the same rule. A decree written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes was to stand unaltered (Esther 1:19), and a writing in the king’s name, sealed with his ring, was beyond any man’s power to reverse (Esther 8:8). The rule was meant to make the king’s word stable and dependable. In the hands of these men it became a way to bind the king himself to an injustice.

“Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.” “Wherefore” shows that he signed because they had persuaded him, and he believed the decree would add to his honour. The verb rᵉsham means to write down or record, and here it is the formal act by which the king made the document law, most likely by pressing his signet into wax or clay. “The writing” is the document, and “the decree”, the same word ʼĕçâr as in verse 8, is the prohibition it contained. With one act the proposal became a law that bound even Darius. Daniel’s name is absent from the verse, yet everything in it is aimed at him.

Scripture teaches us to be subject to the governing authorities, which are ordained of God (Romans 13:1), and Daniel had served the king faithfully and well. His case shows where that submission ends. When a ruler demands what God forbids, or forbids what God requires, God is to be obeyed. Peter and John told the council to judge whether it was right to hearken to men more than to God (Acts 4:19–20), and Peter later said, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The next verse of Daniel gives his answer to the decree.

Over all of it stands the God who rules the kingdoms of men and raises them up and brings them down, as the visions of Daniel 2 show. The officials’ law looked final, and it still lay within his rule.

Daniel was a faithful man, yet a sinner like the rest of us, and his blamelessness points ahead to the One who was without sin entirely. Jesus asked his enemies, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (John 8:46). Pilate, after examining him, said, “I find in him no fault at all” (John 18:38), and he said it again (John 19:4, Luke 23:4). Peter writes that Christ did no sin (1 Peter 2:22), as Isaiah had said of the suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:9), and Hebrews says that he was tempted in all points as we are, “yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Like Daniel, Jesus was the target of men moved by envy, and Pilate knew that for envy they had delivered him (Matthew 27:18). His enemies too came with respectful words to trap him, when they asked whether it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar (Matthew 22:15–18). And like Daniel he was condemned for his faithfulness to his Father’s will, which he obeyed to the point of death (Philippians 2:8).

What Christ did with his blamelessness goes beyond anything in Daniel’s story. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and God made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Daniel’s coming deliverance from the lions foreshadows the resurrection, when God raised Jesus because it was impossible for death to hold him (Acts 2:24).

The decree gives one more contrast. Darius’s officials tried to make the king, for thirty days, the only one anyone could ask. There is in truth one through whom every petition comes to God, for Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), and he promised to do whatever we ask in his name (John 14:13–14).

The law of the Medes and Persians claimed to be unchangeable, yet it was made by men, and men could be flattered into signing an injustice. God’s word stands because he himself is unchanging and righteous. “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6). “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19). “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89). His purpose to save us in Christ was settled before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 1:18–20), and “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8).

These verses also give us Daniel himself. His enemies searched his life and found only his love for God to use against him. Opposition still came, and its only root was their malice. That is the honest life Peter commends among people who speak against us, and its outcome rests with God. The king signed, the trap closed, and the next verse finds Daniel continuing to pray to his God as was his custom.