40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Daniel 6:1-18 (Episode 515)

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Daniel becomes distinguished above all the other high officials, and they are not happy about it. The only way to get rid of Daniel is to outlaw his faithfulness. And Daniel ends up in a den of lions rather than disobey God. Have a listen. More from 1517: ·       Support the work at 1517 ·       1517 on Youtube ·       1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts ·       1517 Events Schedule ·       1517 Academy - Free Theological Education New Books from 1517 Publishing: ·       The Turk at the Door by Adam Francisco ·       Luther and the Lion: A Narnian Catechism by Samuel Schuldheisz ·       By Water and the Word by Brian Thomas ·       Being Family by Dr. Scott Keith More from the hosts: ·       Daniel Emery Price ·       Chad Bird Follow 1517:  Instagram X/Twitter Facebook

What would happen if Aslan came bounding out of Narnia and began teaching your confirmation class or Bible study? What if Martin Luther could have traveled from Wittenberg through the wardrobe all while writing the Small Catechism? Hi, this is Pastor Sam Schuldeis, author of the latest book from 1517, Luther and the Lion, a Narnian Catechism. This book weaves together the imagination of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and the instruction of Martin Luther's Small Catechism. Two great authors, two classic books One epic true story of good news for you in Jesus The true untamed Lion of Judah

Who is full of grace and goodness You can order your copy today at 1517.org Forward slash shop Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing.

All the other podcasts, of course, the books, the articles, the academies, the videos, and the events. That's what you can do. I'm pretty sure there's still some tickets left to the national event out there in San Diego. I mean, so you should grab those, especially if you're local. I mean, if you're like within driving distance of San Diego, whatever that means for you. I know that varies based. Driving distance for me when I was younger is different than driving distance now. See how this works, Chad?

I do know how this works. Yeah. Driving distance when I was younger was anywhere in the continental USA. Uh, now it's like, you know, I would consider driving distance like eight hours or less, but you know, whatever, uh, whatever that is for you, uh, if you're in your driving distance of San Diego, what are you doing? If you don't have tickets to this event, you got to come hang out. Uh, it's going to be great. We're gonna be talking about the Bible. And so, I mean, if you're listening to this podcast, it's going to be a great conference for you. The whole thing's

about the scriptures. Chad's going to be there. I'm going to be there. All the, all the usual suspects. You know, Scott Keith is going to be there. Magnus Pearson, come hear the Swede tell you about the scriptures. And Wes Huff, he's going to tell you, hey, man, you can trust this scripture, and I'm going to tell you why. And I don't know, he might be as good at doing that as anyone around right now, Chad. Absolutely. Yeah, a lot of good reasons to come. Yeah, a lot of good reasons. So come hang out, get some tickets. That'd be great. Chad, we are in Daniel chapter 6, we got a little handwriting on the wall last episode. We had a new king. We didn't get to know him very well. We didn't have a long relationship. Not a long relationship with him. He got some bad

news by the finger of God. It turns out when God's finger comes down and starts writing things, usually it's not the gospel. It's usually something else. And he got that bad news that Daniel had to deliver to him that said, hey, man, you've been weighed, and you're coming up a little short, and so your kingdom is going to be given to the Persians. This king, he decides, well, I'm going to give Daniel a bunch of, you know, I said I'd give whoever could interpret this a bunch of stuff. I'm going to give all that stuff to Daniel, put some purple on him, all that kind of stuff. But sure enough, it didn't take long for this particular word from God to reach its fulfillment. I mean, it happened right away. Right away. That very night is what we hear.

The king was killed, and we get a new guy. We're introduced to a new guy very briefly at the end of this, Darius the Mede. He has received the kingdom, and that's who we're going to pick up with in chapter six. Yeah. So we have to say a couple of things about Darius the Mede, because if you look in any commentary on Daniel, any study Bible on the book of Daniel, basically anywhere, you're going to come across the question of who is this guy? And the reason that question comes up is because we don't have, I mean, we have a lot of records from Babylon. We have a lot of records from Persia. We have Greeks like Herodotus who are writing out the history of Persia. We have we have a surplus of writings, but we don't have any of these which give us a reference to who

Darius the Mede is. And so it's been called the most difficult historical problem in the book of Daniel. I think it's pretty easy to inflate the importance of this difficult historical problem. The only real difficulty is that we don't have this particular name recorded for us in any kind of Babylonia or especially Persian documents. So there's a couple of proposals that are put forth by those who actually do trust the scriptures. And one of these is, and I tend to lean this direction myself, even though I'm not dogmatic about it, but one of these is that Darius is just another name for Cyrus and that this was, for whatever reason, I mean, it wasn't unusual for kings in the ancient world to go by by two names or even more than that so it wasn't

unusual for just all kinds of people to be i mean different to have multiple you sound like that would be the first time in the scripture where people uh are referenced by two different names yeah i mean we have a lot of it we have examples like that all over all over the scriptures we even have that in the new testament too right we have peter you have you have cephas you got paul you have Saul. So this is not unusual. So it could have been like a throne name for him. One of the commentaries that I regularly consult is by Andrew Steinman. That's a route that he goes. Now, if you do go with this identification that Darius is just another name for Cyrus, then when you get to the very end of Daniel chapter 6, verse 28 would be translated this way.

Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius, even, or that is the reign of Cyrus the Persian. And that is a legitimate way to translate that verse. So instead of seeing that as two names, you see that as an explanation that Darius is in fact Cyrus. The other explanation that's usually put forth is that Darius is another name for a guy named Gubaru, that is G-U-B-A-R-U, who was the general leading the army that conquered the city of Babylon. And then he served as a governor for a few months under the kingship of Cyrus. I mean, there's other proposals that are put forward, but those are the two big ones. Either Gubadru, this general who later served as governor, or it was Cyrus himself.

So just kind of be aware of that if you happen to come across some references to the question of who Darius the Mede was. I mean, isn't part of that – obviously you have the reference, as you just said, referencing Cyrus at the end there. But the – also, I mean, it is Cyrus who is believed to have conquered Babylon. I mean, so this is who – it's not just that you're like, well, maybe it's that. It's telling you that the kingdom was given to this Darius person, this Darius the Mede. And what you do know from history is that, well, who was it that conquered Babylon? And it was Cyrus. Yeah, we also know that Cyrus was around this age, which is indicated at the end of chapter 5, 62 years old.

So that's one of the reasons, one of the more reasons that I tend to lean toward that identification. So with that, Darius Cyrus, he's received the kingdom. He's 62 years old. Hey, I mean, Daniel's got two names. in this very book, and so does Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, so why not Cyrus? Everyone's got two names. Everybody's got two names, yeah. So when we step into Chapter 6, I think one of the things to keep in mind,

and this is very obvious to anyone who's read through the book in its entirety, is that you've got a lot of parallels between what's happening in Chapter 6 and what already happened in Chapter 3. Chapter 3, of course, is when you have the construction of the gold statue that Nebuchadnezzar puts up, and then he commands, of course, everyone to bow down to it, the son of all these musical instruments, and Daniel's three friends do not, and of course, they end up being, first of all, accosted by the king, threatened by the king, and they still refuse to give in, and they're cast into the fiery furnace. You have the fourth figure, who is Christ,

who's with them. Of course, they come out of the fiery furnace. They're unharmed. They don't even smell like smoke. And that section ends with Nebuchadnezzar making a proclamation about God Most High. Well, a lot of those parallels, in fact, I've got a note here in the Bible software that I use that's like 15 parallels between Daniel 3 and Daniel 6. But the ones I highlighted are enough to indicate that when you're reading Daniel 3, you also need to read Daniel 6. When you read Daniel 6 also needs to be Daniel 3, because in both of these, you have God's faithful people who refuse to give in to a decree, either from the Persians or from the Babylonians, which are either commanding they do something which is idolatrous or prohibiting them to

do something which is worshipful, which is what we're going to see in Daniel chapter 6. You have the threat of death, which is carried out. They're both thrown into a place where they should have died. they should have been burned alive or they should have been eaten by lions and then of course in both cases they are rescued from this place of death by god's gracious hand and then you have a proclamation given by the king by darius and earlier by nebuchadnezzar with regard to this divine deliverance both these stories therefore in the bigger picture of daniel

and then the even bigger picture of the old testament are narrative portrayals for us about the god who can rescue you from death you like you're you're going into the place of death this is definitely where you're going to die and yet you come forth alive well what i mean what are both of these narratives but old testament pictures foreshadowings of the resurrection of jesus i mean you in we'll see in chapter six daniel even gets put into this place and a rock is put over the entrance and it's sealed and i come on if you can't see the resurrection of jesus on that all over that then i don't i don't know what to tell you uh so both of them anyway are beautiful pictures beforehand and with old testament colors about what god does for us in

resurrecting jesus yeah yeah one of the things that both of those stories do i mean all of daniel does this um is it shows you like what it means to be uh and what it or what it ideally looks like to be a faithful worshiper of God in a secular nation, right? And so you have these guys who are—they're not going to compromise. And it shows you kind of where the line is, right? And so they're just living in a secular nation. This is what they're doing. And there's certain things that are when commanded of them that they won't do.

But what you never see them do is like taking up arms or trying to overthrow something or trying to intentionally cause problems because you don't even see them trying to tear down these like false idols or anything like that. They sort of are just like understanding the culture that they live in, but then there are certain lines where they're like, well, this I cannot do. I think what's instructive about that is that they're – that this actually works, where you end up having rulers start acknowledging God and saying things about him way more than if they had been more militant about it. And so they let their faithfulness do the fighting for them, which I think is instructive and not the way that we typically want to do things. I say they understand that they can't force this culture and this society to be Christian, as the way we would say it, because the people don't believe. And so the only way for it to become that way is for the people to believe, right, or for its leaders to believe. And so I think that's kind of informative. And when you have like the resurrection motifs like all through here too, it's like, yeah, you just got some guys kind of living in the confidence of the resurrection that is to come, which is kind of great.

Yeah, you don't see kind of these in-your-face revolutionary acts which are trying to, yeah, tear down the statue or in this case, in Daniel's case, you don't see him flaunting his freedom in the sense of when he hears there's been a decree passed, no one can pray to any God or man except the king for 30 days. Daniel doesn't march out into the middle of the Babylonian square and make a big show out of praying. He just does what he's always done. He goes home. He opens his window. He faces Jerusalem. He prays three times a day. He's not shouting his prayers to make sure he's heard.

There's no flamboyant, revolutionary, public display of rebellion going on here. He's just doing what he's always done. Yeah, I do think that's instructive. I mean, these guys were, you got to appreciate the situation they're in. I mean, they are trying their best to be faithful as well as just, I guess you would say, good citizens. I don't know if they were considered citizens, but I mean, they were trying to be good citizens here in Babylon, which is precisely what Jeremiah told the exiles to do. He's like, well, build homes and plant vineyards and raise kids and get married.

And so, but while you're there, don't try and like, don't throw, you know, Molotov cocktails in the Babylonian streets rebelling against Babylon. Just be good citizens, serve and love and be faithful. And yeah, there's always going to be situations. I mean, we've all faced these too, where I'm like, can I, should I do that? Can I do that? But you know where the lines are and you just don't cross those lines. And these were obvious lines in Daniel 3 and 6 that were not to be crossed. If someone tells you to do something you can't do without violating the Word of God, well, then you don't do it.

We shall make God rather than men. Or someone prohibits you from doing something, same thing. Yeah, but I mean, it's almost like Daniel was taking Paul's advice, right? Where he's like, you know, I'm going to be well thought of. I'm going to live peaceably with other people. And then, you know, the day might come where they're going to kill me for being unwilling to do the thing that they're telling me that I have to do that I just, I really can't do. Yeah. Yeah. As much as you can live at peace with all men. But yeah, there comes a point where you're like, ah, I'm trying to live at peace with you, but you've just drawn a line that I can't cross that. So do to me what you wish, but I've got a higher king than Darius or Nebuchadnezzar or whoever it might be.

It was interesting, too, is, you know, not to make too big a point out of this, but they don't really defend themselves either. It's not like Daniel's like, you know, arms himself and be like, well, when they come for me, I better be ready to—he doesn't do that. That's right. Yeah, nor do the apostles, you know. We're just out here in public doing our thing. All right. So, well, let's get into this. Verse 1.

it pleased darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps so usually there were only i think like 20 to 30 or or something like this is probably a designation for a little bit lower level governmental position but they're called satraps so they're charged in charge of a region of this vast and it was a vast uh persian empire so he puts 120 of these guys over the kingdom to be throughout the whole kingdom and then over them he puts three high officials and one of these guys was daniel uh to whom these satraps should give account so that the king might suffer no loss what does that tell you well if there's loss being suffered that means that hey you got a kingdom this big you got this many guys you gotta have some oversight come on you're not gonna tell me

that all 120 of these guys were, you know, very upright citizens, leaders in the kingdom who would never under any circumstances, you know, take a bribe under the table or skim a little bit off the top. Of course, of course they would. So you got to have these three high officials, Daniel being one of them, who are going to make sure that they hold these guys to account. By the way, daniel here is uh probably 80 to 85 years old i think we talked about that last time so yeah if you were in sunday school and you had a picture of daniel looking like he was 18 to 25 sitting in there with the lions no so i picture this so my uh my dad's been with jesus for uh a few years now he he died in 2022 but he was 81 when when he died so i picture my dad 81 years old being

you know brought before the king thrown into the den of lions and i don't know that gives you a it gives you a much different perspective when you consider this guy's an octogenarian who's who's like now i'm gonna get down on these old knees and pray and you want to throw me to the end of the line, go for it. But I'm not, I'm not stopping. Yeah. I mean, also given this job at 85 years old, it was like, Hey, I need, I need, can you keep an eye out? Can you oversee all these guys? You're like, man, I'm 85 years old. Yeah. Yeah. No, thanks. Uh, I don't want any responsibilities when I'm 85 years old, except getting out of bed, having some coffee and then doing whatever I do when I'm retired. I don't want to be overseeing a bunch of people.

let's put it that way. You don't want to oversee 120 guys and make sure they're not doing anything shady. Not in my, not in my plans. And then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him. Well, that's no surprise. I mean, we know about Daniel. We know what he's done. We know his past with the Babylonians. So yeah, no shock here that he's distinguished himself above all these other guys. So much so, in fact, that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. That's a crazy thing to do to an 85-year-old guy. Yeah, it is.

We've got this 85-year-old Jew who's been here a long time since he was a teenager. But man, he's awesome. We need to put him in charge of everything. Yeah. So this parallels what we've seen in a couple of other places, of course, way back 10 years ago when we were in the later chapters of Genesis, when Joseph is set over the whole kingdom of Egypt. And then more recently, I don't know, was it maybe two years ago when we did Esther, something like that?

Yeah. When Mordecai, her uncle, was basically in the position that they were looking at putting Daniel in. I mean, he was the right-hand guy, right? So we've got a couple of other examples in Scripture, Joseph and Mordecai, where you have an Israelite who's placed over the leadership of an entire kingdom, whether it's the Persians or whether it's the Egyptians. Yeah. This is, you know, Paul tells Timothy not to let anyone despise his youth, but, you know, apparently don't let anyone despise your old age either. Your old age either, yeah. Yeah, in our current culture, which worships youth, maybe we need to reverse that.

Don't let anyone look down on you because you're old, which is the greater tendency these days in looking down on someone who's young. and you know and if you're in the situation and you're you're one of these other 120 guys or you're one of the other two well what how are you going to react when you hear about this king planning to set daniel over the whole kingdom uh it's probably not going to sit very well uh this guy's an outsider uh could be a lot of reasons why people have some bad blood plus i mean if you're If you are a corrupt official, well, you don't want Daniel being the one who set up with the whole kingdom because he's going to come down hard on you if he figures out that you're making the king suffer loss. So you got some jealousy, you got some envy, you got some mistrust, maybe a little bit of xenophobia because this guy's not, you know, he's not a Persian. He's a Jew, could have some of that going on too.

But whatever, I'm sure, all of their motivations were, they decide they're going to hatch a plot to catch Daniel in some act that's going to get him in trouble with the king. And that's what comes up in verse 4 and following. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint. um the aramaic suggests that this wasn't just like a one-time deal they got together and like what are we going to do it's more like they were you know they kept seeking they were looking for opportunities just like the adversaries of jesus were always looking for a chance to to get at him so they were seeking this opportunity to find a ground for complaint against daniel with regard to the kingdom but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful

and no error or fault was found in him. So they finally come to this conclusion, verse 5. We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. I guess that's a pretty good complaint. That's pretty good, yeah. I mean, that's pretty high praise. Like, listen, man, we might as well give up.

This guy's not going to do anything that we can bring against him. like he's just not he's just not gonna do it and so we're gonna have to invent a rule for him to break based on uh his faithfulness okay so like this is yeah this is pretty wild uh that you would be like this guy's not gonna do anything wrong unless we make a new thing wrong yeah that's pretty it is pretty i praise him it's a backhanded compliment but it's definitely definitely a compliment this guy's so straight-laced he's so faithful we're gonna have to come up with something and it's got to be with regard to his religion that's the only way we're gonna to be able to hold something over yeah it's pretty it is pretty funny man like if you like if

you were trying to get someone on something on someone you just i think there's nothing on him man i mean he's just he's just squeaky clean and you're like okay well what is he really into because let's find out what he's really really into and then make that thing bad yeah perfect perfect summary that's what exactly what they did so they got their political heads together and they came up with with this we're told in verse six that these high officials and satraps came by agreement the kind of interesting aramaic word that's used here it just so came by agreement is just one word it's it's kind of the idea of they uh like thronged him like they all bunch together and they're going to make sure they come in mass to the king uh you know safety

in numbers i suppose so they uh they came in mass they thronged the king and here's what they said of course you got to start out by a little bit of compliments old king darius live forever and now they begin the lie here's the lie all all the high officials of the kingdom the prefects the satraps the counselors and the governors all of us agreed yeah i'm sure they did that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any god or man for 30 days except to you oh king shall be cast into the den of lions now oh king established the injunction and signed the document so that it cannot be changed according to the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked. And then here's the sad part. Therefore,

King Darius signed the document and injunction. These kings, you know, we saw this with Nebuchadnezzar too. It's like, you need better counselors. I don't know what you're thinking here, but if you couldn't smell a skunk when they came in with this proposal, well, you need some nose work. Just a little appeal to the ego, man. Just appeal to the ego. Yeah. I mean, also, like I could think of one high official who probably didn't think this was a good idea. Yeah. Yeah, the claim. All of us, I mean, we got together and we all were like, yeah, we're in unanimous agreement that this is what we think should be done. Yeah. Well, first of all, there's no way you got all these guys together. And secondly, Daniel was definitely not part of this conversation. so this is uh i i was reading a commentary this morning i thought i had a good analogy it's like when modern politicians will say well the american people want blah blah blah how do you know you know you don't know that i mean it's first of all there's nothing that all the american people agree

on no i mean like nothing there's few things that even the majority of american people agree on And so this is just a political way, a modern political way of saying this is what I want. And so I'm going to say that this is what everybody else wants. Everybody else wants to. I mean, even the appeal to the ego here, though, I mean, you are right where you're like, this is a little on the nose, though, man. I mean, 30 days, OK, no one's going to make any appeal to any God except for you. And if they do, we throw them in a den of lions. I mean, if someone, like, you'd be like, what?

Like, you really got the details of this thing figured out. Like, what is it that you are trying to get out of this? I mean, this seems, like, very specific. Yeah, it's very specific, very graphic, too. I mean, it's kind of like your fiery furnace. Now we've got a den of lions. The den of lions thing is weird because it's like you could just say, will be put to death or something like that um and maybe that maybe that's just not colorful

enough like i've always kind of thought that the den of lions thing is part of the the sort of sales pitch of the hey yeah we're gonna like make a thing and people are gonna like you know 30 days and uh what should the punishment be it can't just be like it's got it like we're trying to do a thing here man like it can't just be like death we're trying to we're trying to make this uh like just extraordinary everything about it uh i know we'll throw you in a den of lions how about that uh like that's okay it's very it's way over the top it's way over the top yeah i was gonna say it's very roman-esque i mean this is way before the romans were doing their thing But I mean, this is, this is what the Romans would do, right? So you'd, uh, you'd get everybody together. They're in the Colosseum there in, in, in Rome or wherever, you know, it wasn't just in Rome elsewhere. And you have a little entertainment and you have like today, it's like, we would say halftime.

And what are you going to do at halftime? Oh, I have an idea. Let's bring in some condemned people and we'll feed them to wild animals while the crowd watches. This is like the halftime entertainment. You know, we think our halftime shows today are pretty, man, it's just a little bit over the top. They used to crucify people, feed them to the lions or dogs or any other. I mean, they did horrible things. so this is it's just kind of that that way and also if you also if you just say like hey we do

this you'll be put to death i mean not that that's not scary but it's not being fed to lions you know yeah i did i did i was curious about this so i did check a resource that i look at on a pretty regular basis it's called the ivp bible background commentary of the old testament It's just a real short section. I'll read it to you. It is known that lions were captured and kept in cages so they could be released for hunting, but there are no examples in currently known Persian literature that feature the punishment of being thrown into the den of lions. In earlier Assyrian texts, oath breakers were put into cages of wild animals set up in the city square to be publicly devoured. Goodness.

additionally in 7th century Assyrian literature the lion's bit occurs as a metaphor for vicious and antagonistic courtiers of the king so anyway there's a little bit a little bit of biblical Assyrian background to some

of these things I suspect a lot of this was just yeah let's just make this as over the top and graphic as possible so that's what they did okay so So what's going to happen? Verse 19 tells us, or excuse me, verse 10 tells us, I love this, when Daniel knew. It's like, oh, so he found out. So when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open to Jerusalem.

He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. previously these guys are posted up like across the street from daniel's house immediately after this thing is signed right they got binoculars out uh cameras visual evidence yeah uh yeah they can't get interesting here too he prays for jerusalem uh i mean so by this time you have the The Ecclesiastes Jews either have or will be returning shortly to Jerusalem. But the temple isn't rebuilt in Jerusalem. I mean, it's still just a pile of rubble. But people still prayed toward Jerusalem, evidently.

That was something already back in 1 Kings 8 when the temple was dedicated. Over and over, Solomon did use that language of when your people turn toward this place and pray, then hear and answer their request. So it became a practice that you turn toward Jerusalem and you pray. Here he has his postures down on his knees. He's praying three times a day. There's no like standard biblical practice in the scriptures where you have, you know, standing or on your knees or anything like that. Nor how many times a day you're supposed to pray. But this was Daniel's practice.

So he prays. And verse 11 tells us, these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Just happened to stumble upon him, huh? Yeah. I mean, we just happened to be in the neighborhood. Is that Daniel praying over there? Goodness. So they came near before the king and said before the king concerning the injunction, oh, king.

I just love their hypocrisy. It's just dripping all over the place here. They do this like, and we might, I mean, I might be mistaken. Is it, did you, did you not sign something recently? Yeah. Did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any God or man within 30 days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what happened? And the king who's, I mean, still seems as gullible as ever. he says the thing stands fast in other words yeah i mean that's sure according to the laws the medes and persians which can't be revoked she still doesn't realize what he's been set up so verse 13 says they answered the king a daniel who's one of the exiles from judah pays no attention to you king or the injunction that you've signed but makes his petition three times a day. It was finally at this point where Darius is like, oh, it finally, it's like, he's a little slow on, on, on the uptake here, but it finally, it, it sinks in at this point. In fact,

we're told, I mean, that he, when he hears, when he hears this, when I finally, you know, Donson and what's going on, that he was much distressed. In fact, he, he tried, he set his mind to deliver Daniel all day. He labored till the sun went down to rescue him. I don't know what he was doing. I mean, was he talking to Persian lawyers saying, hey, man, is there any way we can get out of this? I mean, is there a loophole? It's a religious exception. It's a religious exception. I mean, something, anything? And evidently they knew what he was doing because we're told in verse 15 that these guys came by agreement to the king and said to him, basically, don't forget this can't be changed. They said, no, O king, that it is a law of the

Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed. In other words, give up, stop trying. It worked. Our little scheme did work. So verse 34 tells us that the king commanded and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. And before he was, or maybe after he was, the king had one more thing to say to Daniel. May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you. So, I mean, it's the same verb in Aramaic. He set his mind to deliver Daniel in verse 14. Well, that failed. And so now he prays that God may deliver him in verse 16. And we'll hear that same verb two or three more times in the rest of the chapter. So, I mean, you know, So kudos to Darius at least for, I guess, hoping, praying that God was going to be able to do this for Daniel.

I have a feeling Daniel was not in the least bit troubled by this. No, I don't think—Daniel doesn't seem like—none of these—I mean, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego either. Death is not like a—doesn't seem like a real threat to them. No. It's like, yeah, okay, here we go. Well, if I go, I go, right? We're not told what Daniel said if he said anything when he was arrested. I mean, we have the words from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which basically say, well, God can deliver us.

And even if he doesn't, we're not going to bow down to your stupid statue. So they didn't. And verse 17 says, this is what we alluded to earlier. A stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den. and it was double sealed. The king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. These guys are making double sure that nobody rescues Daniel. And then the king, who is obviously distraught over this, he goes to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him and sleep fled from him.

I kind of like this guy. I mean, a king who would spend all night fasting over someone, I mean, that says a lot. And no music, no concubines, no alcohol, no whatever diversions were normally brought to him. And he couldn't even sleep. This guy was up all night. So quite the guy. Do you think I'm wrong here? I've always kind of thought that when – so, I mean, obviously, Darius is on to what this whole thing was about. I mean, he's got it figured out now. Yeah, for sure, for sure. All right, so he can't get out of this. And he does this thing where he says, all right, Daniel, if you're going to be delivered, like, it's going to have to be – Like I really hope that that praying three times a day thing is legit because you're going to – the only way this is going to happen for you is if your god does it.

And then you have like the king sealing this with his own signet and with the signet of his lord so that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Is this like – is this because they don't want him to escape? uh or is this darius like wanting to make sure that like it's just daniel lions and god in here and and nothing because you don't trust these guys anymore yeah right and so is this is this more like of hey you got one hope and it's god and i'm gonna leave it to you god and the lions And I'm not going to have these other guys able to interfere. I wouldn't be surprised if some of that was going on because, yeah, obviously at this point he knows he can't trust them. So I want to check in in the middle of the night.

And if God has delivered you, go and them go down there and killing you. I want to peek it in like, oh, my. Is he sitting there? Is that lion purring as he strokes his next to him? You know, get a get a spear, get a sword, get a get a bow. and let's take him out. Yeah, it certainly could be that Darius' motivation here at this point is like, well, you know what? We're going to make sure that Daniel's God has the chance that he needs in order to actually work the miraculous deliverance that needs to be worked. And he's

going to do his part. He's going to go fast. I suspect if he's fasting, he's also praying. He already basically prayed, you know, may your God deliver you. So, uh, he's going to spend the night not sleeping, not being entertained, but instead fasting and praying. And I guess waiting to see, waiting to see what's going to, what's going to happen. And I don't know, maybe we should just kind of leave it there, Dan. This is the, this is, this is the cliffhanger. It's kind of like, you know, uh, when it's, uh, when it's Holy week, you go to Good Friday services and you just, you walk out and you got to wait till Sunday, right? Come back for the Easter message. So this is kind of the Good Friday crucifixion and burial. This is the Good Friday, the false indictment,

false accusation, but nevertheless, you've got this Christ figure who is thrown into the pit, thrown into what should have been, in all likelihood, his tomb. But, well, Easter's on the horizon. Yeah, the stone is in place. It's all sealed up. You're going to have to wait until morning, and you're going to have to wait until next episode. Hey, I mean, it'd be funny if—I mean, maybe this is the case.

Maybe we've got a listener out there. There's no idea how this turns out, and that'd be great. That'd be awesome. And you're like, what? No, no, no. What's going to happen? Well, you have to wait. You have to wait until next week.

Next week we will get into it. All right, man. I'll see you then. All right. We'll see you then.