Daniel 6

It pleased Darius to set 120 satraps throughout the whole kingdom. Wesley (on v. 2): Daniel will be first among the presidents—Belshazzar had promised him the third place; the first was general of the army, the second president of the palace, the third of the land and provinces.

A king orders his realm. Civil structure is not the enemy of faith. Daniel will serve inside it without treating the throne as God, and without despising the office Romans 13 and Titus 3 tell the church to honor.

Calvin: God cared for his Prophet, not so much for private respect as that the wretched captives and exiles should be benefited. We may deservedly call Daniel God’s hand in sustaining the Jews. The Persians, being barbarians, were not naturally more merciful; God interposed his servant.

In practice: the satrap-list is providence, not luck. Empires change hands; the Most High still rules. Public order is the stage on which God keeps his people, and not a blank check for the king to become a god.

Three high officials; Daniel is one; satraps give account, that the king suffer no loss. Wesley: Daniel was first. Belshazzar’s promise was third ruler in the kingdom; the first was general of the army, the second president of the palace, the third of the land and provinces.

He takes the office. Faithful administration is not compromise. The same man who will keep praying also keeps the king from loss—the public good of Romans 13, not a plot and not a riot.

Calvin: a multitude of governors would have brought confusion and loss; the king placed three prefects over the hundred and twenty. Darius would never have noticed a stranger and a captive unless he understood him to be a known Prophet of God, a herald in denouncing destruction on Belshazzar.

God provided the office so the Jews should not be more oppressed by a change of masters. The king’s “no loss” is a civic good; the deeper cause is the Lord’s care for his servant and his people.

Daniel is distinguished because an excellent spirit is in him; the king plans to set him over the whole realm. Wesley (on v. 2) already has him first among the presidents.

Application: gifts used well distinguish a man without erasing his agency. He will freely keep the means of grace when the edict comes. Promotion is not a bribe to stop praying, and distinction is not a license to despise the king.

Calvin: a more excellent spirit was in him. First, a greater portion of his Spirit was bestowed upon him; secondly, Darius acknowledged this and held his prudence in great repute. God divinely adorned him, and a king had discretion enough to set a captive over his satraps.

God preserves and raises his servant. The later trap cannot oust the Most High’s rule. Distinction here is providence, not a self-made career and not a revolutionary platform.

They hunt a ground for complaint with regard to the kingdom and find none. Wesley: concerning the kingdom—and so to have made him guilty of treason, or other high misdemeanors, in the king’s business. He was faithful; no error or fault.

For the hearer: integrity is true. Daniel has not been a revolutionary in office. The coming charge will not be civic crime; it will be worship. He is faithful in the king’s business, the quiet godliness Titus 3 reminds.

Calvin: they sought occasion and did not find it, because he was faithful. We shall find no better defense against the envious than to conduct ourselves righteously and innocently. Integrity is the best of all protectors. Envy, sprung from ambition, made them spies of his fortune.

God keeps his servant’s record clean so the only remaining snare is piety. Envy does not invent a true fault in the books. The Most High is not ousted by a plot that cannot find a number.

No ground except against him concerning the law of his God. Wesley (on v. 4): they could not make him guilty of treason in the king’s business.

For the hearer: conscience toward God is the only “opening.” That is not a license to riot. When an edict will contradict worship, the conflict is already named. He will keep praying; he will not plot, and he will not treat the king as God.

Calvin: they plot against his holy Prophet and purposely wage war with God himself. Piety and an earnest desire for it ought to be of more value than life itself. This temporary life ought not to be more precious than that most sacred of all things—the preservation of God’s honor unstained.

The trap is aimed at worship because God has left them no other handle. The law of his God is the higher claim. Civil order still stands; the Most High still rules. Daniel is not asked to rebel against taxes; he is being hunted for prayer.

They come by agreement: O King Darius, live forever! The officials begin with flattery. Wesley (on v. 10) will show Daniel does not treat this greeting as a reason to stop prayer.

In practice: honor the king—the greeting is the language of the court, and subjection is true (Rom 13; Titus 3:1). Living forever differs from being God. The trap uses civic honor; Daniel will not return insult for it, and he will not sell the conscience.

Calvin: they assembled, they made a conspiracy, and approached the king. Their malice was the more detestable, since they desired to destroy Daniel by this very pretense. They knew him pious and straightforward; they experienced the power of that God unknown to them, yet hatred urged them to cruelty.

God is not fooled by “live forever.” The king is a magistrate, not a deity. The conspiracy uses civic honor as a net. The Most High still sits above the hall.

Whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days except the king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. They claim all officials agree. Wesley (on v. 10): he did not abate his prayers for the king’s command, nor did he break the law purposely—he did no more than he was wont.

For the hearer: this is not ordinary tribute (Rom 13). It is a blank check for tyranny: the king as the only hearer of prayer. Daniel will not riot; he also will not obey an idol-decree. Conscience toward God when the edict contradicts worship. Prayer is not insurrection.

Calvin: the king forbade any one to offer up any prayer during a whole month—that is, he exacts from every one a denial of God. Prayer constitutes the chief part of our adoration and worship of God. This was a gross and manifest denial of piety. How blind was the king’s pride when he could sign so impious an edict.

The den is the threat; the deeper crime is treating the king as God. God has not handed his honor to Darius for thirty days. The trap does not oust the Most High’s rule. Daniel will keep praying; he will not seize the magistrate’s sword.

Sign it, so that it can’t be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which doesn’t alter. Irrevocable paper is still paper. Wesley (on v. 10): Daniel will not abate his prayers, and he will not break the law purposely—he will do only what he was wont in serving his God.

Christians honor standing law. They do not baptize an unchangeable blasphemy. Daniel’s later prayer is not insurrection against a just statute; it is perseverance in the means of grace when the statute forbids worship. Not a riot; not a quietist bow to the idol-decree.

Calvin: constancy is praiseworthy in edicts if only preceded by prudence and equity. But we shall see how foolishly kings affect the fame of consistency, and how their obstinacy utterly perverts justice. They sought a signature of the writing, that it be unchangeable according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not pass away.

An unchangeable law against prayer is still under the Most High. God is not bound by Media’s formula. The church does not need to riot to know that the king is not God.

Therefore King Darius signed the writing and injunction. Wesley (on v. 10): when Daniel knew the writing was signed, he did not abate his prayers for the king’s command, nor break the law purposely, because he did no more than he was wont to do in serving his God.

A signed edict is still not God. Subjection (Titus 3:1) does not mean the magistrate may take prayer. Daniel will keep the usual hours. That is conscience, not a riot, and not a blank check for tyranny.

Calvin: the king did not dispute long with his nobles but subscribed the edict; he thought it might prove useful to himself, if he found the Chaldeans rather prepared to deny the existence of every god than to refuse whatever he commanded. The minds of kings are inclined to fallacies when they think they can increase their own dignity.

God did not abdicate when the stylus moved. Darius is still a man. The signature is the trap’s last knot; it is not the Most High’s surrender. He will preserve his servant’s prayer.

Windows open toward Jerusalem; knees three times a day; prayer and thanks, as he had done previously. Wesley: Toward Jerusalem—the temple was the place where the Lord placed his name, and promised to appear, and accept his people, all being a type of Christ, through whom only sinners are accepted. As he did aforetime—He did not abate his prayers for the king’s command, nor did he break the law purposely, because he did no more than he was wont to do in serving his God.

He freely perseveres in the means of grace. The same hours, the same window, the same thanks. Prayer is not insurrection. He does not riot, plot, or treat the king as God. He also does not go quiet and obey the idol-decree. Conscience toward God when the edict contradicts worship: Romans 13 still stands; so does the first commandment.

Calvin: Daniel was clothed in the boldness of the Spirit of God to offer his life as a sacrifice; he preferred meeting death rather than ceasing from the duty of piety. Prayer is the principal sacrifice God requires; the edict was a gross denial of piety. God requires not only faith in the heart but the witness and confession of our piety. Windows toward Jerusalem: not that God is more easily heard with open heaven, but as a stimulus to fervor, and to shew himself a stranger among the Chaldeans. Three times a-day, lest prayer slip from memory. As he had done aforetime: a regular constancy.

God preserves his servant and his prayer. The trap does not oust the Most High’s rule. Daniel is not a revolutionary; he is not a quietist. The Spirit’s boldness keeps the usual confession when the king has tried to take God’s place.