Bible Commentaries

Daniel in the lion's den (6:1-28)

There had been no opportunity for Daniel to enjoy his return to high office, because Babylon fell the night he was reinstated (see 5:29-30). But the new rulers would have known of his record under Nebuchadnezzar, so they made him one of the three presidents appointed to administer the nation (6:1-2).

Daniel had such obvious ability that the other two presidents soon became jealous of him. They wanted to get rid of him, but were unable to find any accusation of mismanagement to bring against him. They saw that their only chance lay in bringing in a new religious law that Daniel's conscience would not allow him to obey (3-5).

In putting their suggestion to the king, the two men used words that made the king think Daniel agreed with them. Their suggestion was that for the next month all prayers to all gods had to pass through the king. It was a common Medo-Persian practice for the king to act as representative of the gods, so Darius agreed to the suggestion and made it law (6-9).

By the time Daniel heard about the new law, it had already been approved and sealed by the king, so he could do nothing to have it changed. He made no effort to obey it, and proceeded to pray to God as he had before (10). His enemies worked out a plan to catch him in the act of breaking their evil law, so that they could accuse him to the king (11-13). They had him condemned and thrown into a den of lions, even though this was against the king's wishes (14-18).

God's miraculous deliverance of Daniel showed that the kind of worship that he accepted was not the state-controlled worship, but Daniel's kind of worship. Daniel had refused to sin against his conscience, had done nothing against the king, had not retaliated against his enemies, and above all had trusted in God (19-22; cf. Hebrews 11:33). After punishing the plotters (23-24), the king issued a decree commanding that all his subjects respect the God of Daniel (25-27). As for Daniel himself, he continued to prosper in the high positions he held in the Persian administration (28).