Daniel has proven himself to be completely faithful in his public life. We’ve seen that in the first four verses of Daniel 6. Those who sought to destroy Daniel’s credibility could find nothing in his work life to accuse him. He was completely faithful. There was neither corruption nor negligence. He didn’t do things which cost his king nor did he fail to do those things which would bring kingdom success.
This must have really frustrated these political leaders. Daniel, a foreigner, a Jew, had been promoted above them. They couldn’t stand him, so they plotted against him. But they couldn’t find any “dirt” on him. There were no skeletons in his closet. He was “clean as a whistle.”
The conclusion of those who sought to destroy Daniel was “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless…unless we find it in connection with the law of his God” (Dan. 6:5). So they finagle their way to get Daniel in trouble by encouraging King Darius to make a law that no one should pray to anyone other than Darius himself for the next 30 days (Dan. 6:6-9).
If we cannot find anything in Daniel’s public work life to bring him down, we will use his private religious convictions against him.
6 Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement[a] to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! 7 All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. 8 Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” 9 Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction.
That law then became public knowledge. And, of course, Daniel knew about it as well. His response is detailed in this next verses. Although he could possibly lose his life, he boldly stood up for his convictions. Knowing that the edict meant he should not be praying to anyone except for Darius, knowing that this edict was irrevocable, and knowing that it could cost him his life, he continued to pray to his God.
10 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.
What a wonderful passage of Scripture! What a daring response of faith by Daniel!
Of course, we know the rest of the story: Daniel will keep praying and be thrown into the lion’s den, BUT God will rescue him.
But Daniel doesn’t know that yet. With no guarantee of a miraculous deliverance from God’s mouth, Daniel just does what he knows to do…keep obeying God.
Here we see Daniel’s bravery and faithfulness to God. That Daniel was a praying man, we’ve seen throughout the book of Daniel (Dan. 2:17-18; 6:10; 9:3ff; 10:12). So, he didn’t allow even the possibility of being thrown to the lions to keep him from his normal practice of praying three times a day. David wrote of praying three times a day as well (Ps. 55:17-18). Of course, this isn’t a rule. The psalmist also says that he prays “seven times” a day (Ps. 119:164).
It does, however, make us examine our own prayer lives. We know that we are to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Yet how often do we find ourselves going through most of the day without even uttering a single prayer to God? Most of us are very conscious that our prayer lives languish and are lacking in both frequency and fervor. There is much that we can learn from Daniel here.
What does it take to keep us from praying? Certainly no edict from man is required to lessen our prayer lives. Instead, our own business, opportunities for company or leisure or hobbies are enough to occupy our time and attention.
Unlike Daniel, we don’t need to fear that our lives might be in danger because we continue praying to God. In fact, an article in the Journal of Religious Health, July 29, 2023 found that among those with chronic illnesses those who prayed on a daily basis or more were significantly more likely to survive over 6 years compared with those who prayed less often. Just imagine how healthy we would be if we prayed three times a day, or “without ceasing”?
Daniel did not lessen his practice, nor did he hide his practice, but, as usual, opened up his windows to the west, towards Jerusalem, and thus anyone could see him. However, windows in ancient Near Eastern cities were normally small, high, and had a lattice covering, so Daniel was probably not praying with his window open in order to be seen by others (Joyce G. Baldwin, Daniel, An Introduction and Commentary, p. 129). Jesus reminds us not to practice our righteousness in order to be seen in Matthew 6:1-18). If we do that, Jesus says, we will be paid in full by the recognition and praise of men. Whereas, if we pray in secret, we receive God’s reward.
“As I see it, Daniel had three choices: (1) cease to pray, (2) close the window and pray in secret; or (3) pray as usual.
Each choice had a tremendous price tag. Ceasing to pray would have cost him his fellowship with God—the one Person who could deliver him. Praying in secret or silence would have cost him his ability to influence those around him. Whatever his motives, everyone else would have thought he had sacrificed his relationship with God in order to save his hide. The third option, praying as usual, would cost him his life if the conspirators had their way. Taking the lesser of the three sacrifices, he chose to put his life on the altar of security. Daniel prayed ‘just as he had done before’” (William Peel, Living in the Lion’s Den Without Being Eaten, p. 151).
Like his three friends who, when the music had been played, had defiantly remained vertical while everyone else in the kingdom was horizontal, Daniel refused to put safety over courage, fear over faith, or self over God, and he bow down horizontal instead of standing to hide his religious convictions. In other words, Daniel’s friends were standing when everyone else was kneeling and Daniel was kneeling when everyone else was standing. For both of them, as for us, it is less about body posture than about the posture of their hearts—they were wholly devoted to God and trusting in God.
During the fiery furnace incident which befell his three companions, no mention was made of Daniel. Now the three companions go unmentioned. Perhaps, by this time, they were no longer living. But this also points out that for the first time in the book of Daniel, Daniel stood alone. Solitary obedience is much harder than obeying God with even a few friends.
The heroes of our faith, men like Noah, Joseph, Elijah and John the Baptist all had to stand alone. When William Carey, known as the father of the modern missionary movement, felt called by God to take the Gospel to India, few others encouraged him. Even his wife was reluctant to go. There were no parades for him on his way out of town, but his long and lonely obedience ultimately changed a nation and the history of missions.
Many of us are not spiritually strong enough to stand alone. We need to help and support and prayers and encouragement of others to help us to stand strong. Wise Solomon reminds us that it is better not to have to do it alone. In Ecclesiastes 4:9-11 he writes:
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
The contrast between Daniel 3 and Daniel 6 from a negatively worded command (Daniel 3: do not worship other gods) to a positively worded one in Daniel 6: do worship the true God. . . . this account supplements the message of Daniel 3 by reminding readers that not only is it imperative to avoid idolatry even in the face of persecution, but believers also cannot compromise the one true faith by neglecting the regular worship of the true God, even when that worship exposes believers to persecution and death. Neglecting to worship God is as much a denial of the true God as bowing down to idols.
Some might think, “Well, Daniel was an old man on the last leg of his life, he really didn’t have much to lose.” But the fear of being torn apart by wild animals has no age limit. “Chances are, whether you are 18 or 80 being thrown into a lions’ den ranks right up with being pushed into a piranha pond on the list of ways you don’t want to leave this life” (Amir Tsarfati, Discovering Daniel, p. 120).
Let’s take a closer look at Daniel’s courageous stand, at his faithful devotion to the God of Israel.
First, Daniel “knew that the document had been signed.” He heard of it, read it and knew that it carried the seal and authority of the king. He knew that it was an irrevocable law. He knew the penalty for disobeying it. So Daniel was immediately faced with a difficult decision.
Either the king spoke directly to his leaders about it—since probably not all 120 satraps had been present for the meeting with Darius in verses 6–9—or Daniel found out indirectly from a royal representative. But he clearly “knew” about the document, and he knew that the law of the Medes and Persians was inviolable. It could not be repealed.
Daniel wasn’t caught unaware. He wasn’t “trapped” unknowingly in his exercise of spiritual disciplines. He continued to pray, knowing the document had been signed, knowing the price he would have to pay.
Daniel was confronted with a test of loyalties. He was normally a loyal subject of his king, yet he knew that the King of Kings always deserved an even higher loyalty, the utmost loyalty. As the apostles conclude in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than men.” When there is a clear command of the Lord to be obeyed, nothing man can demand should keep us from our duty. Daniel thus refused to give to the government the measure of obedience that belongs to God alone.
In some cases, the believer is required to abstain from government-mandated behavior (as in the refusal of Daniel’s companions to bow before the idol in chapter 3). In other cases, as here, the believer must continue behavior declared unlawful by the government (continue in prayer and worship of God).
It was not only a test of loyalty, but also a matter of obedience. To pray to man was to treat him as a god, thus was idolatry. Daniel knew that praying to the king would violate the law of God (Exod. 20:3). God alone was to be worshiped and prayed to. The other nations worshiped and prayed to their gods. At times, even the king was considered to be a “god.”
Wilson sums up available evidence under this head by saying: “The kings of Egypt were worshipped as such from immemorial times.” Such attitudes naturally passed from one nation to another. He adds: “That kings should be called gods is witnessed by Pharaohs, Ptolemies, Seleucids, Herods, and Cæsars.” What did the ancients mean when they raised what seems to us to be so entirely impossible a claim? In the first place, they had a rather inferior conception of what a god was. Consequently they could conceive of mortals as being sons of the deity, for according to old legends in many a case a god, or at least a demigod appearing as a mortal, had been about on the earth, consorting with the daughters of men. (H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Daniel). Think of the Greek and Roman gods consorting with men and women.
It is the characteristic feature of every one of these world empires. Nebuchadnezzar and Darius took the lead. In the one which followed, the Graeco-Macedonian, we find Antiochus Epiphanes, who took the same place. In the Roman Empire we have emperors and others, like Herodes, claiming divine honors; in papal Rome the popes claim infallibility. And in apostate Protestantism the deification of man appears likewise. (Arno Clemens Gaebelein, The Prophet Daniel: A Key to the Visions and Prophecies of Daniel, pp. 65-66).
The state’s intrusion of the place of divinity is an attribute of the kingdom of man characterizing numerous periods of history. It is prevalent in systems of government promoting atheism (e.g., humanism and secular materialism—as in our own country today) and secularism. “Man is the measure of all things” is a famous statement attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Protogoras. That was reinforced by Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man.
But Daniel wasn’t about to pray to a man. He understood the bankruptcy of that practice.
Alexander Maclaren warns us: “Unless you are prepared to be in the minority, and now and then to be called ‘narrow,’ ‘fanatic,’ and to be laughed at by men because you will not do what they do, but abstain and resist, then there is little chance of your ever making much of your Christian profession.” Daniel stands out because he would not back down.
This passage shows that we always have a choice. We are never in a place where we have no option except to give in to temptation. God will always provide a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13). The pressures may be great, the choice may be difficult, but we can still choose to obey God. Early in life Daniel had chosen to be obedient and here we see him doing the same.
Before he was a teenager standing up against a powerful king and his demands. Now he is an old man. Can’t he just rest on his laurels and coast? Can’t he give in and go along? Most people his age would just want to live out the rest of their days in peace.
We see here how important it was for Daniel to establish a pattern of obedience early in his life. He probably had been a child in Judah learning the Torah and practicing Judaism faithfully under his parent’s guidance even before he was taken to Babylon. Once in Babylon, as a young man (Dan. 1), he was tempted to cut corners to win the king’s favor. At that point, what was at stake was likely that he would become a slave rather than a celebrated advisor to the king if he failed the test.
Now Daniel is faced with another test with higher stakes. Now he could lose his life if he disobeyed the king’s edict. But because Daniel had early on practiced obedience to God when the stakes were lesser, he had the courage now to stand for God when the stakes were higher.
What about you, have you established a pattern of obedience to God in your life? Blessed are those who learn that habit early in life. How important it is for us as parents to emphasize to our children the importance of obedience, both to God as the ultimately authority and to other human authorities as well, including obedience to parents.
So, wherever Daniel was and however he happened to hear of the decree, he went to his house at noon and knelt down and prayed, just like he always did.
If Daniel should now change his practice, either not praying or praying with the windows closed, “those knowing him and his habits, including especially his hostile colleagues, would think that he had ceased, and this would spoil his testimony before them. He had been an open witness before, both in word and life practice; he must continue now lest all that he had done before to influence others to faith in the true God should be for naught. The existence of a continued testimony was more important [to Daniel] than the existence of his life!” (Leon Wood, A Commentary on Daniel, p. 163).
Grace Still Amazes 