Three times a day for many years, Daniel had prayed, given thanks, and made supplication (vv. 10–11), which is the same pattern Paul instructed us to follow (Phil. 4:6–7). No wonder Daniel had such peace and courage! Ernest Wadsworth, a champion of effective prayer, said, “Pray for a faith that will not shrink when washed in the waters of affliction.” Daniel had that kind of faith. He had walked with the Lord for more than eighty years and knew that his God wouldn’t fail him. Hadn’t the Lord helped him stand true during his time of training? Didn’t the Lord save his life by giving him the wisdom he needed to interpret the king’s dream, and didn’t the Lord deliver his three friends out of the fiery furnace? Daniel had a copy of the prophecy of Jeremiah (Dan. 9:2), so he must have read: “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?” (Jer. 32:27). No doubt he responded with “there is nothing too hard for thee” (v. 17). A believer who knows how to kneel in prayer has no problem standing in the strength of the Lord.
Daniel accused (vv. 12–13). The men who had spied on Daniel hurried to inform Darius that his favorite officer had disobeyed the law and shown disrespect to the king. It’s remarkable how people can work together quickly to do evil but find it difficult to get together to do anything good. “Their feet are swift to shed blood” (Rom. 3:15). They showed no respect to Daniel, who held a higher office than they did, but disdainfully called him “one of the exiles from Judah” (Dan. 6: niv). These proud men didn’t realize that God was with His exiled people and within the next twenty-four hours would vindicate His servant.
As they take their stand for what is right and what the Lord has commanded them to do, God’s people in every age have been falsely accused, cruelly persecuted, and unjustly killed. “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3: nkjv). The Puritan preacher Henry Smith said, “God examines with trials, the devil with temptations and the world with persecutions.” Another Puritan, Richard Baxter, said that God’s people should be more concerned that they deserved the persecution than that they be delivered from it, because deserving it would be evidence of their faithfulness to the Lord.
The king distressed (vv. 14–18). The king was distressed mainly because Daniel was both his friend and his greatest help in the governing of the empire, and he didn’t want to sign his death warrant. But Darius was also distressed because of the way he had acted. His pride had gotten the best of him, he had believed the lies of the leaders, and had hastily signed the law. Had Darius taken time to consult with Daniel, he would have discovered the plot; but perhaps the Lord allowed events to proceed as they did so that Daniel’s enemies could be exposed and judged. God works “all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11) and He knows what He is doing.
The king made it clear that he wanted to save Daniel from execution, but all his efforts failed. The situation is similar to the one described in the book of Esther: once the law had been signed, nothing could change it. Since Darius was a “god” and the people were praying to him, how could he make any mistakes? And how could a “god” not punish someone who had broken one of his laws? Furthermore, the laws of the Medes and Persians couldn’t be annulled or changed. For the entire day, Darius ignored all other matters concerning the kingdom and tried to free Daniel, but his attempts all failed. Of course, Daniel’s enemies were on hand to remind the king that he had to enforce the law whether he liked it or not. At the end of the day, Darius had to call Daniel and have him put in the lions’ den.
The lions’ den was a large pit divided by a moveable wall that could be pulled up to allow the lions to go from one side to the other. The keeper would put food in the empty side and lift up the wall so the lions would cross over and eat. He would quickly lower the wall and clean the safe side of the pit. The animals weren’t fed often or great amounts of food so that their appetites would be keen in case there was to be an execution. Living at the gnawing edge of hunger didn’t make them too tame!
Before Daniel was lowered into the pit and the wall lifted up, the king offered a prayer that Daniel’s God would deliver him because Daniel was faithful to serve Him continually (Dan. 6:16; see v. 20; 3:17). He then had the pit covered and the rock sealed so that everything was done according to the law. Nobody would dare break the king’s official seal, so that when the pit was opened, everybody would have to confess that God had performed a great miracle. It makes us think of the stone at our Lord’s tomb that was sealed by the Roman authorities, and yet Jesus came forth alive!
The king had a bad night, not unlike the night Xerxes experienced in the story of Esther (Est. 6:1ff.). Oriental kings were given all kinds of diversions to entertain them and help them relax and go to sleep, but Darius refused all of them. He spent a sleepless night and even fasted! He wondered if the Lord would deliver the old Jewish prophet from the lions’ den.
The Lord victorious (Dan. 6:19–23). Darius arose with the first light of dawn and hastened to the lions’ den. Even before he got to the pit and ordered the seals broken and the stone removed, he called out to Daniel in an anguished voice. In what he said, he confessed that Daniel’s God was the living God, not a dead idol, and that He had the power to deliver His faithful servant. Daniel’s faith brought him peace and assurance, but the king’s faith was weak and wavering. “Is your God able to deliver you?” When Darius heard Daniel’s voice saying “O king, live forever,” he knew that his friend and faithful officer and been delivered (Heb. 11:33).
Daniel was always quick to give God the glory (Dan. 6:22; see 2:27–28; 4:25; 5:21–23). God could have closed the lions’ mouths by simply saying the word, but He chose to send an angel to do the job. The angel not only controlled the hungry beasts but also kept Daniel company, just as the Lord had come to walk with the three Jewish men Nebuchadnezzar had thrown into the fiery furnace (3:24–25). The book of Daniel reveals a great deal about the work of angels in this world, not only their ministries to God’s people but also their influence on nations (10:10–13, 20–21). When we think of an angel delivering Daniel, promises like Psalms 34: and 91: come to mind, and we remember the angels’ ministry to Jesus (Mark 1:13; Luke 22:43). We don’t know when angels are with us (Heb. 13:2), but we do know that they are present to serve us and sent by God to assist us (1:14). When Daniel was removed from the lions’ den, he bore no wounds, just as the three Jewish men bore no evidence they had even been in the furnace (Dan. 3:27).
The Lord delivered Daniel because of his faith (6:23) and because he was innocent of any crime before the king or any sin before the Lord (v. 22). This means that the king’s law about prayer was rejected in heaven and that Daniel was right in disobeying it. By suggesting such a law, the scheming officers disobeyed the true and living God (Ex. 20:1–6) and robbed Him of the glory He deserved. God saved Daniel because it brought great glory to His name and also because he still had more work to do. God’s servants are immortal until their work is done.
However, it must be pointed out that not every faithful servant of the Lord is delivered from trial and death in some miraculous way. Hebrews 11:1–35 names some great men and women of faith and describes their achievements, but verses 36–40 describe the “others” who also had great faith and yet were persecuted and martyred. These unnamed “others” had just as much faith as the people in the first group but were not granted special deliverance. James the brother of John was martyred, but Peter was delivered from prison (Acts 12), yet both men were apostles and faithful servants of the Lord. It’s unwise to draw conclusions from consequences lest we end up making wrong evaluations (Acts 14:8–20; 28:1–6).