Year 2, Week 23, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 23, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Daniel 5-6.

Today’s reading continues in the Book of Daniel. Daniel and some of his friends, and many others from Judah were taken into Babylonian captivity during the first wave of deportations somewhere around 605 BC. Daniel’s prophetic ministry continued for about seventy years as his last known prophecy was given in about 536 BC. The episodes of Daniel and his friends fill Daniel 1-6. Daniel 7-12 are primarily visions that the LORD granted to Daniel in exile, visions that had both imminent and distant fulfillments. Daniel 5, which unfolds in about 539 BC, introduces us to Belshazzar, who succeeded Nebuchadnezzar, as the Babylonian king. While throwing a feast, a hand appears to write words on a wall: “Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand…Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN” (Daniel 5:5,24-25). Daniel provides the interpretation for Belshazzar: “This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (Daniel 5:26-28). Belshazzar was killed that evening and the Persians emerged to power. Daniel 6 records an episode illustrating Daniel’s continued faithfulness as he served under the Persian king, Darius: “Then the high officials and the satraps sought 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. Then these men said, “We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God” (Daniel 6:4-5). Many were provoked to jealousy over Daniel’s faithfulness (who was about eighty at this point), seeking to do him harm.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was Daniel’s testimony of costly faithfulness: “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” (Daniel 6:10). While Daniel’s prayer to the LORD had just been outlawed by King Darius, Daniel obeyed God rather than man: “If they sin against you…so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy…yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent…and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in heaven” (1 Kings 8:46-49a). Daniel quietly followed the instructions given through Solomon on what to do while in captivity: turn toward Jerusalem and pray. And yet, Daniel’s faithfulness was not without a severe cost: “Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and said before the king, concerning the injunction, “O king! Did you not sign an injunction, that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within thirty days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” (Daniel 6:11-12a).

Darius was greatly troubled over the requirement to cast Daniel into the lion’s den, for Darius greatly favored Daniel: “Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom” (Daniel 6:3). But Darius had been out maneuvered by evil men, and was pressured to adhere to the law he was duped to approve. Thus, Daniel was tossed into the lion den, but not without an expressed wish by Darius: “The king declared to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” (Daniel 6:16b). Darius, in fact, was in turmoil all throughout the night and at daylight he ran to the den: “Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” (Daniel 6:19-20). Daniel was alive.

Darius removed Daniel from the lion’s den, throw those men (and their families), who had tricked him into the den, and issued an official proclamation: “I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions” (Daniel 6:26-27). The LORD’s people were in exiled captivity, but the LORD was not. While He desired to show His power and greatness through the testimony of Israel, His people, He is able to display who He is through a Persian king. All truly should tremble before the God who is never thwarted in accomplishing His purposes.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe