©Shannon Gist
Chapter 6:23-28 (ESV) - Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions—they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.
Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: “Peace be multiplied to you. 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.”
So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
Question to consider: Do you believe that king Darius became a man of faith?
One of the things I like about the book of Daniel is that it is both typological and literal in nature. The historical texts describe real events in the life of Daniel and yet point beyond Daniel to the new covenant kingdom. The numerology in Daniel also works in both a typological and literal way. Nebuchadnezzar was driven mad for seven years until he recognized the Most High God of heaven as King of the whole earth. The number seven represents the three heavens and the four corners of the earth.
We call it God’s number because it encompasses all of creation. According to the Mosaic law, seven is also the number of years of the Shemitah (Sabbath year cycle— see Deuteronomy 14-15). At the end of the cycle, the Sabbath year was given for the land to rest. At the end of seven Shemitot, the Jubilee was declared on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) in which all land debt and captives were released. These numbers while being literal will also be significant to the coming of the new covenant kingdom described in Daniel’s apocalyptic visions.
The exiles were commanded by the LORD to seek the welfare of the nations to which they were scattered. Daniel understood this “welfare” as a mandate to preach repentance to his captors and introduce them to the mercy of the LORD. Many years later after the birth of Jesus, the visit of the Magi pointed to the work done by Daniel in the land of the Chaldeans. Just as Paul was considered the apostle to the Gentiles, we could look at Daniel as the prophet to the Gentiles.
If you go all the way back to Genesis 3:15, the LORD gave the following promise in His curse of the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” We refer to this as the protoevangelium, the first form of the Gospel. From this passage, the rest of scripture divides the world into two types of people: the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent. The Jews believe that they are the seed of the woman and that Gentiles are the seed of the serpent. If you go through my study of Cain and Abel, I demonstrate that it is more nuanced than that. The seed of the woman are those who put their faith in the LORD (which is credited to them as righteousness), and the seed of the serpent are those who do not put their faith in the LORD.
The first six chapters of Daniel bear this out. There are three Gentile kings: Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius— two of them demonstrate faith and one does not. The ones that do repent of their idolatry, recognize the Most High God, and ultimately prosper in His name. The one that didn’t was immediately judged and destroyed. In today’s passage, the king’s decree extended to the Gentile nations— either they worshiped the Most High God, or they were destroyed. The unbelieving satraps and their families were thrown into the lion’s den and destroyed.
Dear heavenly Father, thank You for opening the eyes of king Darius and for the faithfulness of Daniel to bring Your light to the Gentiles. May we also go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded. Amen.