THE DIVINE DILEMMA (Dan. 6:1-15)

Darius' dilemma forshadows the tensions between God's justice and love in response to man's sin. Daniel's survival of the lion's den is a foreshadowing of Christ's conquering the grave.

Transcript

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I heard a story about a judge who was about to hear a case involving a large amount of money. He received two checks in the mail. One was from the defendant for$150,000, and the other was from the plaintiff for$100,000. The judge called the clerk and said, Send the defendant a check for$50,000. I'm going to try this case on its merits. You know, I guess some people have enough integrity to equal the bribe, but not refuse it altogether. Integrity seems to be on short supply today. A person of integrity is someone about whom little bad can be said. Have you ever known someone about whom you could say very little bad? If anything at all? In Daniel chapter six we learn that Daniel is blameless, but his blamelessness cost him dearly. His story is a pattern for something far greater in his future, and I want to look at that with you a little bit today. First of all, let's look at this blameless man. And I have to take a minute to set the stage historically. On the night of October the twelfth, five thirty nine BC, the Medes and Persians crushed Babylon. The king of Babylon, Belshazzar, was killed. In Daniel 531 it says, And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old. Now we would expect it to say Cyrus the Persian, because it was Cyrus who conquered Babylon. And Daniel served until the first year of King Cyrus, according to Daniel 121. Who then is this Darius the Mead? Well, we're not sure. And the only reason I mention it is because he just plays significantly in this chapter. Darius the Mead may have been Cyrus' throne name or a title, like Pharaoh, King, Emperor, Duke, President. More likely, Darius the Mead may be Cyrus's vice regent in charge of this newly conquered Babylonian territory, because the Persians and the Medes co-ruled. Well, in either case, Darius rules the former Babylon. In Daniel 6 and verse 1, it says it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom. Now the word satrap is a little strange to us. It literally means protector of the realm. Darius, according to verse 2, puts over them, the satraps, three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. And so Daniel is one of the three top administrators who oversees these forty satraps. They ensure the king's interests are protected. Daniel then goes from a lowly teenage slave to the chief of the Babylonian wise men in Nebuchadnezzar's time from 605 to 562 BC. And then he is virtually forgotten by Belshazzar's time in 562 to 539 BC. And now, though, he is a top-tier Medo-Persian administrator in Darius' time, 539 to 536 BC. To put it all in perspective, Daniel is in his 80s and he has survived a massive regime change. But Daniel not only survives, he also advances. In verse 3 of Daniel 6, it says, Then this 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. So nearly 70 years in Babylonian exile has not poisoned Daniel. He has a winning, positive, can do spirit. He has a good attitude. You know, attitude is our pattern of thinking. It is how we look at life. Attitudes do not choose us, we choose them. We can choose to complain or to be thankful. We can either crave or be content. We can be critical or loving. We can doubt or have faith. We can rebel or surrender. Daniel's attitude catches Darius's eye, and Darius wants to promote him. And not everyone likes this. Not everyone likes Daniel. In verse 4 of Daniel 6, it says, Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find 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. He's blameless. You know, you can be the best leader with the most positive attitude, and even the greatest people skills around, and still be vilified. Steve Jobs used to say, if you want to make everyone happy, don't be a leader, sell ice cream. The better you lead, the worse you may be seen. You want to know why? Jealousy. I think Daniel is experiencing this. Jealousy has taken down a lot of leaders in the past. Korah was jealous of Moses in number 16. Saul was jealous of David in 1 Samuel 18. The chief priests were jealous of Jesus in Matthew 27. And the Jews were jealous of Paul in Acts chapter 17. Jealousy looks for faults until it finds one. In Daniel 6 and 5 it says, 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. You have to ask yourself the question How far do people have to dig before they find dirt on me? On you. Daniel's life was so blameless they had to set a trap to trip him up. It is a conspiracy, a plot. Daniel is in his eighties, and they still find nothing in him that's wrong. They have to pit his commitment to the king against his commitment to his God. Let's see how they do this. In verse six it says, Then these high officials and the satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, O Darius live forever. Now, you say something like this, O Darius live forever, king live forever. You always say this to the king before asking him something that sounds like it's in his best interest when it really is not. It's a way of buttering the king up. And what's coming is not in the best interest of the king. By the way, the words by agreement here, they came by agreement, can mean went as a group. It's translated that way in some translations. In the one translation I use, it's rendered thronging. They came by thronging. In other words, they don't have the courage to act alone. So what do they do? They come as a group, by agreement. And what do they want? Verse 7 says, 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. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked. This is strange. Obviously, Daniel is missing, because he would never agree to something like this. And maybe they pitched this in a way to solidify the empire's loyalty to the king alone. I mean it's only something that makes sense. With an empire so vast and with such diverse religious and political loyalties, an empire that's growing so rapidly, it sounds like a good idea. In verse 9, therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. And again, once a royal decree is dec is signed, it cannot be canceled even by the king himself. And so they manipulate the king to decree himself to be God for a month. That's really what they're saying. This is a law against any petition to any God. It is a law that forbids prayer. And the trap is set, and Daniel is going to walk in. In verse 10, it says that 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. After 70 years of being displaced from his homeland, Daniel's heart still aches for home. His windows faced west. And he does not just look that way, he prays that way. The Bible says he got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. I want you to notice something. When the decree was made that it is unlawful to pray, Daniel does not protest Darius' law. Nor does he quit praying. He's not in despair. Instead, he gives thanks. He prays toward a ruined temple nine hundred miles away. What do you do if someone high up says you can't pray? You can't read your Bible. You can't talk about God. Don't lose your cool. You know what you do? You do it anyway. You give thanks. You read your Bible. You talk about God. Daniel does not stop praying just because some people don't like it. And he's not praying to be seen, but he is not ashamed of praying either. And he will not give up, nor will he give in. And so his enemies catch him. They catch him praying. Verse 11 says, Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Again, they go as a group, according to the NIV. They gang up on Daniel. They know he is praying because he prays regularly, and that is why they outlawed prayer. And now it's time to hold Darius to his law. And so verse 12 says, Then they came near, they being the wise men, the leaders, the officials, the prefects, the satraps, they came and 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? The king answered and said, The thing stands fast, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked. That seems to be stressed here. The writer of Daniel wants you to get this message. This is an injunction that cannot be reversed. It's plain, it's decreed, it's signed, it cannot be changed, it's air type, it has no loopholes. So all this left is to tell on Daniel. To tattle. In verse thirteen, it says, Then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you have signed, and makes his petition three times a day. Can you feel all of this closing in on the king? Here he is. He's God for a month, so to speak. But he's so painfully naive, so conceited, so helpless. But the king is not detached. He still feels very deeply. And he feels the pinch. The king quickly realizes his dilemma. Verse 14 says, Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. I want you to notice this. That Darius wants to deliver Daniel. He thinks through every angle to rescue this man. But the king is trapped. He is pinched between a rock and a hard place. He is in a conflict between two things, his own law, and his love for a valued colleague, and perhaps even a beloved friend. You see, the king has feelings for Daniel. And as if to rub it in, verse 15 goes on to say, Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinances ordinance that the king establishes can be changed. It's as if they're rubbing it in. Have you ever thought about what this is about? What is this about? When I think of this story, I think about the artist Norman Rockwell. He does all of these phenomenal paintings. And as an artist, Norman Rockwell, to plan his final paintings, would make preliminary sketches that he called studies. A study roughed in many details for his final paintings. Daniel chapter six is more of a study than a painting. I want you to think of the dilemma that Darius faces. He's trapped. He cares about Daniel, but his royal decree cannot be revoked. The penalty for breaking the king's law is the lion's den. How then can the king hold to his law on the one hand and yet release his friend Daniel on the other? He can't. He has to allow his friend to face the lions. But I want you to see that this is a study of something far greater. If all you do is see Daniel in the lion's den here, you're missing the point. Can you think of another king whose law is broken? The penalty is death, but his justice cannot ignore the penalty for a lawbreaker he loves? Could Darius symbolize God? And could Daniel denote us or even Jesus? And can Darius' decree represent God's law? The high officials and satraps represent Satan and maybe Jesus' enemies. The lions represent death and the enemies of the underworld. The Daniel's story does not give us all the details, and nor is it entirely parallel. For one thing, Jesus never broke God's law, but we did. And yet there are too many parallels in this to ignore. I want you to think of this for a minute. Both Daniel and Jesus are without blemish. Both Daniel and Jesus are victims of conspiracy. Both Daniel and Jesus are arrested after praying three times Daniel in his upper room and Jesus in Gethsemane. Both Daniel and Jesus are brought before a ruler who tried unsuccessfully to deliver them. And both Daniel and Jesus are falsely accused by those who could find nothing to pin on them. Both Daniel and Jesus say nothing to defend themselves, and both Daniel and Jesus go to a pit. There seems to be something here, a foreshadowing of something to come. Here is a God who does not change. He wrote his law with his own finger on stone. His rules cannot be revoked. Jesus Himself said, Heaven and earth will pass away, but not the Lord's word. And God's law includes the penalty that anyone who violates that law must die. God tells Adam, He can eat of any tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Pretty plain language. Ezekiel says, the soul who sins shall die. Paul writes, the wages of sin is death. That's the penalty. And God will not let sin go unpunished. The punishment is death, and death is irreversible. It's final. No one comes back from death. And God cannot change, his law cannot change. The penalty for breaking his law cannot change as well. Why? Because God, here it is, is just. 2 Thessalonians 1 6, among a whole host of other scriptures. If God does not change and his law does not change, then God will not sidestep the penalty for breaking his law. That's the point. And if he does, he compromises his justice. Justice is talked a lot about today. But I want to give you a definition of true justice. Justice is God upholding what God says is right. It is right that sin brings death. Now that same, that that may seem a little bit harsh to us. Death may seem to be excessive. It may seem to us to be unfair, but it is not. We have a perverted sense of justice, not God. And if we do not have a clear understanding of justice, my friend, we cannot understand mercy, which is God withholding this justice, much less are we going to be able to grasp the idea of grace, which is God imparting an undeserved good to us. Let me put it all together. Since God is just, he cannot let us off the hook for our sin. But since God is love, he cannot let us die as we deserve. God will not forfeit his love for his justice, nor will he forfeit his justice for his love. The question is, how can our sin be paid for? But not by us who are guilty. In other words, how can God be both just and the justifier? Daniel's story spotlights God's dilemma over our sin. God cannot change his law, even for lawbreakers he loves. And somehow his penalty must be paid. Who will go into the pit? And what could ever make the one going in come back out? You see, in reality, God has never been in a dilemma. He's never been stumped. He always knew what he would do. But what the Daniel story does. Is it helps us to feel how tight this is, how up against the wall we were, how that there is no way out. There is no other way out. Who would have ever thought? This is not about Daniel in the lion's den. It is a sketch of Jesus in Satan's lair. Yes, Daniel is an example for us to strive for. But he's more of a sketch of showing our need for someone blameless to be treated as if he had sinned so that he can stand in our place. Daniel foreshadows the good news that we find in Jesus Christ. The good news that Jesus is the only way out. The good news that salvation is not based on how much we can be like Daniel, but on Christ's perfect obedience in our place. The message of the good news is not try, but trust. It is not exert, but enjoy. It is not due but done. By God's grace and God's power, Jesus fully died. And God brought him out of that pit. That's where our confidence lies.