The vast realm over which Darius reigned, extended from the Mediterranean to India, and from the Caspian Sea to the Indian Ocean. This was the empire of Medo-Persia, the second great Gentile world-power, symbolized by the arms and breast of silver in the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Dan. 2), the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, inferior to the head of gold in the quality of governmental power, but greater in territorial extent and military strength.

      Darius' great domain was divided into one hundred and twenty districts ("satrapies") over each one of which was set a governor (a "satrap"). Over these satraps were three presidents and of these three presidents Daniel was one--a circumstance which can only be accounted for by the overruling providence of God. Moreover, "this Daniel," though now near ninety years old, was "distinguished above the presidents and the satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm." (Dan. 6:3). But the other presidents and the satraps, moved by jealousy, set themselves to destroy Daniel. Their first plan was to find some slip or fault in his administration on ground of which they might accuse him. They went through his [45] records and accounts, we may be sure with minute care. But Daniel was as careful in business as he was pious and devoted to his God--two things not always found together. Failing in this effort, these men hatched up a plot diabolical and shrewd, which by all human calculation could not have failed. The sincerest compliments are those which our enemies unwittingly pay us. Daniel's enemies based their whole scheme on Daniel's fearless and unwavering loyalty to his God. They came to Darius with a proposition that seemed to be designed to honor him, so seemingly devoted and loyal and full of flattery that (as they reckoned) he could hardly turn it down. The lie it contained was hidden from the king. He was pleased with their adulation; and as they had expected, he promptly fell into the trap.

      "Then these presidents and satraps assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever. All the presidents of the kingdom, the deputies and the satraps, the counsellors and the governors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a strong interdict, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the interdict, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the interdict."

      That was that. The king's signature incorporated the proposed measure into the law of the Medes and Persians which could not be altered. For thirty days the king was virtually to be set in the place of God, in fact exalted above all gods, for they were all to be set aside, and all prayer was to be directed to the king alone. The penalty of disobedience was that [46] the offending one should be thrown into the lion's den. Now Daniel, as the plotter's well knew, had hitherto prayed to God three times a day, with his windows open toward Jerusalem (1 Kings 8:48). What will he do now? As they had confidently expected (such was the unintentional homage these wicked fellows paid to the courage and strength of a good man) so it turned out.

      It was easy to get the evidence. Daniel prayed with his windows open. His life had always been plain and open in the sight of all men. Now did the schemers throw off their guise, and come boldly to Darius, demanding that Daniel be given to the lions in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not. Try as he would, the king, who must have been deeply humiliated and angered when he saw how he had been taken in by those political scoundrels, was unable to find any loop-hole in the law so that he might rescind this enactment; and after an admonitory second demand from the wily officials, he was compelled to give sentence against Daniel. To add to his humiliation he himself had to put the seal upon the stone which was laid upon the mouth of the lions' den. (Dan. 6:12-17.)

      That night the king spent in mourning. The royal halls of his palace, at other times brightly lighted, and resounding to music and dancing, were dark and silent. In an inner chamber the king tossed upon his couch and his sleep fled from him. He had indeed tried to comfort Daniel in his God--"Thy God, whom thou servest continually, he will deliver [47] thee," v. 16--but that could hardly have been more than a kind and wishful thought. In the gray of the early morning he ran to the lions' den and cried with a lamentable voice, "O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest continually able to deliver thee from the lions?" And Daniel answered the king from the stone-sealed den: "O king, live forever. My God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me; forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt." "Then was the king exceeding glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den . . . and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he had trusted in his God." With the deliverance of the righteous, the judgment of the wicked follows apace; and the lions made short work of them, for no hand of God was there to intervene for them. This portrays a feature of God's dealing which is very significant for times to come.

      The record ends with Darius' great proclamation to all his vast domain:

      "Then king Darius wrote unto all the peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in the earth: Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, that in all the dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed; and his dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions."

      A brief note is appended stating that Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of [48] Cyrus the Persian. So far as we can learn from secular history the reign of Cyrus began about two years after the accession of "Darius the Mede" who received the kingdom on the night when Belshazzar, Babylon's last king, was slain.

[LOD2 45-50]