Chapter 6. The deceived king, and the servant of the living God

Chapter 6. The deceived king, and the servant of the living God The various phases of the times of the Gentiles; as set forth in the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in the night vision, are seen in the power and splendour that are theirs according to the thought of God, and not in the decay into which some of them eventually fell. Belshazzar was a poor creature compared with Nebuchadnezzar; and though he became heir of the inheritance that was his grandfather’s, and that, as we have seen, by the will of God, he is not said to be the head of gold. The first ruler seems to have been that, “Thou art this head of gold” (Dan 2:38). Anyhow we see that dynasty, which is represented by the head of gold, set aside in the death of the King Belshazzar, and the kingdom taken by the Median Darius, a man far advanced toward the ordinary limit of human life. As regards the account we have of his doings, he does not seem to have been a man of evil disposition, or such a slave to the idolatry that characterized the Gentile nations, though far from possessing the forceful character of the head of gold. It could not be said of turn “Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive.” He seems to have been as truly bound by the laws of the kingdom as was the meanest of his subjects. He was not altogether an autocrat; hence it was not impossible for his lords to get the better of him, if he were not extremely watchful. He seems to have had some insight into the character of men, for he set Daniel above all the subordinate rulers in the kingdom, “and thought to set him over the whole realm.” This at once aroused the envy of the princes, and they set about to compass his ruin. But as far as the business of the kingdom was concerned their plotting was fruitless, “They could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error of fault found in him.” He did the business of the king as under the eye of God, and therefore was he no eye-servant, but realizing that in all that he did he was serving the Lord, he did it from his heart, and did it well. May we not take a lesson from this? A captive taken out from the midst of the flames that destroyed the house of God, and that reduced the best part of the beloved city to ashes, and brought in chains to a foreign land to be dealt with according to the humour of the monarch who held him captive, and yet faithfully serving the king that had done this evil, and now, after many years of captivity found serving his successor—what an example for the people of God in all ages, and in all circumstances! In whatever circumstances we may find ourselves, if we are there through no fault of our own we may rest assured that those are the best circumstances that we could be in for the glory of God, and for our own advancement in the knowledge of Himself; and in such circumstances we can always count upon Him for grace to sustain us in them, and to enable us to serve Him. We may not think our lot a favourable one for service in the interests of our Lord, but we could not be anywhere without His permission, and we may be confident it is just where He wants us. Paul might have supposed that a Roman prison was but a poor place for the exercise of his apostolic gift; but the service that he was enabled to render to the saints of God in that prison has enlightened, encouraged, and flourished the people of the Lord for nigh two thousand years. John might have thought, when carried a prisoner to Patmos, that the hope of serving the Lord was now at an end; but from that lonely prison came The Revelation of Jesus Christ, that not only sets before us the history of that which professes Christ’s name, from the hour of its fall until it becomes so nauseous to His palate that He will spue it out of His mouth, but also shows us the whole history of His dealings with this evil world until it all disappears in the judgment that He executes, and a new heaven and a new earth is brought in, in which righteousness shall have its everlasting dwelling-place

If we could only realize the great fact that He has His people here for His own ends, and that we are here as His witnesses, to be here just as long as He desires, and in whatever position in life that in His infinite wisdom He considers best, be that master or slave, prisoners or free men, sickness or health, poverty or riches, there would be no dissatisfaction with our lot, no murmuring nor complaining, but, knowing that His way is best, we should go on with contentment and rest of heart.

There seems to have been many an up and down in the life of Daniel at the king’s court. He is brought into a position of importance when something comes to pass in the life of the king of which his wise men have no solution; and then he becomes greatly honoured. But again he seems to be unknown until another similar circumstance arises, and once more the wise men are baffled regarding the interpretation. But every means is tried before he comes into mind, and then he appears as one comparatively unknown. One would have thought he would have been the first to be called in to meet the difficulty. In certain occasions be was indispensable, but he was not the kind of man that suited the godless court of the idolatrous Chaldean. He was not at home with the lords of Babylon, nor were they at home with him. He was no companion for such men. The living God, who was everything to Daniel, was utterly unknown by them. All that Daniel did was done with reference to Him, and all that they did was done with a view to their own selfish interests, “What concord has Christ with Belial or what part has he that believes with an infidel?” (2Co 6:15). Surely none at all. In connection with the affairs of the kingdom those satraps and presidents could not very well act apart from Daniel, for he was in high favour with the king; but when business was done, he, I can imagine, was done with them. He doubtless would have as his friends the godly among his own nation, but apart from them he would plough a lonely furrow. And this must be so in every dispensation: the friends of God and the friends of the world cannot go on together. You cannot mix oil and water. In this chapter we have a faint foreshadowing of the man who is spoken of in 2Th 2:1-17 as “The man of sin” and “The son of perdition,” who is to arise after the church has been called away. He is said to oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. This man will be the masterpiece of the devil. His coming, we are told, “is according to the working of Satan in all power and signs and wonders of falsehood, and in all deceit of unrighteousness to them that perish, because they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God sends to them a working of error, that they should believe what is false, that they all might be judged who have not believed the truth, but have found pleasure in unrighteousness” (N.Tr.). Tested by the truth of God, they refuse it; tested by the lie of the devil, they receive it.

Men, even with the Bible in their hands, know very little of the evils that lie before them. They fancy that they are quite competent to take care of themselves, and they will have none of God’s interference. They have done without Him in the past, they are doing very well without Him today, and they will let the future take care of itself. A few are not absolutely irreligious, but still may be found on the first day of the week at some so-called place of worship. But what do they hear when they get there? the Gospel, thank God, in some instances, but more often a political harangue—the Bible torn to pieces—the rights of men defended—creation queried—the fall of man ridiculed—the atonement blasphemed—accountability to God derided evolution affirmed: and every other abomination of infidelity set forth by men who are as ignorant of the Word of the living God as they are of their own nakedness in His presence. The truth they had no love far, and when the lie comes they will receive it with ready heart and mind. But of all this departure from God and the Word of His grace we have been well warned, so that it cannot take us by surprise. Paul tells Timothy to “Preach the Word: be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2Ti 4:2-4). But the greatest fable that ever existed, or is possible to exist, and for the reception of which Christendom is today preparing itself, and under the power of which it shall fall, is that which shall be introduced by that lawless one, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming (2Th 2:8).

Shadows of that coming evil are thrown upon the prophetic page in many places, and they are not wanting in this book of Daniel. In chapter 3 we get one phase of that terrible day depicted. When that day comes an image shall be set up of the revived Roman empire, and the king in Jerusalem, who shall be false prophet to the head of that empire, is the one who shall cause that image to be made; and he shall give breath to that image, so that the image shall speak, and cause those who do not worship it to be killed. This false prophet shall deceive those that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs and wonders that he shall do, even to that of calling down fire from heaven in the sight of men. And all shall worship the beast whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the slain Lamb. In Scripture we have stated the great bold facts of the case without the political reasons that men may give for the introduction of such a state of affairs. Very plausible reasons, I have no doubt, men will be able to advance on behalf of all this, so that those who refuse to submit to such idolatrous practices will be considered, and that by sober-minded people, as stupid, obstinate, and unreasonable; and their extermination be regarded as well-merited punishment, or at least a political necessity. This certainly would be the judgment of all who recognized no higher power than that of the state.

Let no one imagine that in the days described in Rev 13:1-18 every human being will have gone stark mad, and that there will be no sober judgment anywhere on earth. The safety and welfare of the community, the binding of the people together as one man in the defence, and for the advantage of the state, the subordination of individual conscience to the will of the majority, and in that case to the will of the rulers, and to all that they may feel free to introduce, flattery, it is difficult to refrain from aping Deity, where an opportunity is furnished for so doing. But the path of the servant in the presence of all this is exceedingly simple, though in appearance it may seem to be bristling with insuperable difficulties, appalling dangers, and even death itself. But this is just wherein the faithfulness of the Lord is proven by the trustful saint. Our Lord calls the attention of His friends to the only fear that should govern their lives, when he tells them not to fear them that kill the body and can do no more, but to fear Him who after He has killed has authority to cast into hell (Luk 12:4-5). In the presence of the most appalling circumstances that we may be called upon to face, we have only to go forward in the pathway of the will of God, as though there were no opposing forces marshalled against us, leaving Him to carry out His gracious will, well assured that whatever then takes place is from His own hand, and is always best.

Daniel, well knowing that the decree had gone forth, goes on as usual. His demeanour is not marked by insolent swagger on the one hand, nor by any nervous timidity on the other. He went into his house, and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. By his manner of life no one could have learned that such a statute existed. The matter was between God and Darius, and there he leaves it, as one that was in no way concerned about it. It could make no alteration in the ways of this servant of God; he did as he had done aforetime.

He could serve the king, and do all as though doing his work to God Himself. But the privilege of communion with God regarding His interests upon earth, and his prayer for the holy city, towards which his windows were opened, were not to be relinquished at the bidding of any human being, however exalted he might be. In the favour of the king he might, if he set God at defiance, live his little earthly life in comparative happiness and questionable honour, but that would be poor compensation for the loss of the favour of Him whom he delighted to serve, and to whom both the king and himself were accountable. The enjoyment of the favour of God now, and the imperishable joys of eternity, were not to be bartered for a proud position at the court of this Median monarch; and therefore he wisely concludes that to love his life now would be to lose it, but to hate it now would be to keep it to life eternal (Joh 12:25).

Well would it be with us were we always so definite in our decision for Christ! This present life has a powerful hold upon our souls; and the enmity of the world against the Son of God, of which we are very well aware, and which we fear to arouse, causes us many a difficulty regarding the line of conduct we on certain occasions should pursue, which we would not have were we more whole-hearted for Christ. Where the eye is single the whole body is full of light (Luk 11:34), but where the eye is evil—has a cast in the direction of this garish world—all is darkness within, and the path of the Divine will is hidden from us. This is a sorrowful state to be in, but it is, I am persuaded, well known to both reader and writer. How sad it is to have to make such a confession!

Now those spies of the prince of darkness have found their opportunity. Their plot has worked magnificently! The foremost man in Babylon, the servant of the living God, the favourite of the king, is a law-breaker. He is numbered with the transgressors. No power on earth can save him. The king may weep in secret, but his tears serve but to manifest his own helplessness. He is powerless as is the meanest slave in his kingdom. The law of the Medes and Persians has been the undoing of him. He can now see through the villainy of those unscrupulous men. By his own act he is bound hand and foot. The thirty days of his godhead has but begun when he finds himself a helpless slave in the merciless hands of knavish and unprincipled men, men who delight to remind him of his impotence, and who have no sympathy with him in his miseries. The sin of the king was great, and he must learn that, in the government of God, sin is sure to bring its own punishment upon the head of the guilty, whoever that guilty person may be. He may be angry with himself, angry with the laws, and doubly angry with those wretched men who had brought him into such a perplexing situation. But what avails it all? His anger, no more than his regrets, can put away his guilt, nor can it relieve him from the consequences of his evil act. Daniel must be given to the lions. This is the inflexible law of the Medes and Persians, this the law-abiding mind of the monarch gives assent to, this the whole body of the plotters insist upon: the king has to give way. But his resource, and he has a resource, is not where we should expect such a man to have it. He says to Daniel; “Thy God whom thou servest continually, He will deliver thee.” The testimony that Daniel was, through the grace of God, privileged to render in the court of this monarch had borne fruit, and in connection with this sorrow that had fallen upon Darius the fruit is brought into evidence. He is assured that Daniel’s God will not now abandon His faithful servant. Could we think that there was no element of faith in this man’s confidence in the God of Daniel? But the law must be vindicated. The degree of the king cannot be set aside, or altered in the least, even though it be the death of the most faithful servant of the state. By the king’s own commandment Daniel is brought, and cast into the den of lions. And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. And can we read all this without thinking of One who in a later day, and on account of His faithfulness to His Father and God, was numbered with the transgressors, and went down among lions (Psa 57:4; Psa 22:13), but who, when pierced through by the horns of the unicorns, was saved from the lion’s mouth by the same power that delivered Daniel? Surely we have here a faint foreshadowing of our Saviour’s night of sorrow, when He was delivered into the hands of sinners, and when the dark cloud of Divine judgment swathed itself about His cross of woe; and when, with never a comforter, and God-forsaken, He drank the bitter cup of wrath to the dregs, went down to the grave that was closed with a stone, and sealed with the signet of recognized and God-given authority.

We are not told what kind of a night Daniel had in the den. This we do not require to be told, for with the light of Divine favour in his soul, the angel of God standing guard upon the safety of his person, and the wild beasts of prey crouching at his feet, we can well imagine the volume of praise that would be poured forth from his heart, so truly satisfied with favour, and full of the blessing of the Lord; and if for a time, as sleep passed over his wearied frame, his prayers and praises were silenced, it was only to awake again and find the angel of the Lord still on guard, the wild beasts still in the dust before him, and the den filled with the evidences of the presence and loving-kindness of God. It was surely a night never to be forgotten by this beloved servant of the Lord And what kind of a night was passed by his diabolic accusers? Of this we have no record. It may well have been a night given over to revelry and rejoicing. The hated witness of Jehovah was now a repast for the hungry lions: his day was over! The favourite of the king-would no more be a constant irritation to them, as he had been. A night of great gladness it would indeed be to them. But what about his royal master? In fasting, restlessness, and sleeplessness he passed the dark and weary hours. Accused by his conscience, wounded in his spirit, betrayed and humiliated by his trusted servants, trapped by his own hell-invented decree, and become murderer of the most important and best beloved minister in his kingdom, he tosses upon his bed in the most wretched condition imaginable, and by the first streak of day he is found at the mouth of the lions’ den, crying with a most 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, “O king, live for ever. My God has sent His angel, and has shut the lions’ mouths, that 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.” What a glorious morning for the unhappy king! and what a morning of bewilderment, humiliation, and terror for Daniel’s foes! They had travailed with iniquity, conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. They made a pit, and digged it, and fell into the ditch that they had made. Their mischief returned upon their own head, and their violent dealing came down upon their own pate (Psa 7:14-16). They fell easy victims to the rapacity of the hungry beasts of prey. How true it is that “He takes the wise in their own craftiness” (Job 5:13). And does not this second decree of Darius give us good reason for hope that, like Nebuchadnezzar, he also was brought to the knowledge of the true God? He calls the whole earth to witness his decree, “That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: FOR HE IS THE LIVING GOD, and steadfast for ever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivers, and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and in the earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.” His confession of Daniel’s God as the living God is marvellously encouraging. And this but shadows forth the day when the deliverance of Daniel’s people shall bring the nations to the knowledge of Jehovah (Eze 37:21-28). Indeed, this will be the result of all the dealings of God with His earthly people, for yet the rejected Christ shall have the throne that is His by right, and His name in that day shall be excellent in all the earth. “His name shall endure for ever; His name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in Him; all nations shall call Him blessed, Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things. And blessed be His glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory; Amen, and Amen” (Psa 72:1-20).

All the petitions of the Son of Jesse shall then be fulfilled. He asked life, and got it, even length of days for ever and ever (Psa 21:4). He asked concerning His own, the men the Father gave Him out of this world (John 17:1-26), and Him the Father hears always. And He shall yet ask concerning the world, and shall have the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession (Psa 2:1-12). Then shall He sit securely upon the throne of His glory—and “The prayers of David the Son of Jesse are ended.” Lord, hasten that glorious day!