Sermon Tone Analysis

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday February 27, 2013

www.wenstrom.org

Daniel: Daniel 6:9 (6:10)-Darius Signs the Interdict Into Law

Lesson # 180

Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 6:9.

Daniel 6:1 Now, Darius the Mede received the kingdom at sixty-two years of age. 2 It was considered a good idea by Darius to establish one hundred twenty satraps over the kingdom in order that they would be in authority over the entire kingdom.

3 Also, out from, over them, three supervisors, of whom Daniel was one of them in order that these satraps would exist in the state of having to give an account to them so that the king would never be able to suffer loss.

4 Then this Daniel was distinguishing himself above the supervisors as well as satraps because an extraordinary spirit was in him.

Consequently, the king intended to establish him over the entire kingdom 5 as a result, the supervisors as well as the satraps were attempting to cause a pretext to be found against Daniel with regards to governmental affairs.

However, they were totally unable to cause any pretext in the form of corruption to be found because he was trustworthy.

Indeed, no negligence in the form of corruption was found against him.

6 Therefore, these men concluded, “We will never be able to cause a pretext to be found against this Daniel unless we cause it be found in connection with the law originating from his God.” 7 Consequently, these supervisors as well as the satraps conspired together to the detriment of the king and said the following to the king, “King Darius, live forever! 8 Each and every one of the supervisors over the kingdom, namely the senior officials well as the satraps, that is the royal officials, in other words the governors are in agreement that the king should issue an edict.

Specifically, an interdict, which should be enforced in order that whoever makes a request from any god or human being during a thirty day period except from you, O king, must be unceremoniously deposited into a lion’s den. 9 Now, please O king establish an interdict.

Specifically, please sign the document into law in order that it can never be changed according to Medo-Persian law, which can never be revoked.”

(My translation)

Daniel 6:9 Therefore King Darius signed the document, that is, the injunction.

(NASB95)

“Therefore” is composed of the preposition k- (כְּ־) (kee) and this is followed by the preposition lĕ (לְ) (leh) and then we have the preposition qǒḇēl (קֳבֵל) (kob-ale´) which is followed by the demonstrative pronoun denā(h) (דְּנָה) (dane-awe).

The preposition k- is employed with the prepositions lĕ and qǒḇēl to form a conjunctive clause which means “because of.”

These three words are employed with the demonstrative pronoun denā(h), which means “this” since it is anaphoric meaning it is referring to the previous statement in which the conspirators urged Darius to establish an interdict.

Specifically, they requested that he sign the document into law in order that it can never be changed according to Medo-Persian law, which can never be revoked.

The demonstrative pronoun denā(h) is the object of the prepositions k- is employed with the prepositions lĕ and qǒḇēl, which together function as a marker of cause and mean “because of.”

They present the basis for Darius signing the interdict into law which prohibited anyone in the Babylonian kingdom from making any request of their god or any king for thirty days or face the death penalty.

So this prepositional phrase denotes that Darius signed the interdict into law “because of” Daniel’s fellow supervisors and satraps urged him to do so in order that it can never be changed according to Medo-Persian law, which can never be revoked.

“Signed” is the third person masculine singular peʿal (Hebrew: qal) active perfect form of the verb rešǎm (רְשַׁם) (resh-am´), which refers to Darius performing the action of signing into law the interdict prohibiting anyone in the kingdom from praying to their god and any man for thirty days or face the death penalty.

“The document” is the masculine singular noun keṯāḇ (כְּתָב) (keth-awb´), which is referring to the interdict which would prohibit anyone in the Babylonian kingdom from praying to their god and any man for thirty days and suffering the penalty of death for non-compliance.

“That is” is the conjunction wa (וְ) (waw), which is epexegetical meaning that it is introducing a word, which explains in detail the nature of this document.

It introduces the noun ʾěsār, “an interdict” which defines the nature of the noun keṯāḇ, “the document.”

Both are referring to the prohibition preventing anyone in the kingdom from praying to their god and any man for thirty days.

Failure to comply during this thirty day period would result in the death penalty.

“The injunction” is the masculine singular noun ʾěsār (אֱסָר) (es-awr´), which means “an interdict, an injunction” referring to a law with sanctions, a legally binding prohibition, either written or spoken.

This interdict would be in written form as a law prohibiting anyone in the Babylonian kingdom from praying to their god or any man during a thirty day period.

Daniel 6:9 (6:10) Because of this, King Darius signed the document into law, that is, the interdict.

(My translation)

With the signing into law of the interdict prohibiting anyone in the kingdom from making a request in prayer to their god or any man for thirty days or face the death penalty, it became irrevocable and public knowledge.

Though it was designed exclusively to kill Daniel, if enforced, it would have created problems for those Jews in exile who were faithful to the Lord and continued to pray to Yahweh.

Again, this is a Satanic attempt to destroy Daniel and his fellow Jewish exiles in Babylon.

Undoubtedly, the conspirators were rejoicing in their successful attempt to manipulate the king to put into law a prohibition which they knew Daniel would disobey since they knew that he would choose obedience to his God if the laws of the state came into conflict with the laws of his God.

Therefore, this law called for “justified” civil disobedience on the part of Daniel and all Jews in exile in Babylon.

Just as Daniel chapter 3 records Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego practicing justified civil disobedience by defying Nebuchadnezzar’s order to worship a gold statute of himself, so Daniel chapter 6 records Daniel doing the same by defying Darius’ edict.

The Bible does teach that there are certain circumstances in which the Christian is justified in disobeying the governmental authorities.

This is called “civil disobedience,” which is the performance of an intentional act that is prohibited by the civil authorities or a refusal to perform an act that is required by the civil authority (The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Second Edition, page 263).

Christians are commanded to obey the Lord their God (Deuteronomy 13:4; Jeremiah 7:23; John 14:15) and they are also called upon to obey the governing authorities (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17; Titus 3:1).

However, civil disobedience becomes an issue for the Christian when these two claims upon the Christian come into conflict meaning when God commands us to do something like proclaim the gospel and teach the Word of God and the civil authorities prohibit this.

The solution to this conflict is that the Christian is to obey God.

This is illustrated in Acts 5:27-32 when the apostles were commanded by the Jewish authorities to not proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and Peter told them “we must obey God rather than men.”

In Exodus 1, the Hebrew midwives disobeyed Pharaoh of Egypt’s command to murder infant boys who were born to the Israelite women since murder is against the law of God (Genesis 9:5-6).