Sermon Tone Analysis

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday March 6, 2013

www.wenstrom.org

Daniel: Daniel 6:12 (6:13)-The Conspirators Remind Darius of the Interdict He Signed to Force Him to Execute Daniel

Lesson # 183

Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 6:12.

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 repeatedly attempting to cause a pretext to be found against Daniel with regards to governmental affairs.

However, repeatedly 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.”

10 Because of this, King Darius signed the document into law, that is, the interdict.

11 Now when Daniel was aware that the document was signed into law, he entered his home, which had windows in its upper room swung open toward Jerusalem.

Then he worshipped on his knees three times during the day.

Indeed, as was his custom, he prayed while giving thanks in the presence of his God just as he had been doing previously.

12 Then these men conspired together, namely, they found Daniel making request, specifically, making an earnest and urgent prayer request in the presence of his God.

(My translation)

Daniel 6:12 Then they approached and spoke before the king about the king’s injunction, “Did you not sign an injunction that any man who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, is to be cast into the lions’ den?”

The king replied, “The statement is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked.”

(NASB95)

This verse records a question posed to the king by the conspirators as a result of them finding Daniel breaking the new law signed by Darius.

Daniel 6:12 (6:13) Consequently they came into the king’s presence and posed a question with regards to the interdict issued by the king, “Did you not sign an interdict, namely that, any person who 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?”

The king replied and said, “Absolutely, the decree is according to Medo-Persian law, which can never be revoked.”

(My translation)

Daniel 6:12 (6:13) records that as a result of Daniel’s fellow satraps and supervisors finding Daniel at home making request from his God to deliver him from death, they immediately reported this to Darius.

They posed a question to Darius asking him if he did not sign into law a decree which required the death penalty to be administered to anyone in his kingdom who prayed to any god or human being during a thirty day period with the exception of himself.

They repeat verbatim the decree to the king.

They remind him of this order so that he will have no choice but to execute Daniel since Medo-Persian law could never be revoked even by the king.

They are involved in hypocrisy because they are portraying themselves as being concerned about Darius’ honor and people in his kingdom respecting his laws when in reality their true motivation was to force the king to execute Daniel.

They were concealing their jealousy and envy toward Daniel because the king was going to promote him over the entire kingdom.

These conspirators were pretending to be zealous for the king and his laws so as to force him to execute Daniel.

This echoes the strategy of certain jealous and envious dignitaries in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom who sought to kill Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as recorded in Daniel 3:10-11.

These unidentified dignitaries repeated verbatim Nebuchadnezzar’s order to execute anyone who did not worship the gold statue he erected of himself.

They reminded Nebuchadnezzar of this order and warning in order to set him up to be angry with Daniel’s three friends.

All the while they were concealing their jealousy and envy of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and their true motivation from the king which was to kill these three.

Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines hypocrisy, “a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not possess; a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.

To paraphrase this definition, we could say that Daniel’s fellow supervisors and satraps were making a pretense of having a virtuous character or desirable or publicly approved attitude, which they did not possess.

They made a pretense of having concern over Darius’ reputation and his laws.

Romans 12:8 and 1 Peter 2:1 prohibit the believer from getting involved with hypocrisy.

1 Peter 2:1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

(NASB95)

Romans 12:9 Your divine-love must continue to be characterized as being without hypocrisy.

All of you continue to make it your habit to detest that which is evil in character.

All of you continue to make it your habit to be devoted to that which is good.

(Author’s translation)

Hypocrisy is an outward pretence masking an inner reality.

The origin of hypocrisy is the heart (Jeremiah 17:9; cf.

Hosea 10:2 Israel; Mark 7:21-22; Matthew 15:19).

It expresses itself through insincere motives (Matthew 6:2; cf.

Matthew 6:5,16; 15:7-9; 22:18; 23:5-7) and when actions do not match one’s words (Isaiah 29:13; cf.

Matthew 15:7-8; Mark 7:6; Proverbs 26:24-26; Jeremiah 9:8; 12:2; Ezekiel 33:31; Matthew 23:28; Romans 2:17-24; James 2:14-26).

Those involved in hypocrisy tend to judge the motives of others (Matthew 7:5; cf.

Luke 6:41; cf.

Romans 2:1).

The Scriptures revealed many examples of hypocrisy such as Israel’s leaders (Jeremiah 6:13; cf.

8:8), the Pharisees (Mark 12:38-40; cf.

Matthew 23:1-32; Luke 12:1-2, 56) as well as Peter and Barnabas (Galatians 2:12-13) and in addition apostate teachers (Romans 16:17-18; cf.

Philippians 1:17; 1 Timothy 4:2; 2 Timoth 3:5; Jude 16).

Daniel’s fellow supervisors and satraps are persecuting him.

Persecution is the suffering or pressure, mental, moral, or physical, which authorities, individuals, or crowds inflict on others, especially for opinions or beliefs, with a view to their subjection by recantation, silencing, or, as a last resort, execution.

That persecution of believers took place in Old Testament dispensations is clearly attested to by what Jesus said to the Pharisees.

He specially referred to the innocent blood which had been shed in those times, and told them that they were showing themselves heirs in a legal sense to their fathers who had persecuted the righteous, “from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah” (Mt 23:35).

In the period between the close of the Old Testament and the coming of Christ, there was much and protracted suffering endured by the Jews, because of their refusal to embrace idolatry, and of their fidelity to the Mosaic Law and the worship of God.

During that time there were many patriots who were true martyrs, and those heroes of faith, the Maccabees, were among those who “know their God .... and do exploits” (Dan 11:32).

Hebrews 11 lists a number of Old Testament believers that suffered persecution.

The nation of Israel suffered persecution throughout her history and will face her greatest persecution during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.

Undoubtedly, not only was Daniel the object of jealousy and envy on the part of his fellow satraps and supervisors but also the object of xenophobia because he was a Jewish exile.

Xenophobia is an “unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers.”

The Medes and the Persians were racially prejudiced towards Daniel who was a Jewish exile since they considered themselves culturally and ethnically superior to the Jews because they were now a world-wide empire who like the Babylonians subjugated the Jews to themselves.

Satan was the unseen person behind this law and was his attempt to destroy the Jewish people while in exile in Babylon.

By killing Daniel, this would leave the Jewish exiles in Babylon vulnerable to attack and persecution since God was using Daniel as an intermediary for the Jewish exiles before the Babylonian kings.