Daniel 6:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Babylon has now fallen, Darius has been appointed by Cyrus the Persian conqueror to be the king of the region of Babylon, Darius the Mede. He is described in the previous chapter, the very last verse, as being sixty-two years of age. He is the general through whose wisdom, the city of Babylon actually fell. Now, though a Mede, he is reigning over a considerable part of the empire of Persia – Babylon and the regions beyond the rivers – though strictly speaking he is the governor of this area. There is a lot of debate as to precisely who this Darius is. Darius is not strictly a name; the word means king regent. He is not the same as Darius the Great, ruler over the whole empire, who came a little later. He is a general. Great authorities have settled on different named persons in history to identify him, but Darius appears to be a throne name adopted by him, since he is not a royal and he is an under-king under the overall jurisdiction of Cyrus. [John Whitcomb in his book, Darius the Mede, identifies him with Gubaru, the Governor of Babylon and the Region beyond the River, who is referred to frequently in cuneiform inscriptions.] At sixty-two he is very old for those times.He is now over organising things in Babylon, and immediately we are told about the hundred and twenty princes. Whether that was his doing or whether he was largely picking up on an administration that was already in existence, just changing many of the persons, is hard to say, but this is how things are organised. Darius reigns only for something like one or two years, and then he passes from the scene, he dies, and Cyrus takes over everything for himself. But while he was there, he was certainly not the worst of rulers. Now this chapter in the Book of Daniel has come in for a great deal of abuse by critics. The whole scheme of things has been described as preposterous. It is said to be an absurd fiction and story. It is a kind of rerun, so it is said, of chapter 3. Well there are certainly some similarities with what happens in chapter 3, but there are far more differences and very significant ones. But it is a most intelligent piece of literature with everything very considered. It is evidently by Daniel himself, but he doesn't write in the first person. This is part of the famous Aramaic portion of the Book of Daniel, from early in chapter 2 to the end of chapter 7, after which the book reverts to Hebrew. There are all manner of theories for that too, and the most common among them is that this is in Aramaic because it was the part of the book, written while Daniel was in captivity in Babylon, and the remainder of the book – the recording of all the visions and the prophecies – was in Hebrew, either because he was back in Judah, or because he was writing principally for a Jewish Judaean audience into the future, and so he went back to Hebrew. But the book is by him, though this chapter is not in the first person on account of Daniel's characteristic modesty. This chapter is just what we would expect in the Book of Daniel, which is, in the narrative parts, largely about hostility and opposition and persecution. Daniel chapter 3: the proposed or intended genocide of all faithful Jews, and it was averted by a miracle. That is the theme that continues right into this sixth chapter. It's the story of the Bible. We often say it is one of the great recognisable organising principles of the Bible: the great war between the world and the church, between the world under the direction of the prince of the power of the air and the people of God. It is a great cable which runs right through the Bible. It is a theme which dominates the book of Genesis. What is Genesis about from the earlier chapters? One of the great themes is the war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, and so it continues, and that war, that theme, is kept up right through the Bible. It's not the only cable or theme running through the Bible, but it's one of the major ones: the church versus the world. The same theme is found throughout the last book of the Bible, and especially in Revelation 12 where there is a very rapid overview of this great conflict between God and Satan. There in verse 3 we read ‘And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth’, and the Bible believer can see the imagery of the vision here and how Satan is drawing down fallen angels with him in his rebellion. And in verse 4: ‘and the dragon stood before the woman’ – the typical church of the Old Testament – ‘which was ready to be delivered’, because right through the Old Testament, the seed of the woman, the coming Christ, is going to be born, and his bloodline runs through that Jewish nation. He ‘stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born’ – Satan's antagonism against the promise of a Saviour. He is seen as trying to destroy the church so that it would never happen, and then trying to destroy Christ as soon as he is born. Verse 5: ‘And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne (Revelation 12:5).’ There you have the incarnation of Christ and the ministry of Christ and the death and resurrection of Christ, all in one verse. And in verse 6: ‘And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.’ That is the famous three and a half years, the time and times and half the time of the Book of Revelation which denotes the last stage on earth between the first and second comings of Christ, the present gospel age. There the church is pursued by the enemy, still to this day, and verse 11: ‘they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.’ There will always be persecution. So we are not surprised to find the same warning in Daniel chapter 6 once again. If you don't believe these things and you don't believe the scheme of the Bible and this major running theme, then you can't make head or tale of the Book of Daniel. You will find the narrative parts up to chapter 6 to be like fairy tales. For you, they will have no depth, no weight, no sense, because you don't understand the whole Bible. But once you see that this is about two nations, two kingdoms, two peoples at war then you understand it, and the warning and the picture is coming once again just as we might expect. In chapter 4 we read of how Nebuchadnezzar was humbled, and in chapter 5 Belshazzar attempts to setback all the decrees that have been passed by Nebuchadnezzar to give religious liberty to the Jews and freedom to them to practice their religion. Belshazzar unites great the profanity and insolence with this attack. But of course God has ordained that as he does that very thing it will be the last night of the empire. Darius clearly knows of Daniel. He appoints one hundred and twenty princes or satraps – governors over a certain region, such as ‘Tattenai, the governor beyond the River’ (Ezra 5:3) – and over them three presidents and he makes Daniel the chief of them. He knows his reputation; he knows his past service. He must know how he has predicted the fall of the Babylonian empire and the manner in which it would fall, and the division of the empire to the Medes and the Persians, and he has a great respect for him. The language suggests that time has elapsed. Remarkably Daniel is preferred above their own countrymen. We believe this took place after the Cyrus edict (which was in the first year of Cyrus), for certain processes took time. Surely Daniel was not proved in five minutes and elevated above all those to whom benefits had no doubt been promised. We should not imagine that Darius was converted. He was a polytheist from beginning to the end. And you have to always bear in mind with the polytheism of those days that you did respect each other's gods. So although he believes in his own Median gods, he also believes in the gods of the other nations as well. They recognised and found some place for each other's gods. The God of Daniel is just one among many. Although Daniel’s God is a conspicuous God and a particularly great God and a God who does great wonders, and his people are remarkable people, and Darius has got that far, actually, it only makes him all the more guilty. What he sees and observes and understands about the true God and his work and his people, ought to make a much greater impression on him. Nevertheless he respects Daniel and he knows his reputation. Daniel is free of personal ambition and pride and deceit and so he is a rare man who can be trusted, and because of his administrative skills Darius considered making him head over the whole realm, and that causes great trouble and envy.