DANIEL - A Verse by VERSE BIBLE STUDY

Daniel 4:28-30...........
"All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. 29 At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. 30 The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?"

The king did not heed Daniels warning. One year of grace went by before judgement fell.

The king looks around and says............"See what I have done"!!! There is nothing wrong with me!!!!!!!
 
Daniel 4:31-33............
" While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.
32 And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
33 The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws."
BOOM!

Oh dear. What a poor memory and sure enough, the interpretation of the vision came true. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is completely consistent and clear on this - 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.' Unfortunately, some people only learn from experience. They cannot be told the truth. But God has ways of humbling all those that would walk in pride and like some sickly medicine, it isn't always nice but it is for our own good!

Notice that God deals with the king personally. No more dreams but the voice of God falls.

As he slips from normality and rationality, his kingdom slips away from him.

In that day, the insane were driven out because there was no institutional care. There was NO treatment.

Now....under normal conditions, this king would never have been able to return to the thone of power. However, God promised that he would do so after he learned his lesson.
 
Daniel 4:34-37.............
"34 And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:
35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
36 At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.
37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase."

SEVEN years have gone by. This chapter was written by Nebuchadnezzar himself; and was either taken out of his archives, or given by him to Daniel, who under divine inspiration inserted it into this work of his; and a very useful instruction it contains, showing the sovereignty of God over the greatest kings and potentates of the earth, and this acknowledged by one of the proudest monarchs that ever lived upon it.

The king has learned now that God is running things and that He is in control. It took 7 years for the king to submitt his will to the will of God.

His position is restored. and his officials have surrounded him.

He has come to the knowledge of the living God!
 
DANIEL CHAPTER 5

Daniel 5:1-4..........
"Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.
4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone."

BELAHAZZAR was the son of Nabonidus which made him the grandson of Nebuchadazzar. In recent time, archaeologists has discovered tablets that clearly establish the existence of BELAHAZZAR and Nabonidus.

Nebuchadnezzar dies in 562 BC. His son, Evil-Merodach took his place for TWO years. He was then killed by his brother in law, Neriglisser and he ruled for FOUR years dieing in 556 BC. His infant son, Labashi-Marduk was then overthrown in just Nine months and then Nabonidus was made king. He was a scholar and it was his interest in archeology that ruined temples were restored. He was not an effective military person neither was he an administrator and he left most of the rule to his son BELAHAZZAR.

So actually, Nabonidus was the 1st ruler, Belshazzar was the 2nd and DANIEL would have been the 3rd.

Now.....Babylon had had been under siege for several months at this time. The Persians under Cyrus had attacked and Nabonidus had left the city to fight them and was taken captive.

The city was cut off from normal traffic and BELSHAZZR made a great feast to show the Persians that he had no fear of them. He gave a party for 1000 people and used the "vassals" which had been taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. Those vassals had been sanctified and dedicated for Temple use. Any other use would be a desecration to God.

This party was a drunken party and it was bad, but the worst part was the using of these vessels from God's house.
 
Daniel 5:5..........
"In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.”

"In the same hour" = at the moment the people started to drink wine from God's vassals God said.........ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"

By their actions they were mocking God. This is actually the moment in time when the SENENTY YEARS of captivity for the people of Israel comes to and end.

The hand of God writes the message on the wall and INHO it is the same hand that wrote the TEN Commandments on the stone tablets and it was the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The bottom line is that all wicked rulers are stopped. All sin, depravity , filthy actions, obscenity and profanity will face the judgment of a holy God!
 
Daniel 5:6......
"Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another."

Wouldn't you have loved to have been there to see this?????

He turned PALE, his knocking were knocking. He was weak and trembling. Reminds me of Barny Fife in the episode of the lost baseball in the haunted mansion.

This braggart, profane and powerful king has gone from a drunken despot to a shivering, hopeless coward in the blink of an eye.

That is what happens when mortal men come into the presence of a Holy God! This is exactly why we need to be IN CHRIST when we stand before God.
 
Daniel 5:7-9.........
" The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. 8 Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. 9 Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonied."

Now the question must be......according to verse #6........The king is really messed up!
Now in verse #7 we see that he calls for his magicians to come and tell him what is being said.
So the question is........"since he does not know what the writing on the wall says, why is he so disturbed and messed up"????

I believe that it is because his own conscience testified against him. The very same thing happens to the lost man, and the atheist today when they sin. The writing on the wall he could neither read nor understand; but his conscience had written bitter things against him, which now being held to the fire of God’s wrath become legible.

Belshazzar followed the same pattern that his grandfather did in sending for the wise men. He made promises just like his granddad to anyone who could read the message. However NO ONE could read what God wrote. It was unintelligible to them. There is no clue as to what the language was that God used or the nature of it. It will take divine revelation to understand what had been written by a divine person.

Now a second question is in order. What was the king/government paying these wise men?????

They do not ever seem to be able to tell any king about anything. No interpretation on dreams, or visions and now writings on the wall. It seems to me that they are very overpaid.

It also seems that the king is becoming more stressed by the minute. FEAR is taking over all the people there and the jovial party has now become one of terror.

Belshazzar offered the interpreter of the dream the third place in the kingdom. The real king was Nabonidus, and his son Belshazzar ruled as second in the kingdom. Belshazzar couldn’t give away the second place in the kingdom, because he was the second in the kingdom at the time. The best he had to offer was the third place.

It has been offered by several Bible scholars that When Daniel came to interpret these words. men such as Adam Clarke – suppose that the Babylonian wise men could not read the writing because it was in Hebrew.
 
Daniel 5:10-12............
" Now the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house: and the queen spake and said, O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed: There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;
12 Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.".
The queen was Probably it was Belshazzar’s mother, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. There is no way to know for sure.

When the wise men were called to explain the writing on the wall to Belshazzar, Daniel apparently was not called. It seems that Daniel was semi-retired, still holding a government office yet not a main figure in the administration.

The queen referred to Daniel by his Jewish name, thus showing respect for his faith and background.

There is one word that explains these Scriptures.........TESTIMONY!
Daniel had what each one of us should have................a TESTIMONY!

People knew Daniel. They remembered his actions. They knew what he stood for. The queen knew that he had an excellent spirit.

May I say to all of you that it is a wonderful blessing to be known as a Godly Man/woman. This is what each one of us should strive to have as a child of God.
 
Daniel 5:13-16..............
"Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke, and said to Daniel, “Are you that Daniel who is one of the captives from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah? 14 I have heard of you, that the Spirit of God is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. 15 Now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not give the interpretation of the thing. 16 And I have heard of you, that you can give interpretations and [d]explain enigmas. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”

Again we see that Daniel had to be called in. He was not among those wide men that the king called first.

At this point in time, Daniel would have beeen approx 80 years old and he has never run with the crowd.

“Are you that Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah?”

The story drips with irony, since now the king is asking aid from an exile taken from Judah after defiling the holy vessels taken from Judah. An episode intending to build morale with a reminder of a conquest of Judah has now turned to a petition for help from an exile from Judah. Only God could arrange such a thing.

Since it’s the God of Judah and Israel who is communicating with King Belshazzar, it makes sense that it takes one of the Judean exiles in Babylon to act as a translator between God and the king. This is what Daniel has done his entire career in Babylon. All the court magicians and star-gazers repeatedly turn up empty when the kings (Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar) experience an encounter with God.

God, the one true God, reveals Himself and His will in mysterious ways to the Babylonians, which is why Daniel is the only one who can make sense of the dreams and words sent by God. You see, it takes a child of God to understand the purpose of God!!!!

Daniel walks faithfully and obediently before God, and God calls upon and elevates Daniel in his faithfulness. Even at this point, Daniel is an old man and forgotten by the entire court, save for the queen mother, but he is called upon yet again to explain God’s revelation to the king.

Belshazzar admits that his own professional advisors have failed him, explaining that the wise men and the conjurers have already attempted to explain the writing on the wall, but they could not declare the interpretation of the message. So now, the task falls to Daniel, whom the king has heard about, specifically that he has a spirit of the gods in him, as well as illumination, insight and extraordinary wisdom. YOU would think that Daniel would have been the 1st man called,.....wouldn't YOU????

Belshazzar repeats that he has heard about Daniel, from the queen, emphasizing that Daniel’s reputation is powerful and reliable. Belshazzar expects Daniel to be able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems.

The king is making clear why he believes Daniel is right for the job, though in reality he has already exhausted all other options and had forgotten who Daniel was until very recently. Whether he is attempting to flatter Daniel or express desperation, he speaks truthfully about Daniel’s legacy. As before, the king promises Daniel a great reward if he can read the inscription and make its interpretation known to Belshazzar. Namely, that Daniel will be clothed with purple and wear a necklace of gold, as well as rule the kingdom as the third ruler.

This reward stresses how desperate King Belshazzar is to understand the writing on the wall. Not only does he promise costly material treasure (purple clothing and a golden necklace), Belshazzar is also willing to bestow authority over all of Babylon, third to only him and his father Nabonidus.
 
Daniel 5:17-24............
"Then Daniel answered, and said before the king, “Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another; yet I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation. 18 O king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your [a]father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. 19 And because of the majesty that He gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed; whomever he wished, he kept alive; whomever he wished, he set up; and whomever he wished, he put down. 20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. 21 Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he [b]knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses. 22 “But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. 23 And you have [c]lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of [d]His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. 24 Then the [e]fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written."

This is called........."Giving the king the riot act"!

It is a strong rebuke! Daniel does not want any pay for what he already knows God has given him the ability to do. He tells the king what we already know, he did not follow the pattern of his father. Belshazzar knew exactly what had happened to his father yet he choose to rebel and sin against God.

NOW we see the importance of the vessals that were mentioned in the beginning of this chapter. IT IS the reason why God wrote His message on the wall for all to see. You see.........when we lift ourselves up against God, we had better be ready to accept the consequences that those actions set in motion.

Does that speak to any of you who have children that rebelled against you and now are in the dog house or worse yet, under an overpass.
 
Daniel 5:25-29............
"And this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.
26 This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
27 Tekel; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
28 Peres; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
29 Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom."

Daniel is the only one able to understand this writing. WHY? He was a child of God.

Now, why does a man read the Bible today and say...."I do not get it. It makes no sense to me".
He is NOT A CHILD OF GOD!

MENE = Numbered,
The fact that it was said twice means that the king and his kingdom was "thoroughly numbered". = Completely! Full Accounting!

TEKEL = Weighted and "Wanting". They were weighed in the balances of life and were found lacking. The king did not measure up.

Romans 3:23 says........"ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God" = measured and found lacking!

PHARSIN/PERES = Division or "Fragments". The kingdom was about to be broken apart and would come to an end.

The good thing the king did is keep his promise to Daniel. Daniel had no desire or concern for rewards.
 
Daniel 5:30-31.........
" In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
31 And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old."
It did not take long did it????????

The king simply could not believe that anyone could conquer the city of Babylon. They had high walls, food, water and supplies.The wall was 300 feet high and 100 feet wide.

But Cyrus knew the city as well. He had a canal dug to change the course of the river. Babylon failed to close the gates that opened into the river. When the water flowed all was well. But when the water was diverted and the gates were not shut, the river bed was used as a highway into the city. Before they Babylonians knew what was happening, it was over.

This war is found in Isaish 13, 14, 45, 46 47 and Jeremiah 51 gives the details.

This is the beginning of the Medo-Persian Empire that Daniel has said would be the 2nd Empire to persecute Israel.
 
Daniel 6:1-3..........
" It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom;
2 And over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first: that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage. 3 Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm."

It did not take Darius very long to see that there was something different and special about Daniel. As do all people in authority, he wanted to use Daniel for his benefit.

Daniel had an "excellent spirit" about him. Daniel was made 1st among the three presidents. A persons spirit will always over shadow their ability and talent.

There are several spiritual forces in this world today that effect every one of us. If or when we give in to those forces we will develope what is commonly called as a "Bad Attitude". We say that when we can not put our finger on the actual problem but we know that there is a problem. So what is a BAD ATTITUDE????

It is nothing more than a persons actions toward others who has allowed these negative spiritual forces to take over their behavior.
If you have been on this forum or any forum where people have input YOU have seen this play out right in front of you. Some of these are...........
1. A spirit of fear.
2. Jealousy.
3. Envy.
4. Malice.
5. Lust.
6. Greed.
7. Ambition.
8. Selfishness.
9. Hate.
10. Pride.
Those are my top 10 and I believe that all of you have seen one of them at least.There are many more and I amsure you can add to this list.

We as born again believers must put on the whole armor of God so that we can stand against those forces. Daniel did and he was noticed.

May I say to all reading this, I am very much like Daniel and I say that not to drag in any way. It is that I do not hang around negative, complaining people. When I interviewed people for positions the 1st thing I considered was their ATTITUDE! I cared more about the kind of person they were than I did about their past work ability. I wanted to have POSITIVE people around me with an excellent spirit and I still do today.
 
Daniel 6:4-5...........
"Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
5 Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God."

Right away we see one of those top 10 spiritual forces at work............"JEALOUSY".

It has always bothered me to see a man that tries to overthrow his fellow man who is trying to help his people. YES.............I am sure that you all have seen plenty of bad leaders who needed to be runout, but I am referring to GOOD men who are honest and hard working doing the right things and because they are Christians, or Jews or Blacks, people try to find anything and everything to discredit them.

That is exactly what is in view here. These people could find nothing wrong with Daniel so they attacked his God. IF there had been any problems.....the kings along the line had about 60 years to find it out.

Another top 10 on my list is HATE and we see it here also. Daniel was honest, moral and they were not. SIN hates righteousness just as the dark hates light, and Satan hates God. Actually, whether you want to admitt it or not..........the LOST HAR+TE THE SAVED!!!!
 
Daniel 6:6-9........
"Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever.
7 All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, 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. 8 Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. 9 Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree."

Daniel was such a faithful man that those who looked for a flaw in his actions or his character came up empty.

Sometimes today a candidate or nominee for political office is set under this kind of scrutiny, but imagine looking as hard as you can at a public servant in office some 60 years and finding nothing wrong. No fraudulent expense accounts. No intern scandals. No questionable business deals. No gifts from lobbyists. No accusations from his staff. Simply, there were no skeletons in Daniel’s closet. His enemies examined his life and found nothing to attack – so they had to make up something.

"Nor was there any error or fault found in him" does not imply that Daniel was actually sinless, but that he was a man of great integrity. We could also say that Daniel was especially blameless in the conduct of his professional life.

When he considered Daniel’s integrity, Spurgeon bemoaned our modern compromises:......
“As for Lord Fair-Speech, Lord Time-Server, Mr. Smooth-Man, Mr. Anything, Mr. Facing-both-Ways, Mr. Two-Tongues, and all the members of their club, Mr. By-Ends included, the entire company of them will be swept away when the Judge comes with the besom of destruction.” (Spurgeon)

“Daniel here is not the herald of his own virtue, but the Spirit speaks through his mouth.” (Calvin)

"We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God".
This what men do when they can not find fault....Attack the God you worship!
These men knew Daniel well. They knew he could not be trapped into evil, but they also knew that he would be faithful to his God in all circumstances. Every Christian should consider if others could say the same about them.

My dear friends, the world may not know the details of doctrine or the intimacies of worship with God, or the Christian attitude, but they can tell a bad temper, selfishness, conceitedness, or dishonesty when they see it.
“The world is a very poor critic of my Christianity, but it is a very sufficient one of my conduct.” (Maclaren)

"Whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king".
If the enemies of Daniel knew him, they also knew Darius. They knew they could appeal to Darius’ pride and his desire for a unified kingdom.

“What pretence could they urge for so silly an ordinance? Probably to flatter the ambition of the king, they pretend to make him a god for thirty days; so that the whole empire should make prayer and supplication to him and pay him Divine honours! This was the bait; but their real object was to destroy Daniel.”

Of course, they lied when they said all the governors… have consulted together. We know it was a lie because Daniel was one of the governors and he was not consulted.

"So that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians".
It was an established principle in the Medo-Persian Empire that when a king formally signed and instituted a decree, it was so binding that not even the king himself could change it.

The decrees of a Persian king were unchangeable because he was thought to speak for the gods, who could never be wrong and thus never needed to change their minds.

"Therefore King Darius signed the written decree".
Suppose the law of the land were proclaimed, ‘No man shall pray during the remainder of this month, on pain of being cast into a den of lions,’ – how many of you would pray? I think there would be rather a scanty number at the prayer-meeting. Not but what the attendance at prayer-meetings is scanty enough now! But if there were the penalty of being cast into a den of lions, I am afraid the prayer-meeting would be postponed for a month, owing to pressing business, and manifold engagements of one kind and another.”

What do you think???
 
Daniel 6:11-13...........
"Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. Then they came near, and spake before the king concerning the king's decree; Hast thou not signed a decree, that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day."

Upon hearing of the new decree, Daniel immediately goes home and purposefully disobeys it! Not because he's a rebel... far from it. But God came first in his life and there was nothing that he would let come before his relationship with the Lord. Note also that he doesn't go home to moan at God about his predicament. No, he kneels and gives thanks to God! He did what he had done for the last 60 years of his life!

He also asks God for His help. We need to remember that Daniel was in his early eighties at this stage and as such he was a man with a lifetime of experiencing the faithfulness of his Lord. Because of this, Daniel wasn't freaked out easily!

Dr. D.L. Moody said that 'character is what you are in the dark.'

Well, we see from this verse where Daniel's strength lay and who he was when no one was looking. He is unshakeable because of the firm foundation beneath him that held him up... and that is the Lord!

But caught red handed he was none the less, practicing that oh so terrible crime of praying to God. The plan had been hatched, the trap had been set, the bait was laid, and it had now sprung on God's servant Daniel.

Now as we look back in time at this event, we can clearly see the scheming of evil men to hurt his fellow man.

Has that ever happened to YOU???
 
Daniel 6:14-15............
"Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured* till the going down of the sun to deliver him.
15 Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed."

As the report is given to the king, all of a sudden the lite bulb goes off and it dawns on him that what he had done would hurt Daniel.
It was never his desire to see Daniel harmed. He had already placed Daniel in a place of high esteem and authority.

NOW he is upset at himself that he had been tricked into passing such a stupid law. The text tells us that he worked all day to find a way to get Daniel out of this jam that he had put Daniel in.
 
Daniel 6:16-17.........
"So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!”
A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed."
Did you notice that the King had faith?????
The idea was, “I tried my best to save you Daniel, but I failed. Now it is up to your God.”

This made Daniel’s testimony. Many of us occasionally display godly character and wisdom before the world, but counter-act the good by then being bad. Daniel’s testimony was made by continual service.

With the Kings's seal, there was not going to be an excuse made later. There was not going to be any magic done or a trick to pull out Daniel.
 
Daniel 6:18-22.......
"Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went from him. 19 Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions. 20 And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? 21 Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever. 22 My God hath sent his angel, and hath 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."

The King was the first to speak and Daniel was quick to answer. Daniel believed God and he saw the lions mouth closed.

Now, I am one who believes that the "Angel who closed the mouth of the lions" was the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ.

I also believe that He is the same ONE who was walking with the 3 boys in the furnace. If you will pay close attention, from chapter SEVEN on to the end of the book, the conversation from Daniel changes. He shifts from what is happening in that day to a future set of events.
In other words, Daniels writings become more and more prophetic in nature. I believe that while Daniel and Christ sat there all night long petting those lions, Christ unfolded what was going to happen in the days ahead.

I also believe that those lions laid down at the feet on the ONE who crated them and went off to sleep just like a kitten does in your lap!
 
Major said:
Daniel 6:18-22.......
"Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went from him. 19 Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions. 20 And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? 21 Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever. 22 My God hath sent his angel, and hath 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."
Click to expand...

Major said:
The King was the first to speak and Daniel was quick to answer. Daniel believed God and he saw the lions mouth closed.

Now, I am one who believes that the "Angel who closed the mouth of the lions" was the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ.

I also believe that He is the same ONE who was walking with the 3 boys in the furnace. If you will pay close attention, from chapter SEVEN on to the end of the book, the conversation from Daniel changes. He shifts from what is happening in that day to a future set of events.
In other words, Daniels writings become more and more prophetic in nature. I believe that while Daniel and Christ sat there all night long petting those lions, Christ unfolded what was going to happen in the days ahead.

I also believe that those lions laid down at the feet on the ONE who crated them and went off to sleep just like a kitten does in your lap!
Click to expand...
 
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