Slouching Toward Babylon

I think all of us recognize that we're living in very unique times. I think, myself, that it is a very unique moment in history right now, especially the history of the United States. Some might call it crazy times with all the events of this past year, 2020, a pandemic, a bouncing economic situation in America where we saw things shut down, the stock market go way down, and then the election, and now after the election, the stock market broke into new territory of 30,000 plus, closing one day this past week. And so it's just crazy times in so many different ways regarding so many different events that are taking place. And how in the world have we coped with it? And how do you cope with it? That's really, I think, what I want to address today in my message. How have you coped? How will we cope? How will we manage this? Do we keep our spiritual balance? Have we kept our relationship with God intact? Has it aided our study of God's Word, our prayers to God? Because I don't think it's going to abate. I think it's only going to get crazier. Depending upon your definition of crazy and out of whack and out of culture, we're living in very interesting times. And so what I would like to do this morning is take you through a passage of Scripture that I get the opportunity to teach every year to our students at Ambassador Bible College. In fact, I just went through it a few days ago. And in this particular story and in the passage of Scripture, it's one chapter. There is, I think, a great deal of teaching for us to help us formulate a strategy and an approach in our lives to coping with the times we're living in, the challenges of our individual lives, whatever that may be. I think what we can learn from this example has multiple avenues of benefit for us as we look at our lives and our relationship with God and coping with what we have. So I'd like for you to turn over, if you will, to the sixth chapter of the book of Daniel. Daniel 6. We're going to spend our time basically in this here, going through an expository method of teaching and sermonizing. Daniel 6, which is a very familiar story to us because this is the story of Daniel and the lion's den. Our children know that. Every child who's being taught the Bible by their parents in Sabbath school or in private, whatever. We'll go through the story of Daniel and the lion's den. You can find a veggie tale on this story. You can find other children's books, biblical books, on the matter of the story of Daniel and the lion's den, which is a fantastic story of faith. However, veggie tales and some of the kind of a light treatment we give of this story really doesn't take us into the depth of what is taking place here. Hopefully we'll sort that out and I'll give you a few things that we hadn't thought about as we go through and understand how Daniel coped with his time. Open your Bible and let's look into the Word of God here for a few minutes this morning and read what it has to say. Let's begin in verse 1.

We've broken into the story of Daniel about halfway through the book of Daniel. Daniel has 12 chapters and this is chapter 6. So we're kind of halfway through the book. But let's get to the setting and the time and the events that have taken place. This is during the time of the Persian Empire.

In fact, the Persians have just taken over the kingdom of Babylon, the city of Babylon. If you remember in chapter 5 of Daniel, Belshazzar's feast, the handwriting on the wall, the city of Babylon fell that night.

Daniel came in and he interpreted the handwriting of Manimane Tekelufarsan on the wall. And the Persian Empire has come in. Now, so you've got what amounts to what we would call in business terminology a hostile takeover. A hostile takeover. The Persians came in by force and they took over the city of Babylon. They didn't have to destroy it because the story that we're told from history is they diverted the Euphrates River that lowered the water to where the Persian troops could come under the gates.

The big gates that had been shut and gained entry into the city without tearing down the gates, tearing down the walls, and in one night, Daniel 5 tells us, the city fell. Which is what is confirmed by the Greek historian Herodotus. Persia is, if you remember your story, the flow of prophecy in Daniel. The second great Gentile power that is told beginning in chapter 2, where Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of an image. Daniel interpreted that image and he said to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, you are the head of gold.

And after you, three others will come. Daniel had his own dream in Daniel chapter 7 about these four great empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. And so we're at that second phase, that second empire now with Persia that is now there.

And Darius is the leader. Darius is technically not a king. Darius is a figure that historians debate about who he really was. He was probably a general, a top general of the real ruler of Persia who was Cyrus the Great. We know Cyrus from the book of Isaiah, chapter 49, where he has prophesied to be the one to actually come in and conquer Babylon 150 years before the event ever happened.

It's one of those stories that shows us that fulfilled prophecy. God even predicted the name and the man who would overcome Babylon. It's another story there. But Cyrus, who is the king of Persia, has left this individual. In Daniel, the name is Darius. It's the only place where the name appears in this way. But he's actually probably a general named by the name of Gubaru. So don't worry about that.

I'm not going to test you on that at the end of this. He's a different general. Daniel labels him by the name of Darius, which could be a term for royalty. It is given to other kings in Persia, but it could mean some type of an official designation. But that's another story right there. But the best I can figure, my name, Darius, is derived from this name Darius.

Every time I try to look it up, we're in the world where the name Darius comes from. There's always a link to this name Darius, and it's a derivative of that. But maybe I've got some Persian way back in my background. I don't know. I don't think so. But more Cherokee than Persian. So this is the setting.

Now, Daniel is in his 80s. He's an old man at this point. He has been in Babylon since he was a young man. Probably late teens or very early 20s. So he's been there a long time. You know the story? He rose to the top quickly under Nebuchadnezzar because of his wisdom and gifts that God gave him. And he survived, still alive, even though he got shunted off after Nebuchadnezzar died. He lost his corner office next to the king and was in an annex probably someplace, or semi-retired, when they brought him back to interpret the handwriting of the wall.

And so, but because of who he is and his reputation, the Persians keep him on. Because he knows where all the bodies are buried. Even when businesses change hands, hostile takeovers, there are certain key individuals you keep from the old company or the old regime because they know how to get under the hood and fix everything. They know how it all works in the company or whatever it might be. And Daniel knew how it all worked. In fact, he becomes what is called here one of the three governors. Satrap is nothing more than a division of the Babylonian Empire with a satrap being kind of like a governor or lead administrator.

And over them, over 120 satraps are three governors. And Daniel is one of them, which means the other two are, more than likely, Persians. Daniel is not Babylonian or Chaldean. He's a Jew. So he's different. Many different ways. He's different. Which will play into the account here and the story. But he is charged with the other two governors of overseeing, managing, and being accountable for administering the Empire Babylon that has taken over. It says here in verse 2 that they might give account to them so that the king would suffer no loss.

Essentially, everything flowed through them. They were the control of the operations to make sure that all the other satraps and people didn't siphon off money. And everything kept flowing because, just like today, you've got to have cash flow. If you've got to have a good accountant to tell you when you're going south on that and to let you know the business is doing bad, or you've got to have that good cash flow or you're in deep trouble.

So that's what we have here at this point. Verse 3, Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm. After a period of time, a few weeks, maybe a few months, again, the story's not explicit in that, Daniel's talents are recognized. He has integrity. He has, it is called here, an excellent spirit. Now, one of the things about Daniel that you pick up back in Chapter 5, when the account about Daniel, when he was called in to interpret the handwriting on the wall, the Queen Mother is the one who says to Belshazzar, Hey, you got a guy that has been shunted off and exiled.

His name was Daniel. He can tell you what that handwriting means. Bring him in. Because in him is a spirit of light and wisdom like the spirit of the gods, she said. Daniel's reputation, even though he was the Jew, I don't mean that to be in any derogatory way, but he was the outsider who had distinguished himself even during the Babylonian period for his integrity, his excellent spirit, they recognized him. And it's, frankly, what any one of us would want to have said about us, where we work, where we live in the church, that in us is an excellent spirit. And that should be something that could be said by fellow members of the church.

Also, our fellow co-workers who do not believe the way we do, our neighbors. We think we're a little odd, but they're really good, honest people, you know? And they may not want to worship with us, but they know that you are a person of integrity because of your example and your light shines. And Daniel managed to do that throughout all of this, and he did it in Babylon. Babylon. Now, briefly, you know that Babylon is the arch-enemy of the kingdom of God, biblically.

In the Bible, you have Babylon, and you've got Jerusalem. You've got Satan, and you've got God. You've got the kingdom of Satan, the God of this world, and you have the kingdom of God. You have these two opposing forces. You have evil and you have good.

Babylon and Jerusalem. All right? Two cities that represent two different polar opposites. You've got the tree of life, Jerusalem. You've got the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You've got Babylon. Follow me? When we look at all of this, and Babylon becomes the city, the kingdom, the empire, and the false religious system that stretches from Genesis all the way to Revelation. That doesn't leave the story. We see it here at its height just before it fell, and it falls, but as it says in Revelation 18, Babylon the Great is fallen is fallen. We're looking for one final rise of Babylon in a final system that is described in Revelation 17.

Babylon is a mystery religion. You understand your prophetic narrative that we have within the church, which is a correct narrative. Prophecy and actually world history as well. But here's the point. Daniel had survived it. Kept keeping intact his faith, his religion. He was still an Israelite, Jewish. He was obeying God. That's the story of Daniel through all of this. We live in our own modern Babylon. Religious confusion. And in so many different ways, even so much of our culture and economy and society is a derivative of Babylon.

You'd have to take my class to get all of that, but I can't give it all to you today as to how that is. We're living in our own modern Babylon. Are you surviving? Are you resisting it? Or enveloped by it? Revelation 18.4, God says, come out of her, my people, lest you be partakers of her sins. And he's talking about the Babylon of the end of the age. Now, we haven't seen the final revealing of that Babylon, but trust me, we're living in it. In many ways, and it's building to that final reveal.

Daniel gives us a model of how to resist, how to live with integrity and faith in the midst of Babylon. False religion, paganism, whatever you want to call it. We're getting into now what some call the silly season of Christmas. And, you know, yesterday was Black Friday. And for the next few weeks, all we're going to hear are Christmas bells and commercials and the whole shemear. And then we'll get into Valentine's Day in February and then Easter in March or April, where it falls this year.

We have to maintain our integrity, and we all know the struggles about that. That's what's key to the story of Daniel, and to the example of Daniel. I always tell students, look, Daniel is a book about prophecy and history, and it gets kind of deep and thick, like sorghum molasses. But I always tell them, stay with me, kids. By the time we get through this, you're going to be smarter. But they've got to stay with me. Right now, some of them aren't staying with me. We just had midterms. Grades go out this week, and I'm going to have a chat with some of them and maybe tutor them a little bit and say, Come on, you can do this.

Let's get through this, and you're going to pass my class. But Daniel's more than prophecy, is my point. Daniel is a story of faith, one person's faith. And that's what is important, really, overall, to study the book of Daniel.

It's not so much to figure out all the beasts and heads and horns. It is really the sterling integrity of Daniel, who here in verse 3 has an excellent spirit. So much so, going back into the verse here, the king was going to set him over the whole realm. Now, if he was kind of equal, co-equal with 3, with two others, as it says in verse 2, now one's going to get over the other.

You know what happens when that happens? Politics. Envy. You've got 3 people that work really good on a team in your hospital, in your business, in your church. One's going to get the promotion. What are the other two going to think? What are the others that, even under them thinking, what's this outsider doing? So, problems are going to develop here, because the king is going to set him over the realm. Now, let's go on. Verse 4. So, the governors, the satraps, sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom. But they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful.

Nor was there any error or fault found in him. So, verse 4 tells us a lot again. The envy sets in. The governors and the satraps. The other two governors, and probably a faction of the satraps, there were 120 of them, maybe all 120 of them, lined up. They had their communication network talking. And when word got out that Daniel was being considered for the top slot right under the Darius, they began to conspire.

We've got to find something wrong with this guy. Surely, in the archives of Babylon, there were some expense reports that were padded, signed or evidence of corruption. Let's find out what his neighbors know. Let's send somebody down to his house and go through his garbage. Let's, if they could, and if it had been even available, let's get into his computer files. Let's tap his phone line. Let's talk to those who worked around him when he was in the palace working under Nebuchadnezzar.

Surely, he did something that got buried. So that's what it means. They tried to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom. And so the FBI sent in their special agents to ask trick questions. Maybe I shouldn't go there. The GSA, the Government Services Accounting, they got their accountants busy, and they might have even appointed a special counsel to spend a whole lot of techles and shekels and whatever to find out what they could. And they couldn't find anything. They couldn't find anything. No charge, no false.

What Horsford tells us. Because he was faithful, nor was there any error or fault found in him. Went through all of his tax returns. All right? This stuff's been going on for millennia. All right? Nothing's new. Nothing is new that happens today. And so in verse 5, then these men said, We shall not find any charge against this Daniel, unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

Wow! Clean as a whistle. Wouldn't each of us love to have that as the final verdict, the final report that comes in? All right? I remember one time I got kind of investigated by my superior. I was a pastor at the time, and somebody made a charge against me.

And so my superior came in, interviewed everybody, wrote it all up. I was kept... I wasn't involved. When he was all done, I said, All right, what are you going to do? He said, I filed my report. He said, Case dismissed. In this particular situation, I was exonerated. Okay? I'm not saying I ran a perfect ministry and was totally faithful in everything or whatever. I mean, but in this particular case, it was a good news to get. And when you go through something like that, and a fair investigation is done, whatever it might be for you, and you get a clean bill of health, you're glad for that.

That's what Daniel got in this, and it was much, much bigger than anything I've gone through. They said, The only thing we can find against him is concerning the law of his God, which means he was faithful in keeping the law of God. He was obviously a very, very good witness. Now, what you have setting up here, and what you should understand out of this phrase at the end of verse 5, the law of God, is that these are the seeds of what we call anti-Semitism today.

It's true, Daniel was a Jew. As we look at anti-Semitism today, it is always, it has to do with prejudice and persecution of the Jewish people. That goes all the way back to the Persian period. Remember your story of Esther, Haman, who was going to hang them all. That was anti-Semitism at his peak, probably the first really known case of it, at least we can document, of anti-Semitism and a pogrom, a holocaust that was planned that Esther helped afford. Well, here now, Daniel is having a bit of anti-Semitic approach toward him.

Here's what you should understand about anti-Semitism. It's bad, it's evil, it's wrong, it has resulted in the deaths of millions and millions and millions of Jews, as we know historically. And when the Bible shows that anti-Semitism is going to be turned against the faithful of the Church of God, what we read in Revelation 12, because the devil will go out, it says at the end of Revelation 12, looking for the remnant of the Church who keep, what, the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

There's one final effort to just erase God. It's not so much a Jew, it's a hatred of Jews, it's a hatred of God.

And critically, even as some astute observers have written, it is the hatred of the law of God, the Ten Commandments, because man does not want to be ruled by God. And so it's not just against the Jews, it's against them because they of all the tribes of Israel have maintained the remnant of their identity.

But it is a hatred of God. Paul talks a lot about that in Romans chapter 1. So Daniel is having that put against him. And so let's go on to verse 6. So these governors and satraps thronged before the king. So they came in with their evidence, with their, or with their, really no evidence but with their plan. And it was a throng, you know, how many? 5, 10, 20? I don't know. Enough to fill the chamber, the room, where all this was being discussed. All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators, and the satraps, the counselors and advisors, they said, have consulted together. This is, of course, after they said, King Doris lived forever, which was pandering if there's nothing more.

And they have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions, any god or man for 30 days except you, O King, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O King, establish the decree, sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which does not alter. All right, so we've got a lot here beginning in verse 6 through verse 8, in three verses, to look at for a brief moment here. They had done their homework. They had the bill, the policy, already drafted. This is what they did. And they brought it in for him to sign. All right? The policy. You know, if you're part of a business, you know, you've got HR policies. You've got policies of the particular business by which it is run. And those are hammered out and sorted through and approved by a board of directors, human resources department, governmental decrees. Congress will draft a bill, debate it, pass it, goes to the president's desk to be signed. All right? That's how bills become law or a decree. When we look at how it works in a government. They had already done their work. They had drafted their bill. And the word is decree here, but insert the word policy to bring it up to a more modern terminology for us to understand something. I want to make a point here. In this particular policy that they wanted the king to sign, it was to create a 30-day law that only people could petition the king and no other god or man. Now this is unique because in our understanding of the Persian history, no king ever set himself up to be worshipped as a god. Later Roman emperors did. And even Alexander the Great began to think of himself as that way, as a god. But no Persian king did that. And so this is a unique situation. And it very likely is saying that it's only temporary because it's only 30 days. Note that in the scripture. But what it probably means is that the king becomes kind of like a priest, high priest, for the god, whoever that god might be. And he then carries the petitions of the people to the god. It could be something kind of like that, some commentators think. But the result is, whoever violates that is cast into the den of lions. It's a setup. But what's the penalty? The penalty is persecution and death. And what's behind this policy? What is behind this policy ultimately is evil. It begins in just a human emotion of envy. Politics and infighting. But what you have here is evil. And it is directed against Daniel, who is kind of the lone holdout right there at the palace of a worshipper of the true god. He's the target of it. And so, when you recognize that this has as its origin envy and evil that would result in death, you know whose mind is behind it. Whose? It's Satan. Who Christ said was a murderer from the beginning, the father of lies.

But that's where it began. Human instruments were involved with it, creating a policy of government that would lead to suffering of anybody who violated it. Let me tell you, understand something about the way human government works. Policies like this. We have all kinds of ideas right now that are being generated. And bad laws have been written in memorial by every human government. Right now in America we're facing part of that interesting time that I talked about. And there are some interesting policies that are being talked about being implemented should one party control enough of the government to enact it. I won't go into all the details there. And we call that politics. Well, politics is nothing more than the enacting of decrees, which very often, the background to it is conniving, envy, power-hungry individuals. And you can go through all the names and stories and examples of our own lifetime of politics to know how good and bad policies or laws are made. So many laws, when you trace them back and you see the result, people will die. I think one of the things that we need to do in the Church of God today is to really discern what is happening in our time. Is to recognize that certain policies will create suffering and do. Let me just take one that's been bandied about this past year. Defund the police. Defund the police. Now, if a city council does that, in whatever U.S. city you think about, you know what will happen. People will die. People will die. Bad policy. A policy that creates death. That's evil. Brethren, that's a spiritual issue. Never forget that. That's a spiritual issue. We are dealing with...we're not wrestling against politicians, city councilmen, a mayor, a congress, a senator. We're not wrestling against flesh and blood. We are wrestling against spiritual wickedness in high places, Paul says in Ephesians 6. Never forget that. Politics, in its worst form, creates suffering. And that's a spiritual issue. We sometimes, in our discussion in the Church of God, we confuse...we use the big broad brush of politics to avoid really discerning what's happening.

In this particular case, a decree was signed. And the ultimate...trace it back. Follow the money. Follow the spiritual lead. And it goes back to Satan. Through human instruments. And so, this is what was said. And so, the king signed the written decree in verse 9. Now, verse 10, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. E.T. go home. Home. He went home. He knew what was taking place.

He couldn't stop it. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. He was a praying man. He prayed with his windows open toward Jerusalem. So, he would have been praying back to the west from Babylon toward Jerusalem. You know, Muslims, when they pray...how many times do they pray in a day?

Five times they pray? When they pray, but they always kneel and they pray facing Mecca, wherever they are in the world. I'm not quite sure all the origins of that. We see this in Daniel's case. Understand this is not setting a teaching or precedent by which we as a Christian should always pray toward Jerusalem. He did this in his time, probably to set an example, probably because he knew what Jeremiah had prophesied that there would be a return to Jerusalem of the Jews. By this time, the decree had already been issued by Cyrus, more than likely. He's probably doing it just a personal piety and a witness.

It's not something that we should feel we have to do in terms of the direction. Paul writes that we are the temple of God. So, we don't have to pray toward a building...Solomon prayed toward the temple. He set the actual precedent for it. But Christ told the woman in Samaria, look, he said, you worship God in spirit and in truth. And so, Daniel did this, but this was his custom to do this.

He was a praying man. This is how Daniel became a man of excellent spirit and integrity, where no fault could be found in him except through the law of his God. He kept up his prayer life. I would think that he thought very deeply about the Word of God, whatever writings that he had. We do know that he had the scrolls of Jeremiah. Did he have some psalms? What became psalms and proverbs?

Probably did. I'm sure he had other writings from what we call the Old Testament, certain scrolls or whatever. Probably had access to them. So, that he could read, think about. Of course, we've got it all right here. Pretty convenient form for us all.

This is how we become people of integrity, people with an excellent spirit, and praying to God. How do we survive our crazy times here in 2020? And into 2021, it looks like? Beyond? On our knees, before God. I discovered this week another song I hadn't heard by Alan Jackson. Some of you may have already been there. The older I get.

Anybody know that song? By Alan Jackson. He's got a line in there. He said, the older I get, the more I pray. Because I've got a lot to say. And I think we can all, probably in this room, identify with that.

The older I get. I went into my special playlist of songs that I will go through. The older I get, the more I pray. Because I've got a lot to say. How true. We've got a lot to say today. We've got a lot to pray about in these times. And we should be about that in developing our spiritual life as a key to living in Babylon. Well, they assembled, they found Daniel praying, and they made making supplications before God.

They had him nailed. They knew what he was going to be doing. And he knew they knew. They went before the king and spoke concerning the king's decree. Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any god or man within thirty days except you of king shall be cast into the den of lions? The king had answered and said, the thing is true according to the law of the Medes and Persians which does not alter.

It couldn't be rescinded at this point. Again, there's an example in Esther about this where it's been documented now in Daniel and in Esther about this particular unchangeable aspect of the law of the Medes and Persians. We can find that in other ancient writings in terms of how things were done, but it couldn't be repealed at this point. So they answered to the king that Daniel, who is one of the captives from Judah, you could just write in there any expletive you might want to think they could have, how it could have been really spit out of their mouth, he does not show due regard for you, O king, for the decree that you signed that makes his petition three times a day.

The king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased with himself. He knew he had been hoodwinked, bamboozled, framed, set up, whatever you want to say, and he knew that they had him, and he knew they're evil. But he set his heart on Daniel to deliver him, and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. He doesn't tell us what he did, but he tried probably everything short of repealing the law which he couldn't do. Clemency, mercy, hey guys, we need this man, he's pretty valuable, can we work out a compromise? No, they weren't going to do it on this one.

And so sundown came, and he had to be delivered. So they approached the king, and he said to the king, O king, it is the law of the Medes and the Persians that no decree or statute of the king establishes may be changed. So, verse 16, the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. This is where the veggie tale story kind of picks up, you know, and this is the dramatic part of it, and it certainly is.

So, you know, I enter the den of lions. I've walked by a den of lions. I've been in the midst of a lion kill in Africa twice on safari, where 15 lions are all around your vehicle, eating the baby giraffe that they just killed. And looking at you, and walking by your car, no more than five, six feet away, they're socially distanced.

But, you know, it wouldn't take just one leap, and they're right in the truck with you, but they say they won't as long as you don't get up above the line of that safari vehicle. So you keep your seat, you stay down, you can look, whatever, don't make too many sudden moves. But all they see is kind of just one big blob there. It's bigger than them. But if they see something smaller than them, they might go for it. We've had them within five or six feet of us. And it's just, you know, that's as close as I want to get. But I've never been in a den of lions, being the target, being the prey. And so, the king said to Daniel, your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you. Darius, Gubaru, whoever he was, had by this point a certain human, pagan, carnal level of understanding about this man, Daniel, that his God would take care of him. The stone was laid across the mouth of the den. The king sealed it with his civet ring. And then he said it couldn't be changed. And he went to his palace. Verse 18, spent the night fasting. No musicians were brought before him. And his sleep went from him. So he went through, you know, just a short, what, eight, nine, twelve hour fast. And the usual entertainments were not there. And he did whatever he did to assuage his strong emotional feeling. And he got up very early in the morning and he went in haste to the den of lions. And when he came, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. Saying, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions.

And from the other side of the rock comes this voice. Oh, he lived forever. My God sent his angel, shut the lions' mouths so that they have not hurt me. Because I was found innocent before him and also, oh King, I have done no wrong before you.

Now, in the ancient world, they did something that was called a trial by ordeal. You've probably heard about it. If they could determine the guilt of somebody, they'd throw them in the river. And if they came out alive, swam, and survived, they were innocent. They got, you know, thrown into a fire, across the fire. You walk across that fire, and if you survive, then you're innocent. But if you're consumed, if you die, well, it's proof of guilt. And so this is kind of an equivalent of that. And Daniel comes out. He was glad for him in verse 23. And he commanded, they should take Daniel up out of the den. So it was probably a pit, some sort, or, you know, an indentation into a hillside, or a rock face that could be sealed. He was taken up out of the den, no injury, whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God. And the king gave the command, and they brought those men that had accused him, cast them into the den of lions, them their children, their wives. And the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den. They jumped upon them, and it was all over very quickly. And, of course, wives and children.

By our modern ears, that's not right, that's not fair, that's not just or equitable. But we're not in, well, we are in modern, we're not in ancient times, but, you know, frankly, it's still done today. If you've ever seen any mafia movie or The Godfather, you know that you bet, you know, if you stretch out, there's an old saying, if you stretch out your hand against the king, you better kill him, because you're going to suffer as a result.

And the king, if he knew what he was doing, he not only killed you, but your wife and your children, and maybe a first or second cousin. Because he knew that in time, that child would grow up and come looking for him. He'd never have another peaceful night. That's the way it was done. Alright? Anybody who's seen Godfather, the first Godfather movie, knows that that's how it's done in the mafia today. Alright? So, the king wiped out all of them. And then he wrote what is in verse 25, another one of these interesting proclamations. Nebuchadnezzar had a couple of them earlier in the book.

To all peoples, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble in fear before the God of Daniel. For he is the living God, and steadfast forever. His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall endure to the end. Again, quite a testimony. Darius, Gebaru, wasn't converted. No evidence that he got converted or baptized as we would look at it.

But in his own way, because of the powerful witness of Daniel in this moment, he gave testimony to God just like Nebuchadnezzar had done earlier. And it was probably forgotten in due time. And he moved on to the next event. And he had another foreign people probably to make decisions about, and he would petition their God or gods. And so it's not like he developed probably any life-long lasting worship of the true God. That's likely. Again, we don't know the whole story here. But Daniel was led to include this, and it did become a petition that did go out beyond Babylon.

It says, to peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you. And this was written in the Aramaic language, which was a language of the day that was kind of the diplomatic language, where all nations knew Aramaic. So they could have read this, and to one degree or the other had a witness. Certainly Darius did. Verse 27, he delivers and rescues, and he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

So this Daniel prospered them, in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. So the account comes to an end. Daniel, a man in his 80s. And he will go on, and to pick up from this, you have to then go to chapter 7, 8, 9, and 10 from this point forward. Well, actually, you would go from chapter 6 to chapter 9 to be in chronological order.

And Daniel has some more amazing visions and visitations from angels to gain deeper understanding, and yet not complete understanding. So God finishes out his life in a short time, likely from this point. It's a remarkable story. It goes deeper than just the children's Bible verse story for us, to help us to understand a lot, I think most importantly, how to navigate our modern Babylon. Our world is slouching ever so relentlessly toward Babylon.

The final reveal. If we're going to survive that coming time, as if it hits while we are still alive, we're going to have to be like Daniel, people of integrity, and who is an excellent spirit, people who are close to God, in the Word of God, through the disciplines of prayer and every other aspect of study and meditation and fasting that we might have to maintain that relationship. Interesting times we're living in. Daniel 6 gives us a few points to help to understand that.