And when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and, his windows being open in his upper chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.
A royal decree had just made prayer to God a crime punishable by the lions' den, and Daniel went home and prayed as always. The verse raises three questions: why pray in full view, why face Jerusalem, and why give thanks at such a moment?
Daniel already knew about the decree when he knelt. One writer weighs what that knowledge cost him.
The Holy Spirit clearly states that Daniel did not act in ignorance. At the time he bowed in prayer before God he knew about the decree. He knew the alternatives. He knew he would have to obey the decree, or be thrown into the den of lions. I have no doubt he weighed the consequences of his actions carefully. Fear of the consequences has turned many a man back from following the truth.
The phrase "as he had done previously" is the hinge of the verse. One writer measures that day against all the days before it.
He does not shut his windows, and he does not increase or lessen his petitions. He is just that day what he had been every day before. He was a very even saint. It was not the great difficulty that took him to his knees three times a day. It was his custom.
Another writer looks at the habit behind that day, and at how Daniel felt about it.
It was not a sudden burst of energy in prayer because the circumstances were difficult and his life was in danger. It was his continual practice. It was not something forced on him; it was his joy… He was a great man with great responsibilities in administration. Yet he could find time to pray three times a day, in settled portions.
Jerusalem lay in ruins. One writer explains what Daniel was declaring by facing it.
But why insist on praying toward Jerusalem? Was it a piece of Jewish superstition? No; it was a magnificent display of divine principle. It was God's own banner raised in the middle of the depressing, humiliating results of Israel's folly and sin. True, Jerusalem was in ruins; but God's thoughts about Jerusalem were not in ruins. It was His centre for His earthly people.
There was a reason his windows faced that way, and another writer traces it back to Solomon.
There was a reason for his windows being open toward Jerusalem. At the dedication of the temple, Solomon had prayed for the people, in case they were ever carried away captive into an enemy's land. He asked God to hear them if they prayed toward the land He gave their fathers, toward the city He had chosen, and toward the house built for His name. He asked Him to maintain their cause. Daniel was therefore resting on the sure word of God in praying this way, for the Lord had said to Solomon, "I have heard your prayer and your plea."
Daniel could have closed the shutters and prayed unseen. Babylon would have drawn its own conclusion.
He had always prayed in this open way. If he suddenly closed the windows and prayed in secret, all Babylon would read it as cowardice, or as agreement with the decree. In that idolatrous city Daniel had borne a public witness to the true God. He was not a secret disciple. To obey the decree would mean breaking the first commandment. He prays and gives thanks "before his God." Men may see him praying, but it is before God, not men, that he prays.
Prayer under threat is understandable. Thanksgiving under threat is harder to explain.
Daniel, when in the very shadow of death, with the plot laid to take away his life, prayed three times a day and gave thanks before his God. To have heard him pray in that great difficulty would not cause so much wonder. But to have his heart in tune for giving thanks in such a sad hour was admirable.
That still leaves the outcome. One writer puts Daniel's answer to it into words.
Daniel could say, "You may throw me into the den tonight, but I will never give up the truth of God. I must stand for that, whatever it costs. I have nothing to do with results — nothing to do with consequences. These I leave entirely with God. My place is simply to obey."
- Unchanged — "As he had done previously" is the key phrase. The decree neither started his praying nor stopped it.
- Unhidden — Closing the shutters would have looked like cowardice or consent. He was no secret disciple, so the windows stayed open.
- Unmoved — He faced a ruined Jerusalem because God's thoughts about that city were not in ruins.
- Undergirded — He stood on a promise. Solomon had asked God to hear captives who prayed toward the city, and God said He had heard.
- Unafraid — He gave thanks while a death plot closed around him. He left the results with God; his part was only to obey.
But those men came in a body, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.
This is the moment the trap closes: the officials who pushed through the thirty-day ban on prayer arrive at Daniel's house. Why were they so sure he would still be praying, and what did they find there?
The conspirators did not gamble. They built a law around a man whose life was predictable. Then they came together to catch him at it.
For their plot to succeed, Daniel's enemies had counted on his known habit of prayer and his unswerving faithfulness to his God. They did not count in vain. They gather before Daniel's house, and there they find, as they expected, that Daniel is praying and making his supplications before his God. The king's decree, the plot of his enemies, and the den of lions do not deter him.
That confidence in his consistency is itself a challenge to the reader:
They were so sure of Daniel's integrity toward the law of his God that they knew he would not stop praying to Him in the open, even at the cost of his life. Do our enemies — or even our friends — have such confidence in our faithfulness toward God and His Christ? We may well doubt it. Let the question search our consciences and stir our hearts deeply.
Daniel's prayer life was no private arrangement, so a visit to his house could produce evidence. The words used for his accusers matter too.
Daniel was no "secret disciple." Everyone knew his habits of prayer. So his enemies knew how to find out whether he was obeying the decree or not. The phrase "these men," used again as in verse 5 (see also vv. 15, 24), no doubt expresses God's own estimate of their wicked conduct.
The verse uses two words for what Daniel was doing: "petition and plea." The older translation quoted below renders the second word "supplication."
Daniel's faith was to be tested to the limit. The law forbidding his prayer was a law of the Medes and Persians that could not be changed, and it had to be carried out. Satan is allowed to go as far as he can. Daniel's was no formal prayer-saying. In praying he was "making supplication" — prayer in its most intense form, an earnest calling on God, fervent and effective, as though his requests could not be refused. And he probably prayed more for others than for himself. Chapter 9 gives a remarkable example, and men who excel in prayer often do the same.
What they found was not a performance staged for the crisis.
Daniel's action was based on the Word of God. He does not shut his windows. He does not add to his petitions or cut them down. That day he is just what he had been every day before. He was a very steady saint. It was not the great difficulty that took him to his knees three times a day. It was his custom, and of course his enemies found him in prayer. What a happy thing for saints to be known as people of prayer, and to be found on their knees like this.
Daniel's enemies saw the same scene very differently.
Yet to his enemies such behaviour must have looked like folly. Think of praying to a God no one can see. Think of turning toward Jerusalem while doing it — a ruined city that showed God's anger against His people. And think of disobeying the king's decree. But folly or wisdom, they had achieved their aim and had trapped Daniel. They could now prove a charge of disobedience and demand the punishment the law required.
Prayer put Daniel in the lions' den. The chapter records what came of it.
The point of this chapter is that the devoted man will be the delivered man. Darius, I believe, spent a miserable night, fasting and sleepless. If you and I had gone down to the den of lions, I think we would have found Daniel fast asleep. Faith in God and a clear conscience make a rare pair, especially in a lion's den!
The wider result reached far beyond one man's safety:
Here is a man acting simply on the truth of God, praying toward Jerusalem, though death stared him in the face as the result of his act. What came of it? A glorious testimony to the God of Israel, and the destruction of Daniel's enemies.
- Habit. The whole plot rested on Daniel's known habit of prayer and his unswerving faithfulness — and his enemies "did not count in vain."
- Known. He was no secret disciple. His praying was public, so one visit to his house could produce evidence against him.
- Supplication. What they found was not formal prayer-saying. It was prayer at its most intense — an earnest calling on God, and likely more for others than for himself.
- Unchanged. He neither shut his windows nor multiplied his petitions. The crisis did not create his prayers, and it did not stop them.
- Delivered. The devoted man became the delivered man. The result was a glorious testimony to the God of Israel and the downfall of those who plotted against him.