Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast [him] into the den of lions. The king spoke and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will save thee.
Darius has spent the day trying to save the man he values most, and has failed — his own decree now drags Daniel to the pit. Yet as the sentence falls, the king who signed it speaks the one hopeful word in the room: a word about Daniel's God.
A note on translation: the ESV reads the king's words as a wish — "May your God... deliver you!" The older wording the writers quote states it as fact: "He will deliver you."
Darius wanted Daniel free but had bound himself by law. One writer sets his dilemma beside King David, who faced the same knot over his son Absalom.
The problem that Darius sought to solve was this: how to carry out the desire of his heart and yet keep the law he had put his hand to. David, in his day, faced the same problem in the matter of his son Absalom. David could not reconcile love with law, so he ignored the law and acted in love. The result: the man he had shown grace to drove him from his throne. Darius ignored what his heart told him and upheld the law. He kept his throne, but Daniel was cast into the den of lions, and every precaution was taken to carry out the king's decree to the letter.
The king's words are a testimony to Daniel, and they come just as the stone closes the den.
He had walked with the living God for many a long year. Of one thing I am certain: the living God walked with him to the mouth of the den that day. He went in. Then the king said to Daniel, "Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you." That was a splendid word for him to hear as they rolled the stone to the mouth of the den... What a fine character Daniel had! And what a fine testimony to his service for the Lord — "whom you serve continually."
The king's hope had a history behind it.
By God's grace, Daniel was privileged to bear witness in the court of this king, and that testimony had borne fruit. Now the sorrow that has fallen on Darius brings the fruit to light. He is assured that Daniel's God will not now abandon His faithful servant. Could we think there was no element of faith in this man's confidence in the God of Daniel?
Notice what the king praises. Daniel's continual service was the very crime his decree punished.
The king commends Daniel for doing what directly disobeyed his own decree. He is confident that God will not abandon the man who puts the fear of God above the fear of the greatest man on earth. His conviction was right, and it always is. Yet in this age of faith God's intervention does not always take the direct and miraculous form it took in past ages.
To every human eye the accusers had won. They had the king, the law, and the lions.
The deed was done, and these men triumphed over both Daniel and Darius. But there was Another on Daniel's side whom his enemies had not counted on. As the rest of the story shows, their short-lived victory was only the prelude to their own defeat and destruction. If God is for His people, no one can stand against them and win, whatever things look like for the moment.
The den is closed and stamped with royal authority. One writer sees the shadow of a later sealing in it.
Daniel is cast into the lions' den, as our blessed Lord was given to the lion (Psalm 22:21). A stone is laid on the mouth of the den, and the king seals it with his signet. He is, so to speak, in a grave — as good as dead in the eyes of the world, for who has ever heard of hungry lions not devouring a man? All this brings before us that other place: the tomb in the garden where He was laid, and the stone in front of it. That stone bore the seal of the Roman world power.
The rescue points beyond Daniel. One writer reads it as a pattern of God's dealings with Israel at the end.
Daniel is cast into the lions' den. God preserves him. He will do the same for the remnant of Israel at the end of the age. The judgment which Israel's enemies tried to bring on the faithful among that people falls on themselves.
- Continually — Darius's own word is the key to the chapter. Daniel's service was not a crisis performance but a long habit. His enemies used that habit against him; his king admired it.
- Cost — that continual service is what put him in the den. The king praises the very act that broke his decree. The same faithfulness draws punishment and praise.
- Credit — years of quiet consistency put a confession of God into the mouth of a pagan ruler. Your testimony bears fruit in people you never preached to.
- Company — the plotters counted the king, the law and the lions, and missed Another on Daniel's side. Appearances at the moment of defeat prove nothing.
- Christ — a sealed stone over a man as good as dead points beyond Daniel to the garden tomb. Beyond that, it points to God's rescue of His people at the end.
And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his nobles, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.
Daniel is in the lions' den. A stone now covers the opening, stamped with the personal seals of the king and his nobles. The strange part is what the seal is for. It does not keep the lions in. It keeps help out, so that nothing about Daniel's sentence can be undone.
Darius wanted Daniel alive. The seal shows how little his wish counted once he had signed the decree.
The problem Darius tried to solve was how to carry out the desire of his heart and still uphold the law he had signed. David faced the same problem in his day over his son Absalom. David could not reconcile love with law, so he ignored the law and acted in love, and the result was that the man he showed grace to drove him from his throne. Darius ignored what his heart wanted and upheld the law. As a result he kept his throne, but Daniel was cast into the den of lions. Every precaution was taken so that the king's decree was carried out to the letter.
Commentators see behind that deadlock a greater clash of law and love, and God's answer to it.
We may well think here of another law and another love. God, a holy and righteous God and a God of love, found a way to save man. God's holy law condemns man, who is a sinner, and the curse of the law rests on him. God's love is set on the world. He "so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." The curse of the law fell on Him who knew no sin and who was made sin for us. That is how love was shown.
A signet was a hard, engraved stone worn on a ring or a chain and pressed into soft clay.
Stones with words, letters, or symbols engraved on them. In ancient times these were pierced and hung from the arm or neck by a cord or chain, or they were set in rings and worn on the finger. The design was pressed into pieces of clay attached to official documents, which in the East are not considered genuine unless sealed. The seal was also used to guarantee security, or to keep sacred the things not to be revealed.
Applied here, the marks of the king and his lords are a public pledge by the state.
The seal fixed to the stone "on the mouth of the den" was like the seal on the stone rolled to the door of the tomb. Both show that the judicial and governing authority pledged itself to keep its prisoner in secure custody.
The stone shut out every human rescuer. It could not shut out God.
But there was Another on Daniel's side, whom his enemies had not counted on. As the following account shows, their short-lived victory was only the prelude to their own defeat and destruction. If God is for His people, no one can successfully be against them, whatever things may look like for the moment.
Commentators notice the same two things at the tomb of Jesus: a stone and a seal.
The chief priests and Pharisees had been allowed by God to bring about the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. After His death He was buried in the tomb. Not content with getting what they wanted, they obtained permission from Pilate to make "the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard." In both cases man thought he could secure his aim by making rescue impossible. But God was not in his thoughts at all; and what can man do when he dares to fight against God?
The chapter is also read as a preview. A ruler takes the place of God, and those who keep worshipping God are handed over to be destroyed.
Daniel represents the remnant, the faithful few who in those last days will refuse to give up the worship of God. As a result they are cast into the den of lions; they go through the great tribulation of the last days, when Satan the "roaring lion" would devour them, but has his mouth shut; and they come out of it tested, faithful, and true for God, His witnesses.
One writer turns the picture around. For the Christian, the seal is God's own.
A seal also protected from interference. The den was closed and sealed with the king's own signet. This was to guard the den from all interference, whether by friend or foe. No one could tamper with Daniel. What a comfort it is to know that we are guarded from all interference in the same way by the presence of God's seal, the Holy Spirit. Everything that comes to us is by His permission; nothing else can touch us.
- Sealed by weakness — the king wanted to save Daniel and could not. His own law had bound him, and love and law could not be reconciled.
- Sealed by authority — a signet was an engraved stone pressed into clay. It was the state's public pledge that its prisoner stays put.
- Sealed against rescue, not escape — the stone was aimed at anyone outside who might help. It left out the one Helper who mattered.
- Sealed a second time — at the tomb of Jesus men used a stone and a seal again to make rescue impossible. Again God was not in their thoughts.
- Sealed for God — the believer carries God's own seal, the Holy Spirit. Nothing reaches them except by His permission.
Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting; neither were concubines brought before him; and his sleep fled from him.
They seal the stone over the den, and the king goes home to a palace that offers him nothing — no meal, no music, no sleep. The most powerful man in the empire lies awake while his condemned friend lies among lions.
Darius believed God would rescue Daniel. So why could he not rest?
(V. 18). The king was sure God would step in for His servant. Even so, he was full of remorse for what he had done, and he spent a sleepless night fasting.
His misery had more than one source.
But what about his royal master? He passed the dark and weary hours fasting, restless and sleepless. His conscience accused him. His spirit was wounded. His trusted servants had betrayed and humiliated him. His own decree, which came from hell, had trapped him. And he had now become the murderer of the most important and best loved minister in his kingdom. He tosses on his bed in the most wretched condition imaginable.
The detail about instruments is not decoration. Sending for musicians was the standard way a king filled a wakeful night — which is why another sleepless monarch, Ahasuerus, is noted for doing something different.
Having lost his sleep, the king did not, as was the custom in those days, send for instruments of music to pass the tedious hours (see Dan. 6:18). Instead he thought of the book of the records of the chronicles and commanded it to be read before him (Esther 6:1).
No music could reach what was wrong with Darius.
Why did the king not simply set Daniel free?
Darius was trying to solve one problem: how could he do what his heart wanted and still keep the law he had signed? David faced the same problem in his day with his son Absalom. David could not reconcile love with law. So he ignored the law and acted in love. The result was that the man he had shown grace to drove him from his throne. Darius ignored what his heart told him and kept the law instead. The result was that he held his throne, but Daniel went into the den of lions, and they took every precaution to carry out the king's decree to the letter.
He kept the throne and lost his peace.
The palace held the unhappy man. The den held the happy one.
It does not matter whether it is a lions' den in Babylon or a prison in Philippi — faith and a good conscience can make a man happy in either. We doubt whether Daniel ever spent a happier night on this earth than the night he spent in the lions' den. He was there for God, and God was there with him... Who would not rather be Daniel in the den than Darius in the palace? The one is happy in God, the other is deeply displeased with himself. Darius wanted everyone to pray to him; Daniel would pray to none but God. Darius was bound by his own rash decree; Daniel was bound only by the word of the living God. What a contrast!
Another writer draws the lesson of the whole chapter out of the same night.
The point of this chapter is that the devoted man will be the delivered man. I believe Darius spent a wretched night, fasting and sleepless. I think if you and I had gone down to the den of lions we would have found Daniel sleeping soundly. Faith in God and a clear conscience are rare companions to sleep with, especially in a lions' den!
One writer sees in the sealed den and the dark hours a hint of something later.
Can we read all this without thinking of One in a later day? Because He was faithful to His Father and God, He was numbered with the transgressors and went down among lions (Ps. 57:4; 22:13). Yet the same power that delivered Daniel saved Him from the lion's mouth. Here we have a faint foreshadowing of our Saviour's night of sorrow. He was delivered into the hands of sinners... and He went down to a grave closed with a stone and sealed with recognised, God-given authority.
- The decree. Darius kept the law he had signed instead of following his heart. He saved his throne at the cost of his friend.
- The remorse. Remorse drove the fast. His own conscience accused him for what he had set in motion.
- The music. Kings called for music to get through a sleepless night. Darius turned it down. No entertainment can reach a wounded conscience.
- The contrast. The man in the palace cannot sleep. The man among lions can. Faith and a clear conscience make a better bed than a royal couch.
- The morning. The devoted man was the delivered man. The night that broke the king was the night God kept His servant, and it points ahead to a later night, a sealed stone, and a greater deliverance.
Then the king arose with the light at break of day, and went in haste unto the den of lions.
The king's own signet had sealed the den, and he had spent the night without food, music, or sleep. At first light he runs to the pit he sealed himself, to find out whether Daniel's God has saved him.
The haste in this verse is the overflow of a night described in the verse before. One writer traces the whole sequence — the signed decree, the sleepless hours, the run to the den — back to a heart that was never behind the sentence it passed.
We have seen plainly that the heart of Darius was not in what was done. Now the deed was over, and remorse filled him — despite his own stated assurance that God would deliver Daniel. He spent the next night fasting. He did without his usual music. His sleep left him. Rising early in the morning, he went in haste to the den of lions. All his thoughts were for the time centred on Daniel.
The king is in a palace and Daniel is among lions. One writer gives the better night to the prisoner.
The king had fallen into a snare; but Daniel was in good keeping. It was all right with him. "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe." A lion's den at Babylon or a prison at Philippi — it makes no difference. Faith and a good conscience can make a man happy in either. We question whether Daniel ever spent a happier night on this earth than the night he spent in the lions' den. He was there for God, and God was there with him... Who would not rather be Daniel in the den than Darius in the palace?
Another writer lists what the night cost the king himself.
His conscience accused him. His spirit was wounded. His trusted servants had betrayed and humiliated him. His own decree had trapped him, and it had made him the murderer of the most important and best loved minister in his kingdom. He tosses on his bed in the most wretched condition imaginable. At the first streak of day he is found at the mouth of the lions' den.
What the king says at the den reverses the whole tone of the plot against Daniel. The accusers had built their case entirely on the king's honour; the king now has nothing to say about himself.
Early in the morning the king hurries to the den of lions, and, to his relief, finds that God has indeed intervened. In calling to Daniel he addresses him as "the servant of the living God," and again he recognises that Daniel has served God continually. In their charge the wicked men had made everything of the king and nothing of God; the king makes everything of God and nothing of himself.
One writer reads the sealed den alongside the sealed tomb of Jesus.
Daniel is cast into the lions' den, as our blessed Lord was given to the lion (Psalm 22:21). A stone is laid on the mouth of the den and sealed with the king's signet. He is, so to speak, in a grave, as good as dead in the eyes of the world — for who has ever heard of hungry lions not devouring a man? And all this brings before us that other place — the tomb in the garden where He was laid. The stone before it bore the seal of the Roman world power.
The morning ends with Daniel lifted out untouched. One commentator explains why the king was legally free to lift him out at all, and where the protection actually came from.
The law had been upheld, and Daniel had suffered its punishment. So no one could now object on the ground of the unchangeable laws of the Medes and Persians. Darius could use his authority and command that Daniel be taken up out of the den. When they took him up, "no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God"... God produced faith in Daniel's soul, and that faith brought God in. He shielded His servant from the malice of his enemies, holding back the natural, ravenous instincts of the lions. The apostle, with Daniel in mind, speaking of the prophets, says, "Who through faith… stopped the mouths of lions" (Hebrews 11:33).
- Night — The king fasted, refused music, and lost his sleep. His early rising ends a night of remorse, not of rest.
- Contrast — The man in the palace was wretched; the man in the den was safe. Faith and a good conscience make a person happy in either place.
- Haste — His own decree had trapped him and his own conscience accused him. He runs to the den with every thought fixed on Daniel.
- Confession — At the den he calls Daniel "servant of the living God." The accusers had made everything of the king; the king now makes everything of God.
- Morning — A sealed stone, a man as good as dead, a visit at dawn: the scene points on to the sealed tomb in the garden. Daniel comes up unharmed because he trusted in his God.
And when he came near unto the den, he cried with a mournful voice unto Daniel the king spoke and said unto Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, hath thy God whom thou servest continually been able to save thee from the lions?
At dawn the most powerful man in the empire ran to a sealed pit and shouted a question at the prisoner inside. That one question holds a title he grants, a service he admits, and a doubt he cannot shake.
The cry came after a long night. One man slept through it; the other did not.
The point of this chapter is that the devoted man will be the delivered man. I will guarantee that Daniel had the best of it that night. I believe Darius spent a wretched night, fasting and sleepless. I think if you and I had gone down to the den of lions we would have found Daniel sleeping soundly. Faith in God and a good conscience are rare bedfellows, especially in a lion's den!
The night before, the king had told Daniel that his God would deliver him. By morning that confidence had shrunk to a question. Regret explains the change.
The heart of Darius was clearly not in what was done. Now the deed was carried out, and despite his stated assurance that God would deliver Daniel, remorse filled him. All his thoughts were centred on Daniel... God had not forgotten His servant. Daniel had faced the full display of Satan's power. Yet he was not, and could not be, injured, for he was under the all-powerful protection of the living God.
Darius does not call him a governor or a favourite. The title he shouts into the pit is a public verdict on a life.
And see in the end what remarkable honour Daniel received. He stood publicly identified with the one living and true God. "O Daniel," cried the king, "servant of the living God." Truly he had earned this title for himself. He was, without question, a devoted and decided servant of God... Nothing could be more marked. Nothing shows more clearly how much God values plain decision and true-hearted devotion. It does not matter where, when, or by whom it is shown.
The king repeats a phrase he used when Daniel went in. Compare his words with the charge his officials had brought.
Early in the morning the king hurries to the den of lions, and, to his relief, finds that God has indeed stepped in. In calling to Daniel he addresses him as "the servant of the living God," and again he recognises that Daniel has served God continually. In their charge the wicked men had made everything of the king and nothing of God; the king makes everything of God and nothing of himself.
Daniel came up from the pit unhurt. One writer traces that rescue further back than the miracle, to the faith of the man inside.
This reveals the whole secret of his protection and deliverance. God Himself produced faith in his soul, and that faith brought God in. He shielded His servant from the hatred of his enemies by holding back the wild, hungry instincts of the lions. The apostle, with Daniel in mind, speaking of the prophets, says, "who through faith... stopped the mouths of lions" (Hebrews 11:33). It was one of the victories of faith that should encourage the people of God to trust in Him and to count on Him at all times.
The king says your God, not my God. How far did his respect go, and what did it lead to?
Nebuchadnezzar forbade anyone to speak evil of the God of Israel, and he praised the King of heaven who had humbled him. But Darius commands that everyone everywhere acknowledge the God of Daniel and of Israel. He is the only living God, whose kingdom is everlasting, and He had indeed delivered the man who trusted in Him. It appears that Darius had some respect for God and for Daniel's godliness. It was not his God, but the God of Daniel: still he honours Him, and even calls Him the living God.
One writer reads the sealed den as more than history. It sketches a rescue still to come.
Daniel represents the remnant, the faithful few who in those last days will refuse to give up the worship of God. As a result they are cast into the den of the lions. They go through the great tribulation of the last days. Satan, the "roaring lion", would devour them, but his mouth is shut. They come out of it tried, faithful, and true for God, His witnesses.
- Continual — the king could name Daniel's unbroken service at the pit. Daniel earned that title in ordinary days, not in the crisis.
- Devoted — the devoted man became the delivered man. The king lost his sleep; the man among the lions rested.
- Able — the king asked whether God could. Faith brought God in, and the lions' mouths stayed shut.
- Living — God proved the title Darius used, and the king who once said "your God" ended by commanding a whole empire to fear Him.
- Prophetic — the den pictures the faithful shut in with the roaring lion. They come out unhurt, as God's witnesses.