No. 7.
CHAPTER 6. The crowning act of iniquity at the close of this dispensation will be man’s taking to himself the place of God (2 Thessalonians 2:44Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:4); Revelation 13; and Daniel 11:36-3936And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. 37Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. 38But in his estate shall he honor the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. 39Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for gain. (Daniel 11:36‑39)), and extorting from others as his right and title that which is due to God alone. We find it so here; it is the especial characteristic of the chapter; for Darius’s conduct is but a foreshadowing of the way in which man will thus exalt himself.
If Belshazzar on the one hand is a type of the corrupt thing called Babylon, Darius on the other prefigures the revived head of the Roman empire, as we find him in Revelation 13. and 17. Note the beautiful accuracy of Scripture. In Revelation 17 “the beast” is seen assuming his full character on the destruction of the corrupt woman, or Babylon; not before. So here. What brings Darius into authority is the judgment on Belshazzar and Babylon.
It is not that he personally was a more degraded character; on the contrary. But Scripture uses him as a figure of the power which, for a short time, will triumph in the latter days; and during whose reign the people of God will be in such dire distress, no man being allowed to buy or sell save he who has his mark. (Revelation 13:1717And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:17).)
These two then, Belshazzar and Darius, represent in their conduct those evil principles which, through the whole course of this world’s history, have been going hand in hand, and are yet to have their full development. Corruption in Belshazzar’s case, violence in that of Darius, and which have ever marked man’s history, take it any way you will. They are allowed by God to come to a climax at “the time of the end,” but in order only to meet their final judgment.
Verses six and seven especially mark this chapter. It is not idolatry, nor is it a direct insult offered to the Lord; but it is the exaltation of man himself, who would shut out all idea of God, putting himself in His place.
Thus they acted in making the decree; for by declaring that for thirty days none should ask a petition of any god or man save of the king, they virtually denied the rights of God—assumed His place, giving the honor due to Him alone to man. All this is very solemn, very important for us to lay hold of; for what, we may well ask, will be the end of these so-called “rights of man” that we now hear so much about? where will it all lead? Why to this very thing―men doing without God, or wanting to do without Him; seeking to have the earth for themselves. So here a law is sought to be made whereby for thirty days no request is to be asked of any one but the king; he alone is to be acknowledged; the rights of God must stand aside; His claims be entirely shut out. “Vain man would be wise.” The king, deceived through his own vanity, finds himself really bound by laws which, while outwardly acknowledging the immutability of his will, really bound him down; for “the law of the Medes and Persians altereth not.”
Hence his inferiority to Nebuchadnezzar, who had supreme power―able to make one day and unmake the next; and thus the difference in their description. One is distinguished by the head of gold, the other by the body of silver.
To be immutable in the will is what belongs to God alone. Their conduct in this matter then was an usurpation of His rights.
But mark Daniel’s course. How beautiful it is! What a contrast to that of the king and princes! They assuming, in their pride and self-will, the rights and place of God; he, forgetful of self and everything around him, has one and only one desire, and that is the glory of his God.
Though now an aged man, faith is still as strong as ever; and God’s past dealings, instead of exalting the flesh, have only served to cast His beloved servant more wholly and entirely upon Him.
Daniel is one who is walking with God―who has already proved Him. His eye is single, and consequently there is no hesitation about his path. When everything is settled, ―the law signed so as to be unchangeable, ―he goes into his house, and there three times a day before the open windows looking towards Jerusalem―God’s earthly center― “he prays and gives thanks as he did aforetime.”
All this is very precious for us. At all costs, no matter how great, God’s rights must be acknowledged, and that publicly too, at the open window even, when the occasion demands it. There must be no doubt left on the mind of any as to whom Daniel would acknowledge as the supreme and only God, ―the Jehovah of Israel, or Darius the Mede.
His faithfulness, however, soon sets all doubt on the matter at rest, and the king, by reason of his own laws, is unable to deliver him; “he labored till the going down of the sun” to do so, but in vain.
Poor man! “snared in the work of his own hands.” The law of the Medes and Persians cannot be revoked, and Daniel is cast into the den of lions. There, however, their power ends. Man may kill the body; it is all he can do. But God now comes in to show that the earth and all creation are as much His as the heavens themselves. He closes the mouths of the lions. That which apparently was certain death to Daniel, becomes, as it were, the source of a new life to him.
All this is a figure of the depth into which His people will be brought in the latter days,―those of them at least who are faithful,―even to the very “dust of death;” but there they will find that One has been before them into the “lion’s mouth” (Psalms 22:2121Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. (Psalm 22:21))―has trod the path down to its very depths, and when there, borne the judgment due to them to the uttermost, therefore they can go free, and the violent dealing reserved for them by the wicked will return on their own head (Psalms 7:1616His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. (Psalm 7:16)); and of those who are spared “I will make them to come and worship at thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee” is the testimony of Scripture concerning that of which this chapter is a figure.
The result here (verse 26) is greater even than in Nebuchadnezzar’s case; for Darius commands that in every place the God of Daniel and of Israel should be acknowledged as the only living and true God, whose kingdom was forever and ever.
And such is the character of the confession that will come from those who remain after the judgments have been poured out that now hang over Christendom.
The leaders of the nation who had been instrumental in devising a means for Daniel’s destruction fell into the pit themselves which they had digged for him, while he, delivered and restored to his former honors,—type of Israel in the latter days,— “prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”