Daniel 6:7 7 "All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions' den.

Daniel 6:12 12 Then they approached and spoke before the king about the king's injunction, "Did you not sign an injunction that any man who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, is to be cast into the lions' den?" The king replied, "The statement is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked."

Daniel 6:18-19 18 Then the king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting, and no entertainment was brought before him; and his sleep fled from him. 19 Then the king arose at dawn, at the break of day, and went in haste to the lions' den.

The injunction that Darius signed called for the offender to be put in the lions den for thirty days. By all accounts Daniel was in the den for one evening. What happened here? Did Darius forgo the other 29 days once he saw that Daniel had survived the night? Is there something else I am missing?

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Bill Brown
Elder
Grace Baptist Church
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

It appears that he did forego the injunction, as we read in verses 25-27:

Then King Darius wrote:

To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth:

Peace be multiplied to you.

26 I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and 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.
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.

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Daniel Ritchie
Saintfield, Northern Ireland - Queen's University, Belfast:History/Politics
Member of Dromara Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland (Covenanter)

If he did forgo the injunction, how does that mesh with:

Daniel 6:8 8 "Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it may not be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked."

Daniel 6:12 12 Then they approached and spoke before the king about the king's injunction, "Did you not sign an injunction that any man who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, is to be cast into the lions' den?" The king replied, "The statement is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked."

I'm wondering if the fact that Daniel made it through one evening gave Darius a strong hand to deal with in breaking the terms of the injunction.

I never took the text that way. I have always supposed that the duration of this "special service for the king only" was a month of king-worship.

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Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


When posting friends, kindly bear those words of earthly wisdom in mind:
Oh, that God the gift would give us
To see ourselves as others see us.
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Ding! Give that man a cigar and give me a dunce cap.

I've always read the text like Bruce, but your question was actually interesting to read the text from a different perspective. But then like you say it can't really be reconciled with verse 12 if you read it from the perspective that Daniel should have spent 30 days in the lion's den.

__________________
Ryan Barnhart - Pastor of OGBC
Husband to a beautiful wife, Father to two beautiful girls
"But by the grace of God I am what I am." I Corinthians 15:10

"I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms. And in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer." - John Paton

I don't know how that escaped me. I read it earlier today and it made me pause. I feel so stupid now. The air has gone out of my Bawbness.

Bill,

Please! Why would you feel stupid? Stupid is trying to close the swinging door to your sanctuary tonight and ripping it right out of the wall! Then having all your people laughing at you and saying, "Oh boy, the preacher broke the door!" Talk about feeling stupid.

There is no contradiction if you hold to the 'day/age' hypothesis. A day can be as long as you want it to be!!!

__________________

Daniel was in the Lion's den for a million years???

__________________
Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA
Fairmount ARP Church
Student of Theology
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary
My Blog

"Man's attempt to enter heaven on his own terms places him instead in hell." -- R.J. Rushdoony

No, only 1,000 years. (1 day= 1,000 years) lol

I'm curious about the passage;
even if it were written that the king commanded something, does that mean that it HAS to happen?
Pharoah had pronounced various things that he wanted done with Moses that never happened. When reading the op, at first glance I thought to myself, I see what the question is trying to imply, but I don't see the dilemma; after all, God's word is sovereign and innerant, not man's.

__________________
Frank
member/Reformed Baptist Church, NJ
1689 BCF
Technician in NewYork
Titus 2:13
...looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus...

__________________
Andrew DeShazo, Deacon, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN
"All of us stumble in many ways, but if anyone is never at fault in what he says, then he is mature, able to control his whole body."(James 3:2)

Well, you see, the lion hadn't quite evolved at that point. Daniel was thrown into a pit with some algae from a primordial swamp, which, several hundred million years later, was to evolve into a lion and eat him. Unfortunately King Darius didn't understand evolution, and he foolishly rescued Daniel the next morning.

__________________
T W Hopper
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church
Currently between churches since PRC closed here - attending Crossroads Christian Church.
Canberra, Australia.

Bawb-ness vs. Beeeel-ness. YOU DECIDE!

__________________
Rev. Todd Ruddell
Pastor, Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church (RPCGA)
Wylie, TX
www.christcovenantreformedpc.org

Our best marks can contribute nothing to our justification, ...that is proper to faith. Faith cannot lodge in the soul alone, and without other graces; yet faith alone justifies before God.--G. Gillespie

There is only Bawbness. Beelness is a sub-species of Bawbness. Do not confuse the two.

But even if you read the text as meaning the duration of the moratorium on anything other than king-worship was 30 days, if Daniel was cast to the lions on the day of his conviction, wouldn't there have been some days of that remaining? The text says he prayed towards Jerusalem 3 times a day. I wonder if Darius just forgot his decree in his excitement, and none of the surviving satraps wanted to mention it?

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Brad
PCA Member
Virginia

Brad,

It would seem in verses 26-27 that he made an overruling of the first law passed. If viewed in this light, there is apparently another conundrum, as the 30 days moratorium was still in effect when the decree to worship the Almighty was given.

But the decree was executed under the law of the Medes and Persians, which to the best of my knowledge cannot be revoked. Darius did not want to send Daniel to the lions, but could not revoke his order. So how could he have overruled it later?

Methinks perhaps the sight of the conspirators bones in the pit may have quieted any reply against his new decree.