SCHEMERS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”

So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: “May King Darius live forever! The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den. Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”

So King Darius put the decree in writing.

Daniel 6:1-9

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The United States is in the midst of a presidential election year and as we have seen ever increasingly during these seasons, there seems to be more emphasis on trying to bad mouth and discredit an opponent than in trying to tout what one will do in leadership to better the nation. It’s a season rife with smear crusades and incessant scheming, one party’s campaign against the other.

It always leaves me thinking what God might think of this behavior as He looks down from above.

Of course, these political tactics of this century are not new by any means. In fact, as we look at our scripture passage, we find the work of schemers who have their own deceitfulness ready to unleash on an unknowing Daniel. Look again at these verses:

It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”

So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: “May King Darius live forever! The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den. Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”

So King Darius put the decree in writing.  Daniel 6:1-9

This chapter picks up where the last one left off. You’ll recall that King Belshazzar, fresh off his intentional defiling of the items that were taken from God’s temple in Jerusalem, experienced a sudden supernatural event as a hand appeared and wrote four words on the wall. Belshazzar could find no one who could interpret the words until his wife, the queen, told him about Daniel and the gifts he had displayed while explaining the dreams that Belshazzar’s father, Nebuchadnezzar had experienced.

And so, Daniel was summoned and shared the message the words conveyed, the very message from God that the king’s days were numbered after the Lord weighed his actions and found him in sin. Further, Babylon would fall and the kingdom would be divided between the Medes and Persians.

We know how the story ended. Belshazzar didn’t even make it through the night before he was killed by Darius the Mede, the very Darius we find in power as Chapter 6 opens. Scripture tells us that Daniel is still in the position that Belshazzar placed him in as a reward for interpreting the writing on the wall, the third highest ranking ruler in the nation. We’re told that Darius appointed 120 governors (satraps) to rule throughout the kingdom and those governors were accountable to one of three administrators, one of which was Daniel.

As for Daniel, he was doing very well in his new leadership role as he “distinguished himself among the administrators and satraps by his exceptional qualities” to the point where King Darius was planning to “set him over the whole kingdom”, an idea that did not set well with Daniel’s fellow leaders. For we read where “the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs” in an attempt to smear him but were unable to do so because “they could find no corruption in him” because of his trustworthiness.

And so unable to do anything legitimate, Daniel’s opponents schemed against him, going to Darius with a proposal for a decree they knew Daniel would not be able to keep because he would never go against the “law of his God.” Here what they suggested the king should do:

“May King Darius live forever! The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den. Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”

Did you catch the clear cut lie in the words of the administrators and satraps?

They told the king that all the royal administrators had agreed on the edict but we all know that Daniel was left out of this discussion for a reason. After all, he was the target of the deception. Unaware of Daniel’s non-concurrence, Darius followed the direction of his appointed leaders and issued the decree in writing that essentially reserved all worship to be directed toward him for thirty days. If anyone prayed to any god or other human being during the thirty day period, then they would be thrown into the lion’s den which was nothing more than a death sentence that could not be repealed.

The stage was set for Daniel to be done away with, or at least the schemers believed so. Perhaps they would have thought twice if they had known the very words of God from the Psalms, words that we had better heed today as well for as we see, the deceiver will be held accountable for their sinfulness. Look at these verses:

You hate all who do wrong; You destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful You, Lord, detest. Psalm 5:5b-6

You who practice deceit, your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor. You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth. You love every harmful word, you deceitful tongue! Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin. Psalm 52:2-5a

You, God, will bring down the wicked into the pit of decay; the bloodthirsty and deceitful will not live out half their days. Psalm 55:23

The next time you feel the temptation to wickedly plot against someone, I pray you’ll remember this chapter from Daniel because as we are going to see, the deceivers end up with a fate they never planned on when they put together their plot, a fate God had in store for them grounded in punishment, a fate that will await anyone who chooses to deceive and scheme today as well.

Amen

In Christ,

Mark
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