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URING the reign of Darius, the Mede, Daniel was one of the most
important and powerful men in the world. But the men he had to work with were
jealous of his success. So, they schemed and connived against him. It is
telling that the only area of his life that they felt they could use against
him regarded his fierce devotion to God (Daniel 6:5). His moral character,
administrative wisdom and dutiful diligence were impeccable.
These enemies of Daniel were deadly serious in their desire to do away
with him. They flattered Darius into making a law saying that nobody could ask
anyone for anything for a whole month, with one exception: they could petition
the king. This law was not Darius' idea, but for whatever reason, it sounded
appealing to the king. Daniel 6:10 indicates that Daniel knew about this plot.
And, as soon as the foolish law was signed into effect, Daniel intentionally
disobeyed it. He broke the law on purpose. Of course, it had been his custom to
ask God for things daily, but on this occasion, he was doing more than just
continuing his pious habit. He was breaking an evil law because it was evil. He
was defying wicked legislation.
As a result of Daniel's courageous exercise of "civil
disobedience" in protest against an evil law, not only was the law made to
be irrelevant, a law directly contradicting that evil law was then written and
enforced (Daniel 6:25-27). The whole world was given the gospel because of
Daniel's willingness to do the right thing no matter what the laws of sinful
men demanded.
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