Darius and the Lions Den

I know, I know, it’s Daniel and the Lion’s den! However let’s consider the place of King Darius in the story. King Darius in the bible story finds himself trapped by his own foolish despotic deity and forced to throw his most trusted servant into a lion’s den as decreed by his own hand. So rather than change his written law he is forced to save face and destroy a man he clearly does not want to lose. The story of course is made even more dramatic by his inability to sleep and then his rushing to the den to see the outcome of the night’s carnage. Upon the revelation that God has intervened and Daniel is still alive, King Darius, praises the God of Daniel and decrees that his people “must fear and respect the God of Daniel”. This decree of respect and fear also happens to King Nebuchadnezzar with the three boys whom God saves from the fiery furnace after they refused to bow before his golden statue. I always try and look for other meanings to the truly wonderful moments revealed to us in reading the bible. When people in authority make ill informed and rash decisions that they refuse to back down over for losing face, it often ends up horribly back firing on them. When making a decision that seems autocratic, dictatorial, dare I say despotic, stop and think of the Persian Kings who saw themselves as Gods, the Egyptian Kings who saw themselves as Gods and remember Daniel. Sometimes losing face makes you a better and more respected King. If you refuse, one day an Alexander the Great is going to come along and prove you are well and truly human.