Daniel 6 · Story · Integrity
Daniel's Open Window
Daniel served Darius the Mede as one of three administrators over 120 satraps, and the officials beside him plotted his fall.
Daniel went on kneeling at the same window, at the same hours, after a signed law had made his prayers a crime.
Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
- Who
- Daniel
- When
- The reign of Darius the Mede, after Belshazzar was slain (Daniel 5:30 to 31)
Summary
Daniel 6 sets one man's integrity under two kinds of pressure, the envy of the officials who served beside him and a law that made his worship a crime. The chapter ends with the king who signed that law decreeing that in every part of his kingdom men are to "tremble in fear before the God of Daniel" (Daniel 6:26).
- The decree forbade any petition to a god or man except the king for thirty days, on pain of the lions' den.
- Daniel held high office in a foreign kingdom and kept the worship of the God of Israel.
- The plot rested on a law of the Medes and Persians that the king himself could not change.
A Search Through His Work
The officials began their search with the business of the kingdom.
Daniel's Open Window studies Daniel's integrity in the sixth chapter of his book. Integrity is the same life before God and before people. Daniel 6 shows it from both sides, in the work he did for a foreign king and in the prayers he offered to his God.
The question this study answers is what Daniel 6 shows about integrity when a law forbids faithfulness. It gives the search for a charge, the habit of prayer at the window, Daniel's claim of innocence, and the two ways readers have explained why he prayed where he could be seen.
Thus the administrators and satraps sought a charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no charge or corruption, because he was trustworthy, and no negligence or corruption was found in him.Daniel's integrity in office is the fact the whole plot had to work around.
The rivals then said, "We will never find any charge against this Daniel, unless we find something against him concerning the law of his God" (Daniel 6:5).
The Chapter in Seven Steps
Daniel 6 moves from Daniel's promotion through the decree to his release and his long service.
The plot moved from a promotion to a signed decree, and Daniel's life went on unchanged through it.
- The king plans to promote Daniel"the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom"Daniel 6:3
- The rivals search his workNo charge is foundDaniel 6:4
- The rivals turn to his faithHis God's law becomes their groundDaniel 6:5
- The king signs the decree"King Darius signed the written decree"Daniel 6:9
- Daniel prays as beforeHis habit continuesDaniel 6:10
- Daniel answers the king at dawnHis claim of innocenceDaniel 6:22
- Daniel serves on under two kings"So Daniel prospered"Daniel 6:28
A timeline of seven steps in Daniel 6, each with what the text records and its verse.
The Decree and the Window
The officials drafted the decree, and 1 Kings and the Psalms explain the shape of Daniel's prayer.
The officials claimed that all the royal administrators had agreed to the decree, though Daniel was one of the three (Daniel 6:2 and Daniel 6:7).
and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to You in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name,Solomon asked God to hear exiles who prayed toward the land, the city and the temple, the direction Daniel faced.
Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.David's psalm names three times of prayer in a day, as Daniel kept them.
Then they told the king, “Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, shows no regard for you, O king, or for the decree that you have signed. He still makes his petition three times a day.”The charge turns Daniel's loyalty to God into disloyalty to the king, the one fault his rivals could find.
Innocent Before God and the King
Daniel's first words from the den answer the charge laid against him.
My God sent His angel and shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, for I was found innocent in His sight, and I have done no wrong against you, O king.”Daniel answers the charge of Daniel 6:13, that he showed no regard for the king.
But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.The apostles answered a later ban on their preaching with the rule Daniel had lived by.
The night in the den is told in full in Daniel in the Lions' Den and in Faith Under Fire.
Voices on Daniel in Office
Four voices from the fifth century to the nineteenth read Daniel in office and at prayer.
died 435 · John Cassian
Cassian stands here for the hours of prayer the monasteries of the East kept after Daniel's pattern.
“And so in the monasteries of Palestine and Mesopotamia and all the East the services of the above-mentioned hours are ended each day with three psalms apiece, so that constant prayers may be offered to God at the appointed times, and yet, the spiritual duties being completed with due moderation, the necessary offices of work may not be in any way interfered with: for at these three seasons we know that Daniel the prophet also poured forth his prayers to God day by day in his chamber with the windows open. Nor is it without good reasons that these times are more particularly assigned to religious offices, since at them what completed the promises and summed up our salvation was fulfilled. For we can show that at the third hour the Holy Spirit, who had been of old promised by the prophets, descended in the first instance on the apostles assembled together for prayer.”
John Cassian · INSTITUTES 3:3 · on Daniel 6:10Patristic
1509 to 1564 · John Calvin
Calvin stands here for the cause of the plot.
“We must notice, in the context of this history, how Daniel alone was chosen by Darius one of these three superior officers. He was the third in rank under king Belshazzar, although for a moment, yet it might occasion envy under the new king that so great an honor was conferred upon him.”
John Calvin · Commentaries · on Daniel 6:2Reformed
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Henry applies the verse to his own readers.
Read the page on Matthew Henry
“This is recorded for an example to all that are in places of public trust to approve themselves both careful and conscientious, that they may be free, not only from fault, but from error, not only from crime, but from mistake. What ill-will was borne him, both for his greatness and for his goodness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Daniel 6:4Puritan
1834 to 1892 · Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon stands here for the danger that high office brings to a servant of God.
Read the page on Charles Spurgeon
“Daniel had been exalted to very great worldly prosperity but his soul had prospered, too. Oftentimes outward advancement means inward decline. Tens of thousands have been intoxicated by success. Though they bade fair in starting in the race of life to win the prize, they were tempted to turn aside to gather the golden apples and so they missed the crown.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 815: “Daniel's Undaunted Courage” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · on Daniel 6:10
Matthew Henry, Charles Spurgeon
Why Did Daniel Pray at an Open Window?
Readers agree that Daniel kept his habit and differ on whether he also meant it as a confession of faith.
The first reading holds that Daniel simply kept the habit he already had. John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), wrote that Daniel "did not abate his prayers for the king's command, nor did he break the law purposely".
The second reading holds that leaving the windows open was itself a choice to be seen. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible (1832), wrote of the open windows, "He would not shut them to conceal himself". Against it, the text gives Daniel no word of defiance and records only his habit and the direction of his prayer.
Honour Among the Gentiles
The New Testament asks the same conduct of every believer.
Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.Peter's word evildoers names the kind of charge Daniel's rivals brought before the king.
In everything, show yourself to be an example by doing good works. In your teaching show integrity, dignity, and wholesome speech that is above reproach, so that anyone who opposes us will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us.Paul names the outcome Daniel's rivals met when they searched his service and could bring no charge.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), on Daniel 6:10.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Daniel 6:10.
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Book of the Prophet Daniel, on Daniel 6:2.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Daniel 6:4.
- Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 815, Daniel's Undaunted Courage (1868), on Daniel 6:10.
- John Cassian, Institutes, book 3, chapter 3 (about 420), on Daniel 6:10.
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