“Then these men approached the king, and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and Persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed.” Daniel 6:15
The sins of the Administrators and Satraps are many. There is greed – they desire to gain as much money from their jobs as they can. There is envy – they think they should be promoted instead of Daniel. There is even hatred of God and His followers. All of those sins are true yet
there is one sin that underlies all of those other sins. “We will not have this man (Daniel, his God and much later Jesus Christ) to rule over us.” In their pride and self-righteousness they appear before Darius again.
King Darius has worked all day with his advisors and lawyers to try
and find a way out of the dilemma he has placed Daniel in. Darius
experiences one of the cardinal consequences of sin. It always looks
good at the beginning. Satan sugarcoats evil to tempt people to take a
bite. He lures us toward it and tells us how good and enjoyable it will be. We jump at the bait and suddenly the fishing lure is in our mouth. We cru “you didn’t tell me this!” Then, at least for believers, Satan condemns us for engaging in the sin that he just tempted us to do. It sounded so good to Darius to have people worship him but, after he succumbed to the sin, he found out the true cost – loss of his most trusted advisor. People grieve today over what sin cost them and often, like Darius, they find there is no way to recoup what they have lost. At the end of a long, frantic day of searching Darius discovers what every sinner learns – there is no way out of the sin he is caught up in. For Darius pride and self worship have ensnared him.
Then these men approached the king At exactly the time of his great remorse his most hated group, the ones who led him into sin, show up to collect their payment. One might think they would be too ashamed to show their faces but they are not. (Like today’s sinful culture, the end justifies the means.) Did they ever think that the king might take out his vengeance on them for their evil? Probably they guessed that with Daniel out of the way they would become irreplaceable. Thus there is no shame for their evil as they approach the king to demand he perform what he is obligated to do. (Note he is obligated to do right, not them.)
And said to the king, They speak to the king. They look him in the eye without shame and ask him for their blood money.
Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and Persians They remind the king of the rules. They remind him of the law that he is under. They should have reminded him of God’s law, “be sure your sin will find you out”. That of course would acknowledge God which they refused to do The law of man is good enough for them – it fulfills their evil purposes.
That no decree or statute which the king establishes They remind the king of the permanence of his action. Don’t miss this point! Darius learns what God knows – except through the shed blood of Jesus Christ sin and its consequences never disappear.
May be changed. The king is faced with his failure to rectify his wrong. The men seem to taunt the king – what you did cannot be fixed. The king is probably enraged, at himself for listening to these men as well as at them for ensnaring him into a meaningless action that now costs him dearly.
What can we learn? God’s word says be sure your sin will find you out. Darius proved that to be true. God’s word says is “the wages of sin is death”. Darius realizes Daniel faces death because of his sin.
We see why God hates sin and warns us to flee from it and draw close to him.