Darius the Mede

He's the one who gives to whom he wills.

Verse 30 of chapter 5, that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old.

If you were alive in 2001, you remember where you were then.

on September the 11th.

God often uses pagan leaders to discipline his own children.

He did it with Pharaoh, he did it with Cyrus the Persian, he did it with Darius the Mede, he did it with Nebuchadnezzar.

God often uses ungodly leaders to do his will.

And he let Nebuchadnezzar discipline his own children, the children of Israel.

That very night, Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain.

And Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of 62.

And this is God's word.

If you take a look at this story, a fascinating story.

A chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

That very night, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old.

So Darius the Mede, that is a whole different empire that is coming in.

That's the empire of the Persians or the Medes.

And so it is completely turning over from the Babylonians to the Persians here.

Then Daniel in chapter 6, we go down.

Another example is King Darius now.

He had a system set up in his kingdom of, Scripture tells us there in Daniel 6, chapter 6, of 120 satraps.

and over them three administrators, or presidents, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give an account so that the king might suffer no loss.

They couldn't find any fault because Daniel was faithful and, you know, there was no error or fault in him.

Then in Daniel chapter six, verses five and eight, these evil guys 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, advisors, 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 30 days except to you, your majesty, shall be thrown into the lion's den.

A reading from Daniel.

And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

And now I will show you the truth.

Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them.

Well, roll the time back or clocks back to 2,500 years ago.

King Darius is the king and you're Daniel, a senior public civil servant in the Persian Empire.

He just got caught up in the ultimate bureaucratic trap.

a state decree drafted by jealous colleagues, civil servants, specifically designed to bring him down.

We're familiar with what happened.

We're familiar with the contours.

Who's the main character in this story? You might say Darius.

We get most words from him.