Daniel 6 -- Seeing The Obvious

I’ve always focused on Daniel in this chapter before, but this morning I felt moved to look at the others in this story.  One hundred twenty governors had been appointed by King Darius.  Three supervisors over those governors were functioning as auditors, and Daniel was one of them.

 

What goes unsaid here is that Daniel evidently was finding a lot of transactions where the governors were attempting to cheat the king.  He likely denied payment and returned the invoices rather than calling for a prosecutor, making them understand that they weren’t going to get anything by him.  The king must have known going in what kind of men he was appointing simply from the fact that he hired three auditors!

 

Doing his job well brought Daniel notice with the king, who made plans to elevate him to run the entire kingdom.  By this time, Daniel – the 40-year-prisoner-of-war – was now over 80 years old, and yet he still served well and honestly.  It was something God had made clear to him from his first day at work.

 

The other two supervisors and the 120 governors were so entangled in graft and greed that together they cooked up a scheme to take Daniel out of the picture.  When they all appeared to the king suggesting that everyone in the kingdom pray only to the king for thirty days, Darius should have asked what was wrong with that picture!  Where was his second-in-command Daniel??  And if they truly loved their king enough to propose such a law, then why pay for only 30 days?  Why not every day?

 

Darius was too full of himself, and they were all too full of greed for his money.  So the obvious became hidden.  That’s what sin does – it distracts us from what we’re supposed to be doing and seeing.

 

Father, point out the obvious to me.  Don’t allow me to be found with blinders on.  Lead me to see things as You see them.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford