“He’s only a foreigner,” some said. “We despise him.”
“He was little better than a slave when he came here; now he rules over us,” others said. “We hate him.”
Then they put their heads together and plotted to kill Daniel. “Come,” the plotters said. “Let us search his record and accuse him to the king. He must be dishonest, or a bribe-taker, to succeed like this.”
These men judged Daniel by themselves. They searched high and they searched low, but could not find a single item of wrongdoing. Daniel was true to his trust. His enemies were defeated, but not for long; for they kept on plotting.
“Why didn’t we think of it before?” cried one. “We’ll put him in a trap. His religion--he won’t give that up even to save his life.”
Now, you must know that the people of Babylon worshipped idols; Daniel worshipped the true God.
This is the trap they laid for Daniel. They went to the king and said:
“King Darius, live forever. All the nobles and princes of the kingdom desire to pass a law that whoever shall pray to any god or man for thirty days, save to thee, O king, shall be thrown into the den of lions. Now, O king, sign the writing that it be not changed, according to the laws of Babylon which alter not.”
This pleased the king’s vanity and he signed the law, not knowing that it was aimed at Daniel.
Then the plotters set spies to catch Daniel.
When Daniel knew that the law was signed, he might have said to himself: “Oh, well, it’s only for thirty days; I won’t pray at all; or I’ll pray in secret; or I’ll go to the king, who is my friend, and explain the plot.”
He did none of these things. This is what he did. He went into his house; up the stairs to his bedroom; opened the window toward the far-off city of his birth; knelt down and prayed to his God. He did this at morning, at noon, at night--three times a day as he had always done.
Daniel did just what his enemies had expected. He walked right into their trap, rather than disobey his conscience. It took a brave heart to do that. To be thrown into the den of lions meant certain death.
“Ha! ha!” laughed the plotters, “now we have him;” and they came in the morning to report to the king.
“O great king,” they said, “this foreigner, Daniel, pays no regard to the law that thou hast signed, but openly worships his God three times a day.”