John Calvin Commentary Daniel 6:19-20

"Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions. And when he came near unto the den to Daniel, he cried with a lamentable voice; the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?" — Daniel 6:19-20 (ASV)

Here the king begins to act with a little more consistency when he approaches the pit. He was formerly so struck down by fear as to yield to his nobles and to forget his royal dignity by surrendering himself to them as a captive. But now he neither dreads their envy nor the perversity of their speech.

He approaches the lions’ den early in the morning, he says—that is, at dawn, before it was light, coming during the twilight, and in haste. Thus we see him suffering under the most bitter grief, which overcomes all his former fears. He might still have suffered from fear, through remembrance of that formidable denunciation: You will no longer enjoy your supreme command, unless you vindicate your edict from contempt! But, as I have said, grief overcomes all fear.

And yet we are unable to praise either his piety or his humanity because, although he approaches the cave and calls out, “Daniel!” with a lamentable voice, he is still not yet angry with his nobles until he sees the servant of God perfectly safe. Then his spirits revive, as we shall see; but he still persists in his weakness and is in a middle place between the perverse despisers and the devout worshippers of God, who follow with a righteous intention what they know to be just.

Prayer: Grant, Almighty Father, since you show us by the example of your servant Daniel how we ought to persevere with consistency in the sincere worship of you, and thus proceed towards true greatness of mind, that we may truly devote ourselves to you. May we not be turned aside in any direction by the lust of men, but may we persist in our holy calling, and so conquer all dangers, and arrive at last at the fruit of victory—that happy immortality which is prepared for us in heaven, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

Lack of time compelled me to break off our last Lecture at the point where Daniel relates how the king approached the cave. Now he reports his words—O Daniel, servant of the living God! Your God whom you worship constantly, has He been able to deliver you? he says.

Darius declares the God of Israel to be the living One. But if there is a living God, He excludes all those imaginary deities which men devise for themselves by their own ingenuity. For it is necessary that deity should be one, and this principle is acknowledged even by the profane.

However men may be deluded by their dreams, yet they all confess the impossibility of there being more gods than one. They distort, indeed, God’s character, but they cannot deny His unity. When Darius uttered this praise of the God of Israel, he confesses all other deities to be mere fictions; but he shows how, as I have said, the profane hold the first principle, but afterwards allow it to escape entirely from their thoughts.

This passage does not prove, as some allege, the real conversion of King Darius and his sincere adoption of true piety; for he always worshipped his own idols but thought it sufficient if he raised the God of Israel to the highest rank. But, as we know, God cannot admit a companion, for He is jealous of His own glory (Isaiah 42:8). It was too superficial, then, for Darius simply to acknowledge the God whom Daniel worshipped to be superior to all others; because where God reigns, all idols must of necessity be reduced to nothing, as it is also said in the Psalms, Let God reign, and let the gods of all nations fall before him.

Darius then proceeded so far as to devote himself to the true and only God, but was compelled to pay the greatest respect to Israel’s God. Meanwhile, he always remained sunk in his own superstitions to which he had been accustomed.

He afterwards adds, Your God, whom you worship continually, could He free you from the lions? He here speaks doubtfully, as unbelievers do, who seem to have some ground for hope but no firm or sure conviction in their own minds. I suppose this invocation to be natural, since a certain secret instinct naturally impels men to fly to God; for although scarcely one in twenty relies on God’s word, yet all men call upon God occasionally.

They wish to discover whether God desires to assist them and to aid them in their necessities; meanwhile, as I have said, there is no firm conviction in their hearts, which was the state of King Darius’s mind. Could God deliver you? he says; as if God’s power could possibly be doubted!

If he had said, “Has God delivered you?” this would have been tolerable. For God was not bound by any law to be always snatching His people from death, since, as we very well know, this rests entirely with His good pleasure. When, therefore, He permits His people to suffer under the lusts of the wicked, His power is by no means diminished, since their liberation depends upon His mere will and pleasure. His power, therefore, ought by no means to be called in question.

We observe that Darius was never truly converted and never distinctly acknowledged the true and only God, but was seized with a blind fear, which, whether he would or not, compelled him to attribute the supreme honor to Israel’s God. And this was not a sincere confession but was rather extorted from him. It now follows:—