Dan 6:4 | KingComments | STEP | In their search for an accusation they could bring against Daniel to the king, they find nothing. On the contrary, they discover that he is faithful, without corruption or anything he has done wrong. They are forced to admit that Daniel cannot be caught in any error because he does not make any. That is indeed a very remarkable fact in that circle of commissioners. This is where people often use illicit means to get still more than they already have. The people of the world also take a close look at our lives as Christians, in order to speak evil of us. They will speak evil of us anyway. However, if there is no valid reason, they will be ashamed if they revile our good behavior in Christ ( ). Like Daniel then, we are strange elements in the world today. We are exhorted to do “all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life” ( ). We may ask ourselves: ‘How do we do our work? How do we behave towards our neighbors?’ The only possibility they see is to find something against him in the law of his God. In order to use this option, they must have been familiar with Daniel’s religious customs. But even there they find nothing. Daniel is faithful to the king and he is faithful to his God. Yet now they see an opportunity to get rid of him. They have to come up with something that will make him unfaithful to his God. They go looking for something in his service to God that gives them a weapon to eliminate him. We too are increasingly faced with such matters. There are more and more laws that are anti-Christian. Not that every law that goes against God’s Word should lead us to action. We have a law that allows abortion, but women in the Netherlands are not (yet) obliged to have an abortion. But when we are faced with a law that forbids us from calling homosexual relationships sin, we do come to the area that demands something of us, as we cannot go along with that law. We cannot obey laws that oblige us to do something that goes against the Word of God.

‏ Daniel 6:4

Looking for a Ground of Accusation

In their search for an accusation they could bring against Daniel to the king, they find nothing. On the contrary, they discover that he is faithful, without corruption or anything he has done wrong. They are forced to admit that Daniel cannot be caught in any error because he does not make any. That is indeed a very remarkable fact in that circle of commissioners. This is where people often use illicit means to get still more than they already have.

The people of the world also take a close look at our lives as Christians, in order to speak evil of us. They will speak evil of us anyway. However, if there is no valid reason, they will be ashamed if they revile our good behavior in Christ (1Pet 3:15-16). Like Daniel then, we are strange elements in the world today. We are exhorted to do “all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life” (Phil 2:14-16). We may ask ourselves: ‘How do we do our work? How do we behave towards our neighbors?’

The only possibility they see is to find something against him in the law of his God. In order to use this option, they must have been familiar with Daniel’s religious customs. But even there they find nothing. Daniel is faithful to the king and he is faithful to his God. Yet now they see an opportunity to get rid of him. They have to come up with something that will make him unfaithful to his God. They go looking for something in his service to God that gives them a weapon to eliminate him.

We too are increasingly faced with such matters. There are more and more laws that are anti-Christian. Not that every law that goes against God’s Word should lead us to action. We have a law that allows abortion, but women in the Netherlands are not (yet) obliged to have an abortion. But when we are faced with a law that forbids us from calling homosexual relationships sin, we do come to the area that demands something of us, as we cannot go along with that law. We cannot obey laws that oblige us to do something that goes against the Word of God.