In today’s reflection from Daniel 6:1–9, we look at the danger of flattery and the importance of having people in our lives who will lovingly tell us the truth. Darius allows himself to be convinced that he is so important that everyone should worship him, a decision that will quickly get him into trouble. In contrast, Daniel’s enemies search for any weakness or corruption they can use against him but find nothing. The only thing they can use against Daniel is his faithfulness to God. That gives us a powerful question to consider: what would people find if they examined our lives? None of us will be perfect, but we can strive to be faithful—to love God, love our neighbors, and live in such a way that our devotion to God is evident. May we surround ourselves with people who encourage us while also being willing to correct us, and may our faithfulness be the thing people notice most about us.
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Well, good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Tuesday morning. I hope you’re doing well and that your week is rocking and rolling and going awesome so far.
Short weeks are always fun, because there’s that great feeling of knowing you’re never going to catch up.
It’s just going to be a sprint the entire time!
It really gets the blood flowing when you realize, “Yeah, I’m probably not going to get everything done this week.”
So maybe you’ll catch up this week. I’m not holding my breath if I were you, because that’s probably not the way it’s going to work!
But maybe we’ll get a break on that.
Yesterday, we took a little break from Daniel for Labor Day, but today we’re back in Daniel.
We’re in Daniel 6:1-9.
Just a reminder of where we are: Friday, we talked about the writing on the wall. Belshazzar was told that his kingdom was coming to an end, and that very night he was killed. Then Darius the Mede becomes king.
And this is where we pick up.
Darius decides to set over the kingdom 120 satraps, with three presidents over them, and Daniel is one of those three presidents.
And Daniel distinguishes himself from everyone else because an excellent spirit is in him. The king is even planning to appoint Daniel over the entire kingdom.
And that, of course, makes some people very unhappy.
So they start looking for something they can use against Daniel.
And here’s what Scripture says:
“They could find no grounds for complaint or any corruption, because he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption could be found in him.”
So they finally say, “We’re never going to find anything against Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.”
And that’s where the conspiracy begins.
They go to Darius and say, essentially, “O king, live forever! All of us think you are amazing. In fact, we think everyone ought to worship you.”
And Darius falls for it.
They convince him to establish a law that for thirty days nobody can pray to anyone—god or human—except to the king. And anyone who violates that law will be thrown into the lions’ den.
And Darius signs it.
There’s a lot to unpack here, but I want to start with something that Scripture gives us several examples of: sometimes Scripture shows us what not to do.
And I think Darius is a great example of something we need to be careful about.
And that is flattery.
Because these guys come to Darius and basically say:
“Hey, Darius, you’re awesome.
You’re really awesome.
And you know what the only problem with the world today is?
People don’t realize how awesome you are!
If only there were a way we could make sure everybody knew how awesome you are.
Maybe we could even make everybody worship you.
What a great idea!”
And Darius says, “You’re right. I am awesome. And more people should realize how awesome I am.”
And he signs the decree.
Now, to be fair, this kind of thing wasn’t particularly unusual in the ancient world. Rulers were often treated as divine or semi-divine figures.
But go back through Daniel and look at the previous kings.
What got them into trouble?
What happened when things really went off the rails?
They began to think they were God.
And you would think Darius might have paid attention to that.
But he doesn’t.
He buys into the flattery.
He signs a law declaring, essentially, “Everybody has to worship me.”
What a great idea!
Except it wasn’t.
So, friends, be careful of flattery.
Be careful of people who constantly tell you how wonderful you are.
Now, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t encourage people.
We absolutely should.
We need people who build us up. We need people who see the good in us. We need people who encourage us.
But we also need people who will tell us the truth.
We need to be careful of people who do nothing but tell us how amazing and awesome and perfect we are.
Because none of us are perfect.
And if you’re surrounded by people who never see anything you could improve, you may have a problem.
I’ve said this to my staff and to people who know me: I never want to be surrounded by “yes” men or “yes” women.
I don’t want people who are constantly telling me that everything I do is brilliant.
I want people who will tell me what I need to get better at.
And I’m not foolish enough to think I’m so good that there isn’t anything I need to improve!
I’m pretty aware of my mistakes and my failures.
So if somebody is blindly praising me all the time, my first guess is that they’ve got a concussion!
Because surely they can see something I’m doing wrong!
We need people who will encourage us, but we also need people who will lovingly correct us.
That’s what Darius was missing.
He didn’t listen to the voice of humility.
And that could have saved him a lot of trouble.
But then we come to Daniel.
And I think there’s something really beautiful here.
These guys are trying desperately to find something wrong with Daniel.
They look at his work.
They look at his character.
They look at his leadership.
They look at everything they can find.
And they can’t find anything.
No corruption.
No negligence.
No dishonesty.
No reason for complaint.
Finally, they say, “The only thing we’re going to be able to use against Daniel is his faithfulness to God.”
Wouldn’t that be something for somebody to say about us?
“We really want to get this person. We’ve looked everywhere. We’ve examined their life. We’ve looked at their work. We’ve looked at their character. We can’t find anything.
The only thing we can use against them is that they love God too much.”
Wouldn’t that be a great thing to aspire to?
Now, let me be clear: we’re never going to be perfect.
Perfection isn’t the goal.
The goal is faithfulness.
We talked about this a couple of weeks ago: our calling is to love God and love our neighbor.
That’s what holiness looks like.
It’s not moral perfection.
It’s learning to love God and love our neighbor more and more faithfully.
So think about the people in your life who you look at and say, “Golly, I want to be more like that person.”
What do you see in them?
I bet you see generosity.
I bet you see love.
I bet you feel valued when you’re around them.
I bet you see kindness.
I bet you see somebody who is trying to live faithfully.
That’s the kind of person I want to be.
I want to live my life in such a way that the Spirit of God is producing those things in me.
Daniel lived a life of faithfulness.
And when his enemies wanted to find something against him, all they could find was his devotion to God.
May that be true of us.
May we be so faithful to God, so in love with God, so committed to following God, that if someone wants to find something against us, all they can say is:
“Man, that person really loves God.”
What a great thing to have said about us.
So, friends, be careful of flattery.
Listen to people who encourage you, but also surround yourself with people who love you enough to tell you the truth.
And then let’s strive to live lives of faithfulness—not perfection, but faithfulness.
Faithful to God.
Faithful to our neighbors.
Faithful to the calling God has given us.
So, thanks for being with us today.
Tomorrow we’re going to pick up the story and see how Daniel responds to this new law.
You probably know how the story goes.
But we’ll see what we can learn from Daniel about faithfulness.
Have a great day, and I’ll see you in the morning.