S2 of Love in Context podcast welcomes you. Get ready for engaging unscripted conversations with
your hosts, Ben and Spencer. Our mission remains unchanged to explore the Bible through the powerful
lens of love. In this new season, we'll embark on a journey together, unearthing fresh insights and
gaining deeper understanding of how we can love God and live out our faith in practical ways.
So let's dive into this season of Love in Context, where love in the context of the Bible intersect
to transform our lives. Welcome back to the Love in Context podcast. That's going to be our new
intro right there. Me just making noise. I don't even know that's going to sound like.
Oh, that's so great. So great. So we are continuing on in our series of Kings and Kingdoms.
Week five. Yep. Talking about it. Did I do this right? Yeah. Week five. I had to count.
It is somewhere between week one and eight. I was by the way, I was going to mention that
we had a comment on the YouTube video a few weeks ago when we were saying, raise your hand. Have
you ever heard of snack a Rebbe? And they're like, I can't raise my hand. I don't know who that is.
So great. So great. We're going to be talking about Darius today. Darius the first Darius,
the first, which the second does imply that there was more than one Darius. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So
what do we know about Darius? He's a king. He is a king. He had a kingdom. Very true. I know. Well
done. I'm being so helpful right now. Would you like a gold star? Do you have one? No, I know you
don't. So you're literally making promises that you can't fulfill. Do you hear that YouTube? You
hear that Spotify? You hear that other places that we post? He makes promises and he does not fulfill
them. Only to you. So Darius, also known as Darius the great rule the Persian empire from about 522
to about 486 BCE. I'm going to give you a spoiler alert. Anybody who calls themselves the great
tends to have some issues. You think about Alexander the great, we're going to talk about
another one called Herod the great. I don't think they had quite the same level of psychological
evaluations back then. Probably not. Even if they did, like we were talking about in our last
episode, it's like who's going to tell the most powerful person in the world that, hey, your brain
isn't quite right. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Right. You think a little too highly of yourself.
Really? Do you want to talk to my army about that? Oh, I do? Well, I'm just going to cut
your head off for insulting me. So Darius, he was mostly known for military conquest. Yeah. And so
we're going to go Persian empire now. Persians coming in and completely knocking out the Babylonians,
which by the way, if you, last week we were talking about Daniel, we were talking about Nebuchadnezzar.
There's actually a vision of Daniel in the book of Daniel where it talks about nation getting
knocked out by nation, getting knocked out by nation. We're actually kind of going through
them right now. Right? And so Babylon is just completely knocked out. Assyria is knocked out
by Babylon. Babylon is knocked out by Persia. And so he is, like, like, like you said, he's known
for his expansion because they, uh, takes over territories. So Babylon was taken over. Egypt was
taken over and parts of India, India, to put context in this, that is a huge, massive empire
for that day and age. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's massive, which by the way is, is one of the things
that led to, uh, administrative reforms, the way that he actually started running his government.
So, uh, it was a centralized government. So Darius implemented a system of satrapies. Yeah, that's
right. That's a word. It's basically provinces to manage all of this vast Persian empire. So,
uh, such a satrapy is a Providence or region governed by a satrap, hence why I sell it called
a satrapy, right? Um, who acted as the king's representative, right? So somebody is in charge
of this area that the king's representative. And so this allowed them to have more efficient
administration and diverse and extensive territories of the Persian empire. Cause you
have each person in charge of a little area who reports up to the big person. Right. And, uh, so
the, the satraps were typically appointed by the king and they'd be members of the royal family,
trusted noble local leaders. Yeah. But their loyalty was incredibly crucial because they held
significant power, um, that the empire has now diffused. Yeah. Right. Their administrative
responsibilities, uh, collecting taxes, maintaining order or odor. They were teenagers. They had to
maintain odor, um, maintaining order and overseeing, sorry, Spencer works with teenagers. So that's a
little too close to home for him. Oh, that's hilarious. They had to collect taxes. They had
to maintain order and oversee local governance. And so they had the authority to enforce the
laws and manage resources. Um, but to the king specifications, right? So they can just go,
you know, uh, go cowboy on this and just do whatever they wanted. Right. Um, so, but each,
each province was then expected to provide troops for the Persian army and maintain local security.
So they not only had to, uh, send people off to be part of the Persian empire, who is going to
continue to expand their territory, but they also had to retain local presence as well, uh, to make
sure that they were maintaining security and everybody was staying under the heel of Persia.
So what this allows is that communication and control is facilitated very quickly. And so then
you have, uh, you're able to have this sprawling empire. Cause you know that if you're, if you only
have centralized power in one spot, there's only so far you can go before your authority runs out.
Yeah. So diffusing it over like, uh, let's just say hundreds of different people over different areas
is going to give you the ability to continue to move your presence further and further out
while still maintaining the same level of authority. Yeah. One of the things that sets
Persia apart from Babylon or Babylonia is that Persia was actually more focused on quantity
quality. Yeah. Like, so they were more about, okay, how big of an army can we get? We don't
need the best tools, but if we have a big enough army, it doesn't matter if the other army has
better tools. We'll still take them out. Right. Right. And so that, so Persia wasn't really known
for their technological achievements. They did have some, um, but they were known for the size
of their army. So like their army was so flipping big that, uh, that when people are like, oh,
you're going to go up against Persia. Cool. We'll have fun dying tomorrow. Like that was the,
that was the mindset. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you just, you just, it's just overwhelming odds. And, uh,
um, by the way, I really want it. I really want you to understand, understand this idea of regional,
there's understand this idea of, I want to say dictatorships, if that's not what I meant.
This idea of regional, uh, responsibility, because it's going to be a really big deal.
When we talk about Ossowarra's next week, um, when we're talking about the next king. So,
but this is already in place and then Ossowarra's is going to step into that, uh, after this. Um,
yeah, just, I mean, if you imagine like, uh, like a spider can kill an ant, but if there's like a
thousand ants versus a spider, it's problematic for the spider. Right. And it's, that's kind of
like the whole person thing is it's not that they weren't bad, they were bad at war, but they just
said so many overwhelming numbers that even if somebody was better, they're still going to lose.
Right. Um, which makes sense if you talk about all these regions, they're having to send off
troops on a regular basis and maintain local security. So now you're not having to use your,
your occupying troops or your conquesting troops to secure your land. That's a big deal. Um,
something else that Darius did is he did a lot of, uh, uh, legal reform. So standardization of the
laws all across the area. So you think about all these different tribes, all these different
regions, they're all going to have different variations of the laws. He's like, nope,
we have one standard law. This is how you're going to do it. Right. Everybody is going to follow
this thing exactly the same way. Right. Uh, unity of the, the, uh, taking the device, diverse cultures
and legal practices, the various areas standardization now provides legal proceeding and ensure that
similar offenses were treated all throughout the region or out throughout the nation the same way.
Okay. Um, with that, you have the codification of legal codes, right? So, um, he actually,
he actually then outlines and gives it to them. So they, they have this, uh, this codification
makes it more accessible and understanding to the populace. So it's not just rules that people
don't know. Now everybody knows the rules and if you break the rules, you know what the price is
for breaking the rules. Right. Um, in this way, way knowledge is helping them maintain power.
Right. Um, and the legal forms included establishment of local courts and judges within
each setrapi. Right. So allowing the resolution of disputes at local levels, this decentralized
judicial system ensured that the legal matters could be handled more efficiently and in accordance
with local customs while still adhering to the overall legal framework set by the central
government. Cause you don't want to be the king of Persia dealing with a guy who's still bred
in one of your furthest outreaching, you know, regions, right? Like it's a big deal. And, uh,
and a few of these things start to play in together. Like, so like in infrastructure, um,
one of the things that Darius is credited with is building what's called the Royal road. This is not
the rainbow road for those of you that play Mario, it's the Royal road. Um, and what this does is
allows them to trade and facilitate communication over vast distances in a much more time effective
manner. Um, I don't know if you've been in mountainous region, but unless you have roads,
it can take a while to get word from one place to another. Yes. Yes. We live in Alaska. Um, uh,
I do a lot of hunting and there's some areas that, well, that I'm like, oh, it won't be that bad to
get up to this area to go hunt. And then, um, as I'm climbing up to that area, I have all sorts of
thoughts and words coming out of my mouth as I'm, as I'm like, I made a horrible decision. And then
I get up there and I'm like, it better be the best animal I have ever seen for me to pull the
trigger on this one. And then you don't find anything. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So mountainous
regions are hard to get across. One of the things Darius did with this road system though,
is he actually established waypoints along there. So, so he was able to actually communicate
his message with across the entire kingdom in a matter of, I think it was like nine to 11 days,
something like that, which sounds slow to us, but was, it's so fast by ancient standards. And so
what it was, is there, there were these way stations where, where they figured out, okay,
we can ride a horse from this spot to this spot before the horse is worn out. So we're going to
put a way station here. Uh, another horse is going to take off from there. And that's what they did
all throughout this road. And so they would pass messages all the way from central India at the
time to Egypt in about nine to 11 days. Well, and he actually did even more than that. Cause he
actually cut a canal that connected the Nile to the Red sea. Yeah. Right. So, um, so he's not only
connecting land, but he's also connecting water. Right. And so like, cause boating is becoming a
much, much bigger thing at this time. So, uh, now if you need supplies for this ever moving army,
or regions, or let's just say there's a, there's a natural disaster in an area and you're needing
to shift food or resources to an area, you're able to actually ship food and resources and
everything to these places inside of your kingdom in a much more effective manner. Right. Um,
because people tend not to rebel when they're not hungry. Right. Yeah.
It takes about the same amount of time. It takes Amazon to get us a package.
It is, uh, one of my favorite things. And this is by the way, Amazon, not, not a sponsor,
but if you, if you order something when, when I see the commercials and they're like same day,
and I was like, not in ket, not, not, not in Alaska. Nope. Not in Alaska. Uh, it's,
it's going to take a least, uh, it is free shipping and it will show up. Yeah. It is free
shipping and we'll show up. Um, but beyond that, it's, it's not going to be a big deal.
It's going to be a big deal. It's going to be a big deal. It's going to be a big deal.
But beyond that, it's, it's not going to be quick. Yeah. No. Um, so the other thing is moving in.
So he's codifying all these different things. He's, he's establishing these trade routes.
He's putting a lot of people in authority that report back to him. Um, the other thing that
he's really pushing is cultural and religious tolerance. Right. Um, so Darius promoted a policy
of a religious and cultural tolerance, allowing the various people from all over his empire to,
um, have their own customs and beliefs, uh, to help maintain peace and stability. Now we're going
to get into some stories about why, like even with that, he, there were some expectations on that,
but overall they were allowed to keep their customs as long as they adhere to some different things.
And then, uh, uh, in his lifetime, Darius was also a massive supporter supporter of a very
popular religion religion at that point. It's called Zoro Zoroastrianism. Sorry. Nailed it.
Yeah. It's, it's not an easy one to say. Um, I actually wrote it down because I was like,
there's no way I'm going to be able to remember how to say that, um, shaping the religious,
the religious landscape of the empire. So, uh, I'm going to call it Zoro. Just anybody who has a
problem with me calling it that just feel free to send me an email, but I'm just going to call it
Zoro. Okay. Cause I don't want to try to say that every time and mess it up, but it's based on the
teaching of a prophet by the name of a Zoroaster or a Zara thruster, depending on who, uh, what
translation you look at, uh, who emphasized this duality of good and evil. And, uh, this,
this central belief is that there's a God by the name of Ahura Mazda, which is not the car,
by the way. Um, that's the Supreme God representing truth and light. And then there's Agra,
my not, my non you, uh, it's a spirit of chaos and darkness. And there's this cosmic struggle
that's going on, right? And when you do good, like you feed the God of light. And when you do bad,
you feed the God of darkness. And, uh, so it emphasizes like this ethical living with core
principles, good thoughts, good words, good deeds, uh, prayers, offerings, ceremony centered around
fire, which symbolizing purity and the presence of Ahura Mazda. Uh, I just can't not hear the car now.
Um, and they believe the, that in the afterlife, their souls are going to be judged based on their
deeds, the righteous being rewarded in paradise while the wicked face of punishment. Now I want
to pause here because there are a number of people that I've encountered that look at
Christianity through this lens. Yeah. And hopefully through listening to us, you understand
that this is not Christianity and it's not even close to Christianity.
But there are a number of people who believe that they're going to take their good deeds
and their bad deeds. You're going to set them on a scale in whichever one weighs heavier
is going to determine your eternal faith. You know who there's, there's another nation we've
talked about that has a similar practice to that. How many things now Ben's being facetious.
Uh, I think it was, uh, let me, uh, Egypt. Yeah. Right. Right. That's like when they're going to
the afterlife, they weigh out the good and the bad and it determines how that goes for you.
And the main reason I want to pause here, it just pause there is because I think there is a tendency
in our faith to fall into this trap of like religions that have like, God has telling a
different story on purpose. The whole story of redemption is that God is, as you live in community
with God, that he's going to walk with you. And it's not because of something you did,
but because of who he is. But when you walk with him, he calls you to walk a certain way. And, uh,
and there, there are, there are a number of people still through this day who have this idea and
inside the Christian church who have this idea that you do good and God is happy with you and
you do bad and God is mad at you. Yeah. I also want to just add one caveat on the good and bad.
Yeah. A little bit. Uh, so there's, we often view that through a Westernized modern cultural lens
of like what we interpret as good and bad. Okay. Yeah. A hundred percent. Um, and you have to
understand what we interpret as good and bad today is different than what Egypt interpreted as good
and bad in their day, which is different than what Persia interpreted as good and bad. So if, if you're
really going to dive into this and want to understand more about the, the, the thought
process, this religious system that Egypt had, that Persia had, uh, you need to take time to
also dive into what they deemed as good and what they deemed as bad. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Um,
the main, the main thrust of this is that we understand that we are, uh, we are accepted
because of whose image we're made in. And it is actually us having faith in the faithfulness of
Jesus Christ and his sacrifice that enables us to walk with God in communion. It opens this door to
the kingdom of God for us to walk in. Um, there is, there is no cosmic battle between God and the
devil. God won that a long time ago. Yeah. Um, and you know, the whole thing it's finished. Yeah.
The battle's done. War's done. He won it handily. And, uh, and now the choice for us is that, are
we going to walk in that freedom or are we going to choose to live in our old ways? Right? Yeah.
So that was the, a little aside. We're going to get back into this. So one of the things Persia
is also known for, and I've talked about a little bit, but is military strategies. Now they differed
from surrounding nations. Okay. They were more focused on expansion and defense than they were
on like siege warfare. Right. Right. So they were, uh, like I said, there were, they were a nation
of quantity, not quality. Right. Right. They actually had, uh, one of the things that can be
accounted through history about the Persian army is that they had a variety of weaponry. And that's
because as they expanded, they pulled people from local regions, created their own militia that then,
uh, led into the expansion force that Persia had. Uh, and what Persia did is like, actually,
you know how to use those weapons, keep using those. Yeah. Right. Um, and we're just going to
create a massive army. You use the weapons, you know how to use, and we're going to go take over
more nations. Well, and as you, if you think about that is like, if you go in and a nation just
surrenders to you, then you actually end up adding people to your army without having to lose anybody.
Right. So, um, obviously Babylon is conquered. Uh, he solidifies his control over Babylon. Um, and
then there's a country, the Scythian, there's a Scythian campaign. He grows and takes over Scythia.
It's, uh, modern day Ukraine is the area, um, expands, uh, Persia into the Northwest and, uh,
he starts to incorporate new territories, getting further into Egypt and, uh, and placing people in
authority there, uh, going into India. Like we talked about again, once again, um, particularly
he's going to be in the regions of like the Indus river, uh, because it's going to help increase the
empire's wealth and resources because now you're able to trade and move, um, move things at a much
more, uh, much more faster pace. Wow. I'm, I'm good at English, good at English. You're doing great.
I, I'm good at English today. Um, yeah. And then like, to your point, you're talking about the
standing army, right? Uh, the defense. So standing army. Um, so I love this, uh, Darius established a
well organized standing army known as the immortals consisting of 10,000 elite soldiers.
And this force was crucial for both the defense and, uh, expansion, providing a reliable military
presence throughout the empire. By the way, if you've seen 300, they kind of played with this a
little bit, but that was with Xerxes, but it's same idea, the immortals, right? Yeah. Um, and then, uh,
this is, this is, um, this is a piece with like every time he's advancing, he's also creating so
that they're, they're fortifying specific cities, key cities, um, and making sure like your point
with the way, the way points that there's this royal road. And so these specific places that you
can go place to place to place to place and, uh, these cities that are, are fortified and, and a
process throughout the country, right? Um, and also provide them with a warning system. Yeah.
Yeah. Absolutely. They could have a quick defense response. And if each, and if each region is
supposed to maintain a fighting force, as well as sending troops to the army, what that means is
that if you're going through and announcing, then everybody's bringing their, their fighting
troops forward, right? Um, naval power is becoming a thing at this point. Uh, so not Persia was
actually one of the main players in developing that. Yeah. And so they have this Navy not only
to protect their trade routes, but also some more support their military operations. And, uh, um,
Darius, one of the things about, uh, when they would deal with rebellion is because you have
these regional people who are in charge of handling the rebellions, if they want to maintain control
of their little kingdom, you can't have rebellion happening in your area. So their job is to make
sure that people don't rebel and the people who do rebel, you don't hear from again. Yeah. Right.
That's a fancy way of saying they get killed, but, um, thanks for the clarification. You're welcome.
I just want to make sure that, uh, people know. So this is, this is who Darius is like, so he's a,
he's a king of a, of a, of a expanding empire, um, moving into all the known places of the world.
Uh, people are, you know, there's people who are being placed in authority underneath him
and, uh, and they're just like going, going, going, going, going, going, right.
And, um, enter the back half of the book of Daniel. Um, there's a couple of places in scripture
we're going to talk about and back half of Daniel, there's a story, uh, and then in the book of Ezra
when the Israelites are being released, we're also going to be talking about that. So also just
because it's fun on the podcast is raise your hand if you realized Ezra and Daniel took place in the
same time. I mean, I did, but yeah, but, uh, it's, uh, it's, it is a little bit surprising
because sometimes we have a hard time putting these on a, uh, time timeline, right? Uh, so let me
go back to the book of Daniel. So like we were talking about last week, if you have not read
the book of Daniel recently, I would recommend, uh, reading through the story of Daniel in the
lions den, uh, because this is one that's going to be dealing specifically with Darius. Um, also
Ezra four through six, that's going to be a lot of the places where we actually hear from Darius.
Um, if you haven't read the book of Ezra, I also recommend maybe just, uh, doing the Bible project
Ezra on that as well so that you can kind of get a context for that before our conversation here.
Yeah. So, uh, when we last left, um, Daniel, when we last left Daniel, um, Nebuchadnezzar had been
humbled and then after this, there's this whole thing about the hand writing on the wall, right?
That, uh, that the destruction is coming. So destruction has come to Babylon. Now Persia
is in charge of, um, what was previously Babylon. So Darius, Darius is now in charge of this area.
Um, so Daniel has given this, this, uh, um, what was about to happen. It says that very night at
the end of chapter five, first 30, that very night, Belshazzar king of the Babylonians was slain.
Darius the mead took over the kingdom at the age of 62. Okay. And it pleased Darius to appoint
120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom with three administrators over them. One of whom was
Daniel. Okay. So Daniel apparently is real popular with people, right? Cause he's, he probably
watches them and he's like, this guy knows what he's doing. Right. Um, so Darius has taken over
and then right away, what does he do? Points Daniel and 120, uh, regional people with three
to oversee them. And all three of those report back to him. Right. So he's real, real invested
in this type of government. Right. Um, so I'm just going to read this story because I think this is,
it is an interesting story. Um, the satraps were made accountable to them, uh, to them so that the
king might not suffer loss. Now, Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators
and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole
kingdom at this, the administration, the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel
in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption
in him because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally, these men said,
we will never find any basis for charges against this man, Daniel, unless it has something to do
with the law of his God. Okay. So he sets Daniel up and he's like, he's like, you're one of three,
but because Daniel's so good at it, he's like, I'm planning on putting you just in charge of like
everything. And then you report to me. Yeah. Like you're going to be number two. Um, so I do want
to compliment Darius on, on recognizing like, yeah, he, he puts good people in authority. Um,
and then, so then you have a bunch of people who are like, well, we can't find anything negligent
about him. So let's go and attack something that doesn't actually really matter to Darius.
We're going to come at this sideways. Yeah. Right. Because Darius wants, once again, uh,
religious tolerance, he doesn't really care who you worship. As long as you give him what he's
supposed to have and administer his stuff. Well, yeah, he's like, we're good. Right.
So then what happens here? Okay. So the administrators, uh, continuing verse six,
the administrators and sat traps went as a group to the King and said, may Darius live forever.
He's 62. So that's probably not going to happen. Um, the Royal, uh, see he's probably older. Yeah.
Probably the Royal administrators, prefects, sat traps, advisors, and governors have all agreed
that the King should issue the edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any God of,
or human being during any human being during the next 30 days, except to you, your majesty should
be thrown into the lion's den. Now your majesty issued a decree and put it in writing so that it
cannot be altered in accordance with the law of the means and the Persians, which cannot be repealed.
So King Darius put the decree in writing. Okay. So quick problem here. They said
the Royal administrators, prefects, sat traps, advisors, and governors have all agreed.
Is that true? No, no. Cause who would have known that if they had agreed? Daniel, Daniel,
one of the three guys in charge. So this is a lie, but King Darius writes it in anyways.
So now when Daniel learned the decree had been published. Okay. So clearly Daniel didn't know
about it. He went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened towards Jerusalem. Three times
a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. So they went to
the King and spoke to him about his Royal decree. Did you not publish a decree that during the next
30 days, anyone who prays to any God or human being except to you, your majesty would be thrown
into the lion's den. The King answered, this decree stands in accordance with the law of the
means and the Persians, which cannot be repealed. Then they said to him, to the King, Daniel, who
is one of the exiles from Judah pays no attention to you, your majesty, or to the decrees you put
in writing. He still prays three times a day. When the King heard this, he was greatly distressed.
He was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.
Darius is very different than Nebuchadnezzar. He's like, oh, okay, yeah, if you want to.
That's fine. I don't mind being praised. Cultural tolerance, religious tolerance has been a thing
in his area. But these guys are shysty. They're like, hey, didn't you remember that rule that you
put out there that nobody could do this? He's like, oh, yeah, I remember that rule. Yeah. So
Daniel broke it and he's like, y'all set this up, didn't you? Yeah, right. But unlike Nebuchadnezzar,
who probably would have been like, I'm just going to kill you all, Darius is like, nope,
this law has been made and now we have to try to work within these confines of these rules that
have been made to rescue Daniel. One side note on Daniel here, which I'm not going to spend a ton
of time on this, but I think it's worth saying is that when Daniel learned about this decree
that puts his life in danger, he goes to God and gives thanks just like he's done before.
There's something to be said about when trials, tribulations come our way,
just continue to be who you are with God. Yeah. Yeah. That's a dynamite takeaway from that.
So he does every effort until Sunday, but he just can't figure out a way to get him out of it. So
continuing 16, so the king gave the order and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den,
which by the way, like, why do you have a den of lions? Because you can, I guess, because you can,
right? And he threw him into the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, may your God, whom you serve
continually rescue you. By the way, this is once again, Darius doesn't care that Daniel serves God
because he's fully aware. Right. And he says, may your God actually save you. So the story goes
through and, and Daniel is safe at the end. And I want to jump in here in verse 22, says the king
was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the
den, no wound was found on him because he had trusted in his God at the king's command. The men
who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lion's den along with their wives
and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed
all their bones. Then King Darius wrote to all the lions were in there. I know what they didn't eat
them. They just crushed their bones. Well, I have one, one thought here too. It's going to be
something I probably won't resolve, but I'll bring up in a second. Then King Darius wrote to all the
nations and the peoples of every English and every language in all the earth. So he sends a message
all across the nation. May you prosper greatly. I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom,
people must fear and reverence that God of Daniel, for he is the living God and he endures forever.
His kingdom will not be destroyed. His dominion will never end his rescue. He rescues any saves.
He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of
the lions. So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus, the Persian. Okay.
Um, I did think this is interesting. I just want to point this out here. He says the men who had
falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions. And the issue I have, of course,
with that is that they didn't actually falsely accuse him. They just set up the situation to
trap Daniel. And I think probably if I went into the, the Hebrew Aramaic, depending on
which portion of Daniel that is, by the way, um, the book of Daniel was written in both Hebrew and
Aramaic. So it's actually one of the most difficult books to translate. Yeah. Um, and there,
there might be a reason that some of it's written in Hebrew and some is written in Aramaic. Um,
but it's written that way on purpose. Um, but so Darius then writes to everybody. He's like,
Hey, so the idea here was, uh, to kill Daniel because of who he served,
but we recognize from this event, his God is living God, and he's the one who's going to protect
Daniel. So all throughout the nation, you need to be aware of this. God is real. Right.
Um, that's a big deal. Yeah. Like it's a really big deal. Cause once again,
we're talking about powerful people in the world. Well, you're talking about Darius who doesn't care
who you worship. He doesn't care who you worship. Yeah. Right. Right. He's, he has his religious
tolerance about him. I mean, you could say that he is a proponent of the Zorah Torah. He's a
proponent of the Zorah tourism, but, uh, but he doesn't really, but he doesn't care. Like who,
like as someone underneath him, like he doesn't care who they worship. Yeah. Right. He, he has
his religious beliefs and he's like, if you have yours, that's fine. Okay. He's saying he's like,
Oh, by the way, I have my religious beliefs. I know you have yours. Uh, Daniel's God, uh,
he's a real thing. Like he's a real deal. Yeah. Right. That's pretty big for someone who has a
religious tolerance. Yeah. Well, and it's going to be during the, uh, the reign of Darius and the
reign of Cyrus who comes after him, that, uh, the Jews are actually released from captivity and
they're sent back to, uh, Israel. Um, once again, this has to do with the way that, um, Persian,
Persian people like governed, they are like, we want you to go back to your land and run your land
and prosper in your land and give us your stuff. They want you to go back and they want you to,
to run your nation and have somebody who's placed an authority over you. And so, uh, Ezra, uh,
Nehemiah's, Reuval, they are, they ended up leaving the exile back to, um, back, not the exile, the,
the return back to Israel and, uh, Daniel stays, Daniel doesn't leave. Um, Daniel, I believe dies
in Persia and, uh, uh, I do, do love this idea that Daniel continues to be the remnant and,
and doesn't go back, but actually continues to bring Yahweh into all the world. And we're,
so we're also going to see that in the life of Esther and, and Mordecai, that they, they continue
to dwell in this, in this foreign nation. Um, and, and Darius is, he's not only going to send
people back, but he's also going to send stuff back to help them rebuild the temple. And, um,
they're going to have issues with the people who, who are in the land during that time. So when,
when they, when Ezra and, uh, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel and they're all working towards
rebuilding the temple, rebuilding the walls, all the different things that happen in,
in Ezra, Nehemiah, um, people start giving them hard, hard times. So they write a letter back to
Darius, write their letters back to, uh, serious, not serious, uh, Cyrus, they write letters back to
Cyrus and they come back in their defense, right? Um, they're like, Hey, I sent these guys here.
They're supposed to be here. You know, um, I, one of the things I do like about Darius is he doesn't
suffer people who are dumb, right? Yeah. Darius is a king where he was actually very logical and
thought thoughtful and how we went about stuff. Um, which to his credit, he didn't have the most
technologically advanced kingdom. He did, they did pioneer like naval, uh, warfare and transfer
transportations of goods via, via boats. Um, but they don't, they didn't have the siege warfare
that the Babylonians had. They didn't have anything that was listed as like a Marvel wonder of the
world type thing. Um, they were just a basic group of people that were like, we're going to get a
lot of us together and we're going to have other people instead of paying tribute, uh, which they
paid some tribute, but instead of doing that, we're going to have them make sure they have a
fighting force for when we do need to go to war. We can be like, all right, here we go. Yeah.
So they governed very differently. Well, if you think about Nebuchadnezzar and Babylonian rule is
that like, they're going to rule with an iron fist above you. Like, uh, the Persian rule by the same
metric is like, we're going to take over, but we're going to govern you with an open hand. Right?
In other words, like we're, it's, it's more of a partnership, but don't be, don't be fooled.
I run this show, right? Like, so I'm not, I don't want to pretend like Persia
didn't lay down the law if it needed to happen, but they were much more interested in having a
bunch of people that were excited to be a part of what they're doing and would add their
distinctiveness. Do you think about the Borg? Add your distinctiveness to our own. Right? Um,
that was a real nerdy joke for Star Trek people out there, right? Um, it's not quite the same
because that's, that's, yeah, it's a little different. It's a lot different than what we're
talking about, but I couldn't, I couldn't help. But when I said adding their distinctiveness to
their own, I just couldn't help it. It had to be said. So, um, but, uh, so it, it really sets up
this, there's just this different mentality that's going to happen moving forward in the ancient
world. Yeah. Right. Uh, because it's, you're kind of going to getting away from this idea of the
iron fist and you're going to see that even when the Greeks come in and when the Romans come in,
yes, they're still going to like take over people. They're still going to take over territories,
but it's less about just like, it's not brutal annihilation. It's not just carting tons of people
off into captivity. It's about how do we occupy these places and make these places look like us?
Yes. Right. How do we make these places look like the country we come from? Um, in fact,
with Rome, they're going to say, you know, all roads lead to Rome because every place that Rome
takes over is supposed to look like Rome. Right. Yeah. Which leads to Rome's downfall,
but that's another episode. So, so what would be the biggest takeaway?
And when I'm talking about King Darius, I just think that it's going to like understanding the
shift that's happening in history and how it's going to impact the Jewish people. But it also
it's how it's going to affect the story that's coming forward because you think about, uh,
you think about the time of Jesus, right? Jesus comes at a time that's not only, uh, opportune in
the life of the Israelites. And I want to say this in the way that like they are passionately
pursuing Torah. They have rabbinic school. They have people who are debating about the right ways
to follow Torah and whether or not those debates are helpful. Everybody's thinking about it. Yeah.
Right. So like their schooling system is based around like memorization of Torah and following,
uh, following rabbis and teaching and, and growing in the word of God and, and, uh,
experience of the word of God, even while they're in occupation. But, uh, we're moving towards this
direction that when Jesus actually does come and he dies and is resurrected and his disciples go
and they bring the church, now there's going to be roads that go everywhere. Right. So when the
gospel goes to spread and it's not just about Israel anymore, but it's about all nations,
there's actually going to be roads that go everywhere. Yeah. Where there's going to be
ships that can take Paul to different places and he's going to crash most of them because that's,
that's how Paul does boats. But like, uh, and there's going to be, there's going to be like,
uh, centralized laws because that's going to be a new thing. So, you know, we're going from place
to place to place to place that the, that the nation has like a centralized law. Like that's
something that Rome picks up. It's Roman laws, the same everywhere, right? This starts with
Persia. We're starting on this road towards a place where when the gospel spreads, it's able
to spread like wildfire and humanity thinks that they were the ones that came up with it.
But God is like moving things along to the point where, uh, when the time was right in the fullness
of time is how they're going to say it. Christ came. Yeah. And because of the time that they came,
it was the most opportune time. I said inopportune. It is the most opportune time for him to come
in history as well, because it's able to spread like wildfire across the known world. And so,
and not only that, like Jews have been carted off into like Ukrainian areas and Turkey and like all
these different places because of captivity. And so you still have the Daniels and you have the
esters who have Jewish heritage in these outlying areas. And they say, Hey, the Jewish Messiah
finally came. And they're like, Oh, I'm a Jew. Right. And so like when we're reading about a
king like Darius, uh, you seeing how God is, is, uh, working with humanity throughout is a big deal.
Yeah. Uh, the other piece I think is, is what does it mean to be a Daniel in a land when that isn't
following God, when it costs you everything, when you were in trouble, where do you run for help?
You know, um, I, I do think it's important to note that Daniel doesn't go and pray in the town
square. He's still just praising his house, but he does not close the window because he's praying
towards Jerusalem. Right. And he gets caught, but he's not just going and flaunting it in front of
people. Yeah. But he also does not betray who he is. He still prays three times a day, like he's
going to, uh, what does it, what does it mean to be a follower of Yahweh in a land that's not serving
him? You're going to look different. You're going to look different. And even if your character is
impeachable, um, impeccable, that's what I'm looking for. Impeachable would be something else.
Even if your character is impeccable and everything was impeachable and everything
and everything that you do is, is, is, um, good.
People will still find ways to come after you. Yeah. And what you do in that moment tells a lot
about who you follow. Exactly. Yeah. So
I would say that with this life circumstances doesn't, uh, does not dictate who you are.
Right. And that's a, that's a lie. We've kind of been fed by a culture, the enemy, whoever you
want to say, or we'll be like, Oh, well, they're just have some tough situations right now. So
that dictates who they are. I was like, no, you are a child of God. Like you are reborn into his
image. You are reborn into his likeness. You have been redeemed, saved from your sinful self. Um,
if life sucks right now, that doesn't change that. Correct. It doesn't change that. If life's great
right now, it doesn't change that. Uh, when we lean into that, uh, that call of who we are,
the child of God adopted into his family, uh, he realizes it doesn't matter your life circumstances
because you not serve in this kingdom. You're not serving this world. You are serving the God most
high. One of the things you should note, note as we're in a week five of this Kings and kingdoms
is God uses very different types of people. Um, and these other Kings that are not Jewish Kings,
right? So you have Melchizedek who's largely a priest King, right. And a follower of God most
high. Yes. And Nechareb who is just a brutal fighter, right. And a guy gets a little high
on his own supply, right. You have Necho the second who wants to reclaim the glory of Egypt,
right. You have, uh, you have Nebuchadnezzar who is the single most powerful person in the world
and is determined for you to know it, but is also a servant of God. Right. And then you have Darius
who's largely an administrator, right. A person who's setting up an elaborate system in order to
consolidate power, but also to maintain power throughout a nation. Um, when we talk about
Asuwaras, he's different, even though he's still Persian, right. Uh, Herod the great is going to
be different. Caesar Augustus is going to be different. And in the middle of all these
situations, the, uh, the, I think maybe this, this takes on a little bit of different flavor,
especially with us just recently, uh, having election season, who is in charge doesn't matter
so much as that God is on his throne, which spoiler alert God is on his throne. And so we're
like, Oh, well, if so and so gets elected, the world is going to fall apart. And I was like,
listen, I've seen Seneke, I've seen Neco, I've seen Nebuchadnezzar, I've seen Darius, we're going to
see Asuwaras, we're going to see Herod the great, we're going to see Caesar Augustus. Uh, we could
list a hundred other ones. Yeah. And in all of those, God's will is accomplished. God's kingdom
moves forward. Yeah. Uh, Kings and kingdoms like God works in the middle of them to accomplish
his purposes. And he is always after everybody, even the terrible people that we don't like.
Mm hmm. Amen. And, uh, and that is a theme that you should be catching through this mini series.
Yes. Is that God works for all types of people. Yeah. Well, join us next week as we talk about
the, I'm going to butcher this, Asuwaras. Yeah. You're going to have to practice that before next
week. Asuwaras. Yeah. Uh, by the way, if you're having a kid, just saying Asuwaras. Yeah. Also,
uh, avoid those Mazdas. Um, the, uh, not a sponsor. Yeah, not a sponsor. All right. Uh,
so yeah, join us next week. Thanks. And that's a wrap for today's episode of Love and Context.
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