Knowingly Sinning, Knowingly Obeying

[Daniel 5:22, 6:10]

Last week, I met with my mechanic friend who did not want to sell his conscience in order to earn more money.  For example, a customer came and asked him the price for fixing her car.  He said $80 even though he could ask for $250-300.  But her facial expression seemed like even $80 was too much.  So my friend asked her ‘How much do you want to pay me?’  And she said $50.  So he just received $50.  You see, he could charge her $250-300.  But he didn’t.  You know why?  It was because his conscience didn’t allow him to do that.  In a word, he didn’t want to knowingly do thing that he was not suppose to do.  As result, he still is struggling financially.  But he earns people’s trust.  Moreover, he told me that he is changed.  He got more patience than before.  If you were in my friend’s situation, would you charge your customer more than you supposed to even though you know you are charging her more than you suppose to?

When we look at the today’s passage Daniel 5:22 and 6:10, we meet two people named Belshazzar, a king of Babylonia, and Daniel whom you and I know.  One person knowingly committed sin against God.  Another person knowingly obeyed God’s command even though he knew that if he does so he would be thrown into the lions’ den.  The first person that I want to talk about is King Belshazzar.  What he knew was that his father King Nebuchadnezzar’s heart became arrogant and hardened with pride and God took away his royal throne and stripped of his glory (5:20).  But King Belshazzar did not humble himself (v.22) but rather had set himself up against the Lord of heaven (v.23).  As a result, maybe he was exalted among a thousand of his nobles who drank wine with him (v.1), God took away his life (v.30).  The second person that I want to talk about is one of the administrators in Babylonia Daniel.  Other two administrators and the satraps (leaders of the Babylonia) didn’t like him.  So they tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs (6:4).  But they could find no corruption in him, because Daniel was trustworthy man (v.4).  So finally, the other two administrators and the satraps 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” (v.5).  So they went as a group to the king Darius (v.6) and persuaded him to issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days, except King Darius, he should be thrown into the lions’ den (v.7). So the king Darius put the decree in writing (v.9 that cannot be altered in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians (v.8).  Knowing that the decree had been published, Daniel went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to God just as he had one before three times a day (v.10).  As a result, Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den (v.16).  But God rescued him from the power of the lions (v.27) because he trusted in his God (v.23).

What do you think about these two men?  Are you like Daniel who obeys God’s command in praying to God even though you know you will be thrown into the lions’ den?  Or are you like King Belshazzar who did not humble himself but rather had set himself up against the Lord?  It is my hope and prayer that all of us can be like Daniel who obey God even though we know that we will be persecuted and even maybe get killed.  How can we do that?  We can do that by trusting our God who can rescue us from even the lions’ den.  May God bless you!

Wanting to be like Daniel,

James Kim