God’s Word for You

Daniel 6:14 No rescue for Daniel

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, November 2, 2025

14 When the king heard these things he was very upset, and he set his mind to rescue Daniel. He tried very hard to save him until the sun went down.

We continue to see a foreshadowing here of the trial of Jesus our Lord. As it was with Darius, so it would be with Pontius Pilate. Darius had nothing against Daniel. Quite the reverse, he had planned to promote the prophet to a position over all of the satraps of Babylon. He respected Daniel, admired him, and appreciated his worth. It’s certain that he even liked the old prophet.

He “set his mind to rescue Daniel.” But his imagination was not up to the task, not even to match his determination or his desire. What things did he try? No law could help. The law was completely against him. It was likely that by now the jealous satraps had instructed the guards to be careful not to allow even the king’s orders to contradict what had now been set down in the Laws of the Medes and Persians. Oh, who “could fetch him from the manacles of the all-building law? For that there were no earthly means to save him.” No amount of force, no application of the law, no caper with a secret key and a ladder under cover of darkness could rescue Daniel now. For Daniel, the full force of Persian law condemned him. On an infinitely greater scale, the full force of divine law swung down with all its might on the body of Jesus. Without a single complaint he received the punishment of all of the sins of mankind. “He was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5).

When Pilate tried to set Jesus free, he reasoned with the chief priests of the Jews. He told them to try him under their own law. But since they couldn’t have him killed under their law, they forced Pilate to try his case (John 18:31).

But Pilate tried to pass Jesus off to Herod since he was a Galilean. And although that act brought Pilate and Herod together into friendship, it did nothing at all to spare Jesus’ life (Luke 23:11-12). Herod sent the Lord back to Pilate.

Next, Pilate appealed to Jesus to defend himself against their obviously empty and pitiful accusations. “‘Don’t you hear how many things that they are testifying against you?’ (he asked). But Jesus gave him no answer, not one word, so that the governor was very much amazed” (Matthew 27:13-14).

After this, Pilate tried to get the people to ask for Jesus to be released by offering a choice between Jesus and a murderer named Barabbas. “But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead” (Mark 15:11). The priests of the Jews would settle for nothing less than the death of Jesus Christ. “O piteous spectacle! O bloody times!” They would not rest until Jesus was dead and buried.

What had Jesus done? What had Daniel done? Even Daniel, a sinful man, could ask about his arrest, “See how they lie in wait for me! Fierce men conspire against me for no offense or sin of mine, O LORD. I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Arise to help me; look on my plight!” (Psalm 59:3-4). But that passage is more fully a prophecy about Christ, arrested and put on trial in our place.

Pilate was even warned by his wife not to hurt Jesus on account of a dream she had (Matthew 27:19). Did the wife of Darius warn her husband the king? It was enough that the heart and conscience of Darius were warning him. But he couldn’t think of anything that would work.

These scenes draw us to the inevitable sentencing of Daniel, but it draws our thoughts to the inevitable sentencing of our Savior. What he did, he did out of love for us, having known in eternity that he would do this for us. He was “a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world” (1 Peter 1:19-20). Our heavenly Father loved us so much that he gave his one and only Son that we might live through him.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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