God’s Word for You
Daniel 6:3 Another promotion
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, October 27, 2025
3 Now this same Daniel distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps because an excellent spirit was in him, so that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.
Sometime after the fall of Babylon and the appointment of the new satraps by Darius the Mede, Daniel distinguished himself. He was a “sarach,” an administrator of the satraps (there were just three of these). This tells us how he came into the king’s orbit, as it were, since as a chief (or “prince”) administrator, he was advising and working with the king on a regular basis. Whether this was about the police force, or taxation, or public safety matters, or all three, we are not told, but those were the usual areas of responsibility for the satraps.
In particular, we learn that it was Daniel’s “excellent spirit” that got the king thinking about promoting him further. What might this have been? “Excellent spirit” is the way many translations take the phrase (ruach yathira, KJV, ESV, RSV). The Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV) has “outstanding spirit.” NIV has “exceptional qualities.” The Latin Vulgate is more interpretive, with ‘spiritus Dei’ (“Spirit of God” / “Godly spirit”). The same phrase also occurs in Daniel 5:12 (also in Aramaic), where the Babylonian Queen announced that Daniel had “a good mind / keen mind.” Perhaps this fits our context here as well.
God gives us gifts that will suit his plan for the time and place in which we live. Daniel had something that the Mede, Darius, needed. Perhaps he didn’t even realize it. But consider what Darius was: He was a newly appointed ruler among people he did not know, in a culture he did not fully understand. Daniel had also been brought to Babylon as an outsider, and (1) he could appreciate the need Darius had to understand the people, the culture, and some of the more subtle details of Babylon as opposed to his native Medea. (2) Daniel understood the value of having a ruler who had an appreciation of these things. As a believer in the true God and a man who honored God and strove to keep his commandments, he clearly held no grudge against this outsider becoming king. To Daniel, Darius was the new king, and that was it. He was to be obeyed, just as Joseph obeyed Pharaoh in Egypt—even doing the king the service of shaving and changing out of his prison clothes before his first audience with the king so as not to be an embarrassment (Genesis 41:14).
Perhaps in Daniel’s dealings with kings of Babylon, Persia, and this king (or viceroy?) from Medea, the prophet displays for us an excellent example of what Paul calls “gentleness” in Philippians 4:5, “Let your gentleness be known to everyone.” There, the term for “gentleness” (τὸ ἐπιεικές) has two points of view. It is the generosity of a superior (such as a prince or master) who can exercise his goodwill toward the people under him (2 Maccabees 9:27), or the willingness of an inferior to be mistreated by his superior for the sake of the gospel and out of love for Christ (1 Peter 2:18). It is both “a readiness to forgive” and “a restraint in the use of power.” We will have more to say about this word when we meditate on Philippians together after we have reached the end of Daniel. But Daniel had the ability to show his wisdom, gentleness, moderation, magnanimity, reasonableness, and his “excellent spirit” before the king.
We see, then, how Daniel’s faith shone through, even if Darius could not quite express it with his own words. Daniel showed himself to be a man who was well worth having around, for his advice, for his insight, for his point of view. Therefore the king had it in mind to promote Daniel to a position that one might call Prime Minister. In all of this, God shows us how he has a constant hand in preserving his people and his church. Along with creation, preservation is one of the primary roles that we see displayed by God the Father in the Bible. He “graciously gives us all things” (Romans 8:32). He opens his hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing (Psalm 145:16). And more than this, “He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them” (Psalm 145:19). He watches over us at all times, using his angels, using parents and the government, using the usual course of nature, but also using whatever supernatural means are necessary. The Lord does not skimp, but he gives to us generously, filling up both our flesh and our spirit with all good things.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.