6 Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, “O King Darius, live forever! 7 All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction, that whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. 8 Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.” 9 Therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction. ~ Daniel 6:6-9
The Scriptures said that it pleased King Darius to set over the whole kingdom, 120 satraps. A satrap was a governor of a province or a ruler. So, the kingdom was probably divided into 120 provinces, and each province had a governor, or some high-ranking official called a satrap over each one.
Then the king was pleased to set three top officials over the 120 satraps Daniel 6:1-2. Everything was working out just fine until envy set in. You see, Daniel began to distinguish himself from the others by his work ethic and his honesty. So, the king was further pleased to set Daniel over them all.
That’s when they had enough of Mr. Goody Two Shoes, and that green-eyed giant of envy raised his nasty head. And they began to plot. They tried to find some kind of dirt on Daniel, anything, anything at all. But try as they may, they could not find anything because Daniel was an honest, hardworking, squeaky-clean man. Righteous in all of his ways.
They came to the conclusion that they would never find anything illegal against him. So, they would have to invent something. But that is nothing new; it still happens today.
Envy is a terrible slave master. It will make you do some despicable things, not excluding lying with the intent to cause murder, as these men did.
It knows no bounds. It knows no limits. It has no friends. It has no loyalty. Envy is a cunning emotion, and these men were caught in its vice grip.
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