Daniel 6:24

Those men which had accused Daniel.

Righteous Retribution

The Bible from first to last is a revelation of God’s active, personal, and intelligent presence in the affairs of men; and its elementary principles without which all approach to God is impossible, are, first, that there is a God, and secondly, that he rewards and punishes. (Hebrews 11:1; Hebrews 6:1). Daniel recognised the presence of this divine power when he said that “God had sent His angel, and shut the lions’ mouths.” The sole difference between miracle and providence is, that in the former ease the ordinary laws of nature are suspended and interfered with by a higher power; in the latter nature is made to do the will of God in conformity with its usual way of working. And these two ways of acting have had each a suitableness for the times when God used them. The reason of this deliverance Daniel finds in the just government of God. For Daniel’s enemies there was a fearful retribution. They had digged a pit, and fallen into the midst of it themselves. In Daniel’s wonderful preservation both the king and all who had not shared in the crime saw emphatic proof of the guilt of the conspirators. Their own execution was most just, but our feelings revolt at the inclusion in the sentence of their wives and children. But that seems to have been the Persian custom. It is explained by the solidarity of interest between the members of the same family or of the same nation. The sins of one member of a family often involve all in ruin. A whole nation has to pay the penalty of the fault of its statesmen; a whole army is destroyed by the incapacity of its general. But equally all share in the results of the virtues, the wisdom, the ability of their leaders, and it would be a poor world if it were not so. (Dean Payne Smith.)