Praying to Darius

In the days in which we live we, as Christians, must be faithful to keep a few things in mind. One, we win. Two, darkness loses . . . every time.  Now, the darkness occasionally wins a battle here and there, but those “victories” are more like the defense calling an all out blitz on Peyton Manning only to realize that they left the receivers wide open. Sure, they were fast off the line . . . but that victory is short-lived, as Manning launches a bullet to the end zone. The defense, then, has very little to actually celebrate.

Increasingly, our government views itself as the answer to everything. Ironically, this is nothing novel. We ought not to be surprised that human governments view themselves as indispensable; they seem to have a track record of concluding that. The lust for power inevitably leads to the worship of demons. The lust for votes inevitably leads to sacrificing our children to Molech. The lust to rule with a pen and phone, without any sort of accountability, always leads to idolatry.

When this sort of government overreach takes place, we ought to take our cue from how godly men of old handled such situations. A couple thousand years ago, in Persia, the presidents and princes of the land had drafted a great piece of legislation. It even reached across the aisle. We are told in Daniel 6:6-9 that they “assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever. All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree.” King Darius signed an executive order that had support of all branches of government; it even had the guarantee of no pork being snuck into it.

As a rule of thumb, when governments and kings conclude that the population should only pray to it, lions’ dens and fiery furnaces are the consequence for civil disobedience. Our current political climate is not far from passing a permutation of Darius’ law. It will likely read differently, and probably won’t say explicitly “you must pray to the US government.” It will, however, use words like “mandatory regulations,” “universal healthcare,” “fair share,” “hope,” “change,” “clean out Washington,” etc.

The Christian’s response is to open the window, in view of the public, and pray to the One true God, anyway . . . and pack their bags for the lions’ den, protesting the Government’s overreach the whole way there.