Who is Darius?
Basically, no one knows.
Cambyses?
son/successor of cyrus; referred to as 'king of babylon' in some texts.
but...probably wouldn't have been 62 years old when Babylon was captured, and probably wouldn't be considered median.
Gubaru?
governer of Babylon immediately after city was captured (when Cyrus ascended [539] until the fifth year of his son Cambyses [525/524BC]).
some like to interpret the passive language in 5:31 ('received the kingdom') and 9:1 ('was made ruler') as evidence that he
was acting as a subruler under someone else. of course he could be 'receiving' from god as well...
possibly the same person as 'Ugbaru', the general of Cyrus' army
Cyrus?
Perhaps either Cyrus or Darius was a title? Or perhaps Cyrus had two names (one persian, one median?)
Cyrus' age seems to match.
Babylon was Cyrus' winter residence (according to Xenophon)
6:28 "Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus" could be "even in the reign of Cyrus"
Someone else?
maybe there is data we don't have yet?
long and short - we're not sure, but that was the problem with belshazzar up until 80 years ago.
Daniel does good work and gets promoted (Dan 6:1-3).
Daniel, who had faded into relative obscurity by chapter 5, is being put to use by his new master, Darius.
He is so good at his job that Darius makes him one of three commissioners over the whole kingdom and is planning on putting him in charge
of the commissioners as well.
Jealously causes Daniel's coworkers to plot to have him killed.
Certain government officials become jealous of Daniel and look to find something to use against him.
Try as they might, they can find no fault in Daniel (!).
The 'evil coworkers' devise a scheme to trap Daniel: make it against the law to pray. Darius falls for the scheme and signs the plot into law.
Realizing that they're not going to find any dirt on Daniel, the 'evil coworkers' decide to change the law to make Daniel a criminal.
They convince Darius to make it a law that all prayers must be made to Darius only for the next 30 days (upon penalty of death via lions).
Darius signs the law, unaware that he was participating in a plot to have the employee of the month killed.
Daniel prays and gets in trouble.
Daniel does not stop praying (praying and giving thanks), despite the newly minted law.
The evil coworkers approach the king with the accusation, and Daniel is busted.
The king, realizing that Daniel is in trouble, works to try to find a way to deliver Daniel.
Note the rule of law evident in Persian government; this was not an invention of the Magna Carta...
Daniel spends the night in the lions den...
At the end of the day, the king can find no way to save Daniel, so Daniel is thrown to the lions, with the king encouraging Daniel
that "Your God whom you constantly serve will Himself deliver you."
Daniel spends a night with the lions, while the king spends the night sleepless and worried.
Darius finds Daniel alive, praises God to his entire nation, and has the evil coworkers (and their wives and children) killed.
In the morning, the king checks on Daniel...and finds him unharmed.
The king orders the evil coworkers to be thrown to the lions, along with their families.
note the details of the lions:
the lions weren't tame or full...
they devoured everyone who came in after daniel.
classic situational irony (see esther with haman's gallows)
Finally...What do the good kings in Daniel do? They issue proclamations of God's glory to their entire kingdoms (note that Belshazzar didn't).
Rebellion By The Book
An example of when to disobey authority.
On the whole, the Bible goes to pains to remind us to obey authorities, even at great personal cost.
Rom 13:1,2
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
This is a great example of when to feel free to ignore the rules; if it comes into conflict with God's law, ditch it.
hierarchy of ethics, etc...
An example of how to obey authority.
More notable than Daniel's disobedience to the 'anti-prayer law' is his strict obedience to the Persian law.
Note that his evil coworkers would not have been checking for Daniel to eat pepperoni or violate Jewish law; they would have been
trying to find a place where he violated Persian law.
And they couldn't find anything.
May the same be true of our family.
The difference between good kings and bad?
If we missed the difference between good and bad kings earlier, this story reinforces it; good kings give God credit publically.
Be careful to give God credit...
Both Daniel and Darius are noted for their thankfulness to God (Daniel gives thanks to God three times daily, Darius writes
a letter to his subjects).