Empires come and go. Nations rise and fall. Armies march across the landscape of this sin-cursed planet, leave horrific marks of devastation, and then vanish with hardly a trace. Great civilizations such as the Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, Egyptians, and the ancient Assyrians leave only scattered bits of stone and brick as evidence of their existence.
Amid the changing sands of time, there is only One Who never changes. Biblical Christianity endures because it is established upon the eternal Word of God which flows from God Himself. The living God of the Bible is “stedfast for ever” (Daniel 6:26). An anonymous poem, widely distributed, about the enduring power of God’s Word contains these memorable lines about the Bible:
Century follows century—there it stands.
Empires rise and fall and are forgotten—there it stands.
Kings are crowned and uncrowned—there it stands.
Despised and burned and torn to pieces—there it stands.
Unbelief abandons it—there it stands.
Atheists rail against it—there it stands.
We can be grateful that Biblical Christianity is the one and only thing that is steadfast forever. This phrase describing the God of the Bible as “stedfast for ever” came not from the lips of an Israelite prophet or a priest but was part of a royal proclamation by a Persian ruler named Darius!
Daniel 6 contains the well-known story of Daniel in the lions’ den. The faithful Hebrew prophet refused to alter his behavior in the face of a royal decree. The decree demanded that no man in the Persian Empire could worship or pray to any deity except King Darius for a span of thirty days.
Regardless of the decree, Daniel maintained his usual practice. Just as he always did, before his open window Daniel prayed to Jehovah. The man did not fear to obey his God publicly and consistently. Daniel’s boldness led to his arrest by those who plotted against him. King Darius found himself trapped by the decree he had issued and could not be revoked, as the prophet he respected was accused and brought before him.
Guilty of defying the king’s decree, Daniel was thrown into a pit of ravenous lions, beasts kept in a state of starvation so they would devour any man who had come under the displeasure of the fickle whims of the Persian government.
That night, King Darius could not sleep! At daybreak, the king hurried to the mouth of the lions’ pit to inquire of Daniel. He was astonished to hear the voice of the prophet rising to answer his question, “O king, live for ever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt” (Daniel 6:21–22).
After the relieved Persian king commanded that the Hebrew prophet be drawn up from the lions’ den, he then commanded that the wicked plotters and schemers be thrown to the lions in the place of the righteous man they had tried to kill. According to Scripture, “the lions had the mastery of them” (Daniel 6:24). The ravenous beasts devoured the evil men, even before their bodies reached the floor of the den.
King Darius then issued a new royal proclamation. It was issued following this miraculous event and at a time when world powers were shifting. The days of the Medo-Persian Empire were days of massive global change. The Egyptian Empire, the master of the world for centuries, was in decline. The Assyrian Empire, dominating the battlefield for many years with their fearful famous war chariots, was a power no more. Even the mighty Babylonian Empire, the “head of gold” in the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, had crumbled into decay. The Greeks were still a loose collection of city states. Rome was not yet even considered as a global power.
In light of this transient history of changing global power, at the dawn of the Persian Empire, there was no single stabilizing power on planet earth. Even the Persian hegemony existed by a tenuous agreement between the Medes and the Persians that could fall apart at any moment.
In the midst of the shifting of world powers and Persia’s own tenuous stability, King Darius marveled at the faithful, eternal rule of Daniel’s God. In recognition of this powerful God, the king issued his new royal decree. “Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions” (Daniel 6:25–27).
The Persian king recognized that Daniel’s God was steadfast. The Aramaic word can be translated as “sure, unchanging.” Unlike the Persian monarchs and deities that changed their minds and altered their own decrees, the God of the Bible was unchanged by time and circumstance. In the very effort of the Persians to enforce the rule that decrees could not be altered, we see the people’s longing for stability. This stability could only be found in Daniel’s unchanging God.
Today we also live in the midst of global change. Western European nations that were once global powers have greatly diminished, while other nations that were not powerful a century ago are now mighty and prosperous. The military, economic, and societal power and influence of many nations, including the United States, are continually under assault or being undermined from within and without because the foundations of truth are being destroyed.
Only one thing in the universe is immutable, and that is the prophet Daniel’s God. He is still the living God. He is steadfast forever. His kingdom shall not be destroyed. May God give us the faith to place our confidence in Him, and in Him alone.
