Here’s something worth noticing about how Daniel’s enemies finally moved against him in Daniel 6:6-9. Once the investigation into his character came up completely empty, you’d expect them to give up. Instead, innocence didn’t slow the conspiracy down. It accelerated it.

And notice their approach. They didn’t come to King Darius with accusations, because they didn’t have any. Verse 7 shows them gathering with flattering language, appealing directly to his pride, convincing him to sign a decree that for thirty days, no one could petition any god or man except the king himself, under penalty of being thrown into a den of lions. Read that decree carefully, because it has nothing to do with national security or government efficiency. It was never about protecting the kingdom. It was written for one specific reason. His name was Daniel.

Think about what that actually means. An entire government, an entire empire’s worth of officials, conspired together against one faithful old man who had done absolutely nothing wrong. He hadn’t stolen, hadn’t lied, hadn’t cheated, hadn’t organized any kind of rebellion against the throne. His only offense was that everyone already knew exactly where he stood and exactly who his faithfulness belonged to.

That pattern hasn’t changed. Our enemy will tolerate an enormous amount of religion, as long as it stays private, as long as it never actually challenges the authority of the surrounding culture. He’ll tolerate church attendance, a bit of visible spirituality, even genuine religious devotion, right up until the moment that faith becomes public enough to be inconvenient for somebody else. The instant conviction becomes visible in a way that exposes compromise around it, the response shifts fast, and it rarely comes as an honest accusation. It usually comes dressed up as something else entirely, flattery, policy, procedure, concern.

Jesus told His disciples plainly in John 15:18, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” That’s worth remembering here, because the attack in Daniel 6 was never really against Daniel personally. It was against Daniel’s God, using Daniel as the most convenient target available. The enemy understood something crucial about where Daniel’s actual strength came from. It wasn’t his position, his influence, or his political wisdom. It was his relationship with God, and if that relationship could somehow be interrupted, everything else about Daniel would eventually follow.

That’s still the enemy’s basic strategy today. Attack the prayer life first. Attack the source of strength before attacking anything visible. Because if the connection to God can be severed or worn down, whatever faithfulness followed from it will eventually erode right along with it.

Notice, too, how patient this whole scheme was. Daniel’s enemies didn’t panic and improvise once their investigation failed. They regrouped, studied him further, and eventually built an entire piece of legislation around one man’s conviction. That’s a level of patience worth taking seriously, because it means the pressure against genuine faith rarely shows up as a single dramatic moment. It shows up gradually, disguised as policy or procedure, aimed less at what someone does wrong and more at simply making faithfulness illegal or inconvenient enough that it quietly stops.