The Spotless Bride
Tiffany Ann Lewis

The book of Daniel is filled with many wondrous things, but one stood out above the rest to me this month, Daniel’s spotless character.  Chapter 6:3-4 says that the Lord had distinguished him above King Darius’s other high-ranking officials.  They became jealous and sought to find some charge against him.  They looked and looked but could find nothing to incriminate him with.  When there is no secret sin in you, they cannot find fault with you.

As I thought of Jesus’ return for a bride who is without spot or blemish, (Eph. 5:17) I had a vision of a bride in her beautiful white gown.  There were large hands sewing sequence on her dress.  The fingers were not picking up gleaming jewels; they were picking up every hidden motive, every jealousy, every word of gossip, every secret sin and carefully sewing them on the front of the dress where the adorning jewels should be.

I imagined myself standing before Jesus and Him looking at my dress and seeing all the spots on it.  Things that were hidden were now in clear view to the Lord.  My “inside voice” was now sewn all over my dress for my Bridegroom’s eyes to see.

Looking into Dan. 6 as the backdrop for this vision, let’s see what motives are revealed. 

• Jealousy:
  The chain of events that follow all began with jealousy.  Daniel was getting all the attention, he was the one called upon when the King needed something.  Now the king was even thinking of giving Daniel another promotion putting him in charge of the whole realm.  The high-ranking officials’ jealousy burned so hot they didn’t just want Daniel removed from the kingdom; they wanted Daniel dead. 

We do that with our tongue, don’t we?  Motivated by jealousy we will cut people down with our words in order to make ourselves look better.  With our slander we will kill them our at least try to remove them from the position we want.

Manipulation:
Because these men knew Daniel had no faults, knocking him down to make themselves look better wasn’t going to work, they had no faults to work with.  They needed to manipulate the situation in order to get what they wanted.  They did this by stroking the king’s ego.  By appealing to his pride and vanity they were going to get their way.  Saying, “King Darius, live forever!  We love you o’ king~you ‘da man!  We believe that because you are so awesome that you alone should receive prayer, you should be like a god for 30 days straight.  In fact, make it a royal decree that if someone breaks it that he/she would be cast into the den of lions”.  (vs. 6-9 my interpretation)

I learned very early in my marriage that if I want my husband to do something around the house, nagging him was not way it gets done.  When I manipulated him with praise I got what I wanted.  These men lavished praise on the king so they could get their own way.   They didn’t care if the king got the praise or not, their motive was to set a trap for Daniel.

Pride/Vanity:
The king wasn’t looking for a 30-day praise party, but because the false flattery of his associates it didn’t seem like a bad idea.  He made a vow that was going to break his heart.  It never entered into his mind that Daniel was going to suffer a consequence due to his decision.  When he found out what happened because of the decision he had made, the king was greatly displeased with himself.  He set his heart to change the matter and deliver Daniel, but it was too late, there was nothing the king could do about it.  Daniel was brought before the king for his sentence.  King Darius gave the command and even sealed the cave with his ring. 

Decisions motivated out of pride bring immense remorse because they are not motivated out of love.  Seeing the consequences knowing it was his fault and that he was the one who put his ring to it because it felt good when they were stroking his pride broke the king’s heart and it will break ours too.

Revelation 19:7 says there is a wedding on the horizon and the bride has made herself ready.  Glory be to God that Jesus has loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.  What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus. (Rev. 1:5)  But there is still a “readying that we must get”.  The friend of God is satisfied with blood redemption.  The bride wants to be pure, holy and pleasing to her Bridegroom not only to fulfill what He requires but to bring a smile to her Beloved’s face and pleasure to His heart. 

We can’t change our heart, but we can ask Him to change it.  We can cry out to Him “Come, Lord!”  Inviting Him to “search and know my heart and if, nay when, You find any secret sin in me, just slay it O’ God”.  Allowing Him access to the hidden areas of our being, revealing and removing what is not pleasing to Him.  (Ps. 139:23-24)

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” 
Rev. 22:17

Tune in next month for part 2 of this series: "An Ace In The Pocket - The Leaning Bride"