I. This story illustrates the fact that God often seems to crown the machinations of the wicked against the good with success.
II. The story illustrates the insidiousness of sin in drawing men into extremes of guilt which they never planned for.
III. The story illustrates the supremacy of duty over intrigue in the defence of the right.
IV. The story of Daniel illustrates the need which human governments often experience, of something like an atonement for the violation of law.
V. The story suggests that God's deliverance of the good is often by methods in which the marvellous borders upon the miraculous.
VI. The story illustrates, finally, the fact that the rescue of the good often involves the destruction of the wicked, by a very subtle law which may be called the law of retributive reaction. The enemies of the prophet-statesman fell when he was restored.
A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book,p. 277.