35 Daniel

Daniel - There are some striking similarities between the life of Daniel and that of Jacob’s son Joseph. Both of them prospered in foreign lands after interpreting dreams for their rulers, and both were elevated to high office as a result of their faithfulness to God. It will be hard to summarize Daniel.

Daniel was well trained.. along with three friends of his, after three years of training they are put into the Kings service.

Daniel’s first sign of faithfulness to God was when he and his friends rejected the rich food and wine from the king’s table, because they deemed it a defilement, and became vegetarians. As their health improved, they were permitted to continue with their chosen diet. In their education, the four men from Judah became knowledgeable in all Babylonian matters, and Daniel was given by God the ability to understand dreams and visions of all kinds just like Joseph.

The king at the time was, Nebuchadnezzar, and he was troubled with a dream that he could not interpret. His magicians and astrologers were unable to interpret his dream, much less to know what the dream was. The king decreed that all the wise men, including Daniel and his companions, must be put to death. However, after Daniel sought God in prayer, the mystery of the king’s dream was revealed to Daniel, and he was taken to the king to interpret it. Daniel immediately attributed his ability to interpret dreams to the one true God. The key feature of the dream, as Daniel told it to the king, was that one day there will be a kingdom set up by God that will last forever, and that it will destroy all previous kingdoms known to man. Daniel and his three friends were placed in positions of high authority. Just like Joseph..

In time, King Nebuchadnezzar built a huge golden statue and decreed that all his people bow down and worship it at the given signal. His decree went on to say that whoever refused to bow down to it would be thrown into a blazing furnace. Word reached the king that Daniels three friends were not worshiping his gods or the statue, and so they were summoned to Nebuchadnezzar’s court. Faced with being thrown into a blazing furnace, the three faithfully announced that their God could rescue them from the fire, but even if He did not, they would not bow down to the image. The furnace was so hot, seven times its normal heat, that the king’s soldiers were killed while putting the three into it. Then Nebuchadnezzar saw that there were four men in the furnace, completely unbound and walking about and that the fourth figure looked like he was a son of a God . When the king called them out of the furnace, he and his governors were amazed to find that not a single hair of their heads had been scorched, nor was there even the merest smell of fire about them. God protected them, God has a plan.

King Nebuchadnezzar had a second dream, and, not for the first time, he acknowledged that Daniel had the spirit of his holy God within him and was able to interpret his dream. Daniel’s interpretation of the dream was fulfilled, and, after a period of insanity, Nebuchadnezzar was restored to his kingdom, and he praised and honored Daniel’s God as the most High.

Daniel excelled in his duties as one of the administrators to such a degree that the King was contemplating making him head over all the kingdom. This infuriated the other administrators so much that they looked for a way to bring Daniel down. They encouraged the King to issue a decree forbidding his subjects from praying to any of their gods for the next thirty days. The penalty for disobeying was to be thrown into a den of lions. Daniel, however, continued to pray so openly to God that he could be seen at his bedroom window doing so. With much regret the king gave the order for Daniel to be thrown into the lions’ den, but not without a prayer that Daniel’s God would rescue him. The next day when Daniel was found alive and well, he told the king that God had sent an angel to shut the lions’ mouths and so he remained unharmed. This resulted in the King sending out a decree that all his subjects were to worship the God of Daniel. And Daniel continued to prosper throughout the King’s reign.

The lesson from the life of Daniel is that he exercised great integrity and, in doing so, received the respect and affection of the powerful rulers he served. However, his honesty and loyalty to his masters never led him to compromise his faith in the one true God. Rather than it being an obstacle to his success, Daniel’s continual devotion to God brought him the admiration of the unbelievers in his circle. When delivering his interpretations, he was quick to give God the credit for his ability to do so. It is always God’s credit.. never mans.

Daniel’s integrity as a man of God gained him favor with the secular world, yet he refused to compromise his faith in God. Even under the intimidation of kings and rulers, Daniel remained steadfast in his commitment to God. Daniel also teaches us that, no matter who we are dealing with, no matter what their status is, we are to treat them with compassion. As Christians, we are called to obey the rulers and authorities that God has put in place, treating them with respect and compassion; however, as we see from Daniel’s example, obeying God’s law must always take precedence over obeying men. As a result of his devotion, Daniel not only found favor with those around him, but above all he found favor with God and was held in high esteem by Him. Daniel’s strength lay in his devotion to prayer and is a lesson for us all. It is not just in the bad times but on a daily basis that we must come to God in prayer.

The book of Daniel stands as a unique mix in the Old Testament, for while it begins with history, it makes a strong transition at chapter 7, where it contains visions of future events significant to the Jews. In particular, Daniel 9:24–27 gives a meticulous timeline of when Israel’s Messiah would appear and the events that would follow.

Daniel and his God-fearing friends were forced to live in Babylon, far from home and far from the land their Lord had promised them. Later in the book, Daniel prophesied of terrible trials still to come in the Promised Land (Daniel 11:31). Whatever the trial was, though, it was always the result of sin. Daniel is huge in the bible ...Daniel sees various visions, all of them symbolizing future events that are going to take place. Daniel is clearly seen as the Empire predicting prophet. He was an interpreter of dreams, and God revealed through his interpretations his plans for the kingdoms that would rise to power in world history.

There were the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. The Major Prophets ( just because they are longer in the bible, and God revealed more to them) are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations (which was written by Jeremiah), Ezekiel, and Daniel. The Minor Prophets ( cause they are shorter stories and chapters) are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The Minor Prophets are also sometimes called The Twelve. So we got through the Major prophets and the Minors we can fly through too.. then we will be into the New Testament.. excited?

Most people don’t like reading the sections with the prophets in the bible because it just seems like constant warnings to smarten up!.. I love reading this part tho.. it is here that you read about Christ’s birth, in Isaiah and Micah. You learn about Christ’s return in Ezekiel, Daniel and Zechariah, and in all of them we learn about God’s holiness, wrath, grace and mercy. I think they are extremely important myself.. so read um.. when you get a chance.