Daniel

     Ask anyone about his or her favorite Bible story.  It won't be long before someone mentions Daniel in the lions' den.
     Daniel is one of the Jewish captives carried into exile in Babylon by the Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar.
     According to Jeremiah 39:10, the Chaldeans leave the poorest and least promising people behind to tend the land.  This, combined with the fact that these people intermarry with other groups, eventually results in the Israelites considering them to be inferior.  These are the Samaritans who are placed on the same level as dogs.
     Daniel is definitely not part of this group.  While leaving the least promising people behind, the Chaldeans take with them the best.
     "Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel," Daniel 1:3-4 records, "including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect, who were good looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king's court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans."
     The king designates a period of three years to educate and prepare the youths.
     Included in this group are Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.  Daniel is assigned the name Belteshazzar.  His friends are called Shadrack, Meshach and Abed-nego.
     Daniel makes up his mind at the beginning that he is not going to defile himself with the king's choice food and wine.  So he asks permission from the overseer to be given a simpler diet.  Although God gives Daniel favor in the eyes of the commander, the official is still afraid that he will lose his life if the young men do not look their best when they are presented to the king.
     So Daniel suggests a ten-day trial period during which the four will eat vegetables and drink water.  At the end of this period the four are in much better condition than the others.
     When the young men are presented to the king, Daniel and his three friends far outshine even the veteran advisors.
     "And as for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them," we learn in Daniel 1:20, "he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm."
     One night the king has a disturbing dream.  He calls in the magicians, conjurers, sorcerers and astrologers and orders them to tell him his dream and its meaning.
     "Tell us the dream," they reply, "and we will tell you the interpretation."
     The king responds that the command is clear.  Anyone who can tell both the dream and its meaning will be highly rewarded.  Anyone who cannot will be torn limb from limb and his house will be made a rubbish heap.
     Again the servants offer to explain the dream if the king will only describe it to them.
     "I know for certain that you are bargaining for time," Nebuchadnezzar answers.
     "There is not a man on earth who can do this," the advisors plead.  So the king gives the order to kill all the wise men of Babylon.
     When Daniel hears about the situation he asks his three friends to pray that God will save them from destruction.  That night God reveals the dream and its meaning to Daniel, who in turn goes to the king.  The first thing that Daniel does is make sure that Nebuchadnezzar understands it is God who is revealing the dream and not Daniel.  Then he tells the dream and its meaning.
      The king has seen a great statue.  Its head is gold and its chest and arms are silver.  The belly and thighs are bronze.  Its legs are iron, but its feet are a mixture of iron and clay.  Daniel explains that the statue reveals present and future kingdoms.  Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold.  From history, as well as from other revelations in the book of Daniel, we can obtain the identities of the other kingdoms.  The Medo-Persian empire is the chest and arms of silver.  The belly and thighs of bronze represent the Greeks.  The iron legs stand for the Roman Republic, with the feet of iron and clay indicating the decadence of the later Roman Empire.
     Nebuchadnezzar is so impressed by what Daniel does that he glorifies the God of the Jews and also places the four Hebrew men in high positions.

     God reveals to Nebuchadnezzar the kingdoms that will follow his.  But the Lord also reveals something much more important, something which the great king is not even able to comprehend.
     In the dream a stone is cut out of a mountain without hands.  It strikes the figure in the feet and crushes the entire statue.
     "And in the days of those kings," Daniel 2:44 says of the Roman Empire, "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever."
     What kingdom is set up during the Roman Empire and goes on to endure forever?
     "For He delivered us from the domain of darkness," we read in Colossians 1:13, "and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son."
     One kingdom in Nebuchadnezzar's dream is far greater and more powerful than all the others.  This kingdom is the church.
     Nebuchadnezzar seems to have trouble keeping things straight, and a day comes when he sets up a huge gold image and orders all government officials to fall down and worship it when they hear certain music.  Anyone who fails to worship the image is to be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.
     Many of the Chaldeans are jealous of Shadrach, Meshack and Abed-nego, so they are all too happy to inform the king that the three Jews are not worshipping the idol.
     The king calls in the three men and offers to give them a second chance.
     "O Nebuchadnezzar," they respond in Daniel 3:16-18, "we do not need to give you an answer concerning this.  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
     "But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."
     This is not the reply that Nebuchadnezzar is looking for, so he orders that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than normal and that they be cast into it.  The order is so urgent that the men who carry the three to the furnace are burned up.
     But the king looks to see Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego walking in the midst of the fire with a fourth individual.  The king says that this additional man has the appearance of a son of the gods.
     Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego are called out of the furnace.  Their hair is not singed; there is not even any smell of smoke on their clothing.
     Understandably, Nebuchadnezzar issues a decree that the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego is to be honored throughout the land.
     But already in the next chapter the king has a dream to warn him about his dangerous pride.  Daniel tries to warn the king, but the dream is fulfilled and Nebuchadnezzar is forced to live like an animal until he acknowledges God as the ruler of everything.
     Years later another king, Belshazzar has a feast during which he uses the vessels from the temple in Jerusalem to drink toasts to gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.  Suddenly a hand appears and writes four words on the wall of the banquet hall.  Of course, none of the wise men can explain the meaning of the message.  But the queen remembers Daniel.
     Daniel rejects the kings' offers of reward and points out that God is the One behind the message.  The inscription reveals that God has numbered the kingdom of Belshazzar and has put an end to it.  The king has been weighed in the scales and been found lacking.  The kingdom is to be divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.  That same night Belshazzar is killed and Darius the Mede takes over.  It is during the reign of Darius that Daniel is thrown into the lions' den but is protected by God.
     "I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel;" Darius says in Daniel 6:26, "for He is the living God and enduring forever, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and His dominion will be forever."
     Before we close we should take one more look at what Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego say in reply to Nebuchadnezzar when he threatens to throw them into the furnace.  The first thing they explain is that God is able to deliver them.  But then they state that they will not worship the idol even if God does not save them.  Why would they be willing to make this last comment?  Why would they insist on obeying a God who did not do what they wanted?
     Could it be that they are able to see beyond the needs of this life?  And could it be that they understand that the truth is not controlled by circumstances?  God is who He is, regardless of what happens to us, regardless of what we do, regardless of what we think.  The world makes promises and offers that change with every wind.
     But the truth never changes.  And only the truth will set us free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.lockman.org)