Daniel

Third year of Jehoiakim (605 BC): Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem, removes Temple vessels to Babylon, selects noble Judahite youths (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah) for three-year training. Names changed to Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego. Daniel refuses king’s rich food, requests vegetables and water; after ten-day test they appear healthier. God grants them surpassing wisdom; Daniel given insight into dreams. They excel ten-fold above all advisers and serve until Cyrus.

Nebuchadnezzar, in his second year, demands advisers recount and explain his troubling dream under penalty of death. Daniel seeks God, who reveals the mystery: a great statue (gold, silver, bronze, iron, iron-clay) smashed by a divinely cut stone that becomes a world-filling mountain. Successive earthly kingdoms will fall; God will establish an everlasting kingdom. King acknowledges God and elevates Daniel over Babylon with his three friends as provincial administrators.

Nebuchadnezzar erects a 90-foot golden image and commands all officials to worship it or face a fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego refuse, affirming God can save—and even if not, they will not bow. Furnace heated seven-times; the three are thrown in, yet walk unharmed with a fourth figure like a divine being. Nebuchadnezzar praises their God, decrees reverence, and promotes them.

Nebuchadnezzar’s royal proclamation: he dreamed of a vast sheltering tree cut down by a heavenly watcher so that its stump remains bound and its mind becomes that of a beast for seven ‘times’. Daniel interprets: the king will be driven insane until he acknowledges heaven’s rule; counselled to repent. Twelve months later, prideful boast triggers the judgment; he lives as an animal until he exalts the Most High, after which reason, throne and greater majesty are restored. Lesson: God humbles the proud.

Belshazzar’s banquet uses Jerusalem’s sacred vessels to toast idols. A disembodied hand writes on the wall. Terrified, the king summons Daniel. Interpreting ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN’, Daniel recounts Nebuchadnezzar’s humbling and indicts Belshazzar’s arrogance: God has numbered the days, weighed him wanting, and divided his kingdom to Medes and Persians. That night Belshazzar is killed and Darius the Mede takes over.

Under Darius, Daniel is to be elevated above 120 satraps. Jealous officials craft a 30-day edict banning prayer to any god but the king, punishable by lions’ den. Daniel continues thrice-daily prayer; apprehended, he is reluctantly cast among lions. At dawn, Darius finds him alive—God sent an angel to shut lions’ mouths. Accusers (and families) are thrown in and perish. Darius issues decree honoring the living God; Daniel prospers through Darius and Cyrus.

First year of Belshazzar: Daniel sees four great beasts from a stormy sea—lion-eagle, bear, four-winged leopard, and a terrifying ten-horned beast with a blasphemous little horn. The Ancient of Days sits in fiery court; the fourth beast is slain. ‘One like a son of man’ arrives on clouds, receiving an eternal kingdom for the saints. Angel explains: beasts = four kingdoms; the arrogant horn persecutes saints for ‘time, times, half a time’ before judgment transfers dominion to God’s people.

Third year of Belshazzar: vision in Susa of a two-horned ram (Medo-Persia) charging in three directions, suddenly destroyed by a swift, one-horned goat (Greece). The goat’s great horn breaks, four rise, and from one a little horn grows, challenging the heavenly host, halting daily sacrifice for 2,300 evenings-mornings. Gabriel explains: the little horn is a fierce king arising at the latter time of the Greek divisions, who will destroy many but be broken ‘without human hand’.

First year of Darius: studying Jeremiah, Daniel pleads in fasting and confession for Jerusalem after seventy years’ desolation. Gabriel announces ‘seventy sevens’ decreed to end sin and bring everlasting righteousness. From decree to rebuild Jerusalem: seven sevens, then sixty-two sevens to an anointed one; after which he is cut off and the city destroyed by people of a coming ruler. One seven remains: a covenant confirmed; sacrifices cease mid-seven; abomination brings desolation until decreed end.

Third year of Cyrus: after three weeks of mourning, Daniel by the Tigris sees a radiant, linen-clad figure; companions flee. Weak and trembling, Daniel is strengthened by a touch. The messenger, delayed twenty-one days by the ‘prince of Persia’ until Michael helped, explains he will outline future conflict for Israel involving Persia and Greece, then must return to battle spiritual powers.

Detailed forecast: three more Persian kings, then wealthy fourth (Xerxes); a mighty Greek king (Alexander) whose empire splits to north and south (Seleucids, Ptolemies). Intricate wars, marriages, treacheries ensue. A contemptible king (Antiochus IV) desecrates temple with abomination, persecutes saints; the wise instruct many though they suffer. At the time of the end, this king exalts himself above every god, but comes to his end between sea and holy mountain with none to help.

Michael arises; unprecedented distress, but all whose names are in the book are delivered. Multitudes rise from dust—some to everlasting life, others to shame. The wise shine like stars. Daniel told to seal the book till end time. Duration set: 1,290 days from removal of daily offering to abomination; blessed who waits 1,335 days. Daniel will rest and arise to his allotted inheritance at the end.