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Overview
Was he:
. . .an interpreter of deams?
. . .a faithful man of God?
. . .a survivor of the lions’ den?
. . .all of the above?
Journey along with Daniel in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar, in a den of hungry lions, in the very center of God’s amazing power!
This biblically accurate story of Daniel, created just for the kids in your life, explores the life of this faithful man of God, while drawing 8- to 12-year-olds into a fascinating time and place as they learn about the man who interpreted dreams for the king and ultimately survived a den of hungry lions.Featuring three key sections—a Fact File, an Action File, and a Power File—kids will enjoying learning about the life of Daniel while coming to understand that an ancient Bible story really does apply to their lives today. Dozens of captivating line art pieces add depth and interest to every chapter.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781683228950 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Barbour Publishing, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 08/01/2018 |
| Series: | Kingdom Files |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 96 |
| File size: | 20 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 8 - 12 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
In Training
Times were tough. Life as everyone knew it in Jerusalem was flipped upside down after a foreign king came to town and commanded his troops to take over the land.
Besiege, actually. That's a fancy word that means to surround a city with soldiers in order to capture it.
Can you imagine? You and your family are taken captive and forced to move
far away and obey a new set of rules. Everything you own is taken from you. You have to start life all over again, afraid and uncertain of the future. That's exactly what happened to Daniel.
Daniel was a very smart young man. And even with all his knowledge, Daniel still rested in God's will and not his own. In addition to these admirable qualities, Daniel was also a pro at understanding people's dreams with God's help, and he led an extremely righteous life — always ready to obey the laws of the Lord.
* * *
The name Daniel means "God has judged." This is very interesting because even though the Babylonians took Daniel and the Israelites captive, God had already mapped out their victory. God had big plans for Daniel. Daniel was in captivity for seventy years, and the great prophet used every one of those years to do bold kingdom work for God's glory.
Our investigation into the life of Daniel begins with an epic invasion. Daniel lived in Jerusalem when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar invaded. Daniel plus countless other Jewish people were forced from their homes and made to travel nearly a thousand miles to the city of Babylon. All of the world's nations bowed down to Nebuchadnezzar. That's a pretty powerful position to hold! But this earthly kingdom, despite its power and influence, would be no match for God's glorious kingdom. In captivity, Daniel served under the rule of four different kings. Kings rule for only a short time and then they are gone, but God's kingdom lasts forever!
Daniel was carried away from everything he knew and taken to a strange land with a foreign language and many different customs. This new culture was overwhelming, but Daniel made the most of a truly bad situation.
Once Daniel arrived in Babylon, the king ordered him to be brought into his service. Now, Daniel wasn't called by name, but he did fit the description that Nebuchadnezzar was looking for: young, physically fit, handsome, smart, and good at learning new things. There were three other young men who were named in Daniel's story — Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. If you're familiar with this story, you might remember that they were given new names — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (see Daniel 1:6).
For the first three years in Babylon, Daniel and his three new friends were given a new education. They were expected to learn the language and literature of the new culture. And after three years of training, the young men would then be ready to be in the service of the king. In addition to the good education they would receive, the king also decided to share his food, giving Daniel and the students daily meals and wine from his table. But Daniel, being a child of God, realized that this went against his desire to respect God and His laws. So Daniel asked an official if they could have something else to eat.
This stressed out the official because he was afraid that if Daniel and the other young men didn't eat the good food from the king, they would become unhealthy. Daniel acted in faith and requested that the official let them do a test. Daniel and his friends would eat only vegetables and drink only water for ten days and then be compared to the others who were eating from the king's table. The Bible says that God caused the official to show Daniel favor and thus allowed the challenge.
Remember that God had big plans for Daniel. God was with Daniel, and so when the ten days were over, Daniel and company looked "healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food" (1:15). After that, Daniel and the others were allowed to eat their vegetables and drink water so they would not go against God's instructions for their lives.
The young men continued on in their studies, but it was God who gave them "knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning" (1:17). God gave them an abundance of what they needed to do His kingdom work. When God blesses, He does it abundantly. And when Daniel and his three friends were presented to the king, Nebuchadnezzar could find no one else who was equal to them. The Bible says they were "ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom" (1:20). That's some pretty powerful God-sized training!
CHAPTER 2A Very Interesting Dream
While Daniel's training was going on, the king was beginning to have some problems of his own. The Bible says "His mind was troubled and he could not sleep" (2:1). The King had many dreams, and they were so unbelievable that he couldn't figure out what they meant. Nebuchadnezzar called in some people to help him figure things out. He summoned magicians and enchanters as well as sorcerers and astrologers who were put together on his "dream team."
Imagine this group standing before the king. They were looking at each other and wondering what job they were about to be given by the highest authority in the land. The king told them that he'd had dreams, but one in particular was especially bothering him because he had no clue what it meant. The group of astrologers stepped forward and said that if the king would tell them the dream, they would surely be able to interpret it for him.
But instead of describing his dream, the king told the astrologers that they must figure out what his dream was as well as what it meant. And if they couldn't, they would lose their lives and all of their houses would be "turned into piles of rubble" (2:5). The king was surely stressed out at this point. He then told the men that if they were able to tell him the dream and interpret it correctly, they would receive gifts and high honors.
The reply? Again, the group said that all they needed was for the king to tell them the details of the dream, and then they would be glad to explain its meaning. But the king wasn't convinced. He thought they were stalling. He reminded
them that there was going to be a penalty if they couldn't come up with an answer. They said, "There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks!" (2:10). The men said that only the "gods" could tell the king what he wanted to know.
Nebuchadnezzar became so furious that he ordered all the wise men in the entire land to be put to death. And that included Daniel and his friends!
When the king's guard met with Daniel, he was in for quite a surprise. Daniel boldly asked why the king would make such an irrational decision just because the wise men couldn't tell what his dream entailed. After the man explained the situation, Daniel went directly to the king himself. Talk about courage! Daniel asked for time to be able to interpret the king's dream, and by God's mercy, the king agreed.
Daniel urged his friends to join him in pleading for mercy from God and to ask God for help. Daniel prayed first. Even though his life and the lives of his three friends were on the line, Daniel didn't panic. He prayed and talked to God. He asked God for help, and he was about to get it in a huge way.
That night while Daniel was asleep, God gave him a vision that outlined the king's dream and the meaning of it as well. When Daniel woke up, he didn't waste a single minute. He prayed again and lifted up praise to thank God for what He did.
Daniel's praise listed some of God's attributes that can help us better understand who God really is. Daniel started off by saying that the name of God should be praised forever. His name is worthy of glory and honor. God is wise and powerful. God changes the times and seasons. He raises up kings and takes them off thrones. He is a wisdom giver. "Light dwells with him" (2:22). Then Daniel said that God gave him wisdom and power.
Armed with knowledge and answers, Daniel raced to the king's official and told him to stop getting rid of the wise men. God literally used Daniel to save lives, physically and spiritually. The official took Daniel to the king. It was showtime!
The king asked Daniel the same thing he had asked his wise men; and Daniel had a similar, yet completely, different reply. He, like the men earlier, said that no one could do what the king was asking. But unlike the wise men, Daniel said there is a "God in heaven who reveals mysteries" (2:28).
First, Daniel told the king that his dream was about things to come. Daniel made it clear that he didn't get this information because he was better than anybody else, but rather because God would allow Nebuchadnezzar to understand the dream. Remember that this is the same king who had captured Daniel and his friends and so many more people. This is the same king who had seized Jerusalem. Why would Daniel or God want to help him?
The king had dreamed of a huge statue. The head of the statue was made of gold, its chest and arms were silver, its stomach and thighs were made of bronze, its legs were iron, while the feet were a mixture of iron and baked clay. (It was a really weird dream!)
Daniel then told the king that he saw a rock come and smash the statue's feet, which caused the whole statue to crumble into a million pieces. The wind came and blew all the pieces away so that no one would ever know the statue even existed. And in the final part of the king's dream, the rock grew up to become "a huge mountain" that "filled the whole earth" (2:35).
Then Daniel began to explain the meaning of the king's dream. Daniel respectfully said that Nebuchadnezzar was the king of kings. In other words, he was the biggest guy on the block. Again, Daniel added that the king was where he was because God had given all of it to him. Everyone in the world at that time came under the ruling power of the king. King Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold. This all sounded good to the king — at least for a moment.
Daniel went on to explain that the rest of the statue represented other kingdoms that would rise up and take Babylon's place. And during their reigns, God would set up a kingdom "that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever" (2:44).
Whoa! That's some heavy interpreting that Daniel pulled off all because God was there to help him.
So what do you think the king would do with this new information? The Bible says he fell prostrate on the ground before Daniel to honor him. He also put Daniel in a high place and let him rule over all of Babylon. He gave Daniel a ton of gifts, put him in charge of all the wise men, and appointed his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to become administrators to help Daniel.
Things began to look up for the prophet.
CHAPTER 3The Golden Statue
With God's help, Daniel stepped up and delivered exactly what the king needed to hear. After learning what his strange dream meant, it seemed likely that Nebuchadnezzar would wake up and realize that his kingdom wasn't going to last forever. But instead, he took his dream and used it as a blueprint to create a massive golden statue — ninety feet tall by nine feet wide, to be exact. And unlike the dream, the king called for the whole statue to be made of gold. He had it built out on the "plain of Dura in the province of Babylon" (3:1). For some reason, the king didn't care about God, even though he had just experienced the dream interpretation with Daniel. And King Nebuchadnezzar summoned all of his leaders from across the empire to the unveiling ceremony.
After all the people had gathered in front of the idol, a herald gave the order that when the musicians started playing their instruments, everyone was to "fall down and worship the image" (3:5). If a person refused, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace so big that grown men could walk in it. Archaeologists believe the main use of this furnace was to make bricks.
When the music started, everyone on the plain fell down and worshipped the golden statue. But remember Daniel's three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Well, apparently someone caught them not bowing down and worshipping the idol, and this news was immediately reported to the king. These men loved God and had made a commitment not to be disrespectful and not to worship anything but Him.
When he heard the news, the king became "furious with rage" (3:13) and called for the three men to be brought before him. Nebuchadnezzar asked them if the report was true, and they said it was. The king didn't wait for them to explain. He just continued on and repeated the command that they were to bow down to the statue when the music started, and said that it would be good for them to obey. Then the king asked what god would save them from the fire if they didn't bow down.
They said, "We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it" (3:16–17). They even said that if God chose not to save them from the flames, still they would never worship the king's golden idol.
The king grew even more furious than before. How dare these three men disobey me? he thought. So Nebuchadnezzar ordered the oven to be heated up seven times hotter than normal. And if that wasn't enough, he also ordered some of his strongest soldiers to tie the men up. The king didn't want to leave any room for error.
But as the soldiers took the men to the furnace, the flames killed the soldiers but not Daniel's three friends. The Bible says that even though they fell into the fire, they were not burned!
And when the king looked into the furnace, he couldn't believe his eyes! Not only were the three men still alive, despite the raging flames, but there was a fourth man in the oven with them! The fourth man was "unbound and unharmed" and looked like "a son of the gods" (3:25). It's not clear whether it was an angel or Jesus in the furnace with them, but God had made a way for the men to be saved.
The king called for the men to come out of the furnace. All the officials who had bowed down to the statue were now gathered around and stared in amazement. The fire had not "harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them" (3:27).
God had saved His servants! The king was spellbound. He proclaimed that God should be honored among all the nations. Nebuchadnezzar wasn't done with his idol worship, though. He was just telling the world that Daniel's God was powerful and that no one should speak against Him. Either way, the king promoted Daniel's three friends to high positions within the province of Babylon.
CHAPTER 4More Dreams and New Kings
The king was really getting some good nights of sleep, because right after the fiery furnace drama, he was back to having strange dreams. His next dream was about an enormous tree. Nebuchadnezzar watched as the tree grew very tall and very strong. It grew and grew until it touched the sky and could be seen from all the ends of the earth. "Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all" (4:12). Wild animals found shelter under the tree, and many birds made homes in its branches. The tree provided food for all the creatures.
In the next part of the dream, the king saw a messenger come down from heaven who issued an order for the tree to be cut down and trimmed of its branches, stripped of all its leaves, and the fruit thrown out in every direction. The tree could no longer be a home for all the wild animals. The only things that were to remain were the stump and roots. Also, the dreamer was to live with the animals.
The king called for Daniel to do his job and offer a meaning for this new dream. But Daniel was nervous because he soon realized that the dream wasn't about the king's enemies. The dream was about the king himself! Daniel explained all the positives first — the king was great, and his rules extended all the way to the ends of the earth. But then Daniel told the king that he would be taken away from his subjects and would be made to eat the grass of the fields just like an ox. The king would stay this way until he acknowledged that God was the true sovereign king.
It took awhile for the dream to be fulfilled, but a year later the king was walking on the roof of his palace, making comments about how all of what he could see came by the work of his hands. As soon as he spoke these words, the Bible says he heard a voice call down from heaven and tell Nebuchadnezzar that his authority was being pulled from him, and he was about to be sent out to live with wild animals for seven years! His hair and nails grew so long the king started to look like a wild animal himself. He even began to lose his mind.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Kingdom Files: Who Was Daniel?"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Matt Koceich.
Excerpted by permission of Barbour Publishing, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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