Daniel 2 & one-on-ones

On Sunday (1/20/08) we looked at Daniel 2 with the high school group. Once again, we are continuing with the theme that obedience to God will favor His sovereignty over your life. In this chapter, Daniel and his buddies, are given the impossible task of dream interpretation. Not only that, but they must tell Nebuchadnezzar his dream. It first starts with his "experts" and they can't do it. In fact, they say it's impossible! Then it falls on Daniel. He takes it back to his buddies- Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They pray fervently to God for mercy to reveal this impossible task, and He grants it to them. The next day, Daniel is able to stand before King Nebuchadnezzar and tell him his dream, as well as its interpretation.

That's the basic narrative of what happened. First and foremost, the main point is that Daniel was close to God and obedient to Him. When it says that they prayed "fervently" to God, I don't think it meant a nice little prayer you would typically say before taking a geometry test, or something like that. I think it meant deep, heartfelt, seeking the presence of God type of prayer. And after God revealed the mystery to Daniel, he worshipped Him right there.

Not only did he glorify God, he also gave credit to his friends. They all prayed throughout the night for God to grant them mercy. He told King Nebuchadnezzar "we" will interpret the dream in verse 36. At the end of the chapter, Daniel requested his friends be promoted as well.


During the jr. high class I had the chance to sit one-on-one with each of the students. It was time to find out what they learned, what they enjoyed, and what their understanding was of being a Christian. I found it just about universal that the Whatever It Takes game was enjoyed by all. I also found that a lot of the youth have a basic understanding and faith in Jesus Christ, but just want to learn how to live that out on a day-to-day basis. That's very encouraging to me.

Daniel Review for Jr. High

For the high school class this morning we took a look at a few different books.

We started with the beginning of Daniel. If you've ever felt alienated from being in a foreign land, or felt like you don't belong in some way, then Daniel is the person to read about! The first chapter tells us how the Babylonians took the people of Judah captive. (The Hebrews were split up into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, at this point). They carried articles from the temple of God into their own temples.

Here is where it gets interesting for Daniel. Off in a foreign land where he doesn't know the language or customs, he, amongst other Israelites that were handsome, smart, etc., had to participate in a pagan ritual for the royal food and wine. It doesn't sound bad on the page, but this food and wine the Israeli royalty and "elite" had to eat and drink were offered to the Babylonian gods in disgusting rituals. Rituals that went against the God of Israel for many reasons.

Daniel chose not to take part in these rituals for the royal food and wine. In addition he made a plan to make it happen. The consequences? Only possible death! He first talked to an official whom Daniel found favor with, but ultimately the official was afraid of death on account of Daniel not defiling himself with the royal food and wine. He then took another risk by asking the guard appointed over him, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego for a 10-day trial diet of vegetables and water.

As we can see, it paid off. Why? Because Daniel knew what he believed in and stuck to his principles. It ended up helping him in the long run, too. The last verse says that Daniel remained there until the first year of reign of the next king, which was some 60 years later.

Two important things to note. 1) Daniel's plan of action included the accountability of friends. It should be not mistaken that God doesn't intend us to follow Him all alone. We are meant to live in community. We need to help each other live more obediently to Him. 2) Obedience to Him gives us His favor. Who caused the official to show favor over Daniel? God did (verse 9). And in verse 17, it says God gave knowledge to Daniel and the other three Israelites.

We also picked three Psalms to go over. Just to pick up the main idea behind each one because they are very rich. These are the ones we looked over.

Psalm 88- A psalm of despair crying out to God from life's pressures.

Psalm 98- Quite the opposite psalm, celebrating the Lord for his faithfulness, salvation, and justice in carrying out His judgement.

Psalm 24- Written by David. Who may come into the presence of the Lord? Those who wholeheartedly seek His face.

With the jr. class we finished our review. You can click on the link to refer back to old blogs on our Foundations of Faith series.

blessings