Memory Verse:
Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his.” Daniel 2:20
CHARACTERS: NARRATOR, KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR, ASHPENAZ, DANIEL, SHADRACH, MESHACH, ABEDNEGO, WISE MEN, ARIOCH
PROPS: crown & throne/chair for King Nechadnezzar
(Narrator is at side of stage. King Nebuchadnezzar & Arioch are on one side of stage. Ashpenaz is with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego are on the other side.)
NARRATOR: The nation of Israel disobeyed God to such a point that He sent them into captivity–another nation took over their land. King Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the Babylonians, took them captive. The people who hadn’t obeyed a kind loving God now had to obey a wicked mean king.
King Nebuchadnezzar ordered Ashpenaz, Chief of his court officials, to bring in some of the Israelites that were captured. These were to be Israelites from the royal family and the nobility–young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. Ashpenaz was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. They were to be trained for three years before entering the king’s service. Among them were Daniel, Shadrach; Meshach and Abednego.
The king assigned the young men that were chosen a daily amount of food from the king’s table. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with food that God had forbidden the Israelites to eat. So he asked Ashpenaz, the chief official, for permission not to defile himself this way.
DANIEL: (to Ashpenaz) Please do not require my three friends and me to eat the king’s food.
ASHPENAZ: I am afraid of the king who has assigned your food and drink. If you look worse than the other young men your age because you have not had the proper food, the king would have my head because of you.
DANIEL: Please test us for ten days. Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat us in accordance with what you see.” So the chief official agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
NARRATOR: At the end of ten days Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego looked healthier and better nourished than the young who ate the royal food. So the food and wine they were to have was taken away, and they were given vegetables instead.
(While the Narrator is speaking the following, Ashpenas takes Daniel, Shadrach, Mechach & Abednego before King Nebuchadazzar.)
NARRATOR: At the end of three years, the chief official presented all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR: (to Ashpenaz) Ashpenaz! You have done an excellent job teaching these four young men. They know ten times more than all the magicians and enchanters in my whole kingdom.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR:(to Daniel, Shadrach, Mechach & Abednego) I am appointing you young men to be among my wise men, and I will give you important jobs in my government
(Daniel, Shadrach, Mechach & Abednego leave & go to other end of stage. While the Narrator speaks the following King Nebuchadazzar looks troubled & puts his head on his hands as if to sleep, but can’t. When the Narrator says “the king called in all” the wise men enter & go to him.)
NARRATOR: About a year later, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. So the king called in all the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers (his wise men) to tell him what he had dreamed.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR: (to wise men) I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.
WISE MEN: O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream and we will interpret it.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR: This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses burned into piles of rubble. But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it.
WISE MEN: Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will interpret it.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR: If you do not tell me the dream, there is just one penalty for you. I am certain that you are trying to gain time. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.
(Wise men begin to appear frightened.)
WISE MEN: (pleading) There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing from any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.
KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR: (angry & furious) I will issue a decree all the wise men be put to death! Arioch!
(Arioch comes to King Nebuchadnezzar. Wise men appear frightened)
KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR:Find all the wise men of Babylon and have them executed!.
(Arioch goes to Daniel.)
ARIOCH: You must come with me. The King has ordered that all the wise men of Babylon be put to death.
DANIEL: Why did the king issue such a harsh degree?
AROICH: King Nebechadnezzar had a dream and the wise men were not able to tell him his dream and interpret it. Therefore, the king ordered all the wise men be executed.
DANIEL: Please take me to the king.
(Aroich takes Daniel to King Nebuchadnezzar.)
DANIEL: Oh King, live forever. Please give me some time to find the meaning of your dream and interpret your dream for you.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR: Very well, I will give you until tomorrow.
(Daniel goes to his friends, Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego.)
DANIEL: Please plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that we might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
(While the Narrator is speaking the following Daniel, Shadrach, Mechach & Abednego fold their hands & put their heads on them for a few seconds,)
NARRATOR: During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision.
DANIEL: Praise be to the name of God forever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers; You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.
(Daniel goes to Arioch)
DANIEL: Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king and I will interpret his dream for him.
(Aroich takes Daniel to King Nebuchadnezzar.)
AROICH: (to King Nebuchadnezzar) I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.
NEBUCHADNEZZAR: (to Daniel) Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dreams and interpret it?
DANIEL: No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come.
NARRATOR: The dream was about things that were to come after the time of King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel. Daniel lived thousands of years ago. Much of the dream has already taken place, but some of it hasn’t. We can know some of what will happen in the future from this dream given to King Nebuchadnezzar in Old Testament times.