Memory Verse:
Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his.” Daniel 2:20
HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE A GARDEN? WHAT DO YOU DO TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR GARDEN? If you planted a garden, fertilizing and plowing the soil, carefully planting each seed following the instructions on the package. If after it was planted, you carefully water your garden. You cultivate and weed it. If you protected it from insects and harsh weather–everything you could possibly do–you would expect to get a good crop of vegetables, wouldn’t you?
In the land of Israel, there are many vineyards where grapes are grown. It is the same thing there–if a farmer takes good care of his vineyard, he expects to get good grapes. In the Bible the prophet Isaiah says: “What more could I have done for my vineyard than I have done for it? Then I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?” Isaiah 5:4 The prophet Isaiah is telling us how God felt about the nation of Israel. They were a special people He had chosen–a people from whom Jesus would be born. He took care of them and gave them many extra blessings. He gave them a special land and destroyed their enemies. He had told them that if they obeyed Him, good things would happen to them. If they did not obey Him, bad things would happen to them. When they did not obey him, He sent them prophets to warn them time after time. He was very patient with them, but they became even worst than the nations He had driven out of the land before them. Israel disobeyed God to such a point that He sent them into captivity–another nation took over their land.
The nation of Assyria took captive the northern part of the nation of Israel. Later the ruthless King Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the Babylonians, took captive Judah, the southern part of the nation of Israel. The people that 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–four young Israelite boys that were not like the rest of the Israelites. They still believed in and obeyed God.
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 the king’s food. The Babylonians ate food that God had forbidden the Israelites to eat. Also their food was offered to idols that people worship instead of God. Therefore, Daniel did not want to disobey God and eat this food. So he asked Ashpenaz, the chief official, for permission not to defile himself this way.
God had caused Ashpenaz to show sympathy and compassion to Daniel. He said to Daniel, “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 said, “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.
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 guard took away the food and wine they were to have and gave them vegetables instead.
At the end of three years, the chief official presented all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. Therefore, he included them among his wise men and gave them important jobs in the government.
“I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.” Psalm 119:99-100 In other words, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had more wisdom and understanding than all the others because they thought about God’s commands and obeyed Him.
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. “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”
Then the astrologers answered the king, “O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream and we will interpret it.”
The king replied to the astrologers. “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 from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.”
Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will interpret it.”
Then the king answered, “I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize this is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me the dream, there is just one penalty for you. 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.”
The astrologers answered, “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.”
This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.
When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh degree?” Aroich then explained the matter to Daniel. At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.
Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said: 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 2:20-23
Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, & said to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king and I will interpret his dream for him.”
Aroich took Daniel to the king at once and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.”
The king asked Daniel, “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dreams and interpret it?’
Daniel replied, “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.”
Next week we will talk about the dream and its interpretation. 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.
QUESTIONS:
1. Why were God’s people taken captive by other nations?
2. Why was Daniel chosen among the captives to live in the king’s palace?
3. Why didn’t Daniel want to eat the king’s food?
4. Why was Ashpenaz, the chief official, sympathetic & compassionate to Daniel?
5. Why was King Nebuchadnezzar going to execute the wise men of Babylon?
6. Why was Daniel able to interpret the dream?
7. What can you know about God from what we learned today?