Daniel 6 - The Lion's Den

Have you ever gotten in trouble for doing something right? It’s a weird feeling, isn’t it? You’ve cleaned your room, you’ve obeyed the rules, you’ve treated people nicely, but then you somehow still get sent to your room or get stuck in detention at school. When that happens, how do you react? Angry? Sad? Annoyed?

If you’ve ever had something like this happen to you, just know that you aren’t the only one. Daniel, that guy we’ve been talking about for the last three weeks, also got in trouble when he was doing things right. So stick around as we finish off Daniel’s story today.

But first, a little history. We’ve been talking about this guy named Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians, for the last few weeks. In one of those stories, we talked about how Nebuchadnezzar dreamed his kingdom would be defeated one day. Well, that happened pretty quickly actually. Shortly after King Nebuchadnezzar died and a new king took over, armies from Persia arrived and conquered Babylon. And when that happened, all of the Babylonians became citizens of the Persian Empire. That included Daniel and his friends.

As for our story today, it takes place during the reign of King Darius of Persia. We don’t know where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were at this point, but we do know that Daniel was still serving in the king’s court. In fact, Darius liked Daniel so much that he made Daniel 1 of 3 main leaders over the entire Persian Empire!

And just like when Daniel served under King Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel continued to do great work for King Darius. Daniel was one of the wisest and best workers Darius had ever seen, and the king praised Daniel for his hard work!

But not everyone thought Daniel was so great, including the two other leaders that Daniel worked with. “What a know-it-all,” they’d say to each other.

“Daniel thinks he’s so great!” the first one would say.

“Well, he is the king’s favourite…” the other replied.

“…but what if he wasn’t? The first said back. “What if we found something that Daniel did wrong. Then King Darius would have to get rid of Daniel!”

“Yeah, but what?” the second guy said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Daniel make a mistake! He never cheats, he never steals money. He does exactly what King Darius orders!”

“True, but I bet there’s one way we could get Daniel to break the rules…”

“What do you mean?”

“You know that God of his…” the first guy said, with an evil smile coming to his face. “Daniel prays to his God three times a day, every day. And Daniel would never do anything that made him disobey God. But what would happen if Darius made a law where Daniel would have to choose between God and the king?”

“But why would the king do that?” the second guy asked.

The first guy’s smile got even darker. “Because we’re going to ask him to…”

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Daniel returned home after a long day at the palace and immediately went up to his room. He was an older man now, and the palace work was starting to tire him out. But he wasn’t tired today… No, today Daniel was pretty riled up. He sighed to himself and started to pace. And as he walked back and forth across his floor, he started talking to himself.

“I don’t know what to do! I just don’t understand it. Why is it that every time things start to go well around here, every time my friends and I serve the king well, something happens that threatens our lives!

“Something just doesn’t feel right about this new law. No praying to any god or any man except King Darius! And if you do, you’ll be thrown into a lions’ den. I know Darius. Yes, he’s a king and thinks pretty highly of himself, but I never would have thought he’d make a law like this. Not on his own anyways…

“It must have been some of the other servants. But I just don’t get that… I’ve never done anything to hurt the other servants or make them angry. I’ve just been following orders. The king likes me for that. Maybe some of them are jealous?

“I can’t worry about that right now though. The king has commanded that I don’t pray to anyone but him. But as much as I love the king and want to serve him, I love and serve God first. I always have. I won’t change that now.

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego taught me that. They stood up to King Nebuchadnezzar and refused to bow down to that statue, that false god! I wasn’t there for that, but I guess it’s my turn now. I guess that God wants me to prove that I will trust Him too, no matter what.

“It’s scary, but I know what I must do. I cannot obey this law.” And with that, Daniel turned towards his window, just like he did everyday around that time, and started praying to God.

At that exact moment, a figure moved away from a window on the other side of an alley. “Got him,” the figure said, smiling.

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 “Oh, King Darius!!!!” the first of the two other leaders called out in a sing-song voice. The second followed behind him.

“What? What is it?” the king said, distracted.

“Oh king, may you live forever,” the second leader said. “I’m so glad we came to you yesterday with that new law.”

The king looked suspicious. “Why?”

“Because, oh king,” the first leader chimed in, “we’ve found someone here in this very palace who doesn’t listen to your decrees!”

King Darius’ face grew angry. “What? Who!?!”

“Why, it’s that third leader you appointed who’s mysteriously missing right now… Daniel! He has absolutely no respect for you, Your Majesty! We saw him praying to his God not even one hour after your new law was issued! And you remember what that law said, don’t you?”

As these two leaders were talking, King Darius grew sadder and sadder. He’d been tricked. He knew that these two men didn’t like Daniel much, but he never thought that they would stoop so low and set Daniel up to be killed! Everything in Darius wanted to say, Forget it! Daniel’s a good man and a good servant! He doesn’t deserve to be punished this way!

But he knew the law. No law in the Persian Empire could be changed once it had been written down. And King Darius had written up this law himself.

The king sighed and looked at the other two leaders angrily. “The law must be obeyed. Guards, bring Daniel here immediately!”

The guards dragged him in a short time later. Daniel looked at the king. But instead of seeing anger on the king’s face, all Daniel saw was sadness.

“Daniel,” the king said, “you have broken the laws of the Persians, laws that cannot be overturned, by praying to someone other than me. For this, your punishment is to be thrown into the lions’ den.” He paused, swallowed, and then looked directly at Daniel. “You always serve your God faithfully. So may he save you” (Daniel 6:16, NIrV)

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With that, the guards dragged Daniel to the lions’ den and threw him in. A giant stone was placed before the entrance of the lion’s den. The den grew dark as the stone cut off any extra light.

Now I don’t know exactly what things looked like in the lions’ den, but let me try to paint a picture for you. We tend to think of the lions’ den as this big, open, almost spotless cave where the lions are proudly and majestically walking around.

I’m not sure if that’s what it would have looked like, though. First of all, the Persians tended not to feed their lions much. That way, when the guards threw prisoners in, the lions would be very hungry. Meaning the chances of a prisoner surviving became that much less.

And because the lions were so hungry, you can bet that this den wasn’t so spotless either. There were probably bones and things scattered all across the den from the lions’ previous meals. So you can imagine how scared Daniel would have been entering into the lions’ den, knowing what was waiting for him.

The other two leaders knew this too. They didn’t expect Daniel to last more than five minutes down there. So I imagine they went to bed that night feeling pretty proud of themselves, excited to go to work tomorrow and now have to worry about measuring up to Daniel.

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King Darius didn’t sleep too well that night, however. In fact, he didn’t sleep at all, or even eat! He was so sad and so nervous about Daniel. He spent that entire night thinking about his servant and his friend. And for all we know, maybe Darius even said a small prayer in his heart that God would save Daniel.

I guess this because the next morning, King Darius hurried over to the lion’s den as soon as the sun started to rise. The Bible tells us that when he got near to the entrance, he called out, “Daniel! You serve the living God. You always serve him faithfully. So has he been able to save you from the lions?” (Daniel 6:20).

To Darius’ relief, Daniel called back right away. “Yes, oh king. My God sent his angel to shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me at all! And it’s all because I haven’t done anything wrong in God’s sight or in yours, Your Majesty.”

Darius was overjoyed. He immediately told his servants to lift Daniel out of the lions’ den. As Daniel’s head came over the top, the king was amazed. There wasn’t a scratch on him! God had truly saved Daniel from the lions, and it’s all because Daniel had trusted in God!

I believe that God made Daniel go through this for a reason. He probably wanted to teach Daniel to trust Him in all things. But even more than that, God wanted to teach King Darius, the other guards, and even us a lesson. And that lesson is this: Though bad things may happen to those who serve God, God will still make those things turn out for good.*

We see this all throughout the Bible. There are lots of people who go through really tough times – Joseph, Ruth, Peter, and even Jesus – but God brings about good from even the hardest of circumstances. In each of these cases, God protected His people because they had a relationship with God where they trusted Him even when things got dangerous.

And no, God might not save everyone from dying every time like He saved Daniel. But even if the worst happens, we can trust that we are safe and protected by God because Jesus died on the cross and rose again to save us. If we believe this, even when we die, we will get to live forever with God in heaven!

As for the other two leaders who tricked King Darius, things didn’t turn out so well for them. Darius was so mad, that he gave a new order. He threw the two leaders into the lions’ den because of how they had treated Daniel and tricked the king.

Finally, King Darius issued a proclamation to the entire Persian Empire. He ordered the people to worship and respect Daniel’s God – the same God we serve! Darius called Him “the living God” whose “kingdom will not be destroyed” (Daniel 6:26). Daniel trusted God to protect Him and to turn things out for good, and now Darius wanted everyone else in his empire to do the same. And I only hope that all of these stories about Daniel – about the tough times he and his friends faced, and how they constantly trusted God throughout all of them – will make you want to want to trust God more too!

~Brentagious

*This week’s takeaway is partially inspired by Bob Stone’s post here.

Daniel 3 - No Campfire Smell on These Friends

There’s probably a bunch of you out in Internet land who have campfires way more often that I do. I live in the city, so the only time I really get to have a campfire is when I’m camping or visiting one of my friends who live up north.

I love campfires. Getting to see your friends in the flickering light. Making s’mores or spider dogs. Having someone play guitar and starting to randomly sing. But probably the thing I love most about campfires is the smell. And especially how that smell follows you everywhere. You put on the same sweater the next morning, and it still has that amazing campfire smell!

Now I don’t know if they had campfires back in Bible times, but I do know that there’s a ton of stories involving fire. God shows up as a pillar of fire to lead the Israelites through the desert. God sends fire from heaven to prove that he is God to a bunch of people who had stopped believing. But also there’s a story in the book of Daniel that’s about fire.

That’s right, we’re talking about Daniel’s friends and the fiery furnace today.

But first, let’s backtrack for a minute. Last week we heard from Arioch about a weird dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had. In the dream, the king saw this giant statue where each part of the body was made of a different material. Eventually the dream statue was destroyed and Daniel told the king what that meant (check out last week’s story for more info on that), and then King Nebuchadnezzar praised God.

I wish I could say that King Nebuchadnezzar believed in God from that point forward, but sadly that’s not what happens. In fact, the king seemed to forget all about this dream and what it meant pretty quickly.

Well, he didn’t forget everything about the dream. You see, right after that story, the next thing the Bible tells us is that King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue that was 90 feet tall. That’s basically as tall as a 9 story building! And then King Nebuchadnezzar gave an official proclamation to the people. He commanded that when music played, everybody had to go out, bow down, and worship the statue. And anyone who didn’t would be thrown into a furnace!

Now we don’t know what the statue looked like, but we can probably take a guess. King Nebuchadnezzar had just dreamed about a giant statue, so he probably made the real statue look similar. In the dream, the statue had arms and legs and terrified the king, so we can imagine the statue probably looked like a scary person too.

But what’s important is that King Nebuchadnezzar hadn’t learned his lesson yet. God was trying to teach King Nebuchadnezzar that He was the one and only God. Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians worshipped all kinds of idols. In case you don’t know, idols are statues or objects that people treat like gods. The Babylonians would worship these statues by bowing down to them, giving gifts to them, and maybe even singing songs to them.

But worshipping is about way more than just the actions of bowing or giving or singing. Worship is all about the heart. When you worship something, you are treating it like it’s important. Like it’s really important. Like it’s the most important thing in the entire universe. You worship something to respond to how great that thing is.

The problem was that the Babylonians were worshipping the wrong things. Their idols didn’t deserve to be worshiped. These idols didn’t create the world or save anybody. There is only one being who deserves to the worshipped, and that is our God. Our God is the only God, and He deserves our worship because He created the world, because He saves us, because He is bigger and more powerful than we can possibly imagine. And so we worship God through singing and prayer and all kinds of other ways so that we can celebrate God and say thank you to Him.

But in our story for today, King Nebuchadnezzar was trying to introduce a new idol for the people to worship. He wanted the people to treat his massive golden statue like it was God! 

Now a lot of the Babylonians wouldn’t have cared. They were used to worshipping idols; they didn’t know it was wrong. So when King Nebuchadnezzar gathered up all the people in his palace and told them to come out where the statue was, the Babylonians would’ve done this without thinking twice. They would have come out in their best clothes ready to worship as soon as that music started playing.

But the Israelites were probably not as okay with this. They knew that the whole reason that God had let the Babylonians capture them was because the Israelites had been worshipping idols instead of God for a really long time. So you can imagine some of the Israelites were pretty nervous when King Nebuchadnezzar was trying to make them worship idols again. The Israelites wanted to worship God only, but what were they supposed to do? If they didn’t worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, they were going to be killed! Talk about an impossible situation!

They didn’t have much time to think about it though. Suddenly, the music started to play. All of the Babylonians bowed down and worshipped. And a bunch of the Israelites did too. We don’t have a choice, they thought sadly. But this only made it even more obvious when three people remained standing.

These people were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – Daniel’s friends. The three of them had learned from that whole vegetable eating incident we talked about a few weeks ago that doing that right thing isn’t always easy. But that doesn’t mean we should stop doing what is right. So, even though they knew that not worshipping the statue could lead to their death, they still put God and His instructions first!

The Babylonian officials didn’t see it this way though. Their first thoughts were, Finally! Now we have a way to get rid of Daniel’s goodie two-shoes friends! So they raced to the king (after bowing to the statue of course) and said, “King Nebuchadnezzar! There’s a problem with some of those Jews you hired to help Daniel govern Babylon! Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego don’t care about you, your law, or your gods! They refuse to worship the statue you set up!”

Now if you remember from last week, you’ll know that King Nebuchadnezzar has quite the temper. And this time was no different. When he heard that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down to his statue, he got really angry and demanded they be brought to him immediately!

When the three friends arrived before the king, Nebuchadnezzar tried to be nice. “Shadrach. Meshach. Abednego,” he said. “You three are usually such good servants of mine, so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. You must not have heard my instructions. When the music plays, you’re supposed to go out and worship my new statue. Don’t you want to worship my gods?”

Meshach swallowed before answering, “There was no mistake, my king. We heard your instructions. But we worship our God and Him alone.”

“Then you’ll also know that if you don’t bow down,” the king said, growing angrier as he spoke, “then you’ll be thrown into a blazing furnace. And what god will be able to save you then?!?”

Shadrach looked at his two friends, who simply nodded at him. “King Nebuchadnezzar,” they said, “we don’t need to talk about this anymore. We might be thrown into the blazing furnace. But the God we serve is able to bring us out of it alive. He will save us from your power. But we want you to know this, Your Majesty. Even if we knew that our God wouldn’t save us, we still wouldn’t serve your gods. We wouldn’t worship the gold statue you set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18, NIrV).

At this, King Nebuchadnezzar lost it. The king was angrier than Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had ever seen! Nebuchadnezzar yelled for some servants to make the furnace seven times hotter than normal. And then he told his strongest soldiers to tie Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego up, clothes and all, and to throw them into the furnace!

But this is where things get incredible. King Nebuchadnezzar could see everything that was happening, and something didn’t make sense. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego weren’t burning up! But then the king realized something else. He squinted hard, then leaned over to one of his advisors and asked, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the fire?”

“Yes my king,” the advisors responded.

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” he said back. “Look, there are four people in there, and none of them are tied up! And the fourth one looks like a son of the gods!” (This means that the fourth person looked like an angel or someone else who had come from God. But whoever it was, it was enough to amaze the king!)

“Get them out!” the king cried. “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come to me! Come out of the furnace!”

And the three friends did exactly that. Their ropes were gone, but their clothes were perfectly fine. Not a single one of their hairs had been burned off. They didn’t even smell like smoke! (No campfire smell for them!)

I can imagine that King Nebuchadnezzar was pretty shaken up after this. Maybe he remembered his dream and how he had worshipped God once already. Maybe he realized there was more to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s God than he had thought. Whatever the case, he praised God again and decreed that no one could say anything bad about God. If they did, King Nebuchadnezzar would destroy them and their homes!

And again, I wish I could say that King Nebuchadnezzar believed in God from this point forward. But the next chapter of Daniel tells us that this simply isn’t the case. In fact, it wasn’t until King Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself – until he admitted that God is bigger and better than Nebuchadnezzar ever could be – that the king finally came to worship God and God alone!

In fact, that’s what so many of these stories in Daniel are all about. God wanted His people back then to remember why they had been taken from their home – because they had worshipped idols in place of Him. And God wants us to learn a similar lesson today – that there is only one God, and He is the only one to be worshipped.

Most of us don’t go around worshipping statues anymore, but we might treat other things as if they are idols. We probably don’t bow down to our PlayStations or sing songs about our iPads. But when we spend all our time playing video games or trying to get lots of money without spending any time focusing on God, then we are treating those things like they’re more important than God! That’s worshipping an idol.   

But God doesn’t want us to worship those things. Instead, He wants us to worship the one and only God who stands beside us when things get tough. Money or video games aren’t going to stand in the fires of life with you, but God will. He is greater than any difficulty we might face, and He promises never to leave us, no matter how tough things might get (Hebrews 13:5). And for that reason, plus like a billion more, God alone deserves our worship.

~Brentagious

SSS: Christianese, or Why You Should Consider Different Words

So I’ve been at this blogging thing for just over four months now. I’ve written somewhere around 40 000 words in an effort to tell stories that reveal truths in ways that kids can easily understand. That might seem like a lot of words, but I really just throw that number in there to make my accomplishment sound more impressive than it is.

But between writing 40 000 words and teaching lessons on Sunday mornings and at camp, I’ve learned something important about the words we use when teaching kids. And that lesson is that, surprise surprise, words matter. A lot. In fact, the words you use to explain truth can make the difference between a kid understanding and retaining the message or not.

I have a friend edit all of these blog posts before they go live (thanks Katie!). She reads for grammar and spelling, sure, but more often than not, her comments go something like this: “I’m not sure an eight year old will understand _______________. Try using a different word.” I’m extremely thankful that I have an extra set of eyes that can catch when I use words or phrases that a regular kid probably won’t understand. As such, today I want to talk a little bit about the dangers of Christianese in storytelling.

First, let’s define what that word means. Christianese refers to those words or phrases that, if you’re a Christian, you’ll probably understand without too much hassle. These words or phrases tend to build on stereotypes or theological ideas that people in the church naturally learn simply because they’ve been a Christian for a decent amount of time.

Unfortunately, it can be our tendency within Christian circles to overuse Christianese, often without even realizing it. This isn’t such a big deal when you’re having conversations with your friends at Bible college – actually there, Christianese often ends up being the butt of a bunch of your jokes – but it’s not so good when these words or phrases are used in an actual ministry setting.

Why? Because by using Christianese, you risk alienating your audience. Let’s run through a few examples. At my church, we talk about “doing life together.” This term tends to come up when we break off into our Life Groups (small groups) to discuss the sermon, but it can be extended to include the hoped for connections and experiences you’ll engage in with your small group members outside of the study setting. But for someone who’s just walked into your church for the first time, that’s a lot of context they aren’t going to understand just by hearing “doing life together” though.

Or what about “I’m going through a season right now”? A season of what? Spring? A show on Netflix? No, in Christianese, this refers to when you’re going through a really tough time in your life and where, ideally, you’re learning to trust God more in the process.

Some of these Christianese phrases can get pretty intense. My favourite is “I’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb.” This phrase is supposed to describe how we are saved from our sins because Jesus poured out his blood for us when He died on the cross. But just think for a second about how that would sound to someone who doesn’t automatically connect Jesus to the Passover lamb – like anyone who’s grown up in the post-Christian West and has never stepped foot in a church. Not knowing the Christianese context to this phrase makes us sound pretty sadistic. Thankfully I haven’t heard this one thrown around all that often.

Now I get that there can be a time and a place for these phrases, but I point out these examples to show how just assuming your entire audience knows what you’re talking about when you use cliché Christian phrases can be seriously off-putting to people who haven’t grown up in a setting where these clichés are normal. And these are the kind of things we typically say to a room of adults! Now imagine how much worse Christianese could be misinterpreted when used in a Kidmin setting.

 

In fact, with kids, you have an added dimension to this problem. Most adults still know what forgiveness or sin means, but you can’t assume that a six year old will. Believe me, if you don’t explain what some of these terms mean, you’re just going to be met with blank stares.

So let’s go through a few examples more closely. Sin is probably the most overused not understood word in children’s ministry. Lots of unchurched kids won’t automatically know that sin means “all those bad things you do” or “those things that go against what God wants.” So if you stand at the front of your stage and ask the kids in your ministry if they want to confess their sins to Jesus without explaining what a sin is, you’re probably not going to make a lot of progress.

We have to get better at explaining the words that talk about dealing with sin too. You can’t automatically assume every kid in the audience knows what “confess,” “repent,” or “forgive” mean. So let’s break them down.

Confess, in kid friendly terms, is admitting to someone that you’ve done something wrong. You might want to give an example involving stealing cookies or something. When you confess, you tell someone that you were mean to them and then you say sorry.

Repent is an even less known word for kids. To repent literally means “to turn around.” I would suggest moving when trying to explain this to kids. Walk in one direction and talk about a whole bunch of bad things we can do. Then stop, turn around, and start walking in the other direction while explaining that repentance is doing exactly that: to stop doing those bad things and start doing what God wants instead. It wouldn’t hurt to add that we can’t actually pull that off on our own but need God’s help to do it!

And then there’s forgiveness. You might think that’s the easiest of the bunch to explain, but I’m not so sure. I had a friend ask me a few weeks back to define forgiveness and realized it’s not as easy to do as you think. But the best way I can think to explain it to kids is that forgiveness is not holding something against someone. Again, examples are helpful. If someone pushes you over, you forgive them when you decide to not stay mad at them for pushing you. Instead, you move on.

I point out these words because they’re the most obvious ones you’re going to deal with when talking to kids about what Jesus did on the cross. And if you can’t explain to a kid in language they understand what sin is and why they need forgiveness for it, you’re setting them up for failure down the road. You don’t want them graduating from your ministry or getting to the end of your summer camp without them ever knowing that sin means there’s a problem in their life that only Jesus can fix!

Speaking of, let’s also use caution when we introduce the idea of accepting Jesus to kids. Kids can be quite literal, so talking to them about “asking Jesus into their hearts” can create some weird mental pictures. But if you can explain to them what it means to believe in Jesus and have a relationship with Him without them thinking they need open heart surgery, you’re probably on the right track.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that we need to seriously think about the words we use. The Gospel is powerful and can make its message known to people of any age, but there’s no sense in confusing kids by talking about the Gospel with words that they won’t understand. But when we use words and examples that they can relate to, we’re setting them up to not just make the most important decision of their lives but also to understand why making that decision matters! And if we do that, they’re going to be far more likely to hold on to their faiths as they get older.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and make sure my next story doesn’t use long, complicated theological words that no child would understand. Probably shouldn’t bring up the potential theophany in Rack, Shack, and Benny…

~Brentagious

Daniel 2 - An Impossible Test

Have you ever taken a test where no matter how hard you studied, you just didn’t know the answers? The questions were just too hard? I’ve been there. But the people in our story today took an even tougher test. These guys didn’t just not know the answers; they didn’t even know the question! That’s right… We’re continuing Daniel’s story today, and this time we’re going to hear from a guy named Arioch about the time where Daniel passed an impossible test! So let’s listen in.

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Daniel? Yeah, I’ve heard of that guy. I mean, who hasn’t? He’s kind of a legend in the palace by this point. Daniel, that servant from Judah who can do pretty much anything.

There’s something special about him and his friends. No matter what they do, they’re good at it. Give them the toughest scrolls in the palace to translate? They’ve got it translated by the end of the day. Give them a tough prophecy to interpret? They nail it. Make them scrub the floors? They’re shining brighter than the day the floors were put in!

Daniel and his friends might make a bunch of the other servants jealous, but they certainly make my job easier! The name’s Arioch. I’ve been the commander of the king’s guard for a few years now. And let me tell you, I haven’t always been a fan of these servants. Especially those that King Nebuchadnezzar recruits from other countries.

You have to watch those servants. They’re the ones that are most likely to want to kill the king. The story is always the same. They’re mad that they’ve been taken from their homes and want revenge. But not Daniel and his friends. Sure, I bet they missed home, but they served King Nebuchadnezzar loyally! We could use more servants like Daniel around.

But that’s not what you want to hear about. You want to hear about that dream of the king’s. Ooooh boy, that’s a good story. One of the craziest days of my career! And the crazy started right at the beginning!

Picture this: It’s a normal night at the palace. I’ve been relieved for the night and getting some much needed rest after guarding the king all day. But as commander of the king’s guard, you’re never totally off the clock. If anything goes wrong in the castle, I’m one of the first to be woken up.

But I’m not normally woken up because the king had a bad dream… Don’t get me wrong, I know nightmares can be scary, but the king’s a big boy… He should be able to handle his own bad dreams. But not this one. King Nebuchadnezzar was yelling and screaming up a storm, demanding all kinds of servants and wise men be brought to him immediately.

When a servant came to get me, I only groaned. It was 3am. Couldn’t this wait until morning?

Then I snapped to my senses. Of course not. This is King Nebuchadnezzar we’re talking about! This king’s got a temper like you wouldn’t believe. I did not want to get on his bad side!

So I changed out of my pajamas and into my armour and hurried off to the king’s side. And wouldn’t you know it, all kinds of the smartest and wisest people in the kingdom were already talking with the king.

“Oh king, may you live forever!” the wise men were saying. “Tell us what you dreamed. Then we’ll explain what it means” (Daniel 2:4, NIrV).

The king looked down at them from his throne. He didn’t look happy. I think he looked at each and every one of those wise men for a few seconds. Then he let out what almost sounded like a growl.

Finally, in his low, booming voice, he said, “No… I will not tell you my dream. You will tell me what I dreamed and what it meant.”

“But my king…” the chief wise man tried to interrupt, which only made King Nebuchadnezzar’s face grow angrier!

“I’m not done talking!” he yelled. “If none of you can do this, I will have you cut into pieces. And I will destroy your homes. Do not disappointment me.”

The room grew silent. I looked over at the wise men. Their faces were white. A few of them looked like they wanted to speak, but decided against it.

“But never let it be said I am not a grateful king,” Nebuchadnezzar continued, now smiling. “To the man who can correctly tell me what I dreamed and what it means, I will give riches and rewards beyond your imagination! Now come… Who can tell me my dream?”

Nobody moved. The wise men just looked around at each other, silently. Some of them bit their lips. One of them collapsed. Finally, the chief wise man said, “King Nebuchadnezzar, please! Just tell us what you dreamed. Then we can interpret it!”

The king was silent for a moment. Then, he rose from his throne. The chief wise man swallowed. He knew this wasn’t a good sign.

“I know what you’re doing,” King Nebuchadnezzar said quietly. “You’re trying to stall for time so you can come up with lies. So no… I will not tell you my dream! But I suggest you tell it to me soon if you want to save your lives!”

“But my king, what you have asked is impossible! Nobody in Babylon can do what you asked. This is too hard for even the gods!” (The Babylonians, of course, believe that there are many gods… But I learned pretty quickly after this whole dream thing that there’s only one God.)

At this, King Nebuchadnezzar sighed. “Arioch?”

I cleared my throat, too nervous to do anything else. “Yes, my king.”

The king turned around so he was looking away from the wise men. “Have these fools put to death!” the king commanded.

There was nothing I could do. The king had given an order, and I had to follow through with it. So I arrested the wise men in the king’s chambers and then sent some guards to round up all the other wise men in the castle. Apparently King Nebuchadnezzar meant what he said. He was going to have them all put to death.

That’s when Daniel approached me. Daniel was one of those wise men. He couldn’t understand why King Nebuchadnezzar would give such an impossible test, let alone why the king would have all the wise men in the kingdom put to death if they couldn’t solve it! But without a second thought, Daniel went to King Nebuchadnezzar’s chamber and said that he could interpret the dream. He would just need a little bit of time. And thank the LORD, Nebuchadnezzar told me to hold off on the death sentence until after Daniel returned.

Daniel went home to pray with his friends. They asked God to help Daniel understand the king’s dream so they could save not only their lives but the lives of all the wise men. And that night, God gave Daniel a vision and showed him exactly what he needed to know.

The next day, Daniel came to me and said that he knew what the king’s dream meant. I was a little suspicious, but I figured anything was better than killing a whole bunch of innocent men. So I took Daniel before the king, really hoping that he got it right.

“So Daniel,” King Nebuchadnezzar said with an amused grin, “Arioch here tells me that you can tell me what my dream means!”

“No my king,” Daniel replied. I’m pretty sure my heart stopped beating for a second. Great, thanks Daniel! I thought. The King’s probably going to be so mad he’ll have me killed too!

But then Daniel continued: “You have asked us to explain a mystery to you. But no wise man can do that. And those who try to figure things out by using magic can’t do it either. But there is a God in heaven who can explain mysteries. King Nebuchadnezzar, that God has shown you what is going to happen in the future…”

And with that, Daniel went on to explain this fascinating dream. King Nebuchadnezzar had been standing before a giant statue. The statue’s head was made of gold, the chest and arms were of silver, the stomach of bronze, the legs of iron, and the feet of iron and clay. And then a massive rock came falling from the sky and crushed the statue, piece by piece!

Then Daniel explained what the dream meant. He said that each part of the statue was a different kingdom. King Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom was the golden head, and there were a bunch of kingdoms that were going to come after his. But each and every one of those kingdoms was going to be defeated.

But one kingdom, the rock that crushed all the others, that kingdom would last. And that kingdom, Daniel said, was God’s kingdom. God was going to set up a kingdom on Earth that was never going to be destroyed!

With this, King Nebuchadnezzar was amazed. He honoured Daniel and gave him all the rewards he promised. And then he said, “I’m sure your God is the greatest God of all. He is the Lord of kings. He explains mysteries. That’s why you were able to explain the mystery of my dream” (Daniel 2:47). And from that day on, Daniel became one of the most important people in King Nebuchadnezzar’s court.

Of course, King Nebuchadnezzar soon forgot about this dream and how he had praised God. But I didn’t. I’ve believed in Daniel’s God ever since that day. I believe that God is the forever King who explains mysteries! And I only hope that one day, I might be able to serve in His kingdom too!

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The crazy thing about Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, guys, is that it actually came true. After Babylon came another kingdom, the Persians (silver). And after them came the Greeks (bronze). And after them came the Roman Empire (iron), but even that eventually split off into a bunch of weaker kingdoms (iron and clay). All of those kingdoms came and went.

Now you might be thinking, “But what about God’s kingdom? Where’s that?” And honestly guys, it’s partly here, just not in the way that we might be expecting. When Jesus came, died, and rose again, He began God’s kingdom on earth. But it won’t be completely set up until Jesus comes again.

In the meantime, it’s super important that we decide if we’re going to become part of God’s kingdom or not. To be part of God’s kingdom means believing that Jesus died to forgive us for all those bad things we’ve done in our lives. And the best part is that when we do that, we get to have a relationship with the King Himself, God, right now!

And if God’s kingdom is going to last forever, like Daniel said it would, then that’s something we’re going to want to be a part of.

~Brentagious