Daniel 1:3-5 – Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. As a teenager, Daniel along with many others, was taken as an exile to Babylon. Forced to... Read more

Daniel 1:1-2 – In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. Many, if not most people, are not really much worried... Read more

Christians and non-Christians, including people from cults and world religions, can and do turn to the Bible for instruction and inspiration. But, the Christian has a distinctly unique focus when studying the Bible. For the Christian, the center of the Bible is Christ. Jesus Christ modeled this very thing for us. After His resurrection from death, the last chapter of Luke’s gospel in the New Testament says that Jesus taught two different Bible studies, including the prophets like Daniel, and... Read more

How did Daniel remain faithful to God from his teens to his eighties while living in Babylon pressured every day in every way to dishonor, disobey, and disregard his God? One secret to Daniel’s success was his prayer life. Daniel knew God and knew how to talk and listen to God. Daniel’s prayer life is highlighted throughout the book and a prime cause of his fortitude and wisdom. In fact, Daniel gets into trouble with the demonic leadership in Babylon... Read more

There is a bit of debate regarding who the author of Daniel is for reasonable reasons. Ultimately, God the Holy Spirit is the divine author of Daniel. As a prophecy, it fits squarely within 2 Peter 1:20-21 which says, “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Uncovering the human author of Daniel is... Read more

Studying the Bible is a bit like doing a math equation. There’s one right answer, and lots of ways to get the wrong answer. Regarding Daniel, there are four common ways that the book is wrongly taught. The most common way that the Bible is misinterpreted and mistaught is called moralizing. Moralizing treats the Bible as a series of biographies where people are treated as heroes. We are encouraged to follow their example by copying their moral virtues. There are... Read more

For some people, their problem is not that they don’t understand who God is. Instead, they don’t want God to be in authority over them, so they never convert to the worship of the God they know about. Such people do not have a mental problem as much as they have a moral problem. There’s a big difference between respecting God and receiving God. Throughout Daniel, the power of God is so obviously at work in and through Daniel that... Read more

In reading the book of Daniel, there are some themes that thread the entire story together. Here are a few examples: God’s people should be faithful because our God is faithful. Throughout Daniel, God is faithful. In response to God’s faithfulness, Daniel is faithful to God. God is in control of who is in control. God sovereignly rules the past, present, future, and eternity. There is no one, no thing, no place, and no time that is beyond His ultimate... Read more

Have you noticed that sometimes God seems to have a lot to say to you during one season, but not much in another season? What may be true of your life is also true of God’s Word. The four hundred years between the last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, until the prophetic preaching ministry of John the Baptizer are called by many theologians “the silent years”. In other seasons, God has a lot to say. This is true in the days... Read more