There once was a king named Nebuchadnezzar, from Babylon, who took over
Israel. That's a silly name, now isn't it? Nebuchadnezzar had a fake god,
but the Lord let him take over Israel because the people there kept
disobeying Him. The king gave orders to bring smart children from Israel
to Babylon so they could be taught the king's customs and how to speak the
king's language so that when the children got older, they could be
servants in the king's palace. The king chose what they would eat and
drink so that after three years they might be big and strong enough to
serve the king. One of these children was named Daniel, and Daniel loved
God.
Daniel had three friends named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and the
man who was in charge of Daniel was named Melzar. Now, the food and drink
that the king wanted the children to eat, was not what God had told Moses
that the people of Israel should eat, so Daniel asked Melzar to let him
and his three friends eat beans and drink water. After ten days, Daniel
and his friends were healthier than all the children who were eating and
drinking what the king wanted. God blessed them in their learning and gave
Daniel a special way of understanding dreams. After the three years they
were ten times smarter than all the magicians.
One night, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. It bothered him very much
because he didn't know what it meant. So, he called all his magicians and
wise men and they said, Tell us your dream and we will tell you what it
means. Nebuchadnezzar answered, You tell me what my dream was, and what it
means, and I will give you great gifts, but if you can't tell me, you will
die. Nobody could tell the king his dream. Daniel and his friends prayed
that God would show him what the kings dream was and what it meant so that
they wouldn't die. God showed Daniel, and Daniel thanked God for showing
him, then Daniel said to the kings servant, Don't kill the wise men. Take
me to the king and I will show the king what his dream means.
Daniel began, No wise man can show you what your dream means, but there
is a God in Heaven who knows mysteries and God has shown you what will
happen someday. In your dream, you saw a big statue with a head made of
gold. His chest and arms were made of silver. His belly and thighs were
brass. His legs were iron and his feet were part iron and part clay. Then
you saw a stone that hit the feet and broke them all to pieces, and after
that, the rest of the statue crumbled all together and blew away in the
wind. Then the stone turned into a great big mountain and filled the whole
earth.
Now that Daniel had told the king exactly what his dream was, he went
ahead and told him what the dream meant. You are like the head of gold,
the strong king. After you, another kingdom will be built, not as strong,
like the silver. And after that, there will be a third kingdom, and that
is the brass. The fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron. The iron and
clay will be a kingdom that will split up into other kingdoms. Then God
will set up a kingdom that will never end. The king said to Daniel, Your
God is the true God, because He told you what my dream was and what it
meant. Then Nebuchadnezzar gave Daniel and his friends very special
important jobs in Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar quickly forgot about the Lord being the true God and he
made a huge gold statue in Babylon. Then he made a law that when the
people in his kingdom heard the sound of music, they must bow down and
pray to the statue or die in that same hour. Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednigo would not pray to the statue, because it wasn't God.
Nebuchadnezzar was vary mad and said, I will throw you into a burning
fiery furnace! The strongest men in the kings army tied Daniel's friends
up and turned the fire up seven times hotter than it usually was. It was
so hot, that the kings men were burned up when they threw Daniel's friends
into the fire. When the king looked into the fire, he was surprised to see
four people walking in the middle of the fire, with no burns at all!
Who do you think the fourth person was? God had sent an angel to save
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo from being burned. When the king told them
to come out of the fire, they didn't even smell like smoke. Nebuchadnezzar
made a law that if anyone said anything bad about God, that they would be
cut into pieces and their house would be destroyed.
When Nebuchadnezzar died, his son, Belshazzar became the king and he
had a great big party for his friends in his palace. He used the gold and
silver cups and bowls from the Temple in Jerusalem, so that his friends
could eat and drink out of them and pray to their fake gods. Of course,
this made God very angry.
That very same hour, Belshazzar saw a hand writing on the wall in the
palace. Belshazzar was scared, and called his smartest men in to tell him
what the writing meant, but nobody could read it. So the king's wife told
him, I have heard of a man named Daniel who can tell you what the writing
means. So the king had Daniel brought to him and asked him what the
writing meant.
Daniel said, You brought bowls and cups from the Temple of God, and you
ate and drank from them and prayed to fake gods. But you didn't pray to
God, who has given you life. The hand you saw was sent from God and this
is what he wrote. Your kingdom will come to an end. You have not done
good, and your kingdom will be given to the Medes and Persians (two other
countries). That night, Belshazzar was killed and a Median named Darius
took over the kingdom.
When Darius became king, he chose Daniel to be the most important of
all of his princes. They all wanted to get rid of Daniel because he was
the kings favorite. They knew that Daniel loved God, so they asked the
king to make a new law saying that nobody could pray to anyone but the
king for a month or else they should be thrown into the lion's den. Then
they spied on Daniel and went to tell the king that Daniel prays to God,
three times a day.

The king had no choice, so he told the princes to take Daniel and throw
him into the lion's den. But because the king was fond of Daniel, he said
to him, God will save you. The king worried all night about Daniel, and
early the next morning he hurried to the lion's den and called Daniel's
name. Daniel said, God has sent his angel to shut the lion's mouths and I
am not hurt. God knows I have done nothing wrong. The king was very glad
and had Daniel taken out of the lion's den. Then the king had all the
princes that spied on Daniel, and their wives and children, thrown into
the lion's den, and the lions gobbled them all up. Darius made a law that
everyone in his kingdom, should pray only to God, because He saved Daniel
from the lions and He works miracles and He alone, is the true God,
forever.
The Daniel Bible Story was told in the book called ...
Daniel. The Daniel Bible Story can be found by clicking on this link: (Daniel)
The Daniel Bible Story has very
important lessons. The Daniel Bible Story teaches us
that when God chooses someone, God protects them. The Daniel Bible Story also
shares visions of things that will happen
in the End Times.
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