DANIEL BIBLE STORY

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 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.