The Book of Daniel was written around 530BC, however the writer thought to be Daniel himself records a lot but not all the history behind the book. It’s a book that is deep, dynamic and divinely prophetic.
It is recorded by historical sources that the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and his army had defeated the Egyptian Army at a place to the north of Judah around in our calendar about this time of the year September – October 606 BC and following that victory had swept down to Judah and taken control from the Judaean King Zedekiah.
Very early in the book we discover the story of four young men. Three of whom are better known by the Babylonian names than their Hebrew names; Young men from the line of King David who had been taken into exile as captives, think Boney M “By the Rivers of Babylon.” Boney M is a musical group young people. These young men included Daniel, who became Belteshazzar; Hananiah, Misha-el and Azariah who became: Sadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were picked as it says in the first chapter of the book because they were “strong, healthy, good-looking lads…widely read and well informed, alert and sensible with enough poise to look good around the palace.” (NLT) It appears in modern phraseology they were; ‘wise masculine eye candy?’ Later it was seen that there was more substance to them than that.
Another early distinctive in the book of Daniel, is the name that God is referred to by; Adonay; meaning “owner, ruler or sovereign.” Why because the writer firmly believes that God oversees the events that are taking place, that these circumstances have come about as prophesied, as revealed, and what is occurring is as a result of the sinful actions of the Hebrew people. Also that God is in charge of his present and future and even forecast the future for his people.
Well, these young men were trained along with other noble Hebrew Youth who were taken into exile, given the best of food, though they requested their own diet and thrived on it. You may have heard about the Daniel diet or Daniel fast. After three years of intensive training in which they excelled they impressed the King so much the four of them were made his Nebuchadnezzar’s, regular advisors.
By the end of chapter two, due to Daniel not only telling King Nebuchadnezzar what he the King had dreamed, but by interpreting the dream, Daniel was placed in charge of the whole of the province of Babylon and made chief magistrate in the Kings court, with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as his assistants.
As a complete aside there’s an officer couple in Sri Lanka with three sons whose names are ….
So in among this historical stuff, there’s the account of the three young fellas Sadrach, Meshach and Abednego who wouldn’t worship the idol that King Nebuchadnezzar had made, so, they were thrown in the fiery furnace. Key to their imminent demise was this reply to the King: Chapter 3:16-18: It goes like this.
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.
17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.
18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Back to that name for God, Adonay, “It highlights His absolute authority, covenant faithfulness, and relational nearness.” These young men knew God and in knowing him knew he was close to them and could be trusted no matter their predicament. They were part of his divine plan, and they knew it.
The outcome was after they were thrown into the furnace there were four men seen walking around inside it, and in the words of the King the fourth looked “like a god!” (3:25b) and the King called on them to come out, the fire had not touched them. The King blessed the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego because he had sent his angel to deliver them. The great Louis Armstrong made a hit song out of that.
Then Daniel interprets a dream for King Nebuchadnezzar, chapter 4, with the outcome that the king ended up after 45 years of rule having a break in the wilderness living like an animal having been chased insane from the palace. He ate grass, his hair was as long as eagles feathers and his hands like birds’ claws. However, after those seven years he ‘looked to heaven, he praised the Most-High God and his sanity returned.’ Ref Chapter 4:33-34.
While it’s not recorded in Daniel, there were three caretaker kings during this period of the Kings insanity, history records them as reigning between 560 and 553 BC. Then “King Nabonidus” meaning “God be Praised” reigned for thirteen years. It is thought this King was a wiser, post madness King Nebuchadnezzar with a new name, as he repented and praised God.
Chapter five starts with a new King Belshazzar. John Cash sung about him and made a hit out of it, in fact it launched his career with Sun Records in 1955. King Belshazzar was weighed in the balance and found wanting. Why because he was proud and used scared cups from the temple in Jerusalem to toast his own idols. “Then suddenly while they were drinking from the sacred cups the fingers of a man’s handwriting on the plaster wall opposite the lamp stand.” (Daniel 3:6). Daniel was called to explain the meaning of this vision. He told Belshazzar that he was weighed in the balance and found wanting, that he had not been humble like King Nebuchadnezzar. As a result, his kingdom would be divided between the Medes and Persians. This is where the phrase “The writing is on the wall” originated. That night Balshazzer was killed and Darius the Mede entered the city and began reigning at the age of sixty-two. Good to know the age of ‘62’ can be a starting point for great things.
King Darius divided Babylon into 120 provinces and placed Daniel as Governor of one third of them. Of course, he did better than the rest and they became jealous. This in turn lead to King Darius signing a decree that for thirty days anyone who asked a favour of God or man except [King Darius] would be feed to the lions. Why because the other jealous officials knew the loyal and faithful Daniel would continue to pray to God. So, the jealous men went to Daniel’s house and found him praying to God. Long story short Daniel ends up getting thrown to the loins. The king was distraught as he knew the jealous blokes had pulled the wool over his eyes and his best Governor was going to suffer a horrible death.
However, a big however, an angel is sent by God who shuts the mouths of the lions. The king is beside himself with joy when he sees Daniel was saved and on hearing this from Daniel. “
My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.” Daniel 6:22.
It ends badly for the wool pullers and their families as they become lion food. So, there is a wee note at the end of Chapter 6 that says in verse 28, ‘So Daniel prospered well in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.”
From chapter 7 there is a lot of apocryphal visions that mention it is believed the coming of the Roman empire into Judea, the coming of the Antichrist, as also mentioned in the New Testament in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, the future Alexander the Great, Ptolemy of Egypt and other kings and kingdoms. Even the timing of Jesus life and death is prophesied with the statements in chapter 9:24. “The Lord has commanded 490 years of further punishment upon Jerusalem and your people. Then at last they will learn to stay away from sin, and their guilt will be cleansed; then the king of righteousness will begin, and the Most Holy Place (in the Temple) will be rededicated, as the prophets have declared. Verse 26 of the same chapter mentions that in 434 years the Anointed One will be killed, his kingdom still unrealised…and a king will arise whose armies will destroy the Temple. We know the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Then there is a whole lot of apocryphal prophecies that came true, mentions of spiritual beings battles in the heavenly realms, there are prophetic messages that were fulfilled up until 167 BC and some that are believed to relate to the end times and Christ’s return.
Interestingly the last verse of the book reads this way as a message from a heavenly being to Daniel, Chapter 12:13, “But go on now to the end of your life and your rest; for you will rise again and have your full share of those last days.” So, we shouldn’t be surprised when Jesus returns if Daniel is with him.
Well, that’s the book sort of summed up. However, where does it leave us around 2600 years later? What can we take away from it? There’s plenty, but I’m only going to focus on a couple of things. This is only a two-point sermon.
(1) Number one is, understanding that God knows what is to come, The name ‘Adonay’ a powerful name for God, meaning Lord or Master, it underscores God’s majesty, sovereignty and relational closeness to his followers. Note: in all of the prophetic discussion God was opening up to Daniel about what he saw coming, why, because there was a warning for God’s people and Daniel was close enough to God for him to be put in places where he made a difference to many peoples futures including ours, right here right now at Tawa on the 19th of October 2026. What do we do with it? I can recommend getting closer to God, it might be you are undecided about God. The first great commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength.” Deuteronomy 6 and Mark 12:30-31. Why because this is what we are created to do, I could sugar coat it but the truth is that we are not compete without a relationship with God, and I don’t mean like that friend you mean to catch up for coffee for the past year but still haven’t got around to it relationship. You need to have the sort of relationship that when challenged you can say as the three boys did prior to getting thrown in the fire, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.” (Chapter 3:17) Remember what I said earlier those young men knew God and in knowing him knew he was close to them and could be trusted no matter their predicament. They were part of his divine plan, and they knew it.
(2) To highlight my next point, I’d like to introduce you to another great Daniel. Now this man is remembered as a great, a great in his sport and a great in New Zealand. Here he is playing in the jersey of the Worlds most successful rugby franchise, consistently the best team in New Zealand also. You can all appreciate just how good he is particularly playing for the Crusaders. [I have a slide of rugby great Dan Carter in his Crusaders playing gear getting ready to kick a goal].
Now the reaction you just had was because he was wearing that jersey, and while there’s a few of us one eyed Canterbury supporters here, you might not be able to appreciate him as much as I can because you support some other lesser team possibly the Hurricanes. No accounting for taste, that support comes about due to a geographical preference.
However, if we see the great Daniel Carter in this jersey, [Now in an All Blacks jersey, our national team] we can all admit that was the best at what he did in the world, especially kicking goals. Again, we sit in the place of geographical preference if we were South African, our heroes would be Naas Bohaa, ‘Nasty Booter’ as he was nicknamed by the British Press, another geographic bias, or Morne Steyn. Living in the world we do we are influenced by the world around us.
Back to Daniel, Sadrach, Meshach and Abednego, these young men were taken into exile. They left Judah and because of their key attributes; the intelligence, the wisdom and their poise around the palace stuff, they got into the position of possibility for great Babylonian futures, however!
However, what?
Without that connection to the One True God, their closeness of relationship they would have lived their lives bowing down to the Babylonian idols, lived forgotten lives and not altered their or their people’s history for good or to the glory of God. We are supporters of a regional team, a national team but unless we are on God’s team we are not on the team that matters in the long run.
So where am I going, we are born into our circumstance whatever they are or have been. We are supporters of a team of some sort, does it dominate our lives, or do we put aside our physical, geographical worldly directed tendencies and put our God first? To do this requires a bit of substance, sometimes we have to meet God in the fire, sometimes we have to allow ourselves to be opposed to the things of the world that distract and destruct our relationship with God, this can lead to us finding ourselves in the Lion’s den on occasions or even as part of our earthly finally. However, yes again however this results in us becoming people of substance and gaining a depth of relationship with him that makes an eternal difference. A difference where we live in his will, where we become people after his own heart and reflect his character in our lives.
Daniel and his friends lived in a world that tried to shape them, but they stood firm because they knew Adonay—the sovereign, faithful, and near God. Whether in the fire, the lion’s den, or the palace, they trusted Him completely. Their lives remind us that true strength and purpose come from closeness to God, not from circumstance or culture. We too are called to live with conviction, to be people of substance who reflect God’s character in a world that desperately needs it.
Altar Call:
So today, the question is simple: are you on God’s team? Maybe you’ve been undecided, distracted, or distant. But now is the time to respond. If you want to step closer to God, to live with purpose and faith like Daniel did, come forward. This is your moment to say, “Yes, Lord—I’m yours.” The altar is open, and God is waiting.
