In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets. Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon. – 2 Kings 24:1-7
Many might skim past this book and see it as confusing futuristic prophecy, there is a rich meaning to Daniel’s writing that is much more than foresight into the end times. The message of the book speaks much more to daily life.
The book begins in the time of King Jehoiakim, when Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, laid siege to Jerusalem and began the process of exiling the Israelites. The southern kingdom of Judah was destroyed and the kingdom sent off to a faraway land. Daniel and his three friends as we will get to know them in the book, are from the tribe of Judah (possibly part of the royal family) and will have to learn how to live faithful to God while in exile.
There are a few interesting notes that may help us gain a better understanding of the book as we delve into it together. The layout of the book seemingly divides into to two simple sections: 1-6 (stories about Daniel and his friends) and 7-12 (visions of Daniel). But there is an interesting twist in that Daniel wrote the book in two languages: Hebrews (Chs 1, 8-12) and Aramaic (Chs 2-7). This suggests that the layout of the book is not as simple as we thought. While there are two main sections to the book, Ch 1 stands out more on its own as an introduction, presenting through its example the main idea of the book. Chs 2-7 then serve as symmetrical story-telling to reinforce those themes (2&7, 3&6, 4&5), then finishes off with Chs 8-12 using Daniel’s visions to give us a Heaven’s eye view of what we the readers need to understand.
As the main character in this book, it is also interesting to note that Daniel is one of the only biblical characters (other than Jesus) where they don’t show us any glaring character flaws. This helps to show the idea that righteous suffering is what is important here (not suffering for our own sins). Peter discusses this idea of suffering for good (as opposed to evil) and its importance in growing the Kingdom of God in 1 Peter 3.
As we go through the devotional series, we will go into much more detail, but simply by learning about the layout and basic characteristics of the book, we can be challenged to live a more righteous life and prepare ourselves to face suffering as a result; and that is all for God’s glory.