God's People in Captivity

    King Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and carried the king, treasures from the Lord’s temple and some of the people to Babylon where they would live in captivity for seventy years.

     Among the people who were captured were young men who were outstanding in their appearance and intelligence. The king placed them in a three-year training program to prepare them for service in his palace.

     King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which troubled him. Although he sent for his magicians, astrologers, sorcerers  and others of the Chaldeans to interpret his dream, they were unable to tell him the meaning of his dream. The king refused to tell them the dream. They insisted that since the king was withholding the dream they could not tell him the meaning of it. The king said, “Tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation.”

     Daniel, one of the young men of the captives, heard about the king’s dream. God enabled Daniel to relate the dream and its meaning to King Nebuchadnezzar. The king was so pleased with Daniel that he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon. Daniel’s friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, were given important positions too.

     Daniel’s three friends were later thrown into a fiery furnace because they had refused to bow down to the king’s image of gold. They worshiped only God. God’s Angel protected them from the fire. When the king looked down into the burning fiery furnace, he saw the angel walking with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego in the midst of the fire. The king called for the three men to come out of the furnace. There was no harm done to their bodies, the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them. The king praised God and promoted Daniel’s three friends.

     The Babylonian Empire was overcome by the Medes and Persians. When the new empire set up its government, Daniel was given a position of importance next to the king. Jealous co-workers, however, devised a plan to have Daniel put to death.

     They knew that Daniel prayed regularly to God, so they asked the king to sign a decree saying anyone who petitions any god or man for thirty days, except the king, would be cast into the den of lions.

     Daniel was not discouraged from his worship. He opened his windows, faced Jerusalem and knelt in prayer to God. His accusers reported that to the king. Since the king liked Daniel, he regretted that he had signed the decree. The Medo-Persian law stated that any law established by the king could not be changed.

     Daniel was thrown to the lions, but just as God had protected Daniel’s friends in the fiery furnace, He protected Daniel from the hungry lions.  The king commanded that Daniel be brought out of the den of lions. Then he ordered that Daniel’s accusers and their families be thrown to the lions. The king praised God, and Daniel prospered in the kingdom.