Key Verse
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
—1 Peter 3:12
Key Verse Thought: Read the Key Verse. According to our key verse, we can understand that God sees and hears His people. When enemies try to do evil against God’s people, He knows and takes care of the problem.
Emphasis: We are to learn to consistently, faithfully, walk with God and read His Word – just as Daniel did.
Lesson Summary: In our last lesson, we learned about Daniel and his three friends who were carried captive during the first siege of Jerusalem. We that found they remained faithful to God in the enemy land. In this lesson, we will continue with Daniel’s life.
A new king reigned in Babylon. His name was Belshazzar, and he was King Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson. We read today of a time he drank wine before his thousands. When he called for the vessels from the house of the Lord to be brought to him and led them to drink with them, toasting many false idols, a hand appeared and wrote upon the wall. When no one understood the meaning, Daniel was called. After reminding King Belshazzar of his grandfather, King Nebuchadnezzar, and his acknowledgment of God, Daniel rebuked King Belshazzar for not acknowledging God. The handwriting declared King Belshazzar would lose his kingdom that night – and he did. With that came the demise of the Babylonian reign. Next, the Medo-Persian kingdom became predominant.
King Darius, the new king, placed Daniel as the head of his one hundred twenty presidents, and they hated Daniel for it. It was then that they began plotting to destroy him. When Daniel continued to pray to God three times daily, breaking the new law of the land, he was thrown into the den of lions. Nevertheless, through all of this, King Darius recognized God’s hand in Daniel’s life. The wicked men who tricked King Darius into signing that bad law were thrown (with their families) into the lions’ den where they all died.
Although some do not believe Daniel was a real man (because of the accuracy of the events recorded in the book of Daniel – long before they happened), we read that Ezekiel knew of Daniel and Jesus quoted Daniel.
Daniel not only wrote many of God’s Words (recorded in the Bible), but he read God’s Words recorded by other men of God. We will find what he learned while reading the book of Jeremiah.
Additional note: Many of the things portrayed in the book of Daniel are also found in the book of Revelation. Things from every chapter in Daniel are referred to in the book of Revelation, and most of the chapters in Revelation have references to the book of Daniel. Therefore, in order to understand Revelation, it is important to know the book of Daniel. Because this is not an exhaustive study of Daniel but an overview, we will not take time to compare the two books in this lesson.
Y2Q4 – Lesson 4 Children’s Worksheets
If you are teaching children, the following is a craft idea to help them remember Daniel.
We made Daniel in the Lion’s Den scenes with stickers.