Daniel

Daniel and three friends are taken to Babylon's court for elite training. Daniel resolves not to defile himself with the king's food, and God gives them favor. After testing, they are ten times wiser than all the king's magicians — faithfulness in exile is rewarded.

Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great statue: gold head (Babylon), silver chest (Medo-Persia), bronze belly (Greece), iron legs (Rome), and feet of iron and clay. A stone cut without hands shatters the statue and fills the earth — God's eternal kingdom that replaces all human empires.

Nebuchadnezzar builds a golden statue and demands everyone bow. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse, declaring God CAN save them from the furnace, but even if He doesn't, they will not bow. Thrown into a fire heated seven times hotter, they walk unharmed with a fourth figure — like a son of the gods.

Nebuchadnezzar's testimony: he dreams of a great tree cut down, and Daniel interprets it as a warning. The king is driven to live like an animal for seven years until he acknowledges God's sovereignty. His reason returns and he praises the Most High — the only conversion testimony of a pagan king in Scripture.

Belshazzar's feast: the king drinks from the temple vessels and a disembodied hand writes on the wall — MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN. Daniel interprets: you have been weighed and found wanting. That very night, Babylon falls to the Medes and Persians and Belshazzar is killed.

Daniel's enemies manipulate Darius into signing a decree forbidding prayer to anyone but the king. Daniel continues praying openly three times daily and is thrown into the lions' den. God sends an angel to shut the lions' mouths. Darius declares Daniel's God is the living God.

Daniel's vision of four great beasts from the sea representing four kingdoms. The terrifying fourth beast has iron teeth and ten horns. The Ancient of Days takes His throne and gives everlasting dominion to one like a Son of Man coming on clouds — Jesus's favorite self-title.

A vision of a ram (Medo-Persia) and a goat (Greece) with a prominent horn (Alexander the Great) that breaks into four (successor kingdoms). A little horn arises who desecrates the sanctuary — fulfilled by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, prefiguring the Antichrist.

Daniel prays one of Scripture's greatest confessional prayers. Gabriel reveals the prophecy of Seventy Weeks — 490 years until the Anointed One comes and is cut off. This is the most precise messianic timeline in the Bible, pointing directly to Christ's coming.

After three weeks of fasting, Daniel sees a terrifying angelic being. The angel reveals that a spiritual prince of Persia delayed him for 21 days until Michael helped. This chapter uniquely pulls back the curtain on spiritual warfare behind world events.

A remarkably detailed prophecy of conflicts between the Ptolemies (kings of the south) and Seleucids (kings of the north), culminating in Antiochus Epiphanes' persecution. The chapter transitions to an end-times tyrant who exalts himself above every god.

The grand finale: Michael arises, a time of distress unlike any before, and the dead are raised — some to everlasting life, others to shame. Those who are wise will shine like stars forever. Daniel is told to seal the book — the words are for the time of the end.