When I was in middle school I went on a father-son hiking trip with my dad and a few other families. One morning I saw one of the other dads lying face down on the ground near the river. At first, I thought he had fallen so I went to check on him. Beneath him was a small freshwater stream flowing out from under a rock. He was drinking directly from it. He looked at me and said, “this is the best water you will ever taste.” I tried to scoop some with my hand, but he said, “the only way to drink it is to get on the ground.”

There is a posture in life that offends God. It is the life we see King Nebuchadnezzar live in the first part of our story: “Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built to be a royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory?” (Daniel 4:30). This is the life of pride that trusts in and exalts self. You can trace the self-exalting sin of pride from the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 all the way to the beasts of Revelation. 

There is a posture in life that pleases God. It is the life that King Nebuchadnezzar turned to when the Lord granted back his sanity, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of the heavens, because all his works are true and his ways are just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride” (v.37). This way of living is marked by humility and recognition of the greatness of God and is self-deferential in response to the glory of God.

Reading our passage today reminded me of the words from Mary’s song, “he has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly” (Luke 1:52).

It is a kingdom reality that God humbles the proud and exalts the humble. We may never devolve into animal behavior like King Nebuchadnezzar, but left to ourselves, we will choose a life of self-referential pride that betrays what it means to be human.

The beauty of the gospel is that Jesus was rightfully exalted and chose to be humbled to save us from our glory stealing pride. On the cross He did not act like an animal, but He was treated like one so that you and I may become truly human. His humble love makes a way for us to be rescued from sin and pride and welcomed into a life of humble obedience.

Like the stream of fresh water, the only way to get it is on the ground. We have to lower ourselves to the dirt, repent of self-exaltation, and, like King Nebuchadnezzar, exchange our heart of pride for a heart of praise.

Written by Jamin Roller

Over the course of this study, we will memorize Daniel 4:34, a testament to the nature of God’s kingdom. Let’s begin by memorizing the first half.

For his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom is from generation to generation.
—Daniel 4:34

“I am the first and I am the last.
There is no God but me.”
—Isaiah 44:6

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Courage under fire. We often encounter situations that require us to stand up for our beliefs, even at the risk of loss. We speak up about an injustice. We blow the whistle on unethical behaviors at work. We refuse to endorse societal values that clash with the truth of God’s Word. We perform these acts of bravery, knowing they can result in loss of our jobs, our relationships, and even our social standing. The pressure to back down can be tempting.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego understood this pressure and refused to let even the threat of death sway them. God had their complete trust; they placed their fate in His hand. When faced with the fiery furnace that was meant to be their death sentence, they declared, “But even if [God] does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up” (Daniel 3:18). What a bold proclamation from these three young men in the presence of such a powerful king! They chose faith in God over fear of a human king. No matter how intense Nebuchadnezzar made the fire, the young Jewish men refused to abandon their trust in the Lord.

Their story gives us a powerful picture of what unwavering faith in God looks like in our own lives. We trust that He is with us, no matter what flames we face. We trust in Him when we are sick, encounter financial hardship, and even lose our loved ones. He promises to be with us through it all (Isaiah 43:2). And so even when the king made good on his fiery threat, God proved that He had not abandoned His faithful ones (Daniel 3:25).

The Lord can also use our faithfulness to change people’s thoughts and actions in ways we cannot even begin to imagine. Nebuchadnezzar marveled at the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego after witnessing their delivery from the fire, acknowledging, “There is no other god who is able to deliver like this” (v.29). Even further, he passed a law that forbade anyone else from speaking against God. This allowed other Jewish exiles to worship God without fear of punishment. This all came about because three young men refused to give up their faith.  

And what about us? How do we respond when it seems as if everything and everyone is against us? We lean in closer to the One who refuses to abandon us. We trust that as we walk through the flames, He is with us every step of the way.

Written by Tameshia Williams

I’ve had some weird dreams in my life: being kidnapped by the Wicked Witch of the West, having a coworker as a parent, finding myself at school with no pants. Never, though, have I been so troubled as to seek interpretation for these as seminal messages for my future, let alone threatening the lives of any who failed to interpret them well. When we read Daniel chapter two, we see that this is the very threat Daniel found himself on the receiving end of.

Daniel acted boldly. Just as we saw the presence and power of God with Daniel in giving him the interpretation, we see it in his response to the king. He entered Nebuchadnezzar’s court and declared that no person could interpret the dream but informed him that “there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries,” one who would make known its meaning (Daniel 2:28). He claimed no wisdom or power of his own but, instead, boldly pointed to the true God as the source of this revelation. 

In doing so, Daniel acted in faith and exemplified what Jesus later declared in Luke 12: “Anyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him….the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what must be said” (Luke 12:8,12). Daniel not only acknowledged God before men, but he did so in the highest court in the land and at risk of his own life, believing God would give him the words to say. He trusted and he obeyed, believing in “the God of the heavens” who would “set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:44).

The dream itself tells of a succession of kingdoms with varying levels of glory and strength which crumbled by “a stone [that] broke off without a hand touching it” and “became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” Daniel’s interpretation of this dream is striking as well (Daniel 2:34,35). He wasn’t just predicting future power clashes and regime changes; he was describing how God gave power to kings and then goes on to say “in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed” (v.44).

So in the presence of the most powerful man in the world, as a prisoner in the midst of humiliating exile, Daniel proclaimed the everlasting supremacy of Christ’s kingdom. We often think of this only in terms of individual souls being saved, but Daniel was foretelling what Paul wrote: “He must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet” (1Corinthians 15:25). Jesus came to save and change hearts, but He is a conquering King as well, defeating all enemies, all evil, all death (v.26). And unlike every man-built kingdom, His reign will last for eternity. For Daniel, these must have been words that simultaneously made him fear for his life yet gave him hope for the future. We know the story, though. We know how Christ struck the death blow to death, once and for all time. So for us, these are words that are sure and sealed and fill us with hope for His return.

Written by Barnabas Piper

Nothing saps hope like an impossible situation. Anyone who has been in such a scenario knows that helplessness is often the herald of hopelessness. Given his impossible circumstances, we might expect to find Daniel drained of all hope and faith, but surprisingly, we discover the opposite to be true.

Daniel’s impossible situation was two-fold. First, King Nebuchadnezzar was demanding what his advisors said no one on earth could do: to not only interpret the king’s dream but to divine the content of that dream out of thin air. When they would inevitably fail at this impossible task, the king would give orders to execute them, their families, and all his other advisors, Daniel included. This was the first problem, and it was a big one.

The second problem has less to do with the impossible task and more to do with the impossible man, King Nebuchadnezzar himself. As the saying goes, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and this was on full display as the king of Babylon showed his penchant for arbitrary violence. The impossible task aside, if he survived this conflict, Daniel had to find a way to live in a nation that was ruled by the whims of this impossible man.

Yet in the midst of it all, Daniel maintained his hope and trust in the Lord. You see, Daniel trusted that despite all the raging of King Nebuchadnezzar, the Lord’s good purposes for him would prevail. Nebuchadnezzar may have been king of the world, but Daniel knew that the King of heaven is the one who “changes the times and seasons; he removes kings and establishes kings” (Daniel 2:21). What fueled Daniel’s hope and faith was the truth that no power on earth could stand against the plans of the God of the heavens.

There is no greater example of this truth played out in the annals of history than in the story of Jesus’s resurrection. No situation is more hopeless than the grave, but even death could not stop the redemptive purposes of God. Christ’s resurrection exposes the futility of any effort to thwart the progress of God’s kingdom. Neither the mightiest of kings nor the cruelest of deaths can impede God’s good purposes for His people. This truth sustains our hope and faith in the face of seemingly impossible situations.

At the end of their rope, Nebuchadnezzar’s advisors lost all hope, while “Daniel praised the God of the heavens” (v.19). The prophet was confident that nothing could derail what God had in store for his life, and the same is true for us today. No matter how bleak our situation, there is nothing that can spoil God’s plans for us. Let that truth be the fuel that animates our hope and trust, come what may.

Written by Collin Ross

One of my least laudable traits is vanity. Most people my age have sucked their gut in when posing for a photo at some point, and some of us go to much greater lengths to improve their appearance. Sadly, I’ve even been known to cherrypick a Bible verse here or there to justify the lengths I’m willing to go to protect the altar of my own ego. 

About five years ago, I was reading about the vegetable and water-only diet from Daniel 1 that led to visibly improved physical health, and the plan came together in my mind right there on the spot. The “Daniel Diet” was going to make me a physical specimen, it would jumpstart my literary career, and I would become a cultural leader in the health and lifestyle market. However, a quick internet search revealed that someone had already trodden the landscape of this intellectual property. For now, I would remain flabby, broke, and culturally irrelevant!

I was disappointed, but disappointment inevitably leads me inward, which, in my case, is where the Holy Spirit dwells. And here, I was convicted.

I had gone from earnestly seeking God’s heart in Scripture to blindly chasing the chimeric light of my own possible glory. How quickly our sin nature can distort something pure and holy into something dark and twisted! Ironically, reading about Daniel’s non-negotiable resistance to the food culture of ancient Babylon somehow led to my imagining how I might leverage God’s Word to make a name for myself in the beauty culture of twenty-first century America. 

Clearly, I needed to revisit the story and see what actually motivated Daniel’s obedience. 

“God had granted Daniel kindness and compassion from the chief eunuch” (Daniel 1:9), which perhaps galvanized his courage to stand firm on his conviction. He clearly seemed to have understood that God was faithful and that He would not abandon or forsake His children. Even in the heart of Babylon—the cultural, philosophical, and cosmological antithesis to the kingdom of God—Daniel and his fellow Hebrews chose obedience to God because of who God is, not because of how they would benefit. They trusted in God’s love for them over and above any cultural status or standing that was on the line.

When we’re looking for love or approval anywhere besides God or when we attempt by some personal machinations to render ourselves worthy of love, our behavior ultimately reflects distance from the heart of God. Daniel didn’t eat vegetables and drink water to prove something to someone nor to gain anything for himself. He committed himself to God’s ways as an act of loving faithfulness to the one King he knew would always have his back.

Written by Alex Florez

I still remember the day my husband called to say goodbye to his beloved Nana. At the age of ninety-four, her body was weary, and the doctors indicated that her time was short. More than that, she could just sense it somehow.

He relayed the conversation to me afterward—how he told her he would miss her and how she said she loved him and called him “Doo-bug,” the name she gave him when he was a baby. I listened, the familiar ache in my chest of knowing that our time here is temporary, though we like to pretend it isn’t. What must it feel like, knowing the transition to heaven is near—to look back over nearly a century of celebration and sorrow, wars and babies, grandchildren and church potlucks and conversations on the front porch? What does success look like from that vantage point? What does it mean to live a faithful life?

In the book of Daniel, we get an overview of one man’s life. This true story begins with Daniel being taken into captivity by the Babylonians who desired to change everything about Daniel, from his name to whom he worshiped. The book recounts Daniel’s roughly seventy years in exile. He would be a prophet, an interpreter of dreams, and a prisoner. He would fast, worship, and pray to the one true God under threat of his life. He would survive a den of hungry lions by Yahweh’s power and presence, and he would prophesy the glory of God’s eternal kingdom. And while we know Daniel was not perfect—he was human, a sinner in need of grace—we’ll get glimpses over these twelve chapters of what it looks like to live a faithful life in exile. 

We, too, are exiles in this world, longing for the day when we will live at home in the presence of Christ our King. We are citizens of heaven, but we take up residence here for a time, called to represent God’s image on every stretch of the journey. As we wrestle with what it looks like to live a faithful life, we look past Daniel to the perfection of Jesus Christ. He is our example and our advocate, our just Judge and righteous Ruler.

Long live the King.

Written by Amanda Bible Williams

Now that you’ve memorized 1 Timothy 4:7b–9, recite the full passage to a friend. Feel free to revisit tips from previous weeks to help seal God’s Word inside of you.  

Train yourself in godliness. For the training of the body has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance.
—1 Timothy 4:7b–9

Rest in God alone, my soul,
for my hope comes from him.
Psalm 62:5

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