Day 181 – April 25, 2024: Daniel 1-5 and Psalm 74

Daniel can be considered pretty much the Old Testament version of Revelation. Except, and I had forgotten this, it is a story of an individual who serves a number of kings. Here is something else that I hadn’t totally picked up on before I read this. Daniel was absolutely in the upper class of the Israelite society. So, remember, Israel and Judah are in exile and the king asks for some of the best and the brightest from that nation who could advise him and give him insight into how the world is working and what is happening around him. He chooses Daniel and some others whom Daniel knows. They feed them the best food and provide the best arrangements for them because they were, after all, serving the king.

But the problem with the meat that Daniel refuses, I hope you caught that in chapter 1, is that it was sacrificed to idols and probably, or absolutely not kosher. So, Daniel refuses to eat the meat and becomes a vegetarian. This book of the Bible is the story of a servant of God, Daniel, who works in a society and a culture that is completely opposed to what God wants in a society and culture. The continual question is how does one work in the world but not be of it. Daniel demonstrates that by not bowing down to the golden image and so being thrown into the fire. But God protects him. Not even one genetration passes and they completely forget what God had done through Daniel. But we end with him serving a second king and one person did remember, one of the wives of the kings, and Daniel is able to interpret correctly, unfortunately for the king, what his disturbing dreams meant. Let’s continue along and follow his life.