Story Producer 176 - Daniel in Babylon

Title ideas:God protected Daniel and revealed to him what would happen in the future.Daniel is faithful to God.

Long ago, after many kings had ruled in Israel land, a powerful new kingdom called Babylon was established. When King Jehoiakim had ruled over Judah’s country / land for two years, the Babylonian army captured Jerusalem [the biggest Israelite city].

The Babylonian soldiers took many Israelites as captives to Babylon Land. One of those captives was a young man named Daniel.

Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar ordered his servants, “Choose the best young [Israelite] men from important families, and train them to serve in my big house!”

Nebuchadnezzar’s servants chose young men who were intelligent, educated, wise and discerning.They [also] chose Daniel and his three Israelite friends.

Daniel and his three friends did not want to eat food or drink what God’s laws forbid, so they asked for permission [from the Babylonian servants] to eat only vegetables and to drink water.

After ten days, King Nebuchadnezzar’s servants saw that Daniel and his friends looked better and were healthier than the other young men.

God gave to these four young men knowledge and understanding in everything that their teachers said.

After they had studied [learned] for three years, King Nebuchadnezzar found Daniel and his friends to be wiser than all the other [Israelite] captives, so he appointed [chose / made] them to be his (among his) own wise men [advisors.]

One night, King Nebuchadnezzar saw things in a dream that disturbed him, so he ordered some wise men and sorcerers to come [to him].They [came and] said, “O King! If you will tell us what you saw in your dream, then we shall tell you what it means!”

The king replied, “No! You must first tell me what I saw in my dream! If you can do so, then I shall reward you. But if you cannot do so, then my soldiers will kill you all!”

Then they said, “Only the gods could tell you what you saw in a dream, and they do not dwell with us men! [Tell us your dream and then we will tell you what it means!]”

This made the king angry, so he ordered his soldiers, “Go kill all of my wise men and sorcerers!” So some soldiers came to Daniel and his friends, to kill them, too.

Daniel hurried to come see the king and said, “O King! Please, if you will wait until tomorrow, then I shall tell you what you saw in your dream, and also tell you what it means!”

Daniel then went to his three friends. They prayed together to the Lord God, asking him to reveal [show] to them the king’s dream. During that night, the Lord God revealed [showed] to Daniel the king’s dream.

Next morning, Daniel reported [came / said] to the king, “Although none of your wise men [sorcerers] could tell you what you saw in your dream, there is a God in heaven [the sky] who reveals mysteries [secrets]!

That God has revealed to you, O King, actions that he will do in years to come [not yet come]!

In your dream, you saw a tall image like a man! It was made from gold, silver, iron and clay [costly and cheap metals]! As you watched it, a big stone struck the image and smashed it to pieces!

Wind blew the pieces away while the stone grew and became a mountain [high place] that covered the whole earth [all the land]!

Now I shall tell you what your dream means! The statue is your kingdom [empire], and other kingdoms (some strong and some weak) that will come [rule / be] after yours!

The rock that smashed all of the kingdoms is a kingdom that the God in heaven will bring [establish] while those other kingdoms are ruling and being destroyed! And his kingdom will endure [last /continue] forever!”

King Nebuchadnezzar bowed down [to show respect] before Daniel and said, “Your God is the greatest God, [for] he has revealed to you this mystery [dream/ these actions].That day, the King made Daniel [to be] chief over all the king’s [his] advisers [wise men].