Introduction to Daniel
“God’s Plan”

Scripture:  Daniel 1:1-6

Memory Verse:  “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”
		Psalm 32:8

Lesson Focus:  God plans and His leading in our life.

Introduction:  “The Plan of Your Life”
	Choose several kids one at a time.  Call them to the front of the class.  
	Write on the white board the title “Map of Your Life”
	Tell the child that we are going to map out their life
			 the way that they think it will go.
	Make a map of things that they tell you.  
		Birthday
		Grade school - what they are good at
		The different places they have lived
		Now - map out what they think will happen in their future
			Go to Junior High School
			Go to High School
			Play sports or play an instrument
			Go to college
			Work - 
			Get married
			Have a job
			Have kids
			Get old

Tell the kids, that we all have plans in our heads - and we think we know the way
		 that our life will go.
	Daniel probably did to.  He was a young Jewish man  
			He had studied the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible)
			He had a strong faith in God and he probably was obedient to his
parents (because of the integrity that he shows throughout the book of Daniel.

			He probably never planned on:
•	Seeing the destruction of Jerusalem (where he lived.)  
•	Seeing the horrors of war and many people killed.  
•	Being taken from his home at such a young age.  
•	Being marched a great distance under hard conditions to a land had never been to.  
•	Being forced to live in a strange land and among a godless people. 
•	Being forced to study and learn their way of thinking and language.  
•	NONE of these things were in Daniel’s “Plan for His Life.”  
		
		But it happened to Daniel.  This was God’s plan for Daniel.  We may
			think that we know how our life will turn out - but God has other
			plans.  God’s plans and are the best for us.  

Activities and Craft:  Coloring page, Work Sheet for 3rd - 5h Graders (Bible Story
											 Acrostic)
	Craft for 1st and 2nd Graders: “Dare to be a Daniel” Necklace  

Bible Study:

Today we are going to start studying the book of Daniel in the Old Testament.  

Let’s find the book of Daniel in the Bible ( take time for everyone to turn to the book of Daniel.)
		
	Who do you think wrote the book of Daniel?  (Daniel)
		
	When we study the book of Daniel - we are going to learn:
			1.  About who Daniel was and his relationship with God.
			2.  About a hard time in the life of the nation of Israel
			3.  About future events (or prophecy)
			4.  About the fact that God is always involved in the affairs of men

	Daniel 1:1
			This is a dark time in the life of Israel.  The king of Israel is
				 Jehoiakim and he has been king of Israel for 3 years.  

			But, let’s go back a little farther and take a good look at the nation
				 of Israel and their spiritual condition.

			After King David and his son, King Solomon there were many kings
				 of Israel.  Most of these kings led the people
			 of Israel away from God by following after Idols and the
			 gods of the nations around them.  As the people continued
			 in sin, God would punish them by sending other nations to
				 fight them and to control them.  This was a cycle that
				 happened over and over.  God would give the people a
				 King, Israel would sin and “do what was right in their own
				 eyes” and then God would give them over to another
				 nation.  The people of Israel would call out to God and ask
				 forgiveness and then God would rescue them.  But their
				 hearts at this time were very far from loving God.  

			This story begins in 2 Kings 20:12-18

		Hezekiah is King of Israel at this time and God has just added
		years to his life and cured him from a deadly disease.
			
			Read 2 Kings 20:12-15 to the kids;
1.	Hezekiah got a “get well soon” card and presents
from Berodach-Baladan, the son of the king of Babylon.
				2.  Hezekiah gives them special attention and shows them
					 all of the riches of Israel.
				
			But, Isaiah the prophet comes to King Hezekiah and asks him what
	these men said and where they were from.  The king tells Isaiah
	 that they were from Babylon.  Isaiah asks the king what he
	 showed to them.

			What does the King say in 2 Kings 20:15?
			The King showed the men from Babylon everything they owned
				 and had.

			What does Isaiah say in 2 Kings 20:16?  “Here is what God has to
			 say.”  Isaiah is a prophet of God that lived during the reign of 
		many kings of Israel. God would use Isaiah to speak for Him to the
		 Kings and now God had something to say to King Hezekiah.

			Read: 2 Kings 20:17-18
1.	Everything you have will be carried away to the country of
	 Babylon
			2.  They will take away some of your sons to Babylon

			We are also told in 2 Chronicles 32:31, “However, regarding the
			 ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to
			 inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew
			 from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in
			 his heart.”

				You see King Hezekiah “had very great riches and honor”
				  (2 Chronicles 32:27)  And king Hezekiah did many good
				  things during his lifetime.  But he was known to have pride
				  (2 Chronicles 32:26).  But when the Babylon princes
				  came - he showed off all that he had.  So Isaiah tells
				  Hezekiah - the real reason they where there was to spy
				  out the land because in the future they will conquer Israel
.

	This prophecy from Isaiah is what is happening now in the book of Daniel
       The Babylon army has come to Jerusalem and destroyed it leaving it in
		 ruins.
		They only leave a few old people alive in the city.
		They kill many, take all of the “wealth” back to Babylon and take a few
			 young men as prisoners.  
		
	Daniel 1:2:		
		King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon goes into the temple that Solomon built
		 and takes many of the things of worship out of the temple and loads them
		 up and takes them back to Babylon.  2 Kings 24:13-14

		Where does he put these articles of worship?  (Daniel 1:2 - into the house
			 of his god, Marduk.)
				
		When King Nebuchadnezzar defeated Israel he also believed
	       that he had defeated Israel’s God.  So he wanted to take the things that
	       were precious to the people of Israel and give them to his god.  
		Now, you have to understand that his god was an idol, a fake god made
	       by the hands of men.

		This is all taken place about 597 BC; (597 years before Jesus was born.)

	For the next 70 years the people of Judah would live in Babylon under the
	control of the Babylonian empire.  They would not get to live where they
	wanted and they would not get to do what they wanted.
	They are the slaves of that country.  

	Daniel 1:3-6
They Babylonians exported some of the young men of Israel to Babylon and this is where we meet Daniel.  (he is about 16 years old)

		Do you think that this is how Daniel thought his life would turn out?
		Do you think that at the age of 16 Daniel thought he would be living in
			 Babylon?

		From Daniel 1:3-4; what where some of the qualifications of the young
			 men that they chose to take back to Babylon?
1.	Children of Israel; King’s descendants and some of the
	 nobles
2.	No Blemish
3.	Good looking
4.	Full of wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to
	 Understand
5.	 Could serve the King
	
		From Daniel 1:4; what where they going to teach these young men?
1.	 Teach their language
2.	 Teacher their literature

		From Daniel 1:5:
1.	 These young men were hand-picked to be groomed to
	 serve the King of Babylon.  
2.	 Their training would take 3 years

		Can you imagine being taken from your home and family?  Put in a
		 school for 3 years in a strange land.  Being taught their language and
		 their customs and having to read their literature.  They were probably
		 taught about their gods and false religion.  They were even given new
		 names, they trying to strip away all of their identity with Israel.  

		We are going to see in the book of Daniel how these 4 young men
		 respond to this training.  Do they forget about God?  Does the
		 Babylonian studies change what they believe?  

		Even though 70 years in Babylon is a punishment against the sin of Israel
		- God was working all of the time. Not, only in the life of Daniel and his
		 friends but in the nation of Israel.

			Why is the book of Daniel important?
			1.  God’s plan for the salvation of the world was always Jesus.
		    Matthew 1:11-12; 17;  When Matthew gives the genealogy of
		    Jesus Christ he includes those who were living during the
		    Babylonian captivity.  Even though they were being
			    punished for their sin - God’s focus was the continuation of the
			    generations until the time was right for the Savior of the world.
			“So all of the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen
			 generations, from David until he captivity in Babylon are fourteen
			 generations and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are
			 fourteen generations.”  Matthew 11:17

2.	 Jesus refers to the book of Daniel and what it says about the future prophecy of the end times.  (Matthew 24:15; Mark  13:14)  So the book of Daniel is an important part of understanding future prophecy.
3.	The book of Daniel shows us young men who make a choice to follow after God no matter what happened.  This is not a fictional story - these are true human beings that lived at a time in history and give us an example to follow.