I'm seeing things in the book of Daniel I had not paid attention to before. When I think of Daniel I always think of King Nebuchadnezzar as the king - but Daniel served faithfully under 4 kings that he mentions: Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Cyrus and Darius. (There is an unnamed ruler who ruled while Nebuchadnezzar was out eating grass.... My study Bible lists Nabonidus after Nebuchanezzar - so, not being able to find any other corroboration, I am going to assume that was when he ruled.)But - even with the 4 kings Daniel mentions, it represented 2 different empires: first the Babylonian, and second, the Persian.
Another thing I noted with interest is that Daniel is not written sequentially. The actual order of the timing of events and when dreams & visions occurred are 1,2,3,4,7,8,5,10,11,12,9,6. I like logical-sequential, so that intrigues me.
But, in spite of those nuances, Daniel is a most amazing book, and the stories that are recorded inspire and encourage.
He interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream, reported the story of his friends being cast into the fiery furnace,interpreted the handwriting on the wall for King Belshazzar (Nez's son), survived the lion's den when Darius was tricked into having him thrown in, and reports what God showed him about the end of time...and I have only read through chapter 7!
Great reading. Great encouragement! And the good news is that no matter what we face in this present world, we know the end of the story: God wins!
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