In the third year of Jeboiakim, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, and carried away many people to Babylon, among who was Daniel. (Daniel 1:1-7)
Daniel proposed that instead of eating the king’s meat and drinking his wine, that he and his three friends be given pulse and water for a ten days’ test. At the end of that time they showed a better condition than the others, and were released from eating and drinking what the king had commanded. (Daniel 1:8-21)
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream he had forgotten. He called upon the magicians and astrologers to restore and interpret the dream, which they could not do. The king ordered them to be slain. (Daniel 2:1-13)
Daniel interceded for them and promised to satisfy the king. He and his three friends invoked Divine assistance and that night in a vision the secret was revealed to Daniel, for which Daniel thanks God. (Daniel 2:24-49)
Nebuchadnezzar built a golden image and required that all the people worship it. The penalty for not doing so was to be cast into a fiery furnace. Daniel’s three friends refused to worship the king’s god. They were cast into the furnace but were miraculously preserved by Jehovah our God. (Daniel 3)
The king has another dream, that of a great tree, which Daniel interprets, and according to which the king is to be driven into the field for a time to live with the beasts. At the end of that experience he acknowledges and honors the most high. (Daniel 4)
The next great scene in which Daniel figures is at the end of the kingdom in the reign of Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon. In the midst of revelry handwriting appeared on the wall. The wise men were unable to interpret it. The queen tells the king of Daniel. He is brought in and he interprets the writing, which spells the doom of the empire, which occurred that night. (Daniel 5)
Upon the fall of Babylon new honors await Daniel in the Medo-Persian State. He was placed above the presidents of the provinces and set over the whole realm. (Daniel 6:1-3)
Those persons jealous of Daniel induced the king to sign a decree that anyone offering a petition to God or man, excepting the king, for thirty days, should be cast into a den of lions, knowing that Daniel would not cease his praying to God. (Daniel 6:4-9)
The degree could not be altered and Daniel is placed among the lions. He is divinely preserved, as were his three friends in Babylon, while those who had arranged the plot were cast to the lions. (Daniel 6:10-28)
Daniel was prospered during the reigns of Darius and Cyrus and he uttered his great prophecies relating especially to the times of the Gentiles. (Daniel 7- 12)