This season of exile is significant in Jewish history. We also must wrestle with the reality that God disciplines his people.

God is willing to let himself look weak for his people. He willingly takes on shame so that we can be redeemed.

Just as Daniel and his companions are foreigners in Babylon, so do we live in exile in our culture. While this creates significant challenges, it also reframes our expectations of the world.

It is possible to take a stand for God and also be respectful of authority. In difficult situations, we can think creatively and find a way to give God an opportunity to work.

God gives Daniel and his companions unusual aptitude for learning. These gifts allow them to serve God and further his kingdom.

When we put our faith and trust in Jesus, every endeavor of life can be approached from a position of freedom with the power of the Holy Spirit.

If God’s people are going to live in exile and prevail, they need wisdom and discretion. These qualities are developed over a long period of time and require discipline.

Wisdom comes from knowing and thinking through the truth, being in fellowship with other believers, and acting on what God tells you to do.

Both the pagan wise men and Daniel know that only God can reveal Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. However, unlike the pagans, Daniel has access to his God.

In challenging moments, we should be willing to make ourselves vulnerable, step into the gap, and allow God to use us on his terms.

Believers can rest in these truths about God: he is sovereign even when it may not appear that way, he knows and understands all things—even those contrary to his nature, and he hears our cries.

As Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, it becomes clear that God is speaking to the king through him. God wants to speak generally more than we want to listen.

God is willing to make himself vulnerable in order to reveal himself to us.

Through the interpretation of his dream, Nebuchadnezzar learns that his kingdom, while powerful, will fall. Ultimately, God’s Kingdom will surpass and crush all others.

While Nebuchadnezzar confesses that God is real and powerful, he does not yet repent.

God is patient with us—his desire is for people to repent and live godly lives.

While we live in exile, we know both a day of judgment and eternity with God are in our future. This should motivate us to embrace God’s Kingdom.

Even though Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed God’s power in the previous chapter, he continues idolizing himself. Confession without repentance is meaningless.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego face extreme hostility. However, their faithfulness creates an opportunity for God to display his power and sovereignty.

In our culture, we tend to take a stand on lesser issues of concern. However, God calls us to take a stand on things we are responsible for.

These Jewish men were willing to stand for God regardless of the outcome. Confidence and peace don’t come from trying to control the outcome, but from knowing the God who does.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s willingness to trust God puts him in a position to do something unimaginable for them. He does not save them from the fire—he delivers them in it.

The Christian life is marked by loving God in a world that does not.

Even though Nebuchadnezzar honors God with his words, it’s clear that his pride is fueled by his own status, power, and ability. He is not willing to acknowledge God with his actions.

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream functions as a warning. But because he refuses to humble himself, God humbles him. Humbling will either happen by me or to me.

We often want to be seen and appreciated more than we want God to be worshiped. When we function as the center of our world, we miss what God has for us.

Comfort and prosperity are dangerous for Christ-followers. They create a posture of pride and entitlement rather than dependence on God.

Because God is patient and kind, the tree we deserve to die on became the cross Jesus endured to pay for our sins.

After Belshazzar takes power and treats as common what God has made holy, he comes under God’s judgment.

There is greater judgment for Belshazzar than there was for Nebuchadnezzar because he has the wisdom of the past. In the same way, those of us who know the truth of God’s Word have greater accountability.

Daniel has fallen from power and lives in obscurity. However, even when the king offers him reward, he does not desire it. Daniel is content to serve God humbly.

Ironically, the Babylonian king’s last act before his kingdom falls is to elevate Daniel, a Jewish exile.

No matter what appears to be happening in the world around us, God is at work—humbling the proud, exalting the humble, and making his name great.

Daniel’s commitment to God makes his behavior so predictable that it’s easy for others to use it against him. We should also be known by our loyalty and faith.

Hard times reveal our character. Daniel has spiritual discipline and practice built into his life, so it’s automatic for him to trust God in a difficult situation.

When an earthly authority tells us to disobey God, we should obey God and live with the consequences.

Even though the king appears powerful, only God can rescue Daniel from the lions’ den. And Daniel is able to forgive the king because he knows God is ultimately in control.

External idols look different depending on time and culture, but the internal idols of safety, status, power, and comfort are timeless.

We serve a God who rescues, and that hope should bolster our hearts to live with strength and security as we advance God’s Kingdom.

Through Daniel’s terrifying vision, God pulls back the curtain and reveals the nature of reality for his purposes.

Daniel sees two scenes simultaneously: chaos, terror, and injustice, as well as order, glory, and justice. These realities are at work in the world, which should both humble and comfort us.

Even though chaos and evil ravage the earth, God will ultimately prevail, and he will establish a Kingdom that endures for eternity.

Ironically, Daniel—known for his interpretation of dreams—cannot understand this vision. He adopts a humble posture and asks for clarity.

There is much about the nature of reality and how God operates that we cannot understand. It’s more important for us to serve God faithfully than to exert energy looking for answers.

Through every season, we can fix our hope on Jesus. He is the embodiment of God’s commitment to bring justice to the earth and grant us access to himself.

Daniel has another confusing and terrifying vision of the future. Just as he cannot understand all that God is showing him, so we also have to humble ourselves and realize there are things we cannot comprehend.

The nature of prophecy is obscure. Because we are limited by our human nature, we will not always have clarity about what is coming.

For both Daniel and us, hard times lie ahead—falling kingdoms, evil and oppressive rulers, persecution, and instability.

As believers, this world is not our home. Jesus came to give us hope beyond this world, and through faith in him, we can be confident in an eternal future with him.

Late in his life, Daniel learns that the Jewish exile had been prophesied in Jeremiah as a result of the Israelites’ unfaithfulness. He responds with great mourning and a prayer of confession.

Daniel’s confession begins with humility, and so should ours. Part of repentance is owning our sin and standing in agreement with God’s righteousness.

While God’s judgment of the Israelites is just, in his mercy, he uses the exile to bring them back to himself.

Daniel appeals to God’s character—his covenant love and compassion—and God sends Gabriel, who comforts Daniel and gives him insight into the future.

The details surrounding the future are unclear, but we know God is always working to establish his eternal Kingdom. Meanwhile, we have hope and purpose—we wait patiently for Jesus’ second coming and share the gospel with those around us.

Through the rise and fall of many kings, Daniel has remained faithful to God and is therefore relevant even in his old age. We also should be faithful in the short term so we can remain relevant in the long term.

As Daniel mourns the plight of his people, he has a terrifying vision of an angel. This suffering produces a sense of need and dependence.

When Daniel is overwhelmed with his need, he gives up earthly comforts to create space for God to fill him. In the same way, we should be intentional about making space in our lives for God to meet our needs.

The angel affirms Daniel’s worth and value to God. Then, he begins from a place of value and it gives him life for the work he needs to do.

When we seek affirmation from the world, it sends us into an endless cycle of work. But we are not precious to God because of our performance; we can allow the value we have in God to strengthen us to perform.

God is working in realms beyond our comprehension. This reality should humble us—we are small in the face of something great and mighty.

God’s messenger gives Daniel a glimpse of what is to come. And although it is terrifying, God will be with his people and he has appointed an end to all evil.

There are unseen forces at work in the world, seeking to destroy what God has created. However, we have hope that God has made a way for us to transcend this world through the work of Jesus.

Knowing that suffering and injustice are normative should ballast us. We need not be surprised when bad things happen.

Suffering makes us partners with Christ. When we know him personally—not simply information about him—we can have joy even in the face of difficulty because we know he has gone before us.

God has called us to resist evil and injustice during our time on earth. In doing so, we embody the future hope of eternal life in community with God.

God’s messenger tells Daniel of great anguish for God’s people in the future. However, he also holds out the hope of God’s promise to rescue them.

A time of resurrection and reckoning is coming. There is hope for life beyond this world, but there will also be judgment, for all evil must come to an end.

Pain and suffering are important for our growth. Trials reveal the quality of our faith, and they also refine our faith.

The world often becomes so big and distracting that we are consumed by it. Pain can bring us back to the reality that this world is not our home and it will ultimately fail to bear the weight of our souls.

God calls us to be faithful and endure. When his Kingdom comes, we will receive our inheritance in Christ.