Bible Text: Daniel 1, 3, 6
Lesson Focus: Evil does not have the last word in this world; God does.
Big Question: How can I remain faithful when there is so much pressure to live a different kind of life?
Key Words: APOCALYPSE, VISION, PERSECUTION
Prepare
Quick Prep
• Daniel—along with Revelation (in the New Testament), Enoch, and 2 Esdras—is apocalyptic literature. It is marked by clear distinctions between good and evil and a cosmic struggle that eventually ends in cataclysm and the dawn of a new age of God's reign.
• Though tradition takes Daniel "at his word" and sets the book in the exile (1:1), most scholars date the book to the Greco-Roman period, long after the Babylonian exile.
• Antiochus IV launched a campaign to convert the Jews to Greek religious practice and defiled the temple. The Jews revolted, and the persecution was intense.
• The stories of the first six chapters offer encouraging examples of faithfulness under pressure. The visions of the remaining chapters helped Daniel's first hearers see their struggles in a larger context of good versus evil. The promise of God's victory was meant to both comfort and give hope.
Read Chapter 1 of Daniel. Living a life of faith can be difficult when we live in a culture that does not always appreciate or support our Judeo-Christian values. Daniel and his friends experience this in a very extreme way. As North American Christians our experience is less extreme but not less real.
• How were Daniel and his friends trying to remain true to their religious tradition?
• What would have been the easiest thing to have done?
Lutheran Study Bible page 1422: The bible Concepts sidebar for verse 1:2.
For the writer of Daniel, all power belongs ultimately to God. This enables Daniel to look at the fall of Judah in a completely different way than the world would traditionally see things. Why?
Read Chapter 3 of Daniel. Here is the familiar Sunday school story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Because Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were trying to remain faithful to God, they were condemned. The story could have ended there as it has for so many martyrs over the years, but God had other plans.
• Invite students to retell the story as if it were happening in modern times. How would it happen in our world today?
• How does Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's response in Daniel 3:16–18 to the king speak to the depth of their faith?
• How does 3:28 sum up the meaning of the story?
CHALLENGE: Lutheran Study Bible page 1427: Search online for real-life examples/ answer all questions asked bellow?
Read Chapter 6 of Daniel. Just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were sentenced to death because of their faith, Daniel, too, was condemned to death. And just as before, God interceded to save Daniel.
•What are your lions? Supply newsmagazines or newspapers. Have students try to identify something they consider to be a "lion" in their life.
• How does God intercede in our world to save people?
• How does the way God does things "turn upside down" the way the world does things?
Lutheran Study Bible page 2005: First Peter 5:6–11 speaks to what is behind the "lions" Christians have had to deal with. The Lutheran Perspectives sidebar illustrates this with the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.