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Highlights From the Book of DanielThe Watchtower—2007 | September 1
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WHAT DOES THE CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT TEACH US?
The year is 617 B.C.E. Daniel and three young friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are in the Babylonian court. During their three years of training in court life, the youths maintain their integrity to God. About eight years later, King Nebuchadnezzar has a mysterious dream. Daniel makes known the dream and then interprets it. The king acknowledges that Jehovah is “a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a Revealer of secrets.” (Daniel 2:47) Before long, though, Nebuchadnezzar seems to forget this lesson. When Daniel’s three friends refuse to worship a giant image, the king has them thrown into a fiery furnace. The true God rescues the three, and Nebuchadnezzar is forced to recognize that “there does not exist another god that is able to deliver like this one.”—Daniel 3:29.
Nebuchadnezzar has another significant dream. He sees an immense tree, which is chopped down and restrained from growing. Daniel makes known the interpretation of that dream. The dream is fulfilled in part when Nebuchadnezzar becomes insane and then recovers. Many decades later, King Belshazzar holds a big feast for his grandees and disrespectfully uses vessels that were taken from Jehovah’s temple. That very night, Belshazzar is killed and Darius the Mede receives the kingdom. (Daniel 5:30, 31) In the days of Darius, when Daniel is more than 90 years old, the aged prophet becomes the target of a murderous scheme by jealous officials. But Jehovah rescues him “from the paw of the lions.”—Daniel 6:27.
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Highlights From the Book of DanielThe Watchtower—2007 | September 1
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WHAT DO DANIEL’S VISIONS REVEAL?
When Daniel receives his first dream vision in 553 B.C.E., he is in his 70’s. Daniel beholds four huge beasts that portray a succession of world powers from his day to ours. In a vision of a scene in heaven, he sees “someone like a son of man” given “indefinitely lasting rulership.” (Daniel 7:13, 14) Two years later, Daniel has a vision that involves Medo-Persia, Greece, and an entity that becomes “a king fierce in countenance.”—Daniel 8:23.
The year is now 539 B.C.E. Babylon has fallen, and Darius the Mede has become ruler over the kingdom of the Chaldeans. Daniel prays to Jehovah about the restoration of his homeland. While he is still praying, Jehovah sends the angel Gabriel to make Daniel “have insight with understanding” about the coming of the Messiah. (Daniel 9:20-25) Time moves on to 536/535 B.C.E. A remnant has returned to Jerusalem. But there is opposition to the temple-building work. This becomes a source of anxiety to Daniel. He makes it a matter of prayer, and Jehovah sends an angel of high rank to Daniel. After strengthening and encouraging Daniel, the angel relates the prophecy that outlines a struggle for supremacy between the king of the north and the king of the south. The conflict between the two kings stretches from the time when the kingdom of Alexander the Great is divided among his four generals to the time when the Great Prince, Michael, “will stand up.”—Daniel 12:1.
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