The Biblical Daniel was a young man, probably a teenager, when he and others were taken captive and exiled to Babylon. He ended up spending his entire life in exile. The first six chapters of the book of Daniel show him and his friends living for God in an atmosphere that’s foreign to them and their beliefs. The last six chapters share visions and messages given to Daniel that reach far into the future, even to end times.

In Daniel for You, David Helm posits that, though God gave His people into the Babylonians’ hands as punishment for their disobedience and idolatry, He had additional purposes in mind.

This book shows that God intends to do more than merely judge an ungodly nation. Instead, he offers a saving word to those under his wrath—his deserved, settled anger. And for that, he will need his people dwelling there. They will need to be at home in Babylon, revealing God’s king and kingdom in ways that ultimately find their fulfillment in Christ (pp. 8-9).

Daniel and three of his friends were among those chosen to be educated, assimilated into Babylonian culture, and taken into the king’s service. They were given Babylonian names. One of their first challenges came with the food apportioned to them.

Daniel felt that eating the king’s food would be defiling to him. Helm shares different reasons that might be the case, among them the possibilities that the food violated Israel’s dietary laws, or possibly had been offered to Babylonian idols. But Daniel doesn’t rail against this requirement. He very respectfully asks the person in charge of them if they could eat vegetables and water for ten days and see how they fared. At the end of that time, Daniel and his three friends “were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food” (Daniel 1:15). So the steward let them eat what they wanted.

This set the tone for the rest of Daniel’s interactions. He never seemed hateful or bitter. He seemed to genuinely care about the king when he had bad news to deliver.

In addition, Daniel was faithful to God, praying three times a day toward Jerusalem, even when threatened with the lion’s den for doing so.

Besides the famous lion’s den story, Daniel contains the account of his three friends who were threatened with the fiery furnace for not bowing down to the king’s statue. Their famous words continue to encourage us in our day: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (3:17-18).

And then there’s Nebuchadnezzar’s fall from pride to live like an animal for seven years, until he acknowledges God and is restored to sanity and to his kingdom.

To a mother, Daniel is an encouraging example that young people can live in an ungodly culture and not be taken in by it: they can be “in the world and not of it,” and even more, be a testimony to it.

Daniel is also a stellar example of standing faithful to God in a way that is not condescending or demeaning to those who don’t believe as he does.

The second half of Daniel’s book is what Helm calls apocalyptic literature, which he defines as “an unveiling–a pulling back of the curtain on the unseen transcendent world and its role in bringing this present world to an end (p. 127).

These chapters in Daniel contain some of the most argued-over passages of the Bible. But Helm encourages us not to get lost in numbers and predictions and to remember the purposes for which God gave these visions and dreams to Daniel. They show God’s sovereignty over world affairs, the fact that He has a timeline in mind, His care for His people, His remembrance and faithfulness to His covenant.

In fact, these themes are woven throughout Daniel. One section of Helm’s book that had the biggest impact on me was his pointing out the phrase “The Lord gave” in chapter 1.

• “The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into [Nebuchadnezzar’s] hand” (verse 2).
• “God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs” in charge of their food (verse 9).
• “As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams” (verse 17).

Even though I know looking for repeated words or phrases is a key factor in Bible study, somehow I never noticed these or put them together.

Helm also brings out how various parts of the book point to Christ.

Some of the other quotes that stood out to me:

What Daniel has to offer us is the same thing those first readers must have gleaned: a knowledge that God is still at work, and a confidence that as with those who came before us, it is possible to remain faithful to Christ in our own day and fruitful in our life work (p. 15).

The bulk of Daniel’s life (and ours) is orchestrated by God to be lived out in regulated and strikingly ordinary ways. If we are looking to be useful to him and his ever-expanding kingdom, we ought to be prepared to show up day after day, and decade after decade, simply playing our regular part in the melodic line he is orchestrating (p. 70). [This is said in the context that there are only nine events recorded over the seventy years of Daniel’s life. The rest of his days were “ordinary.”]

God is in the business of revealing himself to prominent, powerful people. He often uses a difficulty in life to get their attention, as well as an ordinary follower of Christ who is ready to speak into the situation (p. 84).

As followers of Christ, we don’t need to be happy about the humiliation of others. Remember, God intends to make a worshiper out of this king (p. 90).

I didn’t agree with every little point Helm made. But overall, this book was a great companion in reading Daniel.

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