daniel

Advent-Day 20-Daniel

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi again!

This month we are learning about God, God’s son Jesus, and Jesus’ earthly family.

The next person we will learn about is Daniel. This story can be found in the Bible in Daniel chapter 6, and our complete lesson can be found here.

Daniel was living in Babylon and working for the king there. The king liked Daniel very much and that made his other helpers jealous. They didn’t like that Daniel was the favorite. So they thought up a way to get rid of Daniel. They decided that everyone should worship only the king and anyone who worshipped or prayed to anyone or anything else would be thrown in lion’s den to be eaten.

Well, the king like the idea of everyone worshipping only him, so he agreed and made it a law.

But Daniel loved God and knew he could only pray to God. So he kept on praying, and of course the bad guys saw him and caught him. They told the king, “We found someone praying to another God, not you! We will throw him in the lion’s den!”

When the king found out it was Daniel, he was very very sad, because he liked Daniel, but the rule was the rule, so Daniel had to go in. The king hoped Daniel’s God would save him! He worried all night and as soon as it was morning, he went to check on Daniel.

“Did you God keep you safe?” he called.

“He did!” Daniel answered back. “He sent an angel to shut the lions’ mouths! They didn’t even hurt me!”

Then the king knew that Daniel’s God was the One True God and he said from then on, everyone should worship Daniel’s God, the one Real God.

 

The Bible tells us that the angels help God. He is in charge of all the angels. There are LOTS of angels, and they have different kinds of jobs they do. (Is 6:1-3, Hebrews 1). Some stand before God and worship Him. (Rev 5)

It’s no surprise that when Jesus was born, angels appeared and sang “Glory to God!” We can’t always see angels, or what God may be having them do, but they showed up that night! To the shepherds in the fields, they announced the new Messiah was here!

 

Bible story: Daniel in the lions’ den

Attribute of God: God of the angel Armies

Jesus birth story: the angels declare “Glory!”

Craft:

Side one of our ornament today is a lion. We cut out a yellow circle (looks sort of green in the photo below). Then we cut up some scrap ribbon and glued in around to be the mane and drew on a face.

Our text reads: Daniel in the lions’ den. Daniel 6

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Side two of our ornament is some angels, made from cutting out angel shapes, then gluing on glitter and ribbons.

Our text reads: The angels “Glory to God!” Is. 6:1-3, Luke 2

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Thanks again for joining us. Love to you all!

Daniel in the lions’ den

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi all!

Today’s story is a well-known story from Daniel 6.

So Daniel and the rest of God’s people were living in Babylon. They had to work very hard and had a lot of rules they had to follow. They had been taken from the good promised land God had given them because they had disobeyed Him and worshipped pretend gods.

King Nebuchadnezzar had died and another guy was king for a while and then he died and now a king named Darius was in charge.

Darius was really impressed with Daniel. Remember God helped Daniel be really good at making decisions and the King thought Daniel was really organized, smart and in control. He put Daniel and a couple other guys in charge of everyone else. But the other guys in charge were jealous (they were angry because the King liked Daniel more than them). They decided to watch Daniel and find a way to put him in jail.

But…after they watched and watched…they couldn’t find ANYTHING that Daniel was doing wrong. Daniel followed God and made good choices. So the guys came up with a plan.

They went to the king and said “Oh Great King! We have an idea! For the next 30 days everyone can only worship and pray to YOU! What do you think?”

“Ooh,” said the king, “I like that idea!”

So the king’s helpers wrote up the rule and he signed it. Everyone would worship and pray to only king Darius for the next 30 days or else they would be thrown into the pit of lions so the lions could eat them.

But Daniel loved God and he knew he couldn’t follow that rule. He prayed to God anyway…because Daniel knew it is more important to follow God than what other people say. The bad guys were watching and when they saw Daniel praying to God they ran back to the king.

“Hey! Hey! Remember that decree you made saying everyone has to worship only you or else they get thrown in the lions’ den? Well we found someone NOT obeying that rule!”

“Really?” the king answered. “Who is it?”

“Daniel!” they said. “He HAS to be thrown to the lions…it’s the rule!”

This made the king very sad because he really did like Daniel. But the rule was the rule. So they brought Daniel to the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “I hope your God can save you!”

They put Daniel in with the lions and closed up the pit.

The king went back to his castle and stayed up all night worried about Daniel. He couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep. In the morning, he rushed to the lions’ den and said, “Daniel? Are you there? Are you ok? Did your God save you!?”

A voice answered back, “Yes King Darius! I am ok! My God DID save me! He sent His angel to shut the lions’ mouths…they didn’t even scratch me!”

The king ordered his men to get Daniel out. The king was so mad he threw the bad guys in to the lions…and they did get eaten up! (Yikes!)

Daniel knew it is more important to follow God and do what He says than to do what other people tell us to do. He trusted God and God saved Daniel. God saved Daniel to show the king and all his men that HE is the almighty God, the ONE who is worthy of our worship and prayer. God shut the mouths of the lions, He can do ANYTHING.

There is a veggie tales of this story, and we also made lion crafts. We used paper plates and some cut outs for eyes and a mouth. Then we glued strips of yellow paper for the mane. Lastly, we took tape and closed the mouths of the lions. (The angel probably didn’t use tape…but this reminds us how their mouths were closed and they didn’t hurt Daniel.)

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Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hello all!

Today’s story is from Daniel chapters 1 and 3.

image from religious doodles.com
image from religious doodles.com

The people of Israel and Judah had been taken away from the promised land and were under the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.

There was a man named Daniel from Judah and his 3 friends (who were given new names when they went to Babylon) who were called Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They loved God. And they were all told to work for the king.

The king provided food and drinks for the workers, but it was food that God’s people weren’t supposed to eat. So Daniel and his friends obeyed God and only ate vegetables and drank water…and they were healthier and stronger than all the other workers!

The king was very happy with Daniel and his friends and God made them very wise. (They understood a lot of things and were good at giving advice). The king made them his helpers and whenever he needed help figuring something out, he would go to these 4 guys.

Later, the king made a big gold statue and told everyone they had to bow down to it and worship it. Anyone who did not worship the statue would be put into a fire and burned.

But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego remembered that they were only supposed to worship God, not statues and they refused to bow down and worship it.

This made the king very angry and he had them brought to him. “Is it true that you won’t worship my statue? If you don’t, I will put you into the fiery furnace and you will die. No god can save you from that?!”

But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego told the king, “We will not worship your statue. If we are thrown into the fire, our God CAN save us. But, even if He chooses not to, we will never worship your pretend god.”

So the king had them tied up and he told his servants to make the fire SEVEN times hotter than usual. It was so hot, the servants who threw them into the fire even died!?

But when Nebuchadnezzar looked in…there were not three guys…there were FOUR! They had no more ropes on them and one was very very bright and shiny! He knew it must be God.

The king called for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to come out. They had not been burned at all by the fire! They didn’t even smell like smoke!

The king was so amazed, he told all the people that their God MUST be the real God and that from now on, everyone was worship the REAL GOD.

Sometimes it can be hard to do the right thing. We can know that God is always in control and that His way is the best way. Sometimes doing the right thing for God, might have bad consequences with other people (like when they were thrown into the fire). But we can trust that God ALWAYS loves us, ALWAYS knows what is best for us and will ALWAYS honor us if we obey Him.

Today we watched the veggie tales Rack, Shack and Benny.

We’ll have more from Daniel tomorrow. Love to you all!