Let's Examine the Scriptures Every Day 2025
Saturday, September 13, 2025
You are very valuable (Dan. 9:23).
When Daniel was young, the Babylonians took him prisoner of war and took him far from his land and home. But despite his youth, he did not go unnoticed. The Babylonians were struck by what they saw “before their eyes”: a young man “without any physical defect and well-appeared” who came from a prominent family (1 Sam. 16:7). So they decided to train him to become part of Babylonian high society (Dan. 1:3, 4, 6).
Jehovah loved Daniel for the kind of person he had chosen to be. We know this because, when Daniel was about 20 years old or younger, Jehovah mentioned him along with such faithful men as Noah and Job, who had served him for a long time. (Gen. 5:32; 6:9, 10; Job 42:16, 17; Ezek. 14:14) And Jehovah never stopped loving Daniel, and he lived a long and remarkable life. (Dan. 10:11, 19)
What will we see in this article?
In this article, we'll discuss two qualities of Daniel that made him a very valuable person to Jehovah. First, we'll define these qualities and review some situations in which Daniel demonstrated them. Then, we'll look at what Daniel did to develop these qualities. And finally, we'll discuss what we can do to follow his example. Although this article was written with young people in mind, we can all learn a lot from Daniel.
On what occasion did Daniel prove to be brave?
Courageous people may feel fear, but they don't let that stop them from doing what's right. Daniel was a very courageous young man. Let's look at two occasions when he demonstrated this quality. The first probably occurred about two years after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. It turns out that King Nebuchadnezzar had a very disturbing dream in which he saw a huge statue. Later, he ordered all the wise men of Babylon, including Daniel, to tell him what he had dreamed and what it meant. If they didn't, he would kill them all (Dan. 2:3-5).
Daniel didn't have time to waste; many lives were at stake. So he “asked the king for time, that I might reveal to him the interpretation” (Dan. 2:16). Doing this required faith and courage. Why? Because the Bible doesn't say that he had ever interpreted dreams before. Daniel spoke to three of his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,b and “asked them to plead with the God of heaven for mercy concerning this secret.” (Dan. 2:18) Jehovah answered his prayers, and with their help, Daniel was able to interpret the king’s dream. He and his friends escaped death!
On what other occasions did Daniel prove to be brave?
Some time after interpreting the dream about the enormous statue, Daniel faced another situation that demanded courage. Nebuchadnezzar had another chilling dream; this time he saw a gigantic tree. Daniel was courageous and explained the meaning of the dream to Nebuchadnezzar. Among other things, he told him that he would go mad and would no longer be king for a while (Dan. 4:25). Nebuchadnezzar might have thought Daniel was turning against him and ordered him executed. But Daniel summoned courage and withheld no details from him.
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