This is a story written for people who had been or were about to be persecuted, if not enslaved. (The book of Daniel was probably written in the mid-second century B.C. during a period of Seleucid [Syrian] domination in Palestine.) It tells them and us how their ancestors had once faced a similar slavery under the oppression of the Babylonians centuries earlier. The implication was that if these ancestors could endure and overcome such bondage, so could they and so can we.

Our lesson for this morning is the narrative of a vision or dream that Daniel had. Recall, Daniel is supposed to have been a Hebrew exile in Babylon sometime between 587 B.C. and 538 B.C. He was noted for his royal background, his good looks (Daniel 1:3-4), and the acclaim he received as a “psychic advisor” (interpreter…