Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

The major prophet Daniel lived through some of the most well-known Old Testament stories

and wrote some of the most perplexing Old Testament prophecies.

Before we talk about his book, let's talk about him as a person. Daniel's life and ministry

spanned the entire 70-year period of Babylonian captivity, and he was one of the people deported.

He handled his circumstances well, though, really well. He was a man of prayer, faith, courage, and integrity.

And Ezekiel, another major prophet who lived during the same time period, had only good things to say

about him. As for his book, the first half is filled with the stories we know and love, and it's

referred to as hope literature. The back half of the book is filled with

apocalyptic prophecies, so this is sometimes referred to as the Apocalypse of the Old Testament.

What does that word mean anyway? The Greek word, Apocalypsis, is where we get our English word

revelation. So the book of Revelation in the New Testament is actually named Apocalypse.

We associate that word with destruction and war, but its original meaning is quite different.

It means to reveal or to unveil things previously unknown, hence Revelation.

And that's exactly what Daniel is doing in these apocalyptic prophecies.

He reveals to us what God has revealed to him

about God's plan for the future. A lot of what God reveals to him is revealed in dreams and visions.

Let's jump into chapter one. Around the time Daniel is 16 and getting his camel's license,

King Neby and the Babylonians destroy his hometown of Jerusalem. They take a bunch of things from the temple before they flatten it,

and they also take lots of people captive, Daniel and three of his friends included.

They're deported from Jerusalem to Babylon, nearly a thousand miles away.

That's roughly the distance between Nashville and Montreal.

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