Weekly Bible Reading – Week 37
I should probably begin this week with a warning: these readings are challenging. Trying to swallow the entire book of Daniel in four days is, frankly, a little insane. Daniel moves from familiar stories about fiery furnaces and lions’ dens into enormous visions filled with beasts, horns, angels, kings, kingdoms, numbers, and events that have generated centuries of discussion and disagreement. We are going to cover a lot of ground very quickly, and there simply isn’t time in a daily Bible reading podcast to stop and explore every question Daniel raises.
This is also a significant week for me personally. This is where the original Daily Bible Reading Podcast finally stopped back in 2021. I made it to Daniel, life caught up with me, and the project stalled. So if this week’s episodes feel a little different or occasionally strained, I hope you’ll give me some grace. In a strange way, getting through these readings with you feels like crossing an old finish line and then discovering there is still a lot of road ahead.
I’ll also link to some additional resources on Daniel below in the Deep Dive for anyone who wants to dig deeper. Please use them. Our goal this week is not to solve Daniel. In fact, one of the encouraging things about the book is that Daniel himself doesn’t understand everything he sees. At several points he is troubled, confused, overwhelmed, or simply told to seal up the vision and go on his way. So we can approach Daniel with some humility.
We may not understand every horn, every king, every number, or every detail of every vision. But we do not have to understand everything in Daniel to understand the great truth Daniel wants us to see: God is still King in Babylon.
That truth carries us through the entire week. We begin with four days in Daniel, watching kings rise and fall while God remains firmly on His throne. Then suddenly the exile begins to crack open. Persia rises, Cyrus sends the exiles home, the altar is rebuilt, the temple begins to rise from the rubble, and Haggai calls God’s returned people to put the LORD first again. Babylon looked permanent. Nebuchadnezzar looked invincible. The exile looked final. But above every throne stands another throne, and upon that throne sits the Ancient of Days. Kings come and kings go, but His kingdom is from everlasting to everlasting.
Daily Readings
Day 256 – Daniel 1–3: We begin with Daniel and his friends as young exiles in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar has conquered Jerusalem, taken vessels from the temple, and carried some of Judah’s brightest young men away to be trained for service in his court. Babylon attempts to reshape them from the ground up, their education, their language, their names, even their food. Yet Daniel and his friends learn how to live faithfully in a foreign land without simply withdrawing from it. They serve the king well, but they remember that they belong to a greater King.
That tension becomes deadly when Nebuchadnezzar erects his enormous golden image and commands everyone to bow. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse. Their answer is one of the great statements of faith in Scripture: God is able to deliver them, “but even if he doesn’t,” they still will not worship Nebuchadnezzar’s gods. They are thrown into the furnace, but they are not alone in the fire. By the end of these chapters, the mighty king of Babylon is staring into his own furnace and marveling at a God whose servants he cannot destroy.
Day 257 – Daniel 4–6: These chapters tell the humbling stories of three rulers who must learn that earthly authority is never ultimate. Nebuchadnezzar boasts over the Babylon he believes he has built by his own power, only to be driven from his throne until he finally lifts his eyes toward heaven and acknowledges that the Most High rules the kingdoms of men. Belshazzar then throws a drunken feast using vessels stolen from the temple in Jerusalem. A mysterious hand writes judgment upon the wall: he has been weighed in the balances and found wanting. That very night, Babylon falls.
Then Daniel finds himself serving yet another empire under Darius. Political rivals manipulate the king into issuing a decree that makes Daniel’s ordinary faithfulness illegal. Daniel does exactly what he has always done: he goes home and prays. The lions’ den becomes another furnace—a place where an earthly king discovers the limits of his own power while God demonstrates His ability to preserve His servant. Kings change. Empires change. Daniel grows old. But the God Daniel serves remains the same.
Day 258 – Daniel 7–9: Beginning in chapter 7, Daniel changes dramatically. The familiar court stories give way to visions that can feel strange and overwhelming. Daniel sees four terrifying beasts rising from the sea, representing kingdoms that dominate, devour, and destroy. Yet while these beasts rage below, Daniel sees the Ancient of Days take His seat above them. Then “one like a son of man” comes with the clouds of heaven and receives an everlasting kingdom that will never be destroyed. The contrast is enormous: beastly human kingdoms rise and fall, but God’s kingdom endures forever.
Daniel continues receiving visions about kingdoms, rulers, conflict, judgment, and the future of God’s people. Importantly, Daniel does not respond as though prophecy were merely a puzzle to solve. When he reads Jeremiah and realizes that the promised period of Jerusalem’s desolation is nearing its end, he turns to God in confession and prayer. Daniel 9 gives us one of Scripture’s great prayers of repentance. Daniel knows that Israel does not deserve restoration, so he appeals not to Israel’s righteousness but to God’s mercy. Even amid complicated prophecy, Daniel’s posture is wonderfully simple: read God’s Word, confess your sin, trust His mercy, and pray.
Day 259 – Daniel 10–12: The final chapters of Daniel pull the curtain back even farther. Daniel’s prayer is connected to a spiritual conflict he cannot see, and he receives a lengthy vision concerning rulers and kingdoms that will rise after his lifetime. These chapters remind us that history is more complicated than what can be seen on the surface. Earthly kings make decisions, armies march, nations struggle, and empires compete, while Scripture also reveals a spiritual realm normally hidden from our sight.
Some of the details here are difficult, and Christians have disagreed over exactly how all of Daniel’s final visions should be understood. Daniel himself is overwhelmed by what he sees. But the book does not end by demanding that Daniel understand every detail. Instead, he is told to go his way and remain faithful. Suffering will come, kingdoms will rise and fall, and God’s people will face terrible opposition—but death itself will not have the final word. Daniel 12 looks forward to resurrection: those who sleep in the dust will awake. Daniel may not understand everything about the road ahead, but he knows where the road ultimately leads.
Day 260 – Ezra 1–3: After four days of visions about kingdoms rising and falling, we watch one of those great changes happen in real history. Babylon has fallen, Persia rules, and Cyrus issues a decree allowing the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. What looked impossible during the darkest days of exile begins almost matter-of-factly: God stirs the heart of a pagan emperor, God stirs the hearts of His people, and families begin packing for home. Even the temple vessels Nebuchadnezzar carried away are returned.
When the people arrive in Jerusalem, they rebuild the altar and begin offering sacrifices even before the temple itself has been reconstructed. Eventually they lay the foundation, and the response is beautifully complicated. Some shout for joy while older people who remember Solomon’s temple weep. Their cries mingle together until no one can distinguish the sound of joy from the sound of sorrow. Restoration does not erase everything that has happened. They are genuinely home, but they still bear the wounds of exile. Nevertheless, God is rebuilding His people.
Day 261 – Ezra 4–6; Psalm 137: Coming home does not mean that everything suddenly becomes easy. Opposition arises almost immediately. The returning exiles are discouraged, accused, threatened, and eventually forced to stop rebuilding the temple. Years pass with the work unfinished. Then God sends the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to call His people back to the task. When their enemies appeal to the Persian government, a search of the royal archives uncovers Cyrus’s original decree, and Darius orders not only that the rebuilding continue but that imperial resources help pay for it. The very political machinery used to stop God’s people becomes the means God uses to provide for them.
Psalm 137 reminds us what lies emotionally behind all of this. “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.” It is a painful psalm filled with grief, anger, longing, and the wounds of a conquered people. Reading it alongside Ezra helps us understand why rebuilding Jerusalem matters so deeply. These are not simply immigrants beginning a construction project. These are exiles coming home. The temple is finally completed, Passover is celebrated again, and a people who once wept beside the rivers of Babylon can worship the LORD again in the land He gave them. Sing this Psalm.
Day 262 – Haggai 1–2: The people have returned from exile, but Haggai reveals an uncomfortable truth: you can leave Babylon without completely getting Babylon out of you. The temple work has stalled while the people have turned their attention toward their own houses and livelihoods. Haggai repeatedly tells them to “consider your ways.” They have been working hard and getting nowhere because their priorities have become disordered. God did not bring them home merely so they could rebuild comfortable private lives. He restored them to Himself.
Yet Haggai is ultimately a book of encouragement. When the people obey and resume rebuilding, God assures them, “I am with you.” Some who remember Solomon’s magnificent temple look at this new structure and see only how small and unimpressive it seems by comparison. But God tells them not to despise what He is doing. His Spirit remains among them, and He promises a greater glory still to come. The same God who shook kingdoms to bring His people home is not finished shaking the nations. The returned exiles are rebuilding a temple, but God is moving history toward something far greater than any building they could construct.
Deep Dive: Babylon Is Not Forever
Additional Resources on Daniel
- The Bible Project’s Book of Daniel Guide
- The Gospel Coalition’s Biblical Commentary on Daniel by Mitch Chase
- Biblical Training Course on Daniel by Tremper Longman III
- A 12 Week Practical Study Course on Daniel from The Gospel Coalition
There is a temptation when reading Daniel to become so fascinated by the beasts, horns, weeks, kings, and visions that we miss the enormous truth sitting right in the middle of the book. “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.” That is the message of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar is king, but not really. Belshazzar is king, but not for long. Darius is king, but his laws cannot keep Daniel in the lions’ den. Cyrus is king, but God can turn even the decree of a pagan emperor toward the rebuilding of His temple.
Daniel sees empire after empire rising from the earth. From our perspective, they are terrifying. They have armies, wealth, monuments, propaganda, laws, and the power to kill. But Daniel 7 gives us heaven’s perspective. The kingdoms rage below while the Ancient of Days simply takes His seat. He does not scramble onto the throne when things get bad. He was already there.
And then comes one like a Son of Man. He approaches the Ancient of Days and receives “dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.” His kingdom will not be conquered by the next empire. His administration will never be voted out. His throne will never be inherited by a weaker son. His kingdom “shall not be destroyed.” Centuries later, Jesus will deliberately take Daniel’s language upon Himself and call Himself the Son of Man.
That means Daniel is not merely giving frightened exiles a prediction about when Babylon will fall. God is giving His people something far better: a King whose kingdom cannot fall. And that changes how you live in Babylon. Daniel can serve a pagan king without worshiping him. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego can stand while everyone else bows. Daniel can open his windows and pray even when prayer becomes illegal. They do not have to panic every time the political winds change because their ultimate citizenship is somewhere Babylon cannot touch. And neither do we.
Our circumstances may change. Leaders change. Nations change. Economies change. Churches change. Families change. Our bodies change. The things that once seemed permanent can disappear with frightening speed. But Jesus Christ is not nervously watching history unfold beside us. He reigns. That does not mean the furnace will never get hot. Daniel’s friends were still thrown into it. It does not mean there will never be lions. Daniel still spent the night in their den. It does not mean exile will not hurt. Psalm 137 gives us people sitting beside foreign waters and openly weeping for what they have lost.
The Christian hope is not that Babylon isn’t painful. Our hope is that Babylon isn’t forever. There is a kingdom that cannot be shaken. There is a King whose dominion will never pass away. And just as surely as God brought His people out of Babylon and home to Jerusalem, He will bring His people all the way home. Until then, we live like Daniel.
We work. We pray. We serve our neighbors. We seek the good of the place where God has put us. We refuse to bow to its idols. We do not confuse earthly power with ultimate power. And when everyone around us begins to panic because another kingdom seems to be shaking, we lift our eyes toward heaven. The Ancient of Days is still seated, the Son of Man still reigns, and Babylon is not forever.
We are more than 250 days into this journey through Scripture. Think about how much ground we have covered together. Eden, the flood, Abraham, Egypt, Sinai, the wilderness, the conquest, the judges, David, Solomon, a divided kingdom, prophets, destruction, exile, and now, finally, the road home. But the story still isn’t finished.
Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The temple will stand again. Generations will come and go. And then, in just a few weeks of our reading, we will arrive at the opening chapters of the Gospels. The Son of Man Daniel saw in the clouds is coming. So keep reading. Babylon doesn’t get the last word. Jesus does.