Explain It Like I'm…

Daniel and his friends choose healthy food (Daniel 1)

Daniel and his three friends lived in Israel. An army from a big city called Babylon took them far away from home. The king of Babylon gave them new names. He wanted them to eat his food and drink his wine.

Daniel knew God's law about food. So he asked a kind helper for a test. For ten days, Daniel and his friends ate simple plant food called pulse and drank water. At the end, they looked healthier than everyone else! God also gave them wisdom.

Heavenly Father gives us a law of health today too. It is called the Word of Wisdom. When we take care of our bodies, He blesses us (Doctrine and Covenants 89:18–21).

Three friends will not bow (Daniel 3)

The king made a giant gold statue. He said everyone must bow down to it. If they did not, they would be thrown into a hot fire.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego would not bow. They loved God. They told the king that God was able to save them. Then they said, "But if not," they still would not bow (Daniel 3:18). They would obey God no matter what happened.

The king threw them into the fire. But when he looked, he saw four men walking in the fire! The fourth looked "like the Son of God." The friends came out safe. Not even their hair was burned. The king said good things about their God.

Daniel prays in the lions' den (Daniel 6)

Later, some men made a rule: no praying to God. Daniel kept praying three times every day. So he was put in a den with hungry lions.

God shut the lions' mouths. In the morning, Daniel was safe "because he believed in his God" (Daniel 6:23). We can pray to Heavenly Father anywhere, any time, about anything.

A little stone that grows (Daniel 2)

The king had a dream about a big statue. A small stone broke the statue. Then the stone grew into a mountain that filled the whole earth! God helped Daniel understand the dream. The stone is God's kingdom, which "shall never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44). Today that kingdom is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it is growing all over the world.

Sing and remember

Sing "Choose the Right" (Hymns, no. 239) together. Each time you sing "choose the right," stand up tall like the three friends who would not bow.

Question to ask: When is a time it might be hard for you to choose the right, and how can you ask Jesus to help you?

Teenagers far from home (Daniel 1)

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were young nobles from Judah, probably about your age, when Babylon conquered their country around 605 BC. Babylon put talented captives through a three-year program in "the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans" (Daniel 1:4) to turn them into royal officials.

Part of the program was a new identity. Their Hebrew names honored the God of Israel; Daniel means "God is my judge." Their new names, like Belteshazzar and Abed-nego, tied them to Babylonian gods. Babylon was trying to change who they were from the outside in.

Daniel's first stand was small. He asked to skip the king's food and wine and eat pulse (plant food like beans) and water for a ten-day test. He asked respectfully, he offered a plan, and God blessed it: they came out healthier, and God gave them knowledge and "understanding in all visions and dreams" (Daniel 1:17). The Lord gives a law of health today too, with promised blessings of health and wisdom (Doctrine and Covenants 89:18–21).

"But if not" (Daniel 3)

Nebuchadnezzar set up a gold image and ordered everyone to bow or be thrown into a furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered: God "is able to deliver us," and "But if not," they still would not bow (Daniel 3:17–18).

Those two words carry the doctrine of the whole chapter. Their obedience did not depend on getting a miracle, because they trusted God more than any outcome. They were thrown in, and the king saw a fourth figure walking with them, "like the Son of God." They came out unharmed.

The manual raises a hard question: what if your faith does not bring the rescue you pray for? In the Book of Mormon, Alma watched faithful believers die in a fire, and he taught that the Lord "receiveth them up unto himself, in glory" (Alma 14:11). God's power is real in both stories. The faith is the same either way.

Praying when it costs something (Daniel 6)

Jealous officials could find "none occasion nor fault" in Daniel (Daniel 6:4), so they tricked King Darius into banning prayer to anyone but the king. Daniel went home and prayed three times a day toward Jerusalem, as he always had. God shut the lions' mouths, and Daniel came out unhurt "because he believed in his God" (Daniel 6:23).

Daniel did not invent courage on the night of the test. He had been praying every day for years, so when the pressure hit, the habit was already there.

What this looks like for you

You probably will not face a furnace. You will face a group chat, a party, a joke you are expected to laugh at, or a quiet doubt you carry alone. Daniel's pattern still works:

• Know who you are. Babylon renamed them; they kept living as covenant Israelites. Your identity as a child of God does not change because a crowd tries to rename you.
• Choose good friends. The four of them stood together and prayed together (Daniel 2:17–18).
• Be respectful and firm. Daniel asked kindly and never mocked the king, but he did not budge on God's commandments.
• Watch who is watching. Nebuchadnezzar and Darius both ended up praising Israel's God (Daniel 3:28–29; 6:26–27). Your choices affect your friends more than you think.

The stone and the Son of Man (Daniel 2; 7)

Daniel interpreted the king's dream of a statue of gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay, smashed by a stone "cut out without hands." "Without hands" means God made it, not people. God's kingdom "shall never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44). Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught that the Church is that prophesied latter-day kingdom ("Why the Church," Oct. 2015).

In Daniel 7, Daniel saw "one like the Son of man" receive "an everlasting dominion" (Daniel 7:13–14). Jesus called Himself "the Son of man" more than any other title, and He was condemned for claiming Daniel's vision (Mark 14:62). The One who walked in the furnace is the One who will rule forever.

Scripture Mastery Moment

Daniel 3:17–18: "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us … But if not." Memorize it, because it teaches you to decide your loyalty to God before you know how a trial will turn out.

This week, pick one small, daily habit (prayer, scripture study, or a standard you keep) and treat it the way Daniel treated his prayers.

The manual title for this week comes from King Nebuchadnezzar's own words after the fiery furnace: "There is no other God that can deliver." In Daniel 1–7, four young captives from Judah keep their covenants in the most powerful empire on earth, and kings end up praising their God.

Captives in Babylon keep the law (Daniel 1)

Around 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar took young nobles from Judah to train as royal officials in "the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans" (Daniel 1:4). He gave them new names that honored Babylonian gods instead of Israel's God.

Daniel asked to eat pulse and water instead of the king's food, and proposed a ten-day test. God blessed the four with health and with "understanding in all visions and dreams" (Daniel 1:17). Their faithfulness started in small, daily choices.

💬 Where does modern life try to "rename" us or wear down our standards a little at a time?

God reveals the dream and the stone (Daniel 2)

Babylonian diviners interpreted dreams from manuals after hearing the dream described. Nebuchadnezzar demanded they tell him the dream itself, which tested whether they had any real contact with heaven. They admitted only the gods could do that.

Daniel and his friends prayed, and God revealed the dream. Daniel gave God the credit: "there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets" (Daniel 2:28). His preparation in Daniel 1 made him ready to receive this revelation.

The dream showed a statue of gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay, broken by a stone "cut out without hands." "Without hands" means God sets up this kingdom, not human effort, and it "shall never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44). The Lord used the same image in 1831 for the restored gospel rolling forth "until it has filled the whole earth" (D&C 65:2). Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught: "The Church is that prophesied latter-day kingdom, not created by man but set up by the God of heaven" ("Why the Church," Oct. 2015).

💬 What is your part in helping the stone fill the earth?

Faith that does not depend on the outcome (Daniel 3; 6)

When commanded to worship a golden image, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego told the king that God "is able to deliver us," and "But if not," they still would not bow (Daniel 3:17–18). A fourth figure "like the Son of God" walked with them in the fire.

Years later, Daniel kept praying three times a day despite a royal ban. God shut the lions' mouths, and Daniel was unhurt "because he believed in his God" (Daniel 6:23).

Not every faithful person is rescued in this life. Alma watched believers burned in Ammonihah and taught that the Lord "receiveth them up unto himself, in glory" (Alma 14:11). Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught that faith grows as we choose to believe and act even when we are afraid ("Be Not Afraid, Only Believe," Oct. 2015).

💬 How would "but if not" change the way you pray about a current trial?

Kings humbled, and the Son of Man (Daniel 4; 5; 7)

Nebuchadnezzar boasted over Babylon and was driven out to live like an animal until he acknowledged God. Afterward he wrote that "those that walk in pride he is able to abase" (Daniel 4:37). Belshazzar knew that story and still drank from the temple vessels, and Babylon fell to Persia that night in 539 BC.

In Daniel 7, Daniel saw four beasts representing earthly kingdoms. Then "one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven" and received "an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away" (Daniel 7:13–14). Jesus claimed this title before the high priest (Mark 14:62). Moses 6:57 explains it: the Father is "Man of Holiness," and His Only Begotten is "the Son of Man."

Jesus Christ at the center

Every empire in these chapters rises and falls, because "the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men" (Daniel 4:17). Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, receives the kingdom that lasts, and "the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever" (Daniel 7:18). Daniel and his friends could stay faithful in Babylon because they knew whose kingdom would remain.

Key Takeaways

• Covenant faithfulness is built in small daily choices like prayer, obedience, and good friendships (Daniel 1; 6).
• Faith rests on God Himself, whether or not He delivers us in this life (Daniel 3:17–18; Alma 14:11).
• Revelation comes to those who prepare and ask, and they give God the credit (Daniel 2:17–28).
• The stone cut out without hands is the restored Church, God's kingdom that will never be destroyed (Daniel 2:44; D&C 65:2).
• Jesus Christ is the Son of Man who receives an everlasting dominion (Daniel 7:13–14; Mark 14:62).

Setting: the court of Babylon, 605–539 BC

Daniel 1–6 covers about seventy years, from Nebuchadnezzar's first deportation from Judah (compare 2 Kings 24:10–16) to the rise of Cyrus. Babylon was a mud-brick city between the Tigris and Euphrates, excavated by Robert Koldewey in the early 1900s. His team uncovered the Ishtar Gate and Nebuchadnezzar's Southern Palace, whose plastered throne room fits the setting of the writing "upon the plaster of the wall" (Daniel 5:5).

Babylon governed conquered peoples partly by absorbing their brightest young nobles. The three-year course in "the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans" (Daniel 1:4) covered cuneiform, Akkadian and Sumerian, mathematics, astronomy, and statecraft. Ashpenaz's title, "master of the eunuchs," matches a known Babylonian office (rab-saris).

Renaming was part of the program. Daniel ("God is my judge") and Mishael ("Who is like God?") received names tied to Bel and Nebo. Babylon aimed to reassign their loyalty, so the question running through Daniel 1, 3, and 6 is whether they would keep living as Israel's God's covenant people while serving a foreign king.

Faithfulness built in small things (Daniel 1; 2)

Daniel's first test was diet. He did not rebel; he proposed a ten-day trial of pulse and water. God honored it with health and with "understanding in all visions and dreams" (Daniel 1:17). The manual connects this to the Word of Wisdom, whose promised blessings of health and "wisdom and great treasures of knowledge" parallel Daniel's (compare Daniel 1:15–17; D&C 89:18–21).

That preparation mattered in Daniel 2. Mesopotamian diviners interpreted dreams from written manuals after the dreamer described them. By demanding the dream itself (Daniel 2:9), Nebuchadnezzar tested whether his experts had real access to the divine, and they conceded they did not (Daniel 2:11). Daniel gathered his companions to pray (Daniel 2:17–18), received the dream in a night vision, and gave God the glory: "there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets" (Daniel 2:28). The order is instructive. Obedience in Daniel 1 prepared him; united prayer in Daniel 2 brought the revelation; and he credited God afterward.

Trusting God whether or not He delivers (Daniel 3; 6)

The furnace and the lions' den present the same choice in two settings: worship the king's image, or stop praying to God. In each case the faithful stay courteous to the ruler and immovable toward God.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego state the doctrine precisely: God "is able to deliver us," and "But if not," they will not bow (Daniel 3:17–18). Their obedience is not a bargain for deliverance, because their faith rests on God's character rather than on a predicted result. The fourth figure "like the Son of God" shows that the Lord meets His people inside the trial.

The Book of Mormon supplies the other outcome. In Ammonihah, Alma watched believers burned and told Amulek the Lord "receiveth them up unto himself, in glory" (Alma 14:11). Read together, Daniel 3 and Alma 14 teach that deliverance can come in mortality or after it; the God who saves is the same. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught that faith grows as we choose to believe and act even when afraid ("Be Not Afraid, Only Believe," Oct. 2015).

Daniel 6 adds the role of habit. Daniel prayed three times a day toward Jerusalem "as he did aforetime," so the decree changed nothing in his routine. He was preserved "because he believed in his God" (Daniel 6:23).

These choices also converted kings. Nebuchadnezzar decreed that no one speak against Israel's God (Daniel 3:28–29), and Darius commanded that all "fear before the God of Daniel" (Daniel 6:26). The manual asks readers to ponder how their own choices affect others' faith.

Pride and the sovereignty of God (Daniel 4; 5)

Daniel 4 is Nebuchadnezzar's first-person testimony. Warned to repent and show mercy to the poor, he later boasted over Babylon and lost his reason for "seven times." Restored, he confessed that "those that walk in pride he is able to abase" (Daniel 4:37).

Belshazzar had that history and ignored it. Cuneiform sources (the Nabonidus Chronicle and Cylinder) confirm he ruled as co-regent while his father Nabonidus stayed at Teima, which explains why he could offer Daniel only "third ruler in the kingdom" (Daniel 5:16). He desecrated the temple vessels, and Babylon fell to Cyrus that night in 539 BC.

The stone and the latter-day kingdom (Daniel 2:34–45)

The image's metals represent successive kingdoms. The stone "cut out without hands" breaks them and becomes a mountain filling the earth. "Without hands" signals divine origin, and Daniel declares the kingdom "shall never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44).

Modern revelation identifies the fulfillment. In 1831 the Lord declared that "the keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth," and that the gospel will roll forth "as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands … until it has filled the whole earth" (D&C 65:2). Elder D. Todd Christofferson taught: "The Church is that prophesied latter-day kingdom, not created by man but set up by the God of heaven and rolling forth as a stone 'cut out of the mountain without hands' to fill the earth" ("Why the Church," Oct. 2015).

The Son of Man (Daniel 7)

Daniel 7 restates Daniel 2 in a new image. Four beasts from the sea represent earthly kingdoms; a little horn wars against the Saints. Then the Ancient of days sits in judgment, and "one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven" to receive "an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away" (Daniel 7:13–14). The kingdom then passes to "the saints of the most High" forever (Daniel 7:18).

Many Jews in Jesus's day read this as messianic. Jesus used "Son of man" as His most frequent self-designation (Mark 10:45), and before the high priest He said, "ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62). The council condemned Him for blasphemy because they understood the claim. Moses 6:57 explains the title: the Father's name is "Man of Holiness," and His Only Begotten is "the Son of Man." See also D&C 49:6.

The manual links this to disciples who face rejection, comparing Daniel 7:13–14 with the promises of D&C 121:29, 46. The dominion given the Son of Man is shared with His faithful Saints.

This week, read Daniel 3:17–18 alongside a current trial and decide in advance what your "but if not" will be.

Historical frame: imperial absorption and covenant identity

The narratives span roughly 605 to 539 BC, from Nebuchadnezzar II's early deportation of Judahite nobility (compare 2 Kings 24:10–16) to Cyrus's conquest of Babylon, which the Cyrus Cylinder records along with his policy of repatriating exiles. Daniel's service extends across this entire period (Daniel 1:21; 6:28).

Babylonian policy sought administrative integration of conquered elites. The curriculum in "the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans" (Daniel 1:4) included cuneiform, Akkadian, Sumerian, mathematics, astronomy, and statecraft, under Ashpenaz, whose title corresponds to the attested court office rab-saris. Onomastic reassignment completed the program: theophoric names honoring Israel's God (Daniel, "God is my judge"; Mishael, "Who is like God?") were replaced by names invoking Bel and Nebo. The narrative tension is therefore covenantal from the opening chapter. Babylon contests the captives' allegiance at the level of name, diet, worship, and prayer.

Archaeology clarifies details once doubted. Koldewey's excavations exposed the Southern Palace throne room, with plastered walls consistent with Daniel 5:5. The Nabonidus Chronicle and Cylinder resolved the Belshazzar problem raised by Herodotus's naming of Nabonidus as the last king: Belshazzar exercised kingship in Babylon during his father's decade at Teima, which accounts for the offer of "third ruler in the kingdom" (Daniel 5:16). Daniel 5 calls Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar's "father" in the sense of royal predecessor.

The tripartite test pattern (Daniel 1; 3; 6)

Three tests share a structure: imperial demand, respectful but immovable refusal, divine vindication, and gentile acknowledgment of Israel's God.

In Daniel 1 the refusal is negotiated: a ten-day trial of pulse and water. Divine response comes as health and "understanding in all visions and dreams" (Daniel 1:17), which the manual reads alongside the Word of Wisdom's promises (D&C 89:18–21). In Daniel 3 the demand escalates to idolatry, and the confession of verses 17–18 supplies the doctrinal center of the collection: God "is able to deliver us," and "But if not," the three will not bow. In Daniel 6 the demand targets prayer itself; Daniel's thrice-daily practice continues unchanged, and he is preserved "because he believed in his God" (Daniel 6:23).

The pattern places the decisive act of faith before the outcome is known. Obedience in Daniel 3:18 is detached from any guarantee of rescue, because the object of trust is God rather than a predicted result. The fourth figure "like the Son of God" in the furnace locates divine presence within the ordeal itself.

Alma 14:8–13 completes the pattern with its contrary outcome. Believers in Ammonihah perish by fire, and Alma explains that the Lord "receiveth them up unto himself, in glory" (Alma 14:11). The manual pairs the two texts to answer the question of unanswered petitions: both narratives affirm divine power, and they differ only in the sphere, mortal or postmortal, where deliverance is realized. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's October 2015 address, "Be Not Afraid, Only Believe," taught that faith grows as disciples choose to believe and act despite fear.

The gentile responses (Daniel 2:47; 3:28–29; 6:26–27) establish a missiological thread. Faithful conduct within empire becomes testimony to empire, and the manual frames this as the effect of righteous choices on others' faith.

Revelation and its preconditions (Daniel 2:1–30)

Mesopotamian oneiromancy relied on trained diviners consulting dream manuals after receiving the dreamer's account. Nebuchadnezzar's demand for the dream itself (Daniel 2:9) functioned as a test of authentic divine access, and the diviners' admission that only the gods could meet it (Daniel 2:11) frames Daniel's counter-claim: "there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets" (Daniel 2:28).

The sequence models revelatory preparation as the manual presents it: prior obedience and divinely given capacity (Daniel 1:17), petition in united prayer (Daniel 2:17–18), reception in a night vision, and doxology that assigns all credit to God (Daniel 2:19–30).

Divine sovereignty and the abasement of pride (Daniel 4; 5)

Daniel 4, cast as Nebuchadnezzar's own testimony, states the governing proposition of Daniel 1–7: "the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men" (Daniel 4:17). The king's boast and seven "times" of animal existence end in confession that God's "kingdom is an everlasting kingdom" (Daniel 4:3) and that "those that walk in pride he is able to abase" (Daniel 4:37).

Daniel 5 functions as its negative counterpart. Belshazzar knew Nebuchadnezzar's history, profaned the Jerusalem temple vessels while praising idols, and was weighed and found wanting. Daniel's refusal of royal gifts sharpens the contrast between prophetic and courtly authority. The chapter closes with the fall of Babylon in 539 BC.

The stone kingdom: Daniel 2 and its Restoration fulfillment

The composite image (gold, silver, brass, iron, clay) represents successive worldly kingdoms. The stone "cut out without hands" signifies divine origin; it destroys the image, becomes a mountain, fills the earth, and constitutes a kingdom that "shall never be destroyed" (Daniel 2:44–45).

Modern revelation supplies the interpretive key. D&C 65:2 (1831) declares that "the keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth," and that the gospel will roll forth "as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands … until it has filled the whole earth." The phrase reproduces Daniel's imagery and attaches it to priesthood keys, so the kingdom's identification rests on restored authority. Elder D. Todd Christofferson made the identification explicit: "The Church is that prophesied latter-day kingdom, not created by man but set up by the God of heaven and rolling forth as a stone 'cut out of the mountain without hands' to fill the earth" ("Why the Church," Oct. 2015).

Daniel 7: the Son of Man and the saints' inheritance

Daniel 7 recapitulates Daniel 2 in apocalyptic register. Four beasts from the sea correspond to four kings or kingdoms; a little horn makes war on the Saints. The Ancient of days takes the throne and the books are opened. "One like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven" and receives "an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away" (Daniel 7:13–14). The angel's interpretation extends that dominion: "the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever" (Daniel 7:18; compare 7:27).

The New Testament fulfillment is direct. "Son of man" is Jesus's predominant self-designation (Matthew 25:31; Mark 9:31; 10:45). At His trial He fuses Daniel 7:13 with royal enthronement imagery: "ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62). The charge of blasphemy (Mark 14:61–64) shows that His hearers recognized the claim to Daniel's figure.

Restoration scripture defines the title's referent. Moses 6:57 identifies the Father's name as "Man of Holiness" and His Only Begotten as "the Son of Man," so the title denotes divine sonship. D&C 49:6 also bears on the title. The manual further links Daniel 7:13–14 with D&C 121:29, 46, connecting the Son of Man's everlasting dominion to the promises extended to persecuted disciples.

Synthesis of the cross-reference web

The collection's threads converge. The court narratives (Daniel 1; 3; 6) model fidelity independent of outcome; Alma 14 extends that fidelity beyond mortal deliverance. The sovereignty chapters (Daniel 4; 5) establish that God governs empires. The stone (Daniel 2) and the Son of Man (Daniel 7) name the kingdom that outlasts them, fulfilled in Jesus Christ's claim (Mark 14:62) and in the restored Church's keys (D&C 65:2). The fourth figure in the furnace and the Son of Man before the Ancient of days point to the same Lord, present with His saints in trial and enthroned over the kingdom they will inherit.

Readers wishing to extend this study may trace the "Son of man" sayings through the Gospels against Daniel 7:13–14 and Moses 6:57, and consult the Bible Dictionary entry "Daniel" and the Guide to the Scriptures entry "Son of Man."