Daniel: The Writing on the Wall & the Lion's Den

I combined two lessons this week to finish Daniel. There are visuals for the Writing on the Wall and Daniel & the Lion's Den. There is a cut & paste project, and I also used a worksheet for review.

Review: Today's lesson is found in the Old Testament book of Daniel. Last week we studied Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego. When King Nebuchadnezzar made the giant statue and demanded that everyone bow down to it, they refused! They were thrown into the fiery furnace and when King Nebuchadnezzar looked into the furnace, he saw 4 men inside. The fourth man looked like the Son of God! (Daniel 3:25) They were walking around in the furnace, and they were not tied up anymore!

Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego were taken out of the furnace, and they were not burned, and they didn't smell like fire! King Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed is their God, for He delivered His servants from the fire!” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego received a promotion.

Lesson in Daniel 5-6: King Nebuchadnezzar has died, then Belshazzar was the king. King Belshazzar was having a feast with 1,000 of his men. He wanted the gold and silver cups that were taken from the temple in Jerusalem to be brought to the feast so they could drink from them. They were drinking wine and praising idols.

It was at that time that King Belshazzar saw the fingers of a man's hand appear! The fingers wrote on the wall of the palace! And, he could see the hand writing it! (5:5)

 

King Belshazzar was so scared, his knees knocked together! He shouted to everyone, especially his wise men that whoever could read the writing on the wall and interpret it will be given purple clothes and a gold chain necklace. And, he will be the third ruler in the kingdom!

King Belshazzar was so upset and there wasn't anyone that was able to explain what the writing meant! But, the queen told him not to worry, that he should ask Daniel. She told King Belshazzar that Daniel had wisdom and understanding. Daniel had interpreted dreams for King Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel was brought in before King Belshazzar. Daniel told him that he worshipped idols and the king and his friends used the cups from the temple to drink from. God knows what he is doing and this was the inscription:

MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

MENE means God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it

TEKEL means you have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting

UPHARSIN or PERES means your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians (Daniel 5:25-28)

King Belshazzar was so impressed with Daniel, he made Daniel one of the three governors over the whole kingdom of Babylon. (The third ruler.) King Belshazzar died the same night and now Darius is the ruler.

King Darius is thinking about making Daniel in charge over the whole kingdom because Daniel showed such great character. The other governors were worried about that, so they started looking for something to get Daniel in trouble. Since, Daniel didn’t do anything wrong, they talked King Darius into making a law stating anyone who prays to any god but you for the next 30 days should be thrown into the lion’s den.

Even after knowing this law was signed, Daniel went home to his upper room and prayed on his knees to God. He’s done this three times a day since he was young, so those men knew that! They told the king that Daniel was still praying to God and King Darius was upset because he really liked Daniel.

King Darius gave the command to have Daniel thrown into the lion’s den, but told him “Your God will deliver you.” (Daniel 6:16)  They put a stone across the opening and King Darius fasted and couldn’t sleep because he was so worried about Daniel.

In the early morning King Darius hurried to see Daniel and Daniel told him that “God sent His angel to protect him and closed the lion’s mouths since Daniel didn’t do anything wrong.” Daniel was brought up out of the lion's den and the ones that accused Daniel were thrown into the den.  And Daniel prospered.

I purchased this gross hand at Dollar Tree during the Halloween sales. I saw it when I found the ears for Malchus. My husband talked me into buying it! He said, "You better buy it, you know you might need it sometime and you won't be able find it!" So, of course I found a use for it! Anyway, I stabbed it with a pointed knife, and used scissors to trim all the bloody areas off. We used a suction cup that had the hook attached and just poked a hole to put the hook through. I used foam I had to fill in the hole that I had cut open, and painted it skin color. After writing out the words, we stuck the suction cup at the ends of the words. It worked great!

My husband made this Daniel in the Lion's Den for me years ago. It is about 24x24, 12" tall  along the back. We sprayed painted the inside with that sand spray so it has texture. The sides and back come out of the slotted edges to store better for me. I used a Ken doll with Bible clothes (except he should be older) and the lions are from Target Dollar Spot and Dollar Tree.

I had lion necklaces left over from VBS, and handed those out. I purchased them on EBay. If you put lion charm in the search box, you will find several choices, but order early since they are from China. I had also found some small plastic lions at Party City. Since I am currently working on next year's lessons, and VBS, I didn't have time to create a time consuming project for this lesson. Several things came to my mind, but, maybe I can make them later. You have your choice of color and black & white in the download. I printed the black & white background on colored cardstock, and printed the lions and Daniel in color on regular paper. The kids will cut and glue them onto the background. Click here to print it.

I also had this worksheet to use. I have these same students for 2 years, and we have covered Jesus, Acts in one year, and the last year was Genesis, Moses and People in the Old Testament. I thought it would be interesting to see what they remember as their favorites. I will let you know the results! Click here to print it.

Click here to download the worksheet.

Click here to download the updated visuals for Daniel 5.

(Not all are shown.)

Click here to  download the pictures to color.

Click here to download the updated visuals.

This file is for Daniel in the lion's den only.
(These are not included in the application pack.)

Click here to download the pictures to color.
(These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)

Click to see this bulletin board and printables.

Bible Verse:  Daniel 6:22 (NKJV)

 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Used by permission.

Yah! This post was featured week #30 at Moms Are Frugal!