CLE REVIEWER:

 Daniel and his friends were raised to serve in the Babylonian royal court.
However, the meals they were given were unclean meat. Daniel proposed this
idea to make Melzar (a royal caretaker) see if they looked healthy enough to
serve in the royal court. Eventually, the unclean meat was taken away, and the
four lived off pulse and water. 

 While Jehoiakim was King of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,

attacked Jerusalem and God delivered Jehoiakim into his hands. Nebuchadnezzar
then ordered the chief of the court officials to bring in some of the Israelites,
young men without any physical defect who wanted to learn all things. Among
the men chosen were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

 "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it."

 "In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that troubled
him, and sleep deserted him." Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon at this time.

 Jehoikim had reigned three years as king of Judah when Nebuchadnezzar

went to battle with the city and took captives. When Nebuchadnezzar took the
people of Jerusalem captive, Daniel was in the first group of men taken to
Babylon.

 Melzar risked his life in cooperating with Daniel and his friends. The other
three are the Hebrew names of Daniel's famous friends Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego.

 The parts of the statue were the head of gold, arms and breast (or chest) of
silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet of clay.
 Ashpenaz was the chief of the court officials. The king put Ashpenaz in
charge of obtaining and training the young men from Judah. He was to train
them for three years and then they would go into the king's service.

 Daniel's Babylonian name became Belteshazzar while his three close friends
became Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Daniel and his three friends were
put into a group of men that would be trained because of their wisdom, physical
appearance, and regality.

 That stone would transform into a mountain and fill the whole earth.

 Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were among the ones brought from
Judah. The chief official gave them all new names. Daniel he gave the name
Belteshazzar, to Hananiah (not to be confused with the false prophet of the same
name in Jeremiah 28) he gave the name Shadrach, to Mishael he gave the name
Meshach and Azariah got the name Abednego.
"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O
Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning
fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.

 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods,
nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

 Abednego was the Babylonian name of Azariah.

 The king wanted all the slaves to be fed meat and wine to build up their
bodies. Daniel knew the meat and wine would first be offered to a pagan god
and declined the food. Instead, Daniel asked the king's steward (who carried the
title of Melzar) to feed him, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego vegetables and
water for ten days. After the ten days, Melzar could test Daniel and his friends
against the men that ate meat and drank wine to see who looked better. At the
end of the ten days, the king saw that Daniel and his friends looked healthier
than men that were fed meat and wine. For the next three years of training,
Daniel and his friends were fed the continuous diet of vegetables and water.

 God gave Daniel the gift of understanding dreams and visions 

 "My king, as you were watching, a colossal statue appeared."

 The men were to be trained for 3 years.