wolfpurplemoonDaniel starts with a scientific experiment to prove that a diet of fruit and vegetables is healthier than one of wine and royal meat delicacies. Unsurprisingly, those that eat the vegetarian diet are healthier than those eating the delicacies after 10 days. So after that everyone is given the veggie diet. Finally, something I can agree with the bible on.
Daniel and his friends from Judah are cleverer than all the other candidates for working for the king so they are all chosen to serve the king.
The king has a disturbing dream and demands that all the magicians and other wise men tell him what it means, I think we had this plot before. He orders that all the wise men should be killed because they say that only the gods can interpret dreams so they can't help him. They are saved because God tells Daniel what the king's dream meant in a dream, and for telling the king what the dream meant Daniel and his friends get a higher position in the king's household.
The King builds a big statue like he saw in his dream and makes everyone worship it, Daniel's friends refuse because it's against their religion. The king has them thrown into a furnace that kills the men who threw them in but doesn't kill the guys sentenced to death. This event convinces the king that their God is worth following so orders everyone to follow him under pain of death - getting tips from God there.
I've been away for a few days so I'm posting a few days worth of reading at once, sorry for the f-list spam!