Saturday Studies Introductory lesson for study of Daniel 8-31-2024

This is our introductory lesson for a study through the book of Daniel. Some scholars say that Daniel is to the Old Testament what Revelation is to the New Testament.
We have recently been going through the book of Revelation in our Thursday morning Bible Life Today videos, and Daniel is closely related to Revelation with some of the events of the Tribulation Period.
We also have finished a study of the covenants found in Scripture, and Daniel is related to the conditions and consequences of the conditional Mosaic Covenant.
In chapter one, we find Daniel and his three friends, Hannah, Michael, and Azariah being taken captive to Babylon in the first deportation after the first siege of Jerusalem in 606 BC.
We will see how Daniel and his three friends make and appeal to their authority figure and are granted their request. Then God blesses them and they come out at the head of their graduating class, setting them up in a position for God to use them as witnesses to Him.