Daniel
Daniel is two books in one, and both halves ask who really rules history. The first six chapters tell beloved court stories: young exiles refusing royal food, a fiery furnace, writing on a wall, a night among lions, each showing God's people keeping faith inside a pagan empire, and pagan kings learning that the Most High rules the kingdom of men. The final six chapters shift into apocalyptic vision: beasts rising from the sea, one like a son of man receiving everlasting dominion, and history unrolling toward resurrection. Empires strut and fall; God's kingdom alone endures.
Traditionally Daniel; the book's composition and dating are much debated.
Set 605–c. 536 BC in Babylon and Persia; dating debated.
Exiles under foreign empires, tempted to compromise or despair.
To show that God sovereignly rules the rise and fall of empires, sustaining his faithful people until his everlasting kingdom comes.