I would like to know some information about the Prophet Daniel.

1.Why did Daniel become a prophet?
2.What did he do that was so important
3.When and Where was he born and lived?
4.How did he go about doing God’s work?
5.Why do you think Daniel was able to talk with God?

Have you read my book on Daniel? It is titled Daniel, Prophet to the
Nations. If you had, then you would already have answers to your question.
You can get it at at this website. Let me answer your questions at least
briefly anyway.

Daniel was not a prophet, at least in the sense that Elijah, Isaiah,
Micanh and others were prophets. He did not declare “Thus says the Lord”
to Israel, as the others did. In fact, his ministry was primarily to pagan
kings and their courts. Several of the prophets were specifically called
by God to their ministry for example Isaiah (Isaiah 6) and Jeremiah
(Jeremiah chapter 1), as you can see in their own writings, but Daniel was
not called to be a prophet, at least as far as we know. He received dreams
and visions and the interpretation of dreams directly from God. That is
how he became a “prophet,” if indeed one could call him a prophet. The
closest one can come to a commission for Daniel is found in Daniel 1:17
“God gave them… and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.”

Daniel set the example for all Israel for how to behave while held as a
captive under both Babylon and Persia. He was the ultimate example of a
man of God living in a world dominated by pagan religion and ungodly
politics. In addition, he brought to Israel and to us a great number of
incredibly accurate predictions of future events such as predicting when
Jesus would come to Jerusalem (Daniel 9) and when Jerusalem would be
destroyed (70 AD, also in Daniel 9), as well as the great persecutions
under Antiochus Epiphanes (167-165 BC, Daniel 8,11), thus proving that the
Old Testament is inspired by God. Many other significant contributions of
Daniel could be mentioned.

Daniel was taken captive as a youth from Jerusalem to Babylon after
Jerusalem was attacked under Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 1:1,2) in 605 BC.
Presumably he was somewhere between 12 and 20 years old at that time so he
was probably born between 622 and 617 BC (approximately). Daniel continued
to minister to Babylon and Persia until his death, some time after 536 BC.

Daniel did God’s work simply by being a righteous man in every situation
he found himself. His specific job description was adviser to the kings of
Babylon and prime minister to the Persian king Darius. Often God put
Daniel directly into situations (such as Nebuchadnezzar having an amazing
dream) in which he was able to use his talents to interpret dreams, but
one can assume he was simply a very powerful man who trusted in God on a
daily basis, which is why God was able to use him.

The Bible does not say that Daniel talked to God. God communicated with
Daniel through angels (Daniel 8:13, 10:10, etc) and possibly directly
through Jesus Christ (Daniel 10:5-8), but there is no evidence God the
father ever spoke directly to Daniel.

John Oakes, PhD