Nebuchadnezzar's Dream
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Nebuchadnezzar hatches a plan
Nebuchadnezzar hatches a plan
Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. And the king said to them, “I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.”
Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.”
The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “My decision is firm: if you do not make known the dream to me, and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made an ash heap. However, if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore tell me the dream and its interpretation.”
They answered again and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will give its interpretation.”
The king answered and said, “I know for certain that you would gain time, because you see that my decision is firm: if you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you! For you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the time has changed. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation.”
The Chaldeans answered the king, and said, “There is not a man on earth who can tell the king’s matter; therefore no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
For this reason the king was angry and very furious, and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
Now some people have been critical of Nebuchadnezzar over this claiming that he was being completely unreasonable and that God used Daniel in this passage, in-spite of the kings foolish demands. But quite honestly I see this very differently. I take my hat off to Nebuchadnezzar because I think that this is one of the cleverest things he does and it’s a stroke of genius.
Back in the days of the Babylonian courts, it was normal for the kings advisers to be heavily involved in the occult. What things they could not explain or deal with in the natural were dealt with through witchcraft and sorcery, and the people that were involved in doing this laid claim to special supernatural ability, and they really could get away with a whole lot because by setting themselves up as having special supernatural insight they really put themselves above criticism because how could anyone ever prove that they were wrong.
It was also normal for the kings and rulers of the day to seek the counsel of such people regarding dreams. But it would seem that Nebuchadnezzar had this one dream in particular that he knew was not ordinary and required precise interpretation.
The trouble is though is that Nebuchadnezzar knows that if the advisers don’t really know how to interpret this dream that they could make up any old nonsense and he would not be able to tell id they were telling him the truth or not.
So Nebuchadnezzar reasons that if they are in fact discerning the meaning of the dream by supernatural forces then surely it would be just as easy for them to find out by these forces and abilities what the dream was without the king explaining it to them. And if they can somehow tell him what the dream is then that will prove that they are in touch with the giver of the dream.
Naturally the advisers protest and argue that what the king asks is impossible. This enrages Nebuchadnezzar because it re-enforces his doubts in their ability and he must have thought to himself “what else is there that they claimed to have supernatural ability in? and the whole time it was just a charade”
So the king orders that all the advisers be gathered up and killed.
DANIEL SEEKS THE LORD
DANIEL SEEKS THE LORD
Then with counsel and wisdom Daniel answered Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon; he answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, “Why is the decree from the king so urgent?” Then Arioch made the decision known to Daniel.
So Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, that he might tell the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
All the astrologers, soothsayers and magicians had a problem, because the only way that they could know what Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was, was if they had contact with the one who gave the dream. They knew that they were not and so it sent them into a panic.
We read of no such panic from Daniel though, and Daniel is able to say to the king quite resolutely that he can definitely answer the king in this matter because unlike all the frauds around him. He really is in contact with the One who gave the dream. So Daniel’s response is just “hey, give me a little time to inquire of the Lord who gave the dream and then I’ll come back and tell you”.
What’s more, Daniel had a closeness of relationship with the Lord that even under the pressure of the circumstances he knew that he could trust the Lord to come through with the information.
Daniel
Daniel answered and said:
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
For wisdom and might are His.
And He changes the times and the seasons;
He removes kings and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the wise
And knowledge to those who have understanding.
He reveals deep and secret things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
And light dwells with Him.
“I thank You and praise You,
O God of my fathers;
You have given me wisdom and might,
And have now made known to me what we asked of You,
For You have made known to us the king’s demand.”
It is so interesting to see and I think a critical point as to why Daniel was used so mightily by God, to see how quick Daniel was to give the credit and the glory to God.
Now in this life and death situation any person who needing to receive revelation from God in order to save their life would be very inclined having heard from God to rush to settle the issue as quickly as possible. In Daniel’s situation I certainly would have been tempted to rush as quickly as possible to Nebuchadnezzar and give him the good news so that my life would not be in danger for a minute longer than it needed to be.
But Daniel has a higher priority here and it is to first of all give glory and thanks to God.
There is a temptation also for us once we have received what we want from the Lord to stop praying, but for Daniel his praying actually kicks into a higher gear after he has received from the Lord.
DANIEL EXPLAINS THE DREAM
DANIEL EXPLAINS THE DREAM
Therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation.”
Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel before the king, and said thus to him, “I have found a man of the captives of Judah, who will make known to the king the interpretation.”
The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen, and its interpretation?”
Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, “The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these: As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.
Notice verse 29. The vision came as Nebuchadnezzar was pondering what would happen in years to come. Nebuchadnezzar was as powerful and as rich as they come, in fact in terms of absolute power there has probably never been another king since that has had the power that he had. Yet, for all his power and wealth the future was beyond his control. People strive for wealth and power because they feel that it will bring security and stability into their life but as this passage is here to show us, that even the greatest in this earth will have no security outside of the Lord God.
Then in verse 30 we see that Daniel is yet again ensuring that the glory goes to God.
“You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
“This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
31-45
Statue Slide
Head of Gold
The first part of the statue is the head of gold. This as Daniel tells us represents the Babylonian empire. This is a very fitting material since even to this day Babylon is a byword for great wealth. However this is also depicted as gold because from the perspective of the king this was the richest kingdom since the rulers in all the subsequent empires do not have the absolute grip on power as the Babylonian kings did and in fact in terms of the ability for a ruler to govern according to their own will, each kingdom sees a diminishing of power in their rule.
Chest and Arms of Silver
The empire that followed the Babylonians was the Medo-Persian Empire. It is worth noting that the Lord designed it so that this empire occupies the part of the body that has the arms. The two arms represent the two sides to this empire since this empire was in fact two empires that became joined as one. It is this empire that we see conquering Babylon in Daniel chapter 5.
Also represented as a precious metal because it was this empire that perfected taxation and so they were well known for their wealth but nevertheless not as wealthy as the previous Babylonian kingdom.
Belly and thighs of Bronze
Interesting again that this third kingdom should be represented by bronze since this kingdom was highly regarded for its use of bronze weaponry.
This is the Grecian empire, it is the belly because Alexander the Great formed this empire as one single unified empire. However upon his death the empire was split between four of his generals, but out of those four only two became noteworthy. The Ptolemaic Empire which took the southern regions and the Seleucid Empire which took Syria, Babylon and Persia. This is why the third kingdom starts as the unified belly but then is represented as the thighs since it splits into two.
The Legs of Iron
Next we have the Roman Empire, signified by two legs of iron. Iron because it is symbolic of strength and if we should pick only one word to sum-up the Roman Empire it would surely have to be strength, and of course the Romans were in fact well known for their extensive use of iron.
Two legs because the Roman empire was ruled firstly in Rome but then later on in the Byzantine era from Constantinople as the Emperor Constantine took the very unusual step of moving the empires capital.
And notice throughout that while the strength of the materials varies the values of the each material decreases with each successive empire. We are so often led to believe by the media that the human race is capable of attaining greater levels of glory and perfect harmonious living is achievable without religion. But the reality of what we see here is not evolution but devolution.
Feet of Iron and Clay
In reality we are not actually seeing a fifth empire here since in actual fact this is a continuation of the fourth. Previously every kingdom has been overthrown by it’s subsequent empire, the Babylonians were conquered by the Medo-Persians, the Medo-Persians were conquered by the Greeks, the Greeks were conquered by the Romans but the Roman Empire was never conquered.
Instead Rome fractured and divided into various nations. Some retained great strength and others not.
Many people like to speculate about exactly how this representation of the feet and clay will exist. But since at least some of this pertains to circumstances that have not yet happened we will ere on the side of caution. All too often even very knowledgeable bible scholars make assertions of this passage only to find that world political circumstances change and their understanding proved to be wrong. So will focus on what we can clearly see rather than speculate on what we can’t.
So what we can clearly see is that there will be in the last days, a coming together of nations that were formerly part of the Roman Empire, since we see that this continues from the Romans and that there is iron throughout.
It is interesting how we see an attempt in this day and age to recreate the strength and unity of the Roman Empire through the European Union. Now I am not here to argue for ‘Remain’ or ‘Leave’ but I personally choose not to get drawn into the whole debate since the scripture shows that there will always be division among the countries of the former Roman Empire until the Lord’s return.
The iron mixed with clay means that there will be some strength present in the fabric of the material because it is mixed with clay which is weak it will not hold its strength.
It would seem that this empire will have more the appearance of strength than the reality of it.
The ten toes of the statue are also very symbolic except we are not sure exactly how this will be. In Daniel chapter 7 we see these same empires and events being portrayed from a different angle as Daniel sees the vision of four beasts. And in this, rather than 10 toes he sees 10 horns and we are told that these 10 are 10 rulers that will arise. People have speculated that this will be a confederation of 10 nations which may be the case but we need to exercise great care because does not say 10 nations but 10 rulers and that the Anti-Christ will arise from among them.
Now I understand that the reason scholars interpret this as being 10 nations since there are 10 rulers and we would assume that each represents a nation but we must not be quick to jump to conclusions, this may be the case but equally there can be other ways to fulfill this.
Either way we as Christians watch world events with great interest and we keep a watch for this alliance of either 10 nations or 10 rulers that will come to symbolize the 10 toes on this statue.
And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
The rock which comes down from heaven is Jesus Himself, he is referred to many times in scripture as a stone or rock but the occasion that we often think of the most is in “the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone”.
Mountains are in the scripture symbolic of ‘Kingdom’ and so we told that in the days of the rulers of the European Confederation that Jesus will return and shall put an end to the current rule and also wipe out all remembrance of the previous empires.
As much as all these empires had great strength and appeared impressive they nevertheless hold no strength against the Lord. And as impressive as they may appear in the eyes of men, there was nothing in them that the Lord chooses to retain.
Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
Verse 35 tells us how just as the summer wind blows away the chaff so that nothing remains, so also will the Lord obliterate every scheme of man. Besides the people themselves there is literally nothing in these empires that the Lord wishes to preserve, every piece is rotten.
But the Kingdom that the Lord establishes upon His return will never be overthrown, will never fracture and will remain for all time.
Everything that is done for this world system is vanity and temporary but Lord says “do not store up treasures on earth but treasures in heaven” () because what is stored up in heaven remains with us the Lord’s everlasting Kingdom, what is stored up here will vanish.
In this day an age there is a huge amount of uncertainty and instability. I know people who are looking to stockpile goods, such is their worry about future instability. Only a few years ago we saw the price of gold sky-rocketing as people retrieved their money out of banks and investment funds in order to put their wealth into something that is physical and tangible such is their worry about future markets.
But as we read Daniels 2 we read in verse 45
Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
While there may be uncertainty in everything else, Daniel assures that “this dream is certain and it’s interpretation sure”.
There are not many “sure things” around in this day and age. But the return of the Lord and the establishing of His Kingdom is a sure thing.
Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians how in the last days there will be an illusion of security, but it is at precisely this time that we ought to be the most alert.
For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
1 Thes
Why do we preach this if it is a sure thing and can’t be changed?
Does it make any difference if we talk about it or not?
Well Paul instructs us to comfort one another with the knowledge of the Lord’s return, and so this evening we enjoy a comforting as we ponder the wonderful news.