Daniel 2 - A dream humbles the king
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Last week we started a series of messages from Daniel. There are several great stories that many children’s church lessons incorporate. They are stories of great faith and faithfulness. These stories don’t mean much without knowing who Daniel was and who he put his faith in. This faith in God was not something Daniel took lightly. I want to read the beginning of verse 8 from last week:
8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
Daniel made up his mind before he came to the temptation. This verse kept rolling around in my mind this past week. I must resolve not to defile myself.
We also learned 4 things from this passage:
God is sovereign
God is sovereign
This means that God is in control of all things. Daniel understood this as he talked about how God provided, delivered, gave, equipped and so on. We’ll hear move of this from chapter 2 today
Daniel’s faithfulness made way for God’s favor
Daniel’s faithfulness made way for God’s favor
If we want God’s favor, we should start with faithfulness. All throughout scripture, we see God’s blessing pout out on those who are faithful. Being faithful does not always result in “worldly” blessing, but it does result in eternal blessing
God alone equips and promotes
God alone equips and promotes
We’ll see this again today in our passage. No one has power except as God has allowed or promoted.
God honors continued faithfulness
God honors continued faithfulness
As we continue our study in Daniel, we’ll see this played out time after time. What seams like a wrong turns into great honor bestowed by God.
This week we are going to go through chapter 2 of Daniel. Since this is a fairly long chapter, I am going to summarize parts of it in order to make best use of our time. I would recommend that as you study and reflect on this passage, that you read those parts that I’ve summarized. We are going to start reading in verse 12, but first let me summarize the first 11 verses.
Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that he is troubled about. So he summons all the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers and wants them to tell him 1. what was my dream and 2. what is the interpretation.
Quickly, all these fakes try to get the king to tell them the dream, but he refuses. He insists that in order to be certain that they can tell the future, surely they should be able to see the past. They make another request of the king to tell them and then...
12 This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. 13 So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.
So the king wants them all dead. All of the wise men are to be put to death and Daniel and his friends fell into this category. Daniel knew nothing about the kings request, so he asks about what is going on. Daniel approaches the king to ask for more time because he wasn’t part of the group that initially came in and failed. His request was granted and then Daniel does this:
17 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 18 He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
Daniel urges his friends to pray. “Plead for mercy”. Daniel reflexively goes to God with this impossible ask. He and his friends asks for mercy. Watch what happens:
19 During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven
What follows is a great example on how to praise God.
20 and said:
“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.
21 He changes times and seasons;
he deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.
22 He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.
23 I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors:
You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
you have made known to us the dream of the king.”
Let’s highlight a few key words from this passage:
20 - Wisdom and power are his
21 - He Changes times and seasons, He deposes and raises up kings
22 - He reveals and He knows
23 - You have given…; You have made known…; You have made known...
God’s sovereignty at work again. Daniel recognizes this. God is in control of ALL things! When God shows up, praise Him in that way.
In verses 24-26, we see how Daniel approaches the king to be able to interpret the dream for him. Let’s continue in verse 27:
27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these:
Daniel doesn’t just praise God in private, he praises God to the king. No person, BUT there is a God.
29 “As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. 30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.
And again, Daniel wants the king to know that it is not because of Daniel’s greater wisdom. It is so the king would see God at work. I know that doesn’t say that here, but this is really a foreshadow to what happens in a bit. We’ll come back to this in a moment.
31 “Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
So here is a picture of that statue -
Head of Gold
Chest and arms of silver
Belly and thighs of bronze
legs of iron
feet of iron and baked clay
We’ll come back to this picture in a moment. First let’s hear about the dream:
36 “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
There is a slight change in verse 41 and 42. Daniel references the feet and toes…that is important, but let’s put the picture back up and describe each of the sections of the statue again.
Head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar - his kingdom was vast and united.
Chest and arms of silver are a kingdom that came after him that was not as vast - This is believed to be the Medes and the Persians. It is believed to be 2 groups since there are 2 arms and those two groups together defeated Babylon.
The belly and thighs of bronze were believed to be the Greeks under Alexander the great. His empire stretched over most of the known world at the time.
The legs of iron are believed to represent the Roman Empire. They has great strength and imposed their will over a large area. They literally crushed every other empire on their way to greatness
As the statue transitions into feet, there is a gradual change from solid iron to a mixture of iron and clay. This is thought to represent the progressive weakening and deterioration of the Roman empire. The 10 toes are thought to represent the 10 empires or kingdoms that will exist in the last days before this next part starting in verse 36
44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
At the time of those kings (or more literally the highest ruler in an area), God will set up his kingdom and will crush the others. This will happen by a rock cut out of a mountain by God.
Jesus is that rock and when he comes again, in an instant, all the worldly kingdoms will be crushed and a new eternal kingdom will be established. We can look back over history and reason on which kingdoms are which on the statue, but we don’t have a clear picture of what the bottom of the statue represents.
Later in Daniel 7, Daniel mentions 10 horns that represent 10 kings. This likely the representation of the 10 toes who are characterized by the clay/iron mixture as deteriorating and weak. We’ll get into the details of those later in our study of Daniel. We may even get a better idea of what the end will really look like. I don’t want to get too caught up in the weeds and miss what is happening here:
The king has a dream and disturbed by it. No one can tell him the dream and he threatens to kill all of the wise men. Daniel, the man of God, prays and asks God to intervene and He does. Daniel ends his talk with the king by saying that the interpretation is trustworthy because God gave it. He come full circle on this point. No man, but God…oh by the way Nebuchadnezzar, this is trustworthy because of God. Watch what happens next:
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”
God is lifted up in the courts of the king. The most powerful man on earth at the time bows down to Daniel, and by extension God and praises God for what He has done. God has literally brought the powerful man to his knees through revelation. God does that. He is sovereign. He could do it again, but ultimately, God is sovereign and whatever is done, is done because he has allowed it.
I know that is a difficult concept to grasp. We look around us and wonder why God would allow certain things either in our own lives or in the world around us. It is not for us to question. Here is Daniel taken from his home as a young boy and is put into service by a pagan king. I certainly would have wondered why, but Daniel just continued to serve. As a result of his service, a king who conquered Jerusalem and the entire nation of Israel is now bowing down to Daniel. That’s just amazing to me.
No matter your circumstance, no matter how dire things look, stay faithful to God. Resolve not to defile yourself. When things look impossible, ask God for mercy and to reveal His truths and mysteries to you. Then watch what God does. Let’s finish things up...
48 Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. 49 Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.
Taking captive, but faithful to God. Pushed into service, but faithful to God. Asked to defile himself, but faithful to God. Faced the impossible of knowing the kings dream, but faithful to God. Does the impossible, but doesn’t take credit - he is faithful to God.
Daniel witnesses the King acknowledge the one true God and then gets promoted with his friends. This is just the beginning of what God does through the life of Daniel. It all started with faithfulness. Daniel is just walking one foot in front of the other serving God and God blesses him. It’s not without struggle though. Here is one of several times where the life of Daniel and his friends is threatened. He was going to be executed and God had mercy.
Whatever you are facing - be faithful. God’s going to bless your faithfulness.
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