Daniel Chapter 2 is very interesting
Chapter 2 is very interesting! A lot of people think Old Testament is old school but it isn’t! in chapter 2 you will begin to see the gifts of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of some great people.
Verse 1 Daniel wasn’t yet through his 3 year term preparing for the work he was expected to do for the king.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in the 2nd year of his reign some would say it was a nightmare others would say is was a terrible thing he didn’t know the answer to so he called in the experts of the day and told (commanded them) to explain the dream.
“Easy to do” is what the magicians of the time thought just make up something and put some pizzazz on it and make it believable but they had one big problem Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t a fool!
These wise men were not truly from the court of Nebuchadnezzar rather from his father Naboplasser who had died just over 2 years ago. Nebuchadnezzar needed to test the men to see if they were believable or not.
Verse 5 the king said the dream is gone from me
2:5-6. Though the king may have made such a demand on the wise men previously and been satisfied with their answers, he evidently had never asked them to interpret a dream that he discerned had such significance. So he decided to test them. If they could predict the future by interpreting dreams, they should be able to reconstruct the past and recall the king’s dream. So he refused to share his dream with them. This does not mean he had forgotten it. Had he done so, the wise men, to save themselves from death, could easily have fabricated a dream and then interpreted it. The king reasoned that if they could not recall the past, their predictions concerning the future could not be trusted.[1]
Daniel 2:5–10 (NAS)
5 The king replied to the Chaldeans, “The command from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb and your houses will be made a rubbish heap.
6 “But if you declare the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me gifts and a reward and great honor; therefore declare to me the dream and its interpretation.”
7 They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will declare the interpretation.”
8 The king replied, “I know for certain that you are bargaining for time, inasmuch as you have seen that the command from me is firm,
9 that if you do not make the dream known to me, there is only one decree for you. For you have agreed together to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the situation is changed; therefore tell me the dream, that I may know that you can declare to me its interpretation.”
10 The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who could declare the matter for the king, inasmuch as no great king or ruler has ever asked anything like this of any magician, conjurer or Chaldean.
Verse 12 -16 Leap of faith. There are a lot of people you will meet who will tell you they are gifted of the spirit, some who will put on an act, some who just draw attention to themselves. One way you can tell someone truly gifted of God is that they won’t draw any attention to themselves but people will see them and notice them because they bring all the glory to God!
Verse 16 the others asked to hear the dream Daniel asked to have time to pray and ask God that he might reveal the dream! (Daniel didn’t know it yet!)
Verse 17- 19 Daniel asked for help in prayer he and the three Hebrew children prayed and after prayer God revealed it to him!
Verse 20 – 23 Daniel prays a prayer of thanksgiving to God for what he had been told!
Verse 24 – 25 Nebuchadnezzar wanted to know can you reveal it?
Verse 27 – Daniel said that what the wise men of Babylon could not do (v. 27) by consorting with their false deities, Daniel was able to do because there is a God in heaven[2]
Verse 28 – Daniel took no credit for himself!
Verse 30 – Daniel revealed the dream
Verse 31 – 35 The dream
Head – Gold – Babylon
Breast and Arms – Silver – Medo-Persian Kingdom
Belly and Thighs – Brass – Grecian or Macedonian Kingdoms
Legs – Iron – Rome
Feet and Toes – Part of Iron Part of Clay – Kingdoms after Rome
Note when Rome fell it broke up into 10 kingdoms that of the Turks, Slavs, Spanish,
Russians, French, Dutch, Italians, Norwegians, English, Germans
Verse 36 – 45 The meaning
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Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (Da 2:5–6). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (Da 2:26–28). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.