Daniel 2

[ Intro ]

Last week we went through Daniel, chapter 1. We will be going through all of Chapter 2 this week.

In chapter 1, we learned about how King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had started to take over the Kingdom of Judah and destroy Jerusalem. A group of strong and intelligent Jewish men were taken as exiles. The only ones listed out were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They completed the Babylonian training with flying colors while following God’s laws and not defiling themselves when they were commanded to go against the law of God. Such as the food they refused to eat.

Now in chapter 2 we learn about an important dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had.

[ Prayer ]

[ Body ]

Daniel 2:1–3 NLT

1 One night during the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had such disturbing dreams that he couldn’t sleep. 2 He called in his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers, and he demanded that they tell him what he had dreamed. As they stood before the king, 3 he said, “I have had a dream that deeply troubles me, and I must know what it means.”

Alright let’s clear up some stuff in these first few verses.

King Nebuchadnezzar has a disturbing dream, so disturbing he can’t sleep. Now we’ve probably all had dreams that disturbed us momentarily. And maybe even couldn’t get back to sleep for a bit, but you probably didn’t wake up everyone you know and freak out about the situation. You might be thinking why did the King call in all these men to interpret his dream. He’s overreacting. There’s a reason for it. As we get into what the dream actually was, you’ll realize yes it was pretty intense, but also it’s important to know that it would have been normal for the king to assume that his dream was a message from the pagan gods he worshipped. And as King, especially during this time of Babylon, the king would be exalted like a god himself or a child of the gods. So he wanted to know, what does this dream mean.

The magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers that he called in would be referred to as his “wise men”. Which is also what Daniel and his friends were. They went through the three years of training to become one of these wise men. They would have had these same titles, not that I believe they actually practiced magic, sorcery, enchantment, or astrology, after all that would go against God’s law. And these men wouldn’t even go against God’s commandments about what food they could eat. But these were the titles given to the king’s wise men.

One other thing, it says here that this was in the King’s second year of his reign. And the training for the new wise men who were exiles from kingdom of Judah was three years long. So you might be thinking Daniel and his friends could not have been a part of the wise men by now. We don’t actually know. It doesn’t matter really, but just to clear up some thoughts on this.

When a new King takes over in the middle of a year, it’s known as his accession year. Then the next year would mark the start of his first year.

So we could have at this moment, his accession year, year 1, then now in year 2 of his reign. Which would really be 3 years.

Also something that will be clear later on in this chapter is Daniel and his friends were not a part of this initial group of wise men that were called to the king. Was that because they hadn’t finished training or because the king didn’t call in all of his men. We’re not sure, but that’s okay, just an interesting note.

Alright so the king wants to know what his dream meant, let’s continue on.

Daniel 2:4–12 NLT

4 Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, “Long live the king! Tell us the dream, and we will tell you what it means.” 5 But the king said to the astrologers, “I am serious about this. If you don’t tell me what my dream was and what it means, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be turned into heaps of rubble! 6 But if you tell me what I dreamed and what the dream means, I will give you many wonderful gifts and honors. Just tell me the dream and what it means!” 7 They said again, “Please, Your Majesty. Tell us the dream, and we will tell you what it means.” 8 The king replied, “I know what you are doing! You’re stalling for time because you know I am serious when I say, 9 ‘If you don’t tell me the dream, you are doomed.’ So you have conspired to tell me lies, hoping I will change my mind. But tell me the dream, and then I’ll know that you can tell me what it means.” 10 The astrologers replied to the king, “No one on earth can tell the king his dream! And no king, however great and powerful, has ever asked such a thing of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer! 11 The king’s demand is impossible. No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they do not live here among people.” 12 The king was furious when he heard this, and he ordered that all the wise men of Babylon be executed.

Understandably, the wise men say, sure we can tell you what your dream means no problem, just tell us what your dream was first. As we read multiple times, the king did not like that answer. He wanted them to tell him what dream he had, and then explain what it meant. Of course they replied that’s impossible. We might think that King Nebuchadnezzar was being absolutely crazy here. But you gotta think about context, these wise men were the ones who claimed they had supernatural powers and could communicate with the spiritual world and the pagan gods they believed in. And as we all know, there’s not really anyway to confirm that an interpretation of a dream is correct. Anyone can come up with a story based on a dream, no one can say you’re wrong. So the King was actually being pretty smart here, figuring if a dream is from the gods and his wisemen could communicate with them and had powers, they should have no reason not to be able to do that. And if they could tell him what his dream was, he knew that would mean they truly did have supernatural abilities and could accurately provide him an interpretation of his dream.

And since they couldn’t do this, he ordered all of them to be executed. Now this is really brutal, and you’d think why would he do that since all these people had to go through training and studying. What a waste of resources. But to him, if they couldn’t perform this task, they were frauds at what they claimed to be able to do, so they were worthless.

Being torn a part limb from limb or cut to pieces is pretty brutal, but this happened quite a bit in the ancient times when dealing with enemies. And for King Nebuchadnezzar there’s no second guessing when it came to brutally punishing people. In 2 Kings you read of him having King Zedekiah’s sons killed in front of him and then having his eyes gauged out before being taken to Babylon. The last thing he saw was his son’s being killed.

Another time there were Jewish rebels burned alive.

And in another chapter we’ll read about Shadrach Meshach and Abednego being tossed into the fiery furnace.

King Nebuchadnezzar was not a bluffer when it came to punishment.

Let’s continue on:

Daniel 2:14–23 NLT

14 When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, came to kill them, Daniel handled the situation with wisdom and discretion. 15 He asked Arioch, “Why has the king issued such a harsh decree?” So Arioch told him all that had happened. 16 Daniel went at once to see the king and requested more time to tell the king what the dream meant. 17 Then Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what had happened. 18 He urged them to ask the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret, so they would not be executed along with the other wise men of Babylon. 19 That night the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven. 20 He said, “Praise the name of God forever and ever, for he has all wisdom and power. 21 He controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars. 22 He reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he is surrounded by light. 23 I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors, for you have given me wisdom and strength. You have told me what we asked of you and revealed to us what the king demanded.”

Verse 14 we find out that Daniel and his friends were not a part of that initial group who were called by the king, because they had no idea what was going on. Can you imagine, “Hey Arioch what’s going on?” “Hey I’ve come to kill you and all the wise men by order of the king.”

And somehow, Daniel is able to compose himself, think clearly, and respond with wisdom and discretion. He gets information about what’s going on and even goes before the king. Which that would be risky in itself. Especially when the king is already upset with your group of people and are supposed to be dead by now. Although he would die if he didn’t go before the king, he could have been signing himself up for a lot of torture if the king wasn’t happen with his actions.

But he’s acting out of faith, knowing God can provide an answer for the King’s problem, which is learning what his dream means. Fortunately the King gives them a chance.

So what do they do, they ask God for the interpretation. It’s easy to just assume well God knows what’s going on with every situation, I’ll trust in Him whatever happens, there’s no point in praying about it. Through scripture we’ve been told time and time again to pray. And that is exactly what Daniel and his friends do. They all pray.

Now we see God answers and Daniel praises God. Which is actually interesting, because he doesn’t wait to give God praise - like I’ll bring this to the King and see how he responds first, or maybe I should give it another night, just in case. He knows God has answered his request perfectly.

Daniel 2:24–28 NLT

24 Then Daniel went in to see Arioch, whom the king had ordered to execute the wise men of Babylon. Daniel said to him, “Don’t kill the wise men. Take me to the king, and I will tell him the meaning of his dream.” 25 Arioch quickly took Daniel to the king and said, “I have found one of the captives from Judah who will tell the king the meaning of his dream!” 26 The king said to Daniel (also known as Belteshazzar), “Is this true? Can you tell me what my dream was and what it means?” 27 Daniel replied, “There are no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or fortune-tellers who can reveal the king’s secret. 28 But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the future. Now I will tell you your dream and the visions you saw as you lay on your bed.

So Daniel goes to the King and how he starts is pretty remarkable. Reading this I thought to myself, “in this time of urgency, would I have taken the time to first glorify God”, and he starts off with exactly what the others said, “Nobody can reveal the King’s secret”. the King could have just said I’ve heard enough take him out. And the Babylonians didn’t serve the one true God. So there would have been lots of temptation to just avoid that and get right to the point of the dream. But Daniel’s faith did not waiver, he first acknowledges God and glorifies Him. He even continues on to clarify that even though God told him the dream, it’s not because he is special. It would be easy to leave that part out, he already gave God glory. He is making it very clear that is all God and none of him. And he hasn’t even said what the dream is yet.

Daniel 2:31–44 NLT

31 “In your vision, Your Majesty, you saw standing before you a huge, shining statue of a man. It was a frightening sight. 32 The head of the statue was made of fine gold. Its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, 33 its legs were iron, and its feet were a combination of iron and baked clay. 34 As you watched, a rock was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. It struck the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits. 35 The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. Then the wind blew them away without a trace, like chaff on a threshing floor. But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth. 36 “That was the dream. Now we will tell the king what it means. 37 Your Majesty, you are the greatest of kings. The God of heaven has given you sovereignty, power, strength, and honor. 38 He has made you the ruler over all the inhabited world and has put even the wild animals and birds under your control. You are the head of gold. 39 “But after your kingdom comes to an end, another kingdom, inferior to yours, will rise to take your place. After that kingdom has fallen, yet a third kingdom, represented by bronze, will rise to rule the world. 40 Following that kingdom, there will be a fourth one, as strong as iron. That kingdom will smash and crush all previous empires, just as iron smashes and crushes everything it strikes. 41 The feet and toes you saw were a combination of iron and baked clay, showing that this kingdom will be divided. Like iron mixed with clay, it will have some of the strength of iron. 42 But while some parts of it will be as strong as iron, other parts will be as weak as clay. 43 This mixture of iron and clay also shows that these kingdoms will try to strengthen themselves by forming alliances with each other through intermarriage. But they will not hold together, just as iron and clay do not mix. 44 “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.

These Kingdoms weren’t necessarily who controlled one specific location, we’d think of them now more like empires. Which empire dominated the world.

- So we know the kingdom of Babylon is the Gold Head, that’s what Daniel tells the King.

Now this is one of those sections of scripture where although there are different interpretations on what kingdoms are represented in the king’s dream, most scholars agree on one view. And that is:

- The second kingdom, represented as the silver body, is Media-Persia, led by Cyrus the Great.

- The third kingdom, represented as the bronze belly/thighs, is Greece, led by Alexander the Great.

- The fourth kingdom, represented by the iron legs, is Rome.

We’ll talk about the feet in a second. What’s interesting is as we go down the body figure, the value of the material decreases, but the strength of it increases. Until we get to the feat.

A couple thoughts on the decrease in value is either

Sin and corruption increasing in the world

The exaltation of the king diminishing. Now obviously the king of any kingdom is going to be exalted, but during the reign of Babylon the king would have been viewed as a god and everyone else under him as a normal mortal while he ruled. As we go to each of the next kingdoms in line, the authority and decision making is more spread out with more and more advisors.

One thing we do know, is that the decrease in value does not equate to a smaller or weaker kingdom. The reign of the next kingdoms in line typically grew bigger than the previous kingdom and was in power for a longer period of time.

The duration of each kingdom being in power was approximately

Babylon 66 years

Media-Persia 208 years

Greece 185 years

Rome 500 years

But what about the last part of the figure? The feet. A mix of iron and clay. And for the feet we can assume there are ten toes. Now we can assume 10 is a significant number here. For a couple reasons:

Later on in chapter 7 Daniel has a vision, and it’s the same message as the King’s dream but Daniel sees creatures that symbolize the kingdoms.

The last beast, has iron teeth that it crushes it’s victims with and has 10 horns. In the Bible horns are often used to symbolize power. So 10 horns would mean 10 kingdoms.

Another point is the final stage where the rock that is not man made destroys the figure, I believe this is the second coming of Christ. He will come and rule over the entire earth.

Now the reason I use this as another point to the 10 kingdoms that will rise together in the last days is in Revelation you can read about a beast that rises up before the return of Christ and it has 10 horns.

Revelation 13:1 NLT

1 Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God.

Revelation 17:12 NLT

12 The ten horns of the beast are ten kings who have not yet risen to power. They will be appointed to their kingdoms for one brief moment to reign with the beast.

So this dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had about 2,625 years ago was very significant even for us now. We can see how much of this revelation from God has been fulfilled by looking back at history, but we’re waiting for the rest of it to happen. Who are the 10 nations that will rise up, we don’t know yet. But we know there will be a collection of nations to rise together and then we’ll see the anti-christ. But in the end it’ll all be destroyed and only those whose faith is in Christ will remain.

Now there are other views on eschatology that would change the view of this dream. Some believe that the rock that destroys the figure began when Christ first appeared on earth. That belief is based on the eschatology that Christians will take control of all the positions of power in the world and then the second coming of Christ will occur.

Very interesting topic but we won’t dive further on that today.

Daniel 2:46–49 NLT

46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar threw himself down before Daniel and worshiped him, and he commanded his people to offer sacrifices and burn sweet incense before him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret.” 48 Then the king appointed Daniel to a high position and gave him many valuable gifts. He made Daniel ruler over the whole province of Babylon, as well as chief over all his wise men. 49 At Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon, while Daniel remained in the king’s court.

What an ending to that situation. They went from being moments away from being killed to getting a big promotion. And because Daniel glorified God before telling the king what he wanted to hear, the king also immediately gave God praise. Through this situation that looked so bad at one point, suddenly God is receiving praise from a king of a pagan nation and God’s people are promoted to positions of power in a pagan land. While staying true to their beliefs in God and having faith He would provide them whatever they needed.