Daniel 2

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Social Media is not reality.
Rarely do we get to see the real life behind the scene.
This is even more true of the powerful, the famous and the rich.
Daniel had unique and rare access to the most powerful man in the world.
The kings social media would not have told the real story of his inner battles and inner demons he fought
We get to see not the great king but the real man who was haunted by his dreams, trying to make his dad proud of him, trying to live up to unreal expectations, empty in his longings, and crushed out of his pride.
Daniel 2 is packed.

A Restless King 2:1- 13- READ 1-3

Daniel 2:1–3 CSB
In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that troubled him, and sleep deserted him. So the king gave orders to summon the magicians, mediums, sorcerers, and Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. When they came and stood before the king, he said to them, “I have had a dream and am anxious to understand it.”
Like a good story teller our author is developing the main characters.
Nebuchadnezzar’s instagram page may have shown him taking selfies in the hanging gardens of Babylon
but just like today nobody truly has it all together.
To see why these dreams are so disturbing to him we need to know the man and the culture of Babylon
He was a religious man from a deeply religious culture.
He was religious to false gods but he was none the less a deeply devoted follower
We have an inscription from the day of his enthronement when he succeeded his dad.
It is in the British Library today.
It is a prayer to Marduk a Babylonian god and it shows deep belief and commitment.
What is more is that dreams were believed then to be THE main way his gods communicated with people.
See why this was such a panic for him.
So picture this KIng.
He has a dream he cannot remember fully, about his kingdom maybe his life ?
Maybe telling him people he can’t trust who are close to him
You can see and empathize with his panic now right?
To him it was a matter of life or death and the author wants us to see the irony of it all.
Neb is named after a god of wisdom. Nebu
David Helm says “The man named after a god of wisdom is left in the darkness of ignorance”
He is 30 years old King of the known world, but crushed by an emptiness, restlessness, pressure to live up to his dad’s dream for him.
And as the great theologian Johnny Lee says the king was “looking for love in all the wrong
He does the only thing he knows and calls in all the kings horses and all the kings men to try and put him together again.
This list of the the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans would have been all the different departments of medicine and government and assistants
What they would have done is come in with massive collections of all the dreams ever.
And the king would say he saw a cow.
They would say steve thats your department
Steve would turn to the cow section.
Ok what color was it?
Ummm pink he’d say.
Ok pink cow dreams and so on…
but he is restless and in fear not knowing what this dream means or who he can even trust
Why does this matter?
Great question.

1. We are more like the King than we want to admit

You see he is restless, tries everything in the world to to find peace, and joy and he doesn’t even truly know what is wrong.
Ever felt like that?
Where are you turning with your ache or anxiety and angst
This is a challenge to all of us

2. Always look for the mission

Like Daniel you have opportunity with those around you
Never assume that those around us don’t need the hope of the gospel because you ASSUME they have it all together and don’t need it.
You’re sitting next to people right now
You might see that these people are always with friends, doing something fun, going out to eat, traveling, and you’re at home feeling bitterness and jealousy well up.
Take a step back- don’t assume what you don’t know. Engage your world. Step in to spaces with people you’re not necessarily drawn to.
Verses 10-11 set the stage for the rest of the chapter.
The author has set it up so enter Daniel and Gods entrance onto the stage.

The Wisdom of Daniel 2:14-23 Read 14-18

Daniel 2:14–18 CSB
Then Daniel responded with tact and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to execute the wise men of Babylon. He asked Arioch, the king’s officer, “Why is the decree from the king so harsh?” Then Arioch explained the situation to Daniel. So Daniel went and asked the king to give him some time, so that he could give the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter, urging them to ask the God of the heavens for mercy concerning this mystery, so Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of Babylon’s wise men.
Again David Helm Comments on this development of the story:
“The irony is intended. The King, who appears to have the world by the tail, is the troubled one..and all the while it will be a slave about 12 years younger then him who will come off as poised, prayerful, and fully capable”.
But things start off pretty rough for our boys in Babylon as they enter the scene
The paranoid king is out to kill them all because he doesn’t know who to trust anymore
I love the simplicity of the Bible even in stories like this because Daniel simply wanted to live.
There is no deep theological start to Daniels entrance or words;
the guy and his Friends didn’t want to die.
Seems reasonable to me.
Remember back to chapter one and the description of our exiled teenager.
“He is skillful in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable”
God had been preparing Him his whole life for this exact moment
Same for us
God equips you and me for a specific season with specific people
And then he shows us how to start in our mission wherever we find ourselves today
He wants us to see a central call to God’s people and a lesson we need today we see it highlighted in verse 17
17Then Daniel went to his house and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter, 18urging them to ask the God of the heavens for mercy
God has created the world in such a way that he wants to move and act based off of the prayers of his people.
Daniel calls his friends to desperate prayer for the welfare of Gods people and the advancement of Gods mission in the world.
If this is how god longs to act how are we doing with it?
When is the last time you prayed really hard for something hat only God could move in?
He wants the glory. He wants to show himself to the world.
God moves because He Alone is God. We see this next…

There is a God in Heaven 2:24-30- READ 27-28

27Daniel answered the king, “No wise man, medium, magician, or divine is able to make known to the king the mystery he asked about. 28But there is a God in heaven…
Remember the cry of all the kings horses and all the kings men?
Verse 11 they tell the King - What the king is asking is so difficult that no one can make it known to him except the gods”
They are partially right.
They are right that help can only come from outside of us.
They are wrong about who the only real God is
They are wrong about how God operates and what he is doing
They are wrong about the kingdom God is moving all of human history to bring into the world to save us
The contrast is set.
The worlds wisdom verses the God of heaven and Daniel who he has made wise.
There is a God in Heaven and we see that He will stop at nothing to bring rulers to their knees when He wants too and display His power whenever He wants too so that He is rightly worshiped by the nations and trusted by His people.
There is NO God like our God.
Daniel says there is a God in Heaven and he is telling the story of who we are, why things are broken, and how things can be made right…and that this real God is the one behind everything
We see in this passage what God is moving History to.
when we see this phrase in the last days in verse 28 we should take notice because what comes next is what the whole book is about.
You may be saying what does this matter to me….
EVERYTHING
This was the future ...to them….they were waiting to see this promised savior come to fix and redeem it all.
If You read this as still future for you and you miss the hope this is for you.
This is about the first coming of Jesus in a manger to set the exile free.
We are in those “last days” this is so hopeful for us!!!
That is why Peter says what he says in Acts 2:17
Acts 2:17 CSB
And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all people; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.
Peter says that last days thing the whole Old Testament talked about has began with Jesus
Peter is saying the day the church was born was the kingdom invading earth
It is in pockets called churches that should be Kingdom outposts showing a restless and anxious world where we can be whole.
We see glimpses but long for it to be all we know
It has already come …but we are waiting for it to cover the earth
Theologians call it The Already Not Yet..that is the time we are living in
The mission is not over until we are called home

The Gospel and a Stone 2:31-45

34As you were watching, a stone broke off without a hand touching it struck the statue on its feet of iron and fired clay, and crushed them. 35Then the iron, the fired clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered and became like chaff But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth……
This doesn’t sound like anything that has to do with us but its everything
It is the world we are in and the world we as the church are working too
Especially this strange language of a little stone that fills the earth?
So we have to know what this all means and then the hope we should see

First Daniel tells the King the content of his dream

A towering powerful statue stands before the king.
It is made of 4 metal parts from top to bottom
From the most precious metal to the least.
Daniel says the image means all the super powers that were then…and all that will come to that part of the world when Bablyon falls and one conquers another
Then another image appears OUT OF NO WHERE and destroys all the metals and leaves them as dust.
It is a small stone that slowly covers the earth
something different is coming and it will be unlike any other kingdom..
It won’t conquer like earthly kingdoms
and be about a mission they can’t stop

That’s the content but what on earth does it mean?

I am glad you asked because to understand this passage is to understand the Bible.
This stone image has been a theme until now in the Old Testament.
Before Daniel, the stone had been used to speak of one who would arise from the tribe of Jacob to save God’s people.
Israel had been promised that the blessings of the everlasting hills would come “through Jacob the Stone of Israel)” (Genesis 49:24).
This stone imagery went further in the Psalms; the stone would be rejected, but would become the chief cornerstone (Psalm 118:22).
Isaiah then carried it along with a prophecy that this stone would become a sanctuary for some, and a rock of offense for others—it would cause some to stumble (Isaiah 8:14–15).
Daniel was not the first to speak of a stone.
Or the last
This very passage is what Jesus saw as fulfilled in His ministry in Luke 20:18
He is tells them He is this stone daniel saw and all the old testament pointed too
then quotes Psalm 118 “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone it will crush him”
David Helm again says : “In saying this at the end of a parable predicting His own execution, Jesus is tying His own death to the stone that comes from Heaven.
This stone is a big deal.
Here is how the little stone that fills the earth connects the whole bible from start to finish
In the beginning God created right?
He created Eden as a Temple it was His dwelling place with man.
it was His kingdom there was no sadness or regret or cancer or anxiety
What does God tell Adam to do?
Be fruitful and multiply sounds like the stone daniel saw doesn’t it
Expand the kingdom to fill the earth.. through obedience to God
How did Adam do?
Very Very bad
But Gods plan doesn't change.
In the last days here comes the faithful Adam who will set up the kingdom on earth.
The faithful Adam who has come to wage war on all that stole His Kingdom and take it back
The faithful you and me and church who is about that mission when we fail to be
He is the Stone Who will expand Gods dwelling place with man until it covers the earth like it was always planned to do.
Are you following how this is the whole bibles message
This is the announcement of the coming Gospel and the power of the church
The last days began because Jesus became the stone
We are given the same mission as Adam that is completed in revelation
Adam is told to spread the kingdom until it fill the earth
This stone daniel sees spreads until it fills the earth
And how does the story end in Revelation 7:9
Revelation 7:9 CSB
After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.
And there was no more crying or death
The kingdom Daniel saw coming is the kingdom of Jesus we see and are part of
It is the power of the Gospel
that is what the stone means
And it challenges us today
Is that what you are building ?
Is that the story you see your everyday in
Or are you building your own kingdom looking like the king to all the world offers to take away the angst or anxiety or fear
The stone has come and its filling the earth
It can’t be stopped
And he is the hero we long for to win the war to take back all that is his and save us
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