Daniel 2.19-Daniel Praises God For Revealing To Him The Mystery In A Night Vision
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday March 1, 2012
Daniel: Daniel 2:19-Daniel Praises God For Revealing To Him The Mystery In A Night Vision
Lesson # 43
Please turn in your Bibles to Daniel 2:1.
This evening we will study Daniel 2:19.
Daniel 2:1 Now in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. 2 Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. 3 The king said to them, “I had a dream and my spirit is anxious to understand the dream.” 4 Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic: “O king, live forever! Tell the dream to your servants, and we will declare the interpretation.” 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. 11 Moreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh.” 12 Because of this the king became indignant and very furious and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. 13 So the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they looked for Daniel and his friends to kill them. 14 Then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Arioch, the captain of the king’s bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. 15 he said to Arioch, the king’s commander, “For what reason is the decree from the king so urgent?” Then Arioch informed Daniel about the matter. 16 So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king. 17 Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, about the matter. 18 so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. (NASB95)
“Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision” is composed of the temporal adverb ʾěḏǎ∙yin (אֱדַיִן) (ed-ah´-yin), “then” which is followed by the preposition lĕ (לְ) (lamed), “to” whose object is the masculine singular proper noun dā∙niy∙yē(ʾ)l (דָּנִיֵּאל) (daw-nee-yale), “Daniel” and then we have the preposition b- (בְּ־) (beth), “in” whose object is the masculine singular noun ḥězû (חֱזוּ) (khay´-zev), “vision,” which is modified by the relative particle dî (דִּי) (dee), which is not translated and is followed by the masculine singular noun lê∙lê (לֵילֵי) (lay-leh), “night” and then we have the masculine singular noun rāz (רָז) (rawz), “mystery” which is followed by the third person masculine singular peʿil (Hebrew: qal passive) passive participle form of the verb gelā(h) (גְּלָה) (ghel-aw´), “was revealed.”
The temporal adverb ʾěḏǎ∙yin is a temporal coordinator and means “then” since it shows consecutive events in the narrative.
Here it introduces a statement that tells the reader the next event that took place after Daniel and his friends went to the Father in prayer requesting that He would reveal the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as well as its interpretation.
The purpose of this request was to prevent the king from executing Daniel and his friends along with rest of the city of Babylon’s wise men.
The word introduces a statement that tells the reader that God revealed this mystery to Daniel in a night vision.
The noun rāz means “mystery” and refers to the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s recurring dream, which he would not reveal to his occult priests, necromancers, witches and astrologers, who help to compose his wise men.
It also refers to the interpretation of this dream since the king demanded this as well from his wise men.
The content of the dream was a mystery because the king would not reveal it to his wise men.
The interpretation was a mystery because the meaning of the dream could only be known if God revealed it.
The verb gelā(h) means “to reveal” and is used with the noun rāz, “the mystery” as its subject and God as the unexpressed but clearly implied agency with Daniel as its indirect object.
This indicates that in answering the prayer of Daniel and his friends, the Father “revealed” the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s revelatory dream as well as its interpretation.
This recurring dream was a revelation from God concerning God’s future program for planet earth.
It contains knowledge of what would take place in the future.
This revelation from God concerned itself with the future Gentile world powers as well as the future of the nation of Israel.
It spoke of the kingdom of God being established on earth through His Son, and which kingdom He will establish at His Second Advent.
The noun ḥězû is a cognate of the Hebrew noun ḥā∙zôn, which appeared in Daniel 1:17 where it meant “visions” indicating that God gave Daniel revelation with regards to His future plans in visions.
Here in Daniel 2:19, the Aramaic noun ḥězû means “visions” and refers Daniel receiving a supernatural revelation from God at night while he was awake.
Some expositors believe that this word in Daniel 2:19 is a synonym for a dream.
However, if God revealed the content of the king’s dream and its interpretation in a dream, Daniel would have used the noun ḥē∙lěm, “dream,’ which appears in Daniel 2:5, 6, 7 and 9.
Instead, we have the noun ḥězû, “visions,” which refers to a revelation from God.
In other words, it was an appearance of something in Daniel’s mind as a supernatural revelation to communicate a truth, not seen as a sensory perception.
Visions were often a revelation of the future plans of God, which could involve either judgment or blessing.
This term ḥězû in Daniel 2:19 speaks of revelation from God the Holy Spirit with regards to the Father’s will for an individual or a nation or the earth as a whole.
In Daniel 2:19, this word denotes that God gave Daniel revelation with regards to His future plans, which is demonstrated in chapter two and throughout the book.
The particle dî means “during” since it functions as a marker relating points of time and here the two points of time are the night and the moment Daniel received this revelation from God.
Thus, this word denotes that this mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision “during” the night.
The noun ḥězû is modified by the noun lê∙lê, which means “night,” i.e. the period of time between sunset and sunrise and here the word is telling the reader that Daniel received this vision at night.
“Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven” is composed of the temporal adverb ʾěḏǎ∙yin (אֱדַיִן) (ed-ah´-yin), “then” which is followed by the masculine singular proper noun dā∙niy∙yē(ʾ)l (דָּנִיֵּאל) (daw-nee-yale), “Daniel” and then we have the third person masculine singular paʿʿel (Hebrew: piel) active perfect form of the verb berǎḵ (בְּרַךְ) (ber-ak), “blessed” which is followed by the preposition lĕ (לְ) (lamed), which is not translated and its object is the masculine singular construct form of the noun ʾělāh (אֱלָהּ) (el-aw´), “the God of” and then we have the masculine plural noun šemǎ∙yin (שְׁמַיִן) (shaw-mah´-yin), “heaven.”
Once again, as was the case the first time it was used in Daniel 2:19, the temporal adverb ʾěḏǎ∙yin is a temporal coordinator and means “then” since it shows consecutive events in the narrative.
Here it introduces a statement that tells the reader the next event that took place after God revealed the content of the king’s dream as well as its interpretation to Daniel in a night vision.
The word introduces a statement that says that Daniel praised the God of the heavens.
The verb berǎḵ means “blessed” and is used with Daniel as its subject and God as its object.
It refers to adoring praise, honor, recognition and worshipful thanksgiving that is directed towards the Father by Daniel as a result of the Father fulfilling his prayer request that He reveal to him the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as well as its interpretation.
Therefore, this word denotes that Daniel showered God the Father with adoring praise, honor, recognition and worshipful thanksgiving because He fulfilled his prayer request.
It denotes that Daniel expressed adoring praise, honor, recognition and worshipful thanksgiving for the Father revealing the content of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream as well as its interpretation.
This revelation manifested God’s wisdom, power, sovereignty, grace and omniscience, which Daniel praises in Daniel 2:20-23.
The noun ʾělāh means “the God” and refers to the Father since the Lord Jesus Christ taught that all prayer must be addressed to the Father (Luke 11:1-2).
Even though Daniel and his friends lived centuries before Christ when the Lord taught this, the Father would have been the recipient of their prayer.
This is indicated by the fact that the Lord’s teaching was not only instruction as to which member of the Trinity they were to pray to but also it was a revelation as to which member of the Trinity receives prayer.