Introduction
This remarkable dream, with its disclosure of God's plan for the ages till the final triumph of Christ, was granted Nebuchadnezzar in the second year of his reign (v. 1)--i.e., between April 603 and March 602 B.C.
He was convinced that it contained a message of utmost importance and was not, like most dreams, a passing fancy.
The first four chapters of Daniel are a unit. While Daniel and his three friends are prominent in these chapters, king Nebuchadnezzar is also a central character.
In chapter 1, he defeats Jehoiakim, king of Judah, a victory which God brought upon the king and his kingdom (Judah) as a judgment for their sin and rebellion.
Nebuchadnezzar took captives (including Daniel and his friends) to Babylon and made some a part of his administration. He also placed some of the vessels from the temple of God in Jerusalem in the house of his god in Babylon as a sign that his god was better than Israel’s God. He was wrong and will say so in the fourth chapter of Daniel.
Now in Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar comes to have respect not only for Daniel but also for his God:
The king answered Daniel and said, “Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery” (Daniel 2:47).
Chapter 2 describes a significant step forward for the king of Babylon and also a step forward for Daniel and his three friends.
If the wisdom of these young Hebrews is recognized in a general way in chapter 1, it is even more evident in the crisis of chapter 2.
As a result of Daniel revealing the king’s dream and its meaning, he is elevated to a high level position in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom.
The meaning of his dream, of vital importance to Nebuchadnezzar, is also of great importance to us. What did the dream mean for Nebuchadnezzar and what is its meaning for us?
How we will Interpret Daniel 2
First, page 60 &61 and as Shawn brought up, Bultema’s denial of Dreams!
Joel 2:
Firstly, when Daniel interpreted this dream to the king, he did not supply all the details.
We need to first see the interpretation of the dream from Daniel’s perspective, then we can look at it’s historical significance.
Nebuchadnezzar’s
Dream : an Overview of History
(2:1-13)
Read 2:1-13
AN AMAZING VISION
One night, as Nebuchadnezzer lay on his couch, the king wondered what would be the fate of his vast empire after he himself had passed from the scene. Such thoughts have probably occurred to all men in positions of great authority. 'On whom will my mantle fall? Will the mantle be torn in pieces by jealous rivals?' Such questions normally go unanswered, for no man can tell what the future holds, but Nebuchadnezzer was given the answer by God.
The dreams Nebuchadnezzar experienced in the night were God’s response to his thoughts as he waited for sleep to come:
“As for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts turned to what would take place in the future; and He who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will take place” (Daniel 2:29).
The king was pondering what the future held. Through his dreams, God revealed the future and its implications.
Nebukanezzar called the ‘wise men’.
They responded in Verse 4 ‘ live forever’
4-6 In their respectful reply to the king, the soothsayers used the customary salutation addressed to sovereigns: "Live forever!" (lealemin heyi, lit., "To the ages live!"). This expression did not necessarily imply an expectation that the potentate would never die; it was rather an emphatic way of expressing the same idea as "Long live the king!" This represented a wish or hope that the king would live on from one age to another, with no foreseeable termination by death. This formula was very rarely used in earlier history (apparently it was only Bathsheba who so addressed her son King Solomon [1 Kings 1:31]: Yehi hammelek... leolam["May the king live forever!"]). But by the sixth century it had become a customary greeting addressed to rulers by their subjects.
Who were these wise men?
Notice that in addition to the other classes of wise men (the magicians or diviners-- hartummim; the enchanters or conjurers-- assapim), the "sorcerers" (mekassepim) are mentioned, in addition to the "Chaldeans" (kasdim, NIV, "astrologers"). Mekassepim comes from the Piel of kasap and means "to practice sorcery" (or witchcraft). Like assap, it is a loan word from Akkadian: in this case kispu ("sorcery"), which renders a Sumerian logogram composed of a sign for dead or death inside a mouth, strongly suggesting necromancy as the original idea.
As for kasdim, it has already been discussed in the Introduction. It seems to have been derived from an original kaldu in Akkadian, which was by false analogy with the ethnic term kaldu ("Chaldean") archaized back into kasdu. But actually kaldu was a loan word from a Sumerian GAL.DU ("master-builder"), a term applied to a special class of astrologer-soothsayers. It was this fourth class of wise men who acted as spokesmen for the whole group to the king.
Satan is not omniscient, therefore, if he didn’t introduce the dream, he can not know the dream, for he can not read your mind.
These soothsayers did get revelation from the enemy, but they could not get revelation that wasn’t verbalized, so these ‘wise men’ could not tell the king his dream.
They answered in Aramaic!
The Book of Daniel continues to use Aramaic rather than Hebrew from 2:4 to the very end of chapter 7 (cf. Introduction: Language). These chapters deal with matters of empire-wide concern. But in chapters 8-12 the language reverts to Hebrew because in them the center of attention is on the future destiny of the Jews.
Read 2:5-11
Notice:
Their response to the king not only reveals their impotence, but also that of their gods. It testifies to the futility of the heathen religions and introduces the God of Daniel, who can do what they and their gods cannot:
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” (Daniel 2:10-11).
I am reminded of the words of the magicians of Egypt, who were attempting to reproduce the miracles God accomplished by the hand of Moses. For a time, their “miracles” seemed like those of Moses (see Exodus 7:11-12, 22; 8:6-7). But there came a time when these magicians had to throw up their hands and confess that they had come to their limit:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become gnats through all the land of Egypt.’” And they did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats through all the land of Egypt. And the magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on man and beast. The magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had said (Exodus 8:16-19).
Vs. 5 The penalty for not giving the dream:
If they failed to reconstruct his dream (and he held all wise men responsible), he would conclude that they were all charlatans and deserved death for all the years they had deceived him into thinking they really had occult powers (v. 5).
Nor would theirs be routine executions, but their arms and legs would be tied to four powerful trees, temporarily roped together at the top. When these ropes were cut, the victim would suddenly be torn apart into four pieces. At least this is one way of understanding the expression haddamin titabedun ("you shall be made into limbs").
Yet most commentators understand this to mean hacking the body to pieces with swords or axes (NIV, "have you cut to pieces"; cf. Ezek 16:40; 23:47, where Chaldeans cut up their victims with swords), though no verb for "cutting" is used here, nor is there any mention of a cutting instrument. Not only would the charlatans be torn (or hacked) to pieces, their homes and estates would be utterly destroyed and left as refuse heaps. On the other hand, if they should succeed in divining his dream, Nebuchadnezzar promised them wealth and honor far beyond what they already had (v. 6).
God had spoken to the first great world leader in History, and Daniel will be the one whom God explains this dream He had given Nebuchadnezar.
First, Daniel needs to be brought into the picture.
Daniel does what we all should do in times of stress!
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