July 2, Daniel 2
Daniel answered the king and said, "No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days." - Daniel 2:27-28
Sometimes I have troubling dreams that end my sleep for the night, like Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams did. You've probably had a similar experience. However vivid or frightening a dream may be, I almost never remember the dream the next day, which is probably a good thing.
Nebuchadnezzar remembered his dream very well, but he didn’t know what it meant. So he called his wise men together. He wanted them to do two things— tell him what he dreamed and tell him what it meant. He promised to give them great rewards and honor if they did both those things. But he would tear them apart and destroy their houses if they couldn't tell the dream.
Ancient monarchs wielded unrestrained power. If the king liked you, he had unlimited power and resources to bless you. But if you fell from his favor, he could destroy you with unrestrained anger.
When Arioch, the captain of Nebuchadnezzar's guard came to kill Daniel and his friends along with all the other wise men in the kingdom, Daniel intervened with a plan to save his peers from death. He questioned the urgency of the matter and said he could tell the king what he had dreamed and what it meant.
After Daniel and his friends prayed for the answer they needed to save their lives, God told Daniel what the king's dreamed and what it meant. Daniel praised God, and got an appointment to see the king.
When Nebuchadnezzar asked Daniel if he could answer the two-part question about the dream and its meaning, Daniel confessed than no man could do what the king asked. But he said the God of heaven knew, and God had sent Nebuchadnezzar a message about the future through his dream.
Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of an image with a gold head, a silver chest and arms, a bronze abdomen and thighs, and feet of mixed iron and clay. He also saw a stone not cut by human hands that would strike and destroy the image, and then fill the whole earth. Daniel told the king that the image stood for Nebuchadnezzar himself, and the three emperors and empires that would succeed him and his. But the ultimate fulfillment of his dream was in the distant latter days, the time of Messiah’s kingdom.
With the help of history we know how the dream was fulfilled. The head of gold (Nebuchadnezzar) would fall to an inferior King (Cyrus and the Medo-Persians). In turn, the Persians would fall to Alexander and the Greeks, and the Greeks would fall to Rome. In the days of that fourth empire, another kingdom would break the Roman Empire. While all the other empires blew away like chaff in the wind, the kingdom of the great stone would become a great mountain that filled all the earth.
Nebuchadnezzar saw that Daniel knew what he dreamed and therefore had supernatural knowledge. He confessed the reality and greatness of Daniel's God and rewarded Daniel with high honors. The king granted Daniel power over all the provinces and made him ruler over all the wise men of Babylon.
Predictive prophecy illustrates the foreknowledge and sovereignty of God. God's prophets heard and said things with emphatic certainty that no human could know or say on his own.
Daniel gave us a good plan to deal with threatening circumstances. Instead of fretting over our helplessness, we should pray in faith and enlist our fellow believers to pray with us to our all-powerful God to save us from the threat. We will save ourselves from much agony and anxiety when we trust his will and power to save us from the threat.
Am I more like prideful Arioch who sought credit and reward (a finder's fee?) for himself? He told Nebuchadnezzar, "I have found a man." I need to be more like Daniel, who gave all the glory to God for what he was able to do. Daniel and his pagan associates agreed about one thing; the king was demanding something that no man could know. They said "the gods" could do it, but Daniel said, "There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries."
Let's also remember that God’s word is true and sure. He is the only true source of reliable information about the future. And don't forget that God has stamped an expiration date on all the great empires of the earth. From the viewpoint of eternity, the mightiest kingdoms and nations of this world are but chaff. In strong contrast, the kingdom of God in Christ is an everlasting kingdom. The enduring rewards and honors are for those who put their trust in the Lord.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—July 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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