BAD DREAM, GOOD NEWS
Opening Prayer
Lord, thank You for using us in our secular jobs.
Read DANIEL 2:24–49
Daniel Interprets the Dream
24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, “Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.”
25 Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.”
26 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”
27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you were lying in bed are these:
29 “As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. 30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.
31 “Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”
48 Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. 49 Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Pray slowly and meditatively, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as in heaven” and “The kingdom, the power and the glory are Yours.”
Nebuchadnezzar responds inappropriately to Daniel’s interpretation of his dream, because he misses the main point. He recognizes that God is superior to his gods and is “a revealer of mysteries,” (47) and so lavishes gifts on Daniel and promotes him and his compatriots (48,49). However, he fails to show humility in light of the sobering realities revealed to him. Like other empires, Nebuchadnezzar’s will be swept away like chaff when God’s kingdom shows the fragility of all human pretensions to strength and power (35,44,45).
Dare I suggest that Christian readers of Daniel sometimes similarly miss the main point? We tend to focus on identifying the four kingdoms in verses 36–43. (Incidentally, I follow those commentators who think they are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, though others disagree.) We should rather immerse ourselves in the main message of the passage, that “Kings and kingdoms, presidents and dictators, democracies, tyrannies and monarchies come and go and enter the landfill of history” (Dale Ralph Davis, The Message of Daniel, 46). Only the kingdom set up by the God of heaven will never be destroyed.
We are often inclined to despair of human governments, both democratic and despotic, and this chapter offers us no reason to suppose that successive regimes will be an improvement on previous ones. Our hope rests not on human progress but on the dynamic kingdom of God. However, following Daniel’s example, we involve ourselves in human structures, so that we can be a blessing to society by offering godly wisdom. When power is in evil or weak hands, our belief and message is that of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, namely, that he holds power only by God’s gift (37) or, in the words of Jesus to Pilate, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11).
Apply
In the light of today’s passage, pray for specific leaders of nations and political parties.
Closing prayer
Lord, we anticipate our participation in the kingdom which You intend to set up that will never have an end.
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