1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.
Ever had a dream like this? I sure have.
This was about 524BC.
2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
3 And the king said unto them, “I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.”
God often communicates with us through dreams. More often dreams simply mean we ate too much pizza before going to sleep, but it does happen for Him to speak to us in this way. I occasionally wake up having had a dream about someone I haven’t thought of in years. I have discovered that this is God’s way of telling me they need prayer.
Nebuchadnezzar knew this dream had something important to tell him.
4 Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, “O king, live forever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.”
5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.
6 “But if ye show the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor: therefore show me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.”
Talk about an impossible command! The king wanted them to tell him his dream and the interpretation… upon penalty of death, no less!
7 They answered again and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it.”
These men were the highest educated people in the kingdom and they made their living advising the king. They often used “magic” and superstition.
8 The king answered and said, “I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me.”
“You’re stalling!”
9 “But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof.”
The king knew that they would lie to Him in order to save their lives, so he would accept nothing but the whole dream.
10 The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, “There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.
11 “And it is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is none other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
“It’s impossible!”
12 For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
13 And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.
14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon:
15 He answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, “Why is the decree so hasty from the king?” Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.
Evidently Daniel had not been called to the king when the other wise men were, though he was counted enough as one of them to be executed with them.
16 Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation.
Daniel didn’t tell the king he had asked an impossibility. He simply asked for a little time to pray about it. The king agreed.
17 Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:
18 That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
They prayed. God always has His people in His hand and He guided Daniel. Prayer should always be our first action.
19 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
God told Daniel the king’s dream in a dream of his own.
20 Daniel answered and said, “Blessed be the name of God for ever."
Daniel recognized the Hand of God and His greatness and guidance.
24 Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and said thus unto him; “Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation.”
Daniel not only preserved his own life and the lives of his friends, he asked for the lives of the other wise men also. This shows true godly love.
25 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, “I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.”
26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?”
27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, “The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king;
It is impossible for human beings to know another person’s dream, no matter how smart they are.
28 “But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days…
Here Daniel introduces Nebuchadnezzar to the one true God. This may well have been Nebuchadnezzar’s first knowledge of Him.
… Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;
29 “As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.
“As you were going to sleep, you were wondering what will happen after you die. God decided to tell you.”
30 “But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.
“God didn’t give me this answer because I am smarter or in any way better than anyone else. God gave me the answer because He wanted you to know.”
The prophets of old- and true prophets today- always directed people away from themselves and towards God.
31 “You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue- an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance.
Beginning here, I will put the interpretation of the dreams immediately after the dream but in a different font.
36 This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.
32 “The head of the statue was made of pure gold, …
37 “You, O king, are the king of kings. That God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory;
38 “In your hands He has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, He has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
This dream would have been about 524BC.
Gold was very common in Babylon at this time and the people had a very high standard of living.
…Its chest and arms of silver,
39 After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours.
Medo/Persia. The Medes are building their army at this moment in history. (Cyrus conquers Babylon in 459BC). Silver was the currency in Persia. Taxes paid in gold were even converted to silver.
…Its belly and thighs of bronze,
…Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.
Alexander the Great. At the time of this prophecy, Greece is nothing but a bunch of unconnected city-states. (Alexander died in 323 BC). Greece was the first army to use almost exclusively bronze shields and helmets.
33 Its legs of iron …
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.
This is a history of the region of Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar. It would not be a very good history to leave out the entire Syrian empire.
After the death of Alexander, Egypt took control of Israel, but Her king, Ptolemy, gave the northern part of his territory to his general, Seleucid, who ended up with the area of Babylon through Israel. His capital was in the country of Syria and his empire was known either by the name. “The Syrian Empire” or “The Seleucid Empire” and began somewhere between 323 and 310 BC). Syria used iron weapons.
Greece at the time of the Syrian Empire is just a small country with no control or influence over this region. It is fighting for its life with Rome and the countries to the north and east (Thrace, the fourth part of Alexander’s kingdom.)
Rome is a republic, not an empire, and is also fighting for its life at the time of the Syrian empire, though its influence is growing.
…Its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.
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 of baked clay and partly of iron, so this 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.
This is a perfect description of the Roman Empire, which began with Julius Caesar in 46BC and was the next major power in the Babylonian and Israelite regions. It was partly strong and partly weak, always had trouble controlling its very mixed people, constantly had to fight off the Gauls and other invaders from the north, had a system of appeals and allowed each people to govern itself and worship its own gods.
Rome also used iron weapons.
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 broken to pieces at the same time 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.
44 “In the time of those kings, (the kings of the final kingdom of clay and iron- Rome) 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 the interpretation is trustworthy.”
The Rock that crushed the whole thing by landing on the feet was Jesus and the church. The countries listed here are the nations that controlled God’s church from Daniel until Christ. After The Cross, no political government was able to contain or control God’s church. It grew to fill the whole planet. No longer could God’s people be confined to one nation, one locality. The Kingdom of God will never end.
Paul tells us that God continues to put politicians into power and that He brings up and destroys kingdoms. God does still deal with nations (how could he deal with people and not?), as our own history tells us. But His people are no longer identified by or confined to one nation or one country.
46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshiped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odors unto him.
47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, “Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou could reveal this secret.”
The king was impressed. He believes in the power of Daniel’s God, but has not yet accepted Him as his own God.
48 Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.
49 Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.
Daniel’s friends were given important jobs, but Daniel became one of the chief rulers in the nation.