Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Great Metallic Image (Daniel 2)
Class Notes
The King's Dream and the King's Vain Appeal to his Wise Men (Daniel 2:1-13)
Nebuchadnezzar has a troublesome dream to which he calls
all the wise men of Babylon that he may know its meaning (Daniel 2:1-3)
This event occurred in the second year of his reign (Daniel 2:1),
but prior to this event Daniel and his three friends were under the tutelage of the king's wise men for three years
(Daniel 1:5)
after which time they stood before the king to be examined by him (Daniel 1:18)
The answer to this seeming difficulty is that the time
of Daniel's captivity (Daniel 1:1)
was the year prior to Nebuchadnezzar's first year (Jeremiah 25:1) and is marked from the time of his co-rule with his father, but the
time of his dream is counted from the time of his sole reign as monarch (Daniel 2:1)
Nebuchadnezzar's troublesome dream (Daniel 2:1,3)
was in response to that which occupied his mind - the future of his kingdom (Daniel 2:29)
The wise men play up to the king ("O king, live forever")
and invite the king to make known his dream to them, so that they may interpret it for him (Daniel 2:4)
The language of the text from this verse on thru the end
of chapter 7 is Syriac (Western Aramaic), which comes from Aram (the ancient name of Syria)
Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom marks thebeginning
of the "Times
of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24 cf. Jeremiah 25:8-9)
and so, fittingly it is to this king that God makes known to the world the course of the Gentile empires to rule
His people when they are "without a king" until they seek their King in "the latter days" (Hosea 3:4-5)
The king responds curtly that "the thing" ("the
command") is gone forth from him - if you don't make known to me both the dream and its interpretation, then
you and your property will be utterly destroyed (Daniel 2:5)
Perhaps the reason for the king's abrupt reply is that
ALL his wise men had already been shown to be ten times inferior to four of the king's captives (Daniel 1:19-20)
The king also assures them that if by some divine miracle
they are able to make known the king's dream and its interpretation then they will be greatly rewarded and honored
(Daniel 2:6)
The wise men politely reiterate their request and promise
(Daniel 2:7),
but the king refuses to acquiesce and accuses them of stalling for time by agreeing among themselves to "speak
lying and corruptwords" in hope of escaping the king's destructive decree (Daniel 2:8-9)
The wise men seeing that the king will not relent - drop
all pretense and confess their utter helplessness to satisfy what they consider to be an unreasonable request to
be put forth by any king (Daniel 2:10-11)
Man devoid of the Spirit of God CANNOT reveal to the king
what only God has prepared for His own and reveals to His own (I Corinthians 2:9-11 cf. Isaiah 64:4;
Amos 3:7)
The king becomes enraged over the last assertion of the
wise men that they cannot reveal to the king what only the gods can know "whose dwelling is not with flesh"
and orders the destructive decree to be carried out against ALL the wise men of Babylon, which included Daniel
and his three friends (Daniel 2:11-13)
Like Pharaoh's magicians of old - the wise men of Babylon were made to ackowledge, "this is thefinger
of God" (Exodus 8:19)
Destroying those who were the custodians of ALL the nation's
culture and learning (Daniel 1:4)
can only be done by one who ruled with absolute authority and so it was with Nebuchadnezzar, "whom he would
he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down" (Daniel 5:18-19)