Daniel 2
There are many people who are willing to try to interpret your dream if you will only tell them the dream first. They may even claim to have the authoritative interpretation or even to speak for God Himself. Who will agree to tell you your dream without hearing some of the facts? Who can know what goes on in the heart of another person while that person is sleeping? Think of the kind of exhaustive knowledge that is necessary in order to accomplish this task. God alone has this kind of knowledge, but He is free to reveal this to someone according to His own will.
The wise men of the Babylonians knew they were in trouble when the king would not reveal his dream to them. They said, “No one can show it to the king except the gods.” The king, for his part, was unwilling to hear them unless they could tell him his dream. He did not want the interpretation of men, but the truth from the gods. He reasoned that the only way that he could have access to the truth would be to receive the interpretation from a man who could reveal his knowledge of secret realms by telling him his dream first. If the gods had revealed the king’s dream to such a man, then would it not be reasonable to assume that they would also give the true interpretation of the troubling dream through the same man?
The king was serious in his demand. In fact he announced his plan to have all the wise men put to death. None of them seemed to have the knowledge of the secrets of men’s hearts that he desired. When Daniel found out the king’s plan of destruction, he sought an opportunity to speak to the king and to give him the dream and the interpretation. His companions prayed to God, and the Lord revealed the mystery to Daniel. It was not the case that Daniel had the capacity within himself to know the unknowable. This information came from God.
The response of Daniel to this gift was one of praise. He blessed the God of heaven. He extolled His great attributes of eternal wisdom and might. He recognized the Lord as the One who alone does wondrous things. He rules in the skies and in the affairs of men high and low. He is Light, and He understands the things that happen in darkness. Daniel thanked God for giving him wisdom and might from on high. The knowledge that Daniel received would save many lives, and he was grateful.
When Daniel met King Nebuchadnezzar, he reiterated what the other wise men had said to the king. It was true that no man could know the thing that the king requested. But he went on to say what they could not say. “There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.” God had told Daniel things about the future, things that had become known through a dream to a pagan king. This alone is very intriguing. In the Lord’s providence, Nebuchadnezzar was given the dream and Daniel alone was given the supernatural knowledge to interpret it. God was setting up His servant Daniel to be exalted in the land of his captivity.
The dream of the king was very revealing. It spoke of kingdoms to come in the succeeding empires leading to the time of the Romans so many hundreds of years into the future. During that empire, the Lord would raise up a different sort of kingdom that would never be destroyed. This kingdom was represented in the dream as having an unusual beginning. A stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image in the king’s dream and reduced it all to rubble. Then that stone became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. The interpretation is especially clear to us now. In the days to come, God Himself would establish a great kingdom through one great Stone. In the days of the
What was not revealed to the king of
The reaction of Nebuchadnezzar was extraordinary. He fell down before Daniel in homage and recognized this captive’s God as the God of gods and the Lord of kings. As a result of this experience, the king placed Daniel and his friends in positions of great authority. As wonderful as that is, we need to listen to the admonition of Daniel who would direct us to God and to His appointed King Jesus Christ.
Daniel received wisdom and power as a gift from the God who possessed them by His nature. Jesus was different. He possessed these attributes within Himself just as much as His Father possessed the same attributes. Jesus, in His divine nature, would not have needed anyone to tell Him the dream of any King, for He knew what was in a man. He knows us, and He has brought us into His all-surpassing kingdom. His greatness is far above all the kings and kingdoms of the earth, and He has shown his love for His subjects by dying for our sins
posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM
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