Daniel 2 (Bible Study)
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In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.
2 So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers [1] to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king,
3 he said to them, "I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means."[2]
4 Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, [3] "O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it."
5The king replied to the astrologers, "This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.
6 But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honour. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me."
7 Once more they replied, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it."
8 Then the king answered, "I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided:
9 If you do not tell me the dream, there is just one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me." 10 The astrologers answered the king, "There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. 11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men." 12 This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. 13 So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death. 14 When Arioch, the commander of the king's guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. 15 He asked the king's officer, "Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?" Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. 16 At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him. 17 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 18 He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven 20 and said: "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. 21 He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. 22 He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. 23 I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king." 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 lay on your bed are these: 29 "As you were lying there, O king, 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 other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind. 31 "You looked, O king, 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 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. 36 "This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 You, O king, 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 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. 39 "After you, another kingdom will rise, 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 the 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.
1. Or Chaldeans; also in v 4, 5, 10
2. Or was
3. The text from here to Chpt 7 is in Aramaic. -
Introduction
Daniel 2 takes place after Daniel and his friends entered the king’s service as educated counsellors, advisors, and administrators. Daniel Chapters 1& 8-12 are written in Hebrew and Chpters 2-7 are written in Aramiac. The text is written in Aramiac from Daniel 2:4 and continues until 7:28. Aramaic was the international language of the known world at that (as English is today).
Daniel is the only book of the Bible written in two languages. As a bilingual book, its message is intended not just for Jews but for all the nations of the world. It is very applicable to us today, about how Christians are to live in the world but not of it.
“The astrologers answered the king in Aramaic” — Daniel 2:4
Despite being super powerful Nebuchadnezzar has dreams that trouble him (see 2:31-35)? What does this say about powerful leaders and how can we apply this to ourselves? Read 2:1-3.
First, often the people with the greatest drive for power are the most anxious and fearful. Reinhold Niebuhr believed that fear and uncertainty lay at the roots of most political tyranny. The lust for power is born, “‘in the darkly conscious realisation’ of the basic insecurity of[human] existence.”1 Fear is often the reason for the super-confident veneer of many powerful people.
Second, even if fear is not at the root of a rise to power, it later develops. Those who climb high will not feel more secure, but less. They are the objects of more jealousy and in the ‘sights’ of more opponents. The higher the climb in wealth, power, fame; the greater the chance of a fall and there is much to lose.
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is an eruption of these fears. No powerful person likes to find they are weak underneath. The giant in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is the vision he wanted the world to have of him: "an impregnable giant, towering over the world”—but the weakness of the feet expressed his fears. 2 This does not mean that God had no message for the world in the dream. We should, however, also recognise that this expressed the king’s heart condition.
This dream and his fears gives insight into the king’s mind and we see further evidence of it in Chpt 4.
Application
First, while our fears may be different to Nebuchadnezzar’s, they are not that different. When we build our lives on earthly success, relationships, or circumstances, we experience a great deal of anxiety, much of it unconscious. Because earthly achievement and delight has “feet of clay.” Any project, condition, bank account, career, or person is vulnerable, the precariousness and fragility of life will be revealed. Either God is our security or we truly have none.
Second, God often shows us our need for him by giving us a glimpse of what is really in our hearts. We are in denial about how angry, fearful, and selfish we are. Then something brings out the worst in us, and we are shocked that we are capable of such thoughts and actions. These are warnings. God is not trying to punish us, but to awaken us.
Third, success will never be enough. Nebuchadnezzar was a man who had found power, yet he was insecure. Getting to the top did not give peace and security. Another kind of riches & power is needed.
Psalm of Praise (v2—-23)
Read and reflect on Daniel’s beautiful Psalm of praise in Dan 2:21-23. Personalise it and delight in God’s many ways of faithfulness to you.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
In Nebu’s dream notice
(a) That the four kingdoms are in one humanoid statue and all are broken “at the same time” (v35) by the stone, very interesting in the light of scholarly debate about what or whom do the three following kingdoms represent. Is it important to know which empire or civilisation each metal section represents?
(b) The figure’s decrease in value though increasingly strong.
(c) Thinking about the (statue and stone). Notice the lowly, valueless construct of the stone yet it grows to mountain like and destroys the kingdoms of the world and ushers in the new kingdom (eternal)
a) The first part (the gold head) of the statue is a specific kingdom: the Babylonian empire of Nebuchadnezzar himself (vv. 36-39). Thus, we would expect the next three to be specific kingdoms as well. Many scholars over the years have argued about the identities of the kingdoms. Some believe they are the Mede, the Persian, and the Greek empires; others believe them to be the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the Roman empires. But notice that the four empires are all part of one statue. When the stone hits the statue on the feet, the entire statue is “broken to pieces at the same time” (v. 35). How could that be, if the kingdoms are four specific, consecutive kingdoms? How could the stone smash all four at the same time if they are centuries apart? This question leads Tim Keller to believe that the statue represents world kingdoms in general, with all their might, ways, and power. When the rock comes, all the power of the “kingdom of this world”—the kingdom of death, decay, sin, and power—will be smashed, and new kingdom will come in. Keler “I think ‘at the same time’ means that the dream is not giving us a specific sequence of distinct kingdoms, nor is it emphasising specific time frames.’
(b) It is interesting that each kingdom is “inferior” (v. 39) to its predecessor, though that does not mean each one is weaker. Rather, the kingdoms actually become more powerful as time goes on: the last kingdom is iron, which “breaks and smashes everything” (v. 40). So how are they inferior?
First, they are less valuable metals (gold to silver to bronze to iron to clay) and second, they are less and less coherent. That is, they become more and more divided (v41). If we are right about these not being specific kingdoms, but a description of the “world system” in general, we are being told that, as time goes on, kingdoms will have more and more power (think of technology) and yet become morally and even relationally weaker.
(c) The teaching, warning, and encouragement of the dream are completely intact without knowing the specifics about which metal signifies which kingdom, exactly when the stone is going to hit, and so on. We see here that God alone allows the world system (the image is a man) to go on (v 37). This is an echo of Babel, a city built not in God’s name but ‘to make a name for ourselves’ (Gen 11:4). The world system seeks to glorify humanity. Commerce, art, and culture are pursued ‘to make a name for ourselves,’ to glorify ourselves. That world systems will increasingly become both more powerful and more wicked; and that God will eventually smash them and put his kingdom in its place. If we come looking for encouragement and direction for our lives in this pagan world, we have it. If we expect confirmation of some end-time scenario, we will be frustrated.
The Statue & the Stone
First, we are told that this stone is “cut out . . . not by human hands” (v34). That is in contrast to the statue, which is a work of the greatest human art, skill, and craftsmanship. Thus the coming kingdom is God’s, it is supernatural not of human origin. V44 “will not be left to another people” means it is not a temporary human rule but an eternal, divine kingdom, unconquerable (it will “crush those kingdoms” v 44.
Second, notice the stone is the least valuable of all the substances. So God’s kingdom, despite being unconquerable, eternal, and divine, is going to be (by the world’s standards) something small, poor, and weak—at least to start with. Rather like a baby in a manger you could say! This leads to the third point.
Third, we see that the kingdom of God, despite being unconquerable, eternal, and divine, apparently grows over time. Notice, it “becomes” a mountain(v35) which grows to fill the whole earth. It does not begin as a mountain, but as a stone. This may be why there is such a vague reference to the time when the kingdom of God is established. It says it will be “in the time of those kings” (v 44). Which kings? The only kings mentioned are the kings of the four kingdoms, which involves a long time span.
Why is this so vague? Because the dream is indicating that the smashing of the world kingdom and the growing of the new kingdom will overlap in some way. Instead of giving us a single moment at which the old kingdom is totally removed and the new kingdom is completely installed, we are led to think of this as a process. This fits with the mission of Jesus. Jesus, the King, comes not once but twice. At his first coming, he inaugurates the kingdom; at the second coming, this kingdom fills the whole earth and sweeps the old kingdom away completely. Jesus claimed to be the stone from which the kingdom of God is built (Matt 21:42-44), and when he is resurrected, he will be a temple made “without hands.”
6.In Daniel 2:27-48, what purposes did the dream accomplish?
(a) Nebuchadnezzar is warned and seems to be deeply impressed (v. 47), though we know it did not convert his heart. Still, he gets important new information about God that has an impact on his life.
(b)Daniel and his friends are saved and many others too. Daniel & Co. move up in rank & influence in the society, though they have renounced many of its values (v 48-49).
(c) We, reading today, have a hope for the future. That is in the coming king of kings, who was and is and is to come. If you live in a secular culture without Christ there is no such a hope.
