Daniel 2:1-16--Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

Daniel 2:1-16
English Standard Version

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream
2 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. 2 Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. 3 And the king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.” 4 Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” 5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. 6 But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.” 7 They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.” 8 The king answered and said, “I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see that the word from me is firm— 9 if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.” 10 The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. 11 The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

12 Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. 13 So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them. 14 Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. 15 He declared to Arioch, the king's captain, “Why is the decree of the king so urgent?” Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. 16 And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.

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We're going to go through several cycles of stories in the book of Daniel, so don't be surprised that the book is somewhat chronological, but in a cyclical manner (we'll go from A to B to C, but several times).  We'll start today with King Nebuchadnezzar, who was in power when Daniel and his friends were taken exile.  This story happens in the second year of his reign (very early), and that tells us that his attack on Judah and Jerusalem and taking Daniel and his friends captive must have been one of his first official acts as king, since Daniel is already in Babylon so early in his reign.

The king's sprit was troubled as he tried to sleep (he was having disturbing dreams).  You may not know this, but Babylon was a hotbed of occult activity.  Like ancient Egypt, they were full of magicians, astrologers, and all kinds of "wise men."  In fact, the "wise men" from Luke 2 who came from the East likely came from the regions controlled by the Babylonian Empire and were probably influence by Daniel and his friends and the Hebrew Scriptures that they left behind in Babylon.  Just like what we saw in Genesis and Exodus when the Pharaohs had disturbing dreams, they called on their magicians and wise men to interpret them.  In similar fashion, the king asks them to reveal both the dream and the interpretation so he will know they true insight into the meaning of the dream.  The magicians and wise men are dumbfounded because they only know how to look up certain symbols to give meaning.

When they told him that they could not interpret his dream without him telling them the dream, he threatened to kill all of them and all of their families and to tear down all their houses (this is par for the course for Nebuchadnezzar.  We'll see that on more than one occasion he goes straight to threatening to kill advisors and their families and destroy their property to try to get them to comply when they say it is impossible to do something (as if their problem is a lack of motivation and not a lack of ability).  Remember this when you think of God putting Daniel in the king's network of advisors and how risky a position that would be and how Daniel's life was always under threat.

The magicians and wise men begged the king multiple times to tell them the dream.  The king accused them of stalling for more time, lying, and trying to avoid the king's decree that they and their families would die if they did not tell him the dream and the interpretation.  The king repeats his threat on their lives and tells them that he will kill the whole lot of them (even the ones not present) and that his decree if firm and only the death penalty awaits them if they do not comply.

The wise men cannot help the king and the king sends his soldiers out to start rounding up all the magicians and wise men (Daniel and his companions were in this group after the education and training they received).  However, Daniel knew nothing of the dream or its interpretation and wondered why the king made such an urgent decree to kill them all so quickly.  He was told that about the king having the dream and wanting the magicians to give the dream and the interpretation and the magicians being unable to do so.  Daniel then offers to help the king, but the king would need to appoint a time for him to do so (this is proper etiquette as you don't just barge into the king's chambers, especially when he's angry like this).  This gives Daniel time to ask the Lord to reveal to him the dream and the interpretation.

Up to this point, we have no indication that Daniel received any king of prophetic visions, had any dreams or interpreted other people's dreams (the whole lot of this pagan witchcraft, sorcery, necromancy, astrology, and so on would be something Daniel would avoid because it was all behavior the LORD had deemed worthy of death in the Law).  Daniel probably would have known the Torah well by this point and maybe even leaned into the story of Joseph (though we're not told that specifically) and counted on the fact that God did this once before to show His favor to someone who was in exile in land full of "wise men" and spiritual leaders who could not interpret the king's dreams.  Daniel knew his only chance was to pray to the LORD for the dream and the interpretation, and that is exactly what he and his three friends will do.  In the next passage, Daniel will call his three friends over to have an all night prayer meeting--they would pray while he tried to sleep so that the LORD would give him the same dream that He had given the king.  We often ignore the part that the three friends played here coming in the middle of the night and praying all night and the whole time that Daniel was in front of the king, but it is just as essential as Daniel receiving the dream and standing before the king and proclaiming the truth to him.  We'll talk more about that and the dream and its interpretation next time.