The Search For Truth Series

Today we're going to look at the wise men. In order to look at the wise men, we have to go back about 600 years to start our story.

The story takes place, I'm going to say, about 600 years before with a man named Belteshazzar. You might not know him. You might know him as Daniel. The story takes place and we can read it in Daniel 2.

It starts with a king who was very upset because he had a bad dream, a very bad dream. So he was upset about it. He was troubled by this dream. So he called all the wise men, and the astrologers, and the magicians in, and he said to them, “I have had a terrible dream. It is your job to tell me what the dream is and to tell me what it means.”

“Oh, King, we can't tell you what the dream is. You tell us what the dream is and we'll tell you what it means.”

“No,” Nebuchadnezzar said, “I'm not going to do that. I have you as my wise men and astrologers and magicians, and it's your job to tell me the dream and what it means.” “Oh, king, we can't do that. That's unheard of. You tell us the dream and we'll tell you what it means.”

“No,” he says, “If you can't tell me the dream and what it means, I'm going to have all the wise men in Babylon killed.”

They said, “We cannot tell you the dream. Only the gods can tell you the dream.” Nebuchadnezzar said, “You are stalling. I'm going to have you all killed.” He called Arioch, his head guard, and he said, “I want you to want to round up all the wise men to be killed.

So Arioch goes and finds the wise men. He comes upon Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He says to them, “We need to round you up because you're going to be killed.” Daniel says, “Why is the king being so harsh?” Arioch told him the story of what was going on. Daniel that night just prayed. As he did, God revealed to him the dream and the interpretation of the dream.

So when he woke up in the morning, he went to Arioch. He says, “Arioch, do not go and kill all the wise men. Don't gather them up. I have the dream and I know the interpretation of the dream.” So Arioch quickly went in to the king and said, “King, one of the Hebrew wise men knows the dream of yours and the interpretation of the dream.”

So they brought Daniel into his presence and the king said, “Do you know the dream and the interpretation of the dream?”

Daniel says, “No, I can't tell you dream and the interpretation. I can tell you, though, there is a God in heaven who has revealed to you mysteries of things to come. As you were pondering in your bed the future, God has revealed to you this great dream that you are seeing and you've seen. I can tell you about it because of what God has revealed to you.”

“It's a big statue that you saw. A statue with a gold head, a silver body, a belly of bronze, and iron legs, and feet of clay and iron mixed together. Let me tell you the interpretation of the dream, oh king. You are that great king, the Babylonian king, represented by the gold head. But there is going to be another kingdom after yours that's going to be represented by the silver (we know today that that is the Medo-Persian kingdom that was established). Oh king, that kingdom is going to fall off the scene and there's going to be another kingdom represented by that belly of bronze. (We know today that's the Greek kingdom with Alexander the Great.) After that kingdom is deposed, there's going to be another kingdom, represented by the iron legs that is coming. (We know today that's the Roman kingdom.) And then there's going to be this feet of iron and clay. There's going to be this large rock that you saw in your dream, not hewn by human hands, as you saw, but a huge rock that's going to come down (of course we know that's Christ) and he's going to come down and smash the feet of the statue. That statue will be consumed like chaff in the wind. And that kingdom will be one that's established and a kingdom that will last forever.”

Nebuchadnezzar, like you, said, “Wow. Yes, this just rings true to what I dreamt. So great that God has revealed this to me.” The Bible says he bowed down and he worshiped. He said, “He is the God of gods, the Lord of kings.” He put Daniel as the head wise man. He would be the wise man in charge of all over the wise men of Babylon. Daniel said, “I want my friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to work with me.” So they became the wise men and the head of all of the wise men in Babylon.