Daniel's Prayer

Title: “Daniel’s Prayer in a Precarious Predicament” Script: Daniel 2

Type: Expos/Series on Prayer Where: GNBC 9-26-21

Intro: Andrew van der Bijl is a 93 yrs old Dutchman. To many, he is just an unassuming elderly man. Van der Bijl was born during a hostile time in the world. As he entered into adulthood, he chose to fight against the injustices of communism. Communism restricted Christianity, and the Christians were strongly persecuted against. Van der Bijl wasn’t, however, a politician. Rather, Brother Andrew is one of the most inspiring missionaries in history, and his ministry impacted large portions of the world with the Gospel. Brother Andrew was forced to make 100’s of potentially life threatening decisions so as to do his best to fulfill the Great Commission by smuggling Bibles and literature behind the Iron Curtain during the days of the USSR and satellites. Countless times danger literally came to his doorstep. Brother Andrew earned the moniker, “God’s Smuggler”. But God’s Smuggler was only successful because he has a great God. The same Great God we see in today’s story about Daniel.

Prop: Today we’ll examine Daniel 2 to see how we can trust God in a crisis.

BG: 1. Event takes place in the 3rd year of Daniel’s Babylonian captivity. King Nebuchadnezzar’s 2nd year. 2. Name “Daniel” – means “God is my judge”. 3.Personally, along with David and Joseph, one my favorite OT characters. 4. Daniel was a valued advisor to 5 kings (Neb., Evil-merodach, Belshazzar, Darius, and Cyrus.), serving about 70years!

Prop: Exam. Daniel 2 will serve as an example of how we can trust Christ when facing a crisis.

I. The Precarious Predicament Begins with a Problematic Premonition. Vv.1-12

A. The King’s Troubled Sleep Precipitates the Crisis.

1. A Tyrant’s Troubled Sleep Spells Trouble for Everyone Else. Vv. 1-3

a. Illust: We have all heard the phrase: “No one’s happy if mama ain’t happy.” Well, let me one up that. “No one’s happy if King Nebuchadnezzar ain’t happy.” We see in v. 1 that this is the king’s 2nd year of reign. He is unable to sleep. Not uncommon for world leaders. Napolean Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and a host of other famous world leaders struggled with insomnia. The problem for Nebuchadnezzar was he had slept and had a terrifying dream. Now he wants to know the meaning.

b. From an old Babylonian omen text we find this quote, "if a man cannot remember the dream he saw, his god is mad at him." This same interpretation is picked up on in vv. 5 and 8 in the King James translation, which implies that Nebuchadnezzar forgot his dream, but it must remain a possibility that he was testing them. (v.9) What does he do? Calls in his cabinet. His advisors. Wise men. Chaldeans. Conjurers. Magicians. King wants an answer (v.3). That’s what pays these men to do.

2. The Wise Men’s Response: v.4

a. Wise men don’t get to be wise men because they are stupid! V.4 We see these men attempt to finesse the situation with the relatively new/young king. They attempt to get him to tell the dream so they can “Give him the interpretation.” They know if they can get the king to tell them the dream they can spin a story that will sound good regardless of the facts. (You know, kind of like our media today!)

b. An interesting side note for us. Can’t tell in our English Bibles., but in v.4, the writing of the book of Daniel changes from Hebrew to Aramaic, from 2:4 thru 7:28. Besides two sections in Ezra, and a couple of verses in Jeremiah and Genesis, This was the only section of the OT in Aramaic. It was the diplomatic language of the time. Saw it when Sennacherib came to hash out terms of surrender with Hezekiah (II Ki.18).

B. Next We Notice Along w/the King’s Outlandish Request is a Threatened Harsh Response. Vv.5-6

1. Notice the unreasonableness of the request and the proposed punishment.

a. Vv.5-6 – “Tell me my dream (Without me telling you!) and the interpretation or else I am going to have you torn limb from limb (Horses attached and pulled at same time.) and your house pulled down! The king has lost his mind. Makes no sense. Impossible tasks. Willing to sacrifice his cabinet to get his dream told and interpreted.

b. Illust: During the Great Potato Famine, Irish tenants were being thrown out of their homes by mostly absentee landlords. Usually what took place was after the baliffs came and removed the family, they would knock the main beam out of the house, causing the roof and walls to crash down. Nonsensical! Sure, that family could no longer live there, but hey, couldn’t rent it out either! Nebuchadnezzar is doing just that!