Introduction: After the events of chapter 1, Daniel and his three close friends were part of the king of Babylon’s staff. At a certain unspecified point, the king had a dream which he simply could not understand or figure out. When the other wise men could not tell the king what he had dreamed, he tried to have them all put to death. He would have done so unless Daniel, in a great step of faith, promised not only to tell the king what he had dreamed, but also what it meant. God came through and indeed revealed to Daniel the king’s exact dream plus the meaning. The king’s response may not have been what Daniel or his friends expected!
I The dream was retained
Text: Daniel 2:1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him. 2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. 3 And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. 4 Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation. 5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill (KJV).
This event took place in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Why he should have a dream that bothered him the way this one did was not anywhere explained, except that God in His Providence took compassion on a heathen king and showed him a glimpse of the future. The fact that it bothered him is evident because not only did he lose his sleep, but he also gathered all the “wise men” of Babylon—the categories are listed in the text. He hoped—and expected—to receive an explanation of his dream.
And of course the wise men seemed glad to do this, on one condition: they wanted the king to tell them the dream! Some have thought that these men could take the details of the dream and try to “interpret” the dream by means of the writings, etc., that they would have access to, but not most people. In Romans 1, Paul mentioned that one of the things leading to mankind’s downward spiral to idolatry and debauchery began when certain people held down, held back, or suppressed the available truth of the time and traded God’s truth for lies (Romans 1:18 and 25, paraphrased). Nebuchadnezzar, though, decided to put these men to the test—and demanded they tell him what he had dreamed!
Of note, this portion of Daniel’s book, up through the last verse of chapter 6, is written in “Syriack (KJV)” or an Aramaic language, instead of Hebrew. This language, “Syriack”, was used as a diplomatic language as far back as the time of King Hezekiah. One of the Assyrian leaders had come to Jerusalem during Hezekiah’s reign and proclaimed a speech designed to frighten the people of Judah and Jerusalem. When the three members of Hezekiah’s delegation asked him to speak in Syriac/Aramaic, the Assyrian would have none of it. He then proceeded to address the people of Judah and Jerusalem using the Hebrew language (see 2 Kings 18 and Isaiah 36 for the complete story and the amazing conclusion).
But even more notable was that the king refused to give these wise men the details of his dream! Some people believe the king had forgotten the dream based on the King James Version translation of verse 5, “the thing is gone from me” where some believe the “thing” mentioned here was the dream itself. Others, like the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee, believe the king was giving a command to “tell me what I dreamed, or else!” citing a number of other renderings of this verse. His notes and comments are available online via http://www.ttb.org
At any rate, Nebuchadnezzar refused to tell what he had dreamed to these wise men. There is no reason given why as to why he didn’t trust them this time. He retained the dream in his own mind, and increased the levels of reward for making it known or punishment if they could not “produce” the dream and its meaning.
The wise men could not do this, and sure enough, the king’s wrath was about to be turned loose on them. Even though the wise men pleaded with the king, saying nobody on earth could do what he asked, the king was so furious that he gave orders to have all—ALL—the wise men of Babylon put to death (verses 7-13).
And that news was soon to reach Daniel.
II The dream was revealed
Daniel, and his friends, were now in the second year of their three-year training program (compare Daniel 1:5 with 2:1) and as such were considered part of the wise men of Babylon. At the least, he was linked with them in the king’s order to have these wise men put to death (verse 13). According to that verse, the executioners were on the way to Daniel’s house or wherever he lived at the time to put him to death.
But when Daniel was able to speak to Arioch, called the “captain of the king’s guard”, Daniel asked what was going on—why was he on the list to be executed? And why was everything happening so quickly? Arioch “made the thing known to Daniel (verse 15)”—but let Daniel live, whether or not that was part of the king’s orders! Arioch could have told Daniel something like, “Well, sir, here are the king’s orders—but, too bad, you’re going to die!” and then put Daniel to death. Here, if nowhere else, one can see another instance of God’s protection of Daniel, and a few others, who had remained true to the God of Israel,
Even though Daniel knew he had been spared (for the time being, at least) he knew there was only one way to save a lot of lives and that was to know then interpret the king’s dream. At first glance, this seems impossible—how could anyone know what someone else had dreamed? And even if Person A could tell (guess?) the dream of Person B, how could Person A have any idea what the dream actually meant?
Daniel also knew that the only way to even guess at the king’s dream was to ask God to share it with him. How, even Daniel may not have known—but he had faith in God. That was enough.
Now Daniel was ready to take a step of faith. One look at Daniel’s absolute faith in God is found in 2:16-18: he first goes to the king and tells him that with some time, he would interpret the king’s dream (but how did he do this, being able to get access to the king? Was the king surprised Daniel was still alive?)
By this time, Daniel may have begun to either feel the pressure of his request, or the peace of knowing the LORD would provide, or perhaps some of both. He asked his three close friends to “desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon” or to pray for the LORD to tell them what they needed to know.
Sure enough, God answered their prayers and honored their faith. Verse 19 states that “the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision”. God showed Daniel the dream—in another dream!
But would Daniel be able to inform the king in time, before Daniel and the other “wise men” would be put to death?
The command was still in effect!
III The dream was reviewed
Once Daniel had received the vision or “secret”, he could have done any number of things, but true to his character, he immediately praised the LORD for answered prayer. Verses 20-23 contain his song of praise, especially thanking God for revealing or “(making) known . . .the king’s matter (verse 23)”. Then Daniel found Arioch, the very one who had come searching for Daniel the day before (!—see verses 13-15) and asked Arioch to take him to the king. After all, Daniel had spoken to the king on the previous day and promised to tell him the dream, and what the dream meant. Now it was time to make good on that promise.
Before that happened, though, an almost amusing incident took place. Arioch, the chief of the king’s guards, burst into the king’s presence and exclaimed “I found the man who can tell the king what he dreamed (paraphrased)!” True enough, Arioch had found Daniel—but not for that reason! And the king, even though nothing is said in verse 25, to Arioch, the king had already spoken to and with Daniel the day before. In a word, the king was already aware of Daniel and his promise to make the dream, and what it meant, known to the king. Daniel was about to actually review the dream with the king.
Oddly enough, the king either didn’t remember the conversation from the day before or he is not positive Daniel could follow through on his promise. Verse 26 says as much, as the king asks, “Are you really able to tell me my dream, and what it means (paraphrased)?” After all, he had been told by any number of his wise men that nobody could to this, and the king had been furious enough to order them all to be put to death! Now here comes a foreigner, and a captive at that, who claims he can do the impossible. Why wouldn’t the king be skeptical about this?
Daniel was no doubt aware of this—the king’s attitude—and tried to explain that the king’s request was unreasonable, and impossible, for any mere human to do. The only way for Daniel or anyone else to properly interpret a dream was through God’s assistance. How much of this the king really understood at the time is debatable but at least the king let Daniel continue to speak.
The first thing Daniel did, as stated in verse 28, was that there is a God in Heaven Who makes things known to people, and that this God was giving the king a picture of what was going to happen “in the latter days”. Then, Daniel began to explain the dream and what it meant. He was about to review the dream, as stated, with the king. After all, the king would know quickly if Daniel was speaking the truth or making something up.
Beginning in verse 31, Daniel tells the king about what he saw in his dream. Daniel described the image as having an excellent brightness and its form was “terrible” or, perhaps, awe-inspiring. Then, Daniel described the various segments of the image: the head of gold, the arms and breast of silver, the belly and thighs of brass (or, bronze), and the feet partly of iron and partly of clay. The size of that image was not given, but it wasn’t so much the size of the image but the significance of it that was important.
After this, Daniel went on to describe how a stone, cut out without hands struck the image on the feet and broke the entire image (implied) into pieces like chaff from the threshing floor. The stone then became a mountain that filled the entire earth. Then Daniel explained this was the king’s dream, and he proceeded to explain what the dream meant.
Something to remember is that dreams were indeed a way for people to receive messages from God, especially before the canon of Scripture was completed. Pagans sometimes had dreams that came from God but had no way to properly understand them—example, the Egyptian chief butler and chief baker who had dreams but it took Joseph to explain the dreams to them. And the dreams did come true, exactly as Joseph had predicted (see Genesis 40 for the complete story). Many years later, the wife of Pilate had a dream about Jesus and told her husband not to have anything to do with “that just man (Matthew 27:19). That Pilate ignored that advice is clear from the rest of Matthew 27. In the text of Daniel 2, God had given Nebuchadnezzar a glimpse of the future, and He did this by means of a dream.
And Daniel didn’t stop with simply reviewing the dream with the king. He had to have spoken the truth of the dream or otherwise the king would have stopped—or even killed—Daniel for speaking lies! The king’s death sentence on the wise men of Babylon was still in effect and it is possible some of them had already been killed although the text does not say this with certainty.
Daniel was able to give the dream’s interpretation or meaning to the king. He told the king that he was the head of gold, and other kingdoms were coming in the future, all increasingly inferior to Babylon in varying terms. Gold, for example, is much more in value than silver, brass or bronze, and certainly more than iron or clay. It seems doubtful that a pagan king like Nebuchadnezzar could have ever figured this out, even with the help from
Babylon’s wise men.
Once Daniel finished reviewing the dream, and the meaning, something incredible happened: the king fell down and worshiped Daniel! He even commanded that some of the other people make an offering and sweet fragrances to him! Daniel of course wanted none of this, but said nothing.
Perhaps there was nothing for him to say.
After this was complete, the king confessed that Daniel’s God was a God of gods and a Lord of kings (verses 46-47, paraphrased). He also admitted that Daniel’s God was a “revealer of secrets”, acknowledging that only that kind of God could provide that kind of information to another, totally unrelated person! How much of an impact this had on the king at the time is debatable, but at the very least, he came to know that Daniel’s God was more powerful and able to provide more knowledge than any of Babylon’s deities. Even better, he promoted Daniel to a high position, and did the same for Daniel’s friends.
Conclusion: the king of Babylon had a dream and, naturally, wanted to know what it meant. He called for the wisest men in the kingdom to first tell the king his dream and then tell him the meaning. They couldn’t, and the king put them all under the death penalty. This included Daniel and his three friends, who prayed the LORD would give them the dream and its meaning. The LORD did this, and Daniel reviewed the dream with the king, giving him the meaning as well. Daniel and his friends received incredible rewards for their ability to interpret the king’s dream.
Dreams were used, sometimes, to guide people into God’s messages for them. How many others besides the ones mentioned in this chapter who did receive these dream-messages are not known, Believers today have direct access to God and the ability to have the Holy Spirit reveal God’s Truth to them (John 16:13) as well as the complete Word of God—so, we don’t need dreams to give us inspiration. A dream is never so good an idea as the Bible itself.
A dream led Nebuchadnezzar to some knowledge of the True God, but any dream can be severely misunderstood and misinterpreted. We can trust the same God Whom Daniel trusted, to give us the direction we need, right when we need it!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).
