"disturbing Dreams"

Title: “Disturbing Dreams” Script: Daniel 2:1-24

Type: Expository Series Where: GNBC 10-12-25

Intro: Have you ever had a disturbing dream? I mean a really disturbing dream? I can still remember a portion of a disturbing dream that I had when I was less than 6 yrs old. Most people have disturbing dreams occasionally, with about 85% of adults reporting at least one nightmare per year. However, about 1 in 20 adults (2-6%) have frequent, weekly nightmares, and 2-8% of adults have a nightmare disorder, which is characterized by frequent and very distressing dreams that interfere with daily life. John Winkelman, MD, PhD a Harvard Medical School associate professor of psychiatry who studies sleep disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital, says night terrors are often forgotten the next day because they arise during what is known as short-wave sleep, a time when neurons in the neocortex, the brain’s center for higher mental functions, are less active. Well, I am not sure how Dr. Winkleman would have diagnosed King Nebuchadnezzar’s disturbing dream in Daniel 2, but the Bible makes it very clear that the dream came from God in an attempted to get a tyrant’s attention.

Prop: We’ll notice 3 important elements of Nebuchadnezzar’s Disturbing Dream in Dan. 2:1-24

BG: 1. V.1 Tells us when this chapter takes place. 2nd year of Neb’s reign. Probably 604 BC.

2. v.4 begins the Aramaic section of Daniel (2:4b to 7:28). (Ezra too.)

Prop: Follow w/me in Dan. 2:1-24 to examine 3 Elements of Neb’s Disturbing Dream.

I. The Insecurity of Man vv. 1-13

A. Nebuchadnezzar’s Sleep Was Troubled Due to Divinely Given Nightmares.

1. God was about to Get a Defiant Tyrant’s Attention.

a. “We know too, perhaps from our own experience, that the problems of the day often appear in different guise in the dreams of the night. The anxieties of daylight can become monsters of the darkness.” (S. Ferguson, Daniel, p. 44). The young king who was only 2 years into his reign was already having trouble sleeping. Neb’s expansionist policies met resistance from others and possibly this was the source of his troubled sleep. When God gave Neb his dreams, it left him with a restless spirit, the Bible says that he was “troubled” (v. 1) and that his spirit became “anxious” (v.3). The king’s anxiety was exacerbated by the fact that he couldn’t remember the content of the dreams.

b. Illust: Have you ever had such an experience? Had a dream that particularly bizarre or realistic or troubling, and yet when you awakened you couldn’t remember the details, but you were anxious and upset? And yet, we claim to be so sophisticated in our 21st century and the importance of dreams seem to be so passe of another era. I think dreams often unveil deep seated aspects of our divinely created individuality. We all have fears and ambitions, anxieties and aspiration. There are mysteries of the spiritual realm that dreams sometimes expose to us. Preceding peoples and generations have found significance and meaning in dreams and today we seemingly discount them all as the result of “too much pizza” or “bad stir fry”. Yet, we cannot deny that God often used dreams divinely in the lives of individuals to communicate His plans for purposes to people and certainly that is exactly what he is doing with this young Babylonian despot.

2. The Troubled Dreams of the King Spell Trouble for his Advisors.

a. The king’s troubled sleep spells trouble for his advisors. V. 2 – Possibly the new king was mistrustful of his advisors. Maybe there was a lack of cohesion in his cabinet. Possibly he was testing the wise men to see just how wise they really were. Regardless, he begins with a daunting task for his advisors: He requires that they tell him the content and the meaning of the dream! (Now that’s not the way it worked! Tell them the dream and they would tell you “the meaning” of the dream. But Neb was having none of that!

b. I think this demand allows us to gain an interesting insight into this desperate despot. Despite Nebuchadnezzar’s power and position, in his heart of hearts, when he was alone with his thoughts and dreams in the dark of night, he was no more brave than a lost child in the dark. You see his panic displayed in the way he treated the people around him: v.5 In his fear he attempts to strike fear into the hearts of his advisors so as to have his questions answered. Notice the response of the advisors in v. 10 – No man can do what you ask…only God can do this thing! Illust: Friend, let me tell you this, when you are presented with a problem only God can resolve, don’t try harder, but rather, pray harder and expect to see God work!