Dream of the King
Only Daniel was enabled to reveal the troubling dream of the King, which unveiled the fate of kings and kingdoms – Daniel 2:1-49.
But the God of Israel reigns in an ironic
fashion. He employs the words of powerless exiles to direct the course of history.
Both chapters end with the king acknowledging the supremacy of the God of
Israel – (Daniel 2:36-48).
The interpretation of the dream by Daniel
forms the fourfold structure behind his later
vision of the “four beasts
ascending from the sea.”
The
Dream. Nebuchadnezzar dreamed his dream in the second year of
his reign, approximately 604-603 B.C., and the second year of Daniel’s education
in Babylon. In other words, the events of chapter 2 occurred before the
completion of his three-year education in the “wisdom of Babylon”;
therefore, his ability to interpret the dream was not due to anything provided
by Babylon - (Daniel 1:5, 1:17, 2:1).
The king summoned all the “astrologers,
enchanters, sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell him his dream.” Daniel
was not from this group; his ability to interpret dreams was by the gift of God,
not through any of the arts of divination.
Unable to remember his dream, the king commanded
the “Chaldeans” to make its contents known, as well as its interpretation. Three times
he ordered them to do so, each time threatening death for failure, but also promising
rewards for success.
The “wise men” acknowledged
that only the gods could do what the king demanded, however, the gods of Mesopotamia did “not dwell with flesh.” Unlike Babylonian
deities, Yahweh dwelt among men and was well able to reveal both the dream and the
interpretation:
- (Daniel 2:10-11) – “The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man upon the earth who can declare the matter of the king, although, indeed, there is no king, chief ruler who a thing like this has asked of any sacred scribe or magician or Chaldean; and the thing which the king has asked is difficult, and none other is there who can declare it before the king, except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
Furious, Nebuchadnezzar determined to destroy
“all the wise men of Babylon,” that would have included Daniel,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego - (“The decree went forth that the wise men
should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain”). Daniel
approached the king to request time to reveal the dream and its interpretation.
To do this without any summons was to risk death. He then prayed with his
companions for God to reveal the matter:
- (Daniel 2:17-19) - “Then Daniel, to his own house departed, and to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions made the matter known; that tender compassion they might seek from before the God of the heavens, concerning this mystery, that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then, to Daniel in a vision of the night the mystery was revealed, and Daniel blessed the God of the heavens.”
Twice reference is made to the “God of
the heavens” to contrast Yahweh with the deities of the learned men of
Babylon, who believed heavenly bodies influenced the destinies of nations. But Yahweh
is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, including the planets and stars,
the revealer of “secrets” or “mysteries,” and the Sovereign who
controls the fates of empires.
“Mystery” translates the Aramaic
noun raz (Strong’s - #H7328), which occurs eight times in the chapter - (Daniel
2:18-19, 2:27-30,2:47,4:9).
- (Daniel 2:20-23) – “Daniel responded and said, Let the name of God be blessed from age to age, in that wisdom and might to him belong; And he changes times and seasons, removes kings and sets up kings, giving wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them who are skilled in understanding. He reveals the deep things and the hidden, knows what is in the darkness and light with him does dwell. Unto you, O God of my fathers, do I render thanks and praise in that wisdom and might you have given to me; yea, already you have made known to me that which we desired of thee, for the matter of the king have you made known unto us.”
Daniel’s thanksgiving anticipates the
interpretation of the dream and expresses the theological understanding of the
book: God gives the nations to whomever He wills.
True wisdom belongs to the One who grants it to His lowliest servant, and He is
sovereign over the sun, the moon, and the stars. Moreover, He reigns over all political
powers.
Another class of Babylonian “experts” is
introduced in verse 27, the “astrologers,” which translates the Aramaic term
gezar (Strong’s - #H1505). The
word means “cut, to divide,” hence, in Babylon, the astrologers were the “dividers of the heavens.”
The idea reflects the practice of dividing the heavens into spheres of
influence.
- (Daniel 2:27-28) – “Daniel answered before the king and said: The mystery which the king has asked the wise men, the magicians, the sacred scribes, the astrologers are not able to declare to the king; but there is a God in the heavens, who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what shall come to pass in the afterpart of the days.”
God revealed to Nebuchadnezzar what “must
come to pass in later days.” The chronological reference is
ambiguous. It means no more than at some point in the future. The same
ambiguity is found in verse 45 - “God made known to the king what shall come
to pass after this.”
Next, Daniel described the contents of the
dream. Nebuchadnezzar saw a colossal image with a head of gold, breast and arms
of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and with both feet of
mixed iron and clay. The image represented a single entity, despite its several
components. Then the king saw a “stone cut out
without hands” that struck the feet of the image, pulverizing the “iron,
clay, brass, silver and gold,” and which “became a great mountain
that filled the whole earth.”
The “stone cut without hands” reflects
the Hebrew practice of building altars with uncut stones. The common connection
of God’s dwelling place to a great mountain is also in the background - (Exodus
15:17-18, 20:22-25, Psalm 78:54, Micah 4:1, Isaiah
11:9, 66:20).
Daniel declared that Nebuchadnezzar was “the
king of kings”; nevertheless, his kingship was derived from “the
God of the heavens.” The head of gold represented him - (“You are
the head of gold”). That the Babylonian king was the head suggests that
Babylon was the first World-Power - (Genesis 10:10, 11:1-9).
Limited information is provided about the
second and the third kingdom. The second is made of silver, and therefore,
is “inferior” to the golden head. The third realm is represented by
bronze; it “will bear rule over all the earth.” The text does not
explain how the second kingdom is “inferior,” though its “breast and
arms of silver” suggest internal division.
Whether the third and fourth kingdom are also
“inferior” is not stated, though the decreasing value of each metal make
that a strong possibility; silver is less valuable than gold, bronze than
silver, and so on. The third kingdom was to “rule over all the earth,”
signifying its political and military prowess.
The fourth kingdom was strong as iron because
it “shattered and crushed all things.” Precisely who or what was
crushed is not stated. The comparison indicated no more than its ability to
destroy.
The feet and toes were “part of clay
and part of iron.” The two lower legs were of unmixed iron. The mixture
represented division; it would be strong like iron, but also brittle like clay
used for pottery. The mixed materials in the feet and toes suggest brittleness
in the latter part of the kingdom. While the toes and feet were composed of
clay and iron, in the interpretation, the two materials were treated together. No
significance was assigned to the distinction between toes and feet or to their
number, presumably ten.
The mixture is explained in verse 43 - “They
shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to
another, even as iron does not mingle with clay.” No information is
provided about the identities of the two groups; the stress is on the attempt
to “commingle with the seed of men.”
The interpretation concluded with the
establishment of God’s everlasting kingdom. “In the days of those
kings,” God would establish His domain. “Those kings” must
refer to the four kingdoms symbolized by the image’s components. The stone “without
hands” struck the single image on its feet and shattered “all these
kingdoms.”
Sovereignty passed from one kingdom to the next, but the earlier regimes did not disappear completely. Something from each survived in the successive realms, until the final destruction of the entire image.
The image was destroyed by the stone “cut
from the mountain.” The stone symbolized the “kingdom which shall never
be destroyed.” Its sovereignty “shall never be left to another people.”
To be “cut out without hands” pointed to divine intervention, not to human
effort. Daniel concluded his interpretation:
- “The great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure.”
Nebuchadnezzar prostrated himself before
Daniel, an act that anticipated the replacement of the World-Power by the kingdom
of God. Thus, the sovereign “head of fine gold” prostrated himself before
the powerless representative of the kingdom that was “cut out without hands.”
In verse 35, the stone “became a great mountain,
and filled the whole earth.” So, likewise, the pagan
king made Daniel great, gave him authority to govern the
“whole province of Babylon,” and appointed
him the “great one over all the wise men
of Babylon.” The dream-vision found a proleptic fulfillment
in the elevation of Daniel to the governorship of the province.
The chapter concludes by reaffirming through
the words of Nebuchadnezzar the central theme of the book - Yahweh is the
“God of gods, Lord of kings,” and He is sovereign over the
kingdoms of the world. Wittingly or not, the king acknowledged that his
authority was derived from the God of Israel.
Daniel’s reward was elevation to govern the “whole
province.” His three Jewish friends participated in this authority - “over
the affairs of the province.” Already, the everlasting kingdom was
establishing itself as God empowered Daniel in the land of Shinar.
At this point, the interpretation creates as
many questions as it answers. Do the four kingdoms follow each other
consecutively, or are they concurrent? Does each occupy the same territory? Who
and what are the other three kingdoms (only the head of gold has been
identified - Nebuchadnezzar)?
In Revelation. The declaration
of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar is echoed four times in Revelation: the “revelation
(apokalupsis) of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to
show to his servants, what things must come to pass (ha dei
genesthai) soon”:
- (Revelation 1:1) – “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to point out unto his servants the things which must needs come to pass soon” – (Also in Revelation 1:19, 4:1, 22:6).
What
for Daniel were predictions awaiting fulfillment in a remote future, in Revelation,
find their fulfillment in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, for in him, the
time of their fulfillment had arrived – (“For the season is at hand” – Revelation
1:3).
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