One of the factors that make reading the book of Daniel so interesting but often so puzzling is that Daniel’s prophecy is frequently expressed in pictures and symbols. (We think, for example, of the animals mentioned in chapters 7 and 8, or of the mysterious numbers in chapter 9). In this chapter we’re told that Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar had a mysterious dream involving a statue. The king was troubled by his dream and suspected that it might very well have a symbolic meaning; his gods might be wanting to tell him something through the dream. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream did indeed have a special message, but not from the gods of Babylon. The God of heaven and earth was announcing something, and not only to king Nebuchadnezzar. The message of chapter 2 is a message God’s ancient people of Israel needed to hear, for it presents the broad outline of God’s future plan for the nations. And this is a message that God’s people of today still need to hear.
In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. 2 So the king summoned summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, 3 he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”
We’re told about an important event that took place in the second year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. It seems that Daniel had not even completed his three-year training program when God gave him an unusual opportunity to use the special gifts he had given him.
“Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep.” The Bible speaks of some dreams as very ordinary—the kind of dreams most people have during their sleep. To this kind of dream the Bible attaches no religious significance. But we also know that in Bible times God often revealed special information to people through their dreams. Remember, for instance, how God informed the Egyptian pharaoh by means of two dreams that the country of Egypt would experience seven years of abundant crops, followed by seven years of famine (Genesis 41). Remember how before the birth of the Christ Child, God sent a message to Joseph by means of a dream (Matthew 1:20,21).
King Nebuchadnezzar had this special kind of dream. In fact, he dreamed several dreams, one of which finally awakened and disturbed him. After that, there was no rest for the king; he was so troubled that sleep was out of the question. The king was convinced that his dreams in some way announced the future of Babylon. Since he didn’t know what that meaning was, he called in his wise men to tell him.
“The king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers.” To understand who these people were, we’ll have to remember that the Babylonians worshiped many gods, perhaps as many as four thousand different ones. There was a father of all the gods, as well as a mother goddess. The Babylonians worshiped a sun god and a moon god, a god of the sky and a god of the earth, a god of the water and a goddess of love, to name just a few. To learn what the will of the gods was, the Babylonians consulted people who specialized in finding out such information.
To a Babylonian, living in a world of gods and demons, it was also important to have a means of frustrating the forces of evil; this required another kind of specialist. Still another group of religious officials were the enchanters, who claimed to be able to soften the heart of the gods with song. Four different groups of the king’s wise men are mentioned here, and several more are named elsewhere in the book of Daniel.
These religious advisers were highly respected; they were consulted on matters relating to everything from Babylon’s agriculture to her foreign policy. Ancient kings regularly consulted them before making major decisions. This is what King Nebuchadnezzar now did when his dream disturbed him.
4 Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.” 5 The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble. 6 But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.”
“The astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, ‘O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.’” An interesting fact which the reader of the English Bible would not be able to recognize is that beginning here and continuing on through chapter 7, the language of the book of Daniel is not Hebrew, but Aramaic. Hebrew was the language of the Jewish people; Aramaic was the language used throughout the Babylonian Empire. It’s a member of the Semitic family of languages; think of it as a cousin to the Hebrew language. It is significant to note that the message which Daniel would announce concerning a world power was given not in the language of the Jews but in the language of the world power.
Nebuchadnezzar’s astrologers responded with the politeness that was customary when dealing with an absolute monarch: “O king, live forever!” They added a request that seems perfectly reasonable to us: “Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”
Nebuchadnezzar, however, refused to tell them the dream. Instead he insisted that they repeat the dream to him. The king’s reason is not immediately clear. According to the NIV, the king simply told his wise men: “This is what I have firmly decided” (literally, “The matter has been decided by me”). The King James Version translates the phrase as such: “The thing is gone from me.” According to this translation, the king had actually forgotten his dream and wanted his wise men to use their magic arts to find out what the dream was that had frightened him, and then to interpret the meaning of the dream for him. The difference in translation arises from the fact that the meaning of one Aramaic word here is uncertain. Most dictionaries agree that the NIV translation of the word is the correct one. The king was putting his sorcerers and magicians to the test. God had given Nebuchadnezzar the dream in such a way that the king could not doubt that the dream was unusually significant. The king was convinced the dream contained a message for him, but in a veiled and indistinct way, and he needed someone to explain it.
But this raised a new problem. How could the king be sure the interpretation his wise men would give him would be the true one, not just the product of someone’s lively imagination? The king therefore decided that whoever would interpret his dream would first of all have to prove his ability by repeating the details of the dream which had troubled the king and ruined his night’s sleep. If the man could do this, the king could be sure his interpretation was correct.
King Nebuchadnezzar offered handsome rewards to the wise men if they could repeat and explain his dream: “You will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor.” The most powerful king of his day was capable of keeping this promise.
But what didn’t make the Babylonian wise men any happier was that the most powerful king on earth was also able to carry out his threat: “If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.” From what we know about King Nebuchadnezzar, he was indeed capable of such vengeance. In the very next chapter we’re told that this same king sentenced three young men to be burned to death in a fiery furnace because they refused to worship an image of gold that he had set up. Less than 20 years later, when the city of Jerusalem fell to the armies of Babylon and the Jewish king Zedekiah tried to escape, he was captured and brought before Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet Jeremiah tells us that Nebuchadnezzar killed Zedekiah’s sons before his very eyes, then blinded him and deported him in chains to Babylon, where he died in prison (Jeremiah 52:10,11). The wise men of Babylon knew that the king was not only able to carry out his threat; they knew he would not hesitate to carry it out if they did not repeat the details of his dream and explain them.