On this page we will study Daniel 2:24-38
As we studied on our previous page Daniel Chapter Two Daniel 2:1-23 we discovered that King Nebuchadnezzer had a dream and not only couldn’t he remember the dream he had, he wanted an interpretation for that dream. He called his ‘magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans’ Daniel 2:2, wanting them to tell him what the dream was and interpret it for him.
Not surprisingly they couldn’t tell the King what he wanted to know. It was one thing to give an interpretation based on information given to you, another altogether to be told you had to supply the information yourself. They told the king he was asking the impossible.
Daniel quickly asked to be able to help out and he immediately went to his three companions and they started to pray and God revealed the dream to Daniel in a night vision. After receiving the vision Daniel praised and thanked God for answering their prayers.
Only after he gave praise to God did he go to take care of the business at hand- telling the king.
READ Daniel 2:24 -- Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to (1)_______ the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus unto him: Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation.
The first thing Daniel says to Arioch the man ordained to kill the wise men of Babylon (as the king ordered when they couldn’t fulfill their duty to him) was not to destroy them. He went on to say that he needed to be taken to the king because he could show him what he wanted to know.
Why do you think Daniel made a plea for the heathen sorcerers, magicians, and such? Why do you think he wanted the lives of the king’s wise men spared? God is merciful, and being counted among the wise men, Daniel knew allowing them to live would show that mercy and it would also have them knowing who spared their lives- not Daniel, but Daniel’s God who was the revealer of the dream. Their gods were powerless in the face of the one true eternal God.
A similar occurrence can be read here- READ Acts 16:26.
‘And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were (2) ______: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.
This is the account of Paul and Silas in prison. Whose power freed them, and those with them? God’s.
Also- Paul on the ship and all that sail with him were spared. READ Acts 27:24.
‘Saying, (3)____ not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.’
The wicked profit from the presence of the righteous it would seem. Why is the world even spared today, right now?
Look at Lot concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, the whole wicked city would have been spared had there been only ten righteous people in it.
READ Genesis 18:16-33 And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that [are] therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which [am but] dust and ashes: Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for [lack of] five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy [it. ] And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do [it] for forty’s sake. And he said [unto him,] Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do [it,] if I find thirty there. And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy [it] for twenty’s sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy [it] for ten’s sake. And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.
And the result? Were there even ten righteous who would have saved all the wicked? No.
Genesis 19:27-29 And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.
Here is Daniel asking for the lives of the wicked to be spared, something that isn’t unheard of in God’s mercy.
READ Daniel 2:25 -- Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in (4)_____, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.
Earlier Daniel had asked for time and it had been granted him so the king in all likelihood remembered the request when Arioch brought Daniel in to see him. It’s not surprising that Arioch took a bit of credit for himself, why not, Daniel had come to him to ask him to spare the wisemen, why not bring the man in that had the possibility of giving the king what he wanted.
READ Daniel 2:26-28 -- The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou (5) ____ to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? 27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The dream which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king; 28 but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the (6) ______ days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these.
Notice right off that Daniel didn’t take any credit at all for being able to give the king the interpretation he wanted. The first thing Daniel did was remind the king that he’d asked all his wisemen, astrologers, magicians and soothsayers and none could help him. It wasn’t likely the king had forgotten, he had sentence the numerous men to death he’d been so vexed by their uselessness. Who did Daniel say could give the king what he wanted? He didn’t say that he had come to reveal the secret, no. Daniel said ‘there is a God in heaven that revealth secrets’. God would do this, not Daniel. God would show the king what would be in the latter days. With it established that God was the power behind the revelation, Daniel continued.
READ Daniel 2:29-30 -- As, for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to (7)____ hereafter; and He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. 30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.
God was giving King Nebuchadnezzer a message, something that would help the king know the thought of his own heart. As a king it’s not unheard of that he’d be interested in the future of his kingdom to best prepare for whatever was in store. What king wouldn’t want to know the future if they could? Nebuchadnezzar was gifted by God with this dream and the interpretation. It’s easy to conclude that Nebuchandnezzar was worthy of such a vision- God had to have deemed him so to give something this important to him. He wasn’t the sort of king solely involved in his kingdom for avarice or conceit. He wasn’t interested in the base things of the world, but his kingdom being run to the best of his ability. Bringing out the truth this way God is pointing out the folly of the king’s own magicians and such, and letting him know that there is only one true God. Also, God did not just give the king the dream and interpretation, He used his people, those who even in captivity had kept their hearts pure to him.
First, Daniel takes absolutely no credit for learning of the dream and the interpretation, none. He even told the king he was given the dream not for himself, but for those he was working through as well. How bold to tell the king the dream wasn’t just for him. In truth the king had to realize that if it weren’t for God’s chosen he would never have learned the truth of the matter.
By revealing this dream to Daniel, God accomplished so much. He made known to the king the things he wanted. He spared his chosen (Daniel and his companions). He made it perfectly clear that only the One true God has the power to reveal dreams and interpretations. All those kings wisemen- the sorcerers, magicians, soothsayers and the like were put to shame for their false ways. God also honored his own name and lifted up his own servants in the king’s realm.
READ Daniel 2:31- 35 Verse 31 -- Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great (8)_____. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 32 This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 33 his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of (9)____. 34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out (10) _______ hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole (12)_____.
Daniel explains the dream first- something that the king obviously understood well because the Chaldean religion was a religion that worshipped idols. The king was a practitioner of this religion and understood the importance of statues to those who worship idols.
Getting Nebuchadnezzar’s attention had to be fairly easy with talk of this great image and the fact it represented earthly kingdoms.
Daniel didn’t have the same love for objects of worship and not unsurprisingly in Daniel Chapter 7, these same earthly kingdoms represented by this magnificent statue are then represented by cruel wild beasts.
God surely understands the ways of man, he knew Nebuchadnezzar would be at once captivate by such a dream with it image of the future. That the image starts out with the most precious of metals, gold isn’t lost on the king either. As each subsequent kingdom is represented by a less valued metal until we have the basest substance, all this wouldn’t be lost on the very astute king. The fact God has the entire statue broken to pieces also was very significant. Nebuchadnezzar had to realize that God was conveying to him that all these earthly kingdoms mean nothing in light of His own glorious kingdom. Earthly things constantly passed away, change never ending, but God’s kingdom would never pass away.
Read on…
READ Daniel 2:36- 38 Verse 36 -- This is the (12)______; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. 37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings; for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.
Daniel begins to interpret the Dream.
Amazing that in the next eight verses embraces the entire history of the world’s powers. Simply amazing. Just think about it…twenty-six centuries ago this dream was given and all the future world ruling empires in that portion of the world were foretold. Who cannot be amazed?
In such a short passage in the Bible so very much is revealed. It could be from no other than God and we have the distinct fortune to be able to look back through history and see His most amazing love for us. It is out of love God gives us His word, lets study it well with a heart guided by Him.
Picture yourself in King Nebuchadnezzar’s place as he listens to Daniel inform him that his kingdom was this amazing golden head upon such a diverse image. What king wouldn’t want to be held in such high esteem? Not only did Daniel tell him that his kingdom is represented by the golden head of the statue, he also tells him it’s because of God that he has this kingdom. Daniel didn’t want the king thinking for one moment that God was patting him on the back for his success with his kingdom, something that would be easy to do. He wanted Nebuchadnezzar to know that it was God’s doing that he’d attained such an amazing kingdom.
This kingdom hadn’t been founded by Nebuchadnezzer, but by Nimrod, the great grandson of Noah, over 2000 years before Christ was born. Read Genesis 10:8-10-‘And Cush begat Nimrod; and he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel [margin Babylon], and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.’
Nimrod also founded the city of Nineveh, which afterward became the capital of Syria. (look at the margin of Genesis 10:11, and Johnson's Cyclopedia, art. Syria.)
The following sketch of the history of Babylon from Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia, art. Babylon is according to the latest authorities on this subject:
"About 1270 B.C., the Assyrian kings became masters of Chaldea, or Babylonia, of which Babylon was the capital. This country was afterward ruled by an Assyrian dynasty of kings, who reigned at Babylon, and sometimes waged war against those who reigned in Assyria proper. At other times the kings of Babylon were tributary to those of Assyria. Several centuries elapsed in which the history of Babylon is almost a blank. In the time of Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, Nabonassar ascended the throne of Babylon in 747 B.C. He is celebrated for the chronological era which bears his name, and which began in 747 B.C. About 720 Merodach-baladan became king of Babylon, and sent ambassadors to Hezekiah, king of Judah (see 2 Kings 20, and Isa. 39). A few Years later, Sargon, king of Assyria, defeated and dethroned Merodach-baladan. Sennacherib completed the subjection of Babylon, which he annexed to the Assyrian empire about 690 B.C. The conquest of Nineveh and the subversion of the Assyrian empire, which was effected about 625 B.C., By Cyaxeres the Mede, and his ally Nabopolassar, the rebellious governor of Babylon, enabled the latter to found the Babylonian empire, which was the fourth of Rawlinson's ' Five Great Monarchies,' and included the valley of the Euphrates, Susiana, Syria, and Palestine. His reign lasted about twenty-one years, and was probably pacific, as the history of it is nearly a blank; but in 605 B.C. his army defeated Necho, king of Egypt, who had invaded Syria. He was succeeded by his more famous son, Nebuchadnezzar (604 B.C.) who was the greatest of the kings of Babylon."
Impressive history to say the least.
Fulfilling the Dream: Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the first year of his reign, in the third year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah (Dan. 1:1), B.C. 606. Nebuchadnezzar reigned two years with his father, Nabopolassar. From this point the Jews computed his reign, but the Chaldeans from the date of his sole reign, 604 B.C., as stated above.
Respecting the successors of Nebuchadnezzar, the authority above quoted adds:"He died in 561 B.C., and was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach, who reigned only two years. Nabonadius (or Labynetus), who became king in 555 B.C., formed an alliance with Croesus against Cyrus the Great. He appears to have shared the royal power with his son, Belshazzar, whose mother was a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. Cyrus besieged Babylon, which he took by stratagem in 538 B.C., and with the death of Belshazzar, whom the Persians killed, the kingdom of Babylon ceased to exist."
When we say that the image of Daniel Chapter Two symbolizes the four great prophetic universal monarchies, and place Babylon as the first of these, it is asked how this can be true, when every country in the world was not absolutely under the dominion of any one of them.
Thus Babylon never conquered Grecia or Rome; but Rome was founded before Babylon had risen to the zenith of its power. Rome's position and influence, however, were then altogether prospective; and it is nothing against the prophecy that God begins to prepare his agents long years before they enter upon the prominent part they are to perform in the fulfillment of prophecy.
We have to look at this as Daniel would, and view these kingdoms from the same standpoint. We have to consider his writings in the light of the location he occupied, the time in which he wrote, and the circumstances by which he was surrounded. It is a clear rule of interpretation that we may look for nations to be noticed in prophecy when they become so far connected with the people of God that mention of them becomes necessary to make the records of sacred history complete.
When this was the case with Babylon, it was, from Daniel’s view, the great and over towering object in the political world. In his eye, it necessarily overwhelmed all else; and he would obviously speak of it as a kingdom having rule over all the earth.
So far as we know, all provinces or countries against which Babylon did move in the height of its power, were subdued by them. In this sense, all were in its power; and this fact will explain the somewhat hyperbolical language of verse 38. That there were some portions of territory and considerable numbers of people unknown to history, and outside the pale of civilization as it then existed, which were neither discovered nor subdued, is not a fact of sufficient strength or importance to condemn the expression of the prophet, or to falsify the prophecy.
In 606 B.C. Babylon came in contact with the people of God, when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and led Judah into captivity. It comes at this point, consequently, into the field of prophecy, at the end of the Jewish special providence.
The character of this empire is indicated by material making up that portion of the image by which it was symbolized - the head of gold.
It was the golden kingdom of a golden era. Babylon, as a kingdom, rose to a height never reached by any of its successors.
Situated in the garden of the East; laid out in a perfect square sixty miles in circumference, fifteen miles on each side; surrounded by a wall three hundred and fifty feet high and eighty-seven feet thick, with a moat, or ditch, around this, of equal cubic capacity with the wall itself; divided into six hundred and seventy-six squares, each two and a quarter miles in circumference, by its fifty streets, each one hundred and fifty feet in width, crossing each other at right angles, twenty-five running each way, every one of them straight and level and fifteen miles in length; its two hundred and. twenty-five square miles of enclosed surface, divided as just described, laid out in luxuriant pleasure-grounds and gardens, interspersed with magnificent dwellings, - this city, with its, sixty miles of moat, its sixty miles of outer wall, its thirty miles of river wall through its center, its hundred and fifty gates of solid brass, its hanging gardens, rising terrace above terrace, till they equaled in height the walls themselves, its temple of Belus, three miles in circumference, its two palaces, one three and a half, and the other eight miles in circumference, with its subterranean tunnel under the River Euphrates connecting these tow palaces, its perfect arrangement for convenience, ornament, and defense, and its unlimited resources, - this city, containing in itself many things which were themselves wonders of the world, was itself another and still mightier wonder.
Never before was there a city like it on earth and never since has there been its equal.
Such was Babylon, with Nebuchadnezzar, in the prime of life, bold, enterprising, and accomplished, seated upon its throne, when Daniel entered its walls to serve as a captive for seventy years.
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Because the study of Daniel chapter 2 is very lengthy it will be broken up into several pages.
This concludes Daniel 2b The study of Daniel 2:24-38
(1) destroy Daniel 2:24
(2) shaken Acts 16:26
(3) Fear Acts 27:25
(4) haste Daniel 2:25
(5) able Daniel 2:26
(6) latter Daniel 2:28
(7) pass Daniel 2:29
(8) image Daniel 2:31
(9) clay Daniel 2:33
(10) without Daniel 2:34
(11) earth Daniel 2: 25
(12) dream Daniel 2:36