Daniel 2:24-45
Daniel 2:24-45
New King James Version (NKJV)
Daniel Explains the Dream
24 Therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation.”
25 Then Arioch quickly brought Daniel before the king, and said thus to him, “I have found a man of the captives of Judah, who will make known to the king the interpretation.”
26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen, and its interpretation?”
27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, “The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. 28 But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these: 29 As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. 30 But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.
31 “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. 32 This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. 37 You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; 38 and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold. 39 But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 40 And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. 41 Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. 43 As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. 44 And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 45 Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
My Thoughts:
We see that the first thing that Arioch did was tell the king that he had found the person that could make known the kings dream. But in contrast Daniel did not take any credit for the knowledge that he held, he states in (v. 28) that “there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets” This says a lot about Daniel (Gen. 40:8).
So what about the dream?
We see a great image, during these times many people would bow at the feet of their gods, so it would stand to reason that God would use an imagery that the king could understand to show him what was to come.
Let’s look at (vv. 32-34) “This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.”
Daniel describes the image that the king saw and unlike the other wise men Daniel was not vague about the image details. He breaks it down piece by piece, even describing how the rock was cut and the how it struck the image and there would be nothing left of the image in the end.
In (v. 37) Daniel begins by telling the king that he is the golden head and that God has given a great kingdom to rule (Jer. 27:6, 7). At this point I am sure that the king’s chest was popping out and he was very happy, but Daniel does not stop there, he continues by telling him that there will be others that follow, and what makes it worse, they will be inferior to his kingdom (Era. 1:2).
So what so the image represent?
Head – God – Babylon – 605 – 539 B.C.
Chest and Arms – Silver – Medo-Persia – 539 – 331 B.C.
Belly and thighs – Bronze – Greece – 331 – 168 B.C.
Legs – Iron – Rome – 168 B.C. – A.D. 476
Feet – Iron and Clay – Divided kingdoms
We can see that the prophecy is specific. And the image is talking about Babylon and its successors.
Ellen White Statements:
“Daniel was imbued with the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and he pleaded that the wise men of Babylon should not be destroyed. The followers of Christ do not possess the attributes of Satan, which make it a pleasure to grieve and afflict the creatures of God. They have the Spirit of their Master who said, “I am come to seek and to save that which was lost. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Had Daniel possessed the same quality of religious zeal which is so quickly inflamed today in the churches, and men are led by it to afflict and oppress and destroy those who do not serve God after their prescribed plan, he would have said to Arioch, “These men who claim to be wise men are deceiving the king. They have not the knowledge they claim to have and should be destroyed. They dishonor the God of heaven, they serve idols, and their lives in no way do honor to God; let them die; but bring me in before the king and I will show unto the king the interpretation.” The transforming grace of God was made manifest in His servant, and he pleaded most earnestly for the lives of the very men who afterwards in a secret, underhanded manner, made plans by which they thought to put an end to the life of Daniel. These men became jealous of Daniel because he found favor with kings and nobles, and was honored as the greatest man in Babylon.”—Letter 90, 1894, p. 3. (To “Dear Children,” May 29, 1894.) {2MR 319}
Last thoughts:
So for me the one thing that caught my eye was the fact that after Daniel thanked God and praised Him for showing him the dream and giving him the interpretation of the dream. Then he told Arioch not to kill the other wise men. Daniel could have let them die; they were false (I hate to say prophets) but they did clam to know the future. But as Ellen White said Daniel had Christ in his heart and with that he could have done nothing else.
But what about the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands? Daniel is talking about the kingdom of God and makes it clear that His kingdom will never fall (Luke 1:32, 33)
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This is so fantastic! This dream was no ordinary dream. This was prophetic info that would be a benefit to the king and to us on down in time. We see that the four kingdoms that were represented by gold, silver, brass and iron came and went as God had said. Looking back over history, we see that there were not five or six more kingdoms, and there were none less either. This prophecy is specific. It is not talking about the entire world but about Babylon and its successors. It does not say that no group of nations will be able to unite for any common action till the end of time. It says the divided nations that replaced the Roman empire will never be politically united in a single empire. Many attempts have been made to unite nations throughout history, like Europe marrying royalty from other countries. We all can see how well that worked. God knows what must be done to make everything ready for His coming. The stone cut by no human hand. That is the Kingdom we must look forward to.
the book of Daniel is an amazing book and I love to read it.
Love how Daniel was humbled and gave God the glory and showed mery toward the “wise” men who didn’t like him…fuuny when you these are probably the same guys who later trick the king into throwing him into the lion’s den.
I have always wondered what happened when Daniel was put in charge of the wise men. Did he try training them in the ways of God or did he just let them be? Whatever he did they did not like him and they did everything they could to see him fail. But they forgot that God was beside Daniel and nothing would ever change that.