So, the first thing that strikes me out of this chapter is the sheer comedy of the first part of it. King Neb (forgive me but I can’t be typing that more than a few times) has a dream which he doesn’t understand and when he asks the wise men to interpret it for them he stipulates that not only must they interpret it but they must tell him the dream as well! If they don’t do this then they will be put to death - which would still leave the king not knowing what the dream meant. So when the astrologers say that this cannot be done and the king goes barmy and orders the death of all the wise men in Babylon, including Daniel and his friends.
There is some wisdom in this logic though - for King Neb knows that only something greater than humans can provide an adequate explanation of this vision and that can be done, then they will know what the vision was in the first place. We know that God can provide wisdom and insight into peoples lives just as Jesus did when talking to the Samaritan woman and it seems to me that this is a classic example of how God literally engineers a situation to bring about His will and His glory.
The thing about it is that Gods name would not have been glorified had Daniel not gone to the King and pleaded for time to intepret the dream. The bible doesn’t say that God instructed Daniel to go and plead for time with the King - it simply says that Daniel saw that if he didn’t, he would be killed and knew that his God was the only God who could rescue him. This really speaks to me - as sometimes when I live my life I am constantly asking God to confirm to me really obviously that I am doing His will. While there is nothing wrong with that in itself, this passage shows me that God has placed me in the situations I am in, in the job that I am in, with the friends that I have and God is going to use that for His glory. I don’t need a bellowing voice from God to know that I should help out a friend when they are in need for example, I should just do it - because God will be at work in that situation because He knew it was going to happen and can engineer good things out of all situations.
So Daniel tells the King his dream and interprets it for Him. The vision depicts a large statue made up of different materials and the materials represent future kingdoms of that time:
- The head of Gold we know is the Babylonian empire.
- The chest and arms of silver is believed to be the Medo-Persian empire that ruled from 539BC until 33BC.
- The bely and thighs of bronze represent the Greek empire that ruled from 330BC until 63BC.
- The legs of iron are believed to represent the roman empire.
The final kingdom talked about is the rock that is ‘cut out, but not by human hands’ that destroys the statue and forms a huge mountain that covers the whole earth. This rock represents the eternal Kingdom of God which is built on the ruins of the sinful empires of man. The kingdoms authority is over the whole earth and this has some parrallels with Revalation 21.
The last thing that strikes me about this passage is what happens to Daniel after he tells the King what his vision meant. It says the King lavished many gifts on him and gave him a better job. Sometimes in life people can make you feel guilty if you have more money than someone else, or a better job, or a nicer car, or whatever… But I really believe that God grants us these priveldges when He knows that we can be trusted to use them wisely. Daniel was granted a position of authority for what God did - but God knew that Daniel could be trusted to be wise with that and not allow it to go to his head. So when we find that we have more money than usual at the end of the month, don’t feel guilty about it! Live your life hungering after God, doing the things He wants and He will reward you and take care of our every need.
