Attention Please

By Pastor Dan Hickling

“In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.”—Daniel 2:1 (ESV) 

The first chapter of the Book of Daniel introduced the key characters of this unfolding drama to us. We’ve met Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (more commonly known by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Ebed-Nego), as well as the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. But as we come to chapter two, we’re going to see how these characters relate to one another within God’s divine plan.

It all starts with Nebuchadnezzar having a series of troubling dreams. Now, as we’re going to see, these dreams came directly from God, which is an important point to underscore because it establishes how the Lord is ultimately in control. Here we have the most powerful man on the planet at that time. And yet, he cannot control what goes on in his own head as he sleeps. God plants these dreams in his mind to get this man’s attention . . . and it works! 

Nebuchadnezzar can’t let go. He has a strong sense there’s something important behind these dreams, something he’s meant to understand. But they only bewilder him, so he enlists those who were supposed to make sense of such things: “Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. And the king said to them, ‘I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream’” (Daniel 2:2-3 ESV).

This will be our stopping point in the story for now, but we can’t miss an important truth that God’s Word gives to us in these opening verses. We see here that God is able to get through to anyone. 

If there was someone that would seem “unreachable” in Daniel’s day, it would have surely been Nebuchadnezzar. Who would have seemed further from God than the man who sat on the throne of a pagan empire? Yet God knew just how to reach him and awaken his sense of longing for spiritual understanding. 

This is just the first step in God’s plan to draw Nebuchadnezzar to Himself, and we will see that the king has a long way to go in that spiritual journey. But the Lord begins that process here. Let’s allow this to serve as an encouragement to us that nobody is beyond God’s reach, and He knows just how to reach them. May we be open and willing to be part of that process!

DIG: How did God get Nebuchadnezzar’s attention?

DISCOVER: What spiritual truth does this opening account underscore?

DO: Pray and ask the Lord how He might use you in reaching someone who seems “unreachable.”