Trusting God's Plan in the Fire: Lessons From the Book of DanielSample

If you ever wondered if God can speak to those that don’t know Him, King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is a great example of this. God gave this pagan Babylonian king a prophetic glimpse into the future.

Daniel meets with the king to explain the dream, and consequently puts an end to the execution of the wise men. When asked if Daniel can interpret the dream, he says,“No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come.” v 27 - 28

Daniel is not taking credit for interpreting the dream, but instead gives God all the glory. Here is the dream in a nutshell. Neb sees a statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron and feet made partly of iron and partly of baked clay. At a point during the dream, a rock strikes the statue at its feet and breaks the entire statue to pieces. Only the rock remains.

Daniel explains that King Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom is symbolically represented as the gold head, and other kingdoms that follow are represented as other parts of the statue. Then he says a rock, not made with human hands, will come and destroy them all. That rock will“crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.” v 45

So how was this prophetic? Biblical scholars believe we can now see the future kingdoms God was predicting through the dream:

• Gold head = Babylonian empire
• Silver chest and arms = Medo-Persian empire
• Bronze belly and thighs = Greek empire
• Iron and clay legs and feet = Roman empire
• Rock = Jesus Christ the Messiah

All these major kingdoms were built and later destroyed, except for one, God’s eternal kingdom that Jesus set up when he died for the sins of everyone in the world, including you and me. Jesus represented the rock that would never be destroyed. He still is our rock today!

After Daniel’s correct description and interpretation of the dream, King Nebuchadnezzar recognized that Daniel’s God was the“God of all gods and the Lord of kings” v. 46. How cool is that? The king was so impressed that he promoted Daniel.

“Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. Moreover, at Daniel’s request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court.”

Daniel 2: 48 - 49

Questions:

1. Have you ever had a dream that actually came true? What happened?

2. Why do you think God allowed a pagan king to have a prophetic dream?

3. What can you learn from God in this passage?