Kingdom Down: A Study in DanielSample

God is in Control of Who is in Control

In Daniel chapter 2, the plot thickens as the godless king Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. His spirit was troubled by it and he didn’t understand the meaning of it, so he calls spiritual advisers who attempt to interpret it. These guys don’t know much and can’t figure it out either, and they even go so far as to say that only God or a man of God will be able to interpret it.

This angers the king so much that he wants to execute all the “wise” men of the land. What we learn here is that even the most powerful guy on earth and his “wise” men can’t manipulate God into doing what he wants. The big idea is this: don't be surprised when people don't understand the Bible, don't like the Bible, or don't make sense of the Bible, because that which isn’t of God can’t interpret that which is from the Holy Spirit. That's where you need the Spirit of God in you to interpret the Scriptures that He has written. If a revelation comes from God, only the Spirit of God can interpret it.

Daniel finds out about the dream and the decree to kill all the wise men and immediately tells his godly friends and starts praying. From this, we see that he has a crew that helps him through his crisis, and that he has an incredible prayer life. Prayer is how we recognize that He sees what we don't see, knows what we don't know, and has wisdom for how to obey Him and make it through our battles, in this case in Babylon. Often, urgency and crisis fuel prayer. When there is a crisis, you pray differently.

Daniel’s first reaction to God revealing the interpretation to him is to praise. This is remarkable. He has a lot of reasons to complain and be fearful, but instead he focuses on the character of God. When Daniel approaches the king, the reason he could even stand before the king is because he knelt before the King of Kings. Everyone comes into the divine throne room and they kneel down to worship the king, but he's not impressed with the counterfeit and he doesn't kneel to the counterfeit king; he stands because he's already knelt to the real King. This is where your prayer life sets up the rest of your life and, in my experience, divine revelation from God comes in the context of prayer and praise.

Next comes the prophecy. This might surprise you, but at the time of its writing, 20% of the Bible was prophetic in nature. That’s unique to our Holy Book, and we see an example here with the statue that God reveals to Nebuchadnezzar. His dream and Daniel's vision was this massive, towering, powerful person that represents a succession of earthly kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar looked and he saw his head at the top, which Daniel interpreted to mean the Babylonian kingdom of gold, mostly stolen from the temple in Israel. Then there is a succession of empires: Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman. After him comes the Medo-Persian Empire. This is the chest and arms of silver. The conquest of Babylon and the Babylonian Empire are recorded in Esther. After that comes the Greek Empire, which was brought into existence historically by Alexander the Great. When he would march into war, the breast plates for his soldiers, their swords, their shields and their helmets were made of bronze. Lastly, the Roman Empire was the most powerful nation on the Earth in its day as well. Just like the analogy of the iron and clay not holding together strongly, this empire kept expanding but eventually had such a wide geographic dominion, with so much disparity, that it collapsed. This is the empire under which Jesus is born. Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream revealed that earthly kingdoms will come and go but the Kingdom of God will never end.

When you think you hear from the Lord, how do you discern it? How can you increase wise counsel, prayer, and praise in your life?