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Story I
Historical Setting:
Time: About 605
B.C.
Place: Babylon
Persons: Daniel,
Nebuchadnezzar, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, magicians and
sorcerers.
Scriptures: Daniel 2
This story, according to records,
happened about 605 B.C. Jehoiakim was king of Judah.
(See II Kings 23 and 24) Like many
kings before him, Jehoiakim was evil, and did not respect or
worship God. God had warned him, but he had not listened. So
it was, in the third year of his reign that God allowed
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the most powerful country in
the world, to come in and invade the land of Judah.
During this invasion, Nebuchadnezzar and his army took
possession of many of the vessels of the house of the Lord,
carrying them back to Babylon and putting them in the house of
their gods. At the same time he captured many young men, who
were in perfect physical condition, to take them back to
Babylon, where they were to be trained to work for him. Among
these men were four who loved and served God. Their names were
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, whom King
Nebuchadnezzar renamed, Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego.
The captives were given special training in skills and
sciences, and were taught the Chaldean language. During this
time of training, the captives were allotted the best food and
drink in the land, in order to build them up into strong young
men. But Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah did not want
to defile themselves with this special "king's food", so they
refused it, requesting rather, that they be fed vegetables
(lentils). After the years of special training King
Nebuchadnezzar picked the best of the men to be put in
important positions in the land. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah were all chosen.
The King's Secret Dream
One night King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. The dream
troubled him so much that he called in magicians, or wise men,
to help him with his dream. In they came, all excited. “Oh
King, tell us your dream,” they said, “and we will tell you
its meaning.” They were happy to be able to show the king
their wisdom.
“I can’t,” snapped Nebuchadnezzar. “I don’t remember it,
but I know that it has some sort of special meaning, because I
woke up in a cold sweat.” And then the king became angry, as
he often did when things didn’t go his way. “You are supposed
to be the wise men of my kingdom. You have to tell me my
dream. It is driving me mad! Get busy and tell me my dream, or
I will kill you,” he screamed at them.
“Oh King, there isn’t a man in all your vast kingdom who
could tell you what your dream means if you do not tell us
what it is. You are asking the impossible,” said the spokesman
for the magicians.
The king became more furious. “You are just stalling for
time,” he bellowed. "Get out of my sight. I will have you all
put to death.” So he ordered all the magicians and wise men in
the land to be gathered up to be killed.
The guards came to get Daniel and his friends, as they were
among the wise men, but were not among the ones called in by
the king. When the guards told Daniel why they had come,
Daniel said, “Why is the king in such a hurry? Take me to him
and let me talk with him.”
So Daniel was taken before King Nebuchadnezzar. When he
heard what it was that was troubling the king, he said, “Oh
King, spare the wise men of the land. Give me a little time,
and my God will show me what your dream is, and what it
means.”
The king wasn’t happy about having to wait, but he allowed
Daniel to go back to his house, to his three companions,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
That night the men had an all-night prayer meeting. They
asked the Lord God in Heaven to reveal to Daniel,
Nebuchadnezzar’s secret dream. While Daniel’s friends prayed,
Daniel had a dream, or vision. In it, God showed him what
Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed, and what the interpretation of the
dream was. But Daniel didn’t rush right back to the king to
tell him what God had revealed to him. No. He stopped to give
God thanks.
“Oh God, I give You praise. You are the One who has all the
wisdom. You are the One who determines world events. You set
kings up and throw kings down. You give wisdom and withhold
wisdom. You are the one who reveals mysteries. I give You my
thanks, Oh Holy One. You are the God of my fathers. It is You
who have given me my wisdom. You have told me what my friends
and I have asked of You. You have told me what the king has
demanded.”
Then Daniel called in the chief guard, Arioch, and said,
“Take me to the king. I can now tell him his dream.”
Arioch was relieved. He didn’t want the wise men to be
killed. Although he couldn’t do anything about it, he knew
that the king was very vain and foolish, and often made wrong
decisions. Quickly, he took Daniel in to see the king. “Oh
King, he said, “I have found someone who can interpret your
dream. He is one of the young men of Judah, whom you took
captive a few years ago. He can tell you what your dream is,
and its meaning.”
Daniel stood before the great King Nebuchadnezzar. The King
sat on his throne, all dressed up in his kingly robes. He had
a scowl on his face, and most people would have been bowing
before him, trembling. This king had the authority to kill
anyone, on the spot. But Daniel was not afraid of him.
“What’s this I hear?” bellowed the king. “Is this true? Can
you really tell me what my dream is, and what it means?”
"Oh King," said Daniel, in a clear confident voice. "There
is no wise man, magician or fortune teller who can tell the
king what he has dreamed. But God in heaven can tell him. He
is the revealer of secrets. He has told me your dream. Now I
will tell you what you dreamed when you lay upon your bed. I
will tell you what your vision meant.
“While you were sleeping God showed the great King
Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the future. God, the
revealer of secrets, was telling you about things to come. God
kept your dream a mystery so that He, through me, could
explain to you what your dream meant. If you had remembered
your dream, you may have put a wrong meaning on it. He wanted
to make sure you would know the dream was from Him.
“Oh King, what you saw in your dream was a huge statue of
an awesome and frightening, but brilliant, man. Its head was
made of pure gold; its chest and arms were of fine silver; its
stomach and thighs were made of bronze; and its legs were of
iron. Its feet were a combination of clay and iron.
“While you were looking at this great statue, an unseen
hand cut a huge boulder from a mountain and sent it crashing
down on to the statue. It struck the feet, crushing them to
powder. Then the whole statue collapsed into a heap, and the
statue lay like fine, powdery dust on the ground. A wind came
up and blew the powder away. There wasn’t a trace of the
statue left. And then the rock that crushed the statue grew
into a great mountain that covered the earth.”
Nebuchadnezzar sat spellbound while Daniel told him his
dream. He just couldn’t believe it! It was exactly as he had
seen it. As Daniel was telling it the king was recalling every
detail. How could this man have known? He shivered a little.
But what could this strange dream mean?
Daniel looked up at the king. “Oh King Nebuchadnezzar,”
Daniel began. “Now I am going to tell you the meaning of your
dream. You are the greatest king that has ever lived. God has
given you that power. He has made you the ruler of the world,
and has even put animals and birds under your power. YOU are
that head of gold.”
Nebuchadnezzar smiled. He liked what he had heard so far,
but he kept silent as Daniel continued with his
interpretation.
“But soon your kingdom will come to an end, as all kingdoms
must. After you, will come another kingdom, not as strong as
yours. After that, another, and another kingdom will be set
up, each one weaker than the one before. And then we come to
the feet. That kingdom will be a divided kingdom. Part of it
will be as strong as iron, and another part will be as weak as
clay. And then, Oh King, comes the large stone that comes
crashing down. That stone represents God’s Kingdom. It will
shatter all the kingdoms before it. God will set up a Kingdom
that will never be destroyed. And it will last forever.”
As Daniel finished his speech, the great King
Nebuchadnezzar bowed his face to the ground. “Oh Daniel, truly
God is the God of gods, the King of kings, the Lord over all
the earth, the revealer of secrets.”
The king was so pleased that Daniel could tell him his
dream, and its meaning, that he ordered Daniel and his friends
to be set up as the most important chiefs in all of the great
land of Babylon.
© Helen Dowd.
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