Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

  

 

Daniel 2:1-16

 

March 5, 2024

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.  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.”  Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.”  The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.  But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore, show me the dream and its interpretation.”  They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.”  The king answered and said, “I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see that the word from me is firm— if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore, tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.”  The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean.  The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

Because of this, the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed.  So, the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them.  Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.   He declared to Arioch, the king's captain, “Why is the decree of the king so urgent?” Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel.  And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.

Nebuchadnezzar reminds me of a boss I work for, the guy sits beside you in your car and on calls takes some kind of notes, but would not share how you were doing are whether he was writing something good are bad.  Always telling you he was so much better than you.  But he never threatened to have me torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. In fact, he never even threatened to fire me.

Do you understand these guys were good con men? They made their living telling the king what he wanted to hear.  I bet if you worked in corporate USA, you worked with some of those people, and they often were put over others; they were posers, only knowing how to ask what the boss believed or wanted and do that.  They were and are as worthless as these magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, were to the King.

What the king did not know was that Daniel was a man who knew the God of Creation, who knew what the king was going to say before a word came out of his mouth.  So, all David needed to do was ask God to reveal the dream to him and its meaning to him.  

As followers of Christ, we have the Spirit of God living in us, so why do we not ask Him to guide us in wisdom?

From our Back Porch,

Bob Rice