Daniel Chapter Two

Daniel chapter two is another presentation that shows that God, the I Am, is also the Master of time. He is able to reveal what has not happened yet for He is able to see into the future and to make provision for all manifestations of the truth. Isaiah 46:9-10 reveals our God to be able to declare the end from the beginning. He is able to see into the past, the present, and the future with no problem and has no difficulty sharing this information with whomsoever He chooses. This revelation of history is key to understanding the book of Daniel and is also key in understanding the many mysteries in all of the other books of the Bible as well. Our God is able to do something that no man can do, and can do what no heathen god can do – He knows what is in the future.

In Daniel 2:1 King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and the dream troubled him. Daniel reports that Nebuchadnezzar had been what should come to pass in the future and these thoughts concerned him. Daniel 2:29 Nebuchadnezzar tried to figure out his dream, but he could not. Because he could not discern the future Nebuchadnezzar turns to his source of wisdom - man. Since there are no gods in Babylon, except Satan, he has no one to turn to to give him answers to his spiritual questions. Nebuchadnezzar asks the wise men of his time, the think tanks, the college professors, the church pastors, the spiritualists, the psychics, the wizards, warlocks, those who use horoscopes, and not one of them could answer the king’s questions. This is one of those stories in the Bible that conveys the idea that Satan cannot read minds. He tries, through his representatives, to get information from Nebuchadnezzar but the king can't remember to give any detail about the dream. Satan cannot get any information to give to his agents, II Corinthians 11:13-15. The king starts to threaten and still cannot get what he wants. The wise men eventually accidentally tell the truth in v. 11 nobody can tell these things but God. This truth is a central theme all through Daniel and Revelation. Jesus the Creator is the God we must worship, study, and copy in our hearts and minds for He is the One and only God and He knows all things.

The king eventually got so frustrated that he sent out a death decree to kill all the wise men of Babylon, which would include Daniel and his three friends.  When the soldiers go out to gather all the wise men, including Daniel and his friends. Daniel again was very diplomatic and friendly with all including Arioch the captain of the guard. Arioch tells Daniel the story of what the king desires to do and Daniel asks to visit the king to get time to seek out the One who knows all - God. The king is responsive to the request and gives Daniel time to pray to God because he wanted to know the answer to his questions.

As Daniel prayed to God, God heard his prayers and He answered Daniel’s prayer according to the principle where two or more are gathered together in my name I am there and if two or more are agreed then I will answer your prayer. Matthew 18:15-20. God answered Daniel’s prayer and Daniel praises His holy name for doing what no one else in the universe could do and that is to tell the future. In verses 20-23 Daniel outlines the power of God in the affairs of man. It is God who exalts and who brings down kings, presidents, and nations as well as individuals. It is God only who has wisdom, knowledge, understanding of things such as the future, and even has power over prophetic dreams. This experience also connects us to Joseph in Genesis 40-41who was granted the same power as Daniel. God wanted us to know that He gives out wisdom about dreams to those to whom He pleases. As He gave wisdom to Daniel so He gave that gift to Joseph, John and those to whom He wants to influence. God displayed His power so that His people, captives in a foreign land could be exalted to the highest positions of the nations when God so desires it. This principle is still in effect and will happen again in the last days as God needs to accomplish His holy will among men.

Daniel tells the captain of the guard that he has the answer for the king and the first thing he does is act like Jesus and rescues even his enemies. v. 24. He is brought before the king and Daniel reminds the king of the fact that no one but the God of Israel can answer his questions, and that to go to the wise men who know not God is total foolishness. This concept stands in our day as well. God only knows the future. It is also clear that Satan can not tell the future because he is not God. Satan is simply a very intelligent angel, a created being.  

Daniel started sharing with Nebuchadnezzar by giving an overview of the dream. vs. 31-35. The king dreamt of a great image his head was of gold, breast of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, his feet iron and clay. A stone was cut out and smote the image on the feet and broke them in pieces and then all the metal became like chaff and the wind carried them away, and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This is the overview and the interpretation was to come.

In vs. 36-38 Daniel states that Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold in the dream. Daniel also informed the king that it was God who gave him the kingdom of Babylon. To understand that Babylon is the head of gold is key to the understanding that each metal in the great image was another kingdom.

Another principle is presented here and that is that each kingdom is granted a period of time to reveal whether it will follow the principles of God or will it resist Him and go against His principles. When that time comes God will remove that kingdom. Thus the principle of history is clearly stated. This principle will be visited again in Daniel chapter 5

After the kingdom of Babylon there would arise another kingdom inferior to that of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. After this kingdom there would be yet another kingdom, and then a fourth kingdom. In v. 41 the feet and toes there the kingdom would be divided and be mixed - iron and clay. The feet and toes would be partly strong and partly weak. The iron would be mingled with clay - the kingdom would be mixed with the seed of men but they would not cleave together. In the days of these kings - the mixed iron and clay - the kingdom and the seed of men, the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and it shall stand forever. v. 45. The stone cut out without hands shall break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, the gold. The great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass - the dream is certain and the interpretation will be sure.

Now we will go further into the interpretation of the dream. In the vision the king saw a multi-metaled image. We have been informed that the image has 4 metals - gold, silver, brass, and iron. We are told that in the feet the iron is mixed with a non metal - clay. In the feet a stone was cut out, without hands, apparently from some larger Rock, smites the image on the feet (v. 34) and breaks all the pieces into chaff, the wind blows the chaff away, the stone grows into a great mountain and fills the whole earth. God had informed Daniel that the golden head was the kingdom of Babylon. We are not told the identity of the next kingdom in Daniel two but we are told that they will be kingdoms.  We are told what the next kingdom will be in Daniel chapter five for when Babylon was overthrown the kingdom that overthrew Babylon was the kingdom of the Medes and Persians. In Daniel 8 we are told that the kingdom that overthrows the Medo-Persian kingdom would be Greece. History then tells us that the next kingdom that overthrows Greece would be Rome. Thus we can see that prophetic dreams, dreams about the future, will be confirmed by history when the time of the dream has passed. History becomes a guide post to verify and clarify prophetic dreams in the Bible. If our understanding of a prophetic dream is correct then history will verify the correct interpretation. We also can see that the book of Daniel is used by God to clarify our understanding of the great visions given by God.

Going back to Daniel chapter two we find that Nebuchadnezzar is overjoyed to find out the answer to his dream. He is grateful for this gift and he even acknowledges that God is a God of Gods, and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets. Nebuchadnezzar decides that it would be well to raise up Daniel to a higher position in the government of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar does the same thing that Pharaoh did for Joseph in Genesis 41. Daniel remembers his friends and asks Nebuchadnezzar to set up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the kingdom.

In Daniel chapter two God is exalted, and His people are blessed because they were faithful to Him. God uses this dream to reveal principles of His kingdom and the principles upon which prophecy is established. God has promised that He will do nothing on this Earth except He reveals it through His prophets. Amos 3:7. God has given us instructions as to how He administers His spiritual gifts, and especially that of prophecy, in I Corinthians 12-14.  God wants His children to know how He works so that if He places us in a position to interpret dreams, or Bible issues, He will have a people that can do for Him what Daniel did for Him in the time of Babylon.