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test my people with a Plumbline, Amos 7:8 (TLB)
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6 – Daniel Interprets the Dream
Daniel 2:24-45 (NLT) 24 Then Daniel went
in to see Arioch, whom the king had ordered to execute the wise men of Babylon.
Daniel said to him, “Don’t kill the wise men. Take me to the king, and I will
tell him the meaning of his dream.” 25 Arioch quickly took Daniel to the king
and said, “I have found one of the captives from Judah who will tell the king
the meaning of his dream!”
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Receiving from God the knowledge of the dream and
its interpretation (v. 19) Daniel went to Arioch, the king’s executioner (cf.
v. 14), and informed him that he was ready to interpret the king’s dream.
Evidently the royal court knew of the king’s agitation for Arioch took
Daniel... at once to the king. Officer Arioch wrongly claimed credit for having
found an interpreter for the king’s dream. Actually it was Daniel who “went to
Arioch.” Arioch evidently expected to be highly rewarded for finding someone
who could alleviate the king’s agitation.
The king inquired whether
Daniel was able to tell him what he had dreamed and then to
interpret it. Daniel was subjected to the same test of his veracity the king
had demanded of the wise men. They had previously said that only the gods could
reveal the future to man (v. 11). Now Daniel asserted that what the wise men of
Babylon could not do (v. 27) by consorting with their false deities, Daniel was
able to do because there is a God in heaven (cf. comments on v. 18) who reveals
mysteries (v. 28; cf. v. 47). Daniel took no credit to himself (cf. v. 23).
Daniel asserted at the
outset that the king’s dream was prophetic (cf. v. 45, “what will
take place in the future”), about things to come and what was going to happen.
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream covered the prophetic panorama of Gentile history from
his time till the forthcoming subjugation of Gentile powers to Israel’s
Messiah. This time period is called “the times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24).
This dream was given to Nebuchadnezzar, the first of many Gentile rulers who
would exert power by divine appointment during the times of the Gentiles. God
was not revealing spiritual truth to Nebuchadnezzar but facts concerning the
political dominion that Gentiles would exercise. Everything in the dream would
be readily understandable to Nebuchadnezzar.
The recitation of the dream (2:31-35)
The king’s dream was
relatively simple. Daniel reported that the king had seen an
enormously large statue. Its size and appearance were awesome. It made the king
appear insignificant when he stood before it. The statue was dazzling because
of the metals of which it was made. The head of the image was fashioned of pure
gold, the chest and arms were of silver, the belly and thighs of bronze, and
the legs were of iron, with its feet partly... iron and partly... baked clay. A
casual glance would reveal the various parts of the statue.
The statue was not
permanent; it was struck on the feet by a rock (cut... not
by human hands) which reduced the whole statue like chaff that was blown away.
Chaff was the light, inedible portion of grain stalks which blew away when the
broken stalks were winnowed (tossed up in the air) on a windy summer day. The
rock that destroyed the statue grew into a huge mountain that filled the whole
earth. The dream itself was simple. It was the meaning of the dream that
agitated the king.[1]
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