Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell. Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In spite of their captivity in a distant land, Daniel and his friends embraced the role God had for them. and were soon recognized for their commitment to excellence. But what would happen?
when the king demanded the impossible. a demand that if not met would mean death. for Daniel and his friends. In today's message from Daniel 2, 1-13, Pastor Rich sets up the predicament for us to see. showing also the continual thread woven into the text.
that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men. Let's listen in. Just as a brief matter of review, what we've studied now as we're going through the book of Daniel, in the first chapter, we have the record of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Taken captive, taken into exile from Judah, from Jerusalem. They are of royal descent, And Nebuchadnezzar comes as the Babylonian Empire now rules that region of the world.
And Nebuchadnezzar comes and He takes captive several people from Jerusalem, and among them are Daniel and his three companions. And they are entered into, they are enrolled in a royal academy for the service of the king. And these young men as exiles now encounter significant change, and yet they remain, they maintain their focus. And because of that, what we have recorded in chapter one is that these four men become shining lights. in their new context.
They did not capitulate, they did not quit when they encountered change. They maintained their focus.
Now we continue then in the study as we look at this. It says in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar was a very powerful monarch. That he had a dream The title of today's message is Tell Me the Dream. We know the story fairly well, but it's good to look at it, unpack it some, and learn from it what we have revealed to us in the Word of God. Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that troubled him greatly.
Um It's funny how we get together sometimes as a family, sit around the breakfast table, and we start talking about the dreams that we had. And some of them make absolutely no sense.
Some of them are just really crazy, just totally off the wall.
Some of them seem to have connections in a real stuff that has happened or maybe some of the fears that some people have. But Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, and I think what I want to look at, what I want for us to consider here for a moment is. When we consider the dream, let's think about maybe some of the tools that God uses. to communicate his purpose. Because that's what God is doing here, isn't he?
Yeah. The theme of the book of Daniel is that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. That is what we must learn and remember as we walk through this study, as we look at history, as we understand our current state, and as we look at the future. The Most High rules in the kingdom of men. We must maintain that reference point.
Who is the Most High and what is His role? And what is our role because of that?
So, as God then is unveiling his purpose in ancient history, We have it recorded for us now in the fifth century BC. Sixth century BC. All right. And And the tools that God uses, of course, the first one would be Nebuchadnezzar.
So God uses people. God uses people to communicate his purpose. Nebuchadnezzar is not one who acknowledges God. In fact, he's a worshipper of Bel. It's a very polytheistic system that the Babylonians had.
And as far as he was concerned, Bel was a greater God than Jehovah. Why would we know that?
Well, because Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and Judah. and therefore his God is greater than the God of Israel. He's got some things to learn. Because what it makes very clear to us, look with me once again at verse Daniel chapter 1. Go back a chapter, look at Daniel chapter 1 and verse 2.
And the Lord Yahweh gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into His hand. God has a purpose here. There is something that he is going to teach. He is going to shape and mold his people. And so God uses people.
And in this case, God is using a pagan king. to communicate his purpose. Isn't that something? God can use whoever he wants to, whomever he wants to, because he is a sovereign God. He is free to do as he chooses.
And he is using here a pagan king to communicate his purpose.
Now, what does this pagan king have? He has a dream. In fact, from the context, you say he has a series of dreams, right? And these dreams are very troubling to him. But God uses dreams to communicate his purpose to people.
We see that numerous times in the scriptures. Those who received information from God and dreams were considered a lesser form of revelation because you had pagan people who were receiving these dreams, and yet God was communicating his purpose through these. Pharaoh had dreams, Abimelech had dreams, and God was communicating his purpose this way. And so here is Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan man. who was receiving dreams and these dreams were a God thing.
And so God sometimes uses dreams. I've been over to Egypt. I've heard testimony here of those who have come to Christ through dreams. I want to be very careful there, all right? But you know, if someone has a dream and that dream leads them to God and it leads them to becoming a Christ follower.
Then, what do we have to say about it except thank you, God?
Okay. And so God does oftentimes use dreams to communicate his purpose. Number three.
Sometimes a tool that God uses to communicate his purpose is insomnia. And you thought, oh man, I thought that was just a physical thing because there was too much going on in my mind. Let me tell you something. I don't claim inspiration, but some of my most inspirational moments in ministry have come at 2 o'clock in the morning when I can't sleep. I remember sitting out in my in-law's living room, and I had all the paper I could find was an envelope, and I got a pen, and I just started writing down a bunch of things.
Man, and that helped me for a long time to just gather my thoughts and think: okay, this is what I need to do. This is a direction that I need to go in.
Now that's not inspiration. I don't claim inspiration for a moment, but sometimes I know.
Some folks, my wife can testify to this.
Sometimes she's woken up in the middle of the night and she prays. And she finds out later that This is something that God did.
Okay. because there was somebody at that particular time. When you match up the differences in the time zones, when the moment that she was praying was at a particular moment when somebody was needing prayer very significantly. God uses sometimes insomnia. To communicate his purposes, to lead us, to prompt us to look to him.
to hear from him. through his word. prompted by his spirit.
So don't be so afraid of insomnia. Uh of course, sometimes you might need to lay off the caffeine. All right. Uh but in And maybe not eat five snacks before you go to bed. I understand that.
But sometimes the Lord does wake us up in the middle of the night, as He did here. The king gave the command, he says he had dreams, and so his spirit was troubled in him that his sleep left him. His sleep left him.
Now, when we read this in context, we see that God is doing something here. God has something He is going to communicate. He is using a pagan man. He is using the dreams that he gives this man And he's using his insomnia. Right?
Uh Number four.
Something that God uses to communicate His purpose. Number four is curiosity. Curiosity is a good thing. It's a very good thing. You say, Rich, where do you get that from the text?
From here we have to go to the context. Look with me over in chapter 2 verse 29. In verse 29, Daniel is speaking to him now, and he says, As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed.
So get the picture, all right? Nebuchadnezzar is reclining for the night, and he's thinking, and his mind is occupied. There's a lot going on in there. We assume. All right.
And he says: thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this. What was Nebuchadnezzar thinking about? He was thinking about the future. How many of you have had serious thoughts about the future?
Okay, three of you raised your hands, the rest of you are liars.
Okay. We all think about the future. Every one of us does. Nebuchadnezzar was a powerful man. He had a huge responsibility.
And he was wondering, what's going to happen after this?
Okay, now I am king over this great empire. What's next? And God used that curiosity. to reveal something. Do we have a curiosity?
Are we complacent in the status quo? Are we wondering, God, what are you going to do next? What is coming next? We shouldn't be preoccupied. And this is something that was troubling Nebuchadnezzar.
He was preoccupied about the future. And so it was a curiosity from a pagan perspective. Because that leads us to point number five: something that God uses to communicate His purpose, and that is anxiety.
Now Let me give A very important point right here, all right? Because anxiety for the one who knows and trusts God, anxiety and trusting God are wholly incongruent. You can't be doing both at the same time.
Alright, now when God uses anxiety to communicate his purpose, that is the anxiety in an unbelieving person. One who does not know God, one who does not acknowledge God. And therefore, he has no trustworthy reference point to know that what has happened in the past informs us. Of the one Who is the author of it all? and has a purpose and has a plan.
For history. Nebuchadnezzar had anxiety. His sleep left him.
And he was very troubled. He was full of anxiety. He had a curiosity about the future, but that curiosity crossed the line into preoccupation. And the Lord answered this preoccupation and this curiosity with a dream. And Nebuchadnezzar then had this dream, or these series of dreams, and then his mind and his heart were very, very troubled.
Because he couldn't understand it. This was a communication from God.
So these are tools that God can use. And so what does Nebuchadnezzar do?
Now let's consider the call. Yeah. Then the king, verse 2, gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dream.
So they came and stood before the king. Verse 3, and the king said to them, I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.
So he calls, these are the men That the with whom the king surrounded himself. as counselors I want to know from you what this means. I'm preoccupied about the future. You help me understand what all of this means.
Now think about who these men are. He's a pagan king, so clearly he's going to surround himself with men who have the same kind of belief system that he does. Very complex. and convoluted. These are what is called the wise men.
And it gives us four categories. Included in them, he calls magicians. This is the word stylus. It comes from the word stylus. These were those who went about with a stylus.
They were a priestly class of learned men, learned men in the sacred writings. of the Chaldeans.
Okay, so these were the magicians. And secondly, there were astrologers. This is a word that actually means soothsayers. These men practiced incantations by movements of the breath.
So they were called Suths. They were always kind of like talking under their breath. They operated by horoscopes, sacrifices. movement of the stars and things like that. And they were considered to have an eye into the future.
Sorcerers, the third class of people, sorcerers. This is like witchcraft. This was considered a powerful class of men because they held sway over people. You know, there's stuff like this that goes on still down in the country of Haiti. Those that practice witchcraft.
And people in the suburbs and surrounding towns are. They live in dread of The witch doctor. Because Of the power that he has. And if he tells them something is going to happen unless they do something, they will be obedient to it because they're afraid of the consequences.
So there are sorcerers included in this. And then the fourth category was the Chaldeans. This was a scholarly class. They were known for foretelling the future. These were the men who were the spokesmen for all of this group of men, of wise men, that came before the king.
Here is a question that we need to ask. Right. these men. What is Nebuchadnezzar? He's a king.
That means he is an influencer. Nebuchadnezzar is an influencer. He's a leader. Leadership is influence, right? Here's the question that we need to ask.
Who is influencing? The influencer. If you find yourself in a position of leadership, And many of us do. All of us have some kind of leadership. to some degree or another.
Who is influencing the influencer. What is informing you? your attitudes, your habits of thought. your perspective, your worldview, what is informing that? It's good to know, isn't it?
That, and this is what we're going to find as we go through this historic narrative here. that God has His people in such a position to influence The influencer. Bring that to today. Do we see maybe a significant role that the people of God can have? In influencing Influencers?
Not by political means. But by the positions that God has entrusted to us and being faithful and maintaining that reference point. What a powerful role that we have. This leads us then to the demand. There is something that happened here because Nebuchadnezzar had dreams.
And he calls all of his counsel to him. And the king said to them, I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream. Verse 4, then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic. And by the way, from this point on, chapter 2, verse 4, the second half of verse 4, all the way to the end of chapter 7 is written, in the original, it's written in Aramaic. It's not Hebrew.
Aramaic is similar to Hebrew, but it is definitely a different language.
So from 4b all the way to the end of chapter 7 is not Hebrew, but Aramaic. And the Chaldeans, all the wise men, the Chaldeans as the spokesman, say, O king, live forever tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation. Then the king answered and said to the Chaldeans, My decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made an ash heap.
Okay. Now these guys are getting nervous. All right. They're getting a bit nervous. Because the king is not just saying, I want to know the interpretation of the dream.
He says, you tell me what the dream is. I do not believe that Nebuchadnezzar forgot the dream. Because else if he had forgotten the dream and he demanded them to tell him the dream, how would he have known if they were speaking the truth or not?
Okay. But The decision has gone out. He says, this is it. I'm laying down the line. It's right here.
You tell me the dream.
Now there's a reason why he did that. This was This was unprecedented. in history. and what he was doing and and the wise men tell him the same and they they come back, King, I'm not sure you understood us right. I know what you're saying, but King, you need to tell us the dream before we tell you its interpretation.
That's just kind of how things work.
Okay. And the king says, You're buying time, aren't you? He says, No, you need to tell me the dream. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, My decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me, he says, I'm going to do this to you.
Cut in pieces and make your house. An ash shape that's probably referring to their houses will be vacated and they will become like dumpsters, is what they will become. Verse 6: However, if you tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will receive from me great gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore, tell me the dream and its interpretation. Verse 7: They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will give its interpretation.
All right, a second time. King, you need to tell us the dream. We can't tell you what you dreamt. It was your dream, not ours. Why is the king doing this?
Verse 8. The king answered and said, I know for certain that you would gain time because you see that my decision is firm. Verse 9: If you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you, for you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the time is changed. Therefore, tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation.
So the third time he has to say that. Tell me the dream. You see, this was an unprecedented Testing of their claims To what? to be able to tell the future. Listen.
There is only One person. In existence. that knows the future. And it's not a created being. There's only one.
You read the whole book of Isaiah and God's indictment of his people of Israel for not trusting him. The number one thing that he points to is just simply this. I know the future. I decree the future. I tell it, and then I bring it to pass.
Does your God do that? That's a Rich Powell nutshell paraphrase of the book of Isaiah. Does your God do that? Answer? No, because your gods are Non-gods.
They're simply created things. You made the things you worshiped. And this is becoming very apparent to these guys right now. And so we see then that there seemed to be an inherent mistrust. Between Nebuchadnezzar and the men surrounding him that he said he trusted.
Because he says you're going to say lying words, lying and corrupt words, verse 9. But thirdly, It becomes very clear in this that there was a very deep-seated need for clarity. on the part of Nebuchadnezzar. I need to know what this means. Because it's all about what is going to happen, and there was a certitude.
to this He says, I've got to know what this is. I don't understand it. But I've got to know what it is.
Something very important we need to understand here. Nebuchadnezzar was not interested in human speculation. And he recognized, you know, that's what we are. We're a bunch of mortals. And you wise men who surround me, you're also just a bunch of mortals.
And I'm wondering what the future holds. It has to do with meaning and purpose, very direction in life. I need to know where that meaning comes from. And you mortals, do you know anything more than I do? He's not looking for human speculation.
He's looking for what? Divine revelation. And that's the only place you're going to find. Meaning. It's the only place you're going to find.
a certain future. Is in divine disclosure. And by the way, Looking ahead, this is a little bit of a spoiler, so if you don't like spoilers, then just plug your ears here for a minute. But what this dream is about. Is God's plan through the ages all the way up until the final triumph of Christ?
Where he as we sung earlier this morning, where he reigns. over all the earth. That's what this dream Disclosures.
Now we have then with these wise men that the king has summoned Now they're surrounding him, and the king has made his demand for the third time. And we have. Fortunately, a confession here by these men. Verse 10: The Chaldeans answered the king and said, There is not a man on earth who can tell the king's matter. True or false?
True. Of course it is. You can't tell another man's dream. Therefore, no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such a thing of his magicians, astrologers, or Chaldeans. And here's the confession.
Look with me at verse 11. It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. King, what you are asking is not something that mortal created man can produce. This requires divine disclosure.
Okay. This is beyond the mainstream. human power. King. What you are asking is beyond human power.
No king has ever made such a demand. And what you are asking for is for the gods to communicate. Here's where the vacancy becomes a reality for these guys. All of their objects of worship, whatever they were. at this point.
Are hollow. And the king makes his demand and he says, unless you tell me the dream, I know you're just making this stuff up. And all of their pagan Wisdom, all of their research, all of their understanding that does not acknowledge God rings utterly. Hollow. and meaningless.
Okay. And the king makes the demand. You. Tell me the dream. Or your toast.
And you can just hear the crickets, can't you? They have nothing to say. Nothing. They can't produce this. And whatever their objects of worship were, couldn't produce it either.
They acknowledge that, they confess that. Here's what we learn from this. And this flies in the face of naturalists and scientists today who would assume that all that we can know is learned through science. It is not. Here is the truth.
There are elements of human experience beyond human understanding. And we cannot know them apart from divine disclosure. And the sooner we recognize that, the sooner we will arrive at the truth.
So put yourself in these wise men's shoes. At this point, they're really starting to sweat. They know what's coming. Because in fact, it did start to come. And the king recognized what you guys claim.
is worthless. All of your wisdom is useless You can't produce. And so we have then the despair that happens in verse 12 and 13. For this reason the king was angry and very furious and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
So the decree went out and they began killing the wise men and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them because this included Daniel.
Now this was probably during the time before their three years of the royal academy was complete.
Okay. And so Daniel and Hannah, Michel, and Azri were included in this number. in the wise men. And the king says, I've had it. You guys are useless to me.
There's no practical benefit whatsoever to you guys doing what you do. If you can't produce the answer to my request today. In fact, as the king sends this decree out, it becomes clear that he saw them as deceivers who had been abandoned by the gods. You see, this was a theological crisis for Nebuchadnezzar. Secondly.
He saw these guys as useless charlatans. They were only serving their own agenda, and often that's what would happen. These men would say and they would conjure up lying and corrupt words to say what the king wanted to hear just to save their own necks. And we find that happening even in Judah. Before the exile, and the corrupt prophets who would say whatever the king wanted to hear just to save their own necks, Jeremiah refused to do that, and that's why he spent so much time at the bottom of a dungeon, because he spoke truth.
And it was truth that the king didn't want to hear. Not only that, number three, if these guys were useless charlatans and they were deceivers, that means that all of these years that they've been surrounding the throne of Babylon. has been nothing but years of deceit. Years of deceit. And he says, there needs to be a change here.
We need different sources of information. And so the work of death, the work of putting to death the wise men, had begun. Has it indicates in verse 13. They had begun killing the wise men, and now they were looking for Daniel, Hananiah, Mishel, and Azariah, because they were included in this category. And the king had decided, these guys are useless.
I need something better than this. What he had in mind, who knows? But he's going to discover it here before too long. Put yourself in Daniel's shoes then. The information comes out.
You're one of the wise men, and the king has put out the decree. That your limbs are going to be severed from your torso. That's not a very pleasant thought, is it? What would you do in this situation? God, we've been faithful to you.
And now, this, we didn't sign up for this. God, we were faithful, we maintained our focus on you. And this is what You give us? Would you do that? We'll talk about that more at the beginning of.
Next.
next sermon on this. Three points, three questions. In conclusion today. Number one. Where do you get your information?
To answer your questions, where do you get your information? There is a lot of information. We are in the information age. There is more information available today than there has been for the last. Ten centuries combined probably.
And it's right there available at our fingertips. Where do you get your information? Do you get your information from those looking for ratings? Because it's not truth. that determines what is presented Today It's ratings.
Those looking for ratings, or those looking for power or prestige. The wise men surrounding Nebuchadnezzar were looking simply to save their lives. They were looking for their own longevity. And to be recognized in the kingdom as powerful men who held sway over the most powerful men on the world at that time. Where do you get your information?
Christians, listen to me. I urge you. answer that question for yourselves. Where do you get your information? And here's the second one.
Can you trust it? Can you trust the source of information that you receive on a regular basis? Can you trust human speculation? Can you trust? self-reference.
You are insufficient as a reference point for yourself. Truth does not begin with you. It does not begin with any other human being. Human beings do not determine truth. We are insufficient reference points for that.
Where do you get your information and can you trust it? And then, thirdly, Here's the last question. That I want you about, which I want you to think. Number three, how does knowing your origin inform your future? How does knowing your origin inform your future?
to know that there is in fact an infinite personal Creator who is a communicator and he communicates with a view towards communion. When you understand your origin, when you understand where you came from. then that will allow you to be informed of who you are, and where you're going. and what your purpose is. You see, if you have no reference point, you cannot answer the other questions.
It's impossible. But if you have that reference point, then you can answer. the question of what does success mean. What is life about? Where are we going?
I recognize that I am a limited mortal being. At some point in time, this body is going to be six feet under. What then? And if that's all there is, why does anything? on this side of that time matter.
You see, without an infinite personal reference point, we cannot answer those questions. We have no reason to. We have no reason to be alive. Where do you get your information? Can you trust it?
Number three: how does knowing your origin inform? Your future. Think about those three questions. And think about the vacancy of these wise men who surrounded Nebuchadnezzar. But also, Christians, listen to me.
Think about the place that God had His people. and their role. In that empire. These men who acknowledged God and his revelation. And we will cover that next time.
Okay. Would you stand with me, please? Thank you for listening to this message titled, Tell Me the Dream. It was first preached on November 30th, 2014 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear the next message, visit www.delightinggrace.com.
this coming Monday.
