Sun, Jun 08, 2014
Daniel 2
Daniel 2:1-49 by Chris Appleby
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Consulting to a Power Broker
Series: Daniel

Consulting to a Power Brokers


King Nebuchadnezzar is in total control. He's risen to power in record time, conquered most of the Middle East, including Assyria and Egypt. He only has to speak and he gets what he wants and his staff are scared of him, for good reason, as we'll see in a moment.

We saw in the first chapter how he set out to re-program the young men who'd come from Judah but in the end was won over by them. And now as the story continues we discover that for all his outward show of power, on the inside he's just as weak and superstitious as anyone of his time.

 

Night Terrors

We're told he dreams a series of dreams that leaves him very worried. In fact it seems like it's just one dream repeated over and over again.

He doesn't understand it but he does have a solution: he has a number of wise men: magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers, who are employed by the palace for just such an occasion. So he calls them in and tells them he wants the dream explained.

You may have known people who've had very vivid dreams and managed to find someone to interpret them. But this case is different. He doesn't trust them to simply explain the dream. He doesn't want some manufactured explanation, some motherhood description of what it means. It's far too worrying to take any risks with.

So he tells them that they not only have to explain the dream, they have to tell him what it was in the first place. And if they fail, they lose their heads (and won't have a leg to stand on).

Well how are they to do that? Most people can't remember their own dreams, let alone knowing what someone else has dreamt. So they argue with the king, but with no success. He insists.

Then the Chaldeans, i.e. the astrologers, make a statement that forms the crux of the chapter: '11The thing that the king is asking is too difficult, and no one can reveal it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with mortals.'

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