There is a question about the timing of this chapter, and that bothers some, but I don’t find that it’s a problem. We are told that this takes place in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar. When the Babylonian army took Jerusalem the first time, Nebuchadnezzar was not actually king. His father Nabopolassar, was king, and the heir apparent was doing his bidding in Judea. It is generally believed that the son became king of Babylon a year after the fall of Jerusalem.
So when Nebuchadnezzar ordered that the best of the young men of Judah be taken to Babylon, it was with the full expectation that they would become his special servants when he became king. Daniel and his companions began a college course, training them to become pages in the court of Babylon. Their education was supposed to take three years. Daniel 1:4 – They were to be taught “the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.” “And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.” By the end of the first chapter we see that they had reached the conclusion of their education. “Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.” The last verse of the chapter reminds us that we may be looking at a rather broad sweep of time. “And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.”
When chapter 2 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar’s dream takes place in his second year, some so-called experts fall into mental convulsions. Some commentators quarrel with the majority about when the new king actually succeeded his father, but even secular history confirms the approximate dates of Jerusalem’s fall and Nebuchadnezzar’s coronation. Others try to say that this chapter took place in the second year after Daniel’s graduation. Of course that would completely change the clear declaration of verse 1. One historical contortionist tries to tell us that this took place in the second to the LAST year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. And again, that would be contrary to what the scripture actually says. It is apparent to me that all of this took place while Daniel was still learning the language, sciences and philosophies of Babylon. It really was in the king’s second year. The fact that Daniel was not invited to offer his interpretation of the dream, when the others came in, suggests that he was not considered to be one of the national team of wise men. He had not yet proven himself to be ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers in all the realm.
I realize that this creates some problems with the last verses of this chapter, but no matter which interpretation that we take, there will be one sort of problem or another. Verse 47 – “The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.” I think that I can explain the last verses more easily – than to explain away the statement that this took place in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.
But of course, there is no sermon in all of this. This morning’s lesson and message is to be found in exposing the religion of his wicked king. Nebuchadnezzar may have been a despotic tyrant, but he was still a man of faith. (Or would it be better to say that he was a man highly devoted to his religion?) Here is where the lessons begin.
The king was asleep one night when he had a disturbing dream. As we get to that dream later, you might say that it wouldn’t have disturbed you at all. You may have more disturbing dreams every other night. That may be true, but it doesn’t give you the right to dismiss what was going through this man’s heart. He was upset by it, and yet it wasn’t enough that he couldn’t fall back to sleep. It was at that point that he really became disturbed, because he went right back to the same dream.
It is amazing to me how some so-called Bible “experts” can get all bent out of shape over simple scriptures. Some of them point to verse 1 – “Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled.” Then he called “for his Chaldeans to show the king his dreams (plural)” – verse 2. But from there on, throughout the chapter, we have reference to only one dream. Those people who deny the accuracy of the Bible, want to point at these discrepancies and declare that the Bible can’t be trusted. But once again, I don’t have a problem here – there was only one dream which Nebuchadnezzar saw twice. And it was in that duplication that the man got really upset. It was a little disturbing the first time, but the second time, that disturbance was not doubled – but squared. And then to top it off, when he awoke he couldn’t remember it. (He did forget it didn’t he???????)
The thing for us to remember here is that this is a very religious man, who believed that the gods actually communicate with men through dreams and visions. Whether this was a terrifying nightmare or merely a vivid dream is not the point. The king was convinced that one of his gods was trying to tell him something. And he wanted to know what that message was.
This is something which can be found in most peoples’ religion. Nearly everyone believes in some sort of supreme being or gods. (Atheism is a relatively new phenomenon, and it requires as much faith as the wildest of religions.) Nearly everyone believes in God or gods, and most want to know what those gods want to tell us. Astrology is a religion – albeit somewhat secular and asinine – and astrology is all about the message. Mormonism has its scriptures – its revelations about divine revelations to native Americans and especially to Joseph Smith. Hinduism has its scriptures and its wise men with divine knowledge. Islam has its scriptures. The most rustic and primitive religions have their medicine men, their tea-leaf readers, necromancers, mediums, and spiritualists, along with dozens of other experts in divining the future or determining facts.
And so do Bible-believing Baptists. It is a part of our faith that God exists in three “persons” – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe that the Son of God is the epitome of God’s revelation. Though Christ Jesus, we may know the Father and go to the Father. And we also believe that the Bible was given to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is the only revelation of God that we need – that we shall ever have. Unlike many others – most others – we aren’t looking for or expecting dreams and new revelations. We don’t have, or want, some pope, speaking ex cathedra, or some new prophet, telling us that the Bible isn’t really accurate. We have the voice of God in the pages of the Received Text translated into the King James Version Bible.
But notice that our belief in God and in divine revelation, doesn’t make us any different from Nebuchadnezzar. But his faith, and his desire to know what the gods wanted to tell him, didn’t make him a saint. Similarly, you may have been raised in a Bible-believing, gospel-preaching Baptist church, but these things in themselves, don’t make you a Christian. All important, Mr. King, is Whom you trust and what message you believe. A simple desire for divine revelation has never yet saved anyone.
For example, the first group are called “magicians.” John Gill defies the usual definition and says that they were the scientists of their day. They studied philosophy along with nature and the laws of nature. I’m not exactly sure how he reaches this conclusion. The “astrologers” were exactly what they are today. These people claimed to study astronomy, but they put the stars and planets into a religious context. They professed to look at how the various entities passed across the heavens, and that they had both power and meaning. One possible difference between modern astrology and its ancient counterparts was that the Babylonians believed that most of those stars and planets were gods. The “sorcerers” were the Satanists and satanic mediums of their day. They were the wizards and witches. They were necromancers – communicating with the dead in order to determine the future. And the “Chaldeans” were considered to be the elite of the group – the intellectuals, who might bring all these and other areas of knowledge into play – such as the interpretation of dreams. The terms “Chaldean” and “Babylonian” are actually synonyms, but in this context, these were the elite of their society. And they practiced arts which originated with the Chaldeans, setting them apart from the Egyptians and Assyrians.
But please notice that not one of these false teachers could give to the king the information that he wanted. I almost called them “frauds,” and in some ways, I suppose that they were. But actually, some actually did do what they claimed to do – consulting with demons, for example. There is an interesting word which you will run into from time to time, which is spelled “F-A-K-I-R”. It is pronounced “faker” – which is often very appropriate. A “fakir” could be either a Muslim or a Hindu religious mendicant (beggar), who performs feats of magic. If you wanted to call Nebuchadnezzar’s false teachers “fakirs,” you could probably use either spelling. They were Satanic false prophets, who were unable to help the king – because this dream REALLY was a divine revelation.
A third thing which we see here is that Nebuchadnezzar expected the impossible.
I mean that the demand which he made of these people was ridiculous; it was insane. How could they possibly tell him what his dream had been? They would have to either be gods themselves or have access to the knowledge of God. And of course they were only “fakirs” – false prophets.
This might be the time to raise the question of whether or not Nebuchadnezzar had really forgotten the dream. Some say that he only told them that he had forgotten, testing these men. If they tried to impress him by giving an explanation or describing the dream incorrectly, they would have condemned themselves. But personally, I don’t think that this was a test. I think that he really did forget it – at the command of Jehovah. This was in order to eventually have Daniel brought in.
But here is the point – as far as it relates to the Babylonians: These four groups of false teachers all claimed to have access to divine wisdom. They claimed to be intimately acquainted with some sort of deity, any one of whom might have been the source of this dream. If they were the people that they claimed to be, then the king had every right to expect them to perform. But as you can see they were trapped by their own diabolical webs. They didn’t have any divine knowledge, and yet they couldn’t really admit to it. To make that admission would surely have meant their own deaths – as liars and fakers. And yet to try to guess the dream would have been equally as devastating.
Nevertheless, Nebuchadnezzar wanted the truth – he wanted this revelation. And don’t we all? If we didn’t already know – wouldn’t you want to know what happened to the Lord Jesus, when He ascended to Heaven? Don’t you want to know what is going to happen to this world? There are all kind of scientific, financial and political dooms-sayers who tell us that we are going to destroy ourselves and the planet. Is that true? Are the wicked going to walk all over the righteous then die and nothing more takes place? Is there no judgment? Is there no justice? I want to know as much as I can about the nature of God. And I want to know how we got here – about creation. Evolution creates more questions than it even tries to answer. I want to know whether or not there is a Heaven, and what is going to happen to me when I die. I even want an explanation for things that have already taken place in the history of man. I am not much different from Nebuchadnezzar in this dream that I’m living. But I am much better off than that man, because I possess a copy of the written revelation of the true God.
And here is something else. When his wise men began to waffle and squirm, asking for a glimpse of the dream, so that they could concoct some sort of explanation, Nebuchadnezzar proved that he didn’t really have any trust in them. This is as it should have been. We aren’t supposed to trust even the angels of God. We are supposed to try – to test or assay – every spirit – to determine if they are of God.
I’ve recently been asked to look into a man name Lew White and something called the “Torah Institute.” It doesn’t take long to see that this man is an heretic of the highest order, and his religion is a cult. He says, “We are a Messianic ministry, promoting the Name of Yahuah and His Torah to all mankind. He is re-gathering the house of Israel and the house of Yahudah from among the nations, calling them back to His Torah. We teach the 10 Commandments as the Covenant of Love. This Covenant is a marriage between Yahuah and Israel. Our mission is to seek out the lost sheep of the House of Israel, and the House of Yahudah dispersed among the Gentiles, who are called and chosen to receive a love for the Truth. Our objective is to instill a love for the 10 Commandments. We hope this is your objective also, and that we can work together often to accomplish it as we are enabled to by the Spirit of Yahusha, our soon-coming King and Redeemer. This objective is the re-newed Covenant with all of Israel, the 12 tribes spread abroad, and foreigners who will engraft into this olive tree.” It isn’t difficult to put this spirit to the test of the Word of God and to conclude that this is a lie.
Similarly, this is what Nebuchadnezzar was doing in a somewhat unwitting way. He didn’t really trust his religious advisors, and he was putting their spirits to the test. As I have often said, you shouldn’t have any trust me as a revelation of the divine. But you can, should, and must trust the Holy Word of God. As long as I am teaching the simple declarations of the revelation, I should be trusted. But the moment that I start looking for hidden meanings to obvious statements, or trying to come up with new spiritual material beyond the Word of God, that is when I have become a cultist and should be rejected.
Now, turning our eyes from the king to his counselors notice that …
Ah, Mr. Chaldean, this is where the distinction between your religion, and that of Daniel, becomes apparent. God’s ways are not mans ways, and God’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts. What you say is “impossible” is not impossible to the Omnipotent One – one about whom you know nothing. As we shall see, Nebuchadnezzar was correct, and this dream was a message from God. But it wasn’t from any of the Babylonian false deities; it was from Jehovah. And there was only one prophet of Jehovah in the Chaldean capital at that time – the young man Daniel. Make room for the man of God – the man who has no answers in himself, but who is intimate with the Lord.
If you want answers to the most important questions – then you must turn to the right source. It’s not the encyclopedia; it’s not to the internet; it’s not to Google. The answers to the eternal questions, the important questions, are found in the pages of the Word of God. And let’s begin with these questions: Who, and what am I? I am a sinner who deserves to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. That is what the Bible says. But wait, the Bible also says that God is gracious and merciful. The Bible says that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Through the Bible, God commands me to repent – to forsake my idols and my self-designed solutions for sin – He commands me to surrender to Him. The Bible exhorts me to turn from my plans for deliverance and to trust the work that Jehovah has done on my behalf. It commands me to trust Christ Jesus and His death on the cross. It is the blood of Christ which washes away my sin.
King Nebuchadezzar, you need the Saviour – you need to surrender to the will of Jehovah God. So does every person in this room.