Sermon - Daniel 2:1-16 - God Guides - February 9, 2020

Over the last couple of weeks we have seen Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah taken into captivity and being indoctrinated in the ways of the Babylonians.

The guys were given new names, offered great food, all the wine they could want, and pretty much anything else. They were tempted in many ways, but we saw that they remained faithful. When it came to the food and wine being offered, Daniel determined he would not allow himself to be defiled. He asked if he could follow a diet that would not go against Mosaic Law. He hit a roadblock, but that did not stop him. Daniel kept marching forward. He was determined to keep God as THE Priority of his life. He persevered and God blessed his faithfulness. Daniel and his friends may not have been able to follow sacrificial law, but they were able to honor God in what they ate and drank.

Last week we looked at how God rewarded their faithfulness. These 20ish year old guys were given wisdom and knowledge beyond their years. The king determined that they were ‘ten times’ more knowledgeable than all those who were serving him throughout his kingdom. This was well beyond the teaching they received or their own intellectual gifts. It was proof that God was at work in the lives of Daniel and his friends. He took their faith in the simplest of things and grew it. He was the source AND perfecter of their faith. God knows the future and He knew that Daniel and his friends needed a strong faith to endure what was coming, and this was one step to grow their faith to prepare them for what was to come.

As we look at the next phase of their lives in captivity, we will be able to see God at work in these guys as they face different challenges. God did not stop at one or two things, He kept working in them to build their faith for what laid ahead.

Daniel 2:1-3

“2 In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that troubled him, and sleep deserted him. ² So the king gave orders to summon the magicians, mediums, sorcerers, and Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. When they came and stood before the king, ³ he said to them, “I have had a dream and am anxious to understand it.””

Early in his rule, the greatest king of his time was having dreams or visions that were troubling. With all his wisdom, with all his knowledge, and whatever experience he had, Nebuchadnezzar could not understand the meaning of the dreams. It bothered him so much that the anxiety was getting the best of him and keeping him awake at night. I am sure many of us can relate with that feeling.

Nebuchadnezzar was a man who pretty much had anything and everything he wanted. He was powerful, wealthy, influential, successful, but none of that could help him here. This is a man who with the resources at his disposal, could probably accomplish just about anything in life. BUT now he is at a complete loss.

From all worldly measures the man had everything but was completely helpless. The world can offer a lot of things. A person can be very successful, have the nicest house, fastest car, stacks of money in the bank, leader of a business, have authority, and power… but here is the thing. None of that will help them understand what God’s Plan is for their life.

We spend a good chunk of our lives chasing the things of the world; such as education which leads to knowledge, jobs that leads to money, and so forth. These things are not bad in themselves, but they are not the answers we are looking for. They will not guide us from this life to the next. If our faith is in the things we have learned and the money we have in the bank, we will be just as loss as the king was. The things we can accomplish on our own, will only get us so far and do not lead us down the narrow path that God has laid before us. If we try to do it all on our own, we will be just as anxious and hopeless as Nebuchadnezzar was.  

Daniel 2:4-6

“⁴ The Chaldeans spoke to the king (Aramaic begins here): “May the king live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.” ⁵ The king replied to the Chaldeans, “My word is final: If you don’t tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be made a garbage dump. ⁶ But if you make the dream and its interpretation known to me, you’ll receive gifts, a reward, and great honor from me. So make the dream and its interpretation known to me.””

The king could not figure out what God was trying to tell him, he was confused, anxious, and lost. So it is only natural that he would go to his advisers for help. But that is where it gets interesting. Normally if we are asking someone for help, we lay out all we know and then let them share their $0.02. The king did not lay it all out for them, he expected them to tell him the dream and the interpretation. The Bible does not tell us why the king did not trust those who were advising him, but these verses lead me to think he did not trust them. I could only guess that over the years he had asked them for an interpretation of a dream, prediction of the future, or something along those lines and they kept getting it wrong or kept changing their advice.

Should not be surprising that these guys did not know what they were talking about. They were not listening to the One True God; they were completely dependent on their own knowledge and intuition. Chances are they were probably making their best guess at telling the king what they thought he wanted to hear. They may get lucky and get it right now and again or were able to talk their way out of it, but at some point, their luck would run out.

It would be like playing the lotto with the numbers from your fortune cookie. Might be like expecting to find the love of your life if you followed your horoscope. Your chances of winning the lotto or finding your true love depending on fortune cookies and horoscopes would be as likely as entering an eternity in Glory based on the teachings of Mohammad, Buddha, or some liberal philosophy teacher. You cannot find answers in the false religions or secular philosophies. Any teaching that is not Biblically based will leave us empty and lost.

There is truly only one place we can find the answers we need, and that is in our Lord and Savior Jesus.

Jeremiah 29:13

“You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.”

If we seek our Lord with all of our hearts, we will find Him. The world cannot help us, but Jesus can when we seek Him.

Daniel 2:7-9

“⁷ They answered a second time, “May the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will make known the interpretation.” ⁸ The king replied, “I know for certain you are trying to gain some time, because you see that my word is final. ⁹ If you don’t tell me the dream, there is one decree for you. You have conspired to tell me something false or fraudulent until the situation changes. So tell me the dream and I will know you can give me its interpretation.””

The advisers knew they were in trouble. They knew the king was expecting something that they had no way to accomplish. They were beginning to panic. I would say the king was done with them telling him what they thought he wanted to hear. He knew something was different here and he was looking for someone who could truly help interpret the message from God. He believed that the only way he could trust their interpretation was if they could tell him the dream. A person who could provide the dream and interpretation must truly be touched by God.

Daniel 2:10-11

“¹⁰ The Chaldeans answered the king, “No one on earth can make known what the king requests. Consequently, no king, however great and powerful, has ever asked anything like this of any magician, medium, or Chaldean. ¹¹ What the king is asking is so difficult that no one can make it known to him except the gods, whose dwelling is not with mortals.””

I would really question these guys wisdom at this point. The king is obviously not going to listen to their normal stories, so telling him that what he is asking is impossible is not going to make him happy.

The funny thing is, they actually got something right for a change when they said, “No one on earth can make known what the king requests.”

The Chaldeans were correct in a sense but wrong at the same time. They were telling the king that the only way the king could get the answer he was looking for was if one of their little pagan gods would come down and answer him. They were right in a sense, it would take divine intervention to do what the king was asking, but those man-made gods they were talking about were just as useless as they were. The answers being sought could only come from the One True God.

Psalms 121:1-2

“¹ I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? ² My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

Our help does not come from this world, it does not come from man, it comes from the Lord. We need to put our trust in the Lord and in Him alone.

Daniel 2:12-13

“¹² Because of this, the king became violently angry and gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. ¹³ The decree was issued that the wise men were to be executed, and they searched for Daniel and his friends, to execute them.”

Everyone has their breaking point and the king was done with the misdirection and lies and reacted harshly. Chapter two starts out by saying this was the 2^nd year of the king’s reign, but chapter one talked about the young Israelis being trained for 3 years and having already been presented to the king. There is a little ambiguity in the timing here and Daniel and his friends may not have been called to king as they may have still been in training or they may have just been away at the time.

Either way, the faithful few were in danger.  

Daniel 2:14-16

“¹⁴ Then Daniel responded with tact and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to execute the wise men of Babylon. ¹⁵ He asked Arioch, the king’s officer, “Why is the decree from the king so harsh?” Then Arioch explained the situation to Daniel. ¹⁶ So Daniel went and asked the king to give him some time, so that he could give the king the interpretation.”

God was at work. He was at work in that Daniel was not killed at first sight. He was at work in giving Daniel the wisdom to respond to the captain of the king’s guard and the words to speak to the king.

We may not see it, but God is at work all round us. The circumstances may not make it obvious, but Jesus is with us always.

John 1:1-5

“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵ That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.”

Our Lord and Savior with us. The Creator of all things, is the light that shines in the darkness. We may feel overwhelmed, frustrated, anxious, and not sure what tomorrow hold, but Our Lord Does. He is the light that will guide our path. He is the one we can always count on.

Seek the Lord Jesus with all of your hearts, be faithful servants to the best of your ability, and His light will shine on the path before us.

God continued to work through Daniel in his time of need, and He will continue to work through us in our time of need.

God Bless,

Robert