Daniel 2:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Here we have the emperor of the great Babylonian Empire, the king of Babylon, and more recently conqueror of Egypt and of Judah also, little Judah. Conqueror of many other nations, one who could be described aptly by Daniel as a king of kings, not given to him as a title, but just as description of his power on earth. In fact this was the empire that was to be the empire of longest duration in world history. It could be said without stretching matters that the Babylonian Empire had been 2000 years in the making. It had not always had the same power and holdings that it had at the time of Nebuchadnezzar; it built up, but it built up rapidly, and the nations and the peoples from which Babylon and the Chaldeans came had been in the business of empire building before anyone else. It was the first real world empire. There are only four world empires. No other empires have been universal empires. But here is Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar. Invincible in his time, wondering what further fruit there was for him to gain, to take. But here also are Daniel and his three companions and other captives of noble stock, who had been taken from Jerusalem in one of the first raids to take captives by Nebuchadnezzar, even before he was formally king, while he was crown prince. Everything seemed to have come to an end for the young men of Judah. Judah had been conquered, but Jerusalem remained intact as a sort of vassal state of the Babylonian Empire, and it too would be ransomed and would fall quite soon, and it was obvious it was going to happen. So here is Daniel already now functioning in his small circle there among the captives as a prophet, receiving the inspired word. But what did the future hold for them? What hope was there for them? The Babylonian Empire, representing the ingenuity of man and the power of man held total sway. Israel had gone long since. Now Judah would soon be obliterated. Where was the Messianic hope? Where were the promises? How would they to be fulfilled? Not that there was any lack of faith in Daniel and his fellows, but still they could see no light, even if they firmly believed that God would do something. It is at that moment that God begins to reveal himself, and he reveals what is going to take place, and these revelations in Daniel chapters 2 to chapter 7 are really all about the building up of human empires, and how they strengthen and develop trusting in man entirely, and human acumen and ingenuity. But the visions will show that these great states and empires are bound to collapse; they will soon fall. Soon Jerusalem will fall, and there will be mass deportation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the Messianic hope will seem certainly to be at a close. But this is the entirely different outcome that God reveals. It is amazing how it is revealed, because it is initially revealed not to Daniel the prophet, but to Nebuchadnezzar the tyrant emperor, the king of Babylon. Because it is revealed to him and it is known that it is the king's dream and has been imparted to him, then in due course it will, as we say today, go viral. It will go throughout the empire. This material will be known and will be published. The extraordinary way God works! And yet it will not in any way be to boost Nebuchadnezzar, because he is helpless in all this. He receives the vision; he is deeply troubled by it; and he is frightened out of his life. This man of total power is overwhelmed by visions which crush him, which make him fearful. He doesn't understand them, and in the end he is dependent upon a Judaean young man, a recent graduate in his courtier’s college, who is a mere captive; he is dependent upon him and his God, the God of Judah and Israel, the one true and living God, to interpret to him the meaning of the visions. So the glory will be God's. It will require a prophet of God to interpret this, but it will come through the king. Now just imagine, if everything had been channelled through Daniel – the original vision, the interpretation of the vision – you wonder how it would be made known. You wonder if Nebuchadnezzar would have detested it and opposed it. Of course it would be a vision that was ultimately against him and his empire in his kingdom. How would that ever have been published? How would information about the ongoing future history of the world and the emergence of the Messiah and his kingdom and his age; how would that ever be known? But at such a time when it looked as though flesh was supreme, and a humanly devised empire was triumphant, and the power of man was invincible; at such a time God terrifies the emperor and gives this vision of the inevitable collapse of empire after empire, and the diminution in stature and duration of each one in turn until the kingdom of Christ comes. It is a very remarkable way for God to unfold that revelation and deliver it to man. We can speculate that Nebuchadnezzar’s thoughts were on the future, and his future in particular. What happen to the mighty world empire which he had begun to build? He would be thinking ahead, not only out of curiosity, but also as a strategist and with a sense of insecurity. Those in high places often wonder what plots may be hatched against them. But the dream came with an overwhelming impression that it was from God, so that he knew that what he had seen was of the utmost importance, and yet he did not understand it. That left him in a highly disturbed state of mind. He could not just let this pass, because the message of the dream came with divine authority, and he would ignore it at his peril. Following the dream he was unable to sleep, and fretted over what it meant (Daniel 2:28-29). There was a deep fear of God in his response. This was stronger even than his fear concerning his personal future, for when the dream was interpreted by Daniel, it was a great relief to his mind, even though the interpretation told of the loss of his empire. When the fear of God strikes a man’s heart, it is greater than any other fear.