Daniel 2:14 Commentary and Bible Study

Reading between the lines, Daniel knows Arioch. Arioch is a prince, a commander, and has great responsibility and face-to-face access to the king. He is the one entrusted to carry out the destruction of the house of astrologers. But Daniel seems to know him, and Arioch is ready to listen to him, and we can probably treat this as an indication of the bearing of these four Judaean young men. Although they had come out top in the graduating class of captive Jews who were trained as courtiers in the Royal Court; although Daniel had been given the powers of a prophet by the Lord and great wisdom, and was admired by the king who questioned all those young men, nevertheless he was personally liked. He wasn't a man whose personality gave offence. He wasn't in the least heady or arrogant in his bearing. We see him as somebody who was courteous and helpful and friendly, and humble in his manner. Consequently you find doors are opened to him, and he is able to approach Arioch the captain of the king’s guard who will give him an audience and hear him out. ‘Why is the decree so hasty’ – ‘so urgent’, ‘so harsh’, or ‘so severe’ as some translate it – ‘from the king.’ Interestingly, he doesn't ask, What is this all about? or What has the king done? because that wouldn't be in accordance with the protocol. He asks an indirect question: ‘Why is the king acting in this hasty or harsh manner?’ And Arioch is then able to give him a full reply. ‘Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.’ The account is written in such a breathless, pacey way that all the necessary protocol is left out. Daniel wouldn't of course have been able to walk in and see the king without arrangement. He would first have had to consult some secretary of state, and he would have consulted someone else, and there were probably two or three stages, even for a junior courtier, and then finally he made it to the king. But all that is left out in the excitement of the passage. Evidently, because that is what the king had demanded, Daniel must have indicated that he would show him the dream as well as the interpretation. Alongside anger there was also still deep fear in the heart of the king, and if anyone would genuinely show him the meaning of the dream, he wanted to hear it. Daniel didn't yet know the dream; he didn't have it at this stage. Subsequent verses show us he acted in faith. He reasoned to himself: ‘God has brought me into this place and my companions, and trained us and made us acceptable, even though we had to take a stand. We do not eat anything which has been offered to the gods; we have risked giving enormous offence, and yet we have been protected and kept amazingly all this time. God must have a purpose for us. We cannot now be about to be destroyed. It must be that God is going to deliver us in this.’ And so he goes to the king and offers to explain the dream. We have already been told (Daniel 1:17) that God had given him the ability to understand all visions and dreams. He asks for time, presumably to delay their own death, for the wise men were already being killed.