Return to Daniel Index Page
Daniel
chapter two prophetically is one of, if not thee most important chapters in the
word of God. It has been called the
a.b.c. of prophecy. We will look first
of all at the lead up to this great prophetic passage.
We could
entitle our study, “How to manage in a time of crisis.” We will find three
groups of people in a crisis. We will
see how they tried to sort out the crisis; perhaps you will be able to identify
with some of the things that we will discover.
Lets
look into Daniel chapt two.
Daniel 2:1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.
The
Sovereign in a Crisis.
One
of the symptoms of being in a crisis is surely sleeplessness. I am told that in
America they spend more than half a billion dollars each year and consume some
800000 pounds of barbiturates to try and get to sleep. They can of course be
medical difficulties and people cannot sleep because of pain. How we should
pray for suffering saints. Then there are those, and I confess that this has
happened to me in the past, who cannot sleep because of excitement, perhaps
they are going on holiday or even getting married. There are times, however, when
the cause of our sleeplessness is trouble.
When we are troubled, worried and concerned, we just don’t know how to
sort matters out and we cannot sleep.
Nebuchadnezzar
was the most powerful man in the world. I am sure he had everything he could
possible want, power, prestige and position and yet verse one says, “His spirit
was troubled.” The Hebrew word for trouble means deep disturbance inducing
apprehension. What was the cause of this trouble? What crisis was this great king in? Let’s look again at verse
one.
Daniel
2:1 And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar
dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from
him.
Nebuchadnezzar
was having dreams. We all dream, but there was a dream that bothered this king.
Look what he said at the beginning of verse nine.
Daniel
2:9a But if ye will not make known unto me the dream,
There
was something frightening about this dream.
Daniel lets us know in verse twenty-nine what the worry was about.
Daniel
2:29 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts
came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he
that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.
Nebuchadnezzar
with all his wealth had no sense of security and the future was worrying
him. As he lay in his bed God revealed
in a dream what was going to happen and Nebuchadnezzar was so troubled that he
couldn’t sleep. In fact the Hebrew could be translated, ‘his sleep was done
for.’ Here is a man who cannot sleep
because of the future or perhaps because of his future. We pray often that God
would take sleep from lost souls as they consider their latter end. I hope that
we as Christians are not asleep to the needs of the lost. Paul reminds us.
Romans
13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of
sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
Nebuchadnezzar went to bed one night as happy as Larry. He awoke with fear in his heart. That’s how quickly a crisis can arise in any of our lives. We can be going along merrily and all of a sudden, we find ourselves plunged into a time of crisis. What would you do in a time of crisis?
Genesis
20:1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled
between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
Abraham
foolishly tells king Abimelech that Sarah was his sister.
Genesis
20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king
of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
The
king took Sarah, as he went to bed that night his mind was probably filled with
lust and sinful thoughts, but what happened?
Genesis
20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a
dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman
which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.
What
a dream, God says you’re as good as dead if you touch this women.
Genesis
20:4-5 But Abimelech had not come near
her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? [5] Said he not
unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in
the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
The
fact that this was sin didn’t matter to Abimelech, the fact was that he thought
he could take whatever women he wanted for himself. God told him in verse
twenty-seven.
Genesis
20:7 Now therefore restore the man his
wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and
if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all
that are thine.
This
dream exposed Abraham’s sin and this dream prevented Abraham and Sarah from
sinning further, Abimelech went to bed content and happy but he awoke a
troubled soul. Praise God the Lord
still troubles souls because of their sin
God worked in
Abimelechs heart and revealed Abraham’s sin.
Esther
6:1 On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book
of records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king.
Mordecia,
a man of God had saved the kings life but the King had never repaid Mordecia
for his goodness. One night God took the sleep from the King. If you read the
full account you will know that this led to the Jewish people being saved and
evil Haman being hanged.
Perhaps
you have failed to show appreciation for a deed done lately? The Lord
challenges us about our sin and he challenges us about or lack of appreciation.
There are many other dreams we could consider in scripture. Have we been slack
to show our appreciation to someone?
Joseph’s
dream exposed the envy of his brethren. It revealed how spiteful the brethren
were.
Pharaoh’s
dream exposed the forgetfulness of the butler. It showed us how selfish the
butler was.
Sinfulness,
slackness, spitefulness and selfishness, could God be speaking to us through
these dreams?
Nebuchadnezzar
couldn’t sleep, what would the sovereign do in a crisis? Look at verse two.
Daniel
2:2 Then the king commanded to call
the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for
to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
He
brings in the best that man can do. Babylon was the centre of superstition and
idol worship. It had a good supply of magicians, astrologers, sorcerers and
wise men. Nebuchadnezzar sough out the
best that man could do, just like Pharaoh in Genesis Forty-one.
Genesis
41:8 And it came to pass in the
morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the
magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his
dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.
Daniel
2:3 And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was
troubled to know the dream.
Here
is the crisis of the sovereign and here is his solution. He would consult those
involved in all sorts of mystical and occultist activity. Did one of the U.S.A president’s wives not
consult the stars? Was it not said that even the late princess Diana had been
using some of these mediums for help? The sovereign was in a crisis and he
heads to the best the world could give him, the best that money could buy.
We
are thinking of how to handle a crisis, we have looked at the sovereign and
what he did, now lets look at:
The
Subjects in a Crisis.
Look
at verse five to see their predicament.
Daniel
2:5 The king answered and said to the
Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the
dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your
houses shall be made a dunghill.
I wonder what
Amnesty International would make of this sort of law? The king says tell me the
dream. He refused to give his dream over, the words used in the original could
either means that he had forgotten the dream or that he knew the dream but he was
testing these wise men. It seems more
likely that the King knew but was not for telling, verse nine would support
this.
Daniel
2:9 But if ye will not make known unto
me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye have prepared lying and
corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me
the dream, and I shall know that ye can shew me the interpretation thereof.
Daniel
2:6 But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive
of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore shew me the dream, and the
interpretation thereof.
The
king would expose and dispose of these frauds. What a crisis. What would they
do in such difficulty? Notice the tact of these men in verse four.
Daniel
2:4 Then spake the Chaldeans to the
king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we
will shew the interpretation.
·
They
tried flattery, O king live forever. The king had more sense, he knew he wasn’t
going to live for ever this was his problem.
·
They
would try and prise the dream out of the king. Tell thy servants the dream.
The
king was having none of it, he says in verse nine.
Daniel 2:9 But if ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can shew me the interpretation thereof.
The king exposes their tactics, their lying and corrupt words; this is how many in the world try to get out of a crisis. Perhaps they had succeeded before, but now they are in a dire situation, lying wasn’t going to work this time. As God’s people we need to be careful not to use lies to get out of trouble. There was a superstition in among ancient people that the gods and forces of good lived within the right side of the body, while the devil and all the forces of evil dwelt within the left side of the body. They put their beds tight against the left hand side, to prevent them from getting out of the wrong side of the bed. Old King Nebuchadnezzar had certainly got out of the wrong side of the bed.
What would the wise men do now? Look at verses ten to twelve.
Daniel
2:10-12 The Chaldeans answered before
the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king's
matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at
any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. [11] And it is a rare thing that the
king requireth, and there is none other that can shew it before the king,
except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. [12] For this cause the king
was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of
Babylon.
At last the truth
is out. They confess that they are beaten, in fact they say no ‘man made’ god,
and no wise man can help you. They were exposed, all the lying, all the deceit
and all the fraud was exposed. The King now says destroy all the wise men of
Babylon.
What
to do in a crisis go to the wise men of the world? They had no answer.
What
to do in a crisis use lying and corrupt words; it only digs a deeper
crisis.
Let’s
now look at how this affected believers.
The
Saints in a Crisis.
This
decree affected some of God’s people, that’s a good reason for you to pray for
the government, pray indeed that laws past wouldn’t infringe on our freedom to
preach Christ and him crucified. Paul exhorts us to pray:
1 Tim. 2:2
For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet
and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
We
can see from verse thirteen that this decree affected many people.
Daniel 2:13
And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they
sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.
What a cruel
ruler, even Daniel and his fellows were to be slain. Facing death for a crime
they didn’t commit, what a crisis. Tell
me what is your crisis like compared with theirs? If we see how they handled
this, very serious crisis, surely we can believe that the solution should work
for us?
Surely
we see behind this ploy, Satan trying to wipe out these young men especially
Daniel. Paul reminds us:
1 Thes.
2:18 Wherefore we would have come unto
you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.
Satan would have loved to stop us having this book, sad that although Satan could not prevent God’s people having this book, he has hindered some of God’s people reading this book. What would Daniel and his three friends do in a time of crisis?
Daniel 2:14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and
wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay
the wise men of Babylon:
Daniel 2:15
He answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, Why is the decree so
hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.
Daniel
asks for some time.
Daniel 2:16
Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him
time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.
Daniel
believed that God would help him. From Daniel’s example here we are reminded
that there are certain things that we can do in a crisis, we need not ask God
to do that which we should do ourselves.
2 Prayer.
There
were certain things that Daniel could do. He could find out what was wrong, he
could ask the king for time, this is prudent and using common sense but then
there were things that he couldn’t do, so he prayed. Daniel was going to spend
the time in prayer.
A. A period for prayer.
Daniel
was a man who prayed three times a day but this was a crisis and it needed
special prayer. He set aside a period for prayer.
Daniel 2:17 Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:
B. A place of prayer.
There
was a place of prayer, Daniel’s home was often a place of prayer, and in
chapter six we discover that he had a room where he prayed. Do we have a place
of prayer in our homes?
C. Partners in prayer.
Daniel 2:17 Then Daniel went to his house, and made
the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:
His
three trusted friends were in on it, they like Daniel had taken their stand.
Daniel valued there help in prayer, there are times when we pray alone and
there are times when we need fellowship in prayer. How God really blesses us when we pray together.
D. A purpose in their prayer.
Daniel 2:18
That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this
secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise
men of Babylon.
They prayed directly and specifically for the situation. What an example for us to follow in a time of crisis. They laid the whole situation before the Lord in prayer.
E. Their position in their
prayer.
Daniel 2:18 That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
They
needed the mercies of the God of heaven but they deserved nothing from God. It
was only by his mercy that they could expect anything from God. It was from God’s loving heart that they may
expect an answer. We don’t dictate to God, we come as a needy people desiring
the mercies of God.
It’s interesting if you look at the comparisons that Daniel is drawing here.
Look
at verse nineteen.
Daniel
2:19 Then was the secret revealed unto
Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
Then,
after prayer came divine mercy after prayer came the answer. The secret was revealed to Daniel in a night
vision, in the darkest hour God revealed himself. God answered the prayer and brought relief. In the darkness of a crisis God can answer your
prayers.
F. The praise of their
prayer.
Did
Daniel run to tell the king? No he
lingered and took time to praise the Lord. Notice how that prayer brings
praise. More prayer will lead to more blessing that will lead to more praise.
Look at verse twenty.
Daniel
2:20 Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever:
for wisdom and might are his:
He
praises God for his wisdom. He is the
all-wise God, who else knows better in a time of crisis?
He
praises God for his might. He is all-powerful; he not only knows but also has
the power to do.
Daniel
continues to praise God in verse twenty one.
Daniel 2:21 And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
He
praises God for his generosity. His wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them
that know understanding. God knows what
to do, is able to do it and wants to do it.
Look
at verse twenty two.
Daniel
2:22 He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the
darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
Daniel
praises God for his revelation. He reveals truth.
Daniel
praises him for his knowledge. He knoweth what is in the darkness.
Daniel
praises him for his holiness. and the light dwelleth with him.
Daniel
2:23 I thank thee, and praise thee,
O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made
known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us
the king's matter.
Daniel
praises God in verse twenty-three for his faithfulness. “Oh thou God of my
fathers.”
Daniel
praises God for his answering our [not his] prayer. “For thou hast now made
known unto us the king's matter.”
As
we think of some of the attributes of God that Daniel mentions, we are
reminded of the Deity of Christ for he
too possesses these attributes.
Christ
is all-wise.
Col.
2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge.
Christ
is all-powerful.
John
1:3 All things were made by him; and
without him was not any thing made that was made.
Christ
is generous.
Matthew
11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest.
Christ
is able to reveal.
John 4:29 Come, see a man, which told
me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
Christ
is all knowing.
John
21:17 He saith unto him the third
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said
unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed
my sheep.
Christ
is Holy.
Acts
3:14 But ye denied the Holy One and
the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
Christ
is faithful.
1
Thes. 5:24 Faithful is he that calleth
you, who also will do it.
What
a note of praise, what a note of worship, the crisis became a crescendo of
worship.
Dr
Harry Ironside, standing at the edge of the Niagara Falls on one occasion,
watched the waters going roaring down. He noticed that from it arose a spray
that actually came up to where he was standing. This is like worship he
thought, Gods mighty love and grace pouring down upon us, then our love and praise
ascending back up to him, the source of all our blessing. Prayer will lead to praise.
How
will we react in our next crisis?
Email Pastor Ian Wilson
Return to Daniel Index Page