DANIEL 2: WHO GETS THE CREDIT?
If you are just dipping into my Breadcrumbs now, it’s worth noting that my website is about journeying this life and understanding the 
bumps, potholes, landslides, and storms as our Maker seemingly watches our plight from a distance. Your life may be perfect but almost everyone will experience imperfection in an imperfect world at some point. These experiences can affect us in varying degrees from “a storm in a tea cup” to pure volcanic activity erupting under our feet. So then, in my Breadcrumbs since the beginning of the year, I’ve been taking you through the trail of morsels (food for thought) that’s found in our Creator God’s Handbook for LIFE.
In the world’s longest running drama, we are now at a point were my Maker’s hopes and dreams for a family of holy people – a Royal Priesthood – are dashed! He chose a man from the region that is now Northern Iraq/Southern Turkey whose name was Abraham, and sent him to inherit what is now modern-day Israel.[a] This word 
Israel and the Land of Israel wasn’t a place but a person. It’s the name of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob.[b] In four generations this family had become a group of 72 fleeing a famine as refugees.[c] After 400 years in Egypt, where they had in time become slaves, their numbers had reached 600,000 fighting men not including their wives, children, and those older than ‘soldier age’. In an extraordinary way, the Creator God overnight extracted out of Egypt one full nation from another. As promised 500+ years earlier, this new nation inherited what is now modern-day Israel. The bumpy ride through the next 1000 years was covered in my Breadcrumbs until not only the nation was destroyed, but the only center for connecting with the Creator God in the known world at that time was also destroyed. Daniel and his friends were deported to Babylon (modern-day Iraq) and 90% their countrymen exiled into the empire’s 127 provinces from India to Cush[d] (modern-day Ethiopia), where their lives hung in the balance for the next 7 decades[e], as this cliff-hanger Book of Daniel repeatedly demonstrates.
Today’s chapter shows how the Creator God spoke directly to the emperor of the world’s only empire at that time, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and this through a prophetic dream. Today’s portion from Daniel’s personal diary can be broken up into four parts…
- The king’s dream and the testing of his “wise men”. [v1-18]
- The secret revealed. [v19-30]
- The Future explained. [v31-45]
- The king’s response to “the God of gods and Lord of kings”. [v46-49]
Over my lifetime, many things have caught my interested in this chapter. I could talk about v1-13 and the ancient system of national governance when kings relied on astrologers, sages, wise men who could interpreted the signs of the times and appeared to be in direct
contact with the gods. If they were in direct contact with the gods (supernatural wisdom, divine inspiration), they could be relied upon for good advice at a strategic level. That said, Nebuchadnezzar knew human flaws. The existence of personal agendas, undercurrent manoeuvring that manipulates via fractioning parties, or survival techniques for appeasing volatile kings, will work against Truth. So, His test in v1-13 wasn’t the actions of a spoilt brat. This dream was serious, and he needed to weed out the fairytales among his advisers so that he could be completely sure which person was speaking with the wisdom of the gods. The only thing that would do in such an extreme circumstance, was NOT to tell them the dream – thus putting everything into the realm of the super-natural.
This is incredibly important for us today if we are going to sooth-sayers, fortune-tellers, card readers etc. You can be sure that there is an entire undercurrent of activity going on when you are seeking information in this way. I can tell you about it if you drop me a comment below to explain it to you. In the meantime, if someone claims to be able to tell you your future, or able to interpret your dreams, get them to first tell you what you dreamed in addition to the interpretation. You’ll soon discover if their insight is indeed from God. Whatever the case, take their ‘revelations’ with an open hand and test it carefully against God’s Word – His Handbook for LIFE.
I could talk about v10-11 because there is indeed a God who has made His dwelling place with men – Immanu El.[f] Or perhaps I could look at how Daniel put his life on the line twice in two chapters. In yesterday’s Breadcrumb and again in today’s simply by showing up in front of the king to plead a cause without permission. [v16] Then when he gained access to the throne room, he then said that he couldn’t explain the mystery. [v27] This could easily have resulted in his head chopped off long before he got to v28!
At a time when the Empire’s influence stretched from India to the Upper Nile[g], I could talk 
about Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in v31-35 and how it has an “uncanny resemblance” to today’s Indian Caste System in all its layers of hierarchy – a system of thinking that arrived into India and imposed by foreign (paler skinned) migrants from the North West. I prefer though, to stop for a moment on v18-23 and try to really understand our Creator God whom I serve…
For one thing, He isn’t a genie in a bottle at our disposal to ask insignificant things from. The boys in today’s chapter had escaped the death of their parents and teachers because they just so happened to be good looking youths![h] Yet again, they were on “death row” once more. When life hangs in the balance, this is how serious things had become and they prayed hard for their lives. [v18] Likewise, the king in today’s chapter was the current king of the world. Now with Father God’s family dispersed within his empire, he absolutely needed divine revelation to function. 
However, he didn’t have the script (the Handbook) for carrying forward the Creator’s Global Masterplan that had only ever been written in Hebrew and now either lost somewhere in the ruins of a temple back in Jerusalem, or else safeguarded among dispersed exiles.[i] So, Nebuchadnezzar’s Maker revealed to him His future plans for this world that He created. [v31-35] In other words, He doesn’t waste His infinite power on “Am I going to marry xyz?” or “Am I going to get rich?” Our Father God is our redeemer and is into life-and-death situations and steering world order. It’s at this level and these sort of situations or life storms (when we finally acknowledge that there is literally no one who can help us), that our Father God ceases to be a puppet at our disposal and becomes who He really is: our ONLY source of Hope in Saving Grace. As the ONLY revealer of secret mysteries [v18], He reveals deep and hidden things and knows what lies in the darkness.[j]
I have been to more than 85 countries in 40+ years and have found that my Maker is the only God in any world religion today who has given human (mortal) images of Himself[k] such promises as those found in His epic storyline, then proven in HIStory. Both wisdom and power are His. He sets up kings and deposes them. [v20-21] If I were to give credit where credit is due, I would say that our Creator gives wisdom to the wise (so that he/she will have more than enough) and knowledge to those who already have an ability to discern [v21] i.e. being able to discern is different from having knowledge alone. [v22] If true, then don’t go looking for interpretations and prophecies about your life from among the magicians, enchanter, or astrologers – including people who claim to be Christian prophets. No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can give you answers to mysteries that you seek. [v10-11] But there is a God in heaven who reveals things hidden since the creation of the world[l] [v27-28] and this most especially through His written word – our Maker’s Guidebook for LIFE.
Daniel said, “The Great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.” [v45] King Nebuchadnezzar’s words in reply remain relevant 26 centuries after they were spoken: “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and He is a revealer of mysteries…” [v47] But what’s all this mean today?
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” [James 1:5]
The question is – who will get the credit when He gives us what we’re looking for?
CLICK to return to today’s “Daily Breadcrumbs”
[a] Genesis 15:7
[b] Genesis 32:28
[c] Exodus 1:1-7
[d] Esther 1:1 and 8:9
[e] Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10 and Daniel 9:2
[f] Psalm 46:4 (See also Deuteronomy 5:26 and Revelation 21:3)
[g] Esther 1:1
[h] Daniel 1:3-4
[i] Nehemiah c8-9
[j] Isaiah 45:3
[k] Genesis 1:26-28
[l] Psalm 78:2; Matthew 13:35