20230604

a dream from God

Daniel 2:1-11 (JDV)

Daniel 2:1 In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams that troubled his breath, and sleep turned against him.
Daniel 2:2 So the king gave orders to summon the soothsayer-priests, conjurers, sorcerers, and Magi to tell the king his dreams. When they came and stood before the king,
Daniel 2:3 he said to them, “I have had a dream and my breath is anxious to understand it.”
Daniel 2:4 The Magi spoke to the king (Aramaic begins here): “May the king live permanently. Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.”
Daniel 2:5 The king replied to the Magi, “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.
Daniel 2:6 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.”
Daniel 2:7 They answered a second time, “May the king tell the dream to his servants, and we will make known the interpretation.”
Daniel 2:8 The king replied, “I know for certain you are buying time because you see that my word is final.
Daniel 2:9 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 time changes things. So tell me the dream and I will know you can give me its interpretation.”
Daniel 2:10 The Magi answered the king, “No mortal human in the land can make known what the king is asking for. Consequently, no great and powerful king has ever asked anything like this of any magician, medium, or member of the Magi.
Daniel 2:11 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.”

a dream from God

The Magi who answered the king that day were Babylonians. The assumption of the Babylonian culture is that all of the gods are immortal. But the Hebrews had been taught something different. Daniel referred to his God as “the living God” who “endures forever” (6:20,26). He drew a distinction between his God and all the other gods.

The Hebrew poets spoke of their God standing in the god assembly and rendering judgment upon the other gods (psalm 82:1). Asaph discovered something about them:

“I thought, ‘You are gods; all of you are sons of the Most High.’ Yet you will die like mortals; you will fall like all the other rulers.” Rise up, O God, and execute judgment on the earth! For you own all the nations” (Psalm 82:6-8).

The Hebrews and Babylonians understood that all human beings are mortal, like animals. The Hebrews learned that even all the gods are mortal — except one.

The apostle Paul wrote that “He alone possesses immortality and lives in unapproachable light, whom no human has ever seen or is able to see” (1 Timothy 6:16). Since immortality is the exclusive attribute of the God of the Bible, eternal life is not an innate attribute for us, but by God’s grace, we can put on immortality at our resurrection when Christ returns (1 Corinthians 15:53-54).

The dream that Nebuchadnezzar had was not given to him by the gods. It was from the one God, who had a plan to show that he rules the heavens, not the spirits pretending to be gods.