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It was during the second year of
Nebuchadnezzar's reign of Babel/Babylon that he dreamed a dream. He
inherited the wisemen, astrolgers, and magicians (scientists) of
Babel from his fathers cabinet. He wasn't to impressed with the
scientists in his cabinet that claimed to know all things and had the
ability to see all events. So he wanted to put them to the test to
see if they were worth their weight by interpreting his dream.
Nebuchadnezzar told them that he had a
dream. He wanted to know if his wisemen had the ability to not only
interpret dreams and to tell him what the dream meant, but also what
the dream consisted of itself. Nebuchadnezzar knew that if he told the dream to his men of science that they would just make up
something for them to agree on for the interpretation and would just
tell him this. The kings request in itself would not have been a problem for
anyone that actually had connections with the spirit world and
possessed all knowledge as they claimed. King Nebuchadnezzar offered
them gold chains, royal clothing, and a high position in his kingdom
if they would tell him the knowledge that he sought. On the other
hand, if noone could come forward to tell him this information, then
the scientists would be killed and their houses destroyed. This is no
idle threat because Nebuchadnezzar had the history and reputation of
slow roasting his officers that cross him over an open fire. So quite
literally it was an all or nothing proposition for these men.
The scientists of Babel told the king
that there was no man on earth that could answer this question of his
in V.12. This infuriated Nebuchadnezzar and he ordered all the
scientists to be put to death, because he knew they possessed no
powers at all. Unfortunately, this decree included Daniel and his
friends which we know by their Babylonian names of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. Although Daniel was not actually there when the
scientists failed, he felt the king should give him a chance to
interpret his dream. He went before Nebuchadnezzar and told him that
he would interpret his dream if he would be allowed a little bit of
time to do so, and Nebuchadnezzar agreed. So Daniel went to his house
and told his friends about the seriousness of the situation. So
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego all prayed to the Father for
the answer. During that night the Father gave Daniel a vision of the
dream that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed the night before, and the
interpetation.
Daniel having this same vision as
Nebuchadnezzar fulfilled the law of double witness of Deuteronomy 19:15. The law in Deuteronomy of the double witness is used throughout
the Bible. Other such examples of the law of double witness is in the
story of Joseph in Genesis 41:32, and Gideon's double test of the
fleece in Judges 6:36-39.
The scientists were correct in the fact
that no man on earth could tell him his dream and this would require
Father Yahweh the true God, to tell Daniel. So Daniel came before
Nebuchadnezzar to tell him his dream and its interpretation as the
scientists of Babel hid in the corner. They knew without a doubt that
if the teenage Daniel did not tell him correctly they were done.
Daniel was a man of Yahweh and spoke as a true prophet with the
authority of God.
The dream of Nebuchadnezzar was of a
statue that had a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and
thighs of brass, legs of iron, and finally feet of iron with toes
that were mixed with clay. Then a stone that was
not
made of human hands, came and hit the feet of the statue and
broke it into pieces. Then the small stone increased in size to
became a great mountain and it filled the entire earth.
This is the interpretation that Daniel
gave Nebuchadnezzar: The King of kings has given you the power to
become king and rule over all. The different body parts of the statue
represented both Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom and the succedding kingdoms
of the world thereafter. The head of gold was the Kingdom of
Babel/Babelon. This is the only kingdom that Daniel was able to name
for Nebuchadnezzar.
We now know that the other kingdoms are
as follows: the breast and arms of silver we know become the Persian
Kingdom and Cyrus the Persian absorbed kingdoms, the belly and thighs
of brass we know was the Greek Kingdom of Alexander the Great before
his death, the legs of iron was the Roman Empire that was prophecied
to destroy all things, we also know from history that when Rome
conquered they destroyed everything from the cultures of the
conquered; V40. Rome also had two capitols as represented by the two
legs of iron of the statue which its capitals were at Rome and
Constantinople. We also know that Rome was not destroyed by any other
kingdom, but rather just became weaker and faded away. Then we come
to the feet and toes of the statue. The feet and toes of the statue was discussed separately from the rest of the statue, so it represents the reforming of Rome.
Praise the Lord for the Prophets he sends us, praise the Lord!
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