Subscribe Daily Bible Study Mailing List Receive Daily Bible Studies directly into your email inbox.
Express your comments, opinions, questions, etc.
Dan. 2:24-25
Lesson # Dan. 2:24-25
Study Material - Dan. 2:24-25
You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
Dan 2:24-25
24 Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and spoke to him as follows: 'Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon! Take me into the king's presence, and I will declare the interpretation to the king.' 25 Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel into the king's presence and spoke to him as follows: 'I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!'
Often the things we indulge ourselves in from day to day, we revisit in the leisure hours in our dreams. These are often things of our fancy, our lusts, our yearnings. They are repetitious in nature and come out of our past. Whether from the near past as in the last few hours, or from days, weeks, or even years past, but still from the past. The thoughts are projected into the future often in wishes for things that are not but things that might be hoped for.
The king had a dream that was not from his past, nor from his desires. But a dream which was placed into his subconsciousness, or dream state, or what ever you wish to call it, but nevertheless placed there not from his own thoughts, but from heaven above.
Nebuchadnezzar was being introduced to God and simultaneously blessed with the revelation of the future of human history, from the present empire through to the reign of Christ in the Millennium, which is still future even from our present day in history. The one gap of the Church Age was not revealed.
The king, being an unbeliever, received spiritual knowledge, yet that information eluded him because unbelievers have no mechanism for understanding spiritual information. Even though this information was of a historical nature, the interpretation was a reflection of Gods plan for the human race. God has a plan, and even with our knowing that plan, neither man, nor angel, nor any power known in this universe can change even the smallest part of Gods plan.
The details are given in order that we can see and recognize Gods vast wisdom and come to the conclusion that God indeed is far superior than us, that even we can not foretell the future with certainty over the next few days with respect to our own future or even human history, let alone foretell history over the next several centuries.
Daniel received the information requested and more. He had his priorities in order. First to give thanks to God who provided the information. And not in a long winded, drawn out public prayer intended to impress others, but a short and sweet thank you to God, then on to the business at hand. The second priority was to stop the executions, So Daniel hurried to the captain and requested the stay of his orders, because Daniel now had what the king requested.
The captain too hurried to the king and immediately seized on the opportunity that was apparent, in order to advance himself. 'He found a man', who could give the king what he wanted. The captain could play this either way. If Daniel came through, then he , the captain, would be rewarded. If Daniel failed, the captain could accuse him of lying to save his neck and continue with the executions. The officer saw a win, win situation in either event.
But God does not allow any man to gain from Gods work. God does the work, God gets the credit. Man can receive the blessings as a result, but never the credit. The wise men, or magicians and such, sought to advance themselves through lies. The officer sought to advance himself through opportunity. Daniel sought no advancement, but saw himself as the tool which God would use to communicate to the world and to history the things that were about to be revealed. No person is promoted, in truth, unless God does the promoting. God alone can promote. God alone can demote. Whichever God does can have permanent impact. It can only be done if God wills it. It can only be undone if God wills it. The world is full of people hustling in some fashion, in order to better themselves, in order to advance themselves. Often it is at the expense of others as they use deceit, conniving, gossip, hearsay, theft of ideas, and so forth in order to gain the advancement they think they deserve of just want. Advancement is regarded as success. If you do not advance, then you are not successful, or so the human view often goes. So lust and drive, or just plain greed steer one to advancement because that is perceived as the objective of life, to be successful.
At the other end of the extreme, laziness and a quite different category of arrogance is used as the excuse for the lack of drive or motivation, to cover up ones inability or incapability, or just plain lazy attitude in life, for not getting anywhere in life. People don't study, don't work hard, or they work just hard enough to get by in life. They play the game of soaking the welfare system for all the free stuff they can get, or use the system as their excuse for not being able to get anywhere. The fault is always someone else's, never their own.
So what does this have to do with Daniel? The king, the wise men, and guard, and Daniel all have these different perspectives. The king has been appointed to his throne by God, yet he does not recognize this truth. He abuses his position, rather than ruling from his throne in accordance with Gods wishes. The wise men are leaches on the system. They fake their wisdom and enjoy their high positions granted to them by the king, whom they think appointed them, but in reality God appointed them and they too abuse their positions with false counsel, rather than Gods counsel. The officer follows orders blindly, but is an opportunist. Note that the wise men were not killed immediately. There was time to find Daniel in the course of gathering up the wise men who by this time were scattering and/or plotting. Daniel had time to request more time, to pray, to have the information revealed to him in a vision, to comprehend it, to give thanks, and to request the termination of the order from the king.
Now he has an opportunity to appear before the king. Despite the apparent rush of life, when we are in fellowship and inside Gods will for our life, there is always time enough to complete the task that God has designed. Opportunity is never lost when one is advancing to spiritual maturity. It may not always be what we expect ( Daniel is a captive deported from an overthrown country), but our expectations are of no consequence. If you are advancing in your spiritual life, then you are right where God wants you to be for the moment. As time goes by, God will guide you to the next place he wants you to be. Circumstances in the world will all fall into place in the correct sequence. Often things that you probably do not have control over, but the ultimate end will be where God wants you to be in life. Your responsibility is to keep on studying your Bible and let God do all the rest.
Now is the time to post a prayer.
End Of Lesson
Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.
If you enjoy these Bible Studies, please consider making a Donation
Subscribe Daily Bible Study Mailing List Receive Daily Bible Studies directly into your inbox.