May 17: DREAMS FROM GOD

Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. Daniel 2:1-2

Daniel and his three closest friends couldn’t have envisioned how God would engineer the amazing circumstances about to unfold. The divine plan would reveal His caring involvement in the history of man. As we will see, that involvement includes support of His followers and outreach to those who have yet to know Him. His love and mercy go out to everyone!

The king’s dreams were vivid enough to awaken him from his sleep, and powerful enough to leave him with the impression that something was up – and it was important! Frustrated that he could not recall the details he had seen while asleep, he gave the command to wake up a bunch of other people; specifically, magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans. They would be given the assignment to tell the king his dreams. In the Babylonian culture, a tremendous emphasis was placed on the importance of dreams. In this case, God was utilizing that aspect of their culture to reach the heart of Nebuchadnezzar, for He Himself had given him a particular dream. As the king of a vast realm of newly conquered lands, Nebuchadnezzar was eager to know if some sort of threat to his kingdom was to arise…..

The categories of wise men that the king called in claimed special abilities: magicians, supernatural power to create miracles; astrologers, divine understanding of future events based on study of heavenly bodies; sorcerers, capability to speak with the dead who would render sage advice for the living; and Chaldeans, a general term originally meaning those from Chaldea in southern Mesopotamia. This rich and fertile land measured about 100x400 miles along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Over time, Chaldeans—synonymous with Babylon in the Bible—came to mean a social class of highly intelligent, well-educated people, rather than just a race of warlike people from a certain area. After the Great Flood and the scattering of people from the Tower of Babel, God called upon Abram (of the tenth generation beginning with Noah’s son Shem) to leave his Babylonian culture behind and go with God “to a land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1; see also Hebrews 11:8-14, 39-40).

Daniel and his three friends were not among these standing before the king that night, for they understood that such practices were clearly forbidden by God (Deuteronomy 18:9-15). They had also heard of the power of the enemy to counterfeit certain miracles, thus presenting himself and his minions in a false light (Exodus 7:11, 22; 8:7 – see also 2 Corinthians 11:14) to gain followers. Remember that God prepared Joseph for a similar event: Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh [who] said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.” So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; [but] God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” (Genesis 41:14-16)