May 18: AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM?
And the king said to them, “I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream.” Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.” Daniel 2:3-4
“My spirit is anxious…” Nebuchadnezzar’s dream had jolted him awake, leaving him very uneasy and uncertain as to the peace and safety of his kingdom. He was so shaken that the harder he tried to remember the dream, the fuzzier it became. Convinced that this dream—in all of its particulars—would provide him what he must know in order to pursue the proper course of action, he consulted his advisors who claimed supernatural powers. So not only did he need to know the meaning of this dream, he needed to know what he had dreamed. “…to know the dream.”
Already, the scene is tense. How can anyone possibly know what someone else has dreamed? Impossible! Yet the advisors’ claims to be in touch with “the gods” was the foundation of their professional identity and their high position in the realm. These people were on the king’s payroll. Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic.
Pause and make a note for later: the Aramaic-speaking Chaldeans were the ruling tribe in Babylon, a growing, multi-lingual conglomerate of nations and ethnicities. Aramaic was Nebuchadnezzar’s own language. From this verse (2:4) to the end of chapter 7, Daniel records in Aramaic instead of Hebrew. This middle section of Daniel’s book emphasizes a dominance of pagans over God’s people and some of their clashes with each other. Then chapter 8 reverts back to Hebrew and prophetically addresses the growing formation of demonic power in a face-off with the work that God is doing on behalf of His people. The rest of Daniel’s prophetic book continues to describe Satan’s opposition to the coming Messiah, the New Testament church that follows the Messiah’s earthly ministry, and a special cleansing of His people before He returns. More on this later …
“O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation.” The wise men had been called in many times before to explain (uh, make up) meanings of omens, signs, or dreams that would make the king look good and/or feel good about himself. It seems that King Nebuchadnezzar was beginning to suspect that their supernatural claims were not genuine. This only compounded the perplexed state of the king. But relief for the dilemma was in the divine plan. Upon all of this were the loving and watchful eyes of the Sovereign of the Universe.
The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, But the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness. The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:2-3
And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:13