Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Finding Hope in Dreams | The Writings | Daniel 2

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

Can God use dreams to talk to his people? Do dreams have meaning? In today's episode, Jensen shares from Daniel 2 to discuss how Daniel finds hope in God's promises through a dream that he interprets. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Daniel 2

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Here's the thing. Daniel chapter 2 is full, and I mean very, very full of so many good nuggets of truth. In it, we read the story of God delivering Daniel and his companions from the death warrant given out by King Nebuchadnezzar, because no one could interpret his dream. We watch as Daniel faithfully turns to God for wisdom and insight to know what the king's dream was and what it meant. And we are odd by God's goodness and wisdom as he gives Daniel knowledge that only

he can have. And Daniel is able to interpret the king's dream and save himself and his friends from death by the power of God. Now from this account, we can take away insights about how to be faithful when those in leadership aren't believers. We can get a lesson in having faith. In depending on God to deliver and make known his truth, we can make conclusions about the faithfulness of God to preserve Daniel, the might and power of God over the gods of the magicians and enchanters. I could go on. But today, I want to focus specifically on the interpretation that Daniel makes for King Nebuchadnezzar. It's honestly the part of this chapter that I was most tempted to skim and when I did read, most confused by.

Prophecy is not often my favorite literary genre of the Bible to read, but time and time again, as I step out of my comfort zone and dive into what the prophecy means, I am blown away by what God reveals to his people and is faithful to accomplish. So, before we are tempted to run trembling from the confusing parts of Scripture, let's go ahead and read this prophetic section of scripture together. Now to fill you in a little better, the king has had a dream. He has commanded his sorcerers to tell him what his dream was and to interpret it. As you would expect, they cannot. So he sentences them to death. This includes Daniel. And so Daniel prays that God would reveal this dream and its interpretation to him. And he does. And so we're picking up

as Daniel is before the king, recounting the king's dream and then interpreting it to him. Hang in there with me because this section of scripture is long and not always straightforward. Verse 31. You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image mighty and of exceeding brightness stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them into pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold all together were broken in pieces and became like chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away. so that not a trace of them could be found, but the stone that struck the image became a great

mountain and filled the whole earth. Let's pause here and break this down. So Nebuchadnezzar's dream was of an image with a body made up of four different materials. And this image, made of different materials is eventually destroyed by a stone and replaced with a great mountain that will fill the entire earth, turning the different materials into dust that is blown away. Now, I want to know a few things about the different imagery we find in this dream. First, the materials used to make up the image would have created an unsteady, top-heavy idol, with a head of gold followed by silver, bronze and then down to the legs of iron with feet of iron and clay. At its base, we're finding the weakest and lightest material, clay. So the image that we are given is one that, though it is full of valuable

material, it is not stable. Then enters a stone that has been cut by something other than human hands. It's not man-made and it crushes this unsteady idol. We read that the dust from the crushed materials become like chaff, blown away in the wind. And throughout the Old Testament, the image of chaff, the useless part of wheat that is carried away by the wind so that only the useful portion of the plant remains, this image of chaff is sometimes used as an illustration of God's judgment on the wicked. Psalms tells us they are like chaff, blown away by God so that only the good remains. And finally, this stone that has decimated the image before him turns into a mighty mountain that fills the earth. And in Isaiah 2-2, which is another prophecy about the future to come, we read,

it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations shall flow to it. To the house of the Lord, his kingdom is referred to as the highest of the mountains here. This imagery of God's rule and reign over the earth as a mountain high above that all peoples come to to worship and acknowledge the one true God should come to mind when we read the stream. The powerful yet unstable image has been destroyed and is replaced with a stable, dependable mountain

that fills the whole earth with the house of the Lord. Even before we get to Daniel's interpretation, this dream is stocked full of biblical imagery that hints at what is to come. But let's jump back into the text now and hear Daniel's interpretation given to him by God, verse 36. This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power and the might and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them. You are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all

the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these. And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom. But some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.

Nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, a great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. the dream is certain and its interpretation sure. So from Daniel's interpretation, we learn that each of these materials represent a different kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar's first, then one that will arise after him and another, and then a final, divided kingdom will come. And after all of these kingdoms, we learn that God himself will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. No kingdom will come after it. It will stand forever, and all the powers that were before will be no more. Daniel gives the king a peek into the future. Nebuchadnezzar's

kingdom will not last forever. Neither will a one to come after him or the next or the next. Only God's kingdom will last forever. It is a humbling interpretation for the king. But for God's people, it's an incredible reminder of the promise he has already made to King David. Although they are in exile far from home, although they sit under the rule and oppression of a foreign king, although it looks like God has not been faithful to preserve King David's line. Here, a dream from a foreign king reminds them that God has not forgotten them. Things won't immediately get better. Kingdoms will rise and fall, but they can be sure of their God. This is the hope this dream brings to Daniel and God's people living in exile, a prophecy that reinforces a promise.

And what's even better is that from our modern vantage point, this interpretation is not just a prophecy that we can put our hope in. It has already become a reality. Remember, we have four kingdoms, gold, silver, bronze, and the divided kingdom of iron and clay. Now, historically, King Nebuchadnezzar was overcome by the Meadow Persian Empire, which was overcome by the Greeks, and finally they were overcome by the Roman Empire, an empire divided. Historically, King Nebuchadnezzar was overcome by the Meadow Persian empire, which was overcome by the Greeks, and finally they were overcome by the Roman Empire, an empire divided. We have four kingdoms. And remember, it is in the time of the fourth kingdom that God would establish his kingdom, through a stone cut not by human hands, hinting at the

divine, and this stone would crush the fourth empire. Jesus, fully God, fully man, was born during the Roman rule. Repeatedly throughout his ministry, we read from his own lips that he believed the kingdom of God was at hand. His entire ministry was focused on teaching the people about God's kingdom, a different kind of kingdom, and announcing that it had at last come. Later in his ministry, while Jesus is telling a parable, he responds to the people's indignation over what he has said, saying, but he looked directly at them and said, What then is this that is written? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.

Jesus is telling the people he is the stone, and God's people are rejecting him. They do not recognize who he is, the Messiah from the line of David who has come to establish God's kingdom. But he will become the cornerstone, the foundation, the head of the church, the king, and everyone who rejects his kingship will be broken to pieces. The stone that is Jesus will crush everything that is not allegiant to his kingdom. And finally, in Ephesians 1, we read this. He raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion,

and every name that is invoked not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to behead over everything for the church. which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. In Jesus's life, death, and resurrection, the prophetic vision we see in Daniel has come true. Jesus, in a way that was completely unexpected, gave his life and broke the power of the curse of death. He sits today on his throne until the day when he returns to physically establish his kingdom on this earth. The Bible is clear. Jesus has already been crowned king. The devil has already been defeated the moment Jesus rose from that grave.

And yet, for a time, we wait until Jesus returns and eradicates every corner of his creation of the curse that it suffers under. The book of Revelation is full of prophecy, reassuring us that a time is coming when King Jesus will return. We did a series on it last year. If you weren't able to listen, I'd recommend it, because the book of Revelation gives us a beautiful picture of our future alongside God in his good kingdom. See, we know that the God we follow is faithful to do what he has promised. The vision of King Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled in Jesus. The promise to King David was fulfilled in Jesus. The stone has overcome the powers of this world and all dominion has been given to him. We can have confident hope that one day we will stand beside him on his holy mountain,

that we will live in our resurrected bodies on a fully restored earth where Jesus is our king and he will dwell with us. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Amen. Come Lord Jesus.