When John Wesley returned to England from his fruitless visit to
America, he learned that on another ship in the harbor his friend
Whitefield was about to sail to America. This depressed Wesley for
he had hoped to have fellowship with Whitefield. Early in the
morning he sent a message by boat to the other ship. He said, "Tell
Mr. Whitefield that I have had a dream during the night, and that it
has been made clear to me that he is not to go to America." George
Whitefield received the message and paced the deck in deep thought.
He then said to the messenger, "Go back and tell Mr. Wesley that if
God had wished me to turn back He would have given me the
dream. Why should He send the dream to Mr. Wesley?" And so he
went on his tour to America. Whitefield was sound in judgment in
this situation, for one could have very little assurance concerning the
message of a dream unless he had the dream himself.
No doubt, this is why God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, even
though he could not understand it. Had Daniel come to him
with a dream that he had, the king would not be interested at all. a
man is only concerned about his own dreams, and this was especially
true in a day when men recognized dreams to be possible messages
from God. Here is a pagan king and God communicates to him in a
dream. He may not have listened to a prophet, but a dream is so
personal that he cannot refuse to pay attention.
Sometimes the dream is used by God to communicate clearly
when there is no other means available. Such was the case with the
dream of Joseph about taking Mary as his wife, and about fleeing to
Egypt. Such was the case with the warning in a dream to the wise
men to go home by a different route. The dream is usually a
secondary method, and is often just a vague and obscure message
that calls for an interpreter. Such was the case with the dream of
the baker and butler in prison with Joseph, and also that of the
Pharaoh. They provided the opportunity for God's man to become
known through his gift of interpreting. This was also the case with
Daniel. If the king had not had this dream Daniel would never have
had the opportunity to demonstrate his God-given gift.
We see then that God's providence is the case of Daniel's rise to
a position of trust and power, for God opens the door of
opportunity. Two things are needed for any of us to be used of God.
First of all, like Daniel, we must develop our gifts, which God has
given, and secondly we need to pray that God would open up doors
of opportunity to use these gifts. Preparation and then opportunity
are two essentials. Had Daniel not first of all prepared himself, and
been in the position among the scholars, he never would have had
the opportunity to interpret the kings dream. Had God spoken to
the king in a dream before Daniel was there in Babylon, there would
have been no one to interpret it, and there would have been a futile
slaughter of the wise men. We see then that God prepares His man
first. He needs a man ready to lay hold of the opportunity before he
opens the door of opportunity. If people prepare and develop their
gifts, God will open the way for those gifts to be used.
Lets look at the series of events that led Daniel to a place of
leadership in a pagan empire. The king is a troubled man for he has
had a dream and does not know the meaning of it. It bothers him
and he cannot sleep. His loss of sleep makes him a real bear, and he
becomes severe in his anger toward his wise men who fail to tell him
the meaning of the dream. He is a great ruler who has built a city
enclosed by a wall containing more masonry that the Great Wall of
China. He has even built an artificial mountain inside of it for his
wife. Few kings could boast of greater glory, and the whole world
was at his feet. But he knew that empires can fall rapidly, and the
Persians and Greeks were doing some marvelous things that could
threaten his empire.
No one could blame him for being nervous and upset over the
dream. The impression that one has at first is that he is just another
tyrant who will reap as he sowed in hell, but as you study deeper
you tend to feel that you will one day talk with this great king as a
humble servant in the kingdom of God. My own experience has
been like that of Alexander Whyte who said after he studied the life
of Nebuchadnezzar: "I cannot conceive where I got my bad opinion
about Nebuchadnezzar.... I have read nothing nobler about the best
kings of Judah, or Israel, or Scotland, or England." If your first
impression of this man is poor, do not judge him by that, for before
we are done with our study you may conclude that he was a saved
man that we will see in eternity.
Nebuchadnezzar in his troubled states calls for all the wise men
to come and help him with his dream. Some were specialists in the
books of wisdom, others in whispering incantations, and still others
is in reading the stars. He brought all the experts together to solve
the mystery of his dream. But when he asked them to tell them the
dream they respond that he must tell them the dream before they
interpret it. He was in no mood to go half way with them. He said
that they either make his dream known or else. He was saying, "I
am going to pieces over this dream, and if you don't solve it you are
going to go to pieces literally, for I will have you torn limb from
limb, and all your houses will be destroyed." This was typical
behavior for an Eastern king. Excessive punishment was the
common thing. You eliminated a man's family and property
completely as a standing memorial to the power of the king. God
later judged them as they judged others, and he left Babylon in total
ruins as a perpetual memorial of his sovereignty.
Nebuchadnezzar was fair, however, for in verse 6 he offers great
reward if they do their job. About this time I can imagine there
were many of the wise men who wished they had never been
educated. They request again that he tell them the dream first. The
king goes into a rage and accuses them of stalling for time and of
planning to lie to him. He is not so foolish as they could wish. He
knows it is easy to interpret a thing, and that anybody with a little
skill can give some kind of meaning to any dream. The real proof of
one's contact with the supernatural world would be to know the
dream itself. He says in verse 9 that only if they can tell him the
dream can he be sure of their interpretation. If men are truly in
touch with the God who gave the dream then it will be no problem
for them to get the dream from him. Nebuchadnezzar was a wise
man, and he knew how to detect the true from the fake. He
suspected that all who were before him were a bunch of fakes.
They respond that he is asking what no king ever asked before.
He is being unreasonable in his demands. He is not playing
according to the rules, for he is demanding what none but he gods
themselves can supply. They were right, but that is precisely what
made Nebuchadnezzar so angry. If they could not reveal what only
the gods knew by being channels through which the gods spoke,
what good were they? If all they had was human ingenuity, then
their system collapses. They are worse than no wise men at all, for
all is deception, and so in fury Nebuchadnezzar orders the whole
system destroyed, and all of the wise men killed. Here is pagan king
who rebelled against the impotence of his pagan system of wisdom.
This is a necessary step before a man will turn to the truth and be
open to the true God. Men must see the folly, weakness and
superficiality of their paganism before they are ready to listen to the
truth.
His anger was excessive, however, and very unjust, for he
ordered all wise men to be killed. This included those who never
even had a chance, or those who never even knew of the king's
dream, such as Daniel and his three friends. We see here the
injustice of condemning a total class of people. The very person he
was looking for was in that class that he was sending to their death.
When they came to Daniel he did not act like a rebel. He very
prudently became friendly with the captain of the king's guard. He
was able to persuade the guard to tell him why the king was being so
severe. When he heard the story he went right to the king and got
him to listen to him. He then got his friends to pray with him that
God would reveal the dream so they did not all have to perish.
We see here the natural response for self-preservation. Daniel
and his friends wanted justice done, for their lives were at stake. To
die for principle was something Daniel did not hesitate to do, nor did
his three companions. They would not bow down to an idol and so
they were cast into the fiery furnace. But when it comes to dying for
the folly of others they are eager to escape, and so the plead for
God's help. No man wants to die uselessly, and so they plead for
God to come to their rescue. Had they died in this way they would
not have been martyrs as they would have been had they died in the
fiery furnace or the lion's den. A martyr is a witness who dies as a
witness to his faith, and it would have been no such witness had they
died because of lack of knowledge. Their prayer was answered, and
we will see the results in our next study.
