Discussions in Daniel (8) Daniel 2:24-30
Daniel 2:24-30 Daniel tells the King that God has told him what the dream was.
Megan: No matter the situation you face or who appears to be in control, God always has the ultimate control. I love how Daniel acknowledges that it is not by his own wisdom or knowledge that the dream will be interpreted. He gives God the glory and acknowledges His power and blessing in this situation and ultimately trusted the entire time that God is in control.
Nick: There is so much confidence we can take from this. Ephs 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”. It is a pure demonstration of God’s power and authority over the enchanters. Daniel receives divine power through prayer and stands against the physical manifestation of the evil power which had been authority over the kingdom of Babylon. Just like with Joseph and Pharaoh all authority is Gods’s. We read the physical goodies (Joseph, Daniel, Moses, Joshua, David and so on) winning against the physical baddies they defeat in scripture. However, if we read through the lens of Jesus and recognise the power of the Holy Spirit at work as we read the OT we see dominion lies with God in heaven. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “let your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”, why? To claim authority first in the spirit so it can manifest in the physical. Jude 1:25, “to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Mary: v28 (Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar) ‘But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.’
Oh that God would give disturbing dreams to world leaders today, that God’s people could interpret.
Oh that we had ears to hear those secrets.
Oh that we were like the men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what to do (1 Chron 12:32).
May He satisfy that hunger in us to be more like Daniel.
Ian: It strikes me that dreams are like parables – surface stories with a deeper meaning. Why isn’t God more straightforward? Why did Jesus speak in parables that most people couldn’t understand? My experience is that people who are rigidly fixed in their opinion that God’s truth is not relevant to them, can react badly to being challenged in a straightforward way. In fact, should you confront them directly, they often become angry and subsequently even more entrenched in their own opinion and unbelief. Clearly this head on approach can be counterproductive if we want to reach their hearts with life-giving truth. Jesus understands people so well that He used parables to tell deep significant truths so that those whose hearts were open received the life-changing understanding, but those whose hearts were, at that time, closed, were not made more hard-hearted and stubborn. How clever is that? Imagine if, without the dream, God had told Daniel to go to the king with the truth that had been revealed. He would have been dismissed outright. The dream was God’s cunning plan to get the king’s attention and arouse his curiosity.