The Forgotten Dream and the Unforgettable Daniel

Daniel 2:1-30

     We're going to be looking tonight at the Daniel 2.  What a wonderful time we've had in the first chapter and now we're going on to look at this wonderful second chapter.  And by the way, it's a rather lengthy chapter, to put it mildly.  It has 49 verses, and so I'll let you know that we'll not cover the whole chapter tonight.  I'm sure you're quite aware of that anyway.

     But we're going to begin to look at chapter 2 and we'll get as far as we can in unfolding this tremendous message.  We've entitled this The Forgotten Dream: The Unforgettable Daniel.

     George Washington once said, "Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder."  He was right.  Most people have a price.  A truly uncompromising man is a very rare commodity.  But that is exactly the kind of a man and the kind of a woman that God looks for to do his work.  When it comes to very special tasks, when it comes to very great privileges and opportunities, God wants uncompromising people with character.

     God wants choice servants for choice ministries.

     Daniel was such a person.  Daniel was a man who wouldn't compromise.  Daniel was a man who had amazing character qualities.  And God uses Daniel as the vehicle through which he reveals the unfolding of the redemptive plan of the history of the world.  Now that's a monumental assignment.  To be the vehicle through which God gives a prophetic perspective on all of human history.  What a calling and what a privilege.

     In chapter 2 we begin to see that calling unfolding.  Chapter 1 has been preparatory really.  In chapter 1 we have simply seen the circumstances that set Daniel in the right place.  We have seen something of the quality and the character of the man that equips him to be God's very special man in this particular assignment.

     We have learned that Daniel has set an uncompromising standard for his own life.  We have learned that Daniel had an amazing commitment to virtuous and righteous character.  And because of that, he becomes God's chosen man.

     Now looking back at Daniel 1:17, we draw upon a very important point.  It says it's for these four youths - and that would be Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, his three friends.  But as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.  And listen to this: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

     Now that little statement sets Daniel apart from the rest.  Daniel was given the unique capacity to reveal visions and dreams.  In other words, Daniel was to be the agency of God's revelation.  Daniel was to be the instrument through whom God would speak.  This amazing teenager, in fact, in a way beyond any other Old Testament saint is given the most complete, the most comprehensive and the most extensive, prophetic picture of human history ever given in the Old Testament.

     An amazing prophesy that begins to unfold in verse 31 of chapter 2.  And given this not only because he was gifted - now mark it, folks - not only because he was gifted but because he was of such character that he would receive God's highest service.

     His life was useable.  As I mentioned earlier in my prayer, a scripture in 2 Timothy 2 that tells us that we are to be purged in order that we might be vessels fit for the master's use.  Such a vessel was Daniel.  Daniel was a man who influenced the world.  This kind of uncompromising virtue, this kind of amazing character, put him in a position to influence the whole world.  And that is precisely what he did and what he still does through his book, his prophecy.

     The whole marvelous plan of God for the nations, the Gentiles, the whole marvelous plan of God for Israel is very special people is all unfolded to this wonderful man, Daniel.

     Now as we divide chapter 2, verses 1 through 30, which will be the text we're focus on tonight - I don't know we'll get through all of it.  It's narrative and we'll move pretty fast.  But as we divide the first 30 verses, they divide, obviously, into two very simple thoughts.  First is the forgotten dream and secondly the unforgettable Daniel.

     The first 13 verses - the Forgotten Dream - verses 14-30, the Unforgettable Daniel.  And what we have here is this - and mark it, folks - we have really two things going on.  One is a divine commission to be the vehicle of God's revelation.  And the other is a crisis that's going on.  This is God's man to reveal a message in the midst of a crisis.  So he is not only a messenger of God, he is a man in the midst of a crisis.  And it takes the kind of uncompromising character that Daniel had to withstand the crisis that he's going to get involved in.

     Now let's look at the first 13 verses, the Forgotten Dream.  First, we're going to see the dream then we're going to see the dilemma then we'll move to the deficiency and finally the decree.  The dream, the dilemma, the deficiency and the decree.

     First of all, look at the dream in the first three verses.  "And in the second year of the rain of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams" - notice it's plural - "and his spirit was troubled and his sleep went from him."  Now we'll stop there for a moment.  Nebuchadnezzar is currently the kind of Babylon.  He is the king of Babylon because he has succeeded his father Nabopolasser.  Nabopolasser, before he was the king of the whole Babylonian empire and the whole area of the world around that place and that time, before that was simply sort of a minor ruler in an area known as Babylonia, which was a southern province of the great Assyrian Empire.

     But Nabopolasser, while he was in that southern Babylonian area, part of the great empire of Assyria, decided that he would rise to a place of total ruler ship.  And so he put together an army and he began to conquer.  And before he was done, Nabopolasser had in effect taken that whole part of the known world.  He had dealt with all of the peoples that were involved.

     His son, Nebuchadnezzar, had become a deportation of the Jews from the land of Israel, particularly the southern part, Judah.  In that first deportation came the young man, one of whom was Daniel.  There would be two more deportations, finally making that land nothing more than a wasteland as far as the people of Israel were concerned.  He would remove for all intents and purposes the vast majority of the population.

     Now Nabopolasser died in the midst of all of this and he was succeeded on the throne by his son Nebuchadnezzar.  Without question, Nebuchadnezzar gets more ink in the Old Testament than any other pagan king.  He's discussed more than any other monarch in the pagan world.  He was a masterful man in many areas.  He was a genius, he was an educator, he was involved in academics, he was an architect, he was a great military mind and on and on and on.  Amazing man.

     Now it is Nebuchadnezzar that God selects to be the instrumentation of this dream.  Let's look at the historical note at the beginning of verse 1.  "In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar" - stop there for a minute.  Lots of people get confused about this because they know that Daniel was brought to Babylon to undergo three years of training.  Tell us that in verse 5 of chapter 1.  They were to be there for three years.  And the training ended at the end of chapter 1.

     Now if Nebuchadnezzar brought Daniel over there and he was there for three years, how could this be the second reign of Nebuchadnezzar?  Would have to be at least the third year.  Well, the answer we gave you when we discussed chapter 1, verse 1, and that is this: in the book of Daniel, you do not have Jewish reckoning, you have Babylonian reckoning.  And it comes up several times so we might as well get used to it at this point.

     The first year of any monarch in the Babylonian system was not considered a part of his reign.  It was his year of accession.  And when they dated their kings, they dated them from the first full year to the last, any portion of which they were still on the throne.  So Nabopolasser dying in Babylonian reckoning, the rest of the year would still have been his year.  And officially even though Nebuchadnezzar had come to the throne, it was called his accession to the throne and they never started counting until the beginning of his first full year.

     So really if you want to look at it from the Jewish perspective, this would've been the third year and would've fit together with the three-year period of training.  So there really isn't any problem with that at all but that's just a historical note.

     I really believe that the events of chapter 2 - and this is another footnote historically - happened immediately after chapter 1.  Some people think there was a long period of time, some people even think that the things that happened in chapter 2 really believe in chapter 1 during the three-year time of training.  I don't feel that way.  I feel that when you come to chapter 1, verse 17, after they've had all their training, it says, "God gave them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams."

     Now at the end of the days if the king had said he should bring them in, and now you're at the end of their days.  Just prior to the end of their days, Daniel is given this gift somewhere.  We don't know the exact timeframe.  But he's given this gift.  Their training then ends and they are placed in the king's court.  Now I think they would still be considered as apprentices as wise men but they've been trained to be wise men in the Babylonian court.  They're still on an apprentice level, and I believe immediately God moves to establish Daniel's capability in the vision and the dreams.

     In other words, Daniel 1:17 is illustrated in chapter 2.  And since it says the second year of Nebuchadnezzar, it must've been a very immediate thing.  It is possible, and I would grant this, that it actually did occur toward the end of the three-year training.  But if we can grant to Daniel any crinology at all, it seems as though the training ends at chapter 1, they meet the king at the end of the chapter, the king puts them up to stand before him, as it says in verse 19, and then it makes the note in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar, which would be that same year which they finished their training, this particular dream was dreamed.

     Now let's look at another thought.  Since when does God reveal great historical prophetic truth through pagan kings?  Since when?  That's really a new thing.  And why a pagan?  Well, let me tell you why.  Remember this: Israel at this time was morally and spiritually just about as bad off as the Chaldeans or the Babylonians.  God frankly had little to chose between.  Only if you want to really look at it in a Biblical perspective, Israel was worse-off than the Chaldeans because Israel had become apostate.  It is one thing not to know the truth, it is something to know it and forsake it.

     And so Israel had come to a place where God was finished dealing with them for the time.  God's people had degenerated into gross idolatry.  Judgment was falling on them in the Babylonian captivity.  What an amazing rebuke it was to God's people for God to chose the single greatest revelation of the history of redemption that he ever gave and to have a vehicle a pagan king.  What a rebuttal and rebuke to the sins of Israel.

     Furthermore, the captivity of Israel began a period of history known as the times of the Gentiles.  Luke 21:24 calls it that.  So it is fitting that as the times of the Gentiles begin the outline of that period prophetically is given through a Gentile king.  But I must hasten to add that the plan was not just for the Gentiles and the prophecy is not just about the Gentiles, that's why Daniel's also included in this situation because God had not forsaken Israel either.

     Now back to verse 1 - so Nebuchadnezzar, this king dreamed dreams.  Now how did this happen?  Well, go down to verse 29 and it kind of gives you a footnote of it.  Ver