Interpreter of Dreams
Daniel and his companions had made it to the highest levels of the court in Babylon, the greatest empire in the world at that time. However, as in most of the courts of power, perils awaited them.
Read Daniel 2:1-13 and answer the following questions:
1. How were the wise men trying to fool the king?
2. How did the king ensure that their tricks would be of no avail?
3. What words of the wise men revealed the impossibility of what the king asked? Why would those words later help witness to the power of God?
God had earlier given Daniel the gift of interpreting dreams and visions (Dan. 1:17), but Daniel was not going to be presumptuous and take anything for granted. He gathered together his three friends and urged them to pray (Dan. 2:18), for clearly without divine intervention they were going to meet the same fate as the charlatans and frauds in the king's court.
Read Daniel's prayer of thanksgiving (Dan. 2:20-23). What is the essence of his prayer? What hope and encouragement can you take from it for yourself, whatever situation you are facing?
Most of us know the rest of the story (if not, then read the chapter). Think about what it meant for the monarch of the greatest empire in the world to bow down and worship a foreign captive in his court (vss. 46-48)! The king was obviously impressed, no matter how much more he had to learn.
Through Daniel, then, God spares the lives of the wise men throughout Babylon, leads a pagan king to at least the beginnings of belief in the true God, and advances Daniel and his friends to positions of authority, where they can be a greater witness to Him.
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