Daniel Chapter 02- தானியல் அதிகாரம் 02

We are going to see the second lesson of Daniel which is found in the first chapter of Daniel. In the third year of Nebuchadnezzar while he was in the bed, he saw dreams and he wanted a dream to be told and explained thereafter. The heading can be the forgotten dream of the king and the explanation there off by Daniel. In the Daniel 2:4-13 verses are to be named as the unreasonable request of king. This is termed as unreasonable since the king did not explain the dream, he had but he wanted the dream to be explained. Hence it was called unreasonable. If you divide the chapter into various headings then it will be easy for you to understand the chapter of Daniel and you will be able to recognise the incidences and co- relate them. It is found that king Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten the dream and hence he was asking the Chaldean wisemen to tell the dream and interpret it. The matter is explained well in the English Bible whereas the Tamil Bible does not tell you that the king had forgotten the dream. Hence the king asks the people to tell the dream and explain its intricacies. The Tamil version makes you understand that the king wanted the wisemen to tell the dream and explain its meanings since the king knew that this was one among the dreams and he had forgotten the dream. But the king knew there was something serious that was going to happen and hence this activity.

When the dream disturbed the king, he called all the magicians and sooth sayers of Chaldeans and wanted the explanation without telling them the dream. The wise people of Chaldean told the king that he should tell the dream for them to explain. The king says that if you cannot tell the dream which I have forgotten then your presence is not required anymore and hence I will kill you all. When the king could not get the answer from the people of Chaldean, he called his assistant by name Arioch and it so happened that Arioch was the head of Daniel and Daniel asked for time from Arioch to pray to the Lord and find the answer. We find that Daniel was praying with his three friends. The Preacher says that you should have a partner of the same sex to whom you can confide all matters. Since you will have to tell the matters to the Lord. The three people prayed to the Lord and it is found in Daniel 2:20-23 verses “Daniel answered and said: "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, And light dwells with Him. "I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers; You have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of You, For You have made known to us the king's demand”.

While the three friends of Daniel were just spectators, they did not take it into their mind and

Daniel was not happy about it. This we find in Job 36:5 “Behold, God is mighty, but despises no one”. This was known to Daniel. When Daniel got the answer from the Lord, he told Arioch about this and told him to take him to the king. This shows the manifestation of simplicity in Daniel. Arioch took Daniel to the king. It is required for us to put ourselves in the place of Daniel and asked what we would have done. Even in the middle of the night we would have gone to the king and boasted about ourselves. But Daniel did not do it since he was a humble man. When Daniel explained the matter of the king with his dream included in it the king asked Daniel whether he had done it. But Daniel said that the Lord of heavens wanted the matter that may happen in the last days of the world to be known to the king Nebuchadnezzar and hence he revealed it to me to tell you and hence I had told you. We find that Daniel was giving the glory to the Lord even at that time. The Preacher says that we are like a hose pipe carrying water in it. Similarly, we are the hose pipe being used to carry the blessings of the holy spirit, the hose pipe does not have an act in it. We can also call ourselves as the donkey that carried Jesus. people had been spreading branches of trees and clothes for it to walk on.

If the donkey claims that these materials have been spread for me to walk on, it is wrong. The time when it does not carry Jesus all its speciality will go. We are like a donkey carrying Jesus and Daniel felt it and hence he displayed simplicity in him. We find that Daniel starts explaining the dream to the king Daniel 2:31-45 “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendour was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image's head was of fine gold (605-539 BC - Rule of Nebuchadnezzar), its chest and arms of silver (635-339 BC - Meadow Persian), its belly and thighs of bronze (Nation of Greek and king Alexander the great), its legs of iron (Romans 338 BC - 128 AD), its feet partly of iron and partly of clay (The Modern world). You watched while a stone was cut out without hands (Jesus Christ), which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. "This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all--you are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold--the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure”. The Preacher says that the Bible tells about John the Baptist and Christ who had called for the kingdom of

God is near and they had told the people to prepare themselves to receive the Lord. It also represents the verse of Daniel 2:45. This clearly indicates the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to the world in the last days. The matter that was reveal to king Nebuchadnezzar is that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come certainly and we should be prepared for it. Daniel 2:47 says that king Nebuchadnezzar after hearing the clarification of his dream says that your God is the God of Gods and he is the one who can reveal secrets of heaven. The king raised Daniel and asper request of Daniel the king also kept the three friends of Daniel as governors for the adjoining states. We find that Daniel though was a captive did not forget his friends and he also recommended them to be promoted since they had been a party to the prayer. We find that the Lord was able to raised Daniel and his friends who even did not have the residence of the land to be governors of the land. This clearly says that a person who follows the Lord will never be forgotten and will be raised from a dust to a Governor.

How can we live like Daniel? We know that the second coming of the Lord is sure. How are we to preserve our life and how can we safe guard it? It is stated in Roman 3:19-24 that if we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we can go to heaven surely and we have to follow Roman 3:19- 24 “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”. It also says in I Peter 1:13-16 that we should follow the ways of Jesus in these last days that the stone that has been hewn which will destroy the statue of Nebuchadnezzar into powder and the powder will get flown by the wind and the stone will continue to rule over the world till Eternity. This is stated in I Peter 1:13-16 “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, be holy, for I am holy”. The Preacher says that he has three prayers 1. Ephesians 1st chapter 2. Ephesians 2nd chapter 3. Daniel 2:20-22 while the Preacher has modified the prayer of Daniel the part of prayer lies between 20-22 of Daniel 2nd chapter. We should also be able to follow Christ who followed all the statutes of Moses and we should have zeal like Daniel and follow Christ for us to go to kingdom of God. Amen.