Notes and Questions for January 25, 2009

Notes and Questions for January 25, 2009

We learned last week that Daniel ensured his relationships we excellent and that God had a plan for those relationships. Daniel stood firm in conviction toward the Lord in what would seem to be a small thing – diet. Daniel did not know the outcome of the testing but was prepared to enter a conversation both knowing what he would do and, obviously, had support from fellow believers on what they would do and commit to. The consequences could have been grave if they did not come through on the other side of the test. As well, it was a clear showing if who Daniel aligned with as his ultimate Lord. Eating food defiled was not an option.

This week we will review verses 1 through 13 of Chapter 2. This incredible journey that Daniel is on and how God’s plan is clearly outside our own current friends, church, or relationship network is obvious. As well, we will talk about some extremely supernatural intervention. Lastly, we will review how we are impacted by the world, regardless of our beliefs and actions.

Please read the entire section – Daniel 2:1-13

1) What are the key points you see in these verses?

Read Daniel 2:1-3 aloud

2) What year of reign is this?
3) Referring to what was said in Chapter 1 verses 19 and 20 - Why would Nebuchadnezzar (Neb as we will call him) not call Daniel and his friends?
4) Simply put – why were these people called to him? Why was Neb troubled?

This remarkable dream, with its disclosure of God’s plan for the ages till the final triumph of Christ, was granted Nebuchadnezzar in the second year of his reign between April 603 and March 602 b.c. He was convinced that it contained a message of utmost importance and was not, like most dreams, a passing fancy. So being greatly in need of help of his experts in oneirmoancy, he turned in vain to them to reconstruct the dream itself and then to tell him its significance. It is not quite clear why Neb refused to describe the dream, for he apparently retained a sufficient recollection of it so that he could later certify the correctness of Daniel’s reconstruction of it. The King James Version suggests that the king had actually forgotten its contents, rendering millta minniazada as “the thing is gone from me” (verse 5) which identifies ‘azda’ as equivalent to ‘azla’. But this involves amending a d to an l (see me if you want to talk about Marcus Jastrow’s dictionary distinction) and also re-pointing the initial short a to be a long a. It is far more likely that ‘azda’ is a loan word form the Persian ‘azda’ (“a notice, promulgation”) and that this clause means “The word has been promulgated by me”.

At verse 4 there is a transition from Hebrew (which has been used from 1:1 to 2:3) to Aramaic, prefaced by the statement that the wise men spoke Aramaic with the king. This does not necessarily mean that they had previously been speaking in some other language, though they might have been conversing in Neo-Babylonian Akkadian, in which most of Neb’s inscriptions were written; here it may only emphasize that the exact words of the magicians are given in the Aramaic language they habitually employed. If some of them did not know Neo-Babylonian, Aramaic – the lingua franca used over all the Middle and Near East for international business and diplomacy – was the most convenient language. The Book of Daniel continues to use Aramaic rather than Hebrew from 2:4 to the very end of Chapter 7.

Read Daniel 2:4-6

5) Why do you think it is important for the astrologers to answer him in Aramaic?
6) The king also ‘firmly’ decides something. What is it?
7) Why do you think the king is so insistent that these people not just interpret it but even tell him what the dream was (see verse 5)?
8) The king clearly says what he wants to have happen and what they will get in return. Is this important?

In their respectful reply to the king, the soothsayers used the customary salutation addressed to sovereigns: “Live forever!” (lealminhyi, lit. “To the ages live!”). This expression did not necessarily imply an expectation that the potentate would never die; it was rather an emphatic way of expressing the same idea as “Long live the king!” This represented a wish or hope that the king would live on from one age to another, with no foreseeable termination by death. This formula was very rarely used in early history (apparently it was only Bathsheba who so addressed her son King Solomon [1 Kings 1:31]). But by the sixth century it had become a customary greeting addressed to rulers by their subjects.

The soothsayers responded naturally to their sovereign, urging him to divulge his dream to them so that they might study and interpret it. But their reasonable request was met with surprising rejection. Apparently Neb had already decided on an unheard of test of their magical abilities to interpret his dream. Before they explained its meaning, they would have to give its contents. He apparently reasoned that, if they had the powers of divination they claimed, they ought to be able to relate what he had dreamed – for surely their gods would know this and be able to pass it on to their devotees. If, however, he simply related the dream to them at first, then they might com e up with some purely human and essentially worthless conjecture. He was interested, not in speculation, but in supernatural disclosure.

To his stringent demand, Neb added a gruesome threat. If they failed to reconstruct his dream (and he held all of them responsible), he would conclude that they were charlatans and deserved death for all the years they had deceived him into thinking that they really had occult powers. No verb of cutting is used here, nor is there mention of a cutting instrument but certainly the death would not be pleasant. On the other hand, if they should succeed in divining his dream, Neb promised them wealth and honor far beyond what they had.

Read Daniel 2:7-9


9) Why do you think these supposed wise men asked again?
10) What was Neb’s reply to them when they asked for the dream?
11) Do we look to places for answers that are merely speculation about the future our about things that humans cannot know? What are a couple of examples?

No matter how terrible the threats of punishment or how strong the inducements of reward, the ‘wise men’ were powerless. The could only beg the king to change his mind and divulge his dream (verse 7). This only enraged him still further. He accused them of stalling for time – as indeed they were – and trying to find a way out of their dilemma (verse 8). But no prevarication (‘misleading and wicked thing’ in the NIV) would help them, nor could they look for any unexpected turn of events to extricate them (verse 9). (The word NIV renders “situation” [iddana] usually signifies “appointment time,” “occasion”, something like the Greek kairos, which appears often in the NT.)

Read Daniel 2:10-13

12) Does something like this seem impossible to you? Why? If someone were to ask you the same question or a similar one what would be your response?
13) What 2 complaints or points of argument did the astrologers answer the king with?
14) What was the response of the king?
15) Why was the king so angry? What had he learned?
16) Do the predictions of the future, predictions of astrologists, and predictions of so-called prophets today fall on dead ears with you? Why or why not?

In a last effort to avoid death, the wise men insisted that the king’s demand was completely unreasonable, not only because it was beyond all human capacity, but because it had never been made by any other ruler in human history. He was asking them to do what only the immortal gods could do. The wise men seemed to imply that it was impossible – or at least out of the question – that the all-knowing gods in heaven would reveal such knowledge even to their most gifted soothsayers.

This defense failed to convince the king. He concluded that his wise men were liars and deserved the penalty he had announced. So he issued a warrant for the arrest and execution of all the wise men, even those who had not been present when he spoke with their leaders. This, of course, included the four young Hebrews.