The Dream of the Great Image
One night king Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream that bothered him a lot. He called all his astrologers, magicians and sorcerers to ask them what the dream meant. They asked the king to tell them the dream so that they could tell him what it meant. The king answered that he had forgotten what the dream was. He wanted them to tell him what he had dreamed and then to tell the interpretation. They asked again that the king would tell them the dream so they could interpret it. The king became angry with them. They claimed to be able to do magic. He said that if they could tell him his dream then he would believe their interpretation. Otherwise the things they had told him were lies. He would tear them limb from limb and make their houses into dunghills. The magicians and Chaldean wise men said that only the gods could tell someone what he had dreamed. They could not tell king Nebuchadnezzar what he had dreamed so he ordered that all the wise men of Babylon should be slain.
By this time Daniel and his friends had been in training for about a year. They were included in the list of those who were to be killed according to the king's command. When the captain of the king's guard came to him Daniel asked why the king's command was so harsh. The captain told Daniel about the king's dream and his anger because no one could tell him what it was. Daniel went to ask the king for some time. Then he went to his friends to ask them to pray with him that God would show them the king's dream so that they and all the wise men of Babylon would not perish.
That night God showed Daniel the king's dream and its interpretation in a night vision. Then Daniel worshiped and thanked God for the wisdom He had given him and for making the king's dream known to him. In the morning Daniel told the captain of the king's guard not to kill the wise men of Babylon because he could tell the king his dream and its interpretation. The captain hurried to bring Daniel before the king.
When king Nebuchadnezzar asked him if he could tell the dream Daniel answered that it wasn't him. There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries and had shown the king what would happen in days to come. In his dream the king had seen a great image of a man. Its head was made of gold, its breast and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As the king looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it smote 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, all together were broken in pieces. They became like dust and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
That was Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Then Daniel told him what it meant. The dream was about the kingdoms on the earth. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold. As far as he knew he ruled over the whole earth. He did whatever he pleased. In his eyes this was glorious. The kingdom that would follow would not be as glorious, the third one even less. The fourth kingdom would be as strong as iron and would crush all the ones before it. Eventually it would become partly strong and partly brittle. In those days the God of heaven will establish His kingdom on the earth. It will put an end to all the world's kingdoms and last forever.
King Nebuchadnezzar fell down before Daniel and said that his God was truly God of gods and Lord of lords because He could reveal this mystery. He made Daniel ruler of the province of Babylon and chief over all the wise men.
How did the king's dream become a test to Daniel?
Find at least three virtues Daniel displayed in this story.
Verses in the Bible that refer to this story: Dan. 2:1-49
Additional Thoughts about Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: