Daniel 2 & 3

Something dawned on me while I was reading the Book of Daniel in prep for VBS one year. Why didn’t I see this sooner?

King Nebuchadnezzar had a creepy dream in Chapter 2. He saw a huge statue made of multiple metals. The head was gold; the arms and chest were silver; the midsection and thighs were bronze; the lower legs were iron; and the feet were iron and clay mixed. A huge rock fell from the sky, crushed the feet, and caused the entire statue to crumble. God told Daniel to interpret that dream for the King. The golden head represented King Nebuchadnezzar, while all the other portions of the statue represented future kingdoms that will come and go. The falling rock (or meteor) represents the Kingdom of God coming to earth and smashing the last of Earth’s mightiest empires. Although King Nebuchadnezzar didn’t like what he was hearing, he was still convinced that Daniel was a true prophet of God. After all, Daniel was able to describe all of the important details of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Nebuchadnezzar never shared the details of his dream with anybody, not even his sorcerers, yet Daniel spelled out the details flawlessly.  At least briefly, the King glorified the God that Daniel worshipped, knowing that He was the source of Daniel’s prophetic gift. Sadly, that glory didn’t last long on Nebuchadnezzar’s end.

Why did he suddenly cast a giant golden idol? That’s the first thing we read in Chapter 3. Why did he try to force everybody to worship the golden idol or face execution? Here’s my analysis. King Nebuchadnezzar didn’t want to accept the fact that his kingdom was not final, so he ordered an idol to be made in some likeness of the statue he saw in his dream. Only this one will be made of gold from top to bottom (as opposed to the multiple metals in his dream). That golden idol was the embodiment of King Nebuchadnezzar’s obsession with final authority! After all, the golden head represented his kingdom in his dream, but the other non-golden portions represented future kingdoms to follow. The pure-golden idol represented the King alone, and his steadfast self-deception that he was the ultimate ruler.

In the words of Paul Harvey, “Now we know the rest of the story.” But even if you don’t, you can Google “Daniel Chapter 3.”

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