“And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will reveal the meaning. “ Dan 2: 4

All of us have had vivid dreams that were so impacting on us that we woke up frightened, perhaps even yelling out in our sleep. The moment we wake up it’s as if the dream and our reality are indiscernable from each other. We can vivdly remember all the details as we sit on the edge of the bed considering the dream. As the day goes on we may recall a detail of two about the dream, but as days pass we recall fewer and fewer details about it until all we can remember is the feeling of uneasiness it gave us.

Nebuchadnezzar had dreams like those for a time, they troubled him so much that he couldn’t sleep, and he couldn’t remember what they were about. There were a lot of sorcerers in town, so he called all that were in the phonebook and told them to shag it to the palace for a meeting. He explained to them his troubling dreams and told them that it was their job to determine what it was that he dreamed and what it meant.

Their response was, “Oh King, you’re going to be fine. Now, let’s talk about your dream. Did you dream you were falling? Or, maybe you dreamed that you went to the palace and forgot your pants? No, no, you dreamed that you could fly but had no control over where you were going to land. Maybe, … you dreamed that there were … monsters, yeah monsters under your bed? Why don’t you just tell us what you dreamed and we’ll tell you what it means.”

They heard the king order them to tell him the content of the dream, but they had no clue as to what he knew. The king had a few doubts about these wizards and their ability to do what they said they could do.

The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing has gone from me. If you will not make known to me the dream, with its meaning, you will be made into mere members, and your houses shall be made an outhouse. But if you make known the dream and its meaning, you shall receive gifts and a present and great honor from me. Therefore reveal to me the dream and its meaning.

Daniel 2:5-6

Nebby gets a little irritated with the Tarrot card team. He says, “I don’t remember the dream!, and if you don’t tell me what it was and what it means, I’ll have your arms and legs torn from your bodies and I’ll have all the city’s toilets emptied into your homes! But, if you can tell me the dream and it’s meaning, I’ll make you famous. Now, what’s it going to be, poop and pain or pomp and prizes?”

They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will reveal its meaning. The king answered and said, For I know that you surely want to gain time, because you see the thing is gone from me. But if you will not make the dream known to me, there is only one judgment for you. For you have prepared lying and deceiving words to speak before me, until the time has changed. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can reveal to me its meaning.

Daniel 2:7-9

The wizards begin to see that their feeble attempts to placate the Potentate will not be tolerated, the jig’s up. They ask him again to tell them what he dreamed. Nebby says, “You’re just waiting ‘til I can remember a tiny shred of it so you can fabricate some lie to satisfy me. Now, I’m dead serious, if you don’t do what I say and tell me what I dreamed, I’m not going to change mind about your fate. If you’re really sorcerers, you’ll be able not only to tell me what my dream means, but also what I dreamed. So get to it.

The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, There is not a man on the earth who can reveal the king’s matter, because not any king, lord, nor ruler has asked such a thing from any horoscopist or conjurer or Chaldean. And it is a rare thing that the king asks, and there is no other who can reveal it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.

Daniel 2:10-11

These men are desperate and and a little distracted as they make a somewhat haughty if not insulting appeal to the king to consider what it is that he’s asking. They tell him, “There’s not a man on earth that can tell you what you want to know for two reasons: First, No real king of any sort would ask this sort of thing from a hack palm reader, a learned astrologer, or even anyone as wise as we are. Secondly, what you’re asking is bizzare, because nobody except a god could do this, and, well, do you see one in this room? “

For this cause the king was enraged and angered, and commanded all the wise men of Babylon to be destroyed. And the law went out that the wise men should be killed. And they sought Daniel and his fellows to be killed.

Uh, oh…

Then Daniel answered with counsel and insight to Arioch the chief of the king’s executioners, who had gone forth to kill the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Arioch the king’s captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.

Daniel 2:12-15

Word went out to kill all the sorcerers. This fellow Arioch was also fond of Daniel. Instead of just walking up to him and lopping off his head, it appears that he first told Daniel what he had been ordered to do. The KJV calls him “the chief of the king’s guards”. But, the name Arioch is Hebrew, meaning “fierce lion”. Also, the word translated as guard is “butcher” in the original text. I believe that Arioch was a fellow Jewish prisoner with Daniel and that he had been drafted by the king to be the head of the butcher shop. So, he must have been the best at removing limbs and appendages from livestock, and anything else. Knowing this, Daniel approached him with “counsel and insight”, literally with “prudence and flavor”, meaning he used his head and “sweet talked” Arioch into telling him what was going on.

Then Daniel went in and asked of the king that he would give him time, and that he would make known the meaning to the king.

Daniel 2:16

When Daniel found out what the king had ordered, instead of running to hide in fear of his life, he actually went before the king and asked for time, promising that he would do what the king had asked of the sorcerers. Daniel was acting in faith. He knew God would give him the content and the meaning of the dream.

Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might pray for the mercies of God in Heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his companions should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. And Daniel blessed the God of Heaven.

Daniel 2:17-19

Daniel and his three friends had a prayer meeting to ask the Lord to spare their lives. This is a pretty bold statement of their faith in God, especially during such a desperate time. Daniel had the faith to go before the king himself, the very man who had issued a decree that he should be killed, and petition him to allow him to seek God in the matter. But then, he went before the King of kings and petitioned him in faith, believing He would answer. And He did.

How many of us would have quietly slipped out of town disguised as something other than what we were known to be? If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that we do it all the time. When the heat gets turned up and we find ourselves in the midst of co-workers, family or friends who are involved in some questionable conduct, do we begin to disguise ourselves as someone else and try to blend in with the crowd? Do we find ourselves tucking the cross we wear around our neck into our shirt, or hiding our bible so as not to be identified as a believer? Or do we go and face the king, the accuser, the unbeliever, in respect with concern and seek a chance to present our faith?

What does it take for us to stand up and do what is right in the face of adversity and ridicule? When will we accept the call of God on our lives and refuse to run and hide our faces in fear of what man may do to us? Are we so timid in our faith that we can’t believe He will protect, deliver and justify us? Or is it that we’re so ashamed of our weak testimony because of the things we’ve done that we feel we’ve lost our voice with the world?

Consider this, Daniel sought the Lord for what to say to the king. He humbled himself before the feet of God and asked Him for the words to fill His mouth. He didn’t rely on his testimony or hide in fear because of the failures of his flesh, he sought the King. He sought the word of the Lord as to how to answer.

That’s where we are folks. That’s where we need to be, at the feet of the Father asking Him for the power of His Holy Spirit to make a change in the way things are in our lives. Forget about your abilities or inabilities, go before the Father in the name of the Son and ask Him for the answer to the dilemma you find yourself in. He will answer, He will strengthen you, He will deliver you. But you must go before the Lord and ask.

He will answer. He always does.