T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S book in order to evade the predictions which it records and which are yet to be fulfilled, for Jesus Christ held the book of Daniel in His hand while the Roman Empire was in power, and set His seal to it. The advocates of the evolutionary theory are compelled to face hard prob lems when they come to this dream. From gold to iron and mud is rather devolutionary, and facts are quite in contrast with fancies.
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The story, as recorded, is perfectly natural. The dream was a wonderful one |j|-the king tossing upon his couch. He was a world ruler. ' It was a vivid representation to him. How could he forget it? We have all-had like expe riences. There is also a suggestion from the context that he desired the explana tion,' and wanted the soothsayers to ex hibit their ability to divulge secret things. He summoned them and demanded of them to tell him the dream and the meaning of it. This was, of course, an unusual demand. The test was crucial. (2) THE DILEMMA, vs. 14-30. The magicians were up against a new proposition. They would have had no more difficulty in interpreting any sort of dream than the higher critics do in interpreting Scripture; but to tell what the dream was— they could not. They were sentenced to death and this sen tence, of course, included Daniel and the three Hebrew children. Daniel succeeded in obtaining a stay of the death sentence. A man of God always goes to headquarters for the so lution of his problems. Daniel’s faith was manifest in his promise to the king to solve the problem. He took the mat ter, together with his associates, to the God of Heaven. He could well say to the king, “ The soothsayers cannot do this for you; it is beyond their power; but there is nothing too hard for Jeho vah” (v. 28) and then, as an honest believer, he makes the statement that the wisdom is not his, but is given of God, and so God gets the glory. Here is where most of us fail. We depend so much upon human wisdom and rely so little upon the wisdom which is from above (Jas. 1 :5 ): “ If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (3) THE DREAM DESCRIBED, vs. . 31-49.
(1) THE DREAM, vs. 1-13.' Nebuchadnezzar is in the second year of his reign. In the first chapter of Daniel we have in two verses a record of the decay and defeat of Judah as it is described in Jeremiah 22. The monarch has a dream. He was troubled. “ Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” Pity the person who seeks position. “ Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not.” (Jer. 45:5).
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