Daniel Chapter 5

|Daniel 5 |

1. Last week we started our speed study in Daniel. Daniel was taken as a young man (teenager) into Babylonian exile in 605BC. Daniel and his 3 friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah(Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego) quickly rose to prominent positions within the Kings court. This is more a statement of God’s will or God’s plan than the superior intellect of these 4 young men. They were in fact pretty smart men, but they were part of God’s plan to restore children of Israel to their promised land which would later happen under the Persian King Cyrus, whom Daniel served as he did the previous kings of Babylon.

2. In the 2nd year of his exile, Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue. Not only did he interpret the dream, he was able to tell the king what the dream was without being told beforehand signifying God’s hand on Daniel. In verse 23 of chapter 2, Daniel thanked and praised God for making the dream known to him.

3. Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and proclaimed that Daniel’s God was the God of gods and promoted Daniel to the chief over all the wise men of Babylon.

4. Now Nebuchadnezzar was a wishy-washy king. He could recognize that the Heavenly Father was above all and then he would build a monument to himself and declare anyone not worshiping his idol would be executed. This is how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego wound up in the fiery furnace. And again after God delivers the 3 from the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar praises God and declares anyone speaking against their God would be killed.

5. In chapter 4 Daniel interprets the kings 2nd dream which foretells Nebuchadnezzar going insane for a period of time. I have been around people who were clearly not in their right mind and are classified as legally insane, but this was extreme. It appears that Nebuchadnezzar was out grazing with...