Deeper Reflection
Through Daniel the God who reveals “mysteries” met the helpless king in understanding his disturbing dream and freed him from his distress (Dan 2:1-3, 28). God revealed to Nebuchadnezzar His plan of world history, symbolised by “a single statue”, with its golden head representing the Babylonian king (Dan 2:31-33, 36-38). But Nebuchadnezzar did not want to be just a golden head. He wanted to be “a statue of gold” (v.1), indicating that it would be he, not God, who would determine world history.Having found relief from his distress over his troubling dream, Nebuchadnezzar soon forgot the God who relieved him. His earlier acknowledgement of God, “the revealer of mysteries”, as “a God of gods and a Lord of kings” was shallow and hollow (Dan 2:47). Are you like Nebuchadnezzar? Or Israel in the days of Judges, who cried out to God in their troubles, but soon forgot Him after He had delivered them, and only to seek Him again in the next crisis (Judg 3:9, 12-15)?Nebuchadnezzar, a helpless king who was relieved from his troubledness by God, became a hostile king toward the servants of God. When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to worship his golden statue, he was “filled with rage” and threw them into the blazing furnace (vv.19-23). But God showed Himself to Nebuchadnezzar as the God who rescues, who miraculously “delivered His servants” – in a way that “no other god is able to deliver” (vv.24-25, 28-29). Nebuchadnezzar responded with worship: “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego” (v.28). Nebuchadnezzar had progressed in knowing God from Daniel 2.