Deeper Reflection
Kings get to ask the impossible. When Nebuchadnezzar ordered the wise men in his court to interpret his dreams, he made an unreasonable demand on them. With “royal dreams in Babylon, there was a protocol that allowed for interpretation. It required the king to inform the professional interpreters of the content of his dream” ¹ .But Nebuchanezzar refused to follow the protocol: He commanded the wise men, “Declare the dream and its interpretation”, otherwise they would be severely punished (v.5); if they succeeded, they would be greatly rewarded (v.6).People above us may make unreasonable demands on us. There are three kinds of expectations: Our own expectations, people’s expectations and God’s expectations. Only God’s expectations are always true and reasonable, and He knows whether we can meet them or not. God’s expectations could be His commandments that we are to actively obey, or trials according to His will that we are to passively endure. Our own expectations and people’s expectations can at times be higher than God’s.The wise men appealed to the king to change his order, but he refused (vv.7-9). Behind Nebuchadnezzar’s unreasonable demand was a reasonable distrust in these men. He knew that they were stalling for time (v.8), and had “conspired to tell me lies, hoping I will change my mind” (v.9, NLT). It was “as if Nebuchadnezzar suspected all along the emptiness of the diviners’ alleged ability to foretell the future and was determined to put them to test” ² .Unbeknown to anybody, behind this royal unreasonableness and stubbornness stands the divine intention, which we only know as the story unfolds.

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¹ Tremper Longman III, Daniel, The NIV Application Commentary (Zondervan, 1999), 77 ² Iain M. Duguid, Daniel, Reformed Expository Commentary (P&R, 2008), 20-21