Deeper Reflection
Daniel 2 is a tale of two kings. It begins with “in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar” (v.1) – “the king of kings” (Dan 2:37). Daniel is about kings and kingdoms. The Hebrew word, malkut and its Aramaic equivalent, malku (in Dan 2-7), for “kingdom” and “reign” are key terms in Daniel, occurring a total of 69 times. And Daniel 2 is primarily about the true King of kings – God, who dominates over human history.Nebuchadnezzar had very terrifying nightmares. He desperately needed to know the meaning of his bad dreams. When he got the ablest men in his kingdom to interpret the dreams for him, they were not able to. Then the king became very angry with their inefficiency and made a decree to destroy all of them. And now the lives of Daniel and his friends were in danger.At this point of the story (vv.1-13), we see just human activities and actions. God is not in the picture. Although the story begins with “the reign of Nebuchadnezzar”, the writer of Daniel intends for us to read it theologically – starting with God. This theological principle ought also to be our principle for reading and living the story of our lives, even when we do not see God in it and we ask, “Where is God in this?” God is there in verses 1 to 13 theologically, even though He has yet to appear in the text. We must see in here the theological continuity of “the Lord gave” and “God gave” in Daniel 1: 2, 9 and 17. Daniel 2 continues from Daniel 1.<hr /><h6><a name=”n24″></a>²⁴ Psalm 139:7-10 (NLT)</h6>