Nebuchadnezzar’s ‘image’ was Satan’s scheme to achieve submission to paganism or execution of all Jews at court, and through the empire, eliminating any remnant of faithful Israel and the plan of redemption. A miracle averted all with minimal deaths. Here are mighty spiritual encouragements.
The book of the prophet Daniel makes a gentle start, beginning so beautifully and so perfectly structured from a literary point of view. It then proceeds into depths of theology, prophecy and narrative concerning the proving of the Lord and his provision for his people.
There are magnificent things in the book of Daniel, including fresh Old Testament revelation, touching on themes unseen in any earlier books. You can’t really – for example – study the theology of angels without the book of Daniel. You can’t think very deeply about the doctrine of the resurrection of the body without the book of Daniel. So to Daniel was given tremendous privileges of revelation, quite apart from this book demonstrating God’s sovereign power to bless the survival of his people and their integrity through the ages.
The historical Daniel is undoubtedly the author of the book. On a number of occasions he uses the phrase ‘I, Daniel’ (although he only begins to write in the first person, in an autobiographical manner, from chapter seven on). It’s almost as though, dare we say, Daniel could not bring himself to write in an autobiographical manner at the beginning of the book, because he’s obliged to record what might appear to be his own accomplishments. He ascribes them all to the Lord, but he avoids the first person until that’s all over and done, and only then does he speak in terms of his own experience.
It’s often said that there is nothing bad recorded about Daniel either in this book or anywhere else in the scripture. He’s one of very few Bible characters of whom that can be said. The Lord, in His inspired word, didn’t wish anything bad to be said about Daniel. He was a fallible person, as we are, but so great was his faithfulness that his reputation is preserved in every respect.
Related Resources
Nebuchadnezzar and Ur of the Chaldees
A biblical place authenticated(c.2500 BC)
The Madness of King Nebuchadnezzar
The purpose of God in the humbling (though not the conversion) of a seemingly invincible emperor shortly before his death and then the fall of the empire. Daniel is assured of God’s sovereignty overall, and we glean promises for the present turmoil.
Man’s Strength Or God’s Might?
‘And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him. Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.’