The Book of Daniel - Chapter 2 (part 1)

So at this point, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are all working at the palace for King Nebuchadnezzar.  They're being trained in the language and it is the second year of the king's reign.

The King has troubling dreams and he is losing sleep over them. Not only do the dreams interrupt his sleep but he is mightily concerned about the dream content and purpose.

He demanded all the magician's, sorcerers, enchanters and astrologers to appear before him and when they arrived he commanded they tell him the meaning of his dream.

The only problem was that he didn't tell them what the dream was - making it slightly trickier to interpret of course.  They uncomfortably avoided eye contact, stubbed their sandal toe in the dirt, and said, "Soooo...uhhh, yeah. We can certainly interpret your dream, but we need to know what it was first."

Well, the King wasn't having any of this, after all, these folks are supposed to have mystical powers and foresee the future and 'know' things that normal people cannot.  He told them that they were to tell HIM what his dream was.....and what it meant.  If they couldn't, he would have them cut into pieces and their houses reduced to rubble. And we today, worry about getting a bad performance review at our jobs!  I contend we should be thankful we do not have as much skin in the game as the magicians working for Nebuchadnezzar!

On the plus side the king promised them gifts and great honors if they were successful in telling him the dream and its meaning.  Needless to say, the magicians weren't particularly thrilled about the risk factor and suggested that the king tell his servants the dream and they will interpret it.

The king at this point smelled a rat. He wasn't happy that they were dragging their feet on this. Either they had the ability to see, or they did not. Stalling was not a viable option in the king's book. He let them know in no uncertain terms that failure to tell him the dream and its meaning had only a single outcome. He now believed these men had given him misleading, wicked information and the only way they could make themselves right in his view was to tell him the dream, which would confirm that their interpretation of that dream could be trusted.

The astrologers realized the jig was up. They said "Nobody can do what you are asking. Nobody has ever asked a magician or astrologer to do this before because it can't be done. You should realize that your request is not gonna happen because it is too difficult."

Now, kings in general, are not known for taking kindly to being told 'no'.
This king was no different. He figured that he wouldn't much miss astrologers and magicians who couldn't perform their duties, so he ordered them all to be killed.  Again, a true low point in their careers.

The king put out the call and this of course, also had dire implications for Daniel and his friends, despite that they were still in training.  We can assume that the king wasn't too worried about someone being trained by people he believed to be incompetent in the first place - so Daniel and company were on the hit list as well.

Now, we all know the irritation of having to deal with government departments and representatives. Imagine poor Daniel answering the door to find they are there to give him a ride to his execution.

"Whats the deal with this?  Why does the king have his undies in a bundle now?"

After hearing the explanation, Daniel asked and was granted the right to go speak with the king and maybe put the brakes on this whole 'kill all the wise men in Babylon" nonsense. He asked the king for a little time for doing the interpretation.


(Chapter 2 is continued in Part 2)