Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that what he saw in his dream was a huge scary statue made of different metals and clay. In the dream a massive stone was cut from a mountain (not by human hands) which smashed the statue, which blew away in the wind. Then the stone became a mountain which covered the whole earth. Then Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar what it meant. Daniel said that the gold head was Nebuchadnezzar whom God had blessed with abundance. There were 3 kingdoms which would come after him that would be successively weaker. During the time of those kings God would set up an eternal kingdom which would never fail. It would be like that massive stone, cut from the mountain, but not with human hands. Daniel told the king he could trust this interpretation. Then the king bowed down and worshiped Daniel, showered him with gifts and promoted him to governor in Babylon and put him in charge of other wise men. Daniel asked the king to promote his three friends too.
Nebuchadnezzar decided to build a gold statue nine feet wide and ninety feet high. Then he had everyone come from all around and demanded that they bow down and worship the statue. So the people did except for the Jews. Some Babylonians used this as a chance to tell the king that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to worship the statue. Of course the king was furious and sent for the three immediately. He gave them one more chance to worship the statue before burning them in the furnace. They would not worship the statue, so the king had them thrown into the furnace which he had ordered to be made 7 times hotter than usual. Then the king had his strongest soldiers tie the hands of the three and lead them to the furnace. The fire was so hot that it killed the soldiers who led the three into it. The king looked into the furnace and saw 4 people walking around in it. He asked the people with him how many people they saw in there and they all saw four. So the king told them to come out of the furnace, so they did. Nothing on them was burned. Nebuchadnezzar realized that they had been saved by God and He had sent an angel to protect them inside the furnace! Then he praised God and understood why they refused to obey him.
Nebuchadnezzar sent the people of his kingdom a letter. He shared his greetings and joy in the miracles of God. He reviewed his experience of his first dream and how Daniel interpreted it for him. He also shared a second dream and its interpretation. The second dream was of an enormous tree which reached up to heaven and had enough fruit on it to feed the world. Then an angel came and shouted to destroy the tree, but leave the stump. Daniel told the king that the tree was the king and he would live like a wild animal for 7 years. But since the roots were still there, that meant that the king would be king again when he learned that God is in control. Daniel pleaded with the king to obey God's commandments and take care of people, then all would be well with him for a long time.
Tomorrow read Daniel 4:28-7:12
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