Verse 23: “To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and I praise. For You have given to me wisdom and power. Now also that has been revealed to me what I have sought from You. The matter of the king You have made known to us.”

Sought: Requested

To us: Daniel is not praying alone. He is praying with his three friends.

Verse 24: “After these things Daniel entered in before Arioch, who the king had appointed to kill the wise men of Babylon. And he (Daniel) spoke saying, ‘Do not kill any of the wise men of Babylon, but bring me before the king and I will make known to the king the interpretation of his dream.’”

Arioch: He was the commander of the massacre.

Do not kill any of the wise men: Through Daniel (a typology of Messiah) God saved lives. The “wise men” had received a death sentence, but now (because of G-d’s intervention) they were to receive life.

Verse 25: “And Arioch rushed to bring Daniel before the king, and he (Arioch) said to him (the king), ‘I have found a man from the exiles of Judah that will reveal to the king the interpretation of his dream.’”

Rushed: Hurried. There was an urgency in what he did. Arioch had been given a command to massacre the wise men and, as yet, it had not happened. In one sense he was in a place of disobedience. Just like with the captain of the eunuchs, Daniel had found favour with this man, and Arioch had been moved to show mercy and to be patient with Daniel while he had gone to pray.

Note: The priority of the king was not to put all these men to death. The king’s driving desire was to know what his dream was and to hear its interpretation.

Verse 26: “The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, ‘Are you able to reveal to me the dream that I have seen, and the interpretation?’”

Reveal to me the dream: He wanted to be told what the dream itself was (not just the interpretation).

Verse 27: “And Daniel answered before the king and said: ‘The king’s secret – that he asked the wise men, the astronomers, the sages, and the magicians – they were not able to speak to the king,’”

Verse 28: “But there is a God in the heavens that reveals secret things. He has made known to king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the last days. For this is your dream, and these are the visions of your head that were upon your bed:”

God …reveals secret things: The wise men could not reveal this to the king, but God could. Nebuchadnezzar is the one who is used to being treated as a god. Daniel is now testifying of the one and only true God.

Last days: The prophetic truth found in the book of Daniel has implications for the end times.

Verse 29: “For you, O king, when you were upon your bed, came upon your heart thoughts concerning the future. He who reveals secret things made known to you that which will be.”

Daniel is not yet interpreting the dream. He is speaking about Nebuchadnezzars mindset (what Nebuchadnezzar was thinking about) as he lay upon his bed (before he dreamt the dream).

Nebuchadnezzar had a desire to know something about the future.

Verse 30: “This secret was revealed to me, not by wisdom that is in me more so than in someone else that is alive, according to the interpretation that is made known to the king, on account that you might understand the concepts of your heart.”

Daniel is saying that the interpretation of the dream and the thoughts in the king’s mind can only be known because of G-d who has revealed them. Daniel takes no credit for the interpretation. 

Verse 31: “You, O king, have seen, and behold one great image, a giant statue that shone brightly. It stood before you, and its appearance was awesome.”

Note: Daniel is telling the king what the king had dreamt about before Daniel gave him the interpretation of the dream. This dream is foundational in regard to understanding future things – those things which have to do with the last days.

Behold: This word always means “pay attention”, because what is going to be revealed has great significance.

One great image: This image relates to different empires – all opposed to the establishment of the Kingdom of God. They lay the foundation for understanding that final Empire in the last days. Awesome: Terrifying, or terrible.

Verse 32: “The head of the image was pure gold. Its chest and arms were silver, and its stomach and thighs were copper.”

Note: The most valuable and significant part of this image is seen at its beginning.

Verse 33: “Its legs were iron; its feet were partly iron and partly clay.”

Legs: The word used here relates to the lower leg – probably the part of the leg below the knee.

Iron: Very hard.

Clay: Very pliable, easy to shape.

Verse 34: “You saw a stone that was cut out, but not by man. It struck the feet of the image, that was made of iron and clay, and broke them into pieces.”

Stone: “Stone” is used in many places in the Scripture referring to Messiah. The stone which Nebuchadnezzar saw is indeed Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ).

Cut out, but not by man: Messiah was never created and nor was there ever a time He did not exist. He is eternal. This “cutting”, however, depicts His character and attributes. The very essence of Him transcends man. He is divine.

Verse 35: “It shattered the iron and the clay, the copper, the silver and the gold and they became as chaff on the threshing floor in the summertime. And the spirit lifted them up and there did not remain any trace of them. The stone, which struck the image, became a great mountain that filled all of the earth.”

Shattered: Messiah is going to come and destroy the very foundations of all these empires. They will become like dust, blown away and no longer in existence.

Chaff: At the threshing floor the kernel (the part that is useful for food) is separated from the chaff. The chaff (the inedible covering that had been on the kernel) is light and easily blown away by the wind.

Trace: Evidence or remembrance. After years of prominence, they will no longer have any significance.

Mountain: Mountain, in the Scripture, relates to a government. This mountain is going to be the government of Messiah that is going to rule over all the earth. This is prophetic truth concerning what God is going to do in the last days. He is going to defeat the empires of the world and is going to establish a new government which is going to be led by this stone – the foundation of
the Kingdom. (Messiah -Psalm 118:22, Matthew 21:42-44).

Verse 36: “This is the dream. And now its interpretation let it be said before the king.”

This is the dream: Daniel, obedient to the commands of God and therefore God’s vessel, accurately told Nebuchadnezzar what the sages of Babylon had said no man could do (Daniel 2:10)– he told Nebuchadnezzar what he had dreamt about.