Read Daniel 2:27-30. Review Daniel’s response to the king when asked if he (Daniel) could describe an interpret his (the king’s) dream. In what ways did Daniel carefully credit God with the revelation?
“He basically said no person could do it, but God could do much greater things than any human.”
What will happen to the rock according to the prophecy in verse 35?
“It will become a huge mountain and fill the whole earth.”
Note the way Nebuchadnezzar responded in verses 46-49.
“He gave glory to God and promotions to Daniel and his friends.”
Nebuchadnezzar did not have the personal relationship with God that you and I possess. If he responded in worship, how much more shall we? As we conclude, in light of God‘s glorious, sovereign plan, how will you respond to him in worship today? Write a brief prayer in the margin.
“A margin? Is she kidding? Lord, you are far greater than I can express in a margin! You are holy, righteous, and perfect. You’re in love and mercy are greater than I can comprehend. Your sacrifice to save us is overwhelming. I am in awe.”
“World Empires throughout History
“gold – Babylonian Empire
“silver – Medo-Persian Empire
“iron – Roman Empire
“iron and baked clay – divided Roman Empire and future Ten Kingdoms
“Jesus’ Kingdom” is the stone flying in from nowhere.
Dearest Rachel –
I love it when I see you writing in you voice, as opposed to simply quoting verses or a passage written earlier in the study. Obviously, scripture is important to read and absorb, but when you take the moment to add just that little more that is your own voice, it’s such a comfort. Granted, it’s only a complaint about how the margin isn’t sufficient to write a suitable prayer – and there’s something hilariously meta about taking up page space to complain about how little page space you have – but it’s not just a student talking at that point, it’s you.
From there, of course, you go into a prayer that (in part because of your odd complain) is clearly coming from your heart, rather than being some rote prayer learned in childhood that you’re repeating out of timeworn practice. You’re telling God exactly what you’re thinking in the moment, which is, I think, what He really wants to hear from us. Our thoughts, in our own voices, rather than simply reciting someone else’s words verbatim (even if they happen to be from His Son).
As for the statue itself, well… we’ve gone through so many classes on this in our lifetimes, it seems redundant to go over it. We focus on the prophetic because we want to know what the future holds. Yet, for all that, I’ve seen so many studies that claim to know who this “revived Roman Empire” is supposed to be, and they have yet to pan out. It’s not unlike the many folks who have been tarred with the ‘antichrist’ designation; they show up on the scene of history, play their part, and disappear, while the world keeps turning. They weren’t all that or a bag of chips, and we look silly by trying to claim otherwise.
It was smart of Ms. Moore to simply focus on how we need to deal with seemingly impossible tasks – like discovering and interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream – than trying to tack on the further impossible task of applying the dream to what we think we see in the present day. As the final verse in the book says, we need to simply “go [on our] way until the end. [We] will get [our] rest, and at the end [we] will rise to receive [our] reward.”
Letters to Rachel 