“Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him.” Daniel 2:1
Nebuchadnezzar is a young king. He has aspirations for his kingdom, dreams of a great empire that he will create and which will be a lasting legacy to his greatness. God is in control and he orchestrates events to give us a picture of world powers while at the same time moving
Daniel into a position of prominence in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace.
Nebuchadnezzar had dreams For the second time in the book
of Daniel God acquaints us with dreams. In Daniel 1:17 we are told God had given Daniel a special gift – the ability to understand visions anddreams. God does not give us gifts that He does not intend us to use.
Therefore we see Daniel link the giving of this gift from God in chapter
1 with the dream that God gives the king in chapter 2. God guided the
thoughts of the king. In Daniel 2:29 Daniel says “As for you, O king,
while on your bed your thoughts turned to what would take place
in the future; and He who reveals mysteries has made known to you
what will take place”. The king was thinking about his future and God spoke to him through not one but several dreams. (Note the word dreams is plural.) In the Hebrew “dreamed dreams” is in pluperfect tense. It reads he “had dreamed dreams.” Through this we assume that Nebuchadnezzar had these dreams over a period of time but only now reveals them.
In scripture we read that God often used dreams to reach the heart of unbelieving kings. This happened in the case of Abimelech when God warned him about taking any actions with Abraham’s wife. God used dreams with Pharaoh in Genesis 41 to warn him of the coming famine and to move Joseph into prominence in Pharoah’s palace. God uses dreams to reach Nebuchadnezzar.
His spirit was so troubled God tells us the impact of these dreams on the king. Scripture says the dream impacted his spirit (his breath or wind.) The word is also translated “mind” when Esau’s actions were a grief to his father and mother – it was a grief to their minds. They continued to think about it and dwell on it as Nebuchadnezzar did here. Then we read the dream troubled him. The word can also be translated stirred up, made anxious or disturbed. This dream has a profound impact on Nebuchadnezzar. The mightiest man in he world was troubled and insecure over what the future held. He knew there was an important message in his dream but he could not understand what it meant. He did not know what the future held for him and he was perturbed over it.
His sleep left him The word sleep is first used in Genesis 28:16. Jacob awakes from his sleep and says “Surely God is in this place.” It may very well be that Nebuchadnezzar knew God was speaking to him through this dream and he was troubled that he could not understand what God was saying to him. God used sleeplessness with King Ahasuerus in Esther 6 so that the king might be reminded of Mordecai’s loyalty to him ultimately leading to the death of Haman and Israel’s deliverance from annihilation. Here God disrupts Nebuchadnezzar’s sleep with a dream that is tearing him up inside.
What can we learn? We watch God control events. He uses the small and simple things to accomplish His will.
Daniel did not know any of this was happening but God was at work. He “chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong”. God troubles a mighty king with a simple dream to put that king on a road to salvation and show to us the future