Commentary - Daniel 2:17-30

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we see the stark contrast between the impotence of pagan wisdom and the absolute sovereignty and wisdom of the God of heaven. Faced with a death sentence from a tyrannical king, Daniel does not panic or resort to political maneuvering. Instead, he demonstrates a profound confidence in God's character and power. The first thing he does is organize a prayer meeting. He and his friends appeal to the "God of heaven" for compassion, recognizing that their very lives, and the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, are entirely in His hands. God answers this prayer directly, revealing the mystery to Daniel in a night vision.

What follows is not a sigh of relief, but an eruption of praise. Daniel's doxology in verses 20-23 is a magnificent summary of a robustly Reformed worldview. God is the one who possesses all wisdom and might. He is the Lord of history, changing times and seasons, deposing and raising up kings. He is the source of all true knowledge, the revealer of all mysteries. Daniel then goes before the king, not with the swagger of a man who has figured it all out, but with the humble confidence of a man who knows the God who has figured it all out. He gives all the credit to God, making it clear that no human wisdom could solve this riddle. This passage is a powerful demonstration of how faithful believers are to conduct themselves in a hostile, pagan culture: with prayerful dependence, doxological confidence, and humble boldness, all for the glory of the God who alone rules the nations.

Outline

Context In Daniel

This section is the pivotal moment in the narrative of Daniel chapter 2. The chapter begins with King Nebuchadnezzar's troubling dream and his unreasonable demand that his wise men not only interpret the dream but first tell him what the dream was. Their inability to do so exposed the bankruptcy of Babylonian magic and wisdom, leading the enraged king to order the execution of all the wise men in the kingdom, including Daniel and his friends. Daniel, with remarkable poise, intervenes and asks for time, promising the king an answer. Our current passage picks up immediately after this, showing how Daniel secures that answer. It is the hinge between the problem (the king's demand and death decree) and the solution (the revelation and interpretation of the dream). This event establishes Daniel's prophetic authority in the Babylonian court and, more importantly, demonstrates the supremacy of Daniel's God over the gods and kings of the earth.

Key Issues

Prayer Before Proclamation

It is crucial to note the order of operations here. Daniel is in a life-or-death situation. The executioner is, for all practical purposes, on his way. A lesser man would have immediately started trying to work his political connections, or perhaps would have started packing a bag to flee. Daniel's first move is to gather his friends for prayer. Before he can stand before the king to make a proclamation, he must kneel before his God to make a petition. This is not a sign of weakness, but of profound strength and wisdom. Daniel understands where true power lies. He knows that the secret things belong to the Lord (Deut. 29:29), and that the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord (Prov. 21:1). His confidence is not in his own ability to persuade or to be clever, but in God's ability to reveal and to save. This pattern of prayerful dependence before bold action is a model for all believers. Our public witness will only be as powerful as our private communion with God.

Verse by Verse Commentary

17 Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to his friends, to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

Daniel does not try to handle this crisis alone. Having secured a temporary stay of execution from the king, he immediately seeks out his trusted friends. These are the same three men who came with him from Judah, who had resolved with him not to defile themselves with the king's food. There is a bond of shared conviction and faithfulness here. He lays out the situation plainly. This is Christian fellowship in its most elemental form: sharing a dire burden with the intention of taking it to God together.

18 so that they might seek compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

The purpose of the meeting is explicit: to petition the God of heaven for compassion, or mercy. They were not demanding anything from God. They were not presuming upon His favor. They were casting themselves entirely on His undeserved kindness. Notice the title they use: "the God of heaven." This is a direct challenge to the earthbound, impotent gods of Babylon. Their God is transcendent, ruling over all. The request is twofold. First, that God would reveal the "mystery." Second, the practical consequence: that their lives would be spared. They understood that their fate was tied up with the fate of the pagan wise men. If God did not intervene, they would all perish together.

19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven;

God's answer is direct and personal. It comes to Daniel in a "night vision." This was not another troubling dream like Nebuchadnezzar's, but a clear revelation from God. And what is Daniel's immediate response? Not a call to Arioch, not a memo to the king, but worship. "Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven." Before he tells anyone else the good news, he tells God how good He is. True prayer always circles back to praise. Petition is answered, and the result is doxology. This is the rhythm of a healthy spiritual life.

20 Daniel answered and said, “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and might belong to Him.

Daniel's blessing is a formal poem of praise. It begins with a call for God's name to be blessed eternally. The reason for this blessing is foundational: God, and God alone, is the ultimate possessor of wisdom and might. All human wisdom is derivative, and all human power is delegated. The Babylonians prided themselves on their wisdom and their military might, but Daniel declares that the ultimate source of both resides with Yahweh. This is the bedrock of a biblical worldview.

21 And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding.

This verse unpacks the implications of God's wisdom and might. He is the sovereign Lord of all history. "He changes the times and the seasons" does not just refer to the calendar, but to the epochs of human history. The rise and fall of empires is not a chaotic accident; it is the direct work of God. He is the one who "removes kings and establishes kings." Nebuchadnezzar thinks he is the master of his own destiny, but he is merely a piece on God's chessboard. Furthermore, God is the source of all true intellectual insight. He doesn't just give wisdom to the simple; He gives wisdom to those who are already wise, and knowledge to those who already have understanding. He is the fountainhead from which all truth flows.

22 He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him.

Here Daniel comes to the specific issue at hand. The king's dream was a "deep and hidden thing," a secret locked away in the "darkness" of Nebuchadnezzar's mind. But nothing is dark to God. He knows what is in the darkness because the very light itself dwells with Him. He is not illuminated by an external source; He is the source of all light and revelation. This is a profound statement of God's omniscience and his nature as the revealer of truth.

23 To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, For You have given me wisdom and might; Even now You have made known to me what we sought from You, For You have made known to us the king’s matter.”

The doxology now becomes personal. Daniel shifts from declaring who God is to thanking God for what He has done. He identifies Him as the "God of my fathers," placing himself within the stream of covenant history. He acknowledges that the wisdom and might he now possesses are not his own; they are a direct gift from God. And he specifically thanks God for the answered prayer. Notice the plural "we sought" and "made known to us." Though the vision came to Daniel, he sees it as an answer to the collective prayer of his friends. This is a beautiful picture of humble, corporate, answered prayer.

24 Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon! Bring me before the king, and I will declare the interpretation to the king.”

Armed with the revelation from God, Daniel now acts. The word "Therefore" is key. His action is a direct consequence of God's action. He goes to Arioch, the captain of the guard, the man tasked with the executions. His first concern is not for himself, but for the others. "Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon!" This is an act of mercy and grace. Daniel's God has shown him compassion, and he now extends that compassion to his pagan colleagues who were moments away from death. He is confident and direct. He doesn't say "I think I can help," but rather, "I will declare the interpretation."

25 Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him: “I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!”

Arioch, no doubt relieved to be spared a bloody task, rushes Daniel to the king. In his excitement, he takes a little too much credit. "I have found a man..." as though this were the result of his own diligent search. He also identifies Daniel as one of the "exiles from Judah," highlighting his foreign, captive status. From a human perspective, this was the least likely place to find a solution to the king's problem.

26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?”

The king addresses Daniel by his Babylonian name, Belteshazzar, a name linked to a pagan god. The question is tinged with skepticism. "Are you able...?" After all his own high-powered experts had failed, how could this young Hebrew captive possibly succeed? The stage is set for a dramatic confrontation between the power of Babylon and the power of God.

27-28 Daniel answered before the king and said, “As for the mystery about which the king is asking, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the last days. This was your dream and the visions of your head while on your bed.

Daniel's answer is a masterpiece of faithful witness. He begins by agreeing with the king's implied assessment: no human can do this. He lists the whole sorry crew of Babylonian court experts and confirms their incompetence. He levels the playing field of human wisdom, showing it to be utterly bankrupt in the face of a true mystery. But then he pivots with that glorious word, "However." He immediately deflects all attention from himself and points upward. "There is a God in heaven." This is the whole point. The hero of this story is not Daniel; it is Daniel's God. And this God, the true revealer of mysteries, has chosen to make known to a pagan king what is going to happen in the future, specifically in the "last days", the time of Messiah's coming kingdom.

29 As for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts turned to what would happen in the future; and He who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will happen.

Daniel shows that God's revelation was not random, but was a direct answer to the king's own unspoken thoughts. Nebuchadnezzar, the great emperor, was lying in bed wondering about his legacy and the future of his kingdom. God, in His sovereignty, met the king at the point of his own anxieties. The dream was not just a piece of divine trivia; it was a personal address to the king from the only One who truly knows and controls the future.

30 But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me by any wisdom which is in me more than in any other living man, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.

Daniel concludes his introduction with a profound statement of humility. He wants to make it absolutely clear that he is not the source of this information. He claims no special intellectual superiority. He is not smarter than anyone else. He is simply a vessel, a conduit. The revelation was given to him for a specific purpose: so that the king would get his answer. The ultimate goal was not to elevate Daniel, but to reveal God's message to Nebuchadnezzar and to show the king the inner workings of his own heart. This is the posture of every true servant of God. We are not the story; we are just the messengers.

Application

This passage is a clinic on how Christians ought to live in a world that does not know their God. First, we see that our first response to crisis should be corporate prayer. We are not lone rangers. We have brothers and sisters to bear our burdens, and we have a Father in heaven who hears our pleas for compassion. We should not underestimate the power of a few believers gathering to seek the face of God.

Second, we must cultivate a deeply theological response to life. Daniel's prayer was not a desperate, content-free cry for help. It was a rich, robust declaration of God's sovereignty, wisdom, and power. When God answers our prayers, our response should be to bless His name, to rehearse His attributes, to thank Him for His specific actions. Our theology should fuel our doxology, and our doxology should reinforce our theology.

Finally, when God gives us an opportunity to speak for Him in the public square, we must do so with both boldness and humility. The boldness comes from knowing that we speak for the God who runs the universe. The humility comes from knowing that we are nothing more than redeemed sinners, and that any wisdom or courage we have is a gift. Like Daniel, our goal should never be to make a name for ourselves, but to make it clear to a watching world that "there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries." We are simply the mailmen, delivering a message from the King of kings.