The Regular Guys Bible Study

Daniel 2:31-49

• Ken Strickland • Season 9 • Episode 3

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We read Daniel 2:31–49 and trace the statue from gold to clay, then follow the stone not cut by hands to a kingdom that lasts. Along the way we wrestle with titles, worship, culture, and why foundations decide everything.

• reading the dream and the statue
• metals as a map of empires
• the stone as Christ and a lasting kingdom
• “king of kings” as honorific under God
• iron and clay as divided alliances
• rejecting racist misuse of “mixed” marriages
• why God revealed the dream to elevate Daniel
• homage to Daniel versus worship of God
• promotion, influence, and serving with integrity
• preview of Daniel chapter three


SPEAKER_00:

You are listening to the regular guys Bible study podcast. The Bible study for regular guys, my regular guys. Not theologians.

SPEAKER_02:

The love duty of the buddies.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey guys, thanks a lot. Thanks a lot for that. This is our first time really getting an innovation like that to start. And it feels pretty good. Um, but it was fake. So it's it doesn't really feel that good. Um, all right. Um so Steve, I am changing jobs.

SPEAKER_01:

I am aware of this.

SPEAKER_00:

And you know, you're I haven't done this in a long time. I've been in the same job for 26 years. I'm I'm exiting this job. And I told them a long time ago, I've given them a long time. I've been transitioning people over to my uh takeover. I'm done with all that. And I'm like, what am I doing? It's like I have extreme short timers disease. There's nothing for me to do at my job at the moment, but I'm still there for the rest of the week.

SPEAKER_02:

Could take the days off.

SPEAKER_00:

I did take today off. I had a doctor's appointment. I had a 30-minute, maybe 45-minute doctor's appointment, and I took the whole day off for it.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's what I do. All right, but um, but enough about me, Steve. Let's talk about you, Steve. Me, Steve. You, Steve. Yes. Uh, what would you like to talk about?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know. I just I just wanted to not talk about it.

SPEAKER_02:

I know. Yeah, what we have two gray focks that come regularly to clean up under our bird feeder.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's cool. In the front. Do they play with each other?

SPEAKER_02:

I have not seen them play with each other, but they're definitely together.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

On one night they showed up within five minutes of a raccoon. So I don't they they had to both know they were there. And I wouldn't think fox and raccoons are the best of pals.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I think if a raccoon got his hands on a fox, he would bite his head off.

SPEAKER_02:

I think the raccoon would win.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, the raccoon would definitely win. Huh. Because those fox is not that big.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, they're actually, these are pretty big foxes. Are they?

SPEAKER_00:

Ours are pretty small and they're very skinny. They're like sleek.

SPEAKER_02:

They're pretty sleek, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

They're they're the same length, maybe their body, but they're like probably a quarter of a record definitely is way denser. All right. Well, that le that's a really good segue into what we're doing tonight.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, right on topic, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

All right, guys. We are on Daniel chapter 2, verse 31 to the end. This is where Daniel interprets the dream. Um he first tells the king his dream, and then he interprets it. And if you haven't read it yet, go ahead and read it. Um it's um you might want to read it twice, just there's weird things going on in there. Um but uh so do you want to get started, Steve?

SPEAKER_01:

Sure, I can start. All right. Let's see, verse thirty one of chapter two.

SPEAKER_02:

You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet, partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold altogether were broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Excuse me. This was the dream. Now we will tell you now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power and the might and the glory, and to whose hand he has given wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all, you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth, and there will be a sh there shall be a fourth kingdom strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things, and like iron that crushes it shall break and crush all these, and as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay, and as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.

SPEAKER_01:

Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand. Hold on, broke in pieces the iron of the clay.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, that was weird.

SPEAKER_02:

What?

SPEAKER_00:

You just paused for a long time. Where was I? Um and well, what's weird is the audio then caught up. But but uh oh, that's weird. Okay, so uh you were at uh I'll just start at 44. Yeah, I think that's probably where you were.

SPEAKER_02:

In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kings and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. Just as you saw that a stone was cut from no human hand, from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this.

SPEAKER_01:

The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure. Actually there's no is there.

SPEAKER_00:

And its interpretation sure. Let me go ahead and read the rest. Then King Gent Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. The king answered and said to Daniel, Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery. Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon, but Daniel remained at the king's court.

SPEAKER_02:

I like how we uh split up the reading evenly today. That was really good, Ken.

SPEAKER_00:

That was good. I just read it a lot faster. Um, so um just uh a little recap. Um, right before this, remember uh Nebuchadnezzar was gonna kill everybody um unless all the wise men he was just gonna kill him unless somebody could tell him his dream and then interpret it. So they had to tell him his dream. Daniel said, Um, hold on, don't kill us. I got this. Uh yeah, we're gonna we're gonna go back and pray. And he and his buddies, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego prayed about it. God revealed the dream to him and and the interpretation, and so here he is before the king, letting him know.

SPEAKER_01:

So um good summary. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, all right, so what you got for us, Steve?

SPEAKER_02:

So at the very beginning, there's a couple of things at verse 31. The image uh, first of all, it was very bright, which when I think of statues, I don't think of bright. Um and it was frightening. So was it like moving, or did just the colors of gold, silver, bronze, and iron and clay, did they just clash too much, and that was just scary because old Nub was such a fashionable guy that he would never do something like that?

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't really think about that part. Um, and it was frightening. And its appearance was frightening. Um you think that could just be a dream thing?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, you know, uh you can have um where there's really nothing else around it, it's just sort of there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I don't know. But you can have these emotions during dreams that you don't really understand. Or I can. Uh no, I can. You can you can um anyway, that joke never gets old. Um never. Um but maybe it was just huge, um, which made it frightening, or maybe yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe it was threatening looking, or yeah, it could be had a feeling to it of doom or something. I don't know. But the other thing that struck me as weird is that he says, You saw, O king, and behold.

SPEAKER_01:

Shouldn't it be beheld?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know. I have no idea. Okay, you know what? I'm gonna look at NIV. What does NIV say? Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue. An enormous dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. Oh, this says awesome in appearance, not frightening. Instead of frightening. Yeah. So maybe it wasn't a uh maybe it was just kind of just so uh maybe that word that was translated as frightening could mean other things, like just it's just amazing.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's like the fear of the Lord is not fear in the sense of frightening.

SPEAKER_01:

It's more like the awesome word. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Um but yeah, why uh ESV says behold instead of beheld, maybe it's a typo.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01:

Just weird change in tense.

SPEAKER_00:

Or maybe that's uh I don't know. Maybe it was told from the king's perspective. Behold a great image. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe um what do you have?

SPEAKER_00:

All right, well, um I I I go down to 34.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's where my next one is, too.

SPEAKER_00:

And you know, it talks about so we go from the head's gold, and he's got a chest, uh, what is it, chest and silver, and then uh its middle and thighs of bronze, and and its legs of iron. So all these are very well, I mean, gold is not that strong, but it's brilliant, and silver is also brilliant. And then you've got these strong, these the strength in the middle section of bronze, and then you've got the bronze is pretty shiny, it's it's shiny and it's also extremely strong, and then legs of iron, which are heavy and strong, and then the things that are supporting it are a mixture of these things that are extremely strong and clay, which just makes it just brittle. And you know what's interesting here is that to me anyway, is that if the feet had still just been of uh iron, like the legs, or of just one thing, it would have been extremely sturdy, right? And so when this thing hits uh the feet, the whole thing crashes down because it's brittle because of the mixture. So I I didn't think it was clear in the interpretation that the mixture is what makes it fall. But it it is sort of, I guess.

SPEAKER_02:

But uh crushes them.

SPEAKER_00:

The stone hits it, but I think the stone, you know, I don't it's not clear. I I think the stone, the statue would not have fallen and cr crunch crumbled so easily if the feet had been of iron.

SPEAKER_01:

But these are starting with the head, the oldest um kingdom.

SPEAKER_00:

So the one after it the current kingdom.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, in this case the current, yeah. But each one of them defeats the kingdom before it. Correct. But it but it doesn't actually destroy it, I guess, because the statue's still there and it's only the the final one that defeats and destroys all of the previous Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. So what do you think that stone is?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know. A big stone cut out by God.

SPEAKER_01:

Really? You don't think that's Christ?

SPEAKER_02:

Um, oh, well, I think it's Christ, and the mountain is the growing mountain that covers the whole earth is the church.

SPEAKER_01:

That's how I see it. Man, you're smarter than me, Steve. Am I? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I guess I won't. I decided not to use AI to help me. Did you use AI to help you? No. Did you read that somewhere, or did you just come up with that yourself?

SPEAKER_02:

It's possible I read it somewhere, but it's also possible I just sat there thinking about it. I was like, well, that sounds a lot like Christ. No, I think I did read some notes, side notes that said the rock is the cornerstone.

SPEAKER_00:

That makes sense. And they do call Christ the cornerstone.

SPEAKER_02:

Um and they call Peter the rock upon which he built the church.

SPEAKER_00:

That's true. Okay. I can go with that, Steve. I think you're smart. Good job. Thanks. You're welcome. Um, okay, so so Christ comes in and like shatters it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, see, I think it's a slower process than what the dream indicates.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, these these happen over hundreds of years.

SPEAKER_02:

Christ did not destroy the Roman Empire in a day.

SPEAKER_01:

No. But it was destroyed. So in verse 36.

SPEAKER_02:

I can't I just imagine at this point, old Neb, Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar, whatever, is staring at Daniel and his jaws hanging open, and he's like, that was my dream. Like in total shock.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Because no one's ever told me my dreams before.

SPEAKER_00:

No. Do you want me to tell you your dreams, Steve?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think it's appropriate. We don't have an ex uh I'm I don't want to have to hit the explicit tag on this podcast. So, no, I'm not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't remember my dreams very often.

SPEAKER_00:

So it would be tough for you to tell me. How could I tell you yours? I don't remember mine. There's no way I would know yours, Steve.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, if God told you what my dream was, you could tell me.

SPEAKER_00:

That's true. That is true. And God has no reason to do that at the moment. Um all right. So let me ask you this. And this is this is a stupid question, I think. But Daniel says in 36, he says, now we will tell the king its interpretation.

SPEAKER_02:

So I had a couple of thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_01:

And I don't think it's the royal we.

SPEAKER_02:

I think it's it's either uh Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He's giving them credit for helping pray and that, or he's just straight up saying, God and I are gonna tell you what your the interpretation is. Or maybe all the above.

SPEAKER_00:

I I think that it's I think he's including Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, even though he's the one talking. Um, and I can imagine, you know, they weren't together and they prayed about this thing, and they said, God, please show us this thing, um, blah, blah, blah. And then God did. He showed, he revealed Daniel this dream. I don't know if he revealed it to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego or not, but it we know that he revealed the dream to Daniel. I guarantee you, they discussed the dream and its interpretation. Um, and so I think you know, them together with God, I mean, God told them what this means, but they all worked on this together.

SPEAKER_02:

I think so. Um, and I think it could be that each of them saw a different portion of the dream.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's possible. That's that would be weird.

SPEAKER_02:

And then they put it together. Yeah, that could be. But that's not what it says here. It says God gave Daniel a vision.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, don't make stuff up, Steve. It's bad. Yeah. Um, anyway, um, no, but I think I think also Daniel wanted to make sure he took care of his buddies. Which later when we get down there, he does it again. He does it again at the at the end of this section that we read.

SPEAKER_02:

Um So my next comment's not until 45. So if you've got something before then.

SPEAKER_00:

Alright, I do. Um in 37, Daniel refers to King Nebuchadnezzar as the king of kings. And that really bothers me.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it bothered me too.

SPEAKER_00:

Um because that is a title given to God. And Nebuchadnezzar is not God. Um, he might be a king of the kings around, but he is not the king of kings. Let's see, does it call him the or a? Um he calls him. He says the king of kings. Um is he just showing reverence? Uh let me I should look at that. Niv, what does it say? Your majesty, you are the king of kings. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That's the same.

SPEAKER_00:

Is he is he just showing reverence to his king who who could who could kill him at any moment or is this something else?

SPEAKER_01:

I was wondering about that too. Like, is this because that that same title is given to Jesus?

SPEAKER_02:

And later in this uh chapter, we're seeing how the stone, which I think is Jesus, is basically becoming the King of Kings.

SPEAKER_01:

Um so maybe it's some sort of method of indicating what Christ will become. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Well that just bothers me. I don't know what to do with it. Um I I wish Daniel wouldn't have called him the king of kings. Now I believe Nebuchadnezzar sees him himself as the king of kings. And so, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

And he's not really king over all the people of Earth.

SPEAKER_00:

No.

SPEAKER_02:

You got China, you got Japan, you got uh Eskimos.

SPEAKER_00:

He might be king over all the known universe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know what the um what the known universe was to him at that time, or or the known earth, I mean. Not the known universe. It's the same, probably. Um all right, anyway. Um I kind of think that he's showing reverence to the king uh in that like this is the proper thing for me to say to my king uh to not be killed.

SPEAKER_01:

That's yeah. But it it the borderline feels like worship. I don't think it's worship. But yeah, it does bother me though.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. There's another thing in here that bothers me, but we aren't there yet.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, so um then in 38 uh uh oh then he he he also because this is a similar thing. It's when he's like telling them how great he is, he also says he's the ruler over the wild animals. And and again, that this kind of points back to the King of Kings as just being a pleasantry um or an exaggeration of who he is, because you know that a lion could kill King Nebuchadnezzar if and wouldn't think twice about it if he gave him an order to stop. Exactly. So so um that kind of to me points back to the King of Kings as just being this is what the kind of thing I need to say.

SPEAKER_02:

Um Yeah, he's just kind of pumping them up and making them feel great about himself. Oh, you're the best, man. I'm your number one brown noser.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think so. Um, all right. When did you say your next comment was? I have one at 42. 45. All right. All right. Uh I don't know how much I want to say about this, but you know, and it says, and as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. Um as you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.

SPEAKER_01:

You know what I like that's brittle?

SPEAKER_00:

Peanut brittle.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

Did I get it right?

SPEAKER_02:

When I when I was looking at this just now, I was like, does that say party brittle? I love peanut brittle.

SPEAKER_00:

No, this is not that kind of brittle, Steve. Okay, but um what it's talking about mixed marriages here. And what really I have I know of people, I know of people who uh kind of uh who agree with this stance.

SPEAKER_02:

And hey when when it talks about mixed marriage here, what is it saying is being mixed?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, but let me let me continue real quick. Um, this is a KKK stance, just let you letting you know where I'm coming from here, and it's ridiculous. Um, but they use this to try to say, oh, um, white people and black people should not get married because it's a mixed marriage, and here the Bible says it's bad.

SPEAKER_02:

Um so uh I can see how they could take it and use it that way, but I think this is different. Like the Jews weren't supposed to get be mixed in marriage because of watering down their belief in God with other religions. Yeah, I think this is similar similar to that.

SPEAKER_00:

I agree. Um, yeah, I don't um I really didn't want to bring this up because uh it's uh it's disgusting um to me that people use the Bible for evil and they take things out of context like that. Um but it does happen. Um, and I know people who have this belief.

SPEAKER_02:

Um and honestly, some of the most beautiful kids come from uh people of different races. Have you noticed that?

SPEAKER_00:

So true. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

I think it's the gene pool is further apart, and so it has more to work with.

SPEAKER_00:

I I think so. Man, yeah. My I yes, I understand. Um so anyway, then what is it talking about? Is this talking about the intermarrying with the Jews? Because they have overtake they have overthrown the Jews here.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think it's just the Jews. I So what's happening?

SPEAKER_02:

This might be more of a comment on mixed cultures and not having common beliefs or common belief systems.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Uh what's a good example? Uh like I guess Sharia law and Western law do not go well together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Um and if you've got people that strongly believe one and other people that strongly believe the other, that's gonna be a pretty contentious um situation.

SPEAKER_00:

So in my uh in my early uh married and career uh life, there was a guy at work who was Muslim and he was married to a Catholic girl. Now, obviously, neither one of them were very uh they did not hold their faith as very important to them, right? Or there's no way that would happen.

SPEAKER_02:

They were both violating some pretty serious uh rules there.

SPEAKER_00:

But guess what happened when they had a kid?

SPEAKER_02:

They uh it became Scientologist?

SPEAKER_00:

So when they had a kid, each one of them they both wanted to raise their kid. They suddenly your the um your ancestors your world how you raise your kid, it's like uh this is important now, right? And so it was a huge conflict with with them and how they raised their kid. I don't know what happened to them, uh I don't know if they're still together or not, but you can imagine the the struggle they had each had with each other trying to raise their kid.

SPEAKER_02:

I feel sorry for that kid.

SPEAKER_00:

I know, and they're trying an opposite it's an it's an opposite um raising from your mother and your father. I guess not quite opposite, just extremely different.

SPEAKER_02:

But yeah, there's conflicting beliefs for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um all right, so yeah, that's that's the kind of thing I'm thinking here, is what that is it's really about uh spiritual and cultural um item issues that don't mix well. Yep and it will cause them to fall. And I I don't know if this is a I don't also don't think this is necessarily a general comment about mixed uh mixing marriages. It's about what is gonna happen to this perhaps this nation of Babylon. All right, so that's my comment there.

SPEAKER_01:

So Daniel's given uh Nebuchadnezzar all this information and God gave Neb the dream.

SPEAKER_02:

What the heck is he supposed to do with this information? There's there's nothing he can do. The only thing here is he was disturbed, really wanted to know what this dream meant. No one could tell him. Okay, now he knows what the dream is and what what it meant. Now what?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's a good point. Um now what? It's just write it down and know what will happen. You know, it I can tell you, there's only one purpose for this.

SPEAKER_01:

Us. No.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, okay. At the time, there was only one purpose for it at the time. And that was promote Daniel so that Daniel could show King Nebuchadnezzar that the God of the Jews is truly the God of gods and knows all things.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's a good point. That does seem like the the biggest reason.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and it and it did because of it, it put Daniel in a position of power in the Babylonian Empire, and it put Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in positions of power in this um regime.

SPEAKER_02:

Which correct me if I'm wrong, it's partly that position of power that he was in that led to the rebuilding of Israel later, right?

SPEAKER_00:

I might be wrong about that. Remember the thing at the very beginning of our podcast that says not theologians. Um yeah. You're asking the wrong person, Steve. You know what? If we get there later, then we'll get there later. If we don't, then then no. I have no idea. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02:

Trying to remember what else Daniel did.

SPEAKER_00:

You know what? We're gonna find out, Steve. We are it's it's 12 chapters, I think. Is that right? Something like that? I think yeah, roughly. Roughly.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean maybe a little less, maybe a little more.

SPEAKER_00:

Let me see. Dang it. Yep, 12 chapters. All right, I thought so. Okay. Uh let's see.

SPEAKER_01:

Um what else do you got, Steve?

SPEAKER_02:

So in 46, okay, then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering, an incense, be offered up to him. I don't see anything here that says Daniel said, No, no, don't give it to me.

SPEAKER_00:

But this seems so yeah, that's exactly it. Another thing that bothers me here is that Daniel doesn't say, Don't worship me. You cannot worship me.

SPEAKER_02:

But you know, I don't did it earlier.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and I don't know the time frame either of how fast the next thing happens. Um, where Nebuchadnezzar says in 47, truly your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery. So, you know, Daniel did make it clear earlier that um, and that's this is last week's podcast, but that uh this is not God didn't or this is not me.

SPEAKER_02:

I didn't do this.

SPEAKER_00:

I this has nothing to do with me, this has to do with God. Um so uh you know, yeah, I it seems like Nebuchadnezzar is worshiping Daniel, but at the same time, then he he talks about Daniel's God. Um so maybe he's not maybe it's not a sign of worship, but uh it sure seems like it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But it is good that Nebuchadnezzar points out hey, you've got the true God and he communicates with you, so I'm gonna put you in charge.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's not like he's yeah, like you said, he's giving the credit to Daniel, but also to God. I mean, because if you had somebody that was speaking directly to God, I think you would kind of hold them in high regard. Yeah, yeah. Because you don't want to make them angry. Or don't make one make their God angry, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Do not. Um let's see. All right. What okay, and this is something I've never understood. Um, but what does it mean when Daniel's made ruler over all the province of Babylon? I mean, what is the king if he's not the ruler?

SPEAKER_02:

I think he's like number two in charge. He stinks. He's the chief chief chief prefect, yes, Ken. That's it. He's number two.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, and prefects, though that doesn't isn't that like the head of the house in Harry Potter? Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

But it can also mean governor. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, governor. Okay, so uh I think the way I I I um interpret this is that the day-to-day running of the kingdom is by Daniel. And but things like judgments and stuff like that, where people being pampered and yeah, being pampered, but also making I think making uh judgments on disputes is probably still goes to the king, I would think.

SPEAKER_02:

Major judgments. Minor ones, I doubt. Major who? Major judgments. I don't know him.

SPEAKER_00:

Salute! Um okay, yeah, maybe maybe he could rule on um I guess actually, ruler does kind of mean he rules on those things. Isn't that worth it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so he probably does think the king would just do whatever the king wanted to do, and Daniel had to do everything else.

SPEAKER_00:

Unless there was a problem that the that Daniel could not solve, the king didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_01:

Except maybe think of ways to irritate God.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah. Is that is that foreshadowing for chapter three?

SPEAKER_00:

Maybe so. Um, all right, and then 49. This is it reminds me of something I always tell my kids about um getting jobs.

SPEAKER_01:

Networking?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it's look, man, you know, you know, you can try your hardest making your resume great, um, interviewing great, but I'm telling you, if you make connections with people, the people you know, that is so much more important than um than having a great resume. You know, get to know people, you know, and you don't get to know people for the sake of promoting yourself. You get to know people because you care about them. Uh you want to be, you know, you want to be their friend, you want to help them, and they and you know, you help each other. And then these things happen. It's organic at that point. And so Shadrach, Meshach, and of Adnico, you know, these guys are best buds with Daniel. Daniel is taking care of them every step of the way.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. That's a good point. I missed that one.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a huge life lesson right there.

SPEAKER_02:

But I do wonder these four people now that are servants of God are in positions of power. How much good were they able to do with it? Which I think there is stuff that's not in the Bible. I'm making a big assumption, but Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I I don't know. But I imagine um, you know, they they took over uh Israel, right? They conquered Israel. So the Jewish people are now part of this empire, and now you've got this is the first Despora or whatever that word is. I don't know. But now you've got four people high up, high-ranking people in the Babylonian Empire are now Jews who care about their people.

SPEAKER_02:

That just got taken over.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So you know a few years before you know, though, that they are gonna be looking out for their people. The the Jews have always looked out for the each other. Um, which is how they've maintained a people, right? That's why they are still a people today.

SPEAKER_01:

For thousands of years. Yes. All right. Got anything else left?

SPEAKER_00:

That's all I got to do. Um, all right. So next week, then, is Daniel chapter three. Um, I haven't really looked at it. Is it is it big? Is it long? It is no, it's not very long. All right, you think we can do the whole thing? I think so. Let's see. This is a chasm LLC production, all rights reserved.

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