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Daniel interprets the King's Dream

God reveals Nebuchadnezzar's dream to Daniel.
Contributed by Sweet Publishing
Story also available on our translated websites: Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Hindi, Simplified Chinese
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When the Babylonian army conquered Jerusalem they took captives and brought them back to Babylon. One of those chosen to serve King Nebuchadnezzar  was a young man called Daniel. – Slide 1
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One night King Nebuchadnezzar had such disturbing dreams that he couldn’t sleep. – Slide 2
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He called in his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers, and he demanded that they tell him what he had dreamed. They replied, ‘Tell us the dream, and we will tell you what it means.’ – Slide 3
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‘No’ replied Nebuchadnezzar. ‘You must tell me what I dreamt and then tell me the meaning.’ The astrologers begged, ‘Please, Your Majesty. Tell us the dream, and we will tell you what it means.’ – Slide 4
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Nebuchadnezzar demanded, ‘You must tell me the dream and then I will know you can interpret it. If you don’t tell me my dream I will execute you.’ ‘No one except the gods can tell you your dream,’ the astrologers protested. The king was furious and he ordered that all the wise men of Babylon be executed. – Slide 5
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When Daniel heard about this he asked Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard what had happened. Knowing his life was at risk, Daniel went to see the king to requested more time to discover what King had dreamt and its meaning. – Slide 6
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Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what had happened. He urged them to pray to God to reveal the secret, so they would not be executed. That night the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision, and he gave praise to God (v20-23). – Slide 7
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Daniel went in to see Arioch, and said, ‘Don’t kill the wise men. Take me to the king, and I will tell him the meaning of his dream.’Daniel told the King. ‘There are no wise men, who can reveal the king’s secret, but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets. Now I will tell you your dream and the visions you saw. – Slide 8
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‘In your vision, you saw a frightening, huge, shining statue of a man. The head of the statue was made of fine gold. Its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, its legs were iron, and its feet were a combination of iron and baked clay.  As you watched, a rock was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. It struck the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits. The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. Then the wind blew them away without a trace, like chaff on a threshing floor. But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth.’ – Slide 9
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Daniel then went on to explain the dream. ‘Your Majesty, you are the head of gold. God has given you sovereignty, power, strength, and honor. He has made you the ruler over all the inhabited world. The silver represents an inferior kingdom that will come after yours. The bronze is the kingdom after that one. Following that kingdom, there will be a fourth one, as strong as iron. That kingdom will smash and crush all previous empires. The feet and toes you saw were a combination of iron and baked clay. This kingdom will be divided. Like iron mixed with clay, it will have some of the strength of iron but other parts will be as weak as clay. The rock that was not cut by human hands, that crushed to the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold is the Kingdom the God of heaven will set up. It will crush all other Kingdoms and will never be destroyed or conquered. – Slide 10
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King Nebuchadnezzar threw himself down before Daniel, ‘Truly, your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret,’ the king declared.Daniel was promoted to be ruler over the whole province of Babylon, as well as chief over all the wise men.  At Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon. – Slide 11
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