The Dream and the Furnace

Verse 3. “I have dreamed a dream.” The dream the king saw was not an earthly dream, the kind the wise men of this world could interpret. It was a heavenly dream, and it was fulfilled at its proper times, according to the counsel and foreknowledge of God. That is why it was kept hidden from men whose minds are on earthly things — so that heavenly mysteries might be revealed to those who look for heavenly things. And in fact something of the same kind happened in Egypt, in the days of Pharaoh and Joseph. [a]

Verse 5. “The word has gone from me.” The vision was hidden from the king for this very reason: so that the man God had chosen, Daniel, might be shown to be a prophet. For when things hidden from some are revealed by another, the one who tells them must be a prophet. Verse 10. “And they say, There is no man.” Since, then, they declared that what the king was asking could not be told by any man, God showed them that what is impossible for man is possible for God. Verse 14. “Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard” — literally, “the chief butcher,” or cook. For just as a cook kills every kind of animal and cooks it, this man’s work was of the same sort. And the rulers of this world kill men, butchering them like dumb animals.

Verse 23. “Because you have given me wisdom and power.” So we ought to note the goodness of God, how quickly he reveals and shows himself to those who are worthy and to those who fear him, granting their prayers and their petitions. As the prophet says: “Who is wise, and will understand these things? Who is discerning, and will know them?” Verse 27. “Cannot the wise men, the magicians…” He is teaching the king not to look to earthly men for the explanation of heavenly mysteries; they will be brought about in their own time by God.

Verse 29. “As for you, O king, your thoughts…” For once the king had made himself master of the land of Egypt, and had taken hold of the country of Judea and carried its people away, he lay on his bed wondering what would come after all this. And the one who knows everyone’s secrets, who searches the thoughts of the heart, showed him by means of the image the things that were to be. And he hid the vision from him so that the plans of God would not be interpreted by the wise men of Babylon, but so that through the blessed Daniel, as a prophet of God, things kept secret from everyone might be brought to light.

Verse 31. “Look — a great image.” How, then, can we fail to notice things prophesied long ago in Babylon by Daniel and still being fulfilled in the world now? For the image shown to Nebuchadnezzar in those days set out a pattern of the whole world. In those times the Babylonians ruled over everyone, and they were the golden head of the image. After them the Persians held power for 245 years, and they were represented by the silver. Then the Greeks held power, beginning with Alexander of Macedon, for 300 years, so they were the bronze. After them came the Romans, who were the iron legs of the image, for they were strong as iron. Then come the toes of clay and iron, standing for the self-governing states that were to rise afterward, divided among the ten toes of the image, in which iron will be mixed with clay.

Verse 31. “You were looking,” and so on. Apollinaris on this: He looked, and there was what seemed to be an image. For it did not appear to him as an actual object set before an onlooker’s eyes, but as an image, a likeness. And though it holds many things together in itself, it does so in such a way that it is not really one thing but many. For it took in all the kingdoms in summary; its extraordinary brightness was on account of the glory of the kings, and its terrifying look on account of their power.

Eusebius Pamphili, and Hippolytus the most holy overseer of Rome, compare the dream of Nebuchadnezzar now in question with the vision of the prophet Daniel. Since these two have given different interpretations of the vision before us in their expositions, I thought it necessary to copy out what is said by Eusebius of Caesarea, who is surnamed Pamphili, in the fifteenth book of his Demonstration of the Gospel; for he explains the whole vision in these words:

“I think that this — that is, the vision of Nebuchadnezzar — differs in nothing from the vision of the prophet. For as the prophet saw a great sea, so the king saw a great image. And again, as the prophet saw four beasts, which he interpreted as four kingdoms, so the king was given to understand four kingdoms under the gold and the silver and the bronze and the iron. And again, as the prophet saw the ten horns of the last beast divided, and three horns broken by one, so in the same way the king saw at the ends of the image one part iron and another clay. And besides this, as the prophet, after the vision of the four kingdoms, saw the Son of Man receive rule and power and a kingdom, so the king too thought he saw a stone strike the whole image and become a great mountain and fill the sea.

“And rightly so. For it was quite in keeping with the king, whose view of the spectacle of life was so false, and who admired the beauty of the merely visible colors, so to speak, in the picture set up before him, to liken the life of all men to a great image; but it was in keeping with the prophet to compare the great and mighty tumult of life to a mighty sea. And it was fitting that the king, who prized the substances men count precious — gold and silver and bronze and iron — should liken to those substances the kingdoms that held power at different times in the life of men; but that the prophet should describe those same kingdoms under the likeness of beasts, according to the manner of their rule.

“And again, the king — puffed up, it seems, in his own conceit, and priding himself on the power of his ancestors — is shown the changes that affairs are subject to, and the end appointed for all the kingdoms of earth, so as to teach him to lay aside his pride in himself and to understand that there is nothing stable among men, but only that which is the appointed end of all things: the kingdom of God. For after the first kingdom of the Assyrians, which was marked by the gold, there will be the second kingdom of the Persians, expressed by the silver; and then the third kingdom of the Macedonians, signified by the bronze; and after it the fourth kingdom, of the Romans, will follow, more powerful than those that went before it, which is why it too was likened to iron. For of it is said: ‘And the fourth kingdom will be strong as iron; as iron breaks and subdues everything, so it will break and subdue everything.’ And after all these kingdoms that have been mentioned, the kingdom of God is represented by the stone that breaks the whole image. And the prophet, in keeping with this, does not see the kingdom that comes at the end of all these things until he has described in order the four dominions named under the four beasts. And I think that the visions shown both to the king and to the prophet were visions of these four kingdoms alone, and of no others, because it was by these that the nation of the Jews was held in bondage from the time of the prophet.”

Verse 33. “His feet,” and so on. Hippolytus: In the vision of the prophet, the ten horns are the things that are still to come.

Verse 34. “You were looking until a stone was cut out.” You were looking, and there was a stone, as it were cut out without hands, striking the image on its feet. For the human kingdom was decisively separated from the divine, and it is with reference to that that the words “as it were cut” are written. The blow, however, strikes the far ends of the image, and in them it shattered every dominion on earth. Verse 45. “And the dream is certain.” So that no one might have any doubt whether the things announced would turn out that way or not, the prophet confirmed them with the words, “And the dream is certain, and its interpretation sure” — I have not gone wrong in interpreting the vision.

Verse 46. “Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face.” When Nebuchadnezzar heard these things and was reminded of his vision, he knew that what Daniel had said was true. How great is the power of the grace of God, dear friends, that a man who a little while before had been condemned to die along with the other wise men of Babylon should now be worshipped by the king — not as a man, but as a god! “He gave orders that they should offer him a grain offering and fragrant offerings.” Long ago the Lord made a similar announcement to Moses, saying, “See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh” — so that, because of the signs worked through him in the land of Egypt, Moses might no longer be counted a man, but be worshipped as a god by the Egyptians.

Verse 48. “Then the king made Daniel a great man.” For because he had humbled himself and had put himself forward as the least of all men, God made him great, and the king set him as ruler over the whole land of Babylon — just as Pharaoh did with Joseph, appointing him then to be ruler over the whole land of Egypt. Verse 49. “And Daniel requested,” and so on. For just as they had joined Daniel in praying to God that the vision might be revealed to him, so Daniel, when he received great honor from the king, mentioned them, explaining to the king what they had done, so that they too might be counted worthy of some honor as men who had shared the vision and worshipped God with him. For when they asked heavenly things from the Lord, they received earthly things as well from the king.

Verse 1. “In the eighteenth year,” and so on. A considerable stretch of time had passed, then, and the eighteenth year was now running its course, when the king, calling his vision to mind, “made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide.” For when the blessed Daniel had interpreted the vision and answered the king, saying, “You are this head of gold in the image,” the king was puffed up by that address and lifted up in heart, and he made a copy of this image, so that he might be worshipped by everyone as a god. [r]

Verse 7. “All the people fell down.” Some did so because they were afraid of the king himself; but all of them — or most — did it because they were idolaters, and obeyed the order the king had given. Verse 16. “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered,” and so on. These three young men have become an example for all the faithful, since they were not afraid of the crowd of satraps, and did not tremble when they heard the king’s words, and did not shrink back when they saw the flame of the blazing furnace. They counted all men and the whole world as nothing, and kept the fear of God alone before their eyes. Daniel, though he stood at a distance and said nothing, encouraged them to take heart, smiling at them. And he rejoiced himself as well at the witness they bore, understanding as he did that the three young men would receive a crown for their victory over the devil.

Verse 19. “And he commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than usual.” He orders the huge furnace heated seven times more, as though he had already been beaten by them. In earthly things, then, the king had the upper hand; but in faith toward God the three young men had it. Tell me, Nebuchadnezzar: what did you have in mind when you ordered them thrown into the fire bound? Was it so they could not escape — as though, if their feet were left unbound, they might be able to put the fire out? But you are not doing these things of yourself; there is another who is working them through you.

Verse 47. “And the flame streamed out.” He means that the fire was driven from inside by the angel and burst out. See how even the fire appears to have understanding, as if it recognized the guilty and punished them. It did not touch the servants of God, but it burned up the unbelieving and godless Chaldeans. Those who were inside were sprinkled with a cooling dew by the angel, while those who thought they were standing safely outside the furnace were destroyed by the fire. The men who threw the young men in were burned by the flame that caught them on every side — when they went to tie the young men up, I suppose.

Verse 92 — that is, verse 25. “And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of God.” Tell me, Nebuchadnezzar: when did you see the Son of God, that you should confess that this is the Son of God? And who pierced your heart, that you should say such a thing? And with what eyes were you able to look into this light? And why was this shown to you alone, and to none of the satraps around you? But, as it is written, “The heart of a king is in the hand of God” — the hand of God is here, by which the Word pierced his heart, so that he might recognize him in the furnace and glorify him. And this idea of ours is not without good ground. For since the children of Israel were going to see God in the world and yet not believe in him, Scripture showed beforehand that the Gentiles would recognize him when he came in the flesh — the one whom Nebuchadnezzar saw and recognized long ago in the furnace when he was not yet in the flesh, and acknowledged to be the Son of God.

Verse 93 — that is, verse 26. “And he said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.” The three young men he called by name in this way. But he found no name by which to call the fourth. For he was not yet that Jesus who was born of the Virgin. Verse 97 — that is, verse 30. “Then the king promoted them,” and so on. For just as they honored God by giving themselves up to death, so they were themselves honored, not only by God but also by the king. And they taught strange and foreign nations too to worship God.