Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, The secret that the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the magicians, the scribes, the astrologers, shew unto the king;
Nebuchadnezzar has demanded the impossible. He wants someone to tell him the dream he has forgotten, and then explain it. Every wise man in Babylon has failed. Daniel now stands before the king — and his first words are not the answer, but an admission that no human skill could produce it.
Daniel could give the king what he wanted. Yet before he says a word about the dream, he clears the ground by naming the four groups who could not.
Daniel can indeed do so; but in his answer he first sets aside the wisdom of this world by reminding the king that his wise men, astrologers, magicians and soothsayers cannot show the secret which the king has demanded.
The titles in this verse are not decoration. They name recognised professions, and the words behind them describe specific occult trades.
In Isaiah 47:13 the word for "astrologers" means "dividers of the heavens," used for astrology. The word for "astrologers" all through Daniel is a different word, ashshaph. It does not suggest any link with the heavens. It means "sorcerers" or "enchanters," as we read about Babylon in Isaiah 47:9, 12, which speaks of her many sorceries and her great supply of enchantments… Another word linked with Babylon is soothsayer, gezar, "to divide, determine fate or destiny" by any pretended means of predicting events.
Should we feel sorry for them? Two things say no.
We might pity these men of wisdom, put through such an ordeal, if we did not remember two things. First, the experts in the occult of that day claimed they could reveal secrets and see into regions hidden from human eyes. Second, God designed the whole thing to bring the wisdom of the wise to nothing in the eyes of this absolute monarch, to catch them in their own craftiness, and so to pour contempt on all the pride of man.
The word translated "mystery" or "secret" here is not a puzzle waiting for a clever mind. It is a thing that stays shut unless God opens it.
A mystery may be a dream, a vision, a parable or a spoken prophecy. The key feature is that no one can understand the first divine communication without a further divine communication to explain it. The Greek word mysterion, mystery, first occurs in the chapter of Daniel referred to (Daniel 2)… A mystery is a secret thing which would remain a secret apart from divine revelation.
So the king's demand could not be met. He asked for something that only revelation could supply.
This opening is not mere politeness. It is a verdict, and it points to the real source of the answer.
Daniel begins, in evident communion with the mind of God, by declaring the powerlessness of human wisdom… In this way, led by the Holy Spirit, he writes the sentence of death on the wisdom of the world. Then he declares the source of the vision. "There is a God in heaven that reveals secrets" — and this was Daniel's God, and he delighted to exalt Him in the presence of this absolute and idolatrous king.
Daniel knew the dream when nobody else did. His answer shows what real knowledge of God does to a person.
Daniel's answer is beautiful. Real, deep knowledge of the ways of God is always accompanied by humility. No idea is more mistaken, or less supported by the facts, than the notion that spiritual intelligence puffs up. Mere knowledge may. But I am speaking of that spiritual understanding in the word which flows from the sense of God's love…
The men who failed stood closest to the throne. The man who knew the secret was a captive.
"The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him." This is beautifully shown in the case before us. "The magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans," who were breathing the air of the royal presence, were all in the dark about the royal dream… But there was a God in heaven who knew all about it. He could unfold it to those who had faith enough, devotion enough, and self-denial enough to separate themselves from Babylon's pollutions, even though they were caught in Babylon's captivity… The tangles and riddles of human affairs are all plain to God, and He makes them plain to those who walk with Him… How can such people so easily unravel the world's mysteries? Because they are above the world's mists.
- Cannot. Daniel starts with a negative. No expert in Babylon could produce what the king asked, and he says so before anything else.
- Mystery. What the king wanted was a secret in the strict sense. It stays shut until God gives a second word to open it.
- Designed. The failure was no accident. God staged it to bring the wisdom of the wise to nothing in front of the most powerful man on earth.
- Humility. Real knowledge of God's ways lowers the one who has it — Daniel exalts God's name, not his own, in an idolatrous court.
- Fear. God's secrets travel to those who fear Him; a captive above the world's mists saw what the palace could not.
but there is a God in the heavens, who revealeth secrets, and maketh known to king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be at the end of days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these
Daniel stands before a king who has just condemned every wise man in Babylon to death. His first move is not to show off the answer he holds, but to name its source: a God in heaven who reveals what no expert in the empire could reach.
Before Daniel says anything about God, he says something about the men around him: the secret is beyond them. Commentators read this opening as a verdict, not a polite introduction.
Daniel begins in clear communion with the mind of God. He declares that human wisdom is powerless. This matches the words of another prophet: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." Writing this way, led by the Holy Spirit, Daniel passes the sentence of death on the wisdom of the world. He then declares the source of the vision. "There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets" — and this was Daniel's God. He delighted to exalt Him in front of this absolute and idol-worshipping king.
Daniel does not call Him the God of the earth. One writer ties this title to a change in history: God's throne in Israel's midst had ended.
The throne of God had ceased on the earth at the beginning of these times of the Gentiles. So in Daniel you never get the God of the earth, but the God of heaven, because He was not there with them. God once governed the earth directly, with Israel at the centre and His throne in their midst, sitting between the cherubim, as it is said. His departure from that government, and His return to it, are of immense importance.
The word behind "secrets" — "mysteries" in the ESV — has a precise sense.
A mystery may be a dream, a vision, a parable or a spoken prophecy. The key feature is that you cannot understand the divine communication without a further divine communication to explain the first. The Greek word for mystery first occurs in this chapter of Daniel. In the Greek Old Testament the term appears again and again for Nebuchadnezzar's forgotten dream and its interpretation… A mystery is a secret thing that would stay secret apart from divine revelation. You must be let into it before you can know and understand it.
Daniel does not say that God made the secret known to him. He says God made it known to Nebuchadnezzar. One writer stops on that wording.
Daniel shows how impossible it was for "the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers" to show the dream to the king. "But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and makes known [he does not even say to Daniel, but] to the king Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days." He wanted Nebuchadnezzar to know the interest God took in him.
The phrase sets how far the dream reaches. It runs on to the point where God's purpose becomes plain to everyone.
Yet, as the God of the heavens, He was pleased to make known to the pagan king "what should be at the end of the days" (Dan. 2:28). Only then will God's purpose be plain to every eye. That purpose appears in the judgment of the Gentile empires, and then in the setting up of His kingdom, which will fill the whole earth and stand for ever.
Man has his own version of how the story ends, and it is the exact opposite.
He is determined to reach what he likes to call "The Millennium" by his own efforts — though without God and without Christ. He is sure he will succeed. In his judgment, "the end of the days" will be the end of all his toil, the fulfilment of his high ambition, and the peace and contentment of the human race.
Daniel had every reason to take the credit. He took none.
As for Daniel himself, he is not lifted up by the great revelations he has received, nor does he, like Arioch, use the occasion for his own glory. He hides himself behind the glory of God, and because he does so, God is glorified.
- Wisdom fails. Daniel first rules out the astrologers and magicians. The sentence of death on human wisdom clears the ground for God to speak.
- Heaven speaks. Daniel calls Him "a God in heaven" because God's throne in Israel's midst had ended. He now governs from above.
- Secrets open. A mystery stays hidden until God gives a second word to explain the first.
- The king is reached. Daniel says God made the secret known to Nebuchadnezzar, not to him — God took a personal interest in this pagan ruler.
- The end is His. "The latter days" run past every empire to the kingdom that fills the earth and stands for ever — not the future the world is building without God.