Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, once vainly demanded of his pagan magicians and astrologers that they tell him a dream he had had and its interpretation. When Daniel, the Hebrew captive, heard of Nebuchadnezzar's decree that the wise men would be destroyed if they could not tell the king the dream, he begged time in which to reveal the mystery. Daniel prayed to God understandingly, confidently, and the dream was soon made known to him. Whereupon he said to the king (Dan. 2: 28), "There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets."
In recounting the dream, Daniel described a huge and terrible image, made of various materials—gold, silver, brass, iron, and a mixture of iron and clay. In the dream the image was destroyed, for, as Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar (verses 34, 35): "Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image.... And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."
What is the spiritual significance of this Scripture? To the author, it points to the fact that the prayerful development in our consciousness of spiritually scientific discernment, such as Daniel possessed, uncovers and destroys the illusory complexities of the carnal or mortal mentality, by which mankind is deceived and enslaved. It shows that spiritual good alone is real and powerful.
