Daniel 2

Daniel goes home and makes the matter known to his three companions. Wesley’s later note will mark piety and modesty in “we.” The house is a place of counsel, not a slogan.

He does not hoard the crisis. Speech among four men under the Most High. Grace that gave learning in 1:17 now meets a shared hour. No Pelagian leftover—they already live by gift—and no fatalism that skips the telling.

Calvin: his object was to implore God’s grace; confidence added, since he perceived a double punishment if he disappointed the king. He expected what he obtained—the dream revealed. He urges companions to implore mercy unitedly. They were not rivals; they prayed not for private advantage.

The gathering is already inside expectation God will give. The four are told. Prayer is next, not panic as a method.

They are to ask the God of heaven for mercy about this secret, so that they would not perish with the rest. Wesley: magicians confessed revelation must come from God; Daniel by prudence and piety saved lives. Mercy is asked, not a prosperity bargain.

Daniel calls his friends to pray because the outcome is not a foregone conclusion to them. Arminians see petition here—the God of heaven may grant or withhold, and they plead for the lives of Babylon’s wise men as well as their own.

Calvin: they desired mercy from God. Whenever we fly to God, our senses ought to be turned toward His mercy, for His good will reconciles Him to us. Some think they wished to snatch the Magi also from death; they wished all persons safe, yet clearly separate themselves. James: those who pray with difference are unworthy of being heard; Daniel prayed with true faith, life in God’s hands.

The asking is effectual because God had already purposed to reveal. They seek mercy. The vision of v. 19 is gift answering prayer, not a technique.

The mystery revealed in a night vision; Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Wesley will soon attribute times and kings to this God, not to chance. Blessing comes before the court speech.

They asked; God gave. Revelation is mercy, not wages. The night is still a night; Daniel still blesses. Faith that sought does not become fatalism when the gift arrives, nor a claim that prayer bent an unwilling God.

Calvin: God showed Himself propitious; Daniel prayed as if he had already obtained. He is clearly persuaded God did not vainly harass the king but was preparing a remarkable judgment. God never closes His ears when rightly invoked; the secret made known in a vision by night.

The vision is the God of heaven’s act, including the prayers as means. Both traditions agree: mystery given, then blessing. Thanksgiving is the fit first use.

Blessed be the name of God forever; to Him belong wisdom and might. Wesley: God only, that made all by His power, doth rule and over-rule all by His providence. Heathen chance is refused on “nature.”

Wisdom and might are God’s before they are anyone’s. Daniel will still speak in court. Doxology does not erase the four who asked; it names the Giver.

Calvin: he thanks God after the dream was made known, snatched from death beyond expectation. Whose is the wisdom and the strength—to God alone. Scripture distinguishes the true God by two things that must not be torn: He foresees all, and He governs, allowing nothing to happen by chance or without His direction. Bare foreknowledge without government robs Him of half His glory.

Wisdom and might are not idle attributes. The Name is blessed. Verse 21 will say how that might meets kings.

He changes the times and the seasons; removes kings and sets up kings; gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. Wesley: it is the great part of God’s power and prerogative to change times. Daniel attributes to God what heathens attributed to nature or chance. God only doth rule and over-rule all by His providence.

Daniel’s hymn gives God full rule over times and thrones. Arminian readers hold that alongside the chapter’s human action: Nebuchadnezzar still rages and decrees, and Daniel still asks and receives. Wisdom comes as a gift to people who genuinely seek understanding.

Calvin: God is the true fountain of wisdom and virtue, and diffuses them through heaven and earth. He changes times; we must not ascribe this to fortune or to nature as supreme. He appoints and removes kings. Men fancy they acquire power by talents, birth, or accident, and thought of God is excluded. Neither from the east nor the west, but God alone is the judge. He gives wisdom to the wise: whoever boasts of becoming wise by innate strength has not originated the intellect. All proof of wisdom in the world ought to illustrate His glory, not obscure it.

Effectual providence, not a bare permission after the fact. Times and kings move by His actual hand, including the means. Second causes remain; they are established, not erased. Nothing happens but what He has knowingly and willingly decreed, yet He is not the author of a tyrant’s cruelty as cruelty.

He reveals the deep and secret things; knows what is in darkness; light dwells with Him. Wesley’s prophet will not fall abruptly on the dream but prepare the king for the true God. Hidden things are God’s to open.

The forgotten dream sat in darkness until mercy answered prayer. Light with God does not make human knowing unnecessary; it makes it possible. The court still cannot see unless He gives.

Calvin: he proceeds further—when understanding is rare, the gift shines more clearly. He speaks of the gift of prophecy. Light dwells with God: men are in clouds; there is no pure and perfect light but in God alone. He dwells in light unapproachable unless He deigns to stretch forth His hand. Seek illumination; by His Spirit He conducts beyond the skies.

Hidden things open because light is with Him, not because Daniel climbed. He knows the dark. The interpretation coming is that light, not a guild’s science.

Thanks and praise to the God of the fathers: You gave wisdom and might, made known what we asked, made known to us the king’s matter. Wesley: by “we,” piety and modesty; he and his companions begged this skill, and he does not arrogate it.

“What we desired” keeps the prayers of v. 18 on the table. Gift and asking belong together. No boast over Babylon’s wise, and no claim that four lads originated the vision.

Calvin: he turns to God and distinguishes Israel’s God from all fictions—not by the authority of the fathers as if men added to God, but by the covenant. If I have any strength or understanding, I ascribe it all to Thee. Thou hast revealed what we demanded; he first confesses the gift peculiar to himself, then extends the benefit to companions snatched from death.

Even the “we desired” is inside grace already given. God of the fathers, and the matter made known. The court is next.

To Arioch: do not destroy the wise men; bring me in; I will show the interpretation. Wesley: Daniel by prudence and piety saved all the magicians’ lives. Mercy toward the guild is not endorsement of their arts.

A honest plea for other men’s lives. The Most High who changes times still meets a captain’s ear. Daniel does not need the Magi dead to be right. Agency under rule: he goes, he speaks, Arioch can still refuse.

Calvin: some Magi already slain; he asks the remainder spared. Not because the arts should stand—they are diabolical—but persons were being killed without just process. If not punished for a just reason, spare the persons through equity. He looks to the cause; iniquity not yet ripe for destruction by this rage. God had taken Daniel into His confidence.

The word to Arioch is gift and means. Daniel asks Arioch not to destroy the wise men. Interpretation, not slaughter, will empty the boast.

Arioch brings him in haste: I have found among the exiles of Judah a man. Wesley: the Lord held the governor’s hands (2:13). Arioch’s “I found” is court speech; the finding was a search to kill.

“Found”—a captain’s haste and a Judean exile. Human ushering under the God who sets up kings. Daniel is still the man who asked for time.

Calvin: how Arioch speaks as if of an obscure unknown, though Daniel had already requested time—courtiers praise their own offices, or access was through this channel. Sons of transmigration: captives.

Even the boast “I have found” sits inside providence. Agreed on both sides: he is brought in. The king’s question follows from despair, not from faith yet.

To Daniel, called Belteshazzar: are you able to make known dream and interpretation? Wesley: by this name the king took courage as if he might expect some great thing; the word signifies the keeper of secret treasure.

The king still thinks in terms of a man’s ability. Daniel will refuse that frame (v. 30). The question is honest unbelief, not a cue for politics.

Calvin: the king uses these words through despair of all interpretation. Error imbued him: Magi alone possessors of wisdom. God drew this interrogation from the proud king to render His grace in Daniel more illustrious. The less hope in the king, the more dignity in the revelation.

Even the question is drawn. Are you able? The answer will move the ability to heaven.

No wise man, enchanter, magician, or soothsayer can show the king this secret. Wesley: they confessed knowledge and revelation must come from God; what Daniel did was not of human strength. He does not mock a guild for sport.

True limit of flesh, already named in 2:10–11. Clearing the floor is pastoral, not a war on learning. Liberal skill remains; this mystery does not.

Calvin: names of wise men need not detain us. Comparison: the dream was not natural and had nothing in common with human conjectures. Like Paul on the gospel—heavenly mystery not comprehended by the most learned. True reason: peculiar revelation of the Spirit.

God locked what nature and art cannot pick. Neither side disputes this: the guild cannot show it. Verse 28 names who can.

There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets; He has made known what will be in the latter days. Wesley: the prophet’s wisdom—he does not fall abruptly upon the dream, but first prepares this lofty king and by degrees labours to win him to the knowledge of the true God.

The Most High who changes times now speaks to a pagan king. Revelation is sincere gift; the king is responsible to hear. “Latter days” will mean, in the next range, the stone and Christ’s kingdom—historic Christian reading, not a modern rapture fight.

Calvin: there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, in contrast to Magi. He shews what will come at the extremity of the days—the advent of Christ as a kind of renewal; the gospel a kind of perfection of all things. He persists so the king may treat the vision with gravity: God the author, or the words are thrown away.

The revealer is this God, not Apollo, not chance. Shared with Wesley: prepare the king for the true God. The dream itself is next.

As you lay in bed, thoughts of what would be after this; He who reveals secrets has made it known. Wesley: he remembered the fact in general (2:3); now Daniel names the thoughts as God’s sending.

“Thoughts”—a king’s musing under the Revealer. Ambition about after this is creaturely; God uses it without authoring it as righteousness. Second causes stand: he did think, he did forget, he did rage.

Calvin: God the author of the dream, that the king listen with sobriety. Unless seriously affected he would despise the interpretation. The king’s thoughts ascended—revolved in the brain—anxious about futurity; greatest monarchs dream of empire after death. Thoughts could not profit unless God unveiled the future. He who reveals secrets has explained what shall happen.

Even the pillow’s ambition is inside the sting God fastened. Ability is still not Daniel’s.

The secret was revealed to him not because he has more wisdom than anyone alive, but so that the king may know. Wesley: that the interpretation may be manifest to the king, and that thou mayest be better instructed and satisfied in thy mind.

He refuses surplus. Gift is mercy to a king and to four who asked. No Pelagian leftover in the interpreter, and no fatalism that makes the king a set piece. He is to know the thoughts of his mind—responsible hearing under the God who gives wisdom.

Calvin: he meets the objection—if God alone reveals, how can a mortal? He transfers all glory to God. Not in the wisdom which belongs to me. Natural talents, even remarkable, do not reach this. This secret was not made known on account of any wisdom in me beyond the rest of mankind—he does not claim to be superior; he leaves that in doubt. God uses him as instrument. Neither the dream nor the vision occurred in vain.

The interpreter is means, not source. Shared with Wesley: for the king’s knowing. The image of gold, silver, bronze, and iron is the next range.