Daniel 2

The king falls on his face, pays homage to Daniel, and commands offering and incense for him. Wesley: strange that so great a monarch should worship his vassal, in consternation and admiration. Doubtless Daniel put a stop to it, though he could not hinder the prostration and the command. The next verse gives God the glory.

A historical king is overwhelmed. Consternation is creaturely under the Most High who revealed the dream. Daniel does not harvest worship; Wesley’s “put a stop” keeps the glory moving to God. Homage that stays on the servant would be sin; the text itself turns in v. 47.

Calvin: fell prostrate through stupor before a captive. God drew this from the proud king to render His grace in Daniel more illustrious. The less hope there was in the king, the more dignity in the revelation. The impulse is God’s sting completing its work; the homage is still a man’s, and excessive if it rests on Daniel.

Even this fall is inside the secret chains of 2:1. Wesley reads it the same way: the act is strange, and the glory must not stay on the vassal. Chapter 3 will show how unfinished this hour is.

Truth your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets. Wesley: the supreme God of all the world, above Baal and all other gods; Lord of kings—the highest king of all the earth. The king being instructed of Daniel gives God all the glory.

The king’s confession is true and sincere as far as it goes. Arminian readers note that chapter 3 will show it did not last, which proves not that it was never true but that a true confession still has to be lived out.

Calvin: God of gods, Lord of kings—the government remains with the one God who appoints and removes. Revealer of mysteries: there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, as Daniel had already taught him. This acknowledgment is remarkable and still not the end of the story; the same king will raise an image in the next chapter. God made His name illustrious in Babylon without yet making this monarch a new man.

Effectual for this hour’s words, not a bare permission after the miracle. The title Lord of kings is true whether or not the speaker’s heart is new. Nothing happens but what He has knowingly and willingly decreed, yet He is not the author of the idolatry that will follow.

Wesley’s Daniel sat in the king’s gate for the king’s chief business (v. 49). Promotion is history, not a prosperity arc.” The honors are a king’s gifts, given under the God who sets up kings (2:21). Daniel did not bargain the dream for office (2:6’s Magi-pay is refused in spirit by 2:30). Office is means for the next chapters’ faithfulness, not a wage.

Calvin: God raised His servant and made him conspicuous in the palace, as 1:19–20 already began. The very Lord who appoints kings now places a captive over a province and over the guild that could not tell the dream. Gifts do not purchase revelation; they follow it.

Appointment, not luck. Ruler of the province, chief of the wise. The Magi’s table is now under a man who said the mystery was not his wisdom.

Daniel requested; the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the province’s affairs; Daniel remained at court. Wesley: he substituted them as lieutenants under Daniel; Daniel sat in the king’s gate, ready for the king’s chief business.

Asking for friends, as 1:8 and 2:16 were asking. The Most High who held Arioch’s hands (2:14) now meets another petition. No Pelagian leftover—they already live by gift—and no fatalism that makes the three’s posts a blur. Chapter 3 will need them in the province; agency under rule is how they get there.

Calvin: they had prayed in concord without ambition (2:17–18); now Daniel does not forget them. God had taken him into His confidence; the prefects’ minds are still in that same hand. Remaining at the gate is providence preparing the furnace story, not a courtier’s climb.

The asking is means inside decree. Chapter 2 ends where 2:21 pointed—the Lord of kings has set and raised, and four Judeans stand in Babylon by gift.