Shownotes
What is the most powerful country or kingdom that has ever existed? Lots of kingdoms think they're pretty amazing. God shows King Nebuchadnezzar, though, that a kingdom was coming that is more amazing and more powerful than all the other kingdoms in the world. Join Dave as he explores the second half of Daniel chapter 2.
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Transcripts
G'day, and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.
Speaker:Dave here.
Speaker:What do you think is the most powerful country or kingdom that's ever existed?
Speaker:Is it an old empire like the Romans or the Mongols?
Speaker:Is it the British Empire that reached right around the world?
Speaker:Maybe it's a country that's around today, like America or Russia or China.
Speaker:How would you even decide?
Speaker:Even if it's hard to compare countries and kingdoms from different ages, there's one
Speaker:thing you can be sure of.
Speaker:No matter which age you live in, if you were
Speaker:living 3,000 years ago, 500 years ago today, no matter when you live, there are countries
Speaker:and kingdoms that think they're the best in the world.
Speaker:And they're all wrong.
Speaker:Don't believe me?
Speaker:Well, let's see what we discover in the next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids
Speaker:at the end of our last episode.
Speaker:God had just done something wonderful.
Speaker:You may remember that King Nebuchadnezzar was about to kill all his wise men.
Speaker:That included the young men from Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
Speaker:He was going to kill them for not doing something it was impossible for them to do.
Speaker:He'd asked them to tell him what he'd dreamt at night and then tell him what the dream
Speaker:meant.
Speaker:That's something only God can do.
Speaker:Thankfully, the men from Judah knew the one true God.
Speaker:They asked him to save them by revealing the dream.
Speaker:And he did.
Speaker:He told Daniel all about it in a vision at
Speaker:night.
Speaker:Well, in the morning, Daniel runs to Arioch, the captain of the guard, and Ariok takes him
Speaker:in to see the king.
Speaker:He's like, stop.
Speaker:Don't put all the wise men to death.
Speaker:In verse 25, Ariok says, I have found a man
Speaker:among the captives from Judah.
Speaker:He can tell the king what his dream means.
Speaker:The king's a bit surprised.
Speaker:No one else has been able to tell him.
Speaker:So why would someone from the tiny country of Judah be able to tell him?
Speaker:He asks Daniel, are you able to tell me what I dreamed and what it means?
Speaker:And Daniel says, no.
Speaker:Ah, Daniel, what are you doing? You meant to tell the king about his dream so
Speaker:everyone doesn't get killed, remember?
Speaker:But Daniel wants to make a point.
Speaker:He wants the king to understand that he can't talk about the dream because he's great.
Speaker:He can only talk about it because God's great.
Speaker:And God has very kindly decided to show
Speaker:Nebuchadnezzar what's going to happen in the future.
Speaker:Daniel says in verse 27, no person can explain to the king the secret he's asked about.
Speaker:No wise man, magician, or fortune teller can do this.
Speaker:But there is a God in heaven who explains secret things.
Speaker:God has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen at a later time.
Speaker:This is your dream.
Speaker:This is the vision you saw while lying on your
Speaker:bed, my king.
Speaker:As you were lying there, you thought about
Speaker:things to come.
Speaker:God, who can tell people about secret things, showed you what is going to happen.
Speaker:God also told this secret to me.
Speaker:It's not because I have greater wisdom than
Speaker:other men.
Speaker:It's so that you, my king, may know what it
Speaker:means.
Speaker:In that way, you will understand what went
Speaker:through your mind.
Speaker:In other words, Nebuchadnezzar.
Speaker:This thing is a gift from God.
Speaker:You'd better treat it like that.
Speaker:Then Daniel tells the king what he dreamed.
Speaker:He dreamt of a huge, shiny, frightening statue, probably the statue of a man.
Speaker:And it's made out of a few different things.
Speaker:In verse 32, Daniel says, the head of the
Speaker:statue was made of pure gold.
Speaker:Its chest and arms were made of silver.
Speaker:Its middle and upper part of its legs was made of bronze.
Speaker:The lower part of its legs was made of iron.
Speaker:Its feet were made partly of iron and partly of baked clay.
Speaker:Got that?
Speaker:Head of gold, chest and arms made of silver.
Speaker:The middle and upper part of the legs made
Speaker:from bronze.
Speaker:The lower part of the legs in iron.
Speaker:The feet are iron, but mixed in with clay.
Speaker:That's the first part of the dream.
Speaker:Then a rock breaks off somewhere.
Speaker:No human breaks it off.
Speaker:It just kind of breaks off and smashes into the feet of the statue.
Speaker:The whole statue smashes into a bazillion pieces.
Speaker:The wind blows them away and there's nothing left.
Speaker:That's the second part of the dream.
Speaker:In the last part of the dream, the rock starts to grow.
Speaker:It grows and grows and grows until it becomes a huge mountain filling the whole earth.
Speaker:And that's the dream.
Speaker:Pretty obvious what it means, isn't it?
Speaker:Okay, okay, okay, so it's not obvious.
Speaker:Thankfully, God's told Daniel exactly what it means.
Speaker:God's telling Nebuchadnezzar about different kingdoms.
Speaker:The different parts of the statue represent different kingdoms.
Speaker:First one will be in power, then a different one, then a different one.
Speaker:The first kingdom, the one represented by the head of gold, is Nebuchadnezzar's own kingdom,
Speaker:the kingdom of Babylon.
Speaker:Daniel says in verse 37, My king, you are the
Speaker:greatest king.
Speaker:God of heaven has given you a kingdom.
Speaker:He has given you power, strength, and glory.
Speaker:God has given you power over people, wild animals and birds, wherever they live.
Speaker:God has made you ruler over them all.
Speaker:King Nebuchadnezzar, you are the head of gold on that statue.
Speaker:Nebuchadnezzar is probably thinking, yeah, I'm the greatest king.
Speaker:I'm the coolest and the toughest.
Speaker:But God wants him to know that his kingdom won't last.
Speaker:Daniel continues.
Speaker:Another kingdom will come after you, but that kingdom will not be as great as yours.
Speaker:Next, a third kingdom will rule over the earth.
Speaker:That's the bronze part.
Speaker:Then there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron.
Speaker:Iron crushes and smashes things to pieces.
Speaker:In the same way, the fourth kingdom will smash
Speaker:and crush all the other kingdoms.
Speaker:This is what happens in the world.
Speaker:A kingdom comes that looks strong for a while and then it disappears.
Speaker:After the Babylonian kingdom, there came the Persian kingdom.
Speaker:Then the Greeks came, then the Romans came.
Speaker:They all became really powerful, and they're
Speaker:all gone now.
Speaker:If you look around the world at the different
Speaker:countries today, some of them look very strong.
Speaker:But they won't be strong forever.
Speaker:They rise and fall.
Speaker:But God wants Nebuchadnezzar to know.
Speaker:But God has plans to set up a new kingdom, a different sort of kingdom, a kingdom that'll
Speaker:last forever.
Speaker:It's represented by that rock that destroyed the statue.
Speaker:Daniel says in verse 44, during the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up
Speaker:another kingdom.
Speaker:It will never be destroyed and it will not be
Speaker:given to another group of people.
Speaker:This kingdom will crush all the other kingdoms.
Speaker:It will bring them to an end.
Speaker:But that kingdom itself will continue forever.
Speaker:What kingdom could that be?
Speaker:It can't be Babylon or Persia or Greece or Rome.
Speaker:It isn't Russia or America or Australia or England or China.
Speaker:No, the kingdom that'll last forever is ruled by a king who'll rule forever.
Speaker:A king who can never die again, a king who's defeated death.
Speaker:That king is Jesus.
Speaker:It's Jesus kingdom that'll last forever.
Speaker:It's more powerful and more wonderful than all
Speaker:the other countries and kingdoms put together.
Speaker:Of course, Nebuchadnezzar isn't told fully about Jesus yet.
Speaker:He's just told that this kingdom is coming.
Speaker:And he's really impressed.
Speaker:Not by the kingdom, but by Daniel and his God.
Speaker:In verse 46, we read, Then King Nebuchadnezzar
Speaker:fell face down on the ground in front of Daniel.
Speaker:The king honoured him.
Speaker:He ordered that an offering and incense be presented to Daniel.
Speaker:Then the king said to Daniel, truly, I know Your God is the greatest of all gods and he is
Speaker:the Lord of all the kings.
Speaker:He tells people about things they cannot know.
Speaker:I know this is true.
Speaker:You were able to tell these secret things to
Speaker:me.
Speaker:Nebuchadnezzar has discovered the truth about God.
Speaker:That God is the greatest.
Speaker:That he knows the future.
Speaker:That he shows people things they cannot know.
Speaker:God doesn't tell us everything that will happen in the future.
Speaker:He doesn't let us in on all the secrets.
Speaker:But he does tell us what we need to know.
Speaker:Do you know where he does that?
Speaker:He does it in the Bible.
Speaker:Even though the king got to see a sneak peek into the future, he still didn't know about
Speaker:Jesus.
Speaker:God's actually told us much more than he told the king.
Speaker:He helps us know his world.
Speaker:He helps us know ourselves.
Speaker:He helps us know Him.
Speaker:He even tells us about the future.
Speaker:That Jesus is coming back to take all of his people to be with him forever.
Speaker:Most importantly, he's told us that we can be in the kingdom that lasts forever.
Speaker:Jesus Kingdom no matter what country you're from.
Speaker:No, no matter where you live or how old you are, you can be in the greatest kingdom in the
Speaker:world simply by trusting and following Jesus.
Speaker:Back in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar gives Daniel and his three friends really important jobs.
Speaker:But he doesn't start trusting the God who told him the future.
Speaker:Instead, he has his own plans for the future.
Speaker:I wonder how that'll work out for him.
Speaker:Well, that's a story for next time.
Speaker:I want to remind everyone about the stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:Kids Club.
Speaker:I put a poll on there asking what people would
Speaker:like to see on the club.
Speaker:And the thing they voted for was me having a
Speaker:cream pie in my face.
Speaker:So that's what will happen in tomorrow's episode.
Speaker:But we also learn great things about living for Jesus.
Speaker:We've learned about prayer and being a new person in Jesus and how we get to know God.
Speaker:There's lots of great things to learn for parents.
Speaker:There are great bonus episodes as well though.
Speaker:Kids can listen to them if they'd like.
Speaker:I've just put up a bonus episode on how the Bible came together and why we can trust it.
Speaker:The club costs about a dollar a week depending on where you live.
Speaker:You can start with a free seven day trial and you can cancel any time.
Speaker:So why not give it a go?
Speaker:Just follow the link in the show notes.
Speaker:Keep trusting Jesus.
Speaker:Bye for now.
