But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; (Daniel 2:28)
See on Isa. 2:2. The message of the dream was for the instruction of Nebuchadnezzar as well as of the rulers and people to the end of time (see on v. 1). The outline of prophecy carries us from Nebuchadnezzar’s day (see on v. 29) down to the end of the world and the second coming of Christ (see on vs. 44, 45). Nebuchadnezzar had been looking forward with anxious forebodings to the future (see SL 34). God revealed to him the future, not to satisfy his curiosity, but to awaken in his mind a sense of personal responsibility toward the program of heaven.