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THE 2,500-YEAR DREAM #2

THE DAY MICK JAGGER BECAME PRIME MINISTER

Do you remember reading in the papers back in 1997 when Mick Jagger went from being the Rolling Stones' leading mouth, and became instead a member of Parliament? That was quite a headline, wasn't it? Remember? And the other big one was when Princess Diana moved to Africa, and began training as a long-distance runner for the Olympic Games. I KNOW you recall reading that story.

You don't? Well, maybe you saw THIS one on CNN instead. Princess Diana DOESN'T move to Africa; instead she balloons up to 215 pounds because she has a thyroid condition. What a scandal that turned out to be!

And you're saying, "Wait a minute! Isn't 1997 the year Princess Diana was killed?" Friend, you're absolutely right. But that's not what the psychics predicted during the Christmas season of 1996. No, they looked into their futuristic crystal balls and saw the Africa training camp and her run for Olympic gold. They saw Mick Jagger going into Parliament — which never happened. They saw John Travolta saving the day, heroically landing a huge jet when the crew all came down with food poisoning. That never happened either. They saw newscaster Walter Cronkite, who's been retired for a long, long time, re-emerging in triumph as a great lounge singer. And that's certainly a headline to Mr. CBS.

A Mr. Gene Emery has been going back and checking the forecasts of the psychics, clear back to 1979. And he sums up their abilities in one sentence: "They're consistent — consistently wrong."

In 1997, did Barbra Streisand convert Rush Limbaugh into a skinny, liberal Democrat? Did Pamela Anderson Lee star with Howard Stern in a remake of "Gone With the Wind"? Did Sarah Ferguson join the cast of Melrose Place and marry Calvin Klein? Did Madonna, concerned about the quality of children's TV programming, bring back the old Mickey Mouse Club, with herself as the star? The answers are no, no, no, and no. The batting averages of the psychics is about half a percentage point above zero; they get it right when they predict the sun will come up, and that's about it.

With that in mind, let's gather together again, with our Bibles in our hands, and turn to this ancient prophecy found in the book of Daniel, chapter two. Here's the story:

"In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, he said to them, ‘I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means."

Have you ever had a dream that you suspected came from something more than anchovies the night before? Well, this was one of those. Even this heathen king had a gut feeling that this dream was different, that it contained some message of import. But notice his immediate mistake. Who does he call in? The exact kinds of people who just batted "point zero zero two" for the supermarket tabloids recently in 1997. He calls in the same people, the ancestors of the guys who predicted that Kathie Lee Gifford would be abducted by aliens, and then get dropped off in the Colorado wilderness, where she'd walk around in a daze for five weeks. I like the very plain way the Clear Word paraphrase describes the resumé of these losers.

"The next day he [Nebuchadnezzar] called in his fortunetellers, astrologers, scientists and priests who claimed they could communicate with the dead."

Now, here's the wrinkle. Just like the National Enquirer's staff can do, these people were capable of making up any harebrained thing you wanted to hear. They could predict all sorts of foolishness, and then hope that there wasn't a Babylonian version of this Mr. Gene Emery to check on their accuracy. And if Nebuchadnezzar described to them his dream, they could easily say, "Well, that's obvious. You've repressed your childhood, and you have a fear of trees, and there's going to be a better-than-average pomegranate crop two years from now, in 602 B.C. Anything else you want to know?"

But here's the problem. Nebuchadnezzar couldn't even remember what the dream WAS — and he expected these fakers to tell him that part as well. And as you can imagine, they weren't about to take a stab at THAT. So they went into their usual stall. Here's verse four:

O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it."

They go back and forth, with the usual colorful Babylonian threats, and this collection of charlatans simply can't deliver. Which — you can't blame them. The king was asking the impossible, in terms of human ability. And these so-called "wise men" admit as much. Notice verses ten and eleven:

"The Chaldeans replied to the king, ‘There isn't a man alive who can tell others what they have dreamed! And there isn't a king in all the world who would ask such a thing! This is an impossible thing the king requires." Now notice: "No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they are not here to help."

The NIV says it this way:

"No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men."

And you know, these clever con men did have it part right. No man on earth could know such a thing. Only a god — or, check that — THE God of the universe could do this. And it just happens that the God of the universe does indeed live among men . . . at least among certain ones who serve Him.

And so the death decree goes out. The whole palace retinue of psychics is to be wiped out, executed. Including Daniel and his three God-fearing friends, who, for some reason, weren't in attendance at this fiasco. In verse 14 we read that when Arioch, commander of the king's guard, comes with the death warrant, Daniel speaks to him with great tact. You might recall from chapter one that Daniel is already a court favorite. "Why is the king being so hasty?" he asks. "Can I have an audience with him?" And here's verse 16:

"At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him."

Some versions even have Daniel making a promise to Nebuchadnezzar: "Twenty-four hours from now, I'll be back with the answers you need."

You know, normally Christians are very careful about what we commit God to. It's God who decides His plans, and not us. And we tack onto our prayers, as we should: "Father, Thy will be done." But somehow in this story, I believe that Daniel correctly sensed that it WAS God who had worked already in this story. This dream WAS from God, and his heavenly Father was using this avenue — and HIM — to communicate heaven's agenda. In any case, he spoke very boldly in promising the king that answers were on their way, and then in verse 18 he and his friends prayed what I'm sure were the most earnest prayers of their lives.

And now here's the beautiful thing. That night, Daniel has the exact same dream. It's a forceful, vivid image. There's no mistaking it for your average, meandering nighttime picture show. He knows this is it; this is from God. What's more, God gives him the correct and exact interpretation.

Now why does God operate this way? Certainly if God gives the dream to one man, He can give it to two. And He can cause Nebuchadnezzar to forget. "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away." Notice that this chain of events clearly establishes the authenticity of what Daniel shares with the king. When Daniel stands before the king the next day, the king asks him very eagerly: "Have you come with the answers I'm looking for?" I appreciate the way the Clear Word paraphrase describes Daniel's answer:
"Daniel answered, ‘Your Majesty, there is no philosopher, astrologer, fortune-teller, or priest who claims to communicate with the dead who can do what the king is asking. But there is a God in heaven who can reveal anything and explain any mysteries which trouble the king. It was this God, Your Majesty, who showed you the future." Now notice this: "So first let me tell you your dream and the vision you had while you were asleep. THAT WAY you can depend on the interpretation."

Isn't that a fantastic way for God to set this up? Nebuchadnezzar forgets what the dream is. His wise men, all a bunch of fakers, have no clue what to do. Then this young follower of the living God stands before him, gives all CREDIT to God, and then reminds him — in perfect detail — what his dream was.

"In the vision you saw an enormous statue of a man," Daniel says. "The statue glowed with a brilliant light and as it stood there before you, it was frightening to look at."

And the king just about jumps right out of his throne. "That's it!" he shouts. "NOW I remember! That's exactly what it was!" Notice: immediately, this kid, Daniel, has total credibility. He goes on:

"The head of this statue was made of fine gold, its chest and arms were made of silver, its waist and hips of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay."

And Nebuchadnezzar is speechless. "Danny," he says, "that's exactly what I dreamed. From head to toe, you got it right. Man, how could I have forgotten it?" The whole thing has come flooding back to him, and let me say it again: this young man standing before him enjoys instant credibility. How did he do it? What kind of a God does this kid serve?

And the conclusion is obvious. If Daniel got the dream right, then he's going to be right-on when he INTERPRETS the dream as well. It's a perfect set-up. And we . . . are out of time.