Immersive Bible Reading Week 2 Daniel 2
Here are some questions to aid your reading and reflection. Jimmy Johnson joked that everyone should turn their questions into me to be graded haha. I try to answer as many of these as I can in our sermon period on Sunday evening but I do not always get to every one of them, and even when I do, I realize that I do not always make the answers explicit. Would love if we could get some discussion going on these again!!! Feel free to answer 1-3 of the questions that especially aided your reflection on this chapter below! Would it be helpful if I gave some of my answers to the questions on Monday mornings following the lesson?
1. Compare this chapter to Gen. 41. Do any common themes emerge?
2. What is the difference in the way that magicians, astrologers, enchanters, and wise men conduct their work vs. what we see Daniel doing in this chapter? Does he resort to their means of divination? What might these different methods reveal about their view of the gods vs. Daniel’s view of his God?
3. What does Nebuchednezzar charge his wise men with in v. 9? (Compare v. 9 with v. 21)
4. What do vv. 10-11 foreshadow in this story? How does this speak to the major theme of the book: the Sovereignty of Yahweh?
5. What seems to be the Chaldean’s view of their gods and their relationship to humanity according to v. 11? What is the Israelite view of God (Ex. 29:45-46)?
6. What fate awaited Daniel and his three friends and why according to vv. 17-18?
7. Does Daniel praise God for simply knowing and revealing the future or is there something more in vv. 20-23?
8. Who is the “we” of v. 23?
9. Who does God save according to v. 24? Do you find any significance in this?
10. Perhaps in contrast to the Chaldeans view of God (v. 11), what is Daniel’s view of God according to vv. 37-38?
11. In your own words summarize what Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was about:
12. The king pays homage to Daniel ( v. 46). Who does Daniel give glory to in this chapter and what does that teach us about how to handle our own successes?
13. Last Sunday we spoke explicitly about three ways in which we as the people of God relate to culture and referenced another: 1) Resistance: At times we may be called to resist culture through either fight or flight responses. 2) Coexistence: At times we are called to live alongside culture, amicably and respectfully. 3) Embrace: Sometimes culture gets it right and there are things from within the culture that we can and should embrace. (Obviously there are things within culture that we might be prone to embrace but ought not.) 4) Transformation: Sometimes our relationship to culture is as lights shining in the darkness, working within it to elevate it and transform it. Do you see any of these strategies employed in this chapter? If so, which ones and at what points?
14. Thinking about the above approaches to culture, how did the rock (God’s kingdom) of Daniel’s interpretation shatter the human kingdoms within the movement of Jesus and his followers? In other words, what strategies do we see employed by Jesus and his early followers in the Roman Empire?
15. How does Nebuchadnezzar’s response (vv. 46-49) illustrate the major theme of the book?
16. How does the dual theme of God’s power and providence relate to the themes of prayer and praise in this chapter?