The angel said he had been sent to tell me what had been written in the Book of Truth, a heavenly account of history, written in advance. He began by saying that there would be three more Persian kings in a time of relative peace and prosperity,

As if the dream predicting the Messiah’s coming wasn’t enough, two years later I received another revelation. This one gave me such detail about the future of my people that in your time “scholars” who don’t believe in predictive prophecy have tried to make the claim that I didn’t really write my story at all.

In 538 BC, the first year of Persian rule over Babylon, I read in the Book of Jeremiah that our captivity in Babylon was supposed to last 70 years (Jere. 25:11-12). Jeremiah, you may remember, lived around the same time as I did and documented the defeat of Israel and destruction of Jerusalem from that end while Ezekiel and I wrote from Babylon.

As my dream continued, I saw another horn grow up out of one of the four prominent horns of the goat. It grew to the south and east toward the Beautiful Land, as we often call Israel. This horn grew until its power (horns stand for power remember) reached into the very heavens,

After the dream of the four beasts, I didn’t have any more like it for about 2 years. But then one night in 551BC I dreamed that I was in the city of Susa standing by the Ulai canal in the region of Elam, which was part of Persia in my day. 

So far I’ve related this tale pretty much in the order these things happened to me. But now I’m going to back track a little to tell you about some remarkable visions and dreams I’ve had from time to time. I’ve saved them till now because they don’t really fit into the theme of my story.

I guess you’d say I’ve lived a pretty unique life; born a prince of Israel, taken hostage to Babylon as a teenager only to become a major political figure there as counselor to the King and finally rising to the number 3 spot in the Babylonian government,

After Nebuchadnezzar’s death, several of his relatives had their turn on the throne of Babylon, usually cut short by the malicious infighting that sometimes characterizes royal families. Assassination had become the order of the day. Finally, toward the end of the 70 year period that the LORD had ordained for Babylon’s rule over the known world (Jeremiah 25:12) his son Nabonidus got control and things settled down a little.

It’s not every day that the Creator of the Universe puts a prophetic dream into the mind of a person, and when the dream appoints that person King of the Whole Earth it’s truly a unique event. But by building his statue entirely of gold,

I guess it should come as no surprise that Nebuchadnezzar developed quite a big head over his dream. I mean it’s one thing to become a king in your early 20’s, but quite another to be told by the Creator of the Universe that you’ve been given authority over all living things wherever they are in the world (Dan 2:36-38).