G'day, Dave here.

Welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids

and welcome to episode 50.

How exciting to make it to 50 episodes.

Thank you so much for all your support.

Whether you've been with us from episode one

or if you're just joining us, I hope you're enjoying the show.

I hope you're finding it really helpful for trusting our faithful God.

I want to do a big shout out to Harry, who's just joined the club and started watching the

videos there.

Harry says, best show ever in the world ever.

So there you go.

Not just one ever, but two.

Thanks heaps, Harry.

If anyone else wants to see me be accidentally

turned into a cartoon or meet a puppet with an identity crisis, or most importantly, if you

want to have fun learning to live for Jesus, get onto Patreon.

Join the Stories of a Faithful God Kids Club.

Now, if I ask you what you'd like to do when

you grow up, what would you say? How about you take 10 seconds to tell someone

around you? So what would you like to do when you grow up?

Would you like to fight fires? Would you like to be a teacher?

Would you like to walk through forests picking up animal droppings to find out what animals

have been eating? Seriously, there are people who are paid to do

that.

Totally weird.

It's one thing to ask what you want to do when you grow up.

It's completely different to ask, what will you do when you grow up?

Do you know what you will do? That's something that you actually can't know.

You might want to be a professional athlete, but then break your leg when you're 16 and

never run again.

You might want to be an author writing books

about going to the moon, but in 10 years time, you might become fascinated with sea urchins

and write books about them.

You don't know what will happen in the future.

There are things you might want to happen, but you don't know if they will happen.

That's a part of being human.

But do you know?

There's someone who does know the future.

God knows every single bit of the future.

He knows it because he's decided what will happen in the future.

And every so often when he thinks it's really, really important, he tells people what'll

happen in the future.

And that's what he does in today's story.

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At the end of our last episode, King Nebuchadnezzar still didn't know God.

He felt safe as the king in charge of other kings.

He thought his empire was the biggest and best, and he thought his gods were the

strongest.

He didn't realise that his empire had been

given to him by the one true God.

One night, Nebuchadnezzar goes to bed and he

has some dreams.

Not the normal weird dreams that everyone has.

You know, the one where you feel like you're falling, falling, falling, and then at the

last minute you suddenly turn into a rubber unicorn.

What? That's not how it goes for you.

Umm, me either.

Hmm.

Ah. Anyway, Nebuchadnezzar can tell that this dream is different.

Now, Nebuchadnezzar has lots of people who work for him.

For some of them, their job is to tell him what his dreams mean.

They're meant to be able to work out the future, discover things that normal people

can't understand.

In those days, that's what magicians do.

They're not like Harry Potter wizards.

They're people who try to tell the future.

So the king calls in all his fortune tellers, magicians, wizards and wise men.

In verse three of chapter two, he says, I had a dream that bothers me.

I want to know what the dream means.

The fortune tellers, magicians, wizards and

wise men are fine with that.

This is their job.

It's why they work for the king.

So they reply in verse four, our king live

forever.

We are your servants.

Please tell us your dream, then we will tell you what it means.

Nebuchadnezzar's been thinking about this and he's a bit worried.

You see, if these guys tell him what his dream means, how does he know they're telling the

truth? Maybe they're just tricking him.

Maybe they're just saying what he wants to hear.

How can he know that they really understand the secrets that are hidden from normal

people? He doesn't want to be tricked, so he's come up

with a plan.

He asks them to do something they've never

done before.

He says in verse five, no, you must tell me

the dream, and then you must tell me what it means.

Umm.

Tell him the dream.

What? How are they meant to know what the dream is?

Do you see what he's doing? If they really do have the ability to work out

secret things, they shouldn't just be able to tell him the secret of what the dream means.

They should also be able to tell the secret of what the dream actually is.

And he's really serious about it.

He says to them, if you don't do these things,

I will have you torn apart.

And I'll turn your houses into piles of stone.

But if you tell me my dream and its meaning, I will reward you.

I will give you gifts and great honour.

So tell me the dream and tell me what it

means.

The fortune tellers, magicians, wizards and

wise men are freaking out.

They beg the king, please tell us the dream

and we will tell you what it means.

That just makes Nebuchadnezzar more angry.

He yells at them in verse eight.

Now, I know that you are trying to get more

time.

You know that I meant what I said.

If you don't tell me my dream, you will be punished.

You have all agreed to tell me lies and wicked things.

You are hoping things will change.

Now tell me the dream, then I will know.

You can tell me what it really means.

The fortune tellers, magicians, wizards and

wise men are terrified because they know they can't do what the kings asked.

In fact, they know that no one can do it.

They think only the gods can know what someone

dreams.

Remember, they believe there are lots of gods,

but apart from getting the number of gods wrong, they're kind of right.

What the king's asking isn't a human thing, it's a God thing.

Their problem is they don't know God.

They try to tell the king he's being unfair.

They say no one on earth can do what the king asks.

Not even a great and powerful king has ever asked the fortune tellers, magicians or wise

men to do this.

The king is asking something that is too hard.

Only the gods could tell the king this.

But the gods do not live among people.

That's not what Nebuchadnezzar wants to hear.

He flies into a rage and orders that all the

wise men of Babylon be killed.

He doesn't want these tricksters to live

anymore.

Now, you may remember that Daniel and his

three friends have been in training to be wise men of Babylon.

They're not important enough yet to have been in with the king, but they are on the list of

wise men to be killed.

Imagine their surprise when they hear a

thumping on the door.

Daniel opens the door and it's a man named

Arioch.

Ariok is in charge of the king's guard and he

tells them that he's come to take them away and kill them.

Thankfully, like we discovered last week, God's given Daniel lots of wisdom, and so he

speaks to Ariok very wisely.

He asks what's up with the king, why is he

being so harsh? And Ariok explains everything to him.

Daniel quickly comes up with A plan.

He goes to Nebuchadnezzar and asks for more

time to find out about the king's dream.

It's not that Daniel thinks he's super awesome

and powerful.

It's just that he knows something that all

those other fortune tellers, magicians, wizards and wise men don't know.

He knows someone who they don't know.

He knows the one true God.

He's given a bit more time.

So he rushes home and asks his three friends

to pray.

Verse 18 says Daniel asked his friends to pray

to the God of Heaven.

Daniel asked them to pray that God would show

them mercy and help them understand this secret.

Then Daniel and his friends would not be put to death with the other wise men of Babylon.

And do you know what? God does?

Have mercy on them.

He does explain the dream to Daniel in a

special vision at night.

Can you imagine how excited Daniel must be?

He's so excited he bursts into a song praising God.

He praises God because God's in charge of everything.

He's in charge of kings and countries.

He decides when they're around and when they

have to end.

Daniel praises him because God gives good

things.

He looks after his people and he helps them.

This is Daniel's song of praise from verse 20.

He sings praise God forever and ever.

He has wisdom and power.

He changes the times and seasons of the year.

He takes away the power of kings and he gives their power to new kings.

He gives wisdom to people so they become wise.

And he helps people learn and know things.

He makes known secrets that are deep and hidden.

He knows what is hidden in darkness and light lives with him.

I thank you and praise you, God of my ancestors.

You have given me wisdom and power.

You told me what we asked of you.

You told us about the king's dream.

God has been so kind in telling Daniel what

the king dreamt.

He saved Daniel and his friends.

So what did the king dream? What is this great mystery?

What secret has God shown? Well, that's a story for next time.

Don't forget to join the club.

Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.