Page 51 - Daniel

of King Cyrus.

These verses are an amazing summary of the three years of hard study
and the result of God’s blessing upon the four faithful young men. By the
time they completed their education, Daniel and his three friends were
probably nearly twenty years of age. In addition to their natural
intellectual ability and their evident careful attention to their studies,

God added His grace. The definite article precedes the name of God (v.
17), indicating that the true God of Israel was the one who was
responsible for their success.

The words used to describe the men’s knowledge and skills indicate
that they not only had a thorough understanding of the learning of the
Chaldeans, but that they had insight into its true meaning (cf. James
1:5). Calvin is probably wrong that they were kept from study of the
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religious superstitions and magic that characterized the Chaldeans. In
order to be fully competent to meet the issues of their future life, they

would need a thorough understanding of the religious practices of their
day. Here the grace of God operated, however, in giving them
understanding so they could distinguish between the true and the false.
They not only had knowledge, but also discernment.

As Keil puts it, Daniel “needed to be deeply versed in the Chaldean
wisdom, as formerly Moses was in the wisdom of Egypt (Acts vii. 22), so
as to be able to put to shame the wisdom of this world by the hidden
wisdom of God.” 37

Although all four youths were skilled in Chaldean learning and were
able to separate the true from the false, only Daniel had understanding
“in all visions and dreams.” This was not an incidental remark but a fact
necessary to understand Daniel’s role as a prophet in later chapters. In

this, Daniel differed from his companions as a true prophet. His ability
to interpret visions and dreams primarily related to the dreams and
visions of others. However, this did not include the ability to know
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2, which Daniel received only after
earnest prayer, and it did not necessarily as yet give Daniel the capacity
to have visions and dreams himself as he did in chapter 7 and beyond.

Daniel’s capacity included distinguishing a significant dream from one
that had no revelatory meaning and also the power to interpret it