Last week in Sunday School we learned all about the Fiery Furnace, and this week we’re going to learn about the dream that might have inspired the problems in the fiery furnace.
Actually, if you want to get technical, Nebuchadnezzar didn’t have just one dream. So it shouldn’t be Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream activities, it should be dreams activities, but that sounds weird.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream activity 1
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is one of those passages that Biblical scholars and people who are into prophecy like to read and argue about, I mean my prophets pinterest board is filled with diagrams of this dream. For the first few parts of the statue there is universal agreement on what each part represents. Everyone agrees the head is Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, the chest is Persians, the hips and thighs is Greece, and the legs are Rome. It’s the feet everyone argues over. Who do they represent? Has it already happened, will it happen at the end? Oh the debates.
But for my kids, the fun was all in the making of the statue. We gathered all our toilet paper rolls and made our own versions, then we rolled a giant stone at them just like happened in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
Eventually, it turned into a bowling game, and the kids keep bringing it back up, “we should play the statue game again Mom.” It’s also a great jumping-off point for who that rock is. It’s generally agreed that rock represents Christ who in the end will reign overall, but it’s fun to talk about.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream activity 2
Nebuchadnezzar’s second dream is even stranger, especially because it’s written in the first person. He dreams about a tree, and it is cut down, and then Daniel says, “Bad news king, that tree is you and you’re going to go crazy.” Then Nebuchadnezzar spends several years as a lunatic behaving like an animal.
It’s weird, and not the fun weird of Revelation that has cool imagery or later chapters of Daniel. I mean the, “why is this in here?” weird. But then we reread the passage.
And that is why it’s in there. In the end, Nebuchadnezzar realized he was not the most important person or in control of the world. God is. That’s what we need to remember through it all.
To go with this part of the story we had fun making monster face snacks, which really means “tremendously large amounts of sugary snacks.” Either way, the kids were pretty happy about the whole thing.
While all of this discussion of statues and empires is fun, how does it really relate to us?
Why do I care about Nebuchadnezzar’s dream? Either of them?
Both of Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams shows God’s sovereignty and his omniscience. Only a God who is all-knowing can predict the future. Only an omnipotent God can bring down the most powerful man and restore him to his place.
We learn much from these dreams about our place in the world. Just as God showed Job his power when Job complained, so God shows Nebuchadnezzar who HE is when Nebuchadnezzar thought himself bigger than everyone.
Get your own copy of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dreams lesson by clicking here or on the picture up above.
To finish up Daniel’s story head over to Daniel and the Lion’s Den lesson .
Get all of the Old Testament prophets lessons here.
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