God’s Word for You
Daniel 2:29-30 Articles and word order
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, September 10, 2025
29 “As for you, O king, as you were lying on your bed, thoughts came into your mind about things to come, and the Revealer of Mysteries showed you what is going to happen. 30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have more wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand the thoughts of your heart.
Daniel begins outside the parameters of the king’s request. He takes the king back in his memory, as it were, to the very thoughts that were on his mind when he was preparing himself for bed. He was thinking even then about “things to come.” Just what these thoughts were, we cannot say. Was the king considering his place in history, or the very near future and some decisions he had to make? Was he considering a coming war, or just thinking in general about the future? Or was he just beginning to think about the gigantic statue he would eventually build on the Plain of Dura (Daniel 3:1)?
Whatever his thoughts were, those thoughts that came into his mind were the potting soil in which the Lord chose to work. But then, God the Revealer of Mysteries began to weave the dream of the king.
The Greek translation of “revealer” here is ἀνακαλύπτω (anakalypto), very similar to ἀποκαλύπτω (apokalypto). Both mean “to reveal, uncover.” Our word here has the idea of lifting a veil or pulling back a curtain. An “apocalypse” is more of a complete revealing of a mystery so that perhaps all can see. But the difference is subtle. We don’t usually use the term “anacalypse,” but perhaps our word here is diminutive, a “little peek,” whereas an apocalypse such as we find at the end of Daniel and in Revelation is more of a good hard yank at the curtain to show what’s behind.
Daniel once again prefers being modest and giving all of the credit and glory to God for what he knows. At the same time, he wants the king to hear Daniel level the playing field. “I don’t have any more wisdom than any other man,” he says. This sentence goes two ways. He is being modest and saying he is not above anyone else. But he is also showing that the Lord God could choose to work through anybody he wanted to. It is a put-down, very lightly spoken, of all of the king’s magicians and fortune-tellers. “I’m no wiser than any of them,” Daniel says, “but the difference is that I believe in the one true God. And he is the only one who can give you the answer you seek.”
There is one other detail here in the text. Daniel’s title for God in Aramaic, “Revealer of Mysteries” (gale-a raziy-a) contains what we would call definite articles: “The Revealer of the Mysteries.” Now, this is a title, and in Biblical languages, titles and proper names are often given articles with a touch of respect. But we also notice that the usual word-order is reversed in this case to emphasize the title. This is not simply a revealer of secrets, a veil-lifting breeze, or an accident by a scurrying kitten or an awkward elbow—the sorts of things that happen in my home. This was God, the Almighty God, doing for Nebuchadnezzar what no one else ever could.
And therefore this is also at the very least a hint, a glimpse, of the power of the gospel of the forgiveness of sins. If the Almighty has the power and the wisdom to do this, could he not also remove the burden of a guilty conscience from this king?
This is the power of the word of God. The Scriptures are not given to us to teach us how to fish, or mend a shoe, or to show us how to teach a child the importance of a daily bath. These are things that the Lord teaches us through our parents, teachers, and employers. Instead, the Word of God is given to mankind to show us that there is another life, an eternal life, beyond this one. So the conscience that is troubled rattles the gate, and the gospel preacher comes and shows that things are far worse than the troubled conscience thought. The sinner deserves hell, punishment, and everlasting torment, the smoke of which “will rise for ever and ever” (Revelation 14:11). But then there is the gospel that is far sweeter than anyone ever expects. “The Lord has thrown all of my sins behind his back” (Isaiah 38:17). Ancient people slaughtered animals as sacrifices for sins; God sent his own Son to be sacrificed for the guilt of our sins and to put an end to sacrifice forever. Our sins are set aside and forgiven. Such is the power of God Most High, our Savior and our Redeemer.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.