Daniel 2:26-27

Arioch had focused on Daniel as the solution to the king’s problem. Nebuchadnezzar viewed him the same way. Daniel, however, quickly redirected the king’s attention from himself and placed it where it belonged, on God who revealed the future. No human being, neither the Babylonian wise men nor himself, could provide what the king required. Daniel used a new name for one of these groups of seers here: "diviners," meaning astrologers. [Note: See Leupold, p. 105.] They tried to draw information about the future from the heavens, but "the God of heavens" had revealed the mystery.

Specifically it was information about "the end of the days" that God had given Daniel for the king (Daniel 2:28). This phrase occurs first in Genesis 49:1 and always refers to the future. The context determines how much of the future is in view, but it usually focuses on Messiah’s appearance. This phrase "refers to the future of God’s dealings with mankind as to be consummated and concluded historically in the times of the Messiah." [Note: Robert D. Culver, Daniel and the Latter Days, p. 107.]

"In the context of Daniel 2, ’the latter days’ include all the visions which Nebuchadnezzar received and stretches from 600 B.C. to the second coming of Christ to the earth." [Note: Walvoord, p. 61. See his extensive study of this phrase on pp. 60-61.]

Young, an amillennialist, took this phrase as equivalent with "the last days," to which the New Testament writers referred, which we are now in (cf. Acts 2:16-17; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1; Hebrews 1:1; 1 John 2:18). [Note: Young, p. 70.] This seems wrong in view of what the dream revealed.