Daniel Chapter 4
Commentary by Ron Beckham
Verse 1. "Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all
peoples, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be
multiplied to you."
Here was Nebuchadnezzar, wrapped in the fervor of yet another touch
of God, suddenly at peace with everybody, and ready to testify about
what God had done. We have the advantage of hindsight (Most of us have
read Daniel's Book) and know that this king repeatedly got lost in the
cares of life and again will turn from God. Right now, however, he's
doing what we should all do – publicly giving praise to God.
We should get in practice. "Praise" is an expression of love, and
that kind of behavior (utter & honest love) will be our chief occupation
in eternity. Our purpose in living is centered in love. You might not
know it from the daily newspaper, but we were created to be at PEACE
with our neighbors – to let God's kind of love be expressed through us
to all we meet. (How great our fall has been). For the moment,
Nebuchadnezzar had the right idea.
Verse 2. "I thought it good to declare the
signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me."
You hear about Christians giving a "testimony." Sometimes people
think a "witness" or "testimony" is expressed in the quoting of
theological ideas. That's not what we mean by a "testimony." Theology
has value when it is based on Scripture and I can personally testify
that it was the BIBLE which brought me to Christ. The Bible is
WONDERFUL, and the accounts in Scripture, interwoven with personal
encounters with God, is indeed a powerful and wonderful testimony to
those we meet.
Nebuchadnezzar is giving us his testimony: the "signs and wonders
that the Most High God has worked for me." Very personal and factual –
a witness to people and praise to God.
We make our testimony complicated when we mix it with theology. The
Bible is made up of PEOPLE who met God. Some of them did well and found
faith in God, and others did not. David wrote about himself in Psalms;
including his own shortcomings and what God had done for him. Our
testimony, like Nebuchadnezzar's and David's, is very simple: What God
in Christ has done for people like David and even people like me, is
what God can and will do for YOU, right now.
People WANT to hear about David and Abraham, Moses and Paul, but they
also want to know, is it REAL, is it for today? Look at the simple AWE
in the words of this king. If it’s real for him, it will also work for
you.
Verse 3. "How great are His signs, and how
mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His
dominion is from generation to generation."
It is reasonable that our thoughts and actions should begin with
praise to God. The fact that you can speak and move is God's gift to
you. (Not everyone reading this has those gifts in the fullest sense.)
Nebuchadnezzar was once again experiencing a miracle in his life and
this time, he was telling the "whole world."
We will see that he would again "fall away" from the Lord. As it had
to be for him, it also must be for so many of us. We must finally be
brought very low before finally trusting completely in God. If we don't
run to Him at His gentle call, He will often take us the hard way. He
is the Physician and we are the patients - He will save us at any cost.
God's purpose is to lift us from the fires of this life and grant us
peace in Christ.
We have so many EXPERIENCES in life. "What are they all ABOUT?"
Why, to FULFILL us (in Christ)! We were created for GOD's purposes and
our own often pathetic attempts to satisfy ourselves will fail. One
thing we must see is that God's intentions for us will be fully realized
in ETERNITY, and not here on earth at all. How could we understand, in
advance, the "Why?" of our lives? Trying to understand life is like
trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing. We
need to rest, to trust – in Him.
Verse 4. "I Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my
house, and flourishing in my palace."
He was experiencing: "Leisure time." It is during those times (rare
in his time but increasingly common for us today) that people often get
in trouble. "I'm bored," people lament, and then go off to bars and
other places that ultimately lead to difficulty and unhappiness.
I do not see how a true Christian (someone who has given control of
his or her life to God in Christ) could ever be "bored." It is often
within the most ordinary, mundane circumstances of life that God works a
miracle in our lives. When we least expect Him, here He is! Those
times when we are "at rest;" in a moment when we are "flourishing" in
the "palaces" of our lives, it is an opportunity for prayer.
Actually, I could never particularly SUSTAIN prayer in my life. That
is, my mind wanders to 1,000 places. "Dear Lord, help Bob" and then I
find myself thinking about some event Bob and I went to see.
Nebuchadnezzar seemed to be doing that – he wasn't conquering countries
right now, so he wanted to let his mind WANDER for a little while.
God, by the way, has given me the gift of WRITING my prayers. I was
initially reluctant to start a prayer journal (actually, I put it off
for about two years) but then started one morning in traffic, while
waiting for a train to pass (I thought that train would never end – but
then, with the prayer journal, time FLEW by). That was fourteen
wonderful years ago. God gave me the miracle of written prayer, on an
ordinary day, and has since blessed my whole life.
In those times when you are tempted to think this is an ordinary day,
you should also have a sense of EXPECTANCY. Almighty God, Maker of
heaven and earth, is right there, just waiting to give you something
wonderful. He wants you to experience first hand the wonder of His
love.
Verse 5. "I saw a dream which made me afraid,
and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me."
Nobody likes to be afraid. The exceptions are attending scary movies
(where there is no real danger), and the amusements of life, from the
rides in an amusement park (where the danger is under tight restraints),
to mountain climbing, where we limit danger with ropes and pitons
pounded into the rocks (or simply your skill). But to be absolutely
helpless in the face of true danger is an unpleasant experience. People
fear DEATH because it is the ultimate in helplessness and uncertainty.
I knew a young man who was terrified of the dark and walked around at
night in his darkened garage, deliberately being brushed by wet laundry
hanging from the rafters. He was trying to overcome his fear (a
preoccupation of many people). Often much of what we do in life is an
attempt to limit or overcome our fears.
You should be advised that Jesus Christ intends to eliminate all fear
from your life. "Perfect love casts out all fear" is the testimony of
John the Apostle (1 John 4:18) and God’s love is certainly perfect. God
is right there with you, patiently waiting for you to release your fears
to HIM, one at a time.
Verse 6. "Therefore I issued a decree to bring
in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known to
me the interpretation of the dream."
As it has been mentioned before, "experts" (such as the "wise men" of
Babylon) can be helpful, but where they have shown a pattern of failure,
it's best to limit our trust in them. (We tend to trust the wrong
people). It was after consultation with an "expert" that I invested
(and lost) the first $1,000 I ever had – in the stock market. I do
temporary jobs these days and often receive the advice that I "should
get a permanent job." That's good advice, except that I am in my 60's,
have an up-and-down employment record, and make more money this way.
What's "right" is often NOT found in formulas of people.
We all have dreams and hopes but what we need in life is found in
God. The experts would fail Nebuchadnezzar as they had in the past. He
needed God.
Verse 7. "Then the magicians, the astrologers,
the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers came in, and I told them the dream;
but they did not make known to me its interpretation."
There was so much frustration in life for so many years. There was
something about my life that I did not understand, and I asked many
other people. When I called shows like the "700 Club" ("our counselors
are waiting for you"), no one had a clue. Literally decades passed
before it I saw that (much) time and circumstances had to come to pass
before all this would make sense. Most of all I had to CHANGE before I
could understand. Nebuchadnezzar had this problem. He would rely on
the experts if he could, but God wants us to have the best – Himself!
It is GOD who opens your understanding (Luke 24:45) to that which is
needed in life.
Verse 8. "But at last Daniel came before me (his name is Belteshazzar,
according to the name of my god; in him is the Spirit of the Holy God),
and I told the dream before him saying:"
Why do we continue to keep our "gods" (like Nebuchadnezzar did), when
the "Spirit of the Holy God" is available to us all? Notice that the
Spirit was "in" Daniel and not merely "upon" him. Some have insisted
that the Spirit only came IN to people in New Testament times. 1 Peter
1:10-11 is clear that the Spirit also was IN God’s prophets of the Old
Testament.
Finally, Nebuchadnezzar is telling DANIEL the dream. This is one of
those dreams that makes you feel like you’ll "explode" unless you tell
somebody. He must have felt GREAT when he told Daniel. God does send
people to those in need. For those of us in Christ, we are finding we
can TRUST God, and cautiously at first, TRUST those who are sent by
Him. Daniel was God’s gift to you and to me, and also to this king.
(We are gifts to one another).
Notice that Nebuchadnezzar continues to be the frame of reference for
this writing – "at last Daniel came before me…" These writings are
likely from notes taken by a secretary in the palace, later directly
incorporated by Daniel into his writings.
Verse 9. "Belteshazzar, chief of the
magicians, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy God is in you, and
no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I
have seen, and its interpretation."
If he knew Daniel was right for the job, why didn’t he call him in
the first place? Why do we wait so long to turn to God? I’ve met too
many people who honor God some of the time but also start every day with
an "astrological forecast" from the newspaper. Why is that? Like
Nebuchadnezzar in verse 8, we often have other "gods" first and turn to
the Living God as a sort of last resort.
He’s where we need to go FIRST and then other sources of information
become irrelevant. If you need an interpretation of the meaning of your
life - Go to God! He created you, He sustains you, He is allowing the
present events of your life and is aiming you toward a goal of HIS
choosing. Ask God.
Verse 10. "These were the visions of my head
while on my bed: I was looking, and behold, a tree in the midst of the
earth, and its height was great."
Aren’t you glad God gave you the ability to dream? What if
everything was truly summed up in (as some philosophers have indicated)
in "cause and effect" and we had not been given an imagination?
Nebuchadnezzar here was like a canvas on which God painted the future,
in explicit and beautiful form.
We are all God’s creation and He will express Himself through us,
whether we choose to acknowledge Him or not. Recently, I had to make a
difficult choice but could not make up my mind. What did God want?
Then He gave precisely the answer that was needed.
Interestingly, I had known what to do all the time but when I thought
about it, did not WANT to do what needed to be done. Nebuchadnezzar was
like that, and we all have that problem. We know we should serve and
follow God but a part of us does not like to cooperate, even when it’s
in our best interest.
Verse 11. "The tree grew and became strong;
its height reached to the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of
all the earth."
We shall see in the interpretation (verses 20-22) that the "tree" in
this analogy is King Nebuchadnezzar himself. We see a similar idea
(that trees in Scripture often represent people) in other places, such
as Ezekiel 31:3, where the country (people) of Assyria was presented as
a "tree." We sang a song, years ago, "all the trees of the field shall
clap their hands" (from such places as Isaiah 55:12). We who love the
Lord shall clap our hands in delight at the Presence of God. Lasting
joy is found in Him.
This "tree" analogy is a good parabolic statement about
Nebuchadnezzar, who was the center of everything in the Babylonian
Empire. All could "see" him, as he was undoubtedly the subject of
everyone’s conversation. As people talk of movie stars today, everyone
talked about him.
Verse 12. "Its leaves were lovely, its fruit
abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found
shade under it, the birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches, and all
flesh was fed from it."
A long time ago, we worked many years for a boss who was truly cruel
to all his subordinates. When I cried out to the Lord for
understanding, it took awhile but I finally saw that the Lord gives
gifts of leadership to certain people, for the benefit of others. Some
can start a successful business, which grows and provides job
opportunities and income for lots of people and their families. One
boss may be harsh; another merely firm. One thanks God; another does
not. The analogy received in prayer was that of an oasis, where many
creatures could come temporarily out of the desert and receive
life-giving sustenance.
So it is with you, if you are a "boss" in charge of others. You
receive a gift and others can come and share in that gift God has
provided to you. Remember that if you are given money, power,
authority, position, prestige, health, or any other benefit, God has
shared something of Himself with you so you might share of yourself (and
Him) with others.
Another item is to never feel contempt for those who are not like you
are. If you have a gift, it is a GIFT - You did not do this for
yourself and it is wrong (dangerous) to look down on those who have not
received your gift.
Verse 13. "I saw in the visions of my head
while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from
heaven."
There are "watchers" who continually look out for you. Have you ever
felt utterly "alone." That’s actually an oxymoron (a statement in
conflict with itself) for we are never alone. If you ever were left
completely to your own devices, you’d be dead in the blink of an eye.
We are sustained by the Son of God ("In Him all things consist" -
Colossians 1:17) – He and His "watchers" are constantly with us.
And if visions are necessary to us in any way, they will be given to
us singly or in abundance to fill that need. God truly cares for you
and is watching out for you (Not merely "watching you" as in the song,
but watching OUT for you) right this moment. We are given that which is
NEEDED in life.
Verse 14. "He cried aloud and said thus:
'Chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its leaves and
scatter its fruit. Let the beasts get out from under it, and the birds
from its branches.'"
Sometimes our plans and dreams are chopped down, right in the prime
of our life. "How could this happen to me?" we cry. We mutter things
like "I intended to devote all this to God, so how could He take it
away?"
When trouble comes to us as it does to all people, and in this
situation, to this King Nebuchadnezzar (he was the tree - verse 22 &
context), we have a choice. We often look at life and think we have
many choices. I will vote for this person or that; marry this person or
that other one; eat this food or not, etc. But of the truly important
choices in life, there are only TWO that are eternal in nature:
We can 1) TRUST in God, deciding that He indeed is
sovereign and has placed His watchers to guard us from all harm (Psalm
34:7). Or, we can 2) curse these circumstances of our
life - actually we are then cursing God, as Job’s wife urged (Job 2:9)
in her bitterness at the lessened circumstances of her life.
There are "little ones" (the "beasts" and "birds" of this verse) who
look to us for sustenance. These may be our spouse, children,
employees, loved ones of all kinds, and friends. The help we provide
may only be emotional support but it is very real to those who receive
it. Such people are those whom God has sent to us. When we fall, those
"little ones" must look to other resources, for our fall(s) can be quite
profound.
Verse 15. "Nevertheless leave the stump and
roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender
grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him
graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth."
God is extremely reluctant that we should be utterly destroyed.
There is such mercy (if we look for it) even in the worst-seeming
disaster. Nebuchadnezzar would lose his throne for many years, and in
those days (hundreds of years before Christ), just a momentary slip from
power would be the end of him. His jealous enemies would be all over
him like jackals on a zebra.
But God "bound" him and his office "with a band of iron and bronze"
that all might be returned to him at the proper time. God may let your
trouble increase for a time, but the purpose is allow a work to occur in
your life that will lead you to heightened faith in Him. His end is
that you or someone around you might FINALLY, utterly trust in God. The
true choices in life (for you) are about Him. What are YOUR goals?
They might be money or power. His final goal is that you trust in Him.
Keep in mind that in all this, He is sovereign and you are not. If you
are afraid to trust Him because people have let you down, think on this
- He is GOD and we are just human beings. We and the people in our
lives are imperfect but He loves you with an everlasting, perfect love
that will SATISFY you - forever.
Verse 16. "Let his heart be changed from that
of a man, let him be given the heart of an animal, and let seven times
pass over him."
Nebuchadnezzar was about to lose EVERYTHING – but only for a time.
You may have a firm hold on reality. Maybe you’re so intellectually
secure that NOTHING could ever bring you down. (Wrong!) Think about
this "fear of the Lord" that is the beginning of
understanding/wisdom/knowledge (Proverbs 1:7). For one thing, it is a
recognition that God is utterly sovereign and has all power. We, on
the other hand (in relation to Him) have no real power - nothing of that
sort at all. The first time you realize you are utterly at the mercy of
God, the tendency is to become afraid.
Why, he can change your circumstances to anything He wants - in an
instant! Notice, however, the other aspect of God, His MERCY –
Nebuchadnezzar would go "nuts" (turn into Howard Hughes) but his
"sentence" was only for seven "times" (7-years). The One who has power
without limit; also LOVES you without limit, and has mercy.
Verse 17. "This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the
sentence by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know
that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He
will, and sets over it the lowest of men."
Notice that it is the "Most High" (God) who rules and is utterly
sovereign over all that is. Also see the effective DELEGATION indicated
here. God’s desire is not only carried out by angelic holy ones, but
also such activities are initiated BY angelic "watchers" as well (and by
men; ordinary men, like Daniel, like YOU). God hears and answers each
one.
And even though Nebuchadnezzar was the "lowest of men" from God’s
perspective, our Lord kept right on reaching out, with mercy and with
love.
Notice this decree was by "Watchers." You may wonder, "What is the
use of MY prayers, when the outcome is already decided by the sovereign
God?" Of great use, since matters may be both initiated and carried
out by beings outside of the Godhead. YOUR PRAYER may lead to the start
of an event that will change history, or be the act that brings someone
to Christ. God listens to "Watchers," God listens to you. Pray: God
listens, God cares; God has the answer for your deepest need.
Verse 18. "This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar,
have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, declare its interpretation, since all
the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the
interpretation; but you are able, for the Spirit of the Holy God is in
you."
Down through the years, I have met people who can tell when the
Spirit of the Holy God is in another person. You may not want to reveal
His Presence in you in some setting or another (for whatever reasons) –
You may want so much to be a part of this world, that you deny for a
time you even belong to Him. (Others know about you, anyway). He who
is in you will CHANGE you by His Presence. You can never go back to
what you were before, and when you think about it, who would WANT to go
away from Him? In Him, you are ABLE, just like Daniel.
Notice in this verse the "Holy God is IN you" (and these words were
not corrected by either Daniel or by God). God’s Holy Spirit was IN
this man.
The discernible change that comes to a person with the Presence of
God is not caused by outward worship or correctness of behavior. HE is
able! HE is able to take an ordinary person just like you, and make you
a person of the caliber of Daniel, or Elijah, or Paul. In such a person
the Holy Spirit of God is just as apparent as the heart that beats
within. You can always tell that someone has a beating heart, and the
Presence of God is just that vital, just that real. You are ALIVE when
you are in Him, and He is alive in you.
There was so much more to Daniel than dream interpretation - this was
a man of God!
Verse 19. "Then Daniel, whose name was
Belteshazzar, was astonished for a time, and his thoughts troubled him.
So the king spoke, and said, 'Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its
interpretation trouble you.' Belteshazzar answered and said, 'My lord,
may the dream concern those who hate you, and its interpretation concern
your enemies!'"
From the king’s perspective, "Daniel" would have been like a
nickname, and his true name would be the more familiar (to him)
Babylonian "Belteshazzar." Much of this chapter is from the king’s
perspective. Probably everything that happened in his presence was
written by scribes, not so different from our Courtrooms where much that
is said is written by stenographers.
This material could have been directly written by Daniel but it is
written from the perspective of the king and is therefore it is likely a
quote from the official records of the royal court of Babylon.
I like Daniel’s reaction to the Holy Spirit’s revelation of the
dream. Not only is Daniel a man of prayer, a man of God, but he is a
man of LOVE. (I say "is" rather than "was" deliberately – he passed out
of this world but not out of existence).
Daniel LOVED this pagan king.
Keep in mind that Nebuchadnezzar was the man who overthrew Daniel’s
country (Judah), ordered the deaths of hundreds of Daniel’s countrymen
(and his parents were likely included), took away Daniel’s masculinity
(see Chapter 1), and literally stripped him of his identity. Yet we see
in this verse that Daniel obviously loved this man very much. In Luke
6:27, 35, and context, Jesus taught us to "love"
our "enemies." The example here is
Daniel. We must learn this kind of love.
Verse 20. "The tree that you saw, which grew
and became strong, whose height reached to the heavens and which could
be seen by all the earth,"
It’s easy to imagine Nebuchadnezzar, at this point, literally right
on the edge of his throne, listening with utter and complete attention
to the words of Daniel, the words of God. The Lord now had this man’s
ATTENTION, just as He intends to get YOUR attention as well.
I’ve never been a person, by the way, who is effective at listening.
(Most of us aren’t). But God, through an incredible variety of life
experiences, DOES communicate to His people, and even to those who are
NOT His people. He speaks in our hearts, our minds, in dreams, through
people, in His Word, in the blessings and troubles of life. He will
communicate with even those who do not "hear," by speaking in ways that
will reach every one.
This "tree" was God’s message to the king. Look at your life. What
about those "random" events that change(d) your life? Is God speaking
to you? Yes, He is. Just like God loved and reached out to this
"lowest of men," He loves you, too. That's what the Gift of Jesus
Christ, God the Son, is all about - God loves you. Say "yes" to Him
today.
Verse 21. "whose leaves were lovely and its
fruit abundant, in which was food for all, under which the beasts of the
field dwelt, and on whose branches the birds of the heaven had their
habitation "
If you are married or have children, co-workers, friends, or even if
passers-by just NOTICE you, then you provide some kind of sustenance to
other people. You may have NO personal relationships, and yet the smile
or frown you wear will affect those you pass on the street. If you stay
in your room and never leave, you still affect people by NOT being with
them. God has made us "trees" that inevitably touch the lives of people
and we have the potential to benefit others.
As to God’s statements that people are like "beasts" or "birds" (or
"grasshoppers" as in Isaiah 40), it is important to recognize that we
are seeing God’s perspective. It is from such glimpses that we can
finally learn true humility, when we see ourselves as we really are.
And yet, He LOVES us.
Verse 22. "it is you, O king, who have grown
and become strong; for your greatness has grown and reaches to the
heavens, and your dominion to the end of the earth."
God pointed an angry finger at David (through Nathan the prophet) and
said (2 Sam. 12:7) "THOU art the man!" He speaks to you, as well. "It
is YOU," He says to your heart. He knows your circumstances, great or
small. He knows your heart, faithful or angry it may be. You may look
at your life and wonder, "What is this all about?"
God knows perfectly what your life is about, just as He knew
Nebuchadnezzar. We, like the king, have been given many benefits. It
should be no surprise that we are RESPONSIBLE (what a concept) for what
is given us (and what we do with it).
I am convinced here that Daniel’s reluctance at these events was
reflective of God’s concern that even the smallest harm might come to
this man - or to you! Those who have had children know that even the
act of taking a splinter out of our child’s finger is done with a heavy
heart. It must be done, but the parent hates any pain that comes to his
child. God loves the Chairman of the Board and the bum on the street,
and He will allow whatever it takes for each of us, until we finally
turn to Him.
Verse 23. "And, inasmuch as the king saw a
watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, 'Chop down the
tree and destroy it, but leave its stump and roots in the earth, bound
with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field; let it
be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him graze with the beasts of the
field, till seven times pass over him;"
One of the functions of angels is to deliver us when we are in
trouble (Psalm 34:7 - the angel of the Lord encamps all around those who
fear Him and delivers them). Nebuchadnezzar was here being delivered –
he was about to have pride and unbelief removed from his life. From our
perspective, it was a high price - he would only live eight or nine more
years, and in seven of them, would not be in his right mind. It’s a
very good trade-off, though. Whatever we have in this world will be
lost, but that which is of God will last forever.
Verse 24. "this is the interpretation, O king,
and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the
king:"
Daniel reluctantly but precisely continued the interpretation.
Many people tend to CHANGE reality into something we think is more
suitable. Our spouse who has passed on, becomes more like "Saint"
what’s-her-name, every day (even though she used to yell at us all the
time). On the other hand, a divorced spouse tends to become worse with
the telling. Most important for our accuracy in reporting, is God’s
work in our lives. Our words are to be TRUTH, at all times, but
especially it is important to speak the truth about our Lord.
Part of the "armor of God" we are to "wear" is TRUTH (Ephesians
6:14). Jesus IS the "truth" (John 14:6).
We are to grow up in Him and we are to become LIKE Him. Let us also be
like Daniel, who gave the TRUTH simply and consistently, as God first
revealed it to him. One of the reasons we are drawn to Billy Graham,
is that he so obviously tells the truth about people, about God. Daniel
continues:
Verse 25. "They shall drive you from men, your
dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you
eat grass like oxen. They shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and
seven times shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules
in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses."
We are so vulnerable. We can be UP on top of the world and then DOWN
in a moment. I cannot stress enough that ALL our authority, including
income, the privileges of marriage, our ability to move our bodies, ALL
is given by God - and can be removed, for His purposes on our behalf, in
a moment.
Notice his authority was removed UNTIL he knew that the Most High
rules. "Knew" here is an expression of FAITH in God, and to lack faith
is much like cancer of the soul. From a Biblical perspective, faith is
health, and unbelief is like a sickness, deep inside. King
Nebuchadnezzar needed to be healed of unbelief, more than he needed to
be king.
Verse 26. "And inasmuch as they gave the
command to leave the stump and roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be
assured to you, after you come to know that Heaven rules."
God is merciful. If your focus is only on some loss and you never
look at your blessings, you will not see the mercy of God. But He IS
merciful. We are to be thankful, "for His mercy endureth FOREVER" (1
Chronicles 16:34). And that same verse says, "for He is GOOD!" We tend
to place our trust in the wrong people, the wrong things. We even place
our trust in OURSELVES (and that is a mistake). The God who takes away,
also GIVES. The One who has let you slide to a dark place, is also the
"light of the world" (John 8:12). He will
lift you out of your dark place and bring you into His light - and so
you shall ever be with the Lord.
Verse 27. "Therefore, O king, let my counsel
be acceptable to you; break off your sins by being righteous, and your
iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps there may be a
lengthening of your prosperity."
Daniel concludes his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream with an
invitation to repentance.
This is reminiscent of the amazing message of Jonah to the people of
Ninevah. When he FINALLY went to them and delivered God’s message,
which essentially was "in 40-days, you will be destroyed." The people
BELIEVED God’s message through Jonah - the Ninevites repented and were
NOT DESTROYED. Nebuchadnezzar could have taken Daniel’s words to
heart, repented, and not a bit of it would have happened to him. Daniel
KNEW God’s mercy. He also knew the stubborn heart of the king, but he
loved him, and extended God’s hand of mercy to this man.
What about YOU? What is God speaking to your heart about YOUR
future? About the future of the person next to you? How stubborn are
you, anyway? God is a God of MERCY, and if you will turn fully to Him,
He will turn to you. You’ll be glad He did.
This is precisely the gift of Jesus Christ. We deserve the worst He
can throw at us, and instead, we are given life and love in Him.
Verse 28. "All this came upon King
Nebuchadnezzar."
The Word of the Lord is true. The Word of the Lord is faithful. Too
often, parents are inconsistent in discipline. So is society. The
person might be disciplined - or they might not. The response of our
children is "let’s try it - we might get away with it!"
Not so with God. He will judge you for your sins. All that is in
His Book will come upon you, unless you repent and turn to Him. Today
is a good day to do just that. Come clean with Him – and He will bless
you.
Verse 29. "At the end of the twelve months he
was walking about the royal palace of Babylon."
It had now been a year since the dream, correctly interpreted through
Daniel to mean that this king would, at this time, lose his mind.
After a year, by the way, you tend to forget things. In a sermon,
you might hear about some judgment that will come, if you do (or don’t
do) this or that. Time passes and nothing apparently happens, so you
get confident and start doing the very thing you were told is wrong to
do.
After 12-months, it would have seemed like another ordinary day in
the life of King Nebbie. His confidence would have grown after the
initial scare. "I guess Belteshazzar (Daniel) was wrong after all," he
might have thought, and he would have begun making plans to invade some
other place.
Is today an ordinary day for you? It is on just such a day that the
Lord will return. We SHALL be judged. There is a PRICE for our sins,
an eternal price that is beyond our ability to pay. Jesus Christ paid
that price and that is what the cross is all about. The Holiness of God
is satisfied by the Love of Christ. You may join the Lord in His
wondrous eternity or not, but He will return, on an ordinary day, just
like today.
Verse 30. "The king spoke, saying, ‘Is not
this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty
power and for the honor of my majesty.’"
"I did this" or "I did that." That is the voice and words of PRIDE.
We’ve heard the phrase "Pride comes before a fall" which is a concept
from Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit
before a fall." The message? Your pride will literally destroy you.
That’s what Daniel would later tell Belshazzar (Daniel 5:20) - It was
PRIDE that took Nebuchadnezzar’s throne from him.
Like many other nations before us, America is a proud nation. We
trust in the perceived benefits of the demise of the USSR. We look with
pride at our nuclear arms and think we are unlikely to fall. We attempt
to befriend China and feel THAT "friendship" will help us. Yet the
warning is there for us all, in Jeremiah 49:16 (about pride) "though you
make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there,
says the Lord."
Pride is a killer. Worse than physical death, the person who is
terminally "puffed up with pride…will fall into the same condemnation as
the devil" (1 Timothy 3:6). Our country (and its benefits) is the gift
of God. Our Lord is not pleased when we take His gifts and say about
them: "I did it," for we did not do anything of the kind, and to
pretend we did is to court disaster for us all.
Verse 31. "While the word was still in the
king’s mouth, a voice fell from heaven: ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it
is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you!’"
Sometimes we are falsely encouraged when we do not see immediate
punishment for our actions (the Lord let Nebuchadnezzar go on for quite
a long time). We can go on for years or a lifetime and not see the
judgment of God. Yet God’s judgment is set in motion the instant we
sin. In human criminal courts, there is often a different point in time
from a judgment of "guilty as charged" to the carrying out of the
sentence. "Guilty" the judge says today, and it might be weeks or even
years before we go "up the river" or they "turn on the juice."
The actual judgment upon this man had been set in motion some time
before. However, it was NOW, in a moment when his pride had consumed
him totally, that his power was stripped from him.
Verse 32. "And they shall drive you from men,
and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall
make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until
you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to
whomever He chooses."
In reality, from the human perspective, Nebuchadnezzar now went
"nuts." We would have said, a few years ago, he had "lost his mind."
Personally, I think he entered a delusional state in which he could no
longer distinguish fantasy from reality. You can draw a conclusion from
this man’s experience, which is a danger and warning sign to us all:
Much like A = B, Pride = Paranoia. Like a sure and tried mathematical
formula, the one is from the other.
Pride is a false conclusion about reality in which the person decides
THEY are the creator of that which GOD has actually created in their
lives. If we believe we are the creator; if we think we created our
physical appearance or ability in some area (when in fact we did not),
then we are experiencing "delusions of grandeur," a key manifestation of
paranoia.
Such people lose their friends, marriages, jobs, and end up under
heavy medication. It’s time to turn from our delusions, our
pretensions, and repent before a Holy God - before it’s too late.
Notice He gives to "whomever He chooses." You may be angry about
something you lack – remember God’s sovereignty is always directed to
our good and His glory.
Verse 33. "That very hour the word was
fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar; he was driven from men and ate
grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair
had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws."
You know who this sounds like? - Howard Hughes! Here was a man who
could buy and sell (or throw away) people like you and me. Yet his
hair, his nails, and his mind ended up like Nebuchadnezzar’s. We were
all shocked at the condition of Mr. Hughes, much like contemporaries
would have been surprised at the fall of King Nebbie. The greater the
man, the greater the fall.
God loves you so much that if your pride interferes with your love of
Him, He will allow you to lose health, income, position, credit standing
(whatever it takes), until you are yielded to Him. He also loves us
enough to BLESS us in those areas, if we can handle it.
Did Howard Hughes turn to the Lord? Probably not, for he was a
"loonie" right up until the end. Did Nebbie? Oh, yes, as we shall see
in the next verse.
Verse 34. "And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my
eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the
Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His
dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation
to generation."
"Lifted (my) eyes to heaven" is precisely what Jesus did in prayer
(John 17:1). We tend to fall into formalism, and conclude we have to
close our eyes or hold our arms in a certain manner (or we are not
"holy" enough). Not so – The Lord looks on the heart, not on outward
appearance. Decorum? – Good! A heart of love? – Much better.
God gives us UNDERSTANDING, doesn’t He? We are not to look to our
own understanding, as this king had done, but instead learn what it
means to trust in God (Proverbs 3:5). If King Nebuchadnezzar could
understand, so can we.
Now, when we HAVE that understanding, evidence of it will be that we
will bless the Most High; that we praise and honor Him who lives
forever; and recognize that His dominion – LASTS. In a world that is
winding down, it is good to note that His kingdom lasts forever. Do you
see this? - Praise to God is the reasonable act of a rational man. Let
your unbelief go to the hell it came from – You’ll be like one of those
"trees" that claps its hands with joy, in the presence of God.
Verse 35. "All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing;
He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him,
'What have You done?'"
You probably are well aware of your strengths and also many of your
weaknesses. But do you know that in relation to God, all your
"strengths" are – NOTHING! Now, initially, that is frightening. To be
completely helpless is something nobody wants, and yet, worse than
helplessness is denial of reality. God is real, no matter HOW we think
of Him.
Here’s the good news: We are not truly helpless (as we think of it).
This "weakness" of ours is fully explored in 1 Corinthians chapter 1,
where Paul essentially points out that it is better to be "weak" than to
be "strong." He concludes the immediate context in 1 Cor. 2, where we
find that, in the absence of HUMAN wisdom and strength (when we give up
doing it alone), God gives us HIS strength – and that is good news.
Verse 36. "At the same time my reason returned
to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned
to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me, I was restored to my
kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me."
You possibly think you’re a "reasonable" person. One who LISTENS to
others and makes rational judgments. To the extent we TRUST in God and
receive His Son, we are on the road to recovering our reason. (Without
Him, we are actually not rational beings).
When we come to reality and trust in Christ, sometimes like the king
we may get a good job, or find the person of our dreams, or are cured
from the Mongolian crud – or something! Sometimes not. The point here
is that God placed this man back on the track for which he was created.
When you trust in Him who made you, He will do the same for you. You
MIGHT get a job, or you might LOSE one, but the purpose of your life
will be realized and that is better than a job. Psalm 19:10 and context
is pertinent – That which is of the Lord is better than gold.
Verse 37. "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and
extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and
His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to abase."
In our society, we have forgotten that corrective discipline is
supposed to be a form of love. As human parents, our discipline should
always be done with love in mind. When our child is going in the wrong
direction, they need to be brought back to the right path.
Unfortunately, we have often corrected them out of frustration rather
than love, because we are imperfect. God IS perfect, and we are His
children, fearfully and wonderfully made. His correction, like the
Person of God Himself, is utterly appropriate to our needs.
He loves us totally, without limit, and fortunately, He does not let
our frustrating natures interfere with His work in our lives. That we
are born into a certain time, a specific place, with just those parents
(or lack of them for some), a propensity toward a certain disease (or
not), a gifted intellect (or gifts in other areas - we are all God’s
gifts to the world), etc. All that we are is God’s perfect setting for
us. And His purpose in these corrective circumstances? – To lead us
back to Him. When we deviate, He will do what it takes to get us back.
Nebuchadnezzar’s pride got him off track. God his Father elected him
to the office of Nebuchadnezzar the KING; and He loved Nebuchadnezzar
the MAN. Just like the king, YOU have a purpose, a unique USE in life.
Just like the king, He LOVES you, as the perfect creation of God. Had
you been the only person who ever lived, Jesus Christ would have died
for you. You are so special that God will take away ANY barriers
between you and Him, to correct you until you "catch" His love in
Christ, and fall in love with Him.
Praise is an expression of love, and you will never be fully alive
until you can say, like Nebuchadnezzar, "I praise and extol and honor
the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways
justice." And understand that "those who walk in pride He is able to
abase."
Ron Beckham, Pastor
Friday Study Ministries
www.fridaystudy.org
ron@fridaystudy.org
