Sermon - Daniel 4:1-18 - Littleby Baptist Church - April 18, 2020

Today we are getting back into the Book of Daniel and picking up where we left off a few weeks ago and we will be starting in chapter 4. So far, we have seen week by week how God grew the faith of Daniel and his friends through the different trials they were faced with. They had to trust in their God when first taken into captivity, they choose to put their faith in God when they decided they would not defile themselves with the king’s wine and food. We saw how Daniel persevered when he hit a roadblock and was eventually rewarded for his faithfulness.

Through the first chapter we saw that we need to make our Lord THE Priority in our lives and to put our trust in Him. He is the author and perfecter of our faith, and as we put our faith in Him, He will be faithful to grow our faith for the trials that are in our future.  

When we got to the second chapter, we saw that God was at work in Daniel and the guys lives. He had orchestrated them being in the service of the king so that they would be available when needed. God then gave Daniel the king’s dream and its interpretation. As a result, the king elevated Daniel and the other guys to positions of leadership and influence within Babylon. We will never know the full effect of them being in those positions and Daniel serving multiple kings over roughly 70 years. The ripple effects of those events cannot be measured, but it was all part of God being at work.

Then we get to one of the most stressful events in the lives of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Daniel is no where to be found, but these guys were threatened with being tossed into the blazing furnace. The king was demanding that they commit idolatry or die. They stood on the truth found in God’s commands given to His people through Moses. God blessed their faithfulness and delivered them from a horrific death and used it as one more opportunity to point the pagan world to Him. We need to remember that no matter what this life brings us, we must cling to the Word of God and to trust that our Lord and Savior will deliver us from our sin and the evil in this world whether it be on this side of eternity or the other. 

If I had to sum up the first three chapters into a couple of statements they would be.

Choose to follow Jesus.

Watch for how God is working in us and around us.

Cling to the Word of God and fully trust in it.

In one way or another God will deliver us.

Chapter 3 was the last we will see of Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Not everyone is gone though as King Nebuchadnezzar is still with us for the 4^th chapter. It is believed that the events we will look at over the next couple of weeks started around Nebuchadnezzar’s 35^th year as king which could be as much as 25-30 years after the blazing furnace. This supports the timing of the golden statue being built early in his reign and after the revolt that happened in the king’s tenth year.

Daniel 4:1-3

“4 King Nebuchadnezzar, To those of every people, nation, and language, who live on the whole earth: May your prosperity increase. ² I am pleased to tell you about the miracles and wonders the Most High God has done for me. ³ How great are his miracles, and how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.”

Chapter 4 is a retelling of events, similar to if you have watched a TV show where they show a glimpse of how the day ended but then it walks you through the events of the last 12 hours that got them to where they are now. 

After living through the events this pagan king is once again recognizing that the Most High God has been working in him. The king is making a royal proclamation to all the residents of entire kingdom that God’s miracles are great, and His wonders are mighty. That the Lord’s kingdom is eternal, and His dominion lasts forever.

While we can never know the king’s heart, it does sound like his eyes may have finally been opened.

Daniel 4:4-7

“⁴ I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace. ⁵ I had a dream, and it frightened me; while in my bed, the images and visions in my mind alarmed me. ⁶ So I issued a decree to bring all the wise men of Babylon to me in order that they might make the dream’s interpretation known to me. ⁷ When the magicians, mediums, Chaldeans, and diviners came in, I told them the dream, but they could not make its interpretation known to me.”

Nebuchadnezzar had another dream that scared him, but this time he had all the wise men of Babylon brought to him and he shared the dream with them. Scripture shows us that while all of these guys heard the dream, that their earthly knowledge and wisdom was not enough for them to understand what it meant.

As the king is re-telling the events here, he is showing that while he had seen miracles and heard the truth from the one and only God through Daniel that he keeps going about things the same old way. He is essentially telling us that even after witnessing the guys being protected in the blazing furnace that he still did not get it.

We are seeing once again that as humans we cannot do it on our own. We tend to try to figure things out on our own. If we wanted to know the definition of a word, we go to the keeper of all knowledge Google, open a dictionary, or someone other man-made source. We try to take care of it our self. When we are faced with a big decision, we think about it, make pro/con lists, calculate a return on investment, or some other method to determine if it is the correct thing or not. While these things are not bad tools to help us work through our thoughts on something, they are dependent on our own wisdom, knowledge, and feelings.

We need to remember that God’s wisdom is greater than anything we could ever have and while our knowledge is limited, His has no limits. It is easy to depend on our own abilities and muscle our way through it, but the best path forward in anything we are facing is to depend on God for all things. Wisdom, knowledge, strength, courage, faith, provision, and more. While we may be able to do a lot within our control, we need to depend on God for all things.

Daniel 4:8-9

“⁸ Finally Daniel, named Belteshazzar after the name of my god—and a spirit of the holy gods is in him—came before me. I told him the dream: ⁹ “Belteshazzar, head of the magicians, because I know that you have the spirit of the holy gods and that no mystery puzzles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I saw, and its interpretation.”

After everyone else could not answer the king, Daniel was summoned. It is easy to read these verses and question if the king is thinking that Daniel is filled with a spirit from the holy gods, plural, as in the pagan gods. What we need to remember when looking at this is the king has been raised a pagan and while he might be waking up to who the One and Only Real God is, he still frames things with what he knows.

Look past the phrasing the king uses and you will see that the king is truly recognizing that Daniel is filled with the Spirit of the One True God. The One True God who knows the answers to all mysteries and has been able to reveal the dream and its interpretation to the king.

The king has recognized that God is at work in Daniel. Do you ever have people come up to you and ask you to pray for someone or something because they know you are a Christian, even if they are not? How about conversations about if things going on in the world are found in the Bible? People are watching and will notice that God is at work in You and it has more of an impact on them than we may realize. It is one of the ways the Holy Spirit works to water that seed and open their hearts.

Daniel 4:10-12

“¹⁰ In the visions of my mind as I was lying in bed, I saw this: There was a tree in the middle of the earth, and it was very tall. ¹¹ The tree grew large and strong; its top reached to the sky, and it was visible to the ends of the earth. ¹² Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit was abundant, and on it was food for all. Wild animals found shelter under it, the birds of the sky lived in its branches, and every creature was fed from it.”

Not going to really get into the interpretation of the dream this week as we will get into that more as Daniel helps us with it next week, but so far so good. A great tree at the center of the earth providing food and shelter for every creature. The greatest king of his day probably felt pretty good about the dream so far.  He probably believed that either he or his kingdom was this great tree providing for many.

Daniel 4:13

“¹³ “As I was lying in my bed, I also saw in the visions of my mind a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven.”

Again, we see the king has not picked up the lingo yet when describing God and how He is working. What he calls a watcher is an angel of the Lord coming down from heaven to give a message.

Daniel 4:14-16

“¹⁴ He called out loudly: Cut down the tree and chop off its branches; strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it, and the birds from its branches. ¹⁵ But leave the stump with its roots in the ground and with a band of iron and bronze around it in the tender grass of the field. Let him be drenched with dew from the sky and share the plants of the earth with the animals. ¹⁶ Let his mind be changed from that of a human, and let him be given the mind of an animal for seven periods of time.”

The dream has turned from something good to something that the king may really not want to hear. He obviously does not know what it means, but he probably knows enough to realize it is not good. With the angel saying him and his, it is obvious that the dream is not about a kingdom, but about a person.

Daniel 4:17

“¹⁷ This word is by decree of the watchers, and the decision is by command from the holy ones. This is so that the living will know that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms. He gives them to anyone he wants and sets the lowliest of people over them.”

The king understands that the angel was the messenger of the Most High God, the God of Daniel, who is the ruler over all things. He is recognizing that the One True God decides who leads the kingdoms of man. It has nothing to do with someone being born of noble birth or their abilities, but it is truly God’s will that places someone on the throne. Another sign that the king seems to be getting it.

Daniel 4:18

“¹⁸ This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, had. Now, Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because none of the wise men of my kingdom can make the interpretation known to me. But you can, because you have a spirit of the holy gods.””

The king has explained his dream, confessed that none of the pagan wise men could help him, and then turned to the one person he knew God had worked through in the past. The king was at a complete loss and probably expected this was bad news for him, so he asked Daniel for help knowing that he would tell him the truth.

Daniel has been given an opportunity to witness to the king, all who have heard the kings re-telling of these events, and to everyone who has ever read these words.

If you recall, I said that the first three chapters could be summed up as:

Choose to follow Jesus.

Watch for how God is working in us and around us.

Cling to the Word of God and fully trust in it.

In one way or another God will deliver us.

As people see you living your life with God, as they see God at work in you, doors will be opened for you to be a witness. The Holy Spirit works in us and prepares us for times such as these. Through the trials we endure we are given a testimony to share. Through the blessings we receive we have praises to celebrate.

As followers of Jesus we need to be prepared to share our faith with those who do not believe. We never know when the opportunity will present itself, we never know if will be with someone we know or a complete stranger, but we need to be prepared. There is no speech to memorize, no bits and pieces of Scripture that are better than others, it is all about developing a deeper relationship with God and letting the Holy Spirit work in you and ultimately through you.

Prayer and spending time in God’s Word are the keys. There is no get spiritual quick program, it is simply about spending time with God. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world today, but spending time with God in prayer and in His Word are investments that will guarantee a return. You invest your heart and your time, and the Lord gives you the amazing gift of an eternity with Him.

Blessings,

Robert