Humility in Exile (Daniel 4)

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As we continue in our series this morning, Daniel chapter four, as you’re turning there, some of you of a certain age may remember one of the highlights of Super Bowl 27 Dallas Cowboys were kind of smoking the competition, and Leon lett defense for the Cowboys intercepted or picked up the fumble, right? And was running back, big guy, right? So kind of run back, like, 20 yard line, he’s kind of running back. He’s pretty sure he’s about to score a touchdown, which is exciting stuff if you’re a big guy on defense in a Super Bowl. And he starts hot, dogging it, so he’s got the football out in front of him, and he’s doing, like, the high step thing and whatnot. What he didn’t realize is that Don Beebe, who was about 100 pounds lighter and six times faster than Leon let had sprinted across the field and stripped, sacked him like strip, fumbled him right at the goal line. No touchdown, all that kind of stuff. So didn’t matter. Cowboys won anyway, because they’re playing the bills, and it’s an immutable law of physics that the bills cannot win a Super Bowl. So you know, that’s how that story turned out, but it’s a beautiful illustration of what is so true in our lives, which is that we all get an arrogance problem when things are going well. Soon as we think things are working out, is when we start hot, dogging it like companies stop innovating when they get to be number one because they think we’re already here. We’re just going to hold on to it. Or how about this one? Men quite famously stop pursuing their wives once she’s got a ring on, right? Like, so we go from i love you so much, I’ll do anything for you to, Hey, babe, can you get me a beer? I don’t want to get off the couch and miss the game, you know, like, really quickly there. Why? Because things are going good. She already said, Yes, I’m done. I don’t need to work anymore. Like, that’s what happens. So when things are going well, worldly speaking, we are often at our worst, spiritually speaking, because that’s when we’re content with the status quo and apathy sets in, and that’s exactly what happens with our good friend Nebuchadnezzar that we’ve been looking at the last couple of weeks. He’s going to learn a lesson about humility that we all need to learn, too. And so we’re going to see this kind of unfold in three scenes. I’m gonna move somewhat quickly through them and kind of draw the application out at the end from all of them, but it begins, as so much of Daniel does, with a dream. So let’s look at Scene one, the dream Daniel. Chapter four, verses one to 18, King Nebuchadnezzar, to the nations and peoples of every language who live in all the earth. May you prosper greatly. It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the most high God has performed for me, how great are His signs, how mighty His wonders. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom. His dominion endures from generation to generation. I Nebuchadnezzar was at home in my palace, contented and prosperous. I had a dream that made me afraid as I was lying in bed, the images and visions that passed through my mind terrified me, so I commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be brought before me to interpret the dream for me. When the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners came, I told them the dream they could not interpret it for me. Finally, Daniel came into my presence, and I told him the dream. He is called belteshazzar, after the name of my God and the Spirit of the holy gods is in him, I said, belteshazzar, chief of magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no mystery is too difficult for you. Here is my dream. Interpret it for me. These are the visions I saw while lying in my bed. I looked, and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. Tree grew large and strong, and its top touched the sky. It was visible to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful. Its fruit abundant. And on it was food for all under it, the wild animals found shelter. The birds lived in its branches. From it, every creature was fed. And the visions I saw while lying in bed, I looked and there before me was a holy one, a messenger coming down from heaven. He called in a loud voice, cut down the tree and trim off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But let the stump and its roots bound with iron and bronze remain in the ground, in the grass of the field. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven and let him live with the animals among the plants of the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a man, and let him be given the mind of an animal till seven times pass by for him, the decision is announced by messengers. The holy ones declare the verdict so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of people. This is the dream that I King Nebuchadnezzar had. Now belteshazzar Tell me what it means for none of the wise men in My Kingdom can interpret it for me, but you can, because the Spirit the holy gods is in you. All right. Where are we in? Daniel, we know that God’s been working on Nebuchadnezzar for a little while. We saw that, you know, chapter three. Saw that. Chapter Two. As well, like the the Hound of Heaven is hot on his heels, but he has not gotten a hold of Nebuchadnezzar yet. We’d almost describe where Nebuchadnezzar is at the moment this dream happens by saying that he has acknowledged that God rules but has not gotten to the point where he realizes that God rules him specifically. And so the narrative frame, you can tell he’s gotten there. We’ll see how that happens, but at the moment of the dream, that’s where he is. And so we get the story of how he learned that last part and the signs and wonders that God used to bring him there. Now signs and wonders is an important phrase in Scripture. It’s used of God’s, you know, miracles at specific moments in salvation history, most famously at the Exodus, actually, which is interesting, because what’s happening there you have a pagan king who is oppressing God’s people, who receives these signs and wonders exactly what we have here with Nebuchadnezzar. The difference there, of course, is Pharaoh hardened his heart. But what about Nebuchadnezzar? Will he soften his so what is the sign and wonder he has another troubling dream. He’d had one before, but it made sense back then, because he was new to the throne, lots of intrigue and stuff. Was he going to be able to to establish His dynasty or not. So it made sense, when you’re stressed, you have stressful dreams. That’s what happened then, but now his throne is secure, so it’s almost more troubling to him that he has a troubling dream at this moment. Plus, it’s not as much about the future, what’s going to happen, like that dream of the statue we saw, but it’s about changing one’s ways. And so there’s this sense you can kind of tell, as he’s telling he’s resistant to the dream’s teaching. We actually see that too in that he calls for his Babylonian advisors. Yet again, you’d think he’d have learned by now, like one group can’t explain this, and one group can, so why not go with them first? And we don’t really know the answer. Perhaps Daniel’s distant at the time. He’s quite high up in Nebuchadnezzar kingdom. Maybe he’s in another city administering something, maybe. But I think what’s more likely here, the reason why he doesn’t call Daniel first, is because he is ashamed. He knows that he has abandoned his conscience. God has kept teaching him these lessons through Daniel, and so he should be following God by now, and he knows it, and so he didn’t want to call Daniel and have to learn this lesson all over again. It reminds me a little bit of what John Calvin has to say. He says, When God wishes to lead us to repentance, he is compelled to repeat his blows continually, either because we are not moved when he chastises us, or we see him roused for the time and then return again to our former torper. And that’s exactly what we have here in Nebuchadnezzar. He is roused for a time. Chapter Two, rouse for a time. Chapter Three, and years go by, and he returns to his former spiritual state, and we see his half heartedness in verse eight, when he calls Daniel, and he’s like, Well, actually, I was still calling him belteshazzar At this point, right? Like, I don’t refer to him as Daniel, because that makes it sound like maybe his god is real. I refer to him by the name of my gods still. So he knows that Daniel and his God are different, but he’s still clinging to his false religion. That’s where he is when he shares his dream. And the dream is of a common ancient, Near Eastern image, that of the king as a tree. You can see this in Ezekiel, for example. You can see this throughout Assyrian iconography, like Assyrian coins, have a tree and then above it the disk of the god Ashur. And sometimes, instead of the tree, they have a picture of the king. So the king is the tree. The tree is the king. That’s it. Why a tree? Because the tree symbolizes it’s this picture of the life giving purpose of a king, exactly what you see in verse 12. It provides shade and shelter. It provides fruit for the, you know, the animal, so that everyone is living underneath the outstretched arms of this great being. The question is, has Nebuchadnezzar been doing this? Has he been providing life for his people, and he must not be, because God sends these messengers, watchers, more literally. And I think watchers is an important word, because it’s kind of like God’s surveillance team. Okay, so they’re keeping eyes on what’s going on. And, you know, the alarm goes off here, like something’s happening. And so they come and execute God’s judgment. The tree is cut down, and
then in this weird part, the only thing that remains, the stump is like bound with bronze and iron, as we’ll see in the next sections. The only part of the dream, Daniel doesn’t explain. So there are a lot of questions about what exactly this means. Is this like a bronze fetter that sim. The bondage of insanity into which Nebuchadnezzar is about to fall. Maybe it might also be, though, that this ring protects the stump, the stump from which shoots will spring. Ultimately, God will preserve Nebuchadnezzar kingdom. And if it is that latter one, it shows what is true, regardless that that God will show him grace. God’s purpose here is not punishment. Here, sometimes it is. We’ll actually see that in the next chapter, purpose here is not punishment, but transformation. He wants Nebuchadnezzar to change, and so Nebuchadnezzar needs to learn that God rules him. He needs to know well exactly what verse 17 says the Most High is sovereign, sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of people. He needs to learn, in other words, that God is God and He is not. But how is he going to learn that lesson? And just how drastic a lesson is it going to take for Nebuchadnezzar actually, to learn it? That’s where we get in the next section. Scene two, the interpretation. Let me read verses 19 to 27 then Daniel, also called belteshazzar, was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him. So the king said, belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its meaning alarm you. Balteshazzar answered, My Lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries. The tree you saw which grew large and strong with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole Earth, with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the wild animals and having nesting places and its branches for the birds. Your Majesty, you are that tree. You have become great and strong. Your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky and your Dominion extends to distant parts of the earth. Your Majesty. Saw a holy one, a messenger coming down from heaven and saying, cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump bound with iron and bronze in the grass of the field while its roots remain in the ground. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven. Let him live with wild animals until seven times pass by for him. This is the interpretation in Your Majesty, and this is the issue. This is the decree the Most High has issued against my lord the king. You will be driven away from people and will live with wild animals. You will eat grass like the ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes. The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that heaven rules, therefore Your Majesty be pleased to accept my advice. Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed, it may be that then your prosperity will continue. This is a remarkable opening to this scene, because Daniel is perplexed and terrified when he hears it. Why he is genuinely concerned for Nebuchadnezzar. He says, You know, I wish this dream were about your enemies, your adversaries. What he’s saying there is, I’m not one of your enemies. I’m not your adversary. And all that, despite the fact that Nebuchadnezzar is the one who sacked Jerusalem, burned the temple to the ground. I mean, this is his captor that he’s speaking to here, and yet the Prophet, much like the God who sent him, is more concerned with love than vindictiveness. What a lesson for us, by the way, I know it’s a lesson that some of us in this room even need to learn. Like Daniel could have given up a Nebuchadnezzar after chapters two and three, like I’m done, wash my hands of you, like we tried, okay, I explained this to you already. You haven’t learned your lesson. Don’t trouble me with your troubles anymore. I’m done. And the lesson for us is don’t check out. Don’t check out on the family member that’s driving you nuts, the friend, the colleague, whoever it is that’s just drama upon drama, and you’ve given up on them. A lot of us preach grace, but live karma. So we talk about the fact that God doesn’t give us what we deserve in Christ, thank God. But then we look at other people, and we say, she got what she deserved, what goes around, comes around. So when people look at us, do they see the gospel of Christ, Jesus, or the world’s most popular false religion, karma? You and here’s the thing, God keeps coming after us. God doesn’t check out. He doesn’t give up, as what we see here with Nebuchadnezzar. He never washes his hands of us when we’re faithless. So the lesson is, be like him and preach the message. Message that we know is true in our lives. That’s what Daniel does. And so he reluctantly interprets this dream for him, and he tells Nebuchadnezzar, well, because you have less spiritual understanding than the beasts of the field, you’re going to have to become like one for a little while. I say less spiritual understanding because the beasts of field know who their creator is. And Nebuchadnezzar forgot, so he’s got to go back to like, you know, remedial school, basically learn all over again. I am a creature dependent on the Most High God. Now, how long is it going to take? Seven times? That’s how long. And it says seven times. It doesn’t say seven years. And that is important, as we’ll see in a moment. It is an indeterminate length of time. And seven is interesting, of course, because seven is the number for perfection completion. So basically, what God’s saying is exactly the amount of time that is required. That’s how long this will happen. As much as is needed for you to learn the lesson, you need to learn that the Most High is sovereign over all nations like Nebuchadnezzar, is not what he is. Because of Nebuchadnezzar, it’s not his ability as a conqueror or as an administrator that has led to him having this, this enormous Kingdom. It is a gift of God. It is not karma. In other words, he didn’t earn it. He doesn’t deserve it. It is a gift. And if it’s a gift, that means that he is a steward of that gift, the kingdom that God has given him. And if you’re a steward, well that would change what sort of King you would be. You would be, for example, kind to the oppressed and afflicted underneath you, which is likely why the messenger judges him here, reminded of of Solomon’s prayer, his only contribution of the Psalms comes in Psalm 72 and he’s praying for the heart of the king. And he prays this psalm, 72 two and four. May He the king, judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. May he defend the afflicted among the people and Save the Children of the needy. So that’s Solomon’s prayer as he’s starting out as king, that he would be a king based on God’s expectations for that role. But Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t have this in his mind, and it is a good reminder for us, because it reminds us that pride, which is what you think about yourself, like I am awesome, pride leads to disdain for others, like I am awesome, very quickly becomes I’m awesomer than all you. And so I can look down my nose at people. I can I can treat people accordingly, as you know, things to be used for my glorification, as opposed to people to be loved and served. William Temple captures this in a famous quote where he gets at the essence of sin. He says, it’s this the essence of sin is I make myself the center of the universe. And you look at how that’s in contrast to what God tells us to do. God says all you need to know about how you need to live your life. I can come up in two commands which have the same word in them. By the way, Love the Lord to God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you do those two things, you will have kept the whole law. But the essence of sin is I’m the center of the universe, which means I’m not going to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, because I’m loving myself with and strength, because I’m loving myself with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. And I’m certainly not going to love my neighbor as myself, because I need to use my neighbor to build myself up. So what does Daniel do when he sees this Nebuchadnezzar, he offers a bold call to repentance, and again, don’t lose what this is. This is a slave speaking to his captor. He’s a prisoner of war, right? Speaking to his captor, to his slave owner, and
to his king. You don’t rebuke kings. It’s a bad idea, and yet, that’s exactly what he does here. May we be so bold, by the way, like this is a vision of politics in exile, because for a long time in Christendom in the West here, we kind of got this idea that Christianity should be at the center of power, and Christianity is no longer at the center of power, and we’re grieving this loss still. And so what are we trying to do? We’re trying to pull together this moral majority again so that we’re back in power. But the problem with that is there aren’t enough of us to do that, so we inevitably start making compromises. And I’ll say it like this. I’m about to be bold like Daniel for a moment. You can stone me later. That’s cool. Okay, if you’ve cozied up to either one of the major parties, you have compromised on biblical values at this point, because we’re not supposed to be in the center of this. We’re supposed to be like Daniel, not a moral majority, but a prophetic minority on the side, calling our leaders to repent of their sins. That’s what politics in exile looks like. I mean, this is what Daniel says, break off your sinning. Why, by the way, because God sent this dream to warn you. That’s why this dream is the warning. So what do you do with a warning? Respond, turn around, right, go the other way. Reminded of Proverbs, 1710, verse that my daughters and I studied this week, even in our family, worship time. Proverbs, 1710, says, a rebuke impresses a discerning person more than 100 lashes of fool. Well, Daniel’s just offered the rebuke. How wise is Nebuchadnezzar? Will the rebuke work? Or is it going to take the 100 lashes? Scene three is the fulfillment. So that tells you which way this is going to go. Let me read it for us. Okay? Verses 20, verses 28 to 37 all this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar 12 months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven. This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar, your royal authority has been taken from you. You’ll be driven away from people, and you will live with wild animals. You will eat grass like the ox. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes. Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of the eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. At the end of that time, I Nebuchadnezzar raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth, no one can hold back his hand or say to him, What have you done? At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom, my advisors and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right, and all His ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble. So all comes to pass. The context is important. Here he’s up on the walls of the palace, which he has repaired. By the way, his dad left him a palace in a bad state of disrepair, so he’s repaired it made it even more glorious. He’s up there on the palace walls. He’s looking over the city that he has, in many ways, built all these impressive architectural projects that he has overseen. It’s possible we got the Hanging Gardens of Babylon right there. More likely the Hanging Gardens were actually in Nineveh, so probably not. But even still, the walls of the palace were themselves, a wonder of the ancient world. They stretched more than eight kilometers, and they were so wide that Herodotus, the Greek historian of the East, tells us that a chariot pulled by four horses could turn around on the walls like these are magnificent. And so he’s there looking at what he envisioned and what he thinks he built. Except, of course, he didn’t build any of it. Did he? I’m guessing Nebuchadnezzar didn’t have a hammer or a trowel at any point in this process. It was built on the backs of slaves, the afflicted that he should have lifted up as king. So I’m reminded of another proverb, 1618, Pride goes before destruction. A haughty spirit before a fall. Nebuchadnezzar is just a walking billboard for this platform. You’re like Siri. Show me Proverbs, 1618, here it is, right. This is what it looks like, exactly. His primary sin is self. He thinks he did this. Look at what I have built. There’s no sense of Psalm 2127 in his heart, Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. And before we get too judgy, because I know when we read stories like this, we always think I’m like Daniel, and some of my friends are like Nebuchadnezzar, right? No, like, we’re probably more like Nebuchadnezzar than we would care to admit. Like that idea is not just a struggle for pagan kings. We have that same struggle within us. You look at business, for example, what you do for your career, and how many of us look at that and go, I did this. I did this. It was my ingenuity. It was my plan. That’s why we were successful here, or parenting, because the schooling choices we made because of our family, worship times, because of our relationship with our kids, they turned out well, I did this. If they turn out poorly, that circumstance is beyond your control. I understand, but I did this. Or what about this one? How about ministry like? How many of us think. I did this. I read some books on leadership just recently, evangelical books on leisure. I was appalled by some of the statements in these books talking about how visionary leadership is the key to the success of the church. That is nonsense, blasphemous nonsense as well. You know what’s key to the success of the church? The grace of God Almighty. This church has grown a lot since I’ve been here. And by the way, no pride here. Kyle came at the same time. I know which one of us is responsible for that, because you all tell me, like, man, we really love the Family Ministries. I get it. The preaching is too long ago. I know. Okay, it’s fine. How easy would it be to go right because of me, because of me, and so we had this same attitude in us. And so that’s why I said, this is the lesson we all need to learn. What’s interesting too is we learn that a year has passed between the dream and this moment a full year has passed, Nebuchadnezzar had time to repent, don’t we all, by the way, don’t we all? But he doesn’t, right? He’s like a kid failing class where the teacher comes early on, like, hey, that test didn’t go well. Like, you’re gonna need to work a bit harder. I can work with you after school if you need their kid does nothing, you’re not turning their assignments. Okay? You failed the first quarter. You need a C in the second quarter, or that’s it for the semester kind of thing. Nothing changes. And they fail. And you go, what did you think was gonna happen? And that’s where Nebuchadnezzar is, for sure. John Elias, Welsh revivalist of a bygone century. He kind of, he says he saw this illustrated once he was doing his rounds and his parish and stuff, and stuff. And he went to the blacksmith’s house, and he could hear a dog barking incessantly, so he went in. The blacksmith had gotten a new dog. Every time the blacksmith brought the hammer down, which is a loud noise, the dog freaked out, barking, barking, barking, barking. A few weeks later, barked every now and again. A month later, Hammer’s coming down. The dog is asleep by the fire. And how often is that us with God’s repeated hammer blows on our hearts, conscience stricken at first, like Nebuchadnezzar has been in the last couple chapters, but so quickly fall back into spiritual stupor, and that’s exactly what happens in verse 30, when he says the foolish words that he says, Even as he says it, of course, voice from Heaven cries out the bell tolls judgment is not only pronounced, but put into effect. What happens in Nebuchadnezzar here is a real affliction known as lycanthropy, where a person thinks that they are a wild animal. The big question you all have in your minds right now, of course, is, Did this really happen? Look at this. There’s the most powerful man on Earth right now. So surely, if this actually happened, we would have a historical record of it somewhere. We do, by the way, it’s right here in Daniel like this is history, just so we’re clear about that, but somewhere else also. And the answer is, No, we don’t, although there’s some reasons for that. One reason is that the Babylonian Chronicles break off in 594, BC, so we have no record of most of Nebuchadnezzar reign. The other piece of this is, this is not the kind of thing you put in the Chronicle of the King anyway. So seven times, not seven years. So again, this could be a shorter period than a lot of us are imagining. It’s entirely possible, especially because we do know from history that officials have good reasons for covering up the madness of kings.
You think, Well, what you know, all this dynastic intrigue and stuff this Game of Thrones nonsense, like, surely somebody would be like, he’s mad. It’s my turn, okay, but if you’re the chief of staff to the king and not next in line, it actually does you better to make sure that he’s still king. And so they cover this stuff up. That’s what happened with Mad King George the Third that’s what happened even with President Wilson, after he suffered a debilitating stroke. But again, this happened? Yes, absolutely. The bigger question is not if it happened, but why did it happen? I love the way one commentator put it. She said, A man who thinks he is like a God must become a beast to learn that he is only a human being. That’s what’s happening here, and God accomplishes His purpose, because we read in verse 34 Nebuchadnezzar raises his eyes toward heaven, and only then is his sanity restored, which is important. It’s not like this was just a jail sentence and once those seven times were up, boom, he’s restored? No, this wasn’t just completing a sentence. This was actual rehabilitation transformation that’s taking place. So he’s transformed first, and then the sentence is lifted. He is transformed spiritually and seeks God’s help. And it’s all about where he’s looking, isn’t it? Then go back to the to the start of this section. Nation. He’s up on the high palace walls, looking down, literally and figuratively, right? He is looking down his nose at everyone and everything, until God steps in. Once he encounters God, he looks up and look again, literally happen, but deeply symbolic, also exactly what C S Lewis describes in his famous chapter, the great sin in Mere Christianity, all about the sin of pride. He says this, in God, you come up against something which is in every respect, immeasurably superior to yourself, unless you know God is that and therefore know yourself as nothing in comparison, you do not know God. As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people, and as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. Nebuchadnezzar learns that lesson thoroughly. He acknowledges God’s greatness. But what’s interesting here he’s acknowledged God’s greatness before, but this time, it’s his God’s greatness that he acknowledges. It’s not Daniel’s God any longer. Now. I Nebuchadnezzar, verse 37 praise and exalt and glorify the King of Heaven. Right? This is me. At this point, he comes to God like the verse that Robert read for us earlier, like like a little child. In other words, humbly, I don’t deserve to be here. His kids don’t crawl up into dad’s lap because they think they’ve earned that. They just know something’s wrong and dad can fix it and I can’t fix it. That’s how Nebuchadnezzar comes to God. At last, he denies himself and follows him, and it looks like true rebirth at this moment, we’ll actually see that again in just a second, but, but that restoration is such an important reminder, right, that God’s discipline is an act of love, because it is good. It is the very best thing that we acknowledge God whatever it takes in his prayer that he prays this doxology that we get here, Nebuchadnezzar learns four lessons that we need to learn to first of all, he confesses God’s sovereignty. God has an eternal dominion and an eternal kingdom. In contrast to Nebuchadnezzar, whose kingdom, as we saw the gold head of the statue that will fade away at some point. It’s interesting when it says his kingdom endures from generation to generation. That’s kind of a stock phrase in the Old Testament, and it’s covenant language, and that’s where I think that Nebuchadnezzar experienced true rebirth. He’s now placing himself in the covenant people. Here so he confesses God’s sovereignty. Second, he confesses the lowliness of humanity, including himself, all peoples are regarded as nothing next to God. And again, that’s the lesson he had to learn. I am a dependent creature before my Creator. Third, he confesses God’s truthfulness and righteousness in verse 37 everything he does is right. All His ways are just. What he’s saying there is that God’s judgment is correct and his decisions are just. He’s a better King than Nebuchadnezzar. And then fourth, and kind of sums it all up, he realizes that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The end of verse 37 so humble yourself or be humbled, is kind of the lesson he draws. That is the lesson for us today as well. If you want your big idea, your takeaway from this text, it is that right here, humble yourself before God. Dot, dot, dot. The dot, dot. DOT’s there on purpose because you could put a period in it right. Humble yourself before God Almighty. Humble yourself. Yes, I mean that. I also mean though, humble yourself before God does what he needs to do to bring you to your knees before Him, humble yourself before he humbles you, because God will humble those who won’t humble themselves. He will not abide sin forever. That’s what we saw with Nebuchadnezzar. Right? Might be a year, but eventually he will go. Time is up. It is time for judgment. So what we see in Romans chapter two, Paul says, Do you show contempt for the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. Paul’s point here is, you are not getting away with anything you may think you are there’s been no punishment in my life. I must be okay. No, he’s giving you time now to respond, because there will come a moment when there is no more time. This is a lesson for more than just Nebuchadnezzar, of course. In fact, it’s actually a lesson. Daniel’s people, too, who are in exile as this is happening, they’re in the midst of their own seven times. Interestingly, God says they’ll be there for 70 years. Same number seven in there, right? The amount of time it will take them to learn their lesson there in exile. Isaiah is the one of the prophets who announces this. They’re about to go into exile, they’re about to be judged. And he asks God, how long? And this is what it says Isaiah, chapter 611, 13, God answers, until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land. That’s the dream, isn’t it? It’s the same thing the tree just got chopped down, and there’s a stump that remains, will God’s people in exile look to heaven like Nebuchadnezzar? Will their hearts be as soft as that of a pagan king? And what does that look like? We we would have just seen it in Isaiah six, if we read the whole chapter. Remember, Isaiah has the vision of God on His throne. Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty. And what does he say after he has his encounter with God? Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean he sees his sin. He is humbled before God Almighty. And so God has one of his angels grab, you know, a fiery coal from the altar before his heavenly throne. Places it on isaiah’s lips, which probably hurt, and if you’ve ever kissed a glowing coal, not a good idea, right? Pain involved in our humbling. And the angel says your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. That’s the humbling we need. Humble yourself before God, which looks like true repentance, which is expressed in the fruit of a changed life. And that changed life is important because we do need to beware of counterfeit humility. Counterfeit humility stops at Woe is me. Counterfeit humility looks like looks like humility, of course, but it is still self obsessed, like I said earlier. You know our biggest problem that we all love ourselves. And some of you are like, No, I don’t love myself. I hate myself. Like self loathing is my problem. Maybe okay, but self loathing is still self directed. You’re still at the center of your life. We need to move on, right? Because this is a passage that helps us bow our heads before God, but God, Psalm three tells us, is also the lifter of our heads, like we have to move from woe is me to your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. Like, we have to get all the way to the gospel. We can do that because this story that we get here in Daniel four is a parody of the gospel. Because think about what happens we’ve already talked about. We got a man who thinks he’s a God who has to become a beast because he’s like awful level. So we got to drop him down so that he can become a human again. I tell you, that’s a parody of the gospel. Because what happens in the gospel, God, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, Christ, becomes a man,
not to learn humility, but so that we could become fully human again. Philippians chapter two, he made himself nothing. Did not consider equality with God, something to be used to his own advantage. Jesus made himself nothing but taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Did you hear that or have these words become too familiar to you? God humbled himself so it should be so easy for us to humble ourselves before Him when we remember that Jesus humbled Himself for our sakes. But too often, it’s not like Leon lett we get arrogant and careless when things are going well. So how does God humble us? You see, when we’re standing before him, and the problem is not just our sin and shame, although that is a problem, not just our sin and our shame, but our strength and successes too, especially in a town like Elmhurst, right? Because we feel no need of God, just like Nebuchadnezzar didn’t need God at first. So God brings disaster. Character and discontent and even sometimes just discomfort, because these are necessary precursors that make us ready to examine our lives before him, we’re like prodigal children. Like, what does the prodigal do? He doesn’t think about dad when the wine is flowing and the women are swooning. When does he remember his dad? It’s when God sends a famine on the land. The money runs out. He doesn’t have a job. He’s looking at the pig food, thinking, that’s better than what I’ve got right now. That’s when he comes to his senses. By the way, exactly like Nebuchadnezzar, he’s restored to spiritual sanity in that moment. Most of us need moments of redemptive shame. That’s what this story is about. Redemptive shame when we are humbled, even humiliated before God, like the prodigal, like Nebuchadnezzar, it can look different ways. It might look like getting caught in sin. It’s what it is for David, right? It might look like disaster coming to your life so that you realize beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have a lot less control of your life than you thought you did, like an illness like Hezekiah, or demon possession, like the demon possessed man, pretty obvious one. It might mean not just your sin, but the fact that you have been judged and excluded because of your sin, like the Samaritan woman. Or it might just be that you see God in all His glory like Isaiah, like Paul on the road to Damascus. But this is how God gets a hold of us, and it is grace when he does and judgment if he does not, which we’ll see next week, as I mentioned. But when those times of redemptive shame, like you got two options, you can shake your fist and rail against God, or you can kneel before God and recognize it for what it is a severe mercy, severe, yes, it’s hard, but it is mercy still, because it is God coming to get you. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So humble yourself before God in those moments of redemptive shame, even now, maybe this is the first time, and you’re sitting here, you’re like, it’s not the first time I’m in church, so clearly I’ve got some thought of God, okay, but maybe you’re a little bit like Nebuchadnezzar, like you’ve got that sense of, like, Yes, God exists. God rules. He just doesn’t rule you yet. Turn even now for the first time, turn for the millionth time. If you are his, don’t presume upon his patience any longer thinking to yourself, well, he hasn’t punished me yet, so I’m probably good, and I’m just gonna proceed in my merry way, in my addiction or affair or apathy or whatever it might be. Raise your eyes toward heaven. Humble yourself before God, and He will give you grace. Let’s pray.