Wisdom in Exile (Daniel 2:1-45)

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go ahead to open up to Daniel chapter two. Daniel chapter two, where we’ll be this morning as you’re turning there, I imagine maybe a handful of you who have read the book, probably many more of you have seen the movie Gone With the Wind, Gone With the Wind, which is a lament for the lost culture of the antebellum South now built as that culture was on the backs of slaves. I think we can all be grateful that that culture is gone, but at that time, the people who were experiencing the benefits of it, we’re lamenting its loss. And so the book is this struggle for the main characters, in particular Rhett and Scarlett, to adapt and survive in this new world of compromisers and carpetbaggers, how do we go on? And there’s this refrain throughout the book. You know, tomorrow is another day. This was written obviously sometime after Daniel was and yet, it’s a message that would have resonated with the Jews living in exile here in Daniel’s day. I mean, the the depiction of Atlanta in flames would certainly have resonated with the Jews who had just seen Jerusalem in flames after Nebuchadnezzar had besieged it. But it wouldn’t only be the Jews in exile. This is a message. It’s why it was such a famous movie and whatnot, a message that resonates with everyone. We all understand the transience of life, things fall apart. As Yeats said, We just sang, kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. Kings are deposed. Of course, this is what the Jews would have just seen. I mean, Assyria was the big bad guy on the block, and now Assyria is gone, wiped off the map by Babylon, who will shortly be wiped off the map themselves. There’s this very real sense, and we’re keenly aware of it, that it’s all going to get blown away by the first stiff breeze, and so we live with a certain amount of fear and insecurity and kind of desperate, even if vain, attempts to wrest control for our cells now, every bit as much as then. I mean, maybe you’ve seen it, just be an example. Seen it someplace like at work, where you’ve got an anxiety riddled boss who you know, we need to solve this problem immediately. We got to increase our market share. Why? So that the company can survive? Because there is no guarantee that the company will survive. It’s actually interesting. I was just thinking of this this morning as I was rehearsing the ceremony. We do business here at church with a company, and I was emailing them to get some stuff. We’d paid a down payment and stuff, and they stopped returning my emails. And I was like, Well, you got, like, Well, you got, like, 1400 bucks for our money. We would like this, you know, to get our product. The company doesn’t exist anymore. 90 year old company went belly up, like, in a month, basically because of some mismanagement. Again, 90 year old company, this is, this is crazy, but that’s, that’s the transients of life that I’m talking about. We got our money back. Okay, okay, everybody’s panicked. I want my tithing for here. Okay, that’s why. All right, we live fundamentally insecure lives, at least from the human perspective. We are secure in God’s hands, but that’s a separate story. We live fundamentally insecure lives, and we need to reckon with that reality. That’s what we’re gonna look at this morning in particular. How do we reckon with it? We’re going to kind of see this movement that unfolds in three scenes. Those are the three points. You can see it in your notes there. But we’ll start with the first one where we begin, which is insecure insufficiency. So we’re moving from insecure insufficiency. Let me read chapter two, verses one to 11. In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His mind was troubled, and he could not sleep. So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers, to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, he said to them, I have had a dream that troubles me, and I want to know what it means. Then the astrologers answered the king, May the king live forever. Tell your servants the dream and we will interpret it. The king replied to his to the astrologers. This is what I have firmly decided. If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble. But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards in great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me. Once more, they replied, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it. Then the king answered, I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided. If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me miss. Leading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me, the astrologers answered the king. There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks. No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or Enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans. All right, so where are we? Just in case you weren’t here last week, Daniel and his friends are in the middle of their three year training. Still probably nearing the end of it. We’re probably in 603602 BC, somewhere around there. And this is a stressful time for Nebuchadnezzar, who is the new king of Babylon, and it’s a new dynasty as well, which means he has an insecure throne. I know most of us, we think monarchs. We think Queen Elizabeth, and she reigned for like, 150 years. Very unusual, especially because her family’s been reigning for a long time too. Usually you get, like, one or two, and that’s kind of about it. And then they start chopping heads off. Hence his troubled sleep. He is very worried for his throne, which is interesting, too, if you think about it. I mean, Nebuchadnezzar had absolutely everything that we could dream of having, like he’s got money, he’s got fame, he’s got power, but even he realizes that this is just like a mirage in a desert. Or better still, maybe it’s the difference between a canteen and an oasis in a desert. Like an oasis in a desert, it’s replenishing. It’s always there. There’s always water. The canteen, you know, if something doesn’t change, Imma run out of water real soon, and that’s where Nebuchadnezzar is living. He knows my kingdom could topple, my dynasty could topple at any moment. That is the fundamental insecurity of our lies this feel that we are grasping wind, which is really tough to hold onto, and it leads to all the sorts of things that we experience, like anxiety and depression and overwork, because we’re trying to gain control over a situation we have no control over it might even lead to nightmares, which is what Nebuchadnezzar is having. So what does he do? He calls his advisors together. We get these four groups that are mentioned. These aren’t just, you know, stacking up synonyms or something like that. These different words are not only different means of divination, let’s say, but they actually represent different nationalities as well. So he’s conquered all these other kingdoms. He’s bringing the best of the best from all these kingdoms to help him out. You know, every different field of enchantment or whatever you’ve got Egyptian wise men as that first group, the magicians, and they were famous for being able to interpret dreams. Maybe they learned it from Joseph, I don’t know. Then you’ve got that next group, the enchanters, who are supposed to be able to heal diseases in particular, and even exercise demons as needed. The Sorcerers cast spells. And then that last group, the astrologers, if you’re looking at the nib, it’s actually got a little footnote that says Chaldeans, which is just another word for Babylonians. So these are the Babylonian wise men. One of these groups should be able to help Nebuchadnezzar out, because, all right, we got a group of people interpreting dreams. Seems auspicious, if he The problem is a troubled spirit, the enchanter should be able to heal that. If this is a result of a curse, the sorcerer should be able to cast, you know, a counter spell, or something like that. And if there’s ever been a case like this in Babylonian history before, the Babylonian wise men will be able to explain what he should do. So that’s why he’s called these four groups together, and they are more than willing to do what he’s asked. Once they tell him the dream like this is what they’ve prepared for. They’re all set to go, except that he won’t tell them the dream. Why? What’s happening here is that he fears that they are traitors, that they’re part of the group that’s trying to undermine his throne. And that’s actually why the punishment is so severe, to be cut into pieces and have your house turned to rubble, that’s what happens to treasonous people, like that’s what happens to traders. So you’re gonna be treated as a traitor, because I assume that’s why you’re not helping me out here, he says, or they’re frauds, which case, they’re just utterly useless. I mean, he is worried that they’re just going to fake an interpretation, which you could do. If someone tells you their dream, you could probably make something up. Like we’re creative people, you know, a little hand me down, Freud or something like that, like we can work it out. So I’ve been talking dreams a lot this week, as we’ve been prepping for the sermon, I had somebody share an interesting dream they had with me recently where they were going to open their car door, but the problem was that their hands were made out of butter. Dreams are so weird, right? Like, we get that okay, look, you tell me that dream, I can interpret it for you. Like, no problem, right? You got butter hands. You know,
there’s something you need to do. Talk about insecurity, something you need to do, and you feel like you don’t have the resources to do. It. Boom, nailed it. The only problem, of course, is that I’m just guessing, like that was not from the Lord right there, like, maybe this is, you know, you got lactose intolerance or something, and that’s the problem here. I have no idea, right? So I’m making this up. And that’s what Nebuchadnezzar is worried about, that they’re just gonna make something up. So he says, no, no, you gotta tell me the dream. And so it’s verse seven. It’s hilarious. Where they’re like, right now, we’ll interpret the dream, but you do have to, like, they repeat their request. They think they must have misheard or something, because it’s such a ridiculous demand. Like, how could we tell you what you had just dreamed. But Nebuchadnezzar is having no none of this, right, like he’s worried. They’re trying to buy time here, hoping it says in verse nine that the situation will change. Now, the situation changing. That’s not like he’ll be more reasonable. That’s a specific phrase that that’s talking about like the political situation will have changed. So He’s worried that they’re trying to buy time until the revolution happens, until the coup d’etat is over and there’s a new monarch on a throne who won’t make unreasonable requests of them, and that’s why, in his paranoia, he won’t wait. The astrologers are beyond perplexed at this point. They ask him to be reasonable, like his predecessors, who didn’t make this request, very tactless of them, like they’re not helping their case out here. You know, you realize you’re being kind of a bad king, right? All the other kings did things. I bet a different king would do things better than you would, in fact. So, so they’re actually hurting their case, right here, but they’re trying to say that, you know, this is an unreasonable request, because no one can reveal what you dreamed, except the gods. And there is the rub, by the way, because Nebuchadnezzar is angry, ultimately, that He’s not God. That’s what’s really going on in his heart right here? Because if he were God, he’d be in control. He wouldn’t have to worry about the dream. Reminds me of what Nietzsche said. He said, If there is a God, how can I bear not to be that God? That’s what Nebuchadnezzar is saying. And this internal conflict that he’s experiencing is endemic to humans. We all feel this way because, again, if I’m not God, then that means I’m not ultimately in control. I’ve got no real power, no real self sovereignty, and that knowledge just grates on us and has been grating on us since Eden, like this is the original sin, eat the fruit and you will be like God. Ah, yes, that’s what I wanted all along. Was to be like God. It reminds me like what Nebuchadnezzar is doing here, and what most of us do most days is Scarlett O’Hara the end of Act One, shaking her fist at the heavens right, as God is my witness, I’m going to live through this, and I will never be hungry again. And you’re really impressed with the strength of her character, but she has no control over that. She cannot guarantee any of that. So you see the problem, we’re not only fundamentally insecure, but we’re also insufficient to cope with our insecurity, like these four groups of wise men that Nebuchadnezzar has called, we have no real power, like your market share doesn’t guarantee the company’s survival, Does it? We could tell lots of stories, especially in a tech age, right? You know who had a huge market share, Blockbuster. Good luck to you, right? There’s no amount of of exercise, no diet, so finely tuned that it will guarantee your health, and even if you are healthy, your story ends the same way as every other human who’s ever lived, with one notable exception, and this is Matthew six, idea that will read part of for us earlier. But you know, Jesus is looking the people who are worrying, and he’s going, Who of you by worrying can add even an hour to your life, or can change even one hair on your head to a different color. So the step one of dealing with our insecurity is acknowledging our insufficiency and to leave our foolish human efforts behind. Even if you are here today and you are not a Christian like you, are still questioning all of this, you know, God stuff, you can start here. This is a great entry point to faith. You know, as well as I do, that you have no ultimate control in your life. Some control, yes, but no ultimate control. So how will you respond to it? It’s interesting. Prophet Isaiah, kind of. Addresses this in two different chapters right next to each other. In the first part, he kind of mocks the way most of us goes isaiah 4712 to 14. It’s almost like he’s talking to Daniel’s friends here, the advisors and whatnot. He says, Keep on then with your magic spells and your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed. Perhaps you will cause terror. You can hear the sarcasm in his voice. All the counsel you have received has only worn you out. Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble. The fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. You want to sum up that passage in two words, insecure, insufficiency. That’s what’s happening there. They don’t actually know what’s coming, even though they’re checking their horoscope every day. And even if they did know what was coming, they’re powerless to stop it anyway. Now contrast that with the alternative that Isaiah presents in the chapter before this, Isaiah, 46, nine and 10, says the Lord, speaking through Isaiah, I am God, and there is no other I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, my purpose will stand, and I will do all that, I please. You read those two passages and you think on which would you rather depend? Like, which one of those two choices seems smarter to you? The people who are just guessing, and even if they guess right about what’s coming, can’t do anything to change it anyway, or the one who knows the end from the beginning, and who says all my purposes will stand by the way, this sums up the rest of the book for us in a lot of ways, like we’re gonna have a lot of prophecy in Daniel, some startlingly detailed prophecy that’s gonna make us go, Okay, God might actually know the end from the beginning. Huh? We should pay attention to him. This gives us comfort, I think, just as a whole, when it comes to the faith as well, when I think of Jesus and what he came to do. And then you look back at passages like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 and Micah five, that have predicted everything that was coming, even his torture and death, the means of his death. You read this knowing this is predicted centuries beforehand. And you go, okay, there is a plan, there is a purpose, and there’s somebody who’s working it out, which is good, because when God makes big claims for himself, like we just read in Isaiah, 46 and what we’ll see here in Daniel, I think it’s okay that there’s a little something in us that goes okay, prove it. Prove it like it’s very easy to say, I’m God and there’s no other but how do we know that’s the case? And that’s what we’re going to see in the rest of our passage. For now, let’s keep reading those so we’re moving from insecure insufficiency through humble wisdom. Kind of our next scene, let me read verses 12 to 23 for us. This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death. When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. He asked the king’s officer, why did the king issue such a harsh decree? Ariaka, then explained the matter to Daniel. At this Daniel went into the king and asked for time so that he might interpret the dream for him. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said, Praise be to the name of God. Forever and ever, wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons. He deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness and light dwells with him. I thank and praise You, God of my ancestors, you have given me wisdom and power. You have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king. The King’s anger here in verse 12 is not unusual. This is kind of how kings worked back then, but his plan is just to execute all of the impotent, incompetent and potentially treasonous advisors, which includes Daniel and his friends. We’d almost forgotten about Daniel, hadn’t we? Right? Like this is a long introduction with no Daniel there, but
here he is. Daniel, when he hears the news that he’s about to be executed, is surprised, to say the least, but he spoke with wisdom and attacked, which is a. Important. You remember, the previous advisors were tactless in how they responded the king, not Daniel. In fact, his wisdom. Here is one of the keys to the whole chapter. Notice that Arioch, when he hears that there’s a possibility, like, he’s not bloodthirsty, he’s willing to go to the king right away, and the king really does want an answer, so he’s willing to hear from somebody else as well. They’re perfectly happy not to kill all these people. And so this is good news. So there’s a reprieve granted. Daniel’s got some time. But here’s the thing, we can’t miss this in the story. For as wise as he is at this moment, there is absolutely nothing Daniel can do to save himself. All he’s done is ask for more time, hoping that God will grant him this knowledge and wisdom and understanding. But unless God shows up, he and his friends will surely die, which is why he urges his friends to pray. Certainly, we see in this the importance of community. Again, we talked about that last week. I mean, here’s a group of people who are bearing each other’s burdens, because in exile, especially when you’re, you know, trying to stand up for your beliefs, it can feel like me against the world. One of the great gifts of the church, of course, is knowledge that it’s not right we together are standing for the faith. But as important as community is in this moment, I think even more important is prayer, of course, when you think about it, what is prayer? Petition in particular, except an acknowledgement of our insecurity and insufficiency when we make petitions of God, all we’re saying is, unless you help, we haven’t got a chance. There’s nothing we have in ourselves to fix this problem. You’re going to have to show up and deliver us. Or the story only ends one way. You think of how often this is true. I mean, I think of praying for evangelism. For example, we know I can, I can proclaim this truth, but only the Lord can open eyes and open hearts to receive this truth, or parenting another big one, right? You, I cannot parent so well that my kids don’t need a savior at the end of it, that you’re going to have to save them, Lord or provision in so many different areas. Or maybe the main one that I often feel at least is our sanctification like our being changed to be more like Jesus. How often we have to pray like unless you change me, Lord, I am not ever going to be otherwise. It is clear these patterns are established in my life. Would you show up and deliver me? It’s actually a really close parallel to what Daniel’s experiencing here, isn’t it? Because sin is that murderous enemy that’s threatening to destroy us unless God delivers us. I do think that Daniel’s praying for more than just his own skin. Though, friends praying to save more than just their own skins, you’ll notice they’re pleading for mercy, just as you know, is a big concept in Scripture, of course, because they recognize, we’re going to see this as the chapter unfolds there, they recognize their role as God’s ambassadors to Babylon. And so this prayer here is not just for their own sakes, but also for the sake of Nebuchadnezzar, whom they’re going to evangelize, and then also for God’s sake that he would be exalted in the eyes of the Babylonians. The prayer echoes the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, who again, talks about the time when people will be in exile if they don’t keep God’s covenant in First Kings 850, Solomon says this, forgive your people who have sinned against you, forgive all the offenses they have committed against you, and cause their captors to show them mercy. Same word that’s used. Daniel knew his Bible well, he would have known this prayer, and so he seems to be almost quoting it, because he’s trusting in God’s faithfulness to His promises. Would you do what you said? You’ll do, Lord, it’s exactly the attack we’re going to take in our prayer meeting tonight, by the way. So come on out for that. Sure enough, the Lord is faithful to keep his promises, and Daniel is granted a vision in the night, which is almost a stock phrase in Scripture, shows up in Job, shows up in Zechariah. This is more than a dream. This is something else. This is direct revelation. Happens often today in the Middle East, when Muslims, for example, are have visions in the night where the Lord Jesus appears to them, and even though they’ve never read the Bible, heard the gospel, are converted. So that’s the sort of experience that Daniel has here, and so he now knows the contents of the dreams. Notice his response, starting in verse 20. It’s praise and thanksgiving. It’s exactly the right response. This is. Like the the backside of a petition, like, we ask God to do something, and then when he does it, what do we do? Praise Him and thank Him. Acknowledge his power. Since we are insufficient, we have no power of our own. In fact, we’re only secure because he is sufficient. That’s what this prayer is. It is a model prayer of praise and thanksgiving. There are three elements to it. First, Daniel begins by celebrating God’s character. Verse 20, Praise be to the name of God, forever and ever. His name is his character is His glorious. It’s like Exodus 33 and 34 Moses asked of God, show me your glory. And God says, I will proclaim My name. And then he proclaims His character, the Lord, the Lord the compassionate and gracious, God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. And on from there. So glory, name and character are these closely related ideas. That’s what Daniel begins with. Celebrates who God is. Notice in particular, it’s his wisdom and power that Daniel mentions, because that’s what he needed right then. This is a great lesson for us in prayer. We don’t just come and say something about God when we begin. Don’t just, well, I always begin my prayer with Father or Lord or whatever it is. We come thinking like mindful, conscious of what part of it of God’s character we want to celebrate and praise in this moment. And then second part of the prayer is God’s deeds. We move from who he is to what he has done, verse 21 and 22 and here, especially, we’re talking about the fact that God rules he rules time the seasons. He rules history. He raises up kings, and he deposes kings, which, of course, is Nebuchadnezzar fear. And then he also gives wisdom to the wise. He’s able to reveal the hidden secrets. And then lastly, Daniel talks about God’s deliverance, which is not just what God does, but what God has done in this particular situation, in these circumstances. And here Daniel is thinking, God, you gave me what I asked of you. This is an example to all of us who are so slow to remember. And thank God, after we pray for something. We’re like kids at Christmas, eager to unwrap the present, not as eager to write the thank you notes, or like Luke chapter 17, when Jesus meets with the 10 lepers, and he tells them they’ll be healed on their way. And so they head out to Jerusalem to do what he said to do, and they’re healed on the way. And one comes back to thank Jesus, and Jesus says, weren’t there 10 of you? Where are the other nine? That’s us, for sure. So this is helpful for us. So Daniel gives us a model prayer of thanksgiving here, but he is actually a larger example for us, also, just as an example of what it means to be wise, to live wisely when we are insecure, because God possesses all power and wisdom as he’s just prayed. So why look elsewhere? He looks to the only one who can provide what he needs. This is the lesson Paul teaches as well. First, Corinthians, 118, to 20. Paul says the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved. I love that, by the way, it’s not the point of the sermon, but don’t you just love that we are being saved. This is happening in the present. It’s in the past. Yes, it’ll be in the future too, but it’s going on right now, and those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence, the intelligent, I will frustrate. Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? We were doing this in Daniel’s day. We would say, where is the magician? Where is the enchanter? Where is the sorcerer? Right? It’s the same question, Has not God made foolish? The wisdom of the world feels like a commentary on Daniel two almost notice what Paul says is that the message of the cross seems foolish, as it certainly does. What is the message of the cross? By the way? This isn’t the whole message of the cross, but a big part of the message of the cross is you’re insufficient. You can’t do it. That’s why Jesus had to come and do it for you, the perfect life you were supposed to lead. You didn’t sacrificial death like you and I could go on the cross and absolutely nothing would happen other than we would die physically. There’s no salvation in that. Why? Because we didn’t live that perfect light. First of all, we are insufficient, so we need to seek help from a sufficient God who has provided it graciously to us.
But remember, Wisdom by itself wouldn’t have saved Daniel. He needed God to show up and deliver him to provide. The contents of the dream. That’s why I said that what’s needed here is humble wisdom, not like try harder wisdom, but no humble wisdom like falling flat on your face before the Lord, unless you show up, we haven’t got a chance. That points us to the cross as well. Of course, Jesus is the true wise man, the wisest man who ever lived, his whole life was lived in dependence on his father. Pay attention as you read the gospels to how often he, the second member of the Trinity, God of gods, prays to his father and thanks his father even the Lord’s Supper. He takes the bread and the cup, and he thanks God for them. Remember that represents his broken body and spilled blood, and he thanks God for them still. And in his hour of trial, he had no friends to help him. Daniel looks at Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, and says, Stay up and keep watch with me. And they pray throughout the night for Daniel. And Jesus looks at Peter, James and John, and says, Stay up and keep watch with me. And they hit the snooze button, right? He had no friends in his hour of need, he faced the cross alone, and God didn’t you know what I mean by this, show up when he was on the cross to deliver him, left him there to die. My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? Of course, that was the Father’s plan. That was the son’s plan as well. He was not delivered so that we could be delivered. God didn’t show up to deliver Jesus off of the cross so that we would always have the confidence that he would show up for us. We know it’s true because he’s delivered us already from our greatest enemy, which is sin and death. So step two of dealing with our fundamental insecurity as humans is to humble ourselves, which looks like prayer and thanksgiving, at least in part, and then to seek God’s wisdom. What does proverbs tell us? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It’s exactly what Daniel has just lived out. Right? We look at who he is versus who we are, what he’s done and can do, versus what we’ve done and what we can do. We fear him humility, and that’s the beginning of wisdom. Where do we go from there, then? So we move from insecure insufficiency through humble wisdom to loving confidence. Let me read the rest of the chapter, which, by the way, is quite long. So dig in for a moment. Verse 24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon. And said to him, do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king and I will interpret his dream for him. Ariak took Daniel to the king at once and said, I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means. The king asked Daniel, also called belteshazzar, are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it. Daniel replied, No Wiseman, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about. But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that pass through your mind as you were lying in bed are these, as Your Majesty was lying there. Your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation that you may understand what went through your mind. Your Majesty looked and there before you stood a large statue, an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer, the winds swept them away without leaving a trace, but the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the King. Your Majesty. You are the King of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory in your hands. He has placed all mankind to the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky, wherever they live. He has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next the third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, for iron breaks and smashes everything, and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others, just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom. It will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay, as the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle, and just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so. The people will be a mixture, and will not remain united any more than iron mixes with clay. In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another. People will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands, a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces, the great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries, for you, were able to reveal this mystery. And the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavish many gifts on him. He made him rule over the entire province of Babylon and placed him in charge of all its wise men. Moreover, as Daniel at Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the Royal Court. So Arioch takes Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar. He also takes credit, which I love. I found a guy did you really know? Okay, Daniel doesn’t seem to care. We see his wisdom intact. Yet again, I love that he doesn’t blame the wise men here, like this was his chance to puff himself up. I alone, of all people have helped you, Nebuchadnezzar, but he doesn’t do that. He says, You can’t blame them. Of course, they couldn’t have done this. No one could possibly do this, myself included, by the way, the only one who could do it is God. So he gives God credit. He’s humble. Joseph says something similar when he interprets Pharaoh’s dreams, although Daniel actually surpasses Joseph, because Joseph only had to interpret. Daniel had to say the dream as well. But he says explicitly, it’s not that I’m more skilled, right? It’s not that I’m a better diviner than anyone else. Only God can reveal dreams. You see what Daniel’s doing here. We talk about this a lot at CityView. Jacob already said it for us, right? We are being made to magnify Christ. That is our purpose as humans. The problem that word magnify is that we can picture a magnifying glass, or like a microscope, right, which takes something little and makes it appear bigger than it actually is. That is not what we do for Christ and His glory. We are more like telescopes. What does a telescope do? It takes something almost unimaginably large, like a galaxy, and helps us appreciate even just a hint of its hugeness and awesomeness. And that is what we do for God and his glory. And that is what Daniel is doing. Here he is showing Nebuchadnezzar just how great our God is and he is consciously evangelizing Nebuchadnezzar as he does this. So let me just ask you, as you reflect on your own life, what would it look like to live your life this way so that everyone around you knows that God is the hero of your story, and that is not your skill and wisdom that got you to this point. Not only is Daniel consciously evangelizing Nebuchadnezzar, which is great in its own right, but keep in mind, he is loving his enemy at the same time too. Nebuchadnezzar is not his boss. Nebuchadnezzar is his captor and his subjugator. He is a slave under Nebuchadnezzar, and yet he loves him. I mean,
how many times did he say it both verse 28 and verse 30? He says, this has been revealed so that you King may know what’s going to happen. Daniel is embodying the truth that true gospel wisdom will lead you to love your neighbor and even your enemy, because you couldn’t possibly hate anybody after the Love the Lord has lavished on you. You think this person doesn’t deserve God’s love, but I don’t deserve God’s love either, and he loved me, so I will love them. That’s what Daniel is doing here. Then, starting in verse 31 finally, by the way, this has been a long chapter of like Man, this dream, this dream, this dream. Would somebody just tell me what the dream is? We finally get the dream in verse 31 it’s a statue, gold heads, silver chest, Brown’s waist, iron legs, Clay feet. It’s where our phrase clay feet comes from. By the way, if you’re wondering if you ever heard that before, this is I talked to some of my GC general contractor friends this week. This is terrible construction, by the way. You put the strongest material at the bottom right. You build a house or something like that. You put steel pilings in the grounds. They’re sitting on bedrock. You pour concrete over it, then you can build with like wood or something like that. You don’t put baked clay at the bottom and a whole bunch of heavy metals on top of that. So terrible construction, even though it is kind of a common trope, this whole idea of kingdoms giving way and getting worse as they go, like we use the phrase golden age a lot, right? That comes from Greek thought, where they thought there was an earlier phase in human history where, like, the gods and humans played together. That was the golden age. And then there was this silver age, and then there was the bronze. Age, which had nothing to do with the tools they were using, but was the quality of the kingdom. So this is a vision of history that we are granted here in this dream. You can understand Nebuchadnezzar concern after having this dream, because he’s probably thinking, this has something to do with me and my kingdom, and it’s going to fall over, right? That’s the whole issue. But Daniel tells him, No, this is actually a longer view than that. This is not like, you know, January is gold, and then, you know, December is baked clay or something like that. No, this is a long view. So the gold is is the kingdom of Babylonia. The Silver is some other kingdom that’s coming, the Medes or the Medo Persian Empire, most likely, then you’ve got the Greeks, really the Macedonians under Alexander the Great. We’ll hear more about him and Daniel, and then you’ve got Rome. Most likely people debate this exactly. It doesn’t really matter, though. It’s kind of the whole point. What we need to learn from this is kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall, and that when we look at human history, there is not progress, but decay. That’s important as well. There would be progress in some areas, of course, like technology and whatnot. But it’s not like things are getting better and better and better. This isn’t the vision of tower Babel. In other words, that if we get together and just keep working, we’ll get closer and closer to Heaven. It’s quite the opposite that is happening. So again, don’t pay attention to like, what kingdom are we talking about here? The whole point is no kingdom is going to usher in the kingdom of God, because you think of all the kingdoms that have fallen since then, too, even since Rome, like the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, United States of America, if the Lord should tarry, we will fall from our position of strength in the world, guaranteed, because that’s just how history works. The important part of the vision is the feet. That’s the part we gotta zero in on, because the feet aren’t made right. And so the statue is going to fall, especially because of this rock that shows up. What’s happening with the rock? Okay, we’re dealing not like an earthquake, but you know how the earth shifts over time, tectonic plates, something like that, right? We’re like, talking about how mountains are formed. So there’s a little part that’s going to start bumping up right there. And what happens then to the statue that was, you know, at one point it was level, the bubble was in the right spot. And you look the next time, and you’re like, well, the bubble’s hitting the line. Now I know what’s going on. And then pretty soon it’s leaning tower of Pisa, and then it falls over. So this rock has nothing to do with humans. This rock is just coming up, destabilizing the statue. Human history will topple and then what’s going to happen to the statue afterwards? The clay is going to turn to dust. It’s going to blow away. It’ll be gone with wind. The gold probably gone with looters. You know, different thing, but this is if you remember your English class days, Percy Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias, it’s exactly what he describes. Almost sounds like he’s describing Babylon, in fact, because there’s a traveler in a distant land in a desert, and he sees a head of a statue lying on the ground, and there’s a base beside it, and it has this inscription on it. My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works, ye mighty and despair. Nothing beside remains round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level stands stretch far away. By the way, exactly what happened to Babylon, if you guys know this part. But for a long time, people who don’t take the Bible seriously thought that the Bible was wrong because there was no historical record of Babylon, like they couldn’t. They literally could not find the city of Babylon for a while. It was just sand. So that’s what, what’s coming right for all of human history. But then verse 44 we realize there’s this divine kingdom coming that will never be destroyed, will never be conquered. The thing about it, though, is that it is slow in coming, which is how rock changes happen, right? Like it comes, the way the Grand Canyon came, how the Lord, you know, created the grand cam just that slow trickle the Colorado River over time does what creates this stunning beauty. It’s where we’re living now, right in the between times, the rock is bumped out, the levels off, the statue is shaky. And so what do we pray in the between time? Come quickly, Lord Jesus. This is what we pray every morning as we pray the Lord’s Prayer. This is what you mean when you say, your kingdom come your will be done right with the rock. Push up just a little bit more. It is the recognition that it is slow in coming. Jesus said, The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed you plant. It’s tiny, the tiniest of all the seeds, and then eventually it grows and grows and grows. That’s what we’re praying. It is slow in coming. But God has His purposes. He is not slow. He is patient, wanting people to come to Him, which is why we love our enemies and evangelize others. Now we. Need this reminder of how human history ends at two times. First is when things are going badly, like when persecution or cultural decay are happening. The other time we need this reminder is when things are going well, when the Olympics are on USA, USA, we need the reminder that the Capitol dome will not grace the skyline of the New Jerusalem. God’s kingdom, God’s kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar needs to know it for that second time, because right now he’s gold like everything is going great for him. He needs a reminder now. And so verse 45 verse b, the great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. Great same word that’s used to describe the statue, by the way, the great God has shown you, and then he has proven it.
This is why David, Daniel is so confident, right? The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy. How can he say that so boldly? Because he just told Nebuchadnezzar what he dreamed. Remember, I said earlier, it was okay to say, Okay, Lord prove it. Well, the Lord has proved it, because only God can reveal dreams, and that’s what’s just happened. That is how God works, by the way. He makes bold claims about himself, but then he gives us reasons to trust those claims, supremely, of course, the resurrection of Jesus, Christ from the dead, which was prophesied centuries in advance. So not only do we know that God knows the end from the beginning, but then, by raising Christ from the dead, vindicates his message, the message of by the way, the coming Kingdom, and the same way God vindicates himself through Daniel by revealing the dream. So that Nebuchadnezzar honors God. Looks like he’s honoring Daniel here. He’s not. He’s honoring God. I mean, like, how many times in Scripture do people say, like, don’t fall down in front of me. I’m not God. Daniel doesn’t say that here. What’s going on? Nebuchadnezzar knows where the power is. Daniel told him. He even says things like, Your God is the God of gods, which is good, but not great, by the way. What he’s saying is he’s the chief god in the pantheon. He’s not there yet, but there is spiritual progress. That’s how we work. A lot of us start a journey group, not that long ago. We start by sharing our spiritual journeys, and they look like the stock market, right? Like some ups and downs. This is an up moment for never. He’s getting closer, at least, but he bows before God. Daniel is just His representative. It’s like what Alexander said when he bowed before the High Priest in Jerusalem. I bow not before him, but before the God of whom he has the honor of serving as priest. That’s what’s happening. He does still exalt Daniel, because he’s wise, and at his request, elevates Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego two, which sets us up for next week. So make sure you come on back. We must remember, though, Daniel is not the hero of this story. God is the hero of every story. The point, I’m say this a lot when we’re in Revelation, okay, Daniel’s just getting us ready for revelation. The point is not the details of the vision, but the God who gives the vision. It is an encouragement to us. In every age, whichever part of the statue we are in, we can have confidence in the ultimate triumph of God’s forever kingdom, confidence that, by the way, that allows us to go on loving even the people who persecute us. If you are in Christ, even now you are citizens of that coming kingdom. We know how the story ends, no matter our circumstances, we don’t know how our story ends. We know how the story ends, and that gives us the hope and confidence we need, because we know the God who knows the future. It was Corrie 10 Boom who said, Corrie 10 Boom who lived in some uncertain times, by the way, when she was, you know, in a concentration camp where her entire family was killed. And she was fond of saying, Never fear. Never be afraid. To trust an unknown future to a known God. That’s what Daniel is saying here as well. So what do we do in the meantime? We fear God, which is the beginning of wisdom. We strive to live wisely in all circumstances. We move from insecure insufficiency through humble wisdom to loving confidence, that is just a great blueprint for us today, like That’s wisdom in exile. It is kind of our big idea, if I can pull all the pieces together here, big idea, overcome insecurity, not by trying harder, but by trusting better overcome insecurity, not by trying harder, but by trusting better. So trying harder, what does that look like? That looks like turning to yourself or other impotent, insufficient aids that looks like elbow grease and and gritted teeth and shaking your. Fist at the heavens and new techniques, none of which will grant you ultimate control over your life, instead of trying harder, trust better. And I mean two things by that. First of all, I mean trust in the God who is better, who is greater, who knows the end from the beginning, who has power and wisdom, but then also learning to trust him better more and more every day, in light of how he has proven himself that trust to express in prayer and thanksgiving gives us hope and confidence and wisdom to meet the challenges of the day, not to retreat from the people around us like to be so heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good, because, you know this kingdom’s coming kind of thing, but no but to move toward them with loving confidence like Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar, you are, whether you admit it or not, fundamentally insecure living as you do in a transient world. If you were able to stand still long enough, you would watch everything around you turn to dust Gone With the Wind. You got two choices. In light of that reality, cling tighter to insufficient solutions, just like grasping the wind, or acknowledge your need and seek the God of all wisdom. Or to put it another way, you can try harder, or you can trust better. What choice will you make? Let’s pray.