Today we are going to look at a chapter four of Daniel. This chapter is written in the form of a letter from Nebuchadnezzar to his kingdom. It is a letter of one of the greatest, mightiest kings that ever lived, confessing the greatness of an infinitely great kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.
We have that confession both at the beginning and end of the letter and then the body of the letter details what brought about this sort of confession from this sort of man. I preach the word of God under the following theme.
God is in Control. Admit it.
- When you think you are in control: Pride
- When God shows you who is in Control: Humility
When you think you are in control: Pride
Let’s look at the body of this letter first. In verse 4 we see Nebuchadnezzar chilling at home in his palace. We read, “I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace, contented and prosperous.” But just when he is relaxing and everything is going well there come these images and visions that pass through his head and they terrified him. As long as there is ease and comfort in life, we are not normally ready to question, or examine our hearts and institute deep change. That is until God disturbs the calm waters. This king had everything but some things still terrified him. Why? Because Nebuchadnezzar in all his glory was only human, and had all the insecurities that come with being human.
Let’s talk about Nebuchadnezzar for a second: he was unbelievably powerful, and built what was once considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In order to understand just what Nebuchadnezzar did, and how full of himself he was let me read you an ancient record that was written during his reign.
I am Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, the exalted prince, the favorite of the god Marduk, the beloved of the god Nabu, the arbiter, the possessor of wisdom, who reverences their Lordship, the untiring governor who is continually anxious for the maintenance of the shrines of Babylon and Borsippa, the wise, the pious, the chief son of Nabopolassar, King of Babylon.
He built a city so large and magnificent that today it is the largest archeological site of the ancient world. The city covered some 500 acres and was protected by massive double fortifications. The walls were so thick that chariot races were conducted around the tops, which stretched fifty-six miles (90km) in length, encircling an area of two hundred square miles. The bricks of the walls were faced with a bright blue and every single one bore the inscription, “I am Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.”
His empire owned all the major trade routes of the time, and was unbelievable wealthy. This wealth could be seen in one of the gates, called the Istar gate. It was forged from exquisite glazed bricks ornamented in lapis lazuli and gold, it is said, the gate glowed as vibrantly and as powerfully as the sun. On the gate he wrote this, “I laid their foundations at the water table with asphalt and bricks and had them made of bricks with blue stone on which wonderful bulls and dragons were depicted. I covered their roofs by laying majestic cedars lengthwise over them. I fixed doors of cedar wood adorned with bronze at all the gate openings. I placed wild bulls and ferocious dragons in the gateways and thus adorned them with luxurious splendor so that Mankind might gaze on them in wonder.” Let’s just say he liked to take credit for other people’s work.
So, if anyone ever had a right to feel good about himself it was him. But he was afraid. Pride holds us captive, because we are constantly afraid of losing it all.
I am guessing when he saw the dream, he might have guessed what it meant. The tree metaphor was well known around the ancient world. And he would have heard it before. But he definitely did not want to face the music. Again, and again his conscience is awakened. God sometimes has to deal more than one blow to wake us up. As John Calvin says, “When God, therefore, wishes to lead us to repentance, he is compelled to repeat his blows continually either because we are not moved when he chastises us with his hand, or we seem roused for a time, and then we return again to our former torpor (Apathy). He is therefore compelled to redouble his blows.”
What does Nebuchadnezzar do? You would think by now he has learned his lesson and would go straight to Daniel, but no. Look at verse 6-8. He first goes to his wise men, and only after they can’t answer does he go to Daniel. He is forced to go to God. That is sometimes what we do as humans, we don’t take the right path until circumstances force us on that path, because the world won’t give us sufficient answers.
All the king’s psychologists and counselors and doctors cannot deal with the root problem of humanity. There was something deeper going on with Nebuchadnezzar whicht needed divine help. The world cannot give the answers to life’s deepest mysteries, only God can do that. Finally, the king goes to Daniel, who he knew could translate the dream as we read in verse 9.
Then in v. 10-18 Nebuchadnezzar shares the dream with Daniel. What he sees is truly remarkable. We read in verse 10-12 that he saw a tree in the middle of the land, a tree whose height was enormous. It towered so high that it was visible to the ends of the earth. It reached unto heaven. Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all.” Daniel explains that Nebuchadnezzar is the tree. Daniel says in verse 22 “You have become great and strong; your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to the distant parts of the earth.”
Here again is a vision of man’s kingdom. It’s bigger and more beautiful than ever before. A foil to the kingdom of God – This tree is beautiful, its fruit was abundant. The king was exalted and seemingly almighty. He was providing for all his subjects. People that found shelter under this tree were full, content, and generally happy. But despite all its beauty there is something wrong with this tree, this tree is trying to plagiarize from Gods kingdom, by not giving Him credit. He thought he had done. He had made it there.
Knowing what we know about King Nebuchadnezzar, this dream should not surprise us, and neither should the statement that he makes after walking around on the roof of the royal palace and seeing all of the majesty of Babylon he says, “Is not this Great Babylon that I have built as a royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty.”
Here is pure unadulterated pride. The desire to displace God. To remove him. It is humanism. Look at what we have done. Look at how amazing we are. We forget so quickly along with Nebuchadnezzar we have nothing to do with where we are. It is all thanks to God. He forgot that, really, he did not have anything to do with it. He did not pick the century that he was born into at the exact right time when the Assyrian empire was losing power. He did not pick the place where he lived. He did not pick that he was born into a royal family. He did not choose his genetic code, that he would be intelligent or smart. It was all purely an act of God that he was there. God had raised him up to judge his people and give his land rest.
To claim and take credit for what God has done is what Tim Keller called cosmic plagiarism.
If I were to claim that I wrote Beethoven’s 7th symphony, we would all instantly realize it. Besides thinking that I was liar, you would think it is wrong. We have plagiarism laws. Why? Because we all know it is wrong to take credit for something that you did not do.
This is exactly what we do when we take credit for the things that happen in our life – and it should be just as clear, but we are so full of ourselves we don’t see it. And they are all living as if they themselves had written the song of Life and not God. Whether it is doing well in school, at work, or home. It is all from God.
Until we realize this we will not be able to live freely, thankfully, fully. We will be always looking inward on what we can do, what we have done, and what we will do. Rather than realizing our lives are handed to us from God. And look at what he has done, is doing, and will do. In Acts it says he determined the exact times and places that people should live.
The fact that you are living here in the 21st century is because God decided that. He deserves the credit. He is the sovereign ruler over all things. Whether a king, or pauper, God is sovereign. And to claim otherwise is to steal from him. Steal credit that belongs to him. Glory that is due to his name alone. Pride takes from God and makes it ours. Or tries to. But it does not work out that way. Ask Adam and Eve. This is what God teaches this king today. That all the kings are like nothing to him. Nothing. And that he gives all men life and breath and everything else.
We read about this verse 13-16, “In the vision I saw while lying on my bed, I looked, and there before me was a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven.” The Lord had to come down to see what he was doing.”
Does this remind you of anything? Was this not exactly what happened at the tower of Babel? The Lord came down to have a look and reminded the people who he was. That they were human, He was God. And he was the one that ruled. We can also look forward to the Babylon in Revelation, that city of man tries to assert itself and all the nations get drunk on its riches in Revelation 19. It seems like the farther we progress in world history the greater the tower is that we try to build to get to God, the more complete the destruction that follows, when God says ” enough”.
When God shows you who is in Control: Humility
So, this messenger commands that the tree be cut down and that only the stump is left in the grass of the field. The stump and root would be bound in iron and bronze. These chains probably refer to the chains that a mental illness places upon one’s capacity to function freely. Daniel explains in verse 25 that Nebuchadnezzar was that stump. Listen to what it says, “You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men 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. “
Who rules? - is the question. You or Him? Who is really in control of this country? Ramaphosa or Him. Who rules? God or man? That is the question from the beginning. Who deserves all the credit? Even in the church we can get sucked into the temptation, to take the credit when things are going well, and then, when things are going badly we suddenly ask, “Why God?”
We have an example in the New Testament church of Corinth. Look at what Paul tells them though in 1 Corinthians 4:7, “Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” All we have is received. And unless we acknowledge that, we are cheating God, and lying to ourselves. This is what the entire world must learn, this is the lesson Nebuchadnezzar was to learn by being brought low.
God gives him the opportunity to repent. A year to be exact. Daniel gives him some advice in the meantime. Verse 27, “Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: renounce your sins, by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed.” Does he listen? Nope.
12 months later he says, “’Is not this the great Babylon, I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power, and for the glory of my majesty.’ The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven to pronounce the judgement on him that had been predicted in the dream.” The essence of sin is that in a host of ways I make myself the center of the universe. He was not free to do what he wanted, the king was a slave to his own desires, and passions.
Until we confess that heaven rules, we are just basic animals. It’s interesting that the theory of evolution makes us animals. Man, without God becomes an animal. They removed God, and they turned us into animals. Without God we do not rise above our old nature, our base instinct. We follow instinct. We are in it for ourselves. We do what we want. We think that we need to fight and survive, and slave away just to make it. It is the survival of the fittest. Pride turns us into animals. We trample on each other in our haste to get to the top, thinking that we run our life. But as we have seen, it is ultimately God, and he uses the people around us, like family, and community that shapes us.
The one person who had a right to say he had it all, earned it all, and was worthy of all glory was Jesus, but he gave it all up, and humbled himself, so that we might have it all. That is why Paul continues in the Corinthian’s passage, quit pretending like you did not receive everything you have. You did receive everything. There is no reason to boast. And then he goes on “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings!” Or earlier in the book he says, “All things are yours... the world or life or death or the present or the future – all are yours, and you are of Christ and Christ is of God.” Beloved, the fact that you are sitting here has nothing to do with you and everything to do with him. So, stop boasting. Humble yourself and realize all things are yours. And in Christ literally all things are yours.
Do you see how the gospel calls us to humble ourselves and makes us nothing. The Gospel proclaims that we are dust and ashes, and yet exalts us at the same time in Christ?
This only happens in and through the Son of God, where the one to whom heaven and earth belonged willfully stepped off his throne to become one of us. The creator took on the form of a creature. So that we creatures might partake in his glory for eternity.
Pride tries to make gods out of men, and so makes us less than human, as they compete and destroy one another. But in Christ, God became man, so that he might show man the road of humility is the road of exaltation. And until we look up to him as the one who gives us all, rather than looking down and around at what we have done, we cannot enjoy freedom, but will be chained to this earth much like the tree was chained in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
Nebuchadnezzar started this episode from a lofty position, on top of the roof of his palace looking down, he ends it as an animal looking up. And in that instant he is restored to his humanity, as he confesses the God of heaven. He finally sees God for who he is – because he experienced the process himself. Until we realize our own lowliness we can never see or know God for who he really is. We would do anything to earn our salvation, or at least contribute to it. To be told we cannot is almost unbearably humiliating.
True conversion does not happen when you see someone else saved, and or humbled, it happens when you humble yourself at the foot of the cross and lay it all down. For Nebuchadnezzar it required a stripping away of everything that he once gloried in. Here is true humility he looks to heaven.
And when He regains sanity he confesses who God is, pens this letter. Not just confesses who he is to the people in v. 34-35, but also who this god is for him in verse 37. In verse 34b-35 we read, “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 what 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?’”
Here was a king who acknowledged the covenant kingship of God, which goes from generation to generation. He confesses that small and great are as nothing. He, the one who his whole life couldn’t keep from writing his name all over his projects finally confesses his name is not what matters. It is God’s name. He can’t do whatever he wants. God can. God is king. This idea of the kingdom of God is central to all of the Bible. All men must know that “heaven rules.” It is the sovereign kingship of God that humbles a man. Few things are more needed to be heard in our day. GOD IS KING! Totally and absolutely.
In verse 37 he continues, “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.” In case you didn’t get the point he spells it out one more time, Those who walk in pride he is able to humble. O what a beautiful confession from the mightiest. This chapter assured all Gods people that the humble will inherit the earth. That however powerful human rulers may appear, God is sovereign over who reigns and for how long, and he will humble those who walk in pride. What does the Lord require of you but to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. May that be our confession as we come to the cross with nothing, and die with him, only to stand and walk with him into eternity. Amen