Through the Bible (Daniel 4)

in verse one of chapter four nebuchadnezzar the king unto all people nations and languages that dwell in all the earth that's a pretty big audience right there um nebby he's got a message to say to everyone that lives on the planet and it's funny because he gets this this stage here both at that time but he gets the stage here we are in you know portland oregon and 2021 reading his testimony like this is one of the biggest testimonies ever uh the gets a lot of press uh and all the nations languages and tongues are gonna hear his testimony um all that dwell in the earth and then he says peace be multiplied unto you now this is where it's almost you know if you're a bible student this this is almost funny because you know suddenly this guy who was chopping people up and making their houses into piles of manure burning them on barbecue grills all that stuff you know it's it's interesting that because uh he was such a horrible guy but now he's saying peace be multiplied to all you guys like suddenly he's like you know uh mr peace the guy that wanted to throw people in five furnaces and stuff um but even more comical he sounds like one of the the epistles of the new testament do you know what i mean peace be multiplied does anybody remember who said that peter peter said it in first peter chapter one verse two and he also said it in second peter chapter one verse two peace be multiplied into you and i think paul said it too uh but but it's funny that peter used that phrase in both of his epistles as it turns out uh which is kind of cool so here's you know nebuchadnezzar peace be multiplied unto you he sounds like a different guy and and by the way that's going to be a sign of someone who's really been saved or you know transformed is is there going to there's going to be a difference about them and that's kind of an important part of i think what the lord does you're not saved by your works but remember when you are saved um you're you're going to see a change because you know faith without works is dead and and we're going to see that even in nebuchadnezzar's language it's going to change quite drastically by the way let's just remember this in the old testament what would make a person saved was it to confess jesus as your personal savior no the old testament that was before jesus came and died on the cross so what would it let me let me give you kind of a cheat and some of you already know the answer to this but the cheat is if you wanted to be declared righteous or have you your life counted as righteousness what were you responsible to do at that point in the old testament anybody right believe god not just believe in god like i said before satan believes in god um but to believe god and and remember abraham you know we were told there in genesis 12 you know abraham believed god and so it counted to him righteousness and then even in the new testament paul the apostle in the book of romans makes the case that it's the same belief only to believe god in the old testament the difference in the new is to see believe god's plan for all of humanity as it unfolds that salvation would come through jesus christ so abraham was still saved by jesus christ dying on the cross it's just that because he was before christ he had to believe god and god's plan in the you know the time of the old testament that was what you were required to just believe god did you have to be perfect well good good news uh no uh abraham was not perfect abraham sinned and made mistakes and most of the old testament characters were sinful people just like you and just like me but because they believed god it was counted unto them as righteousness and the new testament doctrine of imputed righteousness is what we what we're all saved by this it's the same it's just that we know the mechanics behind the believing god we as new testament believers know the mechanics is the cross of jesus christ who died for the sins of the whole world past present future for all time so so nebuchadnezzar is a believer in god and that's why we're going to see him in heaven and we're going to see how that kind of comes about thus far just a reminder uh nebuchadnezzar has has come close uh he said some statements you know after shadrach meshach and abednego and and they're delivered from the fiery furnace you know remember um nebuchadnezzar makes some declaration he says you know blessed be the god of shadrach meshach and abednego but he doesn't say and my god too he doesn't say that so he's not saved he's not a believer in god or a believer of god in chapter three we're going to see that change in chapter four even when daniel interprets the dream in uh chapter two um if you remember nebuchadnezzar kind of you know makes the statement he falls down and starts to worship daniel remember that oh daniel he starts i mean here's this king worshiping daniel and then he and he says you know of a truth your god is a god a god of gods a lord of kings and a revealer of secrets secrets he he wasn't at that place saying your my god is the only god he's just acknowledging that he's a god so he's not at this place where he just believes god to believe god means you have to believe everything he says um you know isaiah the prophet made it clear there's only one god there is no other like me i'm the alpha the omega the beginning and then there is no other god like me and um and and there's no other true god the bible says so nebby hasn't come to that belief yet until chapter 4 and he's going to kind of share that testimony so just the clarification of what saved a person in the old testament that's kind of important to know and it's important because it still carries on into the to the new testament as well that same belief well he says peace be multiplied unto you verse 2 i thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high god hath wrought toward me how great are his signs and how mighty are his wonders his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation see now he's starting to talk like like a believer in the true living god because all this is true god he's always was always has been always will be the eternal nature of god his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom like he's really starting to kind of get it here but then he's going to start with his testimony in verse 4. he says i nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house and flourishing in my palace i saw a dream which made me afraid and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of sugar plums in my head no sorry i'm sorry i made that part up uh are the thoughts upon my bed and the visions upon my head troubled me um isn't it interesting that nebuchadnezzar's got everything power you know he's got prestige you know he's got a position of high authority like king nebuchadnezzar's got everything a guy could ever want as the king of kings there of that day but he just has a dream and now he's troubled uh it's funny because he was flourishing in his palace he's doing great living large when suddenly has a dream and now he's troubled and the vision of his head troubled him greatly um isn't it interesting that i think that's really oftentimes the case when you see someone who's living large and they've got everything a person could want don't don't always assume that they must be really happy you know we look at a lot of the hollywood celebrities who have everything they want all the money that anybody could ever ask for and and and they they appear to be living large and happy and healthy and wealthy and wise but oftentimes they're some of the most troubled people on the earth you know the greater the riches the greater the worry uh it's a funny thing and you can't really tell you know what a book is by its cover as it goes with people and especially as it goes to be people being troubled or bummed out i think we oftentimes make assumptions that are often very incorrect um it's like uh it's like you know you let's say you're sitting out on a waterfront park there in downtown portland and what used to be um not a war zone but it was actually pretty at one point well anyway you could sit there and watch some of these fancy boats come in uh i remember one time in uh fourth of july dev and i were watching some of these fancy boats these kind of yachts come in and you know you see the one guy man he's got the big fancy boat and he's he's got the cigar and he's up there just you know got got everything you can tell the guy's just filthy rich and he's got girls and music and it's a party boat and he's just kind of yeah like the guy and you think i wonder what's going on in his brain then you got the guy over on the side with a weed eater and he's weed eating and he's got a pickup truck and it's got his landscape company signed on the truck and he's got his headphones on and he's there weed eating and and he stops and he looks out at the yacht as it's floating by what are they thinking well we don't really know but but you know what wouldn't be something if we could kind of get a glimpse like if you really get the shot what the guy is the guy is like actually he's he was wealthy but his company is going through a hostile takeover and he's worried that his wife will find out about the girls on the yacht and he's trying to figure out how they're going to keep from foreclosing on his yacht and uh and he's stressed out because he's got liver you know problems because of how much alcohol he's been drinking and he's just they're worried looking cool with a cigar but he's got throat cancer also because he's been smoking cigars too long he's worried about dying the guy with the weed eater well he's there with his headphones on listening to pastor brett podcast and he's just thinking man i'm glad i'm not that guy and he's thinking you know i i when i when i get enough money i'm going to go on the mission field and i'm going to go serve the lord and i'm paying off all my bills so i'm liquid and i can move quickly and and man i'm just going to mow a few more lawns and get a few more you know landscaping chores done and then man i'm going to go on the mission like who knows what's going on in a person's brain but i think often times you know the world puts up a pretty big front of how awesome everything is but i think there's a lot of troubled people out there you know in this last year and a half there's been a lot of ugliness has come out of people's mouths especially famous people have you noticed that wealthy famous powerful people it's kind of like they say you know what's in a a you know a glass when you tip it over uh you know people are like you know uh you know uh tea bags you know you don't know what they are until you put them in hot water uh and that's that's kind of what what goes on here nebuchadnezzar is this guy that should be as happy as anybody gets but he's just got this troubled spirit within him and and guess who's doing that god is doing that god is troubling him with a dream that's meant to be troubling um that's kind of an interesting situation i think the lord does this more often than we'd like to even acknowledge have you ever wondered if some of the things that have troubled you the lord's just saying hey i want you to come and seek me i want you to look to me so who do you go to when you're troubled well who who does think about this at this point in nebuchadnezzar's life who do you go to if you're nebuchadnezzar for help well let's see who he goes to and this is kind of interesting if you ask me it says you know after the visions of his head troubles in verse six therefore i made a decree to bring all in all the wise men of babylon before me that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream then came in the magicians the astrologers the chaldeans the soothsayers the psychic friends network and no sorry i added that one too sorry the sooth stairs and i told the dream before them but they did not make known unto me the interpretation of the dream when's nebuchadnezzar going to learn like if if i'm debbie at this point i think i'd forget all the soothsayers chaldeans wise men of babylon forget them get me daniel get him right away like isn't that what you do because daniel was the only guy in chapter two that could interpret the dream the problem is time a lot of time has gone by and nebuchadnezzar kind of forgets the guy that's the interpreter of the dreams that's the dude that knows the true living god i should be asking him but he doesn't even he doesn't even ask for daniel he says get all the wise men together now some of you might be saying well where's daniel why daniel was supposed to be in charge of these guys by now where's daniel i have a theory i have a theory and that is this i think daniel was sanctified that's a that's a christianese word what does the word sanctified mean anybody to be set apart to be outside of something else daniel was the guy who i don't think he just hung with the chaldeans and the soothsayers and the magicians and all those guys i don't think daniel was comfortable with those guys why because he was a believer in the true and living god and he wasn't hanging with these guys so that when the memo goes out hey king debbie wants us all in his palace he's got another one of these dreams daniel doesn't even get the memo on this he's not even there even though he was put in charge of them back in chapter 2. come ye out from among them and be separate that's what the bible calls us as christians to be separate from the world that's a funny thing how there's this temptation for us as christians to sort of blend in and be like the world and be hip and relevant that's one of the words i think the church has stumbled into and it's not helping the church we need to be more relevant no the bible is relevant the world is totally out to lunch so the more we try to link to the world the more irrelevant we are and the more we try to follow the bible the more relevant we'll be like it's a funny uh backwards sort of way of thinking that we as largely as a church is adopted we're going to be we're going to try to be more relevant we're going to fit in with the world we'll try to make the church sort of attract the world big mistake the father is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth that's what the bible says god is looking for people who aren't relevant with the world but are seeking to worship him in spirit and in truth ah forget trying to be relevant daniel says i'm not going to be mixing it up with these guys and so i think that's why a he was not in the we talked about this last week you know and the fiery furnace uh chapter in chapter three where was daniel and we mentioned that it's a great picture because daniel's not there as we were comparing the various parts of daniel chapter 3 to the the end time scenario of the tribulation period the fiery trial and how the jews would go through the fire but not be burned and where was daniel well in these stories of the old testament there's always somebody was taken out and wasn't there i believe that's a beautiful picture of god's church who will be raptured to be taken up out just like enoch was taken out not even dying not even seeing death enoch was taken out before the flood noah and his family went through the flood that's the jews who will go through the tribulation but god will protect them just like you protected noah just like he protected shadrach meshach and abednego but in these stories there's always somebody absent daniel was absent now maybe he was off doing some ambassador work or something somewhere far off in a distant land we don't know where daniel was in daniel chapter 3. but it's funny that daniel chapter 4 picks up and daniel's just kind of left out of the story so far and and now we we we finally get the information to daniel the chaldeans the sausage magicians once again could not give nebuchadnezzar the interpretation of his dream and so where's daniel well that's where we pick it up in verse eight but at the last finally daniel came in before me whose name was belty according to the name of my god and in whom the spirit of the holy gods and before him i told the dream saying now before he tells daniel the dream remember nebuchadnezzar gave daniel the name belty shazar and hananiah michel nazariah he gave them the names shadrach meshach and abednego and this was part of that assimilation process the babylonians would try to get get these boys to become more babylonian so all of those names had something to do with babylonian gods um it's funny that nebuchadnezzar here at this part of the story says you know i brought before me who the guy whose name belty shazer that's the name i gave him after the god bell as it turns out now by the way um when it comes to these gods of babylon there were many gods of babylon they actually had all kinds of ways of worshiping god but beltish azer his name means bell is prince so the prince god of bell was what basically nebuchadnezzar calls daniel um and and you gotta understand this verse eight is a description of nebuchadnezzar's you know world view before uh he gets saved that he was calling daniel after the name of my god that was his god during the time of the story being told and so he tells him the dream in verse nine oh belteshazzer master of the magicians again this is a dumb thing to say because daniel was not the master of the magicians um because i know that the spirit of the holy gods again wrong like he's so whacked out on all of his world view but he says i know that the holy spirit of the gods is in thee and no secret trouble of thee tell me the visions of my dream that i may that i have seen and the interpretation thereof thus were the visions of mine had in my bed i saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth and the height thereof was great now this is an interesting thing because um a tree uh in the midst of the earth the idea is a huge tree that's kind of right there in the middle of the earth and this is a big big tree um as it turns out did you know that outside of the bible there's all kinds of things that we have archaeologically that we found about nebuchadnezzar there's these writing on these stones and cylinders and it talks all about nebuchadnezzar the second one of the things he was obsessed with as it turns out are trees brad he would have fit right in portland man tree hug and nebuchadnezzar man uh is that what he was well it's interesting because uh in the um nebuchadnezzar in writing about his prayers to the god of merodak uh it's written on stone nebuchadnezzar's prayers to merida but in his prayers nebby was often obsessed with trees and there's actually a a depiction that you can find even if you google it you can find it it's a little hard to find but where there's a depiction of nebuchadnezzar pulling a tree out by its roots because he was so tough and amazing he could pull a tree out and it was a it was a cedar of lebanon now as it turns out nebuchadnezzar historically went to lebanon just to see the trees of lebanon that's that's a historical fact it's not from the bible it's it's one of the things written in the archaeological finds on these writings of ancient things and most scholars say man they don't know why he was obsessed with a tree i think the bible tells us why he was obsessed with trees and it's this dream that he had that troubles him and in the same way remember when nebby had the dream of the statue of the head of gold arms of silver belly brass legs of iron you know it was about his destruction he tried to defy that by saying i'm going to build a statue of pure gold daniel chapter 3 and i'm going to show that my kingdom will be everlasting it's like he was in rebellion against the dream god gave him in daniel 2 23 years later so this obsession with trees extra biblical literature it might just be because of this dream that he had about the tree that's troubled him greatly and so he goes up to lebanon and says i'm going to pull the trees out by their roots i'm going to show my strength against the tree what was wrong with him he was he was obsessed with trees and the big debate is whether he was obsessed before this dream or after the stream or because of this dream we don't know the answer to that but he was in fact obsessed with trees and he was kind of afraid of them and he was wanting to sort of defy the power of a mighty tree that's that's the weird part about history as it goes but the bible gives us this little snapshot so he sees this tree in the midst of the earth and and the height thereof was great verse 11. the tree grew and was strong and the height there i've reached unto heaven and the sight thereof was to the end of all the earth this is a massive massive tree verse 12 the leaves thereof were fair and the fruit thereof was much and in it was meat for all um the beast of the field had shadow under it and the fowls of heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof and all flesh was fed of it now this is an interesting um picture i i have this picture in my head from one of my trips to africa when you fly into africa from paris france you fly over the sahara desert and you don't realize how huge the sahara is until you fly over it you know in a 747 like it's just hours of flying over just rolling sand and it's it's pretty amazing but i'll never forget watching once in a while as you get closer to west middle of africa and you're getting toward the southern edge of the sahara you start to see a tree like even from the airplane you can see oh there's a i think i see a tree down there and then and then as you get fly for another half hour oh there's like two trees in the near five trees and they start getting thicker and thicker and by the time you get to burkina faso there's there's a few sprinklings of big trees here and there but i remember i remember driving from uh wagodugu to what was the name of that place i think it was called bobo and i and i drove up north and we went to this place where there was only a few trees it's right on the edge of the sahara desert but it was so funny how the all the animals you know it's really hot there in burkina faso all the animals would find that one tree all the cows would like crowd underneath the tree just to get into the shade and all the birds from miles was like the only tree for miles so they would just all crunch under there it's it's actually kind of a funny scene every time you'd see a tree shade was a valuable commodity there in that heat and and every time i read this story i kind of picture that it's like this is the only tree on the earth and it reaches to the sky nebuchadnezzar says and all the creatures of earth come and eat the meat or the fruit of the tree and are taken in by the shade of this tree it's it's the tree that nourishes this is what he sees um so uh he he says all flesh was fed of it verse 12. and verse 13 i saw in the visions of my head upon my bed and behold a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven he cried aloud and said thus hew down the tree and cut off his branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit let the beast get away from under it and the fowls from his branches nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth even with a band of iron and brass with uh pardon me brass in the tender grass of the field and let it be wet with dew of heaven and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth let his heart be changed from man's and let a beast's heart be given to him and let seven times pass over him this matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth to it whomsoever he will and setteth up over it the beast pardon me the bassist of men verse 18 this stream i nebuchadnezzar have seen now thou o belteshazzar declare the interpretation thereof for as much as all the wise men in my kingdom are not able to make known unto me the interpretation but thou art able for the spirit of the holy gods wrong again the spirit of the holy gods is in thee uh it's the only god is in thee but all that to say he sees this crazy tree cut down um and um and you kind of think okay this is a weird dream but but for some reason this dream greatly troubles him he knows that it's something now who are the watchers in this there's kind of an interesting thing here it's it says in verse 13 um i saw the visions in my head up on my bed and behold a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven so there's debate you know who's the watcher but most believe this is probably an angel you'll see in your reference there probably some of you have a marked reference bible uh psalm 103 verse 20 speaks of the angels do the work that god wants to do and um the holy one here could be the lord himself that's making the watcher keep an eye on the tree and eventually cut down the tree but that's kind of a language that you have to be careful about whenever you say someone who's holy there's only one who's truly holy so the watcher is probably an angel the holy one is probably the lord himself and if he came down from heaven in his dream maybe this is another vision of jesus preincarnate like we saw in chapter three in the fiery furnace so interesting that nebuchadnezzar sees this and uh and he's troubled by it well what is daniel's response this is where it gets interesting verse 19. then daniel whose name was belteshauser was astoni'd for one hour um astonished is the word that we would use there um he just sat there just stunned you know and and said nothing for a whole hour um nebuchadnezzar senses man there's something really wrong uh with with poor poor daniel like he's really troubled and so nebby tries to step up and comfort daniel uh by this time i'm wondering just just something for you to think about could it be that daniel and nebuchadnezzar are sort of friends um and and i want to suggest that because um you know jesus was called the friend of sinners and jesus was one who would hang out with sinners but but he wasn't like the sinners he didn't do what the sinners did and eventually the sinners would become saved that's the mark if you're saying brett i'm just hanging out with sinners i go to the bar every night with my buddies hanging out with sinners like jesus did hey as long as they're all you know turning to christ and you know dumping off all their sins and becoming holy then you're being like jesus uh that's a funny thing well i wonder if daniel and nebuchadnezzar are sort of friends check this out daniel just sits there astonished for an hour and check out what the king says um and it says well it says he's astonished for an hour and his thoughts troubled him so daniel's deeply troubled by what he's just heard and it says the king spake and said beltashaser let not the dream or the interpretation there i've trouble thee like it's okay daniel it's gonna be all right even though nebuchadnezzar himself was troubled by the dream he's saying daniel you know it's gonna be all right dad's like no it's not you have no idea what you're about to hear it's going to be bad it's going to get ugly but nebby's like it's going to be okay buddy hang in there you know kind of thing um but the king spake and said beltashas or let not the dream or the interpretation of trouble the belt of shazar answered and said my lord the dream to be the dream be to them that hate thee and the interpretation to thine enemies in other words this is not good for you and it's good for your enemies this dream the tree verse 20 that thou saust which grew was and was strong whose height reached unto the heaven and the sight thereof to all the earth whose leaves were fair and the fruit thereof much and in it was meat for all under which the beasts of the field dwelt and upon whose branches the fowls of heaven have their habitation now let me just pause for a second um one thing that you should be aware of in the bible there's kind of a funny thing about trees and birds and it's not you know completely all the time but did you notice like there there's good birds and bad birds in the bible but most of the time fouls of the air with the exception of the dove pretty much is is always something evil the typology in the bible um when you talk about the fouls of the air it almost always is something evil and like when jesus talked about the parable of the mustard seed and grew into a tree a lot of people read that and and the birds of the air can come and land in the tree and the parable that jesus told a lot of you oh how wonderful a mustard tree growing into a seed but a tree but do you know that a mustard seed was not supposed to grow into a tree that's like a weird amalgamation of something that shouldn't have happened and then the fowls of the air end up landing in the tree and the the typology there is probably the church itself and and the idea is not a good thing there's been sermons i've heard about how just let the mustard seed be planted in the church grows and people will come and land on the tree i'm not sure that's the imagery that's being talked about there it's more like this the chur the church growing into something that it shouldn't be and then the evil one satan remember the the birds of the air they're the ones that came and plucked up the seed of the word when the sower sowed the seed the fowls of the air came and ate the seed of the word well those same fowls are landing in the branches of this weird tree that's not supposed to be a tree at all um and so yeah you have to kind of watch those images it's funny how in some places the tree can be a negative thing um interesting jesus is said to have died on the tree that's a language that that peter uses and also in the old testament cursed be him the one who's hung on a tree um there's a there's actually a curse associated with the tree which becomes the cross but it's the fowls of the air often times it's the evil so this imagery of trees and stuff you kind of have to be careful with it the bible oftentimes puts that in the real negative as far as biblical typology is with me on that that's important just kind of heads up unless it's a dove which is a type of the holy spirit oftentimes the birds of the air are a type of evil actually so so here's nebby uh you know it says the tree that you saw which grew and strong um you know whose leaves were fair uh and it says the branches where the fowls of heaven made their habitation verse 22 it is thou o king you're this tree you're this tree that has grown and becomes strong for thy greatness is grown and reaches to the heaven and thy dominion to the end of the earth and whereas the king saw a watcher and a holy one coming down from heaven and saying you down hew the tree down cut it down and destroy it yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth even with the band of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field and let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let his portion be with the beasts of the field until seven times pass over him now we'll talk about the seven times in just a second what that means but this tree is going to be cut down and what's going to be left a stump and it's going to be wrapped and banded with brass and iron does anybody remember what is brass a type of in the bible judgment this is god judging nebuchadnezzar in a certain sense by cutting him down but does this kill the tree well as it turns out the answer seems to be no there's a stump left uh some trees by the way have you ever cut them down only to have them grow again i've got a stump in my backyard that i cut down a few years ago and it's growing again and i'm gonna have to like cut it down again because i'm an anti-tree guy no just just kidding just kidding no um but but it's funny how trees do that but the stump is left and it's banded with with brass which is judgment until seven times and the tree is going to lay there in the dew so what's all that mean well verse 24 this is the interpretation of king and this is the decree of the most high which has come upon my lord the king that they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven and seven times shall pass over thee till thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule wherefore o king let my counsel be acceptable to thee and break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility your margin some of your margins say or a healing of thine error you've been erroneous you've made mistakes as a king and you've been brutal time to be nice break off your sins and show kindness and mercy to the poor that it might be a lengthening of your tranquility in other words you'll be at peace if you if you break off your sins daniel gives him sort of this challenge where he might be able to pull up from this judgment that's doomed the doom that's coming but but we'll see what nebby does with this in here in a second but have you ever had a friend or someone that you you sense they're like in this position where nebuchadnezzar is man they're just in rebellion against god and they're walking contrary to god and and but they're doing really well but they're troubled i think some of you parents you've had teenagers who say yeah shine you mom dad and their christian faith and you see them go off into the worldliness and do their thing and and your heart breaks for them and you're like break off your sins follow the lord it's one of the toughest scriptures you know train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it sometimes kids have to go out and learn even though you did your best to teach them the truth and show them that jesus is the way but sometimes some people have to go out and learn the hard way but nebuchadnezzar nebuchadnezzar's kind of at that place and you almost get this fatherly daniel coming along saying come on nebuchadnezzar break off your sins show mercy to the poor kind of interesting because um that's that's something that we should be careful about in our wealth and all of our comforts one of the things we should do is it's kind of uh breaking off of sin is to make sure and not forget to show kindness to poor people um we you know we live in a culture where it's kind of like oh poor people just get a job you know and we have this attitude like well if you're apart your own fault um you know it's time to you know get a job and and god helps those who help themselves does anybody know what where what what verse of the bible that's in it's in the quran wrong book um it doesn't say it exactly like that but it says that something like you know a law will only intervene when you step up and do it yourself first or something like that um and then it was benjamin franklin that made that phrase really popular god helps those uh who in 1736 benjamin franklin said that and then your grandma told you it was in the bible uh good book says god help those and she really just wanted to get your chores done that's all um that's what she was trying to do but um one of the most misquoted scriptures i'm so thankful the opposite is true god helps those who cannot help themselves that's what god actually does because you and i even our best works are filthy rags and you cannot save yourself you cannot do anything to add length of your days and help yourself but you can lean on the lord and with god all things are possible it's actually quite the opposite then god helps those who help themselves now i understand there's a side of that that is true if a man doesn't work he doesn't eat the bible says so there is a side of being responsible and all that the bible does teach but man i'm so thankful over all the overarching theme of the bible is that god helps us who don't and can't help themselves so you know the idea of nebuchadnezzar helping the poor this is what daniel says this is the remedy i wonder if some of us need to maybe consider how we can help the poor better than we do because man jesus was always seen helping the poor the new testament tells us over and over again that we need to care about the poor pure and undefined defiled religion james says is you know caring for the widows and the orphans and and uh doing what we can to help them that's what true you know religion undefiled is and uh we got to watch out for that i wonder if daniel would say to us break off your sins athe creek and help give show mercy to the poor you know i wonder if he would implore us in the same way but all that to say he says man break off your sins and follow the lord now as it turns out a nebuchadnezzar here's this and so what does he do what does he do with this we don't know for sure um but we know that there's a gap of time now um it says in verse 28 all this came upon the king nebuchadnezzar at the end of 12 months okay so what happened in the 12 months uh we don't know the bible doesn't tell us but after daniel tells him this 12 months went by could it be that dan did daniel convince nebuchadnezzar to be kind to the poor for 12 months could it be that nobody's like oh man i got to watch my p's and q's that's a horrible you know fate getting chopped down and becoming a beast of the field and and he was troubled by this but maybe the troubled heart lasted only for a while and and maybe it took 12 months from say yeah i don't know if that was really true maybe maybe daniel's just wrong um see that's human nature isn't it you know we know we get convicted in our hearts from something the scriptures tell us and we think man i gotta stop doing that i gotta start and for 12 months man you're successful i'm no longer gonna do that i'm gonna for 12 months man how long do you go before you get right back into the same old rut of the bad attitude or the prideful arrogance or the sinful uh tendency or addictions you know the things that the lord long ago told you break off your sins and you said okay i'm going to do it because it was enough to wake you up and shake you up but how long does it take you to kind of get back to just normal it seems to me like nebuchadnezzar took him 12 months and he just couldn't hold it any longer because you almost see what happens here he bursts out with this thing we started to look at on sunday with an absolute arrogance and pride um man that's something that kind of haunts and plagues us doesn't it when you know you shouldn't be doing something but you kind of find yourself doing it anyway even after a time well 12 months it took all this first 28 came upon king nebuchadnezzar at the end of 12 months he walked in the palace or the the better word there in the he uh the i should say aramaic as he walked in uh it's more like he walked upon the palace he's on top of the palace it says he walked upon the palace of the kingdom of babylon verse 30 and the king spake and said is not this great babylon that i have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty oh man the huge downfall of pride by nebuchadnezzar the king you know it's interesting because we see nebuchadnezzar falling you know in a horrible way we looked at this on sunday and the last phrase of this story we looked at on sunday about pride but here it is the ugliness raises his ugly head this is the thing daniel's saying break off you're not all that humble yourself before the lord the lord is near the bible says to that the person is of a broken and contrite spirit but he says nope the honor of my majesty and while verse 31 the word was in the king's mouth there fell a voice from heaven saying o king nebuchadnezzar to thee it is spoken the kingdom is departed from thee man whose voice was that was it the watchman was the watchman there watching the angel just going okay i'm watching as soon as he said i land him the king and my majesty in the watch was okay lord it's time time's up click um and again one of the things we know about god is there is a time's up we know that's going to happen in the tribulation with the rapture of the church there's going to be a time where god says time's up that's pictured here with nebuchadnezzar time's up the kingdom is departed from me verse 32 and they shall drive thee this watchman or the herald is saying they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and seven times shall pass over thee till thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will in the same hour was the thing fulfilled upon nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his heirs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws what a scene as i mentioned on sunday there's a there's a psychological condition that happens to people called philanthropy where people literally become amino animal-like and they they they think they're cows that's really beautiful there's other kinds of uh you know versions of people becoming animals in their minds but you know there's stories you'll you can read about them uh you know psychology has found like this one lady tells him a time where she lost her mind and she was walking with a friend and the friend opened the door and said i'm going to you know have you greet your whole your new friends and she opened the door into a barn and there was all the cows and for years she thought those cows were her people and she lived with the cows like there's true stories where this actually happened uh kind of interesting enough and then she also had her you know reasoning come back to her and she wrote about her experience as a cow for years uh like that's happened in several places in the earth uh in various times um now the part about growing claws and feathers and stuff i don't know if that literally happened or did his hair get matted and kind of rastafarian uh little dreadlocks or something i don't know but it could be just god miraculously i don't i don't have a problem with god just saying bring okay you have claws and feathers now um that could have happened too but as it turns out it says here he did eat grass first drug addict of the bible on grass for seven years sorry that's for you portland people um uh so now before we move on let's talk about verse 32 and seven times shall pass over the until now know the most high this this idea of seven times is sort of foreign seven times what um but this is a phrase that you and i should know we'll take this moment to sort of prep us for the rest of the book of daniel because and the bible because there's places in the bible where the word time means one year times means two years and we're also going to talk about a half time and we know that this is years so most scholars agree that nebuchadnezzar was a cow or whatever this beast is for seven years when it says seven times passed over him that means seven years went by um that's that's the idea let me let me sort of prove that just a little bit if you would turn to daniel chapter seven let's let's go ahead in the story just a little bit in daniel 7 25 um chapter seven we're gonna we're gonna do some heavy lifting when it comes to bible prophecy in daniel chapter seven um but we're gonna talk about the the coming world leader called antichrist and he is mentioned in verse 25 daniel 7 25 and he this antichrist character shall speak great words against the most high and shall wear out the saints of the most high and think to change times and laws and they shall be given unto his hand until a time times and the dividing of time anybody want to take a stab and guess how long that is three and a half years those of you who know the narrative and the abomination of desolation is going to hap happen in the middle of the seven year period called the tribulation and jesus said the abomination spoken of dan by daniel the prophet and daniel speaks about it here in other places but in the middle of the tribulation three and a half years he's going to commit that abomination and that's what this is referring to now flip over to revelation chapter 13 real quick uh by the way daniel and revelation go hand in hand we'll see that as we get further in the book um chapter you know four tonight easy peasy uh but we we got some heavy lifting coming when it comes to bible prophecy and stuff like that especially in the last six books of chapters of daniel but in revelation 13 this is where you can know that when it says the the time times and the dividing of time in daniel 7 we know that's three and a half years because of revelation 13. also talking about the antichrist and the tribulation period revelation 13 5. it says there and there was given unto him notice there's a reference there if you have a bible remember daniel 7 is linked to this there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was given unto him to continue for forty and two months um 1 260 days how long is that anybody three and a half years see daniel's the one that tells us is time times and the dividing time three and a half years but the book of revelation clarifies that that's exactly you know three and a half years to the day and then the lord's gonna finish up the tribulation period after that i mean that's when the second coming's gonna happen so it's just i'm not gonna get into all this stuff about the antichrist yet we will soon but i just want to show you that when the bible talks about time times and the dividing time or the phrase time time and a half time it's talking about that three and a half years of the last part of the tribulation by the way there's the tribulation period anybody know there's a specific name for the last three and a half years anybody know what that is the great tribulation that's the great part um seven year tribulation but when you hear the great tribulation term that's talking about the last three and a half years which are going to be the worst part of the tribulation well back to daniel 4 that's this idea of the of um seven times or seven years will pass over now with all that said um you you can do some interesting work thinking about boy why is there seven years of nebuchadnezzar becoming like an animal um and you know i've heard some interesting uh theories on the correlations even as we made last week about the fiery furnace being like the tribulation period and the jews getting through that time and jesus being seen by the jews in the fire furnace just like jesus will be seen in the tribulation we went through a bunch of things that are very interesting correlated to chapter three some people do similar correlations with chapter four but the big question is who is nebuchadnezzar some people call him the tribulation saint because he's almost cut down to death but not quite the tree gets cut down he's humbled he's going through time of judgment that's the brass but he's not going to be completely dead and he's actually going to be saved in in the time of seven years and and uh and the question is how is he saved he's gonna look up to heaven and that's that's some people believe that's talking about the tribulation saints um of the old testament and the way that's gonna go down um and there's also some interesting notions about babylon and in the book of revelation the tribulation period there's the religious babylon economic babylon nebuchadnezzar's king of babylon seven years there's some interesting correlations there that you can make uh and um but i the reason i don't spend a lot of time with that tonight is because i'm not completely sure uh that i know um exactly how that all fits together probably will as time goes by and when we're in heaven and we're seeing the tribulation unfold on earth oh that's what that means um but there's a lot of interesting thought about what what chapter four actually is uh uh typifying there but anyway stuff for you to think about at least uh don't send me emails by the way with all your theories there's too many to read when you guys do that and i know that you're all brilliant and you know all things but um i'm just admitting i i haven't been convinced i've read a lot of different theories on that and just some interesting stuff well all that to say he's uh he's eating grass for seven years growing feathers and nails like claws but then nebuchadnezzar finishes up his testimony this that's the bad part uh out there chewing the cud with the cows but verse 34 it says at the end of the days i nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me and i blessed the most high and i praised and honored him that liveth forever whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation now pause for a second totally changing his tune now he sounds like a real believer um i love that but there's a phrase here that i can't just leave alone here because it's such a cool phrase and it's an important phrase i lifted up my eyes unto heaven um one of the phrases in the bible that you should note is when people lift up their eyes to heaven it's always a good thing um but when you lift up your eyes just only so high that's always a bad thing you got to keep lifting your eyes but don't stop looking at your problems or or even the enticements of this world or the things you think you've done remember earlier in the chapters he was looking at babylon he lifted up his eyes to babylon is not this babylon that i have set up that was going to be his downfall but once he lifted his eyes all the way up to heaven there's a there's a beautiful picture there by the way in genesis chapter 13 there's a um an interesting lifting of the eyes scenario that i want to share with you you can jot it down in your notes but in um in genesis 13 uh abraham's shepherds and lot shepherds they're kind of hassling with each other and if you remember there in genesis 13 abraham says listen lot you know we're not getting along let's part ways uh and uh i'll tell you what you know you can go left if you go left i'll go right if you go right i'll go left you choose um now now here's the funny thing if you could sort of uh talk about this for a second um if if you go you know toward you know the the what i would say the west um then you look over here and you see green plains of jordan fed by the beautiful jordan river and there's green lush vegetation if you look to the east you see sand rolling dry barren desert and abram says look either way and and choose which way you want to go and and the bible says lot lifted up his eyes let me just read it to you here it says um lot lifted up his eyes and behold the all the plane of the jordan was well watered and the lord um was uh it was well watered everywhere before the lord destroyed sodom gomorrah but it was like the garden uh even as the lord liked to the land of egypt as you come to zoar so a lot chose him the plane of the jordan and journeyed east so here's the thing um lot chose the beautiful one now abraham lifts up his eyes but i love it lot lifted up his eyes to just the world and said oh green grass it's a great place to raise cattle but he didn't say lord is this going to be a great place to raise kids because he ends up in sodom and gomorrah over there that's where he ends up living in sodom and gomorrah and his family is all but destroyed and the story ends with lot hiding in a cave with his two daughters having an incestuous relationship with them and them having babies ammon and moab but she became enemies of israel and what a horrible story that was the end of life but abraham instead of just lifting up his eyes to the desert that it was the site he was going to go to um it says um um the lord says to abraham and this is genesis 13 14. after lot was separated from god says to abram lift now up your eyes and look so abraham's lifting his eyes up to the lord but the lord says i'm going to show you something and then he says now look at the desert see the key is to look to the lord and the lord says now i'm going to show you the desert he says see all the grains of sand that's how blessed your people will be i'm going to make your nation as many as there are grains of sand that's how many people you're going to have in your uh you know the family of the jews and i will give this land all the land that you see to thee will i give it to you and to your seed forever like you know abraham could have looked and said i don't want the desert but he looked up higher to the lord i just i like to kind of give you that because it was nebuchadnezzar's problem looking only to babylon only to a situation but when he finally lifted his eyes to heaven that's when he had true perspective i fear there's too many people lifting up their eyes seeing things like vaccination and masking and they're lifting up their eyes and seeing school problems and and portland and antiphon and all the problems and stuff and they're lifting up their eyes they're seeing this and the other thing make sure that you're lifting your eyes up to heaven before you move to texas where it's well watered oh wait oregon's well watered uh hold on yeah watch out where you end up because i'm not saying it's bad if you go to texas or arizona or boise or we've lost a ton of people and i think the lord has called some people to move but at the same time it's funny how we can lift up our eyes and look at our situation say man i'm out of here i'm upset by this or that or the other thing but lift your eyes all the way to heaven seek the lord first in his kingdom and then all this other stuff will be added to you i worry that we're so reactionary to what we're seeing only lifting up our eyes to the situation but god wants us to lift our eyes to get true perspective you got to seek first the lord and lift your eyes all the way that's that's what's lacking in lot abraham did it right nebuchadnezzar does it wrong man god give us wisdom to lift our eyes to heaven well that's what abraham did that's what nebuchadnezzar finally does he lifts his eyes to heaven verse 34 and he sees that god is the one as the true god everlasting god and then he goes on in verse 35 and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him what do us now remember uh before we we saw in chapter uh um you know three we saw him you know raised that question who is it you know that's going to deliver you from my end in chapter 3. verse 15 at the end there nebuchadnezzar now says uh never mind that nobody can be saved from his hand because he's the king of kings this is the perspective nebuchadnezzar has but he had to become a beast before he could actually get it what's the lord gonna have to do with you to get you to where you really understand that god knows what he's talking about and god is everlasting he's all powerful all in control his word is true um hopefully we can go a little easier than nebuchadnezzar took him quite a a chore to become a believer um but but i love what he says verse 36 at the same time my reason returned to me and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor and brightness returned unto me to get a sense that there's a little different with he's talking about what's true but he's not prideful about it he's restored back to his glory of his kingdom he's but he's but you don't hear it like this at least i don't when it says the lord is reason came back to him for the glory he doesn't say for the glory of my kingdom he's not saying that and mine honor and brightness return to me he's not saying that he's saying we're nothing before god and god returned me to a place of position prominence power but you get a sense that he's humble see this is the thing um we don't want to be falsely humble and say oh i have nothing to offer i'm just a nobody because nebuchadnezzar is not a nobody but he's got the proper perspective that's what god wants of you and me is to have a proper perspective not a falsely humble oh i'm nothing and i can't do anything but a reasonable accurate view of oneself that's what the lord wants for us to be sober minded is kind of what the bible talks about us so he knows he's back into that place of power and his glory of his kingdom but it's a much more humble in light of god kind of brightness he says my honor my brightness returned to me and my counselors and my lord sought unto me and i was established in my kingdom and excellent majesty was added unto me now i nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven all whose works are truth and his ways judgment and those that walk in pride he is able to abase powerful man king nebuchadnezzar he finally gets it um and he wraps it up this is the last thing we hear from old nebby uh historically it's the last thing he becomes a believer in god and and he says there's only one god and i think that's where he becomes a believer in god next week chapter five we're gonna get into some crazy stuff the handwriting on the wall and uh we're gonna see a guy you know need some pampers it's going to be amazing so we'll be into that story next next week lord we're so thankful for your word this story is such a great reminder of the destruction of pride the holy spirit that comes before a fall lord give us just a sense of what real human humility is about and show us lord how to to have the right mindset lord i pray that um so many people in this world who have it seemingly together and everything's flourishing but we know there's so many people troubled things that they know about themselves things that they've seen that troubles them but lord i pray like daniel that we would come and speak the truth into people's lives give us that same compassion that daniel had on nebuchadnezzar lord we see this world and their sin and the mistakes they're making and and we often turn to insulting them or thinking that they're a bunch of losers but lord like daniel i pray that we'd be astonished when we see the destruction that's coming and instead of relishing in that help us to be grieved over that and help us to speak truth like daniel to break off sin and and to humble and to be merciful to the poor lord and just to speak that truth into people's lives give us wisdom lord and i pray lord tonight as we've gone through this chapter that you just continue to give us understanding and that this chapter will just continue to speak to us by your spirit that we continue to learn as the time goes by that we'd see the the truth more and more as we walk in your ways lord so bless this group that's here that's watching online tonight bless them we pray in jesus name amen

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 9,909

Rating: 4.9248824 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: 6hqM85jMwEE

Length: 62min 48sec (3768 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021