Daniel Chapter 4 Verses 20 – 22

• Well, so far so good maybe Nebuchadnezzar is thinking, but then oh wait…what about the rest?

Daniel Chapter 4 Verses 23 – 24

• Daniel is very intelligent and he just did something very clever. I didn’t catch it the first few times that I went through this scripture set but notice, Daniel skillfully lifted the decree from the “watchers” to the “Most High.” Did you see it? So what’s he saying? What’s he doing?

• You see the watchers, as great, gifted and as glorious as they are…are merely ministers of God and thus the pronouncement which Daniel is about to deliver, he’s making it clear that it did not come from the prophet, nor form the angelic beings, but God on High Himself! Not only is that entirely appropriate but it is also a consistent quality we see in Daniel throughout his book. He is constantly pointing people back to the Lord man…a true quality of a godly person!

• Why not just jump to the advice? Why not just tell Nebuchadnezzar that the dream is bad news man…but here’s what you do…set this person over this and set this decree…get the field nice and green and lush…build yourself a nice werewolf house and adorn it sumptuously! No!   He points him to God man…which ultimately leads to his salvation and full restoration.

• Look I know that Dr. Phil and Joel Osteen and Oprah and Joyce Meyer and even Michael Jackson have some really great advice! Come on man! “If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change!” “You better run, you better do what you can, don't wanna see no blood, don't be a macho man…” GREAT ADVICE, right? But ultimately if that advice is not rooted in faith, founded upon repentance and clothed in humility for the honor and glory of God on High and the casting down of pride and self-ful thought and life, then man it’s just a dog house being built on a pasture for when you lose your mind!

• Jesus never preached self-help, yet He preached practically and all that He taught would go beyond helping self and would arrive at freedom, joy, power, purpose and peace! He never said, “Oh well Matthew, you know your father neglected you and your friends called you stinky breath so see your fear for what it is…their fault!” No way! He preached “if any of you wants to be something then be the least of all. And if you would like to gain life then lose it for My sake man…trust Me, draw nearer and nearer to Me…learn of Me that I Myself am meek and lowly yet powerful and intensely excellent! Learn the truth, not the feelings…they deceive, learn the truth and be free man…”

• Be powerful! A revelation this week. That the servant of all HAS to be the strongest…to have the capacity and the energy and the courage and the persistence and the drive to serve eeeerybody! Practically it’s so clear…yet I’ve missed this for so long…the servant of all is the strongest of all!!!

• And really this verse set, this scripture set reveals to us a pattern of sin…notice verses 20 – 22. “It became strong, high even to the heavens…lovely leaves, abundant fruit and all the chicks wanted to hang man…(birds? HA!) Dominion there in verse 22...and that is the side of sin that Satan tells us about…but the truth of where it’s taking you is verses 23 and 24…chopped down man…left as a stump of your former self…beastly…

Daniel Chapter 4 Verse 25

• He would lose his mind you see…and live in the field with the oxen…not out in a deserted pasture or deep in the wood where Chin likes to go camping…but out in the open…where all the people would see the monstrosity and the judgment upon him…sin will promise you the castle but will deliver confusion, discomposure and public shame…and maybe the most disgusting stop along the way, the souvenir if you will…deception…folks don’t see the shame upon them sometimes and the things that you don’t know about yourself that others do…when rooted in sinful pride and sinful style…will cause even the birds of the air to flee and leave you only a stump man…

Daniel Chapter 4 Verses 26 – 27

• So after Daniel delivers the truth, in all it’s difficult glory, then the advice and that is certainly the right order but even the advice, notice, repent king…show mercy…take up righteousness…Daniel leaves the giving of the interpretation and seizes the opportunity to preach and to boldly correct the king and this alone is a true act of faith…it’s like Daniel is saying to himself, this is the last chance I may get…and this may cost me my life…but I’m going for it…

• What do you mean, cost him his life…do you remember who Nebuchadnezzar is? What kind of man he is? In 2 Kings 25:5-8 we read the account of Nebuchadnezzar murdering king Zedekiah’s sons in front of him and then immediately afterwards he blinded him so that the last thing he saw was the slaughter of his children! This is the king that forced his subjects to worship the idol that he had made in his own image and when three bold young men refused to violate their conscience in the matter, he had them thrown alive into a raging furnace….and then stayed to see them burn…

• Daniel didn’t care. He was eternally focused, filled with the power and the strength of the truth…fueled by hope and afraid of only hurting the heart of God…unstoppable! And you know, Daniel’s godly advice may have helped Nebuchadnezzar a bit…given him some time to prepare…”hey honey, I’m going to become a werewolf…please Tivo the Broncos game…” because we see in the next verse set that all of this didn’t come upon him until the end of twelve months…

Daniel Chapter 4 Verses 28 – 30

• Daniel told him to repent…look up…place your mind upon heaven and your heart upon the truth of eternity and the fact that all that you have, God has given you…yet where is Nebuchadnezzar looking? Down. This is when we fall into pride man…when we fall into destruction and decay…when our eyes are fixed downwards…on this world and the things of this world…

Daniel Chapter 4 Verses 31 – 33

• Here it is…the Biblical proof that werewolves are real! HA! Man Nebuchadnezzar get’s completely body slammed by the Word of God...why? Because of sin man…and that’s the thing. The Word of God will comfort you, teach you, lead you and free you as indeed it is the truth…or it will pronounce judgment upon you. That’s why some folks love the Bible, and some folks absolutely hate the Bible.

Daniel Chapter 4 Verse 34

• Notice the contrast. Verse 28, he crosses that mysterious line between God’s long suffering mercy and God’s justice-filled consequential rebuke…and where are his eyes? They are on himself. He is looking downwards.   But here, verse 34, he says at the end of the time, I lifted my eyes…could it be that all he had to do the entire time was lift his eyes to heaven? Set his heart and mind upon God? Absolutely.

• Babylon was magnificent. Nebuchadnezzar had inherited it from a line of conquerors, builders…beginning with Nimrod, the founder of the city we read of in Genesis 10. It was glorious. About 56 miles in circumference, built in the form of a square along the Euphrates. The outside walls of the city were 335 feet high and 87 feet wide. Chariots would race side by side along the massive walls. And yet Nebuchadnezzar took it all and like his fathers and kings past, it wasn’t enough…

• And so he set himself over it and cruelty entered, pride surged and stupidity flourished! The same happens with us. All that we have, all that we have been given, the media tells us…our leaders tell us and our flesh tells us…just a little more…this isn’t enough…we even do this with the people in our lives…our wives…our husbands…as we look down upon them…

• Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 8:12, “For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.” And with that acceptance…comes gratitude and gratitude gives birth to service and service brings forth joy and joy hope and hope freedom man…all in its time…Nebuchadnezzar was always a beast. He was always out of his mind…God just simply turned him inside out. To show him what he was…

• And for seven years, he doesn’t lift his eyes. That is the depth of his pride…but finally, he humbles himself…lifts his eyes and faces the truth and that doesn’t result in him being condemned or beat down, he’s already there…notice, that produces in him understanding, praise and freedom…

Daniel Chapter 4 Verse 35

• But we do don’t we? He’s right you know. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, “What have you done?” God says in Deuteronomy Chapter 30, “behold I set before you life and death, blessings or cursings, so choose life that you may have it!” He extends His hand and offers us truth. Choose Him and find life. Choose self and perish. And then He expresses His will…choose life! But in either choice, His hand is not restrained. A man, a woman, we reap what we sow and while we survey our life and find ourselves bitter, no reason to say, “God what have you done?” Because you know what the answer will be? “Son, Daughter, you chose death…”

• Nebuchadnezzar sees that now. That although he had all the power of the world, he served none and therefore he was the weakest and the poorest…and he did it to himself!

Daniel Chapter 4 Verse 36

• Interesting how he separates understanding in verse 34 from reason in verse 36. Many have understanding, but few have understanding and reason.

Daniel Chapter 4 Verse 37

• Was it good that Nebuchadnezzar was made into a stump? That he lost seven years in the fields being made an open spectacle as a grotesque beast? There’s a part of us that doesn’t want to say the truth isn’t there…that yes it was good. Because it led to him coming alive man…God utterly slayed him yet he writes, “His works are truth, and His ways justice.”

• Maybe it’s time we all looked up. Maybe it’s time that we stopped scraping for more and began to be content with what we have so that we’d stop this self exaltation and begin to live…maybe we pray in courage for God to turn us inside out so that we might be made whole…

• The last thing spoken of Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible is found in the next chapter and what Daniel says of him is that God gave him a kingdom of majesty, glory and honor (Chapter 5 verse 18)…He’s done the same to you. What you do with it will determine how the times play out in your own story…