Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Daniel Chapter 4

I bring you greetings from Church of the King in Sacramento, California. Birthed last Lord’s Day as John S. and I traveled to Sacramento and installed John Stous as the first elder and received members into the church. And it is a delightful thing that God has brought forth, birthed another manifestation of the church of Jesus Christ.

I love the first song we sang. Of course, you probably already noticed that in the songs today, there’s kind of a Sabbath theme, right? About the Sabbath day, Christian Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath. We sort of ripped the heart right off one of the songs. Somehow we ended up not having verse three of “A Day of Rest and Gladness,” which is really—I always wait for that verse when we sing this song. I just love it. It says this: “Thou art a port protected from storms that round us rise. A garden intersected with streams of paradise. Thou art a cooling fountain in this dry, dreary land. From thee like Pisgah’s mountain, we view our promised land.” A beautiful picture of the delight of the Christian Lord’s Day. And that is really the theme of today’s text.

Daniel chapter 4. We come to the fourth in a cycle of four stories, factual accounts of course, but stories describing God’s people having been delivered out of the new Egypt as it were.

Remember why it’s important for today’s text. We remember why God’s judgment came upon Jerusalem and why we want to see Nebuchadnezzar as a deliverer. They were oppressing one another. Jeremiah makes it quite clear that the enslavement of fellow Hebrews was the sin for which they were judged and for which they were delivered. Really, Daniel and then later many more would come out of Jerusalem, being delivered out of what has become a new Egypt where instead of producing freedom, the people produce bondage.

Remember that. And in this cycle of four events in the life of Daniel and his friends, in the life of Nebuchadnezzar, it’s that fourth day, fourth commandment. Remember we said the first four commandments form this nice unit that results in establishment, God’s enthronement on the Lord’s Day. And the fourth day is the center of the days of creation when the rulers for God shine. We’ll see Nebuchadnezzar proclaiming the gospel in a foreign tongue, Aramaic, as this story is taken back to Jerusalem and read there.

And we’ll hear the proclamation of the gospel and the fulfillment of the great commission of that time through the words of Nebuchadnezzar. This is a delightful passage that God has placed before us.

Daniel chapter 4. Instead of giving you a separate outline, I’ve given you a picture worth a thousand words. I’ve included the basic flow of the text on the scripture text in front of you in the sevenfold pattern we’re so familiar with from the book of Daniel so far. And it will remain this through the end of the book. So if you could follow along with the reading on the handout, then you’ll see the words that I want to emphasize. We talk about these sections and you’ll see the flow of Daniel 4 as well.

Please stand for the reading of God’s word. This is a wonderful message of gospel truth.

**Daniel chapter 4:**

King Nebuchadnezzar to the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed, the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation. At last, Daniel came in before me, he who was named Belteshazzar, after the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy God.

And I told him the dream, saying, “Oh, Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy God is in you, and that no mystery is too difficult for you. Tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation.”

The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its leaves were beautiful, and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said, “Thus: chop down the tree, lop off its branches, strip off its leaves, scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from a man’s. Let a beast’s mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him.

“The sentence is by the decree of the Watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.

“This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw, and you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation because the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy God is in you.”

Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. The king answered and said, “Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.”

Belteshazzar answered and said, “My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies. The tree you saw, which grew and became strong so that its top reached to heaven and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived—it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth.

“And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him’—this is the interpretation, O king. It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord, the king: that you shall be driven from among men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox. You shall be wet with the dew of heaven. And seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

“And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that heaven rules. Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.”

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. And the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty hand as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”

While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven: “Oh King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you. You shall be driven from among men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”

Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men, ate grass like an ox, his body wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair grew as long as eagle’s feathers and his nails were like bird’s claws.

At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

At the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven. For all his works are right and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

—

Let’s pray.

Father, we extol the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Forgive us, Father, for our doubt that the affairs of men are governed over by him. We praise your holy name for this wonderful gospel from this mighty king. We pray, Lord God, that this gospel might resound in our souls, that you may transform us by the power of Christ’s word. In Jesus’s name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

What a magnificent text of scripture! This is wonderful gospel that comes to us today in this completion of the Nebuchadnezzar cycle. We see echoes of other texts. Surely we have to think about Joseph and Egypt and Pharaoh coming to conversion. But here we have this well-developed account of how this happens. We have a well-developed account of Nebuchadnezzar’s full conversion, right? And we have a well-developed account of the establishment, the ushering in of a theocracy.

Now, on the outline, I’m going to give some points of application after we look at the text, but I provided you a picture. The young kids have got a coloring page that really is quite inadequate, but at least the kids can see those long fingernails and all that hair. He kind of looks like a prophet, a good guy! William Blake’s drawing, which is on the actual outline for adults, I hope it doesn’t offend you, but I thought it captured so well what happens to Nebuchadnezzar, the abasement that God puts him through.

But you know, you’re not really going to fully appreciate this picture given to us in the text or William Blake’s rendering of it if we don’t understand who Nebuchadnezzar is.

And in the Providence of God, in my world history classes last Wednesday, we had a delightful time talking about history—our only infallible history book, the Bible—and how Genesis 10 gives us the list of modern nations, seventy of them where they came, or my list of nations rather, seventy where they came from, rooting back to Noah and his three sons. But also very special, we look at a couple of verses there that talk about Nimrod, the man who establishes the city of Babylon—Erech in the King James version—Akkad, home of the ancient language of Akkadian. This is post-flood, of course. Nimrod, mighty hunter, Orion in the stars.

Nimrod establishes again the kingship of Babylon. Now later we’ll know that God will confuse the tongues of men at Babel once more. But after the flood, Nimrod tries to rebuild the culture prior to the flood. Many people believe that, leaving where he was planted, where his descendants were to place themselves—Africa, North Africa, and Egypt, the sons of Ham—this is where Egypt and Africa come from. Nimrod makes a beeline back to Mesopotamia to find all that neat technology and culture that God destroyed in the flood.

And in Babylonian legend, they say that kingship was handed down from the gods to men twice. Twice! And this is the second time when Nimrod receives kingship. He becomes the mighty warrior who establishes empire here, and the roots of what later Nebuchadnezzar will rule over in terms of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar was young, I don’t know, twenty years old maybe. His father, emperor of Babylon, was killed. Now he grew up as a prince, you know, the crown prince. He was going to replace his father. He grew up with great prosperity and plenty. He grew up in the ascendancy of the Babylonian Empire, reliving once more the great glories of Nimrod, the mighty hunter, maybe reflected in the epic of Gilgamesh, a piece of ancient literature describing a king who was king of Erech in Genesis 10. Maybe some say Nimrod was Osiris, the Egyptian god who had roots in a historic personage. We don’t know for sure.

But Nimrod was this great mighty emperor guy who took over and established the world again, who brought heaven to earth. He sets out three cities. Genesis 10 tells us. And people have marveled at the fact that these three cities and their placement line up with the three stars in the belt of Orion, the mighty hunter in the heavens. Heaven on earth is kind of what he’s establishing. Same thing’s true of the Giza pyramids built somewhere after the flood as well. The three predominant ones match up with these three stars in Orion’s belt.

There is a picture of world empire that lies behind the Nebuchadnezzar story that we must understand.

When Nebuchadnezzar becomes king, his father dies in battle and he becomes king. What he does is he goes up to this giant statue of Marduk, their false god, and he puts his hand up and Marduk puts his hand and they shake hands, as it were. I mean, Marduk doesn’t move of course, but he receives kingship from heaven. You see, the way Nimrod brought back down rule from heaven supposedly—perverted rule, of course, but rule from heaven. Nebuchadnezzar was godlike. He had touched Marduk’s hand. He was the divine ruler. He was the emperor. He looked over the whole known world to him, and he owned all of it. He was mighty and high. He was that giant tree.

Then in the Providence of God, you look at the picture by William Blake and imagine that man, that mighty emperor, king, godlike figure, all the power of Babel prior to that Nimrod, all the power of the pre-flood civilization that had great technology that we do not yet know of. All of that really flows down in this personage of Nebuchadnezzar, and the Lord God converts him.

This is gospel. This is the great commission fulfilled in its time. You see, this tells us that God is not interested in setting isolated churches in the midst of empires and just toughing it out. This tells us that the purpose for planting God sovereignly planting his people in a nation and an empire in the world is to convert it. This is a beautiful picture of that. And he does it by means of death, decreation.

Sevenfold accounts in the text. Probably noticed some of them. I tried to mark a couple things to meditate on. Nebuchadnezzar had built a world of creation, and God tore it apart. He brought him to his knees. And this picture by Blake is a good picture of that debasement of Nebuchadnezzar.

So many truths in this culminating story of this fourfold triad of tales that talk to us about how a theocracy is ushered in. So many accounts again that would remind us of past stories.

Did you notice that Nebuchadnezzar’s on his roof when the judgment happens? Nebuchadnezzar the first emperor of this new Mesopotamian empire status. Remember the statue in Daniel 2. God for 5600 years now will protect his people through empire. Divinely established by him, Nebuchadnezzar is the first in that sequence of emperors. And Nebuchadnezzar goes through debates, goes through prosperity, being brought down, lifted back up, first true king of Israel, right? United Israel, David, prospered by God, on a roof looking over his accomplishments, sees a girl, enters into sin. An eighteen-year-old girl that he grew up in court with, according to the chronologies, if we carefully check them out. And he, you know, as one of our past presidents does, horribly treats this girl. She was not like the girl that our president didn’t have relationships with. She was young, eighteen years old, and he took advantage of her.

There’s no doubt that the text wants us to think about that. David is brought down. Horrible things happened to David, and his children reflect it. But then David at the end is prospered again. You see, we had Israel becoming a nation, a kingdom properly through David, and its salvation really. And we see now the empire going through some of the same pictures. We see these echoes of other Bible stories.

Tower of Babel again clearly evident to us here, as it prepares us for the next chapter of Belshazzar. Belshazzar pointing forward in chapter 5. We have this tremendous picture.

But I want to focus first of all on looking at the text, and then I’ve got seven points of application flowing from the text. So let’s take a look now at the text itself. There’s the text beginning and ending with very clearly marked sections of praise to God, right? And the indication of this is—notice how he describes God’s rule in verse 3: “His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His dominion endures from generation to generation.”

Now scan down to verse 34 in the second section of praise. And while that ended that way, notice the way this begins. He says that the Lord God lived forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom endureth from generation to generation. You see the switch? We went kingdom, everlasting kingdom, dominion, generation to generation. Then it switches to dominion, everlasting dominion, kingdom enduring through generations. It has the same structure that clearly marks off that this has an opening and a closing. This account does.

It begins and ends with praise to God. This is the account of King Nebuchadnezzar. He wrote this chapter, Daniel chapter 4, and it is a proclamation of gospel. Notice it’s addressed to all the peoples, nations, and languages that live in all the earth. This is the great commission fulfilled. He’s going to proclaim now the one true God, God Most High. Elyon in the text from Genesis, Most High God. The God, this is the proper name of God to the Gentiles who are not the priestly nation of the Jews. “Peace be multiplied to you.” It’s a gospel message that opens up here: peoples, nations, and languages.

This takes us back to the last chapter. Remember that he had called together peoples, nations, and languages to worship the image of him or his continuity with God as it were. So now we see a complete contrast. Now he’s calling all the kingdom to honor the true God of heaven.

Second section, he then has this dream. It starts them being at peace in his house, at ease in his palace. We’ve talked about his house. Remember there’s his house and God’s house. Remember chapter one, how will God make war against the house of Deion? The house of Nebuchadnezzar, the house of the Babylonians. And that those themes are brought back to us in verse 4. He has his establishment of his house with its corners, and he’s at peace there. And he sees a dream that alarms him.

Now, this is the same word that is going to alarm Daniel as Daniel hears the interpretation. Here’s the dream—Daniel is going to become alarmed. A connection between Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel is given to us. And then he makes this decree that the wise men should come in and tell him what happens.

Is his decree successful? No. What he commands them to do doesn’t come to pass. In the matching section, when God’s prophecy, when God’s work comes upon Nebuchadnezzar, the word “decree,” the word of God is stressed there, and it comes to pass. You see, once more, the decree of Nebuchadnezzar in contrast with the decree of God. Man cannot speak his fiat word and bring reality into existence as much as we think we can. But God’s word always comes to pass. His decrees are always fulfilled.

Where’s Daniel here? Why doesn’t he start with Daniel? Well, not sure. Maybe because he knows this is a bad dream for him and he’s not quite… He’s hoping to get a different answer, maybe, right? We do that, don’t we? We know something’s wrong. We don’t go to the best source sometimes because we don’t want to know the truth for a while. We want to be self-deceived as long as it works out.

Maybe this is probably twelve years after Daniel has come to Nebuchadnezzar. There’s Babylon in verse one. Maybe there’s been some things that have fallen out to where things are… Daniel isn’t as prominent in the kingdom. We don’t know why, but we know that the text wants us to see the inability of fallen man to fulfill decrees and to know what God is doing in the world.

And then we have the first long section where Daniel is called by Nebuchadnezzar, and he actually recites the dream to him. Notice that Daniel here in chapter 4, his name is Belteshazzar. That’s setting us up for five. We’ll see next week the contrast between one son and another son. Daniel won’t be young anymore in chapter 5. He’ll be ninety years old or so, an old man. But there’s a contrast given here.

But another reason I think that Belteshazzar is used in this chapter over and over is it seems in the book of Daniel when the Babylonian names or the Aramaic names are used, the person being referred to—in this case Daniel—is being seen as a servant to the king in the context of empire. And then when Daniel becomes the name that predominates in the prophecy sections later in the book, it’s because when the prophecy sections—he’s speaking as a prophet of Yahweh of the priestly nation—so when Daniel and his friends are acting in a prophetic function, what’s the future going to bring to the empire? Then this name Daniel is stressed, Jewish name. But when Daniel is primarily acting as servant to the king, as he is in this text even though it involves some degree of prophecy, it’s really a service to the king that’s stressed. When that happens, then the Aramaic or Chaldean names are used.

One other thing I’ve got bolded here: “in whom is the spirit of the holy God.” The word “gods” there is not necessarily plural. It seems like this is an acknowledgement that the spirit of the holy God is in Daniel, and that ties to chapter 3 and chapter 2. Nebuchadnezzar learns enough to know that the spirit of Yahweh, who is not one of a pantheon of gods but is God, is in Daniel. So the text there we could cross out the “s” at the end of “God,” the three times it’s mentioned.

Now Daniel still has “chief of the magicians.” That tells us that. So we know that he’s still important. And then Nebuchadnezzar gives the dream, and the dream is structured in seven parts. Let’s just do this once, and it’s a matter of meditation, but if we meditate upon the text: first thing he sees in verse 10 is a tree in the midst of the earth. Its height looks great. So the transcendence of the Lord God “let there be light” manifested to earth. The transcendence of God manifested to earth is what day one of creation is about. And while Nebuchadnezzar—this book doesn’t use light imagery. It uses a tree as a demonstration of that light or that transcendence. And so that is what Nebuchadnezzar is. He’s this transcendent manifestation of God.

“The tree grows and becomes strong and its top reach to heaven, visible to the ends of the earth.” Second day, God makes the firmament connecting heaven and earth. And now Nebuchadnezzar is described as reaching to heaven but being visible to all the ends of earth.

Verse 12: “Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and it was food for all.” Day three, plants grow up, and specifically food—grain plants, fruit plants, food. And so Nebuchadnezzar is described in third day terminology in verse 12.

And then “the beast of the field find shade under it. Shade from the sun.” Fourth day is the creation of rulers for him. Rulers are sun, but your rulers are also shade. Jesus is a bright sun, but he also keeps us from being cooked. He’s our shade. He’s our rock in which we find refuge from the sun. So the shade reference shows Nebuchadnezzar here again in this fourth day ruling that really they’re like the sun, moon, and stars. Rulers in the context of the earth by providing shade.

And then five: “the birds of the heavens live in its branches.” Heavens, birds—that’s fifth day imagery. The birds are created on the fifth day to fill the heaven. “And all flesh is fed from it.” Flesh, men and beasts—sixth day creation.

And then he says, “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, behold a watcher, a holy one.” On the seventh day, what happens? God comes to be with man at the end of the week, beginning of the next week, and he evaluates man. So Nebuchadnezzar is described in creation terminology in this dream.

If it’s a useful exercise over the next few weeks to meditate, to read these chapters and see how these things line up. The point is Nebuchadnezzar had built a world, created a world, and really it was a pretty good world. It’s kind of similar to God’s creation. But then God evaluates that on the seventh day. And in that evaluation, his world is ripped apart. The leaves are taken off, the fruits are pulled apart, it’s cut down, the animals all scatter away from his dominion. The nations run away.

What’s going to happen is the empire is going to fall apart for a period of time. Decreation is the opposite of creation. It’s the way God breaks men down to then build them back up. And this happens to Nebuchadnezzar in the context of his conversion. He is decreated. He goes through ritual death to the end that he might be built up again by God, so that he knows, after being built up, that it is the Lord God who has established his kingdom, his world, that Nebuchadnezzar is creating properly for the glory of God in heaven.

And so, you know, this is repeated several times—this function—this sevenfold seven periods of time in verse 16 caps off, just like the watcher capped off the first recitation of the seven elements of the dream. So now the seven periods of time cap it off: a period of evaluation, seven periods correlating to Sabbath day and the end of the seven-day cycle in which men are enthroned but which men like Adam are judged.

And so this is the dream that Nebuchadnezzar tells him, and he tells Daniel that the purpose of this dream—so he’s told—is so that he knows that God will give dominion to the lowliest of men, and Nebuchadnezzar is going to become abased, like a beastlike person in his insanity, and this is the kind of man that he will become. And then Nebuchadnezzar ends the thing by repeating again: Belteshazzar, the spirit of God is in you, give me the interpretation. So there’s a unit here where Belteshazzar’s spirit, or the interpretation is asked for, Belteshazzar—the spirit, the dream is recited, and then it backs out the same way.

Then we come to the very middle of the text—not necessarily what we’d think is the middle of the text, but it is. It’s between the two big sections where Nebuchadnezzar speaks to Daniel and Daniel will then speak to Nebuchadnezzar. And right in the middle of the text then is the first phrases of verse 19: “Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while. His thoughts alarmed him. The king answered and said, ‘Belteshazzar, let not the dream or its interpretation alarm you.’” So Belteshazzar upset, alarmed. Shazzar dream and interpretation. Don’t be alarmed. Nebuchadnezzar said it, repeated three points twice at the center.

So at the very center of this narrative is the alarm, the upsetness, the difficulty, the problems that Daniel has with this. This is going to be the beginning of a theme that’s very important when we get to the prophecy sections in chapters 7 to 12. We’ll see that as Daniel gets a picture of what’s going to happen for the next 430 years or whatever it is, he’s going to have problems. He’s going to fall down dead. The future is going to trouble him.

And so we have this big theme beginning to develop here. What he sees happening to Nebuchadnezzar troubles him.

Why? Why does it alarm Daniel so much? We’re sitting in the midst of an empire. Let’s say that Bush doesn’t profess Christianity. We know he has this Pantheon prayer meeting. We’re upset, you know, that he’s not more explicitly Christian. Let’s say Carter gets elected. He has a real Pantheon prayer meeting for his inaugural service. And then we get a dream, an interpretation to Carter that he’s going to be judged by God and cut down. What’s our response going to be? Well, people are going to be pretty happy about that. Not Daniel.

Because he realizes that his fate is tied to Nebuchadnezzar. He probably cares for Nebuchadnezzar, too, by the way. They’ve grown to be friends, no doubt, over the twelve years he served Nebuchadnezzar. He knows that God’s plan for the whole empire is one of salvation. He’s patiently enduring through his folly, correcting him when he needs to, but he probably has a relationship with Nebuchadnezzar.

But he knows that his fate is tied to him. What happened in chapter 3? Well, the wise men, the old wise men who are supplanted by the young Hebrew guy who is odd and different and worships a different god than them, they get ticked off and they want to get Daniel and his three buddies killed, right? Last chapter’s three buddies are set up through the envy of the existing power establishment. So from a political perspective, Daniel’s not stupid. His protector is the emperor. When the emperor’s protection is gone, Daniel and his friends are going to be at risk. Don’t you think? Well, of course they will be.

So there’s lots of reasons for Daniel to be alarmed. And we’ll make some applications to us as we get to the end of this overview of the text.

Then we have the second speech, the recital of the interpretation of the dream to Nebuchadnezzar, and he explains it in four parts. He says, “We just saw this tree and this kingdom and it’s you.” He says in verse 22, again—here there’s this sevenfold function. And I won’t take the time, but again in Daniel’s interpretation, the seven days of creation seem to be alluded to. And the “it is you, O king,” lines up with the sixth day. And the king is the one who’s going to suffer judgment.

And the next thing that happens in verse 23 is the watcher, the holy one comes down. So the watcher comes down from heaven. By the way, isn’t there imagery here of Babel, right? When God came down to see the works of men, evaluated them, dispersed them. You see, and it’s same kind of story happening, but now it’s going to produce not just confusion, but we’re going to see now the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar and the empire.

And then he tells him to be—he’s going to be chopped down. He’s going to be destroyed. “The stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze.”

Now, in verse 23 and following, let me just mention here that iron and bronze—what is that all about? Well, again, we want to remember the imagery that’s been given to us in the book. Remember the statue in chapter 2: gold, silver, bronze, iron as it goes down to the earth. So Nebuchadnezzar’s emperor empire is going to be cut down. But Nebuchadnezzar will be protected still by the iron and the bronze, the lower laying elements of the empire. So this is a reference back to the empire. It won’t be totally abolished. Nebuchadnezzar will be intact, protected by it.

Remember, that’s the purpose of the metal man in chapter 2—is to protect God’s people, you know, and we get that wrong a lot of times. We don’t recognize the protective ability that God has placed over us through the existing authorities who may be quite godless as they were in the case of some of the empires for the next 500 years leading after Christ. Their protection. And Nebuchadnezzar himself is protected by this band of bronze and iron.

Now, in this particular verse, it’s the fourth element in the list of what’s going to happen to them. And bronze and iron are metals, and they’re reflecting the image of God. It’s a fourth day image connected to gold and silver. These things that shine if they’re burnished. That’s at the center of Daniel’s interpretation here: being bound with iron and then being wet with the dew of heaven, heaven again, and then portion be with the beast of the field, sixth day, till seven periods of time, seventh day of judgment. You see: creation, creation, creation, decreation, decreation, decreation.

These lists of sevens are not automatic and repetitious like chapter 3 was with its lists. Remember, these are always nuanced to give us new information. So they’re contrasted, these lists, with the lists of the pagan rituals of chapter 3. This is the true God speaking, and he speaks in a sevenfold order, but he mixes us up to help us to meditate upon different aspects of it.

One other one I want to point you out to here is in this section: verse 25. He says: “You’re going to be driven from among men. Your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox. You shall be wet with the dew of heaven. And seven periods of time shall pass over you till you know that God rules.”

Now notice that the order here is changed. And here what leads up to judgment, evaluation, and reconstruction—recreation of Nebuchadnezzar. He’s going to know. He’s going to be restored. What happens just prior to that? Wet with the dew of heaven—heavenly water coming upon Nebuchadnezzar—baptismal imagery. What we see in the dream is not just his deconstruction but his new birth, his resurrection being portrayed as well through the dew of heaven, which is involved with him then knowing that the Lord God rules in the affairs of men.

Daniel then gives his advice at the end of the interpretation in verse 27. “Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you. Here’s the deal: you don’t have to go through this. You don’t have to be killed by God. You can just kill yourself, sort of. You can go through ritual death. You can put on sackcloth and ashes. You can repent.”

If you judge yourself, you don’t need to be judged in extraordinary ways by God. It’s what he’s saying here.

Lesson to us. How do we repent? “Break off your sins by practicing righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed”—the oppressed, the enslaved, the downcast in the culture. Nebuchadnezzar is not compassionate toward the oppressed. And he’s not doing justice either for them.

That matter? Why were they here? Why was Jerusalem judged by God? Because they didn’t have mercy for the oppressed. The same thing is happening in the empire. Do you think that’s an important theme for us as we evaluate the ushering in of theocracy, the death and conversion of Nebuchadnezzar and our effectiveness in the world? Is that important for us? You bet it is. It’s the application that Daniel drives home to Nebuchadnezzar.

Now, Nebuchadnezzar apparently doesn’t follow the advice or he doesn’t do it well enough because the next section is the fulfillment of the dream. Now God’s decree, the voice from heaven, is fulfilled, and it happens.

“All this comes upon Nebuchadnezzar.” Twelve months later, the roof of his house—like David was on the roof of his house. He’s kind of exalted and he sees the great things that God has done through him, or that he has done rather, for his own glory. And as he’s meditating on his own pride, as he’s glorifying himself and saying, “What a good thing I’ve done,” the voice of heaven comes and says, “Your kingdom is departed from you.”

This will prepare us for Belshazzar in chapter 5. The kingdom being departed. Well, here it departs for a season from Nebuchadnezzar. With Belshazzar, it’ll depart completely from the Babylonian Empire and the Median Persian Empire will take over.

The kingdom departs from Nebuchadnezzar. And again, there, what was told him is what happens to him. He eats grass like an ox—like the emperor in “The Emperor’s New Groove,” right? You kids have seen that movie an awful lot of you. Pretty good movie. I mean, it doesn’t bring us to an awareness of Yahweh and King of Kings like Nebuchadnezzar found out about by the end. But it does show the same thing. Mighty ruler, high and lifted up. And this ruler is brought down into abasement, and he gets rained upon by the rain of heaven. That’s going to bring new life to him.

He eats not kingly food, right? He becomes like Daniel in chapter 1. He’s going to eat lowly food. He’s going to eat grain again, right? He’s going to eat seeds, and it grows for him. The way Daniel ate seeds in chapter 1, he’s going to start again, and God will rebuild him back up till he can eat kingly food again. He’s going to have more prosperity at the end than what he began with. He’s going to be emperor again. But he’s got to be abased to do it. He’s got to have compassion for people.

That’s what God is doing with Nebuchadnezzar. He’s driving him to the ground. That picture of Blake so good that God might raise him back up.

And so the decree happens, and he’s driven from among men. He eats grass like an ox. His body is wet in the dew of heaven. Hair grew as long as eagle’s feathers and his nails were like bird’s claws. Looks like Howard Hughes, right? He’s just gone completely mad for a period of time.

What happens to him? Probably Daniel and his friends are taking care of him. Somebody’s going to have to. Got nails that long—it’s hard even to eat. You got to eat with your mouth. You can’t put it to your use, your hands. He needs caring for, and probably Daniel and his three friends are out there with Nebuchadnezzar, caring for the emperor in his distress and his humiliation. Due for his sin, but nonetheless, Daniel has compassion for the king. And Daniel probably ministers to him here.

Eagle’s wings—nails like birds’ talents. He’s going to become the great eagle again. Again, the mark of empire. This is that period of history when the empire rules and Nebuchadnezzar is going to be that emperor again, but only through abasement.

And then the final last section, we return to the praise of God as the section begins and ends the entire chapter. His eyes rise to heaven. You see, instead of looking down at what we’re doing, his eyes rise up to heaven, and he acknowledges the God of heaven, and his reason returns.

Man, when he tries to be more than man, when he exalts himself as more than man, he is less than man. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was God. He took the hand of Marduk and he becomes a beast. So that when he raises his eyes back up to the true God of heaven, now he accepts his creaturliness. He accepts the work that God has done for him. And he wants to glorify not himself, but he wants to glorify God in heaven through the work that he accomplishes.

And that’s what he does. More prosperity, more greatness, is added to him. The end of the story is like again it’s like Job, right? You go through great sufferings in abasement, but God adds back. The trials and tribulations are more than made up for by the greatness that’s added to Nebuchadnezzar at the end.

And then the last phrase of course of the entire chapter, driving home what Blake’s picture drives home, what does it say? “He extols the king of heaven, and all his works are right and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” He is able to humble. Wonderful picture of how theocracy is ushered in. How Nebuchadnezzar comes to conversion.

I want to give seven very brief applications from the text in the time we have left. And these are—you can write these or allude to them in the bottom half underneath that wonderful picture by William Blake showing the abasement of Nebuchadnezzar.

And there’s seven things: First, we’re going to talk about worldbuilders. Second, I’m going to mention compassionate conservatives. Third, prophetic voice of the church to the state. Fourth, in the middle of the section—sun, moon, and stars, the middle of the four days of creation, right? Ruling, theocracy established. I’ll talk about in the fourth point of application: How is theocracy established? Five and six are going to be two different kinds of sufferings that we’ll allude to. And then finally, we’ll talk about the presence of Christ with us in the midst of two different kinds of sufferings.

**First: Worldbuilders**

Worldbuilders. First day of creation. Compassionate conservatism. Prophetic ministry of the church. Theocracy is established. That’s what we want. You know, you hear that word all the time talking about Muslims—they want a theocracy. Well, “theo” is God. “Cracy” comes from “cratic” or rule. All theocracy means is rule by God. We have a theocracy whether we like it or not. We want it explicit. We want the king to acknowledge that God rules in heaven, like Nebuchadnezzar.

What they really mean when they say theocracy in the news is “ecclesiocracy.” Ecclesiocracy—that means rule by the church. “Ecclesia”—church. “Cracy”—rule. Democracy—rule by the people, right? We don’t want an ecclesiocracy. The church is a separate institution. But the church is to speak to the civil magistrate that he might indeed have self-consciously a theocratic perspective on his rule.

Then two sufferings: Christ presence with us in the midst of suffering.

First: worldbuilders. We are all like Nebuchadnezzar. Now, this is talking about the great world builder of his time. We’re the same way. Creation week—we build worlds, right? Nebuchadnezzar built a world. Book of Ecclesiastes, you know, Solomon is like God. God finds it. Begins his creation by having a world that’s formless, void, and dark. And what God does is he forms it. He fills it, and he lights it.

You boys and girls, tomorrow morning, you get up and you take your room and you take that mess that you’ve left in it over the weekend and you make order in it. You see, you’re being like God there. You’re bringing peace, order to a place, and you fill your room with stuff you like that reminds you of blessings, right? You fill that house up. Women do the same thing. Men do it. We want to build our house and fill our house, and then we want light in there, right? You don’t want a dark room. You don’t want to live in a cave. You want to have light. Well, that’s building a world just like God built a world.

God forms the world up, fills it with plants and animals and birds, lights it. You see, that’s what we do. That’s not wrong. Nebuchadnezzar was supposed to build a world in an empire. The wrong thing is when you think it’s for your own glory, you do it according to how you see fit.

But kids, I mean, tomorrow you better be a world builder and a good one. Bring order to that room. Put good things in there. Don’t have it twofold. Isn’t it nice? We got a little piece of salvation up here on the stage today. You know, in the Old Testament, one picture of hell is being restricted. Too much stuff in a room, you know, that’s bad. You’re all tightened in. That’s constriction. That’s hell. The other picture of hell is being way away from everything. We want to be properly connected.

Well, we have a little suffering going on here for many months with that organ. And somebody was kind enough to move it out so we can breathe easy now. You know, it’s too full up there. But we’re supposed to fill the things that God gives us. And we’re supposed to bring the light of his word rather to what they are. All these things are to be done for him.

Welcome to my world. I played that song this morning for myself on the computer over and over again because this is what God does. He says, “Welcome to my world today. Opens the door. Come on in. I made this world for you.” He really does. And he wants us to be like him, right? He wants us to go home, build worlds that are beautiful places that are where we want to welcome people, too, and open our door, bring them into our world.

Boys and girls, you don’t get a house until you’re faithful in your little room. For some of you, that means you’re never getting a house. No, I guess they’ll give you a house if you’re not faithful, but it’ll be pretty crummy and nobody will want to come over. You can be a world builder. Isn’t that important? We’re made in the image of God. Be a world builder, children, men and women. Understand that’s what you do with your life. You build a world.

This world though, if you’re going to rule over the world, you have to have justice and mercy, right?

**Second: Compassionate Conservatism**

Compassionate conservatism is the second point. You know, Nebuchadnezzar has a problem. What’s his problem? He lacks justice. Daniel says, “Break off your sins by doing righteousness, conforming how you build that world to the law of God, and having compassion on others, on the oppressed.”

You know, I’ve said this many times. Micah 6:8: What three things are required of man? Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God. These are the things that Nebuchadnezzar ain’t doing. In our day and age, we have Republicans that want to do justice. We got Democrats who love mercy, and neither one of them, for the most part, are humble before God, and they get it wrong over and over again. They build worlds that are not pleasing. And when the God who is the watcher from heaven comes down and evaluates, he’s going to find it wanting.

May the Lord Jesus Christ make it so that our homes, our church, the communities we build are ones of justice and mercy and compassion. Probably the greater of these is compassion because Nebuchadnezzar has to be abased. That’s his particular thing. He doesn’t have to live without laws. God could have done it that way if justice was the biggest problem. Some say compassion is. And I would suggest to you that’s our problem.

In Reformed circles, we know about justice. We know about the law of God and all that stuff. But aren’t we compassionate? Well, we are. We are, but we forget it all too easy. There are people in this congregation, in this congregation, who are afraid of getting pregnant. Did you know that? Why? Children are a great blessing. We stress that in this church. They’re afraid. They can’t afford to put food in the mouth of such a one. They can’t even afford the doctor bills to get the child here, let alone feeding them.

And you know, it’s easy to blow that off. Well, you know, they just need to have more faith. They got to obey the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. No, folks, you’re supposed to have compassion for those folks. You know, Calvin was very big on this. If you’ve got more money, it’s to help people with less money in the context of the church primarily. Yes, we want to get loving going. We want to show compassion to in the mission fields we’re helping. All that stuff is great and good and very important for building the house here at RCC, building our world.

But, you know, it’s got to happen within this place, too. I am… I, you know, maybe, you know, God’s prepared me for this sermon for a couple of weeks. But I’ve heard conversations over the last couple weeks that kind of get me going, you know, about people should just have a lot of kids and it’s all okay. Just trust God, live on a farm, whatever it be. It’s not going to be okay. There is real suffering going on in families’ lives. This economy is really leaving single wage earners who are not white collar or professionals. It’s leaving them behind.

Do you have compassion for people in this church who make less money than you? I mean, it’s gut check time for us in terms of compassion. Do we? And is it compassion that actually does something as a result, or just pats, you know, the poor people in our congregation on the head and says, “Well, be filled. Be warm. Everything’s sound. God’s in heaven. He’s ruling.” Well, he rules through his people. And when he gives you more resources, it’s to the end that you would have compassion on the poor.

The ruler is supposed to protect his people according to all these this dream interpretation and feed his people. Now, we don’t like that last part because it sounds like welfare state mentality, and that’s not what it means. But if we rule and protect the people correctly, if we give an orderly environment, we’ll have then people being able to eat, right? Well, not quite right. That’s true.

Why does America eat so much? Because there’s been freedom from the welfare state. But the other element is we’re supposed to, and as a part of the rulers—church, state, and home—we’re supposed to demonstrate compassion for those that don’t have enough to eat. Food will flow in the context of a well-ordered civil state. But the civil governor is supposed to want his people to be fed, and he does it by demonstrating a heart of compassion for those people.

That I don’t know who gave up the phrase “compassionate conservative” for President Bush. It is a wonderful phrase. It captures the essence of what the emperor Nebuchadnezzar was supposed to be. And as America has moved into a world empire, it really captures—if we think of conservative as being justice-oriented as opposed to just conserving the past, justice-oriented—we’re supposed to have compassion, too. That’s a good thing. And I’m pleased that the president is trying to think of new ways to help make health care and good income available to people with lesser amounts of money. He’s not going to set up a welfare state, but he’s going to try to draw our attention to the problem and come up with new solutions. That is the perfectly proper job.

I got sheep on my tie today because the king in the Old Testament is a shepherd providing for food for his people, not through taxation of others. But nonetheless, it’s important for him. We build that here in the church. We usher in a theocracy by showing the compassion we have one for the other here.

I’ll tell you another thing that kind of upsets me a little bit lately. There’s good men involved in this. I’m not, you know, I’m not speaking against any men. But I’m telling you, I think it is very difficult to be a member of Reformed churches in America, reformed congregations, and be Black. I think that’s hard. You don’t know what that’s like. I don’t know what that’s like. And we can’t know what it’s like. I tell—we live in a country with a history of slavery and a history that rightly or wrongly continues to be dredged up by the media. And what do you think it feels like for a Black person being in the context of our primarily white churches? That’s tough.

And I know that there’s benefits to the Civil War. I know that the Confederation had a lot of things, right? But I, you know, I become more and less and less comfortable with being a denomination that’s called the Confederation because it seems to me to not evidence the compassion and sympathy for other people necessarily that we’re supposed to have. Nebuchadnezzar’s sin was a failure of compassion. Let it not be our sin. God will cut us down as a church if that becomes who we are as well.

What was the Sabbath? The Sabbath, you know, we focus in Reformed circles rightly on the Sabbath as a day of rest. Not buying and selling, not working, dedicated to God. But we have always in our constitution, in the Reformed documents, another component of Sabbath day rest was always benevolence. Why? Because that fourth commandment in Deuteronomy is all about letting the servants go free that day. It’s all about release from oppression.

Have we put as much effort into trying to remove the bondage of the economic difficulties of this day and age as we have trying to make it so we don’t have to work on Sunday? You see, it needs to be a vital component of who we are: compassion for the oppressed.

Jesus—Hebrews says, we’ll preach on this next year. Jesus is a better high priest in two ways: He’s faithful and he’s compassionate. We got the faithful down—justice. But the second thing: Jesus was compassionate. A God who is only true to his law without concern for the people he is governing is not the God of the scriptures. He keeps his law, but he does it in such a way as to extend compassion to those who are suffering even for their sins.

Our worlds must be worlds in which we have a demonstrable compassion for others.

**Third: Prophetic Voice to the State**

Compassion sort of four. Or I guess three? Guess I better move quickly.

Prophetic word to the state. Daniel speaks very clearly to the emperor of the world who, when Daniel speaks to him, is still in complete control of everything—will be for another month or another year rather. The church has a prophetic message to the governors, to the city council, to the mayors, to the president, whoever it might be, when they sin. We are to tell them, “Break off your sins by righteousness and by having compassion to the poor.”

We should be telling Governor Kulingowski, “Break off your pro-abort sins by doing justice for the unborn and by having compassion for those children and those mothers whose consciences will be apart from the renewing grace of God, plagued with guilt all of their lives for murdering their own babies.” And doctors are oppressed in this, too, because they’re going to have guilt over murdering babies. Homosexuals are going to be oppressed by guilt. Why do they keep working? Why are they so anxious to get approval from the state? Because they have guilt-ridden consciences.

And it is not right for the county commissioners or the mayor or anybody else to try to plait sin and tell them there’s peace when there is no peace. And the church of Jesus Christ is to tell our Nebuchadnezzar, break off your sin through righteousness and through compassion for the afflicted. We have a prophetic word to the civil state that we must exercise. Daniel did, and it’s part of the way theocracy is established.

**Fourth: Theocracy is Established Through Service**

Four, theocracy is established through service. Theocracy is ushered in. There’s a set of things that happen here in Daniel chapter 1. God’s servants are identified, right? Daniel doesn’t reject Babylon. He becomes a good servant. He comes under the yoke, paying an education, the commitment to God established, but he’s a good servant. And then in chapter 2, God’s word is taken to the empire, right? God’s servant brings God’s word. And then God’s worship is established in chapter 3, and that creates theocracy established.

Ushering in—chapter 4, there is a God-ordained movement here that goes from service to people to bringing the word to people to bring him into the worship of the church, and then the theocracy is established.

We want to vote in the theocracy, can’t do it. Now, we have to vote well. That’s part of that ushering in of theocracy. But it all begins with something that none of us like to do: service. This is why we have problems in Iraq. How are you going to get Arabs who have been traditionally not servant-oriented to become servants enough to lay down their lives for their country? We don’t get why that’s so difficult. Well, because their whole basis has not been Christian. It’s Christian cultures that stress service.

Service is hard. Service means death. Sometimes literally, service means sweat. You know, if we want a theocracy, and we do, we certainly want to talk to the civil magistrate and vote right. But, you know, it comes as the end procession of twelve years of Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion. Theocracy established. That begins with service, the word, worship, and then theocracy. We don’t like where it begins. We want to begin by just bringing it in by force or voting or whatever it is. But God says service is the key to everything else.

Men, you know this in your homes, right? You do know this. You serve your wife and children. You bring the word to them. You form them up in the context of worship. And that’s how your rule is established in the home. You parents know that you have a little kingdom of your own, right? A little world in which you have some subjects, some beasts, and some birds. You know, some of our kids are more bird-like, some of them are beast-like, that rest under the shade of your house. And you know that you better have compassion for them. You better not just bark orders at them. You better have compassion and faithfulness toward them. God will cut out your rule over them.

We have a little world we develop, and it starts with service and it moves to the word and worship, and that’s how theocracies are ushered in.

**Fifth: Suffering for Sin**

Suffering for sin. Nebuchadnezzar clearly suffers for his sin. And this is part of how theocracy is ushered in as well. Suffering for our sin is part of this. God tears us down so he can rebuild us. You know, it’s like the Marine boot camps. They tear you down. They decreate you so they can rebuild you in their image, right? That’s what being a soldier is. You’re torn down. Your psyche is all dismantled. You get disoriented. What’s going on? And they form you back up.

Well, that’s what God does to you. You’ve got sin in your life. He tears you down from that sin through suffering for that sin. And he builds you back up. You’re like Nebuchadnezzar, a world builder. Need to be torn down. Sometimes midlife crisis is such a shaking. Usually happens several times in people’s lives—major ones. We suffer for our sins. That’s part of the conversion—our conversion and usefulness to God.

**Sixth: Suffering for Others**

But there’s a second kind of suffering as well. And this is at the center of the text. Daniel suffers for the emperor. Daniel—what has Daniel done wrong? He’s going to suffer. This is why he’s alarmed and distressed. He’s going to suffer. Later on, years. His people are going to suffer when the kings of the north and the kings of the south go back and forth over their land, killing and raping and pillaging and stealing. God’s people are being called on to suffer.

Daniel suffers for what sin? For no sin. Whenever we suffer, it’s not always for sin. We get a—we get the kind of body blow to the chest that Daniel got. He sees this dream. He knows it’s going to happen, and he almost falls down. He gets like one to the solar plexus. His world is going to come apart. Some of us go through that same thing. Cancer comes. Father dies, right? Body blow. People at Cedar Mill Bible Church, associate pastor shot by his own son. Boom. Body blow ultimately from God’s hand. Guy’s wife is suffering. Congregation is suffering. Not for any sin they did, probably, but because this is how God advances his kingdom.

It’s a delightful thing that happens here in Daniel. We’re being prepared for the coming of Jesus. And in most of the Old Testament, there’s not a lot of that suffering for others going on. But as Israel is being prepared to usher in Jesus, it’s becoming kind of more like him. It has to suffer for the empire, you see. And the way Jesus will suffer for us.

We’re to have compassion for people that are suffering, but we also understand that we go through like suffering and God is pleased to use it. It’s going to be interesting to see how this horrible murder at Cedar Bible Church affects that congregation. How’s God remaking the world? How many people will be brought to salvation through that event? Probably lots. Most deaths—even people that haven’t been Christians that I’ve known of for the last twenty years, parents at the end—there’s stuff God is doing, rearrangements of people’s lives, not just the one dying, but all kinds of people are infected by death, you know, suffering for others. And as a result of that, God is maturing his people.

God calls us to suffer because ultimately it’s preparation for Jesus. Now, this is not gnostic. This is not gnostic suffering. You see, sometimes we suffer and we just want to tell, oh, you know, God’s in control. It’s okay. Forget it. It’s not really bad. No. Daniel gets really upset and alarmed. We’re supposed to get upset when bad things happen. You know, death, illness, economic collapse—lots of ways God makes us feel helpless, and it’s supposed to hurt.

We’re not supposed to paper it over so that it doesn’t hurt. That’s not the idea because God—that’s not suffering. God says you’re supposed to go through that suffering. It’s not gnostic. It’s part of the way God matures us. We go through the fiery furnace so that we’ll come out the other side shinier, better. And God will use the events of our suffering as people watch us and bring people to faith in him who maintains us through our suffering.

**Seventh: Christ’s Presence with Us in Suffering**

Because in the last point, Jesus is with us in the suffering. Daniel is a representation of the greater Daniel, Jesus Christ, who’s with Nebuchadnezzar in his suffering, caring for him, probably advising him. We don’t know exactly how, but one like the Son of God was what Nebuchadnezzar saw with the three men in the fiery furnace last week. Son of God was a designation for the king in Babylon, son of Marduk. You see, now we know its greater implications. Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the second person of the Trinity.

But you see, Nebuchadnezzar saw somebody like the Son of God with those three men in the furnace. And now he’s going to go through the furnace of affliction. And he’s probably cared for by those same three men and Daniel because they are the way Jesus ministers to people in suffering. We are the ones who watch over the affairs of men, right? The watchers. We pray to God. God uses us to bring his message to the government to usher in theocracy. He uses us to serve the kings. He uses us to bring his word to the world. He uses us to urge them to break off false worship. And then he uses us to be with them and calling them to repent and then being with them as they go through the judgments of God.

Jesus Christ is with us in the midst of our sufferings so that we come out the other end established. We’re decreated for the purposes of being recreated. We go through death that we might come out the brighter. And God ushers in his theocracy as his people are willing to suffer—first for our sins and then for others—to serve, not to degrade, not to tear down, not to let the flesh that you know hates properly the unlawfulness of the culture in which we live, but rather to serve those men, to have compassion, to bring his word, to bring them into the worship, and to speak the prophetic word to the kingdoms of our day and age. And to in these simple ways then to change the world in which we live.

Wonderful story. Great gospel message. The whole pagan world of creation is sort of rolled up into Nebuchadnezzar, and it gets converted. The theocracy is established, at least for a period of time.

Now, yes, next week, like another pharaoh that arises, another emperor will arise that knows not Daniel nor his God. And we’ll see that next week. But you see, the great picture is that the great commission will indeed be fulfilled. It’s happened before—two times in history: Egypt, Babylon—brought to a knowledge of the true God through service, God’s word, worship, and then his renovation of the civil state. This is what the future holds for us.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for this tremendous gospel. Now, as we come forward, help us, Father, to commit ourselves to those elements of truth that we each individually needed to hear from this text. Transform us, Lord God, as we come forward, knowing that we’re unable to do anything to help ourselves, and only as you minister to us can our lives be changed. In Jesus’s name we ask this. Amen.