Daniel 4
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A guy passes you in his super expensive super fast car, driving like a crazy person. And about 5 minutes down the road you see him pulled over. Haha!
A boxer, or MMA fighter gives an interviewing talking about how amazing they are, talking smack, saying they are the greatest, they are going to flatten their opponent. He gets knocked out in the first round. Haha!
We like to see prideful people fall. We hate pride. We don’t like hypocrisy. We don’t appreciate smugness. We don’t like to see other people strut. It leaves a bad taste in our mouth.
When a big powerful king is bragging about all of his power, when he is flexing, parading that he is the most powerful man in the world, having people bow to his big giant statue. We want to see him fall.
And that’s precisely what we see in Daniel 4. Listen to this,
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 power 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, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And 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 and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.
Sermon Introduction:
Nebuchadnezzar gets humbled. And we like that story. We also like redemption stories. And this is one of those too. Because listen to Daniel 4:1-3
King Nebuchadnezzar to all 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.
how did he get there? Or here?
Or Daniel 4:36-37
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.
What we have here in Daniel 4 is a story of a powerful man, filled with pride, humbled—and by the end of it that man is praising and extolling the God of heaven.
What do we do with that?
Why is it here?
How does Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan king, get press in God’s Word? Why does Daniel give Nebuchadnezzar his pen and say, “tell your story”? What are we to learn from this?
I think it’s two-fold. But, I’m getting ahead of myself, just a little. We will answer those questions in just a moment…First, let’s fill in some of the blanks to this story…how did Nebby get from most powerful man in the world to thinking he was a cow?
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In verses 4-18—Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and once again calls int he magicians, astrologers, etc. to tell him what his dream meant. They can’t do it. So he calls on Daniel.
Verse 9. Calls Daniel, Belteshazzar, the chief of the magicians. One who has the spirit of the holy gods upon him. Nebuchadnezzar’s polytheism is still present here.
He tells his vision.
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.
And absolutely beautiful tree—providing for all those within it’s scope of influence. But then something happens.
“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 and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and 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, amid 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, and 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 has alarmed Nebuchadnezzar. It has grabbed his attention. The sermon introduction works. He’s on the edge of his seat. Tell me, Daniel, what does this mean…what do I do…you have my attention.
Daniel himself is alarmed because of what it means. He tells Nebby, I really wish the outcome of this was for somebody else. This is alarming.
You’re the tree. The beautiful tree, your shade is covering all of the world, you have become strong.
But Daniel is alarmed. Listen now to his interpretation: Daniel 4:22
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.
There is some serious self-interest here, right. Go on, I’m listening. Yes, I’m rather awesome and amazing and I’ve grown strong and all these people answer to me, and I provide for others.
But wait, Nebby, remember that watcher that you saw? Well...
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, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and 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.
But listen, this doesn’t have to be your fate. God is graciously giving you this dream. He moves now from prophet to preacher...
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.”
Now, notice this here. Notice what Daniel is calling him on. He’s calling him on personal sin—he’s not practicing righteousness—and he’s not showing mercy to the oppressed. Repent from these, Daniel says.
The issue isn’t that his kingdom is vast, it’s not that the tree is too big or that the institution of Babylon needs to be torn down. Nebuchadnezzar having power isn’t even the issue. It’s how he is using it.
One of the best books I’ve read is a book called Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, by Andy Crouch. In that book he says this,
The best test of any institution, and especially of any institutions’ roles and rules for using power, is whether everyone flourishes when everyone indwells their roles and plays by the rules, or whether only a few of the participants experience abundance and growth. (Crouch, 185)
That’s what Daniel is saying here—or rather what God is saying in this dream--when he speaks of oppression. He’s saying, listen Nebby—not everyone is flourishing. This isn’t how you are supposed to use your power. This isn’t how you are supposed to govern as a king. It’s not about you.
I turn to Crouch again.
As idolatry and injustice always go together—injustice requiring idolatry to justify exploitation, idolatry leading to injustice as the idols fail to deliver and demand ever greater sacrifices—so with the entrenched cultural patterns we call institutions…And every institution that sustains the worship of a false god ends up neglecting the most vulnerable.
That was a little nerdy, so let me translate. Worshipping false gods (even if you give your god the right name) will always lead to oppressing others.
If you are the god of your own little kingdom even the kind things you do are going to filter back through the lens of you. It’s not ultimately about others. You are providing for others so that others see you as a good provider, so they are loyal to you, so they expand your kingdom.
So in the words of Johnny Cash…God’s gonna cut you down. And that’s what we see happens to Nebby in this story. He acts like a cow for a few years.
Now there are actually documented medical conditions. One is where people think they are wolves—probably where we get this notion of werewolves. But there’s also another thing called Boanthropy—a few documented cases where people think they are cows.
One I read of was incredibly interesting. This guy thought he was a cow, people called him on it, had a butcher come to slaughter him (it’s the 1600s when this happened). And the butcher said, “oh this cow isn’t fat enough…fatten him up for a season and I’ll come back.” So they did. And as he kept eating and fattening up, his mind kind of returned to him.
We don’t know for sure that this is what happened to Nebby. Maybe it was something else. But that’s beside the point. We need to get back to the question I asked a bit ago.
Why tell us this? Why is this story here?
I think there are two different ways we can look at this. From one angle we can say that this is written for any generation of people who are experiencing the tyranny of a world leader—like Nebby—full of pride. And you are on the receiving end of that hurt. Their pride is hurting you.
And so the message for you is to say, God turns the hearts of kings. The heart of Nebby, the heart of any ruler, is entirely in the control of the Lord. That’s meant to be encouraging, to say at any moment God can turn their heart, God can remove some of these things where we think we’re in control and truly humble a leader. Nebby’s conversion—if we can call it that—gives hope.
This guy who is in control of your life—well, he’s not actually in ultimate control. The God who aims to do you good is the one who is in control. He is the ultimate authority. And so we take comfort in that. And we hope and we pray and we saw, God turn the heart of the king. Turn the heart of this world leader.
But there’s another way in which we look at this. Remember how I said we like to see people who are prideful fall. That’s only partially true.
We like to see our prideful ENEMIES fall. We don’t mind a bit of trash talk, a bit of bravado, a bit of bragging when it’s our team. It ain’t boasting if its true. If I’m the best, I’m just sharing reality.
There is something about this confidence, this certainty, that is also appealing to us. We like pride in others and are often blind to seeing it in our own hearts. And if we do see it, well we’re a bit nicer—we don’t laugh and celebrate justice if we’re the guy in the fancy car getting pulled over.
You see this story shows us something else. We’re Nebby. This is the story of the Bible. And it’s been the story of Israel.
The story of Nebby is really the story of Israel. They took pride in who they were, they thought in the time of Jeremiah that they were unstoppable. Nothing’s going to stop us now! But then it did. Then in a pretty short time it all fell apart.
And what happened? They went into exile. Well, Nebby is taken into a different kind of exile here…but it’s a picture of what happened to Israel.
Pride comes before a fall.
God opposes the proud.
The one who exalts himself will be humbled.
And this is what sin does. This is the core of sin. It’s being self-consumed. It turns us inward. Now, don’t hear me wrong on this, don’t hear more than I’m saying, but some things like depression can fall into this category. It’s way more complex than this, I realize, I struggle with depression.
I mention this because we might not think in these terms. It’s being hyper-focused on self. And this is what pride does, this is what sin does, it creates this downward spiral and robs us of our humanity and takes us away from God.
This is where Nebby found himself. But then the light came back on.
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?”
He lifts his eyes to heaven—acknowledges God—and his reason returns to him. The path of redemption. He returns from his mental exile.
Again, this is a message for the people of God. They too are being called to repent of foolish pride, of centering self, etc. To once again turn their eyes to the Lord, to repent, to acknowledge His sovereignty.
This whole text is really a story of humanity. Just like Nebuchadnezzar, God planted humanity in a beautiful garden, gave much authority, be fruitful and multiply.
But humanity turned in on itself—wanting to be like God—and taking the forbidden fruit. As such we plunged ourselves into ruin. What we see here of Nebuchadnezzar is pictured as well in Romans 1.
It’s a spiral of rebellion. And as we spiral further away from God—we actually become less human. We’re booted out of the Garden, thrown into the wild, and we become wild.
This is what Paul is showing us in Romans. Jew (that’s the religious ones, those bent towards a spiritual view of things, the principled ones) and Gentile (that’s the worldly ones, those bent towards pleasure) all alike are guilty before God. On the same downward spiral of being obsessed with ourselves.
Sin always aims at the utmost. To destroy us and to dethrone God. To make you a beast and not a man.
But thankfully there is another story. This is the gospel.
In Philippians 2 we read of Jesus being different. He who humbles himself will be exalted. And this is precisely what Jesus does…so if you trace what is happening in Philippians 2 you can see that it ends with Jesus highly exalted and every knee bowing and tongue confessing.
Jesus does what humanity has always failed to do. He does what a true king ought to do. He gives his life for others—he creates flourishing for others. He lays down His very life to give us freedom.
And when we unite to Him…we change spirals. No longer are we becoming less human, spiraling down in rebellion, but we are now becoming more like Christ. We are becoming as humanity is supposed to be. Loving God, loving others.
And it all happens through our union with Jesus. And so you’re either somewhere on the Nebuchadnezzar spectrum—well on your way to chewing cud. Or you’re on the Jesus spectrum—well on your way to unfettered worship of God Most High.
Which is it?
