Daniel 11: The Fruits of Self-Exaltation & Humility

Again, welcome to Family Worship with the church family of Eastern Hills. It’s a blessing to gather with such a wonderful church family this morning. I’d like to give a special shout out of thanks to our Bible Study leaders who teach the Scriptures every week. I know that you put in a lot of time and effort to prepare, and we appreciate you. If you’re not involved in a weekly Bible study group, you can get more information about classes from the Welcome station in the foyer.

If you’re a guest or visiting with us this morning, we would really like to be able to thank you for being here today, and to be able to do that, we have to get a little information from you. Could you please just fill out one of the Welcome cards that you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you? When you’ve done that, you can return it to us in one of two ways: you can drop it in the offering boxes by the doors as you leave when service is over, or I’d appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself, so after service, I’ll stay down here, and I invite you to come and say hello and give me your card personally. I have a small gift to give you to say thanks for being here today.

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Opening

This morning, we come to the end of our time with King Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel. Last week, we looked at the first 27 verses of chapter 4, seeing the dream of warning that God gave to the king about his self-exaltation. To quickly recap, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which his view of himself was represented by a great tree that could be seen from everywhere, and that the entire world looked to for shelter and provision. His pride had corrupted his view of himself, others, and God, and judgment had been decreed against him. He would be separated from his kingdom for a time, until he would acknowledge that the Most High rules. Daniel knew the judgment was certainly going to fall, but he still gave the king advice: that he separate himself from his sins by doing what was right, and from his injustices by showing mercy to the needy.

Our focal passage this morning shows us the fruit of self-exaltation, and likewise the fruit of humility. Let’s stand as we’re able in honor of God’s holy Word as we read the remainder of Daniel chapter 4 together, beginning with verse 28.

Daniel 4:28–37 CSB

28 All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 At the end of twelve months, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, 30 the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built to be a royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory?” 31 While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared that the kingdom has departed from you. 32 You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals, and you will feed on grass like cattle for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants.” 33 At that moment the message against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people. He ate grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with dew from the sky, until his hair grew like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws. 34 But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity returned to me. Then I praised the Most High and honored and glorified him who lives forever: For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. 35 All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and he does what he wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can block his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” 36 At that time my sanity returned to me, and my majesty and splendor returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and my nobles sought me out, I was reestablished over my kingdom, and even more greatness came to me. 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of the heavens, because all his works are true and his ways are just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

PRAYER (Work being completed this week in the sanctuary)

I know that I opened with something from C.S. Lewis last week, and Trevor spoke about C.S. Lewis yesterday at Men’s Breakfast, but I need to use C.S. Lewis this morning one more time.

In Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series (great, fast reads, by the way…), the fourth book (third book published) is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (no, it is NOT the fifth book… The Magician’s Nephew is to be read only before The Last Battle). Anyway, the book introduces “a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it (that’s how the whole book begins).” The Dawn Treader is a ship upon which Eustace and others explore the seas of Narnia. In their journeys, they come to an island, and Eustace being a very proud, lazy, and self-important person, sneaks away to avoid working. He discovers a dragon’s cave, goes to sleep on the dragon’s hoard thinking of all he would do with the treasure, and awakes to find that he has become a dragon himself.

Eustace was miserable as a dragon, but becoming one had a remarkable impact on his character and personality. He went from being a lazy complainer to being a great help. He assisted the crew of the Dawn Treader in any number of things that needed done—from hunting to acquiring the perfect tree for a new mast to acting as a giant hot water bottle on cool nights. But he was still miserable, and it appeared that they would have to leave him behind on what became known as Dragon Island.

Then one night, Eustace walked into camp as a boy again, and told the story of his meeting with Aslan, the great Lion. Eustace was told by Aslan that he needed to “undress” before getting into a pool that Aslan had taken him to, but try as he might three times, he could not successfully take off his dragon-ness. He could strip off a layer of skin like a snake might, but he was still dragon underneath. It was then that Aslan told the boy: “You will have to let me undress you.” I’ll let Eustace tell the rest (Don’t put this on the screen):

I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

"The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off…

"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off—just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt—and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me—I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on—and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. …

It would be nice, and fairly nearly true, to say that “from that time forth Eustace was a different boy.” To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.

—C.S. Lewis (1898—1963), The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Nebuchadnezzar in our passage this morning brought the story of Eustace Scrubb to mind. Eustace’s experience of becoming a dragon radically changed his perspective of himself, his view of other people, and his view of Aslan—the representative of Christ in The Chronicles of Narnia—Eustace actually said that he had hated Aslan before actually meeting and being rescued by Him.

In both the real experience of Nebuchadnezzar and the fictional experience of Eustace, we see the fruit of pride or self-exaltation.

1: The fruit of self-exaltation: True humbling.

Remember from last week that the tree that Nebuchadnezzar had seen in his dream was his own view of himself, along with how he believed the rest of the world viewed him, or at least, how he viewed the rest of the world’s dependency on him. We saw that he obviously was not the exceedingly kind and generous ruler that he saw himself as, because Daniel’s warning to him was that he should make the changes that I mentioned earlier. There is a one-year gap between what we read at the end of verse 27 and what we see at the beginning of this morning’s focal passage, so it is at least possible that Nebuchadnezzar initially took Daniel’s advice. But as is often the case, as the king didn’t see God’s judgment fall, he started to believe that it wouldn’t do so. But then we find that it did:

Daniel 4:28–30 CSB

All that the dream’s interpretation (last week) included happened to Nebuchadnezzar about a year later. The king was walking along on the roof of one his palaces in the capital of the Babylonian empire (he had three), and as he looked out upon the city he was filled with pride. Notice the pronouns in what he said:

“Is this not Babylon the Great that I have build to be a royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory?”

Nebuchadnezzar was certain that he had built Babylon all by himself, through how powerful and mighty that he was, and that it existed in order to show how wonderful he was.

Babylon always seems to be the place where we humans try to declare how great we are. As we saw last week, when Babylon was founded in Genesis 11, it was to “make a name for themselves.” In today’s passage, Babylon is where Nebuchadnezzar declared his greatness. And in the future, there will be a future “Babylon the Great” that will “glorify herself” according to Revelation 18:7.

But God humbled the first Babylon by confusing their speech. He will humble the last Babylon by bringing her to destruction when He judges the world, and the kings of the earth who participated in her ways will mourn:

Revelation 18:10 CSB

10 They will stand far off in fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! For in a single hour your judgment has come.

And in our focal passage this morning, we see that God declares His judgment on Nebuchadnezzar’s self-exaltation:

Daniel 4:31–33 CSB

31 While the words were still in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared that the kingdom has departed from you. 32 You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals, and you will feed on grass like cattle for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants.” 33 At that moment the message against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people. He ate grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with dew from the sky, until his hair grew like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.

Just as suddenly as the confusion of the past Babylon occured and the judgment of the future Babylon will occur, the judgment brought upon Nebuchadnezzar was swift. While he was still speaking, the voice from heaven declared that judgment had come, that the king would have to live with the animals, act like an animal, and eat like an animal until he came to acknowledge that God is sovereign over the kingdoms of the world, and that it is up to Him to give them to whomever He chooses. In other words: “Nebuchadnezzar, you only got here because God allowed it for His purposes and His glory, not yours. And until you get that straight, you’re going to be like this.”

Nebuchadnezzar appears to have instantly began to suffer from a condition that we would generally call lycanthropy (literally wolf-man syndrome) today, which has kind of become the blanket term for humans-believing-they-are-animals mental health issues. Truly, his particular version would actually be more accurately called boanthropy (cow-man syndrome). The self-proclaimed superhuman became basically subhuman. Talk about a humbling experience for one who saw himself in such lofty terms.

Ultimately, everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled one way or another, either humbled by God during our lives such as what happened with Nebuchadnezzar, or humbled later as the Lord has promised through the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 2:12–17 CSB

12 For a day belonging to the Lord of Armies is coming against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—it will be humbled— 13 against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, 14 against all the high mountains, against all the lofty hills, 15 against every high tower, against every fortified wall, 16 against every ship of Tarshish, and against every splendid sea vessel. 17 The pride of mankind will be brought low, and human loftiness will be humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.

So we should be neither ignorant nor deceived: No movie or television star, no recording artist, no online influencer, no podcaster, politician, pundit, or pastor, is worthy of the worship that should only go to God. All of those people are exactly that: people. And no matter how you look at it, every one of the kinds of people I just mentioned will eventually have to stand before the Great White Throne of Judgment and be judged, and only those whose names are found written in the book of life because of faith in Jesus will avoid the punishment called the lake of fire, regardless of whether they were “great or small” in life:

Revelation 20:11–12 CSB

11 Then I saw a great white throne and one seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books.

But it’s really easy for us to point fingers at other people who might be self-exalting, especially those we don’t actually know. It’s a little harder when we have to look at ourselves. Just as we have to admit that none of those other people are worthy of our worship, so we must admit that we are not worthy of anyone else’s worship. And if we do walk in pride, if we do live a self-centered, self-focused, self-exalting life, then we too deserve, in fact need, to be humbled.

We will only find that our names have been written in the book of life if we belong to Jesus, because it’s only in Christ that we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, according to Scripture:

Ephesians 1:7 CSB

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

Jesus, the only human who ever truly deserved to exalt Himself; Jesus, the only human who is worthy of our worship and our praise because He is in fact that Son of God; Jesus died in our place to redeem us, to buy our freedom from the punishment that we deserve because of our sin. He died, but overcame death and rose again by the power of the Spirit, and it is only through believing in Jesus that we can be saved—through surrendering our lives to His Lordship, admitting that there is no way that we can save ourselves. No way we can shed our skins of pride like Eustace. We need Jesus to save us. If you’ve never trusted in Christ, I believe that the Spirit of God would have you surrender even right now, trusting in Jesus as your Savior and Lord.

For those of us who are already in Christ, first let me say that all of us, yes, all of us struggle with pride in some place in our lives. In his book Humility: True Greatness, C.J. Mahaney writes:

The sad fact is that none of us are immune to the logic-defying, blinding effects of pride. Though it shows up in different forms and to differing degrees, it infects us all. The real issue here is not if pride exists in your heart; it’s where pride exists and how pride is being expressed in your life.

—C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness (emphasis his)

He’s not wrong. I know that I struggle with pride. Anyone else agree? But the fact that we struggle with pride is certainly not something we should be proud of. The book of Proverbs gives several warnings about pride and its fruit. Here are just a couple:

Proverbs 16:18 CSB

18 Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 18:12 CSB

12 Before his downfall a person’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

The truth is that none of us is worthy of worship because none of us is perfect. We all fail. We all stumble. We all struggle. So none of us should hold ourselves up as someone to worship. We can be someone to follow, someone who leads others towards Jesus, but none of us are cool to deserve worship.

So it would appear that our options are twofold: we can humble ourselves, or we can be humbled. We’re either going to be humbled now, or humbled later. But we will be humbled. We can choose humility, or we can choose to be humbled. And to borrow the title of C.J. Mahaney’s book, it is in humility that we will truly be made great.

2: The Fruit of Humility: True Greatness.

You could argue that Nebuchadnezzar was already great. He had vast wealth, massive power, incredible renown. He ruled over the greatest empire in the world at the time, from what was probably the most populated city at the time. But he exalted himself instead of God, even though he had seen the Lord do miraculous things through and for Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And so the Lord humbled him. But he was given over to this humiliation for seven “periods of time,” which likely was seven years, although the number seven is the Hebrew number for “perfection” or “completeness.” It is possible that the king was afflicted with his boanthropy for the “perfect” amount of time (whatever that might be). Regardless, we know that it was a substantial amount of time because his hair grew and became matted like eagles’ feathers, and his nails grew out to be like birds’ claws.

Regardless of precisely how long this was, when the time had been completed, God removed the affliction, and Nebuchadnezzar responded in faith:

Daniel 4:34–36 CSB

34 But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity returned to me. Then I praised the Most High and honored and glorified him who lives forever: For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. 35 All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and he does what he wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can block his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” 36 At that time my sanity returned to me, and my majesty and splendor returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and my nobles sought me out, I was reestablished over my kingdom, and even more greatness came to me.

The king confessed something that he previously would not have agreed with in verse 35: that “all the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing.” That would include the king himself. Where Nebuchadnezzar previously declared that there was no god “who can rescue…from [his] power,” (Dan 3:15) here he said of God, “There is no one who can block His hand or say to Him, ‘What have you done?’” In other words, no one is in authority over the Lord, so He has all power and sovereignty and dominion, which he had just proven by suddenly afflicting Nebuchadnezzar with this strange condition.

Nebuchadnezzar also declared for the second time that God’s dominion and his kingdom are eternal, reversing the parallel terms that he had used in the opening of this letter back in verses 1-3:

Daniel 4:1–3 CSB

1 King Nebuchadnezzar, To those of every people, nation, and language, who live on the whole earth: May your prosperity increase. 2 I am pleased to tell you about the miracles and wonders the Most High God has done for me. 3 How great are his miracles, and how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.

So his sanity had returned, along with his “majesty and splendor;” likely meaning his honor and physical health. These occurred for the glory of his kingdom, Babylon. Since he had become sane again, and likely returned to the palace, the governmental officials put him back on his throne.

And then, notice what Nebuchadnezzar said: He said that “even more greatness came to him.” Nebuchadnezzar ends up truly great: even greater than he had been previously. He sounds like he’s back to focusing on his own greatness again, but then he takes all of that glory and points it back to God:

Daniel 4:37 CSB

37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of the heavens, because all his works are true and his ways are just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

He confessed the greatness of God, confessed that the Lord was true and just in humbling him, and confessed that he now understands that God is able to do bring the proud low for His purposes.

Scholars are divided over whether or not Nebuchadnezzar was actually saved through this humiliation and subsequent repentance. I would lean toward believing that he did truly surrender to the Lord in faith. And so, not only was Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom restored to him, but he also gained a far greater inheritance because he had humbly surrendered to God in faith.

So how is it that I can say that the fruit of humility is true greatness?

It’s because of how we should define greatness. We tend to define greatness in worldly terms: money, power, fame, notoriety, talent, skill, success, etc. However, that is not how the Bible defines it.

Full disclosure, the bones of this illustration come from the C.J. Mahaney book that I mentioned earlier, Humility: True Greatness. It’s such a good illustration that I’m borrowing it this morning in my own words and with my own twists.

In Mark chapters 9 and 10, we find the opposite of greatness: we find pride and self-exaltation from the disciples, especially from James and John. It starts with an argument on the road to Capernaum in chapter 9:

Mark 9:33–35 CSB

33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34 But they were silent, because on the way they had been arguing with one another about who was the greatest. 35 Sitting down, he called the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last and servant of all.”

Obviously, this teaching didn’t sink in, because in the next chapter, while heading to Jerusalem where they believe that Jesus is going to set up His kingdom on earth, James and John decide that they are going to try to get Jesus to declare them to be the greatest among the disciples by giving them places of honor in His coming rule.

Mark 10:35–37 CSB

35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him and said, “Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask you.” 36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked them. 37 They answered him, “Allow us to sit at your right and at your left in your glory.”

Quite a request! The answer that Jesus gives at that moment isn’t what we want to focus on right now though. It’s what happens afterwards. The other disciples hear about what they did, and they get upset with these brothers. Even this arguing is a form of self-exaltation. The others believe that James and John have spoken out-of-turn. So Jesus brings a teaching to them to help them understand:

Mark 10:42–45 CSB

42 Jesus called them over and said to them, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. 43 But it is not so among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave to all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

I used verse 45 in my sermon last week. Jesus tells them not to act like the Gentiles, looking for power and authority. Instead, the greatest will be the servant, first will be the slave, just as Jesus Himself came to serve and to die for sinners.

This situation does not sound like humility, and it doesn’t sound like any greatness was achieved. See, James and John wanted greatness from the world’s point-of-view. They wanted the best seats, the most authority, the places where they would be noticed and have influence. But Jesus defines greatness from God’s point-of-view: True greatness is found in serving others for God’s glory.

So why am I using this? Because of Jesus’s teaching that those who glorify God by serving others are the greatest. Fast forward to the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 12, we find that King Herod had ramped up his persecution of the church. But that’s not all: he also had James arrested and killed.

Acts 12:1–2 CSB

1 About that time King Herod violently attacked some who belonged to the church, 2 and he executed James, John’s brother, with the sword.

It doesn’t appear that John was martyred like his brother, but he was persecuted and then exiled to the island of Patmos because of his faith:

Revelation 1:9 CSB

9 I, John, your brother and partner in the affliction, kingdom, and endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

He very likely died on that island, but not before he wrote this in the letter that we call 1 John:

1 John 3:16 CSB

16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

What changed for these two brothers after Mark 10? It’s simple: Jesus died for us. Because of what Jesus had done in dying on the cross for our sins, James and John went from two guys who wanted the most coveted positions to two martyrs who were willing to suffer for the cross, the Kingdom, and others, even to the point of dying themselves. They were no longer seeking their own glory and their own kingdoms. Instead, they sacrificed their lives for their Lord.

From the perspective of the world, they are failures. From the perspective of the Lord, they are great in His Kingdom.

Think for a moment: have you seen any examples of the type of greatness the Bible describes? Have you seen men, women, students, or children in our church who gladly and humbly serve others for God’s glory? I know have.

But more importantly, are you that type of person? Are you cultivating a heart of biblical humility, not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought as it says in Romans 12:3; considering others as more important than yourself as it says in Philippians 2:3; and choosing to put humility on along with compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience as it says in Colossians 3:12?

Closing

James 4:10 tells us:

James 4:10 CSB

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Well, the first step in humbling yourself is understanding that you can’t save yourself. Like Eustace Scrubb, we will not be able to shed the skin of pride and arrogance that we wear in this world if it is not Jesus who removes it, and honestly, removing it might feel really painful, because in surrendering to Him as Savior and Lord, you’re admitting that you can’t save yourself, and that you need Him. You might think that surrendering to Jesus makes you weak or foolish, but it doesn’t. It makes you obedient. If God is drawing you to faith this morning, you need to respond with belief and be saved. If this morning, you are surrendering to Jesus, believing the Gospel that because God loves you, Jesus died on the cross for your sins, and that He rose again so you can have eternal life, and trusting Him as your Lord, would you come and tell us? I’ll be here at the front, along with Joe, Trevor, Rich, and Kerry, and you can come and tell one of us that you’re surrendering to Jesus today. If you’re online, send me an email so that we can help you as you start this journey of faith.

Call to baptism. Pride might be what’s keeping you from being baptized.

Church membership

Call to ministry: Is God calling you to serve Him by serving others through formal ministry as a missionary or minister?

Prayer needs

Giving

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Numbers 1-2, Ps 76)

No Pastor’s Study because of Business Meeting at 5:30 (we need a quorum), with Potluck at 4:30 pm in Miller Hall

Prayer Meeting this Wednesday in MH

men’s breakfast was yesterday, not next Saturday as the back of the Life says

Torres thanks to church family

Instructions for guests

Benediction

1 Peter 5:5–7 CSB

5 In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.

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