A worldview shaken

Introduction: A few key items

· Written by Nebuchadnezzar himself. While Daniel is the author of the rest of the book, chapter 4 is an autobiographical narrative by king Nebuchadnezzar.

· A unique feature of this book? (confirm whether any other prophetic books have multiple authors)

Purpose statement:

· The stated purpose of these writings is clearly identified immediately: That all people in the known world may know that God is the Most High. He has no equal and all power and dominion belongs to him. His Kingdom is everlasting. 

Narrative:

Nebuchadnezzar is relaxing in his palace. “flourishing”, “at ease”, “without a care in the world” when he is faced with a vision. He was basking in the safety and wealth that surrounded him.

It is important to note here that this was not a dream in the sense that we are familiar with. This was not a figment of his subconscious that occurred while he slept and was a foggy, faded image quickly forgotten when he awoke. This was a vision that played out in vivid, lifelike detail before his eyes. It troubled him greatly.

He was alarmed and could not recover until he could have it interpreted. This event clearly left a profound impression on him.

Like his first vision in Chapter 2 he called the wise men and magicians to interpret the dream, however this time he told them what the dream was.

None who came could (or would?) reveal the meaning of the dream.

You get the sense that every one of those who came knew exactly what this dream meant but would not reveal the meaning out of fear. Maybe the king himself knew the meaning?

Finally Daniel is called to offer an interpretation

Observations:

I wonder if his dream a year before came to his mind at all?

Was there a moments hesitation? Did he give any thought to his profound prophetic encounter?

Application:

We are not unlike Nebuchadnezzar. While we can intellectually acknowledge that what have is given by God, our pride blinds us to the origin of our success and we revert to thinking that we are captain of our own souls, the authors of our own success.

Pick a political leader: Trudeau, Ford, Zelinski, Trump…Every single one of them will give and account to God for the way that they stewarded the share of authority they were given.

We all have authority within our own spheres: Work, family, marriage, church, etc…Everything we have, everything we own belongs to God.

God is ultimately the one who grants us this authority, and we must subsequently surrender it to Him and acknowledge that we are simply a steward of God’s ultimate authority, and His plan is never inhibited by the decisions made by those leaders. His plan will be fulfilled. How would this change the way we treat those under our authority if we truly understood and lived this truth?

Does God allow us to go through hard times to bring us to our knees so we will finally acknowledge Him? Heb 12:5-6, 1 Peter 1:6-7

Takeaways: Why bother to think about this story? What do I want to make sure that we all understand at the end of my message? What significance does this passage have to us today?

God is sovereign over our lives. Do we acknowledge His authority?

Do we acknowledge that any success, power or influence we enjoy is only because He allows us to?

Scripture is clear that political unrest will continue until Christ returns.

As Gord reminded us in the first message in this series; Phil 4:6-7 tells us to be anxious for nothing…