Hearing What You Want to Hear

Have you ever known anyone who seems to only hear the part of the conversation they want to hear? For instance, you might tell a child that if they get all of their homework and chores done this week they will get a special day on Saturday when you will take them out for ice cream and maybe even a movie. The child then jumps up and runs screaming around the house, We’re going for ice cream, I’m going to get strawberry and then Mommy is taking me to a movie. The child then comes in dressed and ready to go and says lets go mommy lets go I want ice cream. When you explain to the child that you are not going now and whether or not you go at all depends on them getting their chores and homework done this week they cry and throw a fit saying you promised we would get ice cream, you never keep your promises. They hear exactly what they want to hear and leave out all the rest.

Guess what, it’s not just kids.

Daniel 2:36–38 NASB95

“This was the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king. “You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.

Notice that Daniel told the king that God had given him the power, strength and glory and that God had given the sons of men, the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky to him. In short the reason he was king of kings was because God made him so not because he was overly special or powerful or wonderful but because God raised him up. Daniel then went on to tell Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom would fall and be replaced by three others before God himself destroyed all kingdoms and establish his own kingdom. God had warned him that God had raised him up and that God would raise up others to replace him. So how did Nebuchadnezzar react.

Daniel 2:46–49 NASB95

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense. The king answered Daniel and said, “Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.” Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel made request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king’s court.

Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face before Daniel and burned incense before Daniel, he claimed that Daniel’s god, not Nebuchadnezzar’s god, was the god of gods and the Lord of kings. He kind of acknowledged God but he also did not serve or worship God. In many ways it seemed like he was trying to appease God rather than to surrender to God. He didn’t want to serve God he just didn’t want to offend God. Why do I say this, lets read on.

Now the bible does not tell us how much time passed between the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3 but remember that in the original text there were no chapter and verse divisions so this reads as if it happened one thing right after another and most scholars believe that these events happened close behind each other, at the very least within the same year.

Daniel 3:1–7 NASB95

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates and all the rulers of the provinces were assembled for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the herald loudly proclaimed: “To you the command is given, O peoples, nations and men of every language, that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. “But whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.” Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

Having been told by Daniel the prophet the words of God about his kingdom and the kingdoms to come and having been reminded that everything he had was because God had decided to give it to him Nebuchadnezzar said that he honored Daniel and honored God and then he did something else. He reminds me of the kid we talked about in the beginning who took it all in and then only focused on the part he wanted to hear. Daniel had told him that his kingdom was like a head of gold and superior to the three kingdoms that would follow it because God had given all this to Nebuchadnezzar and what Nebuchadnezzar heard was I am great and wonderful.

So Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue celebrating...........himself. Not the god who had given all of this to him or even the prophet who had told him about it but his own self. Then he passed a law that said that everyone has to bow down and worship, worship who you ask. It might make sense if God is the Lord of kings as Nebuchadnezzar said and if God is the one who gave him his kingdom and make his kingdom great that he would order everyone to worship God but that is not what he did. Instead he ordered everyone to worship his favorite person............himself.

Then again it was just a little statue, it was about 90’ high and 9’ wide. Then the king would give a command and all of the people in all of his kingdom in different towns and countries speaking different languages and living under different governors would all at the same time all over the kingdom bow down and worship the statue of Nebuchadnezzar. Not only did he have a giant gold statue of himself built, but he organized a new religion requiring everyone in his huge kingdom to bow down and worship the giant statue wherever they were and whatever they were doing whenever he felt like giving that command. There would be music and celebration to celebrate the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar.

God told him that the only reason he was so great was because God made him so. God told him that he would be replaced by kingdoms less than his own kingdom, God told him that one day God himself would set up a kingdom that would overcome all other kingdoms and Nebuchadnezzar responded by saying look how great I am, everyone fall down and worship me.

Now I told you that we owe a lot to the Nebuchadnezzar and to the Babylonian civilization. I have shown you how Nebuchadnezzar never gave God his due and how his civilization fell. We talked about how the Medes and the Persians conquered Babylon and how Alexander the Great conquered them. We talked about how Alexanders kingdom fell apart at his death and the rise of Rome. We talked about the fall of Rome and how much of our culture is based on the culture or Rome and much or our government is based on the government of Rome, how many things we have in common and how similar we are.

So what does that mean for us. Each of these kingdoms was raised up by God for God’s own purposes and each of them fell without having recognized their dependence on God and the debt that they owe him. God raised each of these kingdoms up and God arranged the kingdom’s that replaced them. Each of these thought they were special, Nebuchadnezzar thought his kingdom was great because he was such a great guy who organized his kingdom in such a great way. His kingdom was greater than all of the kingdoms that came after him, those are not my words but God’s. God showed him that he was the head of gold, and God brought down his kingdom with a lesser kingdom, a kingdom of silver. Cyress the Persian thought his kingdom was great because he was greater than everyone else but then God brought down his kingdom by using a tiny little kingdom and a military leader known not just as Alexander but as Alexander the great. Alexander thought he was the greatest because he conquered the known world but his kingdom fell apart after him. Rome thought of itself as perfect and eternal. The citizens of Rome called their capital city the eternal city, they thought that they deserved to conquer the world and that their ways were better and more worthy than the ways of everyone else, and yet Rome fell.

America became a nation because we thought we knew better than our king and deserved more than he would give us. We took land from the French and from the Indians because of what we called manifest destiny. This was the idea that Americans had to expand across the whole continent regardless of whatever might stand in their way because it was ordained by God that Americans would spread their beliefs and their form of government across the continent.

According to historian William Earl Weeks, there were three basic tenets behind the concept:[5]

The assumption of the unique moral virtue of the United States.

The assertion of its mission to redeem the world by the spread of republican government and more generally the "American way of life".

The faith in the nation's divinely ordained destiny to succeed in this mission.

Manifest destiny remained heavily divisive in politics, causing constant conflict with regards to slavery in these new states and territories.[9] It is also associated with the settler-colonial displacement of Indigenous Americans[10] and the annexation of lands to the west of the United States borders at the time on the continent. The concept became one of several major campaign issues during the 1844 presidential election, where the Democratic Party won and the phrase "Manifest Destiny" was coined within a year.

God never said that a republican form of government was the best way, in fact the one Government we know that God established was a monarchy, or more accurately a theocracy with God ruling the people. God allowed the people to have a monarchy with a king and he made it clear that this was not his choice. I don’t know that God ever established a republic or made any reference to a democratic government.

Americans have become convinced the our ways are better and our government is better and everyone ought to be like us. We think we are special and we think we are right. If we are special it is because God made us special, if we are right it is because we agree with God. To whatever extent we agree with God we are right and to whatever extent we disagree with God we are wrong whether we think we live in a great country or not. God has destroyed empires greater than ours and he will do so again. If we have any greatness at all we have it because God gave it to us and the same one who gave greatness can take it away. Each of the kingdoms and leaders we have studied have been raised up by God for the purposes of God and have been put down by God when it served his purpose. Each of these kingdoms and leaders in their time refused to acknowledge God and give him the credit he deserves, they served their own ends and themselves and they were destroyed.

We live in a country that once claimed to be “One Nation Under God” and now most people do not claim to be under God at all and if we do claim to be under God as a country it rings false because we do not seem to serve God and follow his teachings or his ways in our country.

If we look at history what does God do to nations who refuse to honor him or serve his purposes? If we look at history what happens when a nation rejects God? If we look at prophecy what has God predicted to happen next? What can we expect for our nation? Is it too late........it is never too late to repent but how does a nation repent. It is not the government or the state that repents but the people that make up that government or state. We repent individually as each one of us acknowledges our own sin and the sins of the nation that we are part of. As more and more people within our nation confess the sins or our nation we move toward national repentance and chance for God to forgive our sins. If we each say “it’s not my fault, I didn’t do it” then no one is guilty and no one repents and without repentance there is no forgiveness of sins.

Do we want our nation made great, do we want our nation restored? If we do then it is up to the people of this nation to approach God with sadness and repentance and beg his forgiveness for what we have done. Even that is not enough, true repentance is not just being sorry for what has happened but it is turning your back on your sin and going the opposite way. In other words we need to not only say oops but we need to change. No one person can change a nation but hundreds or thousands of people repenting can turn a nation around. Do you want to know the secret? In order for thousands of people, or even hundreds of people to repent and seek God something has to happen first. It is a small thing. You cannot have thousands or hundreds until you first have one, and then two, then ten, then a hundred. No large movement happens without a first step. No wave of change happens without the ripple that starts it. Do you want to see change, do you want to see us be one nation under God, then begin, be one of the first. It cannot begin unless someone begins it, nothing starts without a beginning, you don’t have to do it all but if someone doesn’t do something then nothing ever happnes. Be someone, do something.