A Tree Standing Tall and Proud
A Tree Standing Tall and Proud!
Dan 4:1-18, 20-27
The Emperor Justinian built the Church of St. Sophia, that gem of human architecture. He collected marble and treasures from all over the world to make it beautiful. At last the moment for dedication arrived. The words uttered by Justinian seemed full of humility as he said that all had been done for the glory of God. But as he allowed his eyes to drink in the beauty of the building, he could hardly contain himself. Someone heard him whisper, "Solomon, I have surpassed thee."[1]
That was his last famous words, for it you remember your history it was under Justinian’s watch; that the Roman Empire was incurably divided, never to return to its greatest again.
The bible says that; Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Pro 16:18)
The same can said for all who follow the way of pride! Pride always leads to destruction, whether in involves a empire, a kingdom, a family, a nation or for our interest tonight; a person!
Chapter 4 of Daniel is exclusively devoted to another terrifying dream of the wicked king Nebuchadnezzar. This dream unlike that of Ch. 2 addresses not to the kingdom as a whole in the relation to world history but is personalized to Nebuchadnezzar himself. Don’t let the style of chapter 4 throw you off. Chapter 4 is just one part of Daniel that isn’t written in Hebrew or Aramaic it is written in Chaldean! Plus it is written after the fact of the results of the dream, by Nebuchadnezzar himself or at least by taking the king’s diction.
V1-3 is sort of like a prolong reflecting the King’s newfound respect for the God of heaven after this ordeal.
V4- 18 is the dream that the king had.
The dream consisted of a tree tall, healthy, sturdy, just towering over people, animals and reaching unto heaven.(11-12) Then the king seen two “watchers” come down from heaven and pronounce judgment on this tree, v14. Yet, though the tree was cut down, there remained the stump of it in the ground, v15a. The rest of v15 seems different because it is referring to a person and not a stump. V16 we see the pronoun “His” used so this is a giveaway that this is a man, whose going to go through what seems to be a short term insanity; living like a wild beast.
V17 reveals why this change is going to come over this man. It was to show; “that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.”
It was given to show the king that there was another king, a king of kings; ---God!
Daniel was a little taken back, for Daniel must have realized what was about to happen to Neb. Daniel gave the interpretation with a broken and troubled heart, v19.
By the way, it isn’t easy to tell someone that they are in the wrong and will suffer if they don’t get right with God. Don’t mistake a spirit of “openness or honestly” for being an “I’m glad God is going to get you” attitude; because they are not the same. Some preachers can cry like babies while preaching against sin and speaking about consequences, yet not every preacher can. That’s more of a person’s personality than anything else. But for those who can’t cry at the drop of a hat, there heart is probably just as broken and unsettled as the guy who can cry buckets of tears. The test of a person, preacher, and prophet of God is not so much personality as it is truth! Pro 27:5-6 “Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”
I don’t suppose a doctor would brake down and cry every time he says to a patient that they have cancer. Maybe if that person were a close friend. But if he showed any emotion or not; would the truth be any less of the truth?
No.
Daniel reveals some hard news to swallow, that the tree in the dream that reached unto heaven and then was cut down and the person that is going to have a short bout of insanity is none else but King himself, v19-22!
Neb. was about to learn that he wasn’t a self made man after all; but in reality, God allowed him to be king, if for no other purpose than to further God’s will in the earth. That might be a little deep for some of us; yet it is the truth. And be to honest with you; sometimes I think the average Christian doesn’t want to believe that God is still in control even when they aren’t. Because to believe that God is in control even when we aren’t; means we have to trust someone outside of ourselves, not for our soul mind you, but for the food we eat and the water we drink; the things that we think life is all about! They feel awkward, because they have never gotten past, “Dear Jesus, please save me,” in their relationship with God.
But the fact of the matter remains that God is in control whether we believe it or not, whether we live like it or not, God is. And when you are in control you can do whatever you want to get your point across; that’s what God is about to do with Neb. Because of the pride of life; Neb. thought he was in control until he was taught otherwise.
I. Neb.’s Pride and his Procrastination v28-33
Daniel warned him that the fallen tree was him and that if he didn’t put God in his proper place; then all these things would come upon him.
A. Pride
Some might think that God is being to harsh on Neb, after all, Neb. wasn’t throwing any parades for himself, or declaring any holidays in his honor, as we could find in the text. That’s right. Yet we forget that God doesn’t look to outward to base his decisions on, he looks straight to the heart! And what God sees here in Neb.’s heart is about to land him in some big time trouble.
God knew it was in his heart and eventually in came out, V30-31!
Look what the king said. “Is not this great Babylon that I have built…?” Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” And it doesn’t take to see what in his heart, which is pride.
Did you know that pride is not like any of the other sins.
It may not be a big difference but it is a difference; a person may know that they are stepping into some sin that has been spelled out for them, and the know it and yet do it any way. But pride, has a sort of blinding effect on the individual, to where they don’t realize that is sin until it is too late. Someone once said, “that pride is the hypodermic shot that God always a person to give themselves to deaden the pain of being a fool.”
Pride has caused some of the godliest men of the bible to fall into sin. Abraham’s pride caused him to lie about his wife. David was victim of his pride when he numbered the children of Israel and paid dearly for it.
If you remember any about pride, remember this. That pride turned an angel into a devil. Lucifer said, that he would be like the most High, Isa. 14; 14 and God kicked him out of heaven.
Pride can spoil your sacrifice and gifts that you use for God, and all that labour and service and what you give is all in vain! Be careful not to tot your own horn!
I like what one person said, “You can let others praise you, but just don’t believe them.” If there is anything that repulses God; it is pride! Because of that God is attacked to humility, brokenness.
Isa 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
We could go on about pride and how it works to unravel our lives yet we can’t, but note this when you feel like patting yourself on the back. Any good thing in you, or about you, is there because of God!
B. His Procrastination v29
Did happen to catch that in v29, “At the end of twelve months…”
God gave him a year to get right and come clean before God would take action. Neb. probably by this time had forgot all about that dream and Daniel coming to him. Neb. procrastinated and let the window of getting right about his pride close and now the Lord has no choice but to go ahead and afflict him.
There are some verse you as a Christian ought to know by heart, they are 1 Cor. 11; 30-32. I personally think these verses have kept me from the wood shed so to speak with God. What do they mean? They mean that if you judge your life, (using the bible) and get right about whatever isn’t right; then God want have too. But, when we procrastinate about getting right then God will step in and chasten us so at least you can tell us from the rest of the lost crowd; why? Because God doesn’t let his kids get away with stuff that the lost crowd does. God’s chastening hand reveals that we are different from the rest of the lost world!
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
You can either judge yourself to get right or you can wait and God will step in and deal; but who knows if there will be anything left of you to get right?
I thank God for his patience but I wouldn’t assume upon it.
II. Neb.’s Sense and Sensibility
A. Ned. is judged by God v31-33
Ned. lost all his human sense and reasoning and had taken on the sense of an animal. That’s one of the differences between us and the animals, we have reason they have instinct, sense of the immediate.
1. There is a technical name for the loss of reason and acting like an animal, it’s called “lycanthropy”. The Greeks were the first to diagnose this in people, that’s why it is called what it is called, ‘lukos’ means wolf, or four footed beast and ‘anthropos’ meaning man. So they saw some folks who were acting like animals. Neb. isn’t acting like a wolf but he’s acting like an ox.
2. This condition continued for seven years, long enough for his hair to grow long, and his finger nails to look like eagle claws, and so on. His human heart (seat of understanding, reason, will) was replaced with that of a animal. For seven long years his madness was probably kept quite from the rest of the kingdom. Though he lost all his reasoning abilities his kingdom did remain in his grasp, pictured by the stump in the dream.
His madness wouldn’t be the madness of a king kept under wraps, there have been other kings who have be probably more insane and for longer periods of time, yet the common people didn’t have the foggiest idea.
3. Before we move on, think about this. Here’s a man living like an animal. Could I venture a thought to you tonight, about those in our society that seem to be living like animals, with no moral boundaries, with no fear of consequences, etc. That might be God’s way of punishing them, letting sin and the devil have there way with them or it might be God’s way of showing them that they don’t really want to go that road! Once you have been burned, you are kind of shy of fire!
You might know someone that just eats and breaths in sin, and they parade their sin around just because they know you are against it. You have probably thought, why doesn’t the Lord do something to show then their wrong? Have you ever asked that? The answer to that question just might well be; that God is judging them. When God quits fooling with someone that is a form of judgment! Probably the most serious of all, is when God leaves a person their own sin! God moves on to the next person. You ought to thank God that he still cares enough for you to convict your heart when you sin; because God does that because he loves us and does what sin to get the best of us!
Case in point would be those who have said no to Jesus Christ in this church age. Someone who rejects Jesus Christ runs the risk of never being saved. These will be the ones that as Paul says in: 2Th 2:11-12 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
They refused Jesus Christ, and God sends them a lie concerning the Antichrist that they might follow him to their ruin. Why will God do that you ask? Because God is “just”; in giving them what they want as their punishment; they wanted another kind of saviour, so they will have him to their own ruin.
So Neb. acts like an ox for seven years and at the end his sensibility returned like never before!
B. Neb.’s New Sensibility towards God v34-37
When the seven years had transpired Nebuchadnezzar with his sanity . . . restored . . . praised the Most High. The king who had sought honor and glory for himself now acknowledged that the Most High lives forever. The king confessed that God’s dominion is . . . eternal, that His kingdom endures (cf. 6:26; 7:14, 27). Thus he acknowledged God’s sovereign authority.
Nebuchadnezzar also acknowledged God’s irresistible will: He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. Also the king confessed that man is answerable to God, not God to man, for no one can stop God and no one has a right to question Him. The king’s acknowledgment of God’s right to rule (vv. 34-35) brought about the restoration of the king’s sanity and a restoration to his throne. Having been humbled before God, Nebuchadnezzar rose to greater heights of honor than he had known when he walked in pride. He said he praised, exalted, and glorified the King of heaven.
Since Nebuchadnezzar said that these attitudes characterized his life, many have concluded that he experienced regeneration, becoming a child of God. Nebuchadnezzar did confess that what God had done in dealing with him was right and just. This is certainly not acknowledged by one who continues in rebellion against God. The king also admitted that he had walked in pride (cf. 5:20) but had been humbled by his experience. This too would testify to a transformation in Nebuchadnezzar’s character through a newfound knowledge of God.
I think he got saved. He never saw God in the same old light as before!
Closing:
For someone that needs to get saved they have to come face to face with God. They may have a general knowledge of God, as almost everyone does, yet they are called upon to accept that the God that made world became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, and as a man, took their place for the judgment that their sins deserved.
Yet, for someone that has already become saved; they still may need a greater disclosure of God to them. God wants to be known, and He won’t be satisfied with just a medico relationship with us. So don’t be surprised or upset if God allows or uses some things that happen in your life as a means to knowing him more.
Listen if you want to serve a God that doesn’t want to have anything to do with you and your life; then you should have followed Bubbua, or Allah or some other cult; because these false gods don’t want to have anything to do with your life.
Sorry to tell you that Jesus does. He can use anything; any ordeal, any tragedy, any joy to he desires to bring you and Him closer.
That’s just one of the reasons I love him so, because he desires me with all my faults and failures.
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[1] Pride Goeth before a Fall, Esword