When the Wisdom of the World Fails

Dan. 2:1-13

          Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “Conscience does make cowards of us all.” For a person with no conscience, such as Nebuchadnezzar, one would think he would sleep like a cat on a soft pillow. But no, his busy, guilty brain wouldn’t be still. He tossed and turned in the royal bedchamber, and when he finally fell asleep, he had a bizarre dream.[1]

          Such a dream it was; that Neb. was terrified to the point that he wanted answers. Thank God, for things that terrifies us. Because when we want choose the truth because it is the truth; we are sometimes driven to the truth, by things that frighten us. The same is true for the lost crowd. A lot of times it is their not knowing that drives them until they find the truth; and realize they were apart of some group, even some religious group that held them in error.

          Oh how many are held in darkness tonight; who have their lives are all planned out, they have their homes, cars, children, good income, even a decent church by their standards. Yet how all that changes, when a death occurs, a lay off happens, even something greater like a 9/11 strikes; their house of cards come failing down. They come face to face with their own mortality, their sin nature, and their own questions about life that have never been answered. They want to know, so they start to ask, and usually they ask the wrong persons, like Neb. did. Who did Neb. ask? The wise men of his day!

The arrival of the wise men (Dan. 2:2-4)

          It may be assumed that the wise men came as soon as the king gave the order. These men are designated by four terms, perhaps best translated as "magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and chaldeans." Wise men are mentioned several times in the book of Daniel, and a total of six terms are used to describe them with usually a different num­ber and combination of terms being used each time.

On arriving before Nebuchadnezzar in this instance the wise men responded with confidence that, if the king would tell them his dream, they would gladly indicate its interpretation. They could have given an interpretation, too, for dream-interpretation was a common way of revealing the will of their deities. It no doubt would not have been the correct interpretation, for they had only their books and formulas by which to make it, but they would have thought it was correct.

 An unexpected demand (Dan. 2:5-13)

       At this point, Nebuchadnezzar astonished and dismayed these proud men by refusing to tell them his dream. It should be observed that the phrase in verses 5 and 8 (KJV), "is gone from me," meaning that Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten the dream is the translation of an Aramaic word best taken to mean "is made sure."[2] The con­tinuing story also implies that the king had not forgotten the dream but rather wanted to test the ability and veracity of these men. In fact, he stated this directly in verse 9: "Tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me the interpretation."  The king didn’t want to run the risk of being taken advantage of.

The king gave both positive and negative incentives for the wise men to do as he asked. If they did not, they would be "cut in pieces" and their houses "made a dunghill" This meant they would lose both life and property. If they met the requirement, however, they would receive "gifts and rewards and great honour." The positive incentives were as attractive as the negative ones were repulsive.

Though the incentives were strong, the wise men still could not comply. They had no way of knowing what the king had dreamed.

I. The Wisdom of the World failed Nebuchadnezzar.

          Here we have a good example of the wisdom of the world failing; failing to give answers even those who are lost. Neb. realized that if he would have told them his dream; that they could have said anything that they wanted and been under their control. These ancient know-it-alls were just waiting for the opportunity to catch the king in aware and then punch on him like a tiger! The reason why they could not answer the King’s dream was because they were just mere men themselves! Their gods were science, learning, astrology, education; their gods failed to give them the slightest hint of what the king demanded of them. All they could have given was what they knew; that wasn’t much!

I like what Vance Havner used to say about the Modern Mind of man. “The modern mind of man, is not too modern and not much mind.”

Neb. Found this out. Yes, they had their degrees in the latest training and research; but yet when nailed to the wall for an answer; they could not give it, because they didn’t have it; and they didn’t have it because they were going against the only true source of knowledge and wisdom there is, which is the true God.

That goes for anybody. When you ignore God, you are ignoring the source of all knowledge; what ever area you are in. There used to be a day in America; when to be a Doctor and lawyer you first sat through a theology class on the truths of God; at of all places Yale, Harvard, Stanford, as well as other Ivory league schools. Did you know that they thought you could not be a lawyer or doctor worth anything; if you didn’t first know the great physician and the great lawgiver!

Harvard Un. was started for the training of preachers and is named after a preacher, John Harvard.  But today, they have strayed from their original purpose and are more interested in the wisdom of this world than with the wisdom of God.

There are lost people just like Neb. who are faced with death, faced with obstacles in living, faced with marriage, faced with how to raise their kids, faced with how to survive in a day like ours; and for the most part they want answers! Life scares them and they want someone to tell them the truth and show them the way!

But the sad thing is; the wisdom of the world has nothing to offer them! Just as empty and lacking as Neb.’s wise men were before the king, so is the modern know-it-alls of today. They may have programs and new ideas about how to straighten your life out; but all they can offer you is a band aide to cover up your problem; all the while the problem is festering and inflaming underneath.

I don’t know about you; maybe you have to try the world’s wisdom and be let down and disappointed to disgust, before you will accept that this world’s wisdom will not work for a Christian. Some Christians have to waste time, money, and energy before they realize that only the wisdom of God will work for their life! 

Do you want to know how I look at this? Well, I reckon that if I couldn’t be saved by some means that this world offered; then I just suppose that everything else that the world offers is just as useless and a waste of my time as a Christian.

That doesn’t mean, that if a mechanic tells me, my water pump is about to go out, that I refuse and keep going. No. I follow that advice because I’m not a mechanic. But when it comes to living my life to please God, when it comes to raising my family, when it comes to loving my wife, when it come to building a church, etc. I refuse to listen to the world and I listen solely to what God says through his word! Because that’s where I will find the wisdom I need for living. In fact, there’s not a single thing you face that the bible does having something to say about it; 2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

Did you hear that? God has given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness! That sums it up everything that matters through life!

The world’s wise men failed to answer Neb. and give him the answer he needed! Don’t expect to go to the world’s wise men and get what you need to know about living for God.

II. The Wisdom of the World will fail us.

Daniel heard about the command to kill all the wise men of Babylon. That meant him and his three friends as well. So Daniel went before the king, Dan 2:16  Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.

What did Daniel and his three friends do meanwhile? They did the only thing whereby the wisdom of God is revealed to any Christian. They prayed!

Dan 2:18  That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Dan 2:19 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

Daniel and them prayed until God gave an answer! Image that! That they found the wisdom of God for their lives, for the situation in the old-fashioned, out-dated often ridiculed; discipline of prayer.

They sought God’s wisdom and they found it. I want to save this theme for this Sunday. So we will pass it and think about how that the world’s wisdom won’t do for us as Christians.

Just as the world’s wisdom failed Neb. it will fail you, and disgust you every time.

The problems that most Christians experience today is because they are trying to live as a Christian the world’s way, that won’t work. You will become disenchanted with your idea of Christianity and God will leave us to ourselves. Living as a Christian will the world’s wisdom will always end in frustration and the loss of some kind.

I want to finish this message by giving the common ways I see Christians ordering their lives by the wisdom of the World.

A. Marriage

To the world marriage is a necessary evil. Marriage is something that you do after you have had your fun and slept around enough. Marriage is entered into with a lot of expectations that are not right and not of God. People try to hold their marriages together by using the wisdom of the world, and might seem to work for a while, but it won’t.

The world tells the wife; use sex as a tool to get your will done, manipulate him, exploit him, and if you have had enough just cut him lose and start over.

The world tells men that the wife is your slave, to cook, clean, and have your babies. They have no feelings, they have no needs, they have cares or concerns, hopes or dreams of their own. You don’t have to be their friend just keep the money coming, because that’s what they want after all.

I think this is close enough because that’s how I see other’s living their marriage. They are there just for what they can get out of it.

God’s wisdom for marriage is quite different. Sex isn’t a bargaining chip, but a gift, a blessing to the married couple to enjoy! Wives are not maids, but are helpmeets, completers, the other half of the man! Hopeful the sweeter smelling half!

Don’t fall into the wisdom of the world when comes to your marriage, because it never works out!

B. Parenting

The world has a lot to say about parenting these days. Look where you will and there are booklets and pamphlets about how you ought to raise your kids. They say; don’t even tell your kid, “no”, because that will make him or her mad, and that will stunt their mental development and instead of a hundred thousand dollar income they will make only fifty thousand a year.  My did used another word, it was ‘go’ go get me my belt!

And by all means the world says, don’t even dare disciple your kid, because they will grow up to hate you, and you don’t want that do you?

If I believed that was true; (and I don’t) but if I did, I would rather have them hating from another state, than hating from the inside of the jail cell! I would rather have my kid hate me and never come to see me; than me having to visit their grave side because of lose and uncontrolled living. 

I would rather teach my kid the meaning of the “No” now, than having them grow up and hold a gun on some person crying out, No, No, No! please don’t kill me!  

Listen, parents every rapist, every thief, every drug dealer, every murder, every one that is in prison today, was once someone’s child who didn’t teach them the meaning of the word, “No”. They followed the wisdom of the world and that’s where the world’s wisdom ends, ruin and shame, and waste!

C. Finances

The world has its own advice on how you as a Christian should spend and save you money. They say spend what you have, get credit so you can spend what you don’t have, and just spend and spend until your hearts’ content.

Christians under the load of debt are never happy Christians. I have family that are saved, but they lived with the world’s wisdom, and they have declared bankruptcy twice in 20 years. Have mortgaged their home three different times, have no savings, have no money to give to God and guess what, they are miserable people. If you want that, then keep managing your finances by the world’s wisdom. Keep ignoring God’s command to give his tithe as a show faithfulness, and you want be to far from it. If you dug yourself into debt, don’t blame the Lord, the shovel was in your hands. What you have gotten yourself into, you have to get yourself out!

 The world says, horde, spend but God’s wisdom says, Luk 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

Do you know how to get out of financial straits? Not by hording, but by giving. That doesn’t make sense. Yeap, it doesn’t make sense when you have been used to managing your finances by the world’s wisdom, but it works! 

You have to accept the truth that everything that you have comes from God, from the breath you breath to the money in your wallet. If you live by the world’s wisdom you will be let down and probably die with nothing but with the clothes on your back!

Closing:

Ned. learned from frustration that the world’s wisdom doesn’t have any answers to life’s questions. How long is it going to you figure out that you can’t live as a Christian the world’s way? If you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ you must learn to find and live by God’s wisdom. 

It was a liberating day when I figured out that this world’s wisdom has nothing at all for me.

It could do the same for you!

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[1]Jeremiah, D., & Carlson, C. C. (1992). The Handwriting on the wall. "Secrets from the prophecies of Daniel"--Cover. (Page 48). Dallas: Word Pub.

[2] The KJV rendition, following Greek and Latin versions, seems to find the root of the Aramaic word in 'awl, meaning "to go away or depart." This root is very unlikely, however, for it involves a substitution of a "d" for an "l" The root is better taken as a Persian loan word, best translated here as "sure."