Sermon Tone Analysis

Proud

I forgot earlier, so I’ll share a bit of special music with you all.

This song by this friend, Mac Davis.

Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble

When you're perfect in every way

I can't wait to look in the mirror

'Cause I get better lookin' each day

To know me is to love me

I must be a hell of a man

Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble

But I'm doin' the best that I can!

Thank you.

My kids are so proud of me ;)

Pray for me.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

So many things to be proud of: church, wife, kids, job...

Daniel 4 is kind of a crazy chapter.

In the book of Daniel… but not really authored by him.

Perhaps he is taking dictation, or copies a nationwide letter for posterity.

Because this isn’t a note from Daniel.

It is from King Nebuchadnezzar, most famous king of one of the all time great empires.

He has been an enemy of God in most ways, conqueror of the nation of Israel.

and he pens a chapter of Scripture.

Crazy!

The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Seriously, though, it doesn’t get much more mysterious.

Daniel 4 (ESV)

King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you!

It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.

How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders!

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

Neby can testify!

How did this come about?

He had some “nice things” to say about “Daniel’s God” or “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s God” before… but this is a whole other level.

He wasn’t humble before God before.

He was all about changing the dream.

Dream about a statue and I’m the golden head?

No, new plan, I’m the whole statue, it’s all good, my kingdom lasts forever, and everyone bow down and worship the statue that is me.

Now it is “the Most High God… and his everlasting kingdom.”

He has learned something amazing here.

Really the great theological truth that humans, really all created beings, fail to learn over and over.

God is God.

I am not.

How did he learn this?

Better: how did God teach him this humility?

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace.

I saw a dream that made me afraid.

As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me.

Not the first time he had a weird dream, but this one filled him with fear.

Powerful man, not sure he has a lot of night terrors.

So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.

Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation.

This time he gives them the dream, unlike last time.

But I don’t think they “couldn’t” make up an interpretation… I think they were scared to.

At last Daniel came in before me—he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods—and I told him the dream, saying,

“O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation.

The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.

The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.

Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all.

The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

“I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven.

Maybe an “angel” because he comes down from the heavens?

This word is only used here… someone “watching.”

Literally “one who is awake.”

It does show up in other apocryphal books as a description of angels.

(Maybe like the eye-covered angels from Ezekiel, in which case, SUPER freaky dream.)

He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit.

Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches.

But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field.

Let him be wet with the dew of heaven.

Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth.

Hear the “him”?

The tree’s a “him”.

Last dream was a statue and “he” was the statue’s head.

Now it’s a tree… I don’t think the interpretation is too tough to guess here.

Let his mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him.

And there we have.

The curse of donkey brains!

“seven periods” will be seven years.

The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’

This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw.

And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”

Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him.

The king answered and said, “Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.”

Belteshazzar answered and said, “My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies!

The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth,

whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived—

it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong.

Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth.

Reasons to be proud, yeah?

And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him,’

this is the interpretation, O king: It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king,

that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.

You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that Heaven rules.

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.”

Does he do it?

What do you think?

Nope.

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.