Daniel 4:31–“Today”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

³¹While the word [was] in the mouth of the king, a voice from the heavens fell: “To you ones saying, Nebuchadnezzar the king, the kingdom has passed from you.”

This one little verse is so instructive, it’s hard to even put into words its solemn enormity.

The Bible, from cover to cover, is full of the warning, “The Day of the Lord will come.” Our Lord is a Rock and His truth is a Rock. We humans seem to have no idea what squishy, soft, fragile beings we are until we go splat against the Rock of God’s reality. “The Day of the Lord will come.” He has His Day in the eschatological sense, when this world as we know it will suddenly end, but He also has “His Day” at a million different times throughout our lives and throughout history.

He allows us for a time to have “our day.” As with Adam & Eve, He placed them in the Garden, gave them a literal paradise to live in, then gave them the choice: “You may eat from any tree of the Garden, but you must not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil.” It was their choice. They got to have “their day.” Then the Lord came walking in the trees of the Garden. And He had His Day. Satan told them they could be “as gods.” They found out there’s only One.

What Nebuchadnezzar hadn’t yet learned (and few of us ever do) is that, in reality, it is always God’s Day. It’s been twelve months since Daniel clearly warned the king this very day was coming. From the minute the words left Daniel’s mouth, the Lord could have rained down this judgment on Nebuchadnezzar -- every single day for the last 365.

We don’t know if, on this day, Nebuchadnezzar finally “crossed the line.” It may very well be his pride and arrogance have offended the ears of God every one of those last 365 days. The Lord may have allowed one year to demonstrate His grace and mercy—it’s His day, so He can choose when He wants to have it. But, regardless of all of that, today is the day.

Is it not ominous to read, “While the words were still on his lips…”? Nebuchadnezzar thinks he’s an independent actor – a god himself. He’s standing there thinking he can say and do whatever he wants. He doesn’t answer to anyone. And yet, “while the words were still on his lips…,” Someone intervenes. Nebuchadnezzar, your goose is cooked.

I think it interesting that the Lord Himself speaks and calls him “King Nebuchadnezzar.” Some people suggest the Lord is, in a sense, mocking him – “So you think you’re a king, eh?” That may be true but I rather think the Lord is actually treating him with respect. Even in judgment, I don’t believe the Lord stoops to the kind of vindictive spirit we humans relish when we think we’ve “won.” Remember He gave him the dream to warn him, a prophet to speak directly to him, the promise that his kingdom would be restored to him, and now twelve months to respond. I don’t think that kind, loving heart suddenly ended today.

But, for all of that, it is still true that today’s the day. Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t think he has to answer to God, but “while the words were still on his lips” a voice from heaven fell. God was listening. God was watching. “Your kingdom is taken from you.”

The very thing Nebuchadnezzar thought he could boast about – his kingdom – is taken from him in a heartbeat.

I guess my big take away from all of this is that we all need to be so careful to stay humble. The Bible isn’t kidding when it warns us, “God resists the proud.” All that we have, all that we are, all that we accomplish come to us from the hand of God. “What do you have that you did not receive?” Our proper place is to acknowledge Him as God and be thankful.

May Nebuchadnezzar remind us all today that “the Most High rules.” This is His Day. I get to live in it. I get to enjoy great freedom in it. But I need to remember throughout it that this is His world and the very life I enjoy is a gift from His hand.

Lord, help us all to be humble. May it not have to be true of us that “while the words were still on his/her lips” we force Him to have to take from us the very things we hold most dear. May we sincerely, humbly hold His gifts in thankfulness and enjoy what He always intended to be our greatest blessings!

Daniel 4:29,30–“The Insidious Sin”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁹To the end of twelve months, upon the palace of the kingdom of Babel, he was walking. ³⁰Answering the king and saying, “[Is] not this her: Babel the great, which I have built her to a royal house in the strength of my power and to the honor of my majesty?”

Once again, I think it most instructive to stay in the moment as we would ponder these words. We can read the rest of the story but Nebuchadnezzar cannot. As he walks about apparently on the roof of his palace, he does not know the future, but only the present – just like you and me. If we were there on the roof with him, listening to his words, what would we learn?

As believers, probably the first thing we would see is the Lord’s amazing patience. It’s been how long? Twelve months! An entire year has passed since our Daniel stood there and bravely, lovingly revealed the meaning of the king’s dream and urged him to repent.

We today don’t know how the king responded. He may have, like wicked Ahab, “tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted...lay in sackcloth and went around meekly” (I Kings 21:27). Maybe he did and maybe that’s why the judgment has been detained for a year? We simply don’t know how he responded. But what we do know is how the Lord has responded. And how is that? With His amazing gracious patience.

He clearly warned Nebuchadnezzar. He told him the decree had already been issued that horrible judgment was to fall upon him. Yet how long has it been? Twelve months.

Is this not so familiar to us who know the Lord? We know II Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” We know it literally says “He has not purposed that anyone should perish,” and “but makes room for everyone to come to repentance.” Even in judgment, He remembers mercy. Daniel gave the king good counsel. The Lord has given him twelve months to take it to heart. This is just like with Jonah. “Forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” Why, if the Lord has determined judgment, does He not immediately rain it down? We who know Him know that love stays His hand.

And how do people interpret His patience? Do they not say, “Where is this ‘coming’ He promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning” (II Peter 3:4). Even if the king was deeply impressed by the dream at first, no doubt this is exactly what has happened. As the days turned into weeks, then months, Nebuchadnezzar’s heart has grown to disregard the Lord’s warnings. He thinks since time has passed, apparently the Lord isn’t really going to do what He said.

Then listen to the words Nebuchadnezzar says: “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” We should note that, in the Aramaic, the “I” is emphatic. That is why I have underlined it.

Once again, if we were standing there on the roof beside him, how would us believers respond to those words? Would we not say (at least to ourselves), “Yikes!”

No doubt verses like this immediately jump into our minds: “Pride goes before a fall!” and “God resists the proud. He gives His grace to the humble!” “He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” “Let another man’s lips praise you and not your own!”  

Pride. The Devil’s sin. “I will lift my throne above the stars of heaven. I will be like the Most High.” It was part of Adam and Eve’s downfall. They believed Satan’s lie, “You shall be as gods.” Pharaoh arrogantly asked, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?” Many of the godliest men in the Bible went down in the sin of pride: David, Hezekiah, Uzziah, Asa. God had to give Paul a “thorn in the flesh,” “to keep me from becoming conceited.”

Pride is a horrible sin. In I Peter 5:5, when it says, “God resists the proud,” we should all understand it literally means is something like, “God declares war on the proud”! My understanding from studying the Bible and living all these years is that pride is an insidious sin. It actually hides itself from the sinner. In other words, you or I can be being proud and we’ll be the last to know it. As here in Nebuchadnezzar’s case, his sin of pride glares at us – but he can’t see it.

Only the Holy Spirit can open our eyes to see our pride. This is something we need to live in dread of. If a godly man like Hezekiah could fall in pride, if I know it hides itself from me, then I need to be constantly praying, “God deliver me! Help me to see my pride and repent of it! I don’t want You to have to ‘declare war’ on me!” What I believe He has taught me over the years is to watch not for it, but for its symptoms. I won’t see it. But I can see its symptoms in my life. A good deer hunter doesn’t go out into the woods looking for “a deer.” He knows, by the time he actually “sees” a deer – with its head and tail and legs and body – it’s already seen him! Instead, he goes looking for its signs. He looks for rubs. He looks for its trails. He listens intently. He knows, if he is ever to “see” a deer, he’ll have to have already noted its signs.

So it is with pride. When someone says something to us and we find it galls us, you can bet the truth is, they’ve wounded my pride. I remember a lady came up to me after a Sunday school class, disagreed with what I’d taught, and then said, “I guess I just understand it to a greater depth than you do.” Later that day, I noticed something ugly going on inside of me. I didn’t like what she said. Of course she did not “understand it” better than me. She was wrong. She needed to change! Then the Lord helped me to see that her words actually angered me, then reminded me that is a symptom of pride. I immediately saw that was exactly the problem – I was being proud! I didn’t like someone else lifting their throne above the stars of my heaven!! Whether she was wrong or not was really quite irrelevant. The fact was, it was my heart that was filled with the sin of pride. And how bad is that? “God declares war on the proud!” Yikes!!! God deliver me! Help me humble myself. The last thing in this world I need is God against me!

So here we stand next to Nebuchadnezzar as he walks about on his roof, surveying the greatness of his kingdom. The words that fall from his lips, “Is this not great Babylon, which I have built?” go off like bells in our minds – but not his. He’s gone down in pride, but he doesn’t know it. You and I would know he’s headed for really, really, really bad trouble. He’s even been warned. At this second, we don’t know when the Lord’s judgment will come crashing down on him – we just know it will. “The Day of the Lord will come.”

God deliver us.

We’re no better than Nebuchadnezzar. I might not be a rich, powerful, successful king, but I still have this desperately wicked heart that loves to be “important,” that loves to be “appreciated” and “applauded.” And worst of all that same wicked heart is “deceitful above all things.” Only God can save us from us!

I can see in this passage, even without knowing the end of the story, that the king is in BIG trouble. God help me to stay deliberately near Your heart that You might deliver me from this awful sin. Save me, I pray!

Daniel 4:28–“Deciding”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁸The all [of this] came upon Nebuchadnezzar the king.

As I said in the last post, as I’m studying, I’m trying to stay “in the moment.” We all know “the end of the story,” but Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar do not. They both have to live their lives “in the moment.” The fact is, so do we. “In the moment” is where we always are – considering in our minds whatever has happened, whatever is happening, and making decisions how we will respond. We have to do so not knowing the outcome.

And so, I want to stop and ponder the significance of this simple little verse: “All of this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king.”

What has “happened” to Nebuchadnezzar the king?

He is a man who has been “successful” in every possible way humanly imaginable. He has led his nation to what is probably the zenith of their earth history. He has conquered the world. He has become lavishly rich. He is arguably the most powerful single man who ever lived.

And then he had this dream.

The dream itself is foreboding. It is obviously bad news for someone.

No one can (or will) interpret it for the king. All his “trusted” advisors have let him down.

Then enters his trusted servant Daniel who says, “You’re the man.”

He warns him that he is going to lose his mind and live like an animal, that it’s going to last for “seven times,” and that it will last until Nebuchadnezzar humbles himself and acknowledges the Most High rules.

Then this Daniel urges him to repent of his sins and be kind to the poor – holding out the “perhaps” that all of this horror can be avoided.

Now here he sits on this throne.

“All of this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king.”

Ponder for a minute: What has “happened?”

God has moved in the life of this man.

As we’re admonished in the book of Romans, “Behold, both the kindness and the severity of God” (11:22). Obviously, we see the severity of God in this threatened punishment. But let us also notice the kindness.

First of all, the Lord has been being kind to Nebuchadnezzar all his life. This man has lived to this point basically not even acknowledging the Lord. It is the Lord who “raised him up,” who has given him his successes, and yet he has “glorified Him not as God, neither was thankful” (Romans 1: 21).

Now this same Lord sends him this dream to warn him. Please note, is not this a kindness in itself? The Lord could have just snuffed his life for his insolence. Yet here sits Nebuchadnezzar and he has just been given a very clear warning straight from the throne of God. Rather than blasting him with a lightning bolt right where he sits, the Lord instead has sent him a warning.

And not only that, this same Lord has also provided the king with a trusted servant who humbly, kindly tells him the truth and holds out to him a “perhaps,” a possibility that all of this can be avoided.

Here he sits on his throne. And here you and I sit on our chairs.

What is the “all of this” which has happened to you and me? Are you and I not at this very moment sitting in exactly the same place as Nebuchadnezzar? Any one of us can go back and tell our history. This is what has happened to me. Life hasn’t been easy. I have certainly enjoyed my “successes,” but there are also some ugly places along the path. But here I am. As the Bible says, “All the days for me have been written in Your book before one of them came to be.” Will I or will I not acknowledge it true that “the Most High rules in the lives of men and nations?” Does He rule in mine? Will I or will I not humble myself “under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt me in His time”?

That is the “moment” in which Nebuchadnezzar sits in our story. At this point, we don’t know, Daniel doesn’t know, how the king will respond. But what really matters is how will you and I respond? We sit at exactly the same point – right now, at this very moment. He had his moment(s). Now you and I have ours.

All this happened to ________________________.

Fill in your name, decide yes or no whether the Most High rules, then watch the rest of the story unfold.

Daniel 4:20-27–“In The Moment”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁰The tree which you saw which grew great and grew strong, and the height of it reached to the heavens and the appearance of it to the all of the world, ²¹the foliage of it lovely and the fruit of it abundant and food to the all [was] in it; under it was dwelling the animal of the field and in the branches of it dwelt the birds of the heavens. ²²You [are] it, O king, because you grew great and you grew strong and the greatness of you grew great and reached to the heavens and the dominion of you to the end of the earth ²³and as the king looked, a watcher and a holy one descending from the heavens and saying, ‘Hew down the tree and destroy it but the stump of it in the earth let alone and with a fetter of iron and bronze, in the grass of the field and dew of the heavens be wetted and with the beast of the field, the lot of him until seven times pass upon him.’

²⁴This is the meaning, O king, and the decree of the Most High [is] this which has come upon my lord, the king, ²⁵and you are one being driven away from the man and with the animals of the field shall be your dwelling and with the grass like oxen you will be fed and the dew of the heavens you one being wetted and seven times shall pass upon you until you know that Master [is] the Most High in the kingdoms of the man and to whomever He wishes He gives it, ²⁶and because they said to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom to you [will be] enduring after you know that the heavens [are] mighty.

²⁷Therefore, O king, my counsel let be seemly to you and your sin by righteousness remove and your iniquity by showing grace [to] the poor ones if the duration will be to your prosperity.”

Notice here what we have. In verse 19, Daniel had been stunned by the dream and began, “My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries!” Now in verses 20-27, he relates the salient details of the dream, then interprets it, then offers his counsel to the king.

One thing I’m trying to do is to stay “in the moment.” In other words, I want to realize as I’m reading that neither Daniel nor Nebuchadnezzar know any more than what has been revealed to this point in the story. I want to glean what I can from what they are doing and saying, knowing what they know at this point. It’s easy to run ahead and talk about how Nebuchadnezzar did not take Daniel’s advice, how he really did go down in pride, what happened to him, how he ultimately did repent, etc. But that isn’t how we live our lives. We don’t know the future. We have to live in the moment, based on what we do know – and that is where we find Daniel and the king.

Given that’s the case, what do Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar see right now? Here stands Daniel. The king tells him the dream and Daniel is immediately struck by the horrors it holds. Here he stands before his king with bad news to tell him. We’ve already seen that Daniel harbors no bitterness or ill-will against this tyrant king, that he treats him with respect and loyalty. I would suggest, as a godly man, Daniel actually loves the king, that he has prayed for him and constantly sought to serve him well, believing that he is king because God placed him there.

I have served under some pretty difficult bosses over the years and have experienced for myself the love the Lord will put in a believer’s heart for such men. As you sincerely try to serve them faithfully, the usual pattern I’ve found is that they know it and appreciate it. It has been fun to help them solve problems and deal with situations and know they appreciate it. They’re used to people brown-nosing them, hiding from them, making excuses, and all the rest. It is truly different for them to have a real believer working for them – someone who genuinely seeks to do them good, who is honest with them – and even if they’re not a good person themself, still the believer can actually develop a close relationship with such a leader.

I do not doubt at all that is what we have here. Only now suddenly Daniel’s job is to give him bad news. For many people, they would fear this tyrant king’s temper if they tell him the truth. Most of us would probably have that to deal with. But I don’t think that is the case with Daniel. I think it really is personally painful for him to see his king hurt.

But our Daniel has long been practicing faithfulness and so he tells the king the truth.

Also note how much Daniel is struck with the fear of God. He understands the message and is literally terrified at what the Lord is threatening. At this moment in the situation, we do not know how Nebuchadnezzar will respond, but one thing we know for sure – Daniel is a man who rightly fears the Lord. How often is that true that believers see the hand of God’s judgment and feel its terror, while people around them go on unmoved? And that is true even when the judgment is intended for those very people. A true believer fears for them! As Proverbs tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It is often hard for us believers to see people we love not fearing the Lord, knowing where it’s going to get them.

And in this case what does Daniel’s proper fear of the Lord move him to do? He does the one thing probably no one has ever done in the life of this man named Nebuchadnezzar – he calls him to repent of his sins! I can almost imagine gasps in the room as others hear his words. NO ONE corrects Nebuchadnezzar! But our Daniel does. In verse 22, his says like Nathan of old, “You’re the man!” Then here in verse 27, he actually urges the king to repent of his cruelty to the poor!

Once again, we could be awed by Daniel’s courage, realizing the king could easily fly immediately into a violent rage, but I rather think we ought to be awed by his love. I believe it’s his love that makes him brave. Because of the love God has given him, he has for years been praying for this king, sincerely trying to do him good – and now, in this moment of both danger and opportunity, Daniel’s love moves him to do what he’s always done: sincerely try to do the king good.

At this moment, for Daniel, the whole world hangs in suspense. How will the king respond? One thing I believe we can say, even not knowing how the king will respond, is that what Daniel has just done was right – and I don’t particularly mean his calling the king to repent so much as the respect and loyalty and love Daniel communicates as he does so. Here is a classic case of I Corin. 13, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not love…I am nothing.” If there is any chance at all that this king might listen to the truth, everything in Daniel’s manner is making it easy, is softening the blow of this brutal truth. Daniel’s manner (which is simply an expression of the love he’s been practicing for years) is providing a safe place for the king to repent. And, again, that is the right thing to do.

So, in this moment, will Nebuchadnezzar fly into a violent rage and shout, “I’ll have you cut into pieces and your house turned into a pile of rubble!” Or will he actually be humble himself enough to accept Daniel’s counsel and perhaps even avoid this awful judgment?

In this moment, Daniel doesn’t know. But he stands there knowing he’s done right, knowing he has loved, and trusting this same Most High God who rules in the lives of men and nations.

Like your life and mine, Daniel has to live in the moment, trust God in the moment, and simply seek to do right and to love…in the moment.