As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
2And
the king said to call to the magicians and to the astrologers and to the
sorcerers and to the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams and they came in and
they stood to the face of the king. 3And the king said to them, “I
have dreamed a dream and it disturbs my spirit to know the dream.”
There are a number of very practical observations we can
make from these verses, but I will restrain myself and only mention a couple. First
of all notice that we all need others. Here we have the king of the most
powerful nation on earth. If anyone could ever say, “I need no one. I only
command,” it would have been Nebuchadnezzar. But here he is calling for help. He
can’t do it all. He needs other people to provide their gifts, their expertise.
And so do we.
The older I get the more I am amazed how much we depend on
each other. The old saying is true: “No man is an island.” It is interesting to
me to read the entire poem from which that old saying is taken:
“No
man is an island entire of itself; every man
is
a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if
a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is
the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well
as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own
were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because
I am involved in mankind.
And
therefore never send to know for whom
the
bell tolls; it tolls for thee” (John Donne, 1624).
Probably
most of all, though, this passage makes me thankful for the Word. Here is
Nebuchadnezzar suddenly needing answers. Suddenly something is beyond him. He
wants to know something. He wants something explained to him. And where does he
go? He calls for “the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the
Chaldeans.” Can they help him? We all know the answer is no. He turns to them,
needing them to help him, and yet we all know he is going to be disappointed.
How
often is it we all go to others hoping they’ll help us? It could be going to
the doctor or perhaps to a financial advisor. It could be to a mechanic or a
plumber. As we briefly saw above, we need each other. And sometimes the people
we go to can help us. And sometimes they can’t. Sometimes they can’t because
they simply don’t have the knowledge. Sometimes they don’t help because all
they’re really interested in is taking our money. Sometimes they themselves
think they have the answers but they really don’t. But for whatever reason, we
end up living in a world where sometimes others can help us and sometimes they
can’t. Sometimes we can get answers and sometimes we don’t.
This
is where the Word steps in. It won’t tell me how to fix my furnace, but one
thing I know – if it has answers for the questions I ask, I know those answers
are true. The furnace guy might mislead me, but the Bible never will.
Other
than the Bible, the two best books I ever read were, “Knowing God,” by JI
Packer, and “How Should We Then Live?” by Francis Schaeffer. In Schaeffer’s
book, I first was led to ponder the truthfulness of truth. Schaeffer makes the case
for why we need a source of absolute truth in our lives, why we need a place
where we can go and get truth we know is true, and of course that place is the Bible.
I love Jesus’ words, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free!” I have lived my life hearing the Lord saying, “Call unto Me, and I
will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things thou knowest not” (Jer
33:3). I spend this time digging in the original languages, tearing apart the
words and phrases and verses … because I want to know the truth. I want answers. So much of life I still don’t
understand, but as I have studied the Bible these last nearly 35 years, the
Lord has taught me again and again. So much I do understand that I did not
before.
But
it means so much to me that, when I do find answers in the Bible, I know they’re true. I have lots of
questions about a lot of things, and it is frustrating to live in a world where
I can’t get answers. I’ve been a runner all these years, which drives me to
read books all about running. I have learned some really helpful things, but I
would say 90% of what I’ve read either wasn’t helpful at all or, as I’ve come
to realize, was simply wrong. That is, for me, very, very frustrating. But I
don’t have that problem with the Bible. Everything it has taught me is true.
Every truth I learned has been a stepping stone to more. Each truth has been
just one more brick in the building of my life. And it’s a solid building.
But poor Nebuchadnezzar. Where does he go? I’m reminded of
Isaiah 8:19,20: “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who
whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the
dead on behalf of the living? To the Law and to the
testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, they have no light in
them.”
Nebuchadnezzar is about to find out “they have no light in
them.”
I feel his pain.
But I also know the joy he’ll feel when God’s man steps up
to the plate and gives him real answers.
“Come unto Me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
I love true truth!
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