10And the visions of my head upon
my bed, I was seeing and look! A tree in the middle of the land and the height
of it [was] great. 11The tree grew great and it grew strong and the
height of it reached to the heavens and the appearance of it to the end of the
all of the earth. 12The foliage of it [was] lovely and the fruit of
it abundant and food to the all [was] in it. Under it the animal of the field
had shade and in the branches of it dwelt the birds of the heavens and from it
the all of the flesh was fed. 13I was seeing in the visions of my head
upon my bed and look! A watcher and a holy one from the heavens descending, 14proclaiming
in strength and thus saying, “Cut down the tree and cut off the branches of it.
Let the foliage of it be stripped off and scatter the fruit of it. Let the
animals flee from under it and birds from the branches of it. 15But
the stump of the roots of it in the earth leave alone and in a band of iron and
bronze in the grass of the field and dew of the heavens be wet and with the animals
the lot of him in the plants of the earth. 16The heart of him from
the man was changed and the heart of the animal let be given to him and seven
times let pass upon him. 17In [the] decree of [the] watchers [is]
the matter and [the] command of [the] holy ones [is] the sentence so that the
living ones may know that Master [is] the Most High in the kingdoms of the man
and to whomever He is pleased He gives it and lowly of men is appointed upon
it.” 18This [is] the dream I Nebuchadnezzar the king saw and you
Belteshazzar say the meaning in as much as the all of the wise men of my
kingdom were not able the meaning to inform me and you being able for a
spirit of holy gods [is] in you.
So this was Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. As I have been pondering
over this passage, I have been trying to see it from Nebuchadnezzar’s
perspective. As he is relating this dream to Daniel, he does not know what it
means. It is easy for us who have often read the rest of the chapter to jump
immediately into what it does mean and how it is going to affect Nebuchadnezzar—but
he doesn’t know it. He probably already senses it portends for him something
dark and foreboding, but beyond that it simply doesn’t make any sense to him.
I don’t have dreams and visions but I certainly know what it’s
like to face life and say, “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know
what all this means.” Nebuchadnezzar was a great king. I’m just a lowly
engineer. But in this world, we both sooner or later face the same
uncertainties and confusions. We all do.
I suppose I’ve related before that I hate being confused. I
hate that feeling when I really don’t know what to do. It drives me nuts. Maybe
it doesn’t bother other people as much as it does me, but we all know the
feeling. We’ve all been there. So where do we turn?
Nebuchadnezzar turns to his magicians, who of course are
clueless. At this point, I love Isaiah 8:19,20: “And when they say to you, ‘Seek
those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people
seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the
law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is
because there is no light in them.”
“To the Law and to the testimony!” To the Word. To the
Bible! In those times, let us who
believe turn very deliberately to our God and His Word. He promises, “Call unto
Me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou
knowest not” (Jer. 33:3). As I would resolve to get my answers from the Lord, I
have to be honest and say it often feels like He is not answering. I’m floundering
around, feeling like I need answers, but He doesn’t seem to be giving them. I
don’t like that feeling of confusion, but I learned long ago, I need to just
keep pushing ahead the best I know how and trust that He will reveal to me
whatever it is I actually need to know.
Fortunately for Nebuchadnezzar, he has a place to go. To Daniel.
Although, at least at this point, he has little regard for the Lord or His Word,
yet he is aware that Daniel is “different,” that he actually can advise the king
even in very difficult matters, like this dream. And so that is where he turns
finally.
From the perspective of not knowing what it all means, here
are a couple of things I think worthy to note the dream does teach, even before
Daniel explains it: First of all, it reminds us there is an entire world swirling
around us of which we basically live totally unaware. The spirit world. A “watcher”
and a “holy one” comes down. He pronounces the sentence in a loud voice, “Cut
it down! Strip it of its beauty! Give him the mind of an animal!” And it
happens. We think we are in some sort of control of our world. We call people “movers
& shakers.” Yet there is a spirit world swirling around us and directly
impacting our lives. It seems like usually, the people who have any real
awareness of the spirit world are people who are one way or another into the
occult. Us Christians basically live and act as if it doesn’t even exist. We’re
like Elijah’s servant whose eyes had to be opened to see the mountains filled
with chariots of fire. “More are they that are for us than they that are
against us!”
I wonder if we were more aware of the spirit world around
us, if it wouldn’t move us to pray more. The spirit world is of course both
good and evil and it is a war way bigger than any of us can handle. Really our
only defense is resorting to the Word & prayer to “draw near to God” so He
will “draw near to us.” I do believe personally, if we believe this and are alert,
we’ll see glimpses of the spirit battle. There have been a number of times in
my own life when I am quite certain what I was dealing with were angels. But
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, even uninterpreted, reminds us we are surrounded by a
spirit world that does in fact directly impact our daily lives.
The other lesson is very plainly the point of it all – “that
the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men.” Could I
suggest this is one of the single most important truths that any human being
can grasp? God rules. Period. As we like to say, “There is a God, and you’re
not Him.” This truth is also expressed as “Jesus is Lord.” This is precisely
the lesson Nebuchadnezzar needed to learn, but it is interesting to note the
Watcher didn’t say, “that Nebuchadnezzar might know that the Most High rules…”
He said, “that the living may know.” This lesson is so fundamentally important,
this entire episode in Nebuchadnezzar’s life isn’t just about him. It is about us.
He needed to learn it, but so do we. Once again, we basically live our lives
thinking we’re in control – or at least trying desperately to be. Every man,
woman, boy, and girl needs to come to the understanding we are quite not in control, but God is – and embrace
that truth in our own hearts. It’s interesting that Romans 10:9 begins with, “If
we confess with our mouths Jesus is Lord…” This verse teaches us that this
business of accepting the Lord’s rule over us is part of our very salvation
itself!
So, even if we didn’t know yet what Nebuchadnezzar’s dream
means, it’s already teaching very important spiritual truths for us to ponder,
embrace, and live by!
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