Daniel 428 through 32 says all this happened to King
Nebuchadnezzar 12 months later, as the king was walking on the
roof of the royal palace of Babylon.
He said, Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the
royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my
majesty? Even as the words were on his
lips, a voice came from heaven. This is what is decreed for you,
King Nebuchadnezzar. Your royal authority has been
taken from you. You will be driven away from
people and will live with the wild animals.
You will eat grass like the ox. 7 times will pass by for you
until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all
kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.
This is the word of the Lord. I want to begin by sharing a
story from my time as a child. I was in elementary school,
maybe third grade or so, and I was invited to be a part of what
was called the Ankeny Gifted and Talented.
Wow, right. And it was for kids, I think,
who maybe showed promise or intellect or whatever it was.
But I was invited to come and participate in this.
And we got to do fun projects and learn during school.
And I remember that my research project, for instance, was done
on the Titanic, which was a very big deal in the 90s because the
movie came out, if you remember, right.
And so as a part of this Ankeny Gifted and Talented, and if I'm
honest with you, it kind of went to my head a little bit, OK?
I was a popular kid in elementary school, right?
I had lots of girlfriends, OK? I'm not bragging.
I find that strange now, OK. But this, this idea like this,
this program, the idea that I was a part of the gifted and
talented, if I'm honest, it shaped my view of myself.
I'm gifted and talented, right? And I think they probably since
changed the name of the program to prevent kids like me from,
you know, not being able to fit their head through the classroom
doors. And on the one hand, it was
great for self esteem, but on the other hand, not so great for
the ego, if you know what I mean, myself.
Evaluation was very high during this time until it was time to
apply to participate for the following year.
I remember replying and not really taking it seriously
because I wanted to go to a baseball game.
So I hurried through the application and then the
decision came. I was no longer invited to
participate in the Ankeny Gifted and Talented.
And everyone said, oh, I know, I know, I know.
I didn't get in. It was like the first time in
this moment where I realized I wasn't going to be able to to
join, where I realized something.
Maybe I wasn't as gifted and talented as I thought, right?
Have you ever had that humbling moment where you realized you
weren't as awesome as you'd like to believe?
Maybe it was that time you bombed the exam or when you
didn't make the team. Maybe it was someone like when
someone was chosen for the promotion over you.
Or maybe you experience heartbreak where your partner
didn't seem to want to be with you anymore.
Or whatever it was right and for.
The prideful person, the act of being.
Humbled is never pleasant, we. Squirm and we try to avoid it
and we don't like it. And often times, like for honest
in our culture today, we are we are so tempted to think too
highly of ourselves or or maybe if we've accomplished something,
we think that we deserve it and that we've done it all on our
own wisdom. But when we're humbled, we feel
exposed. Do we not like like the nerve of
a tooth? That can be painful when it's
exposed, but it's in these. Moments where we're actually
afforded an honest glimpse into ourselves.
In other words, these moments of humbling can act like a mirror,
right? Mirrors do not hide the
blemishes you'd rather choose to ignore.
They simply reflect an accurate picture of who you are.
Those who are proud and confident and bold and even
brash, right? Those people are celebrated.
Often times in our culture today.
Those are the people we. Elect into positions of power,
right? Not the not the people who are
meek and mild and soft spoken, right?
We want the powerful, the. Confident humility is not
something we honour much in our society here today.
And so the question for us that I'd like to explore as we dive
into Scripture is this. How can we?
Avoid an unhealthy, prideful self evaluation and instead
adopt A godly perspective for our lives.
So I encourage you now to turn to Daniel chapter 4, if you
could in your Bibles. We always encourage physical
Bibles to get away from our get away from our screens.
Daniel is in the Old Testament. If you'd like to turn there,
it's right after the the large book of Ezekiel.
If you're new to the word, we're just so glad you're here and
we'll put it up on the screen as well.
Daniel chapter 4, this chapter is sort of like a Part 1 of a
Part 2. Daniel Part 1, we're calling the
beast. Next week we'll start in chapter
5, which we're calling the feast.
You'll understand that next week.
But Daniel chapter 4, verse one says this King Nebuchadnezzar to
the nations and people of every language who live in all the
earth. May you prosper greatly.
It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and
wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.
How great are His signs? How mighty His wonders.
His Kingdom is an eternal Kingdom.
His dominion endures from generation to generation.
So Daniel chapter 4 launches out of the gate with King
Nebuchadnezzar proclaiming a sort of royal edict.
What's interesting here is that he's not actually enacting any
sort of law like a normal edict. But theologians believe that
Nebuchadnezzar here is sort of giving a confession in the form
of an open letter to all the nations.
Nebuchadnezzar is one of the most powerful rulers of the
superpower of Babylon at this time.
We encourage you to go back the next.
To our. To our.
Sermons from the last couple weeks to kind of get more
context, but what's fascinating here is that he is addressing
all the nations from the first person.
It says King Nebuchadnezzar saying I am now worshipping the
most holy God. The edicts made in the first
person because he's in recounting an experience that he
had with God. And unlike other chapters,
praise of Daniel's God is at the beginning of the chapter as he
tells his story verse 4. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home
in my palace, contented and prosperous.
And I had a dream that made me afraid as I was lying in bed.
The images and visions that pass through my mind terrified me.
So I commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be brought before
me to interpret the dream for me when the magicians.
Enchanters, astrologers, and diviners came.
I told them the dream, but they could not interpret it for me.
Finally Daniel came into my presence and I told him the
dream. He is called Belted Gazar after
the name of my God and the spirit of the holy gods is in
him. Verse 9 I said Beltejazzar,
chief of the magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy gods
is in you and no. Mystery is too difficult for
you. Here is my dream.
Interpret it for me. So in this passage,
Nebuchadnezzar finds himself as being contented and prosperous.
He's doing just fine, right? He had it all.
He had the power, he had the wealth, he had the entourage, he
had the influence, he had the achievement, he had it all.
But this dream of his one night disrupts all of that, and it
makes him afraid. So once again, Nebuchadnezzar is
given a dream of divine revelation.
And so he turns to the Judean exile Daniel, very similar to
chapter 2. And notice what he says.
About Daniel, he says, I know that the spirit of the holy Gods
is in you. Now Nebuchadnezzar is not
necessarily saying I know that the Holy Spirit is in you.
This is basically Nebuchadnezzar's way of saying
Daniel is very spiritual. Clearly he listens to God.
Verse 10 These are the visions I saw while laying in bed.
I looked in there before me stood a tree in the middle of
the land. It's height was enormous, the
tree grew large and strong and top it's top to touch the sky,
it was visible. To the ends of the earth, it's
leaves were beautiful and it's fruit abundant, and on it was
food. For all under it the wild
animals found shelter, and the birds lived in its branches.
From it, every creature was. Fed 13 In the visions I saw
while laying in bed, I looked. And there before me was a holy
1A messenger coming down from heaven.
OK, Nebuchadnezzar is sleeping. He's having a good time, he's
prosperous. And all of a sudden he has this
scary dream. And it's a dream about a tree.
Now trees during the ancient Near Eastern Time were often
symbolic for life and vitality. So Nebuchadnezzar in this dream
is the tree. His position as ruler of one of
the superpowers of Babylon gave him great responsibility to
steward his power well for the well-being of everyone under his
care. It reminds me of that famous
line from Spider Man. Any Marvel nerds out there?
Right, You guys know it. With great power there must also
come what great responsibility. And so Nebuchadnezzar has so
much influence, so much power. He's achieved so much.
But with that, this dream is showing him, comes great
responsibility. People are relying on him for
abundance and. For their food, just like the
tree and the animals and the fruit under it.
And notice in 13 it says that who visited visited him, A holy
one visited him. This is a messenger.
It's what we call the one of the phrase is called the watcher.
So this is the idea that there's these watchers in heaven who are
sort of observing all of creation.
And the watchers in scripture were members of what's called
the Divine Council and participated in delivering and
announcing the decision of the Most high.
Now, the ultimate Authority still still remains with the
Most High but. God also had a divine council
around him. So like when we think about
heaven, we think of like the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Maybe we picture angels like we
just sang about. But also there's what's called a
divine council, meaning they have some level of autonomy and
authority. To be able to observe the
affairs of humans and to be able to make decisions, isn't that
interesting? We'll maybe talk more about that
in a bit. But again, it reminds me of like
Marvel, if you're familiar, there's these like alien
sentient ancient creatures called the Watchers and their,
their whole point is to like observe human beings.
It's interesting. Verse 14, he called in a loud
voice. This is what the the, the
watcher, this part of the divine council.
This is what he declared in verse 14.
He called in a loud voice. Cut down the tree and trim off
its branches. Strip off its leaves and scatter
its fruit. Let the animals flee from under
it and the birds from its branches, but let the.
Stump and its roots, bound with iron and bronze, remain in the
ground in the. Grass of the field let him so
it's now the tree is now a hymn OK again this is referring to
Nebuchadnezzar. It says let him be drenched with
the dew of. Heaven, and let him live with
the animals among the plants of the earth, Let his mind be
changed from that of a man, and let him be given the mind of an
animal till 7 times past for him, 17.
The decision is announced by the messengers or the watchers.
The holy ones declare the verdict so that the living may.
Know, don't miss this, that the Most High God is sovereign over
all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes and
sets over them the lowliest of people.
So here we sort of see the the theme verse of this entire
chapter, which actually serves as the theme of the entire book
of Daniel. So what is the book of Daniel
about? Take a look at this last line
here that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on
earth. God.
Gives the kingdoms to whoever he wants, even the lowliest people.
In other words, God gets to do what he wants.
God chooses who gets to rule. And what this means is that even
if it means that some of those who are in power, like the tree
like Nebuchadnezzar, need to be. Cut down From time to time, God
instills kings. He raises them up, but he also
deposes them, as we'll see in the next chapter.
But notice how how Daniel responds here to Nebuchadnezzar.
This is crazy. Notice, notice his response.
Like if I was Daniel, I'd be like told you so, right?
You'd get what you deserve. But that's not Daniel's
response. Verse 19 Then Daniel, also
called Beltichazzar was greatly perplexed for a time, and his
thoughts terrified him. So the king, said Beltichazzar,
do not let the dream or it's meaning alarm you.
But Daniel answered Beltichazzar answered.
My Lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and it's
meaning to your adversaries. You see, Daniel knew what this
dream meant. Nebuchadnezzar was the tree that
was going to be chopped down. And notice here Daniel is
showing genuine compassion and concern for King Nebuchadnezzar,
even though up into this point he is a he's an evil king and an
evil ruler. He is showing what theologians
they say, say he's showing genuine warmth here to this
king. There's there's a relationship
that had been built here, which is absolutely remarkable
considering all that Nebuchadnezzar had done up into
this point. And so Daniel, in his concern,
he says, oh, if only this applied to someone else, not
you, Nebuchadnezzar, not you. And he goes.
On to interpret the dream for Nebuchadnezzar, he says.
I'm so sorry, Nebuchadnezzar, but you are the tree.
It's because of yourself proclaimed greatness that God
is. Going to chop you down and
you're going to become like a wild beast.
You're going to roam the earth, your hair is going to grow long,
you're going to eat grass. You're going to become as low as
it gets, Daniel. It's almost as if Daniel's
heart's broken for the king in this news, in this
announcements. And it says here in Daniel 425
that the Nebuchadnezzar is going to be as low as it possibly gets
until verse 25. It says until you acknowledge
that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on
earth, Nebuchadnezzar, you're going to stay in this low
position until you acknowledge that the Most High God reigned
supreme. What I appreciate here is that
Daniel tells it like it is, right?
He delivers the difficult news real quick.
Let me ask you, do you guys have truth tellers in your lives?
Do you have people who will tell you like it is, even when it
hurts? I would say this, Every one of
us needs people in our lives. I can just tell the truth,
right? I've got people in my life like
my my buddy Jared, for instance. Last week we were setting up.
I'm flustered about something and he finally just like sat me
down and he's just like, dude, it doesn't matter.
Relax. You know, he's like telling me
the truth and telling me what I, what I needed to hear.
And I so appreciated that. Well, I didn't appreciate it in
the moment. I actually was kind of annoyed
at him. But you know if you know.
Jared, like he's a truth teller and I appreciate.
That, but then he also took the time to pray for me.
It wasn't just correction, it was actually concern.
It was love. That makes sense.
We all need truth tellers like Daniel in our lives.
Who is? It for you.
Daniel delivered the harsh words of judgement, but they weren't
his own words of condemnation. They were gods.
Look, I'm sure Daniel had plenty of his own words of condemnation
for Nebuchadnezzar. I'm sure Daniel could have come
up with his own condemnation after what Nebuchadnezzar did to
his three friends the chapter earlier, but instead he he.
He's restrained enough to just share what God is sharing with
him. So don't take this story as an
excuse to run up to your boss and be like, hey, God wanted me
to let you know that you're kind of a jerk.
OK, that will not go well for you.
Probably. The point is, there is a time
and there's a place to rebuke and correct and to edify those
who are oppressive. But it's also critical to listen
to the Holy Spirit's timing and not just act out of our own
emotional volatility, right? We got to listen for the
Spirit's timing. On that, and it doesn't matter
if it's your coach or your teacher or your boss or your
pastor or your mentor or your governor or your manager,
whatever it is we need. To, like Daniel, refuse to
respond from our own pride when we're confronting, because how
many of you know that when. Pride confronts pride.
Everybody loses. People fall.
So next, Daniel? Doesn't just issue the issue,
the harsh judgement, but he also shows Nebuchadnezzar a way
forward. Here is what it says in verse
26. Verse 26.
The command to leave the stump of the tree with its ruse means
that your Kingdom will be restored to you when you, what's
the word, acknowledge that heaven rules.
Verse 27. Therefore, Your Majesty.
Be pleased to accept my advice. He listened to Daniel pleading,
saying, please accept my advice. Here it is.
Renounce your sins by doing what is right and your wickedness by
being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your
prosperity will continue. So what's Daniel's loving advice
here? He's saying, Nebuchadnezzar, you
got to renounce your sins. You got to start doing what is
right. You got to start being kind to
the oppressed, to use your power and influence to actually be a
blessing and take care of people rather than using them for your
own means. He's saying you need to
acknowledge God and change your bad habits.
Look. True church, true repentance is
not just something that happens in our mind or in our heart.
It starts there. Repentance starts with a change
of mind, but then it. Must lead to a change of.
Direction and a change of action.
True repentance is changing ungodly things that are within
your control. All of us have things in our
life that are ungodly, that are within our control.
Repentance means living that out.
This is Daniel's encouragement to Nebuchadnezzar.
But notice this. Rather than chastising the king,
Daniel is pleading with him to repent.
He's pleading with him to repent.
He wants the king to be saved here.
Do you notice that? And he's encouraging repentance.
He's encouraging a change of direction.
Have you ever had a friend that. Pushes you, you ever had a
friend that challenges you and encourages you into a life of
godliness, right. This is our whole vision behind
our discipleship bands, our our groups of two to four people
that meet and actually have transparent conversation where
we're actually able to encourage one another in the Gospel and,
and move closer and closer so we can become like Jesus together.
Do you have someone like that in your life?
And here's what happens to Nebuchadnezzar.
It's sad, but in verse 28 it says all of this happened to
King Nebuchadnezzar, meaning all of this punishment becoming like
an animal happens to Nebuchadnezzar 2912 months later
as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of
Babylon, he said. Is this is this?
Not the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence by
my mighty power and for the glory of My majesty.
Notice here in this passage that it shifts back to the to the.
Third person. So now this is like a narrator.
Talking about Nebuchadnezzar as Nebuchadnezzar is losing his
mind. So Nebuchadnezzar is no longer
like a reliable narrative in this picture, rather Daniel or
someone else's recounting the stories.
Picking it up from here. And then what we see happening
here is that 12 months go by, and so we don't know if
Nebuchadnezzar repented at first, but then sort of backslid
or if God was just. Patient with him for 12 months,
giving him opportunity. Either way, what we see is that
Nebuchadnezzar refused to take Daniel's advice to repent.
Notice the language here for Nebuchadnezzar I have built.
By my mighty power for the glory.
Of my majesty, do you hear the pride in all of this?
Do you hear Nebuchadnezzar's heart?
Now you may be thinking like this is just a story.
Like, would anyone actually talk like this in real life?
And the answer is yes. The historical Nebuchadnezzar
definitely did talk like this. In fact, we have archaeological
evidence of of Nebuchadnezzar's words that sound extremely
similar to what we find here in Daniel Daniel.
So for instance, we have these these cylinders were often times
used and they were scribed for the dedication of temples and
structures in ancient Mesopotamia.
They contained cuneiform writings.
In fact, one of these cylinders, these sort of clay, it was
almost act like paper. One of these clay cylinders
recently sold for over $600,000. Isn't that amazing?
I mean, I don't know about you, but like, forget Tesla.
I'm putting my retirement into clay cylinders from
Nebuchadnezzar. OK, got to diversify that
portfolio, right? But I went ahead and read one of
these cylinders this last week and boy, was it a hard read.
It was hard to get through to be honest with you, because
Nebuchadnezzar is just bragging. About himself the whole time.
So these are Nebuchadnezzar's word.
I'm, I'm pulling some quotes not from Daniel.
These are from the clay cylinders, for instance.
Nebuchadnezzar says things like a thing which no king before had
ever done. I constructed an enclosing wall,
4000 cubits in length, Mountain High, right?
Just exaggerating. I love this one from a from a
little bit earlier. He says, I am Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon the great, the mighty, the favorite of Marduk,
the powerful Prince, the beloved of Naboo, the ruler who knows
not weariness, the wise Lord. And then he says, the darling
and the joy of the heart of the great gods, right?
Do you hear the language here? He's bragging about himself so
much. It's like a Kanye West song.
OK, But it's like, dude, Nebuchadnezzar, if you're going
to, like, brag about how hard you are, don't call yourself the
darling joy of the gods, right? Like, you just lost some
credibility with me. But anyway, what we see here is
Nebuchadnezzar. Is full of himself.
Now here's the thing. History shows us that
Nebuchadnezzar's deeds were indeed great.
He accomplished a lot throughout history, right?
Here's another archaeological find.
It's called the Tower of Babel Steel or Steely, and it shows a
great image here. So on the left is what the
actual image looks like. On the right, they've
highlighted what's actually on the on the inscription there.
What we see is that King Nebuchadnezzar is standing next
to one of his great ziggurats. It's sort of like the
skyscrapers of the age. And what we see here is, for
instance, Michael Row off. He writes it this way.
When it talks about Babylon's great and mighty.
Feats. It says Babylon contained 2 of
the 7 wonders of the ancient world, the hanging gardens and
the city walls. The outer wall stretched more
than 8 kilometers and according to Herodotus, had enough space
at the top to enable A4 horse chariot to turn around.
So Nebuchadnezzar had built some some pretty impressive stuff.
He actually. History shows us he had some
clout. But notice his language and
Daniel, he says I have built by my mighty power.
For who? For the glory.
Of my majesty. And God wasn't OK with that.
Whose glory is Nebuchadnezzar concerned about?
His own. He's oozing with pride here.
Self accomplishment, self importance.
His self evaluation is high and he's speaking this out loud.
What happens next? Verse 31.
Take a look.
Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven.
This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar.
Your royal authority has been taken from you.
You will be driven away from people.
And you will live with wild animals, you will eat grass like
the ox. 7 times will pass by for you until you what acknowledge
that the most highest sovereign over all the kingdoms on earth
and gives them to anyone he wishes.
Verse 33 Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar
was fulfilled. He was driven away from people
and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the
dew of heaven until his hair grew like feathers of an eagle
and his nails like the claws of a bird.
We see the descent of Nebuchadnezzar as he loses his
sanity and it becomes, it says, like an animal, like a beast.
We may hear a story like this and be like, did this?
Could this even really happen? Like is this real?
Did he actually become like an animal?
Well, history shows us that there's actually this
psychological phenomenon that can take place.
It was originally called lycanthropy, whereas it's the
idea that a person actually believes.
That they're an animal. And so more specifically,
there's a psychological term which is called Bo anthropy,
which is where a person believes that they are actually an ox or
a cow. So this is documented in mental
health catalogs. It's a known phenomenon.
There's less documented cases now than there were passed
because we're now able to recognize it as mental health,
provide medication, etc. Right.
What's interesting, though, is that now we're also seeing a
rise on the Internet, for instance, in this phenomenon
where people are identifying as what's called other kin or
therians. OK, this is the.
Idea where people identify as not being humans, but rather
they believe that they're actually an animal.
So they believe, for instance, that on all.
Levels, except physical, they are a wolf or whatever.
OK, kind of interesting. And So what we see here with
Nebuchadnezzar is that it's not demeaning his condition, but
what we see is he's having a break from reality.
But notice something. His first break from reality.
Was believing that he was like a God.
His first break from reality was his pride.
Nebuchadnezzar forgot, as we see in chapter one, that it had been
God who delivered Judah and Daniel and Shadrach Meshach, and
it had been God who delivered them into his hands.
Nebuchadnezzar forgot in chapter 2 that it was God who had
actually interpreted his dream for him.
Nebuchadnezzar forgot in chapter 3 that he didn't.
Even have the power to harm God's children, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. And yes, well, yes, it was his
orders that the great Babylon had been built.
He had forgotten. It was because of those he'd
been oppressing that Babylon was able to be built.
You see, it was their sweat. It was their toil, it was their
building who allowed for the greatness of Babylon.
In other words, let me put it this way, Nebuchadnezzar's
prideful self evaluation was his first break from reality.
Becoming like an animal was just the result.
Does that make sense? Pride had already distorted
Nebuchadnezzar's view of reality before his mind unravelled.
In other words, the most dangerous break from reality
was. When he believed he'd built it
all himself. When he believed he was
something. And it's almost as if the Divine
Council of Heaven looks down on Nebuchadnezzar and says
something like, if you want to act like an animal, you're going
to become like an animal. If you're going to act like a
beast and oppress people and use them for your glory, then you're
going to become like 1. And here, what do we see next?
Notice. Notice how we're about to switch
back to the first person. Nebuchadnezzar is now going to
recount for himself what happens next.
Verse 34. At the end of that time, I,
Nebuchadnezzar, I love this, raised my eyes toward heaven,
and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High I.
Honoured and glorified him who lives forever.
So how was Nebuchadnezzar's sanity restored here?
It was by raising his eyes to heaven.
By recognising that this was. God's world, and he was just a
small part in it. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar's
sanity was restored when he acknowledged God as the ultimate
king. You and I, church, all of us
need a reality check like Nebuchadnezzar about the order
of kingship in the universe. Which you agree, Dana?
No one fellow. She writes it this way.
A man who thinks he is like a God must become a beast to learn
that he is only a human being. I one time got to be a part and
sit into a AN in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
Even though I'm not an alcoholic I was able to go and support a
friend and I love my time there. It was it was great and one of
the Co founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.
His name is Bill W He has this famous quote which eventually
became the 12 steps of A, A and recovery in general.
This is what he said. First thing he says.
We. Admitted we were powerless over
alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.
And I love this next line. Don't miss this.
We came to believe. That a power greater than
ourselves would restore us to sanity.
You see, when people who are addicted, people who are caught
in cycles of shame and defeat and sin and well-being, people
who are caught in doing things that are not good for
themselves, what they admit, what Bill W admitted, what
recovery programs from all across the nation have to
finally admit, is that we need a.
Power higher than ourselves To restore us out of that sanity
insanity, we need a power higher than ourselves to bring us back
into sound thinking. And this is true for us today.
It's when we place God in His rightful place that our minds
and our hearts are made right again to sound thinking and to
God's truth. Look, we need a new way to live
when we're not bound to sin and the choices and deception, but
that can only come, can only come when we look to God to
restore our sanity. Verse 36 Again Nebuchadnezzar
says at the right time that my sanity was restored, my honour
and splendour were returned to me for the glory of my Kingdom.
My advisors and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my
throne and became even greater than before. 37 Now I
Nebuchadnezzar, this is crazy. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he
does is right and all his ways are just.
The final words of Nebuchadnezzar are right here.
Final words we have that that we know of as he says, and those
who walk in pride, he is able to humble.
Those who walk in pride, God is able to humble.
After all that Nebuchadnezzar went through, from from
believing he was the greatest like a God, to being humbled to
be like an animal, to being restored, his final thought, his
final warning, his final plea, his final encouragement is
simply this. Those who walk in pride, God is
able to humble walk in humility. All of us have to have to come
to terms with this in our lives. In some way or another.
All of us are tempted to elevate ourselves.
There's a psychiatrist. By the name of M Scott Peck, and
he once wrote this. He says mental health is a
dedication to reality at all costs.
All of mental health, all of therapy, all of psychiatry.
He says it's a it's a dedication to reality, no matter what the
cost. And I love that definition.
Our faith is a faith of reality. Our faith is a faith and a
dedication to truth. At all costs.
Even when it, even when it feels like it hurts us.
You know what I mean? And herein lies the danger in
the problem of human pride, right?
Let me put it this way. Pride distorts our view of
ourselves. It distorts our view of others.
It distorts our view of God and it distorts.
Our view of our role in the universe.
We all must accept a proper perspective of God in our lives
to be grounded in humble reality at all costs.
For Nebuchadnezzar, this meant looking up into heaven.
A theologian, Joyce Baldwin. She puts it this way.
It is important to note the connection here between the.
Exercise of faith and the return of reason.
While he was full of his own importance, Nebuchadnezzar's
world revolved around himself. It did not strike him how
unrealistic this was until he was brought low by illness.
And I love what she writes here. Don't miss this.
I love this. Sanity begins with a realistic
self appraisal. Sanity begins when we.
Actually have a reality check, a realistic self appraisal.
When Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged that he wasn't God, he recovered
his capacity to perceive reality correctly and act accordingly.
Pride is the sin that spawns so many others in our lives, and
each of us have to battle against it.
Because here's the thing. Here's what I've learned about
pride in my own life and the life of others.
That pride is sneaky and it takes on different forms for
different people. Have you never noticed that?
It doesn't doesn't always manifest the right way.
It's not always the the boastful, cocky person who's
saying I'm the best, aren't I right?
Pride is. Sneaky.
It can slip into anyone at any time.
Let me just give you some examples of pride.
And as I'm I'm saying this, I encourage you not to think about
others, but maybe to think about yourself.
OK, number one example of pride, believing you're above others,
believing you're somehow special or above the rules, right?
Like like everyone else needs to follow the speed limit and use
their blinker. But when I don't do that, it's
not that big a deal, right? Anybody.
OK, I just saw someone raise their hand.
I don't think it was for that, but it's believing that you're
above others. Maybe that my way is best,
right? Another example of pride is is
vain glory. In other words, cockiness.
Just believing you're you're the best and you're the greatest.
How about entitlement or believing you're owed something?
How about self absorption or self obsession?
Narcissism is kind of a buzzword here today.
Elitism, which is the idea of believing that you're somehow
above others, right? That you're somehow above the
lowly, or maybe at your job you're above the menial task, or
at church, you're above setting up and tearing down.
OK, no one would ever think that.
No one ever say that out loud. I'm sure here, not at presence,
but whatever it is, right? It may be elitism in the form of
believing you're above certain classes as you're hearing about
love. Inc and the, and the people who
are down and out and addicted and hurting and painful, right?
Like, if you're honest with yourself, is there any sense of
pride where you believe that you're somehow above those
people? Maybe for the intellect, maybe,
maybe you should. You believe you're above people
intellectually, you've got the smarts, you're gifted and
talented or whatever, right? Maybe you believe you're above
certain people, certain racial. Classes or economic classes or
whatever it may be. And so we all have to ask
ourselves, in what ways am I tempted to view others as
beneath me? In what ways am I tempted to?
Elevate myself some symptoms of pride and let's just see if any
of these resonate with you as much as they did with me.
How about being easily offended having to get the last word in?
My wife just said OK. How about an unwillingness to
hear opinions? That you don't agree with,
ignoring correction. Dismissing your issues,
believing you always deserve better, Thinking you're owed
something, believing you've accomplished something on your
own or by your own power. Maybe it's just generally
judging. Others.
And how about this last one? Just rarely acknowledging God.
Just rarely acknowledging where it all comes from.
Over and over and over in this chapter.
The encouragement is to acknowledge God and I love that.
It's like the theme, just acknowledge God and all of it.
I love the definition of of acknowledge.
This is straight out of Merriam Webster or whatever.
Like here's the definition for acknowledge.
It means to take notice of. It means to recognize the
rights, authority and status of, to disclose knowledge of or
agreement with, and finally to express gratitude or obligation
for. These are the perfect
descriptions. For what we are called to do
with God, right? You and I are called to take
notice of God, all the ways He's blessed us and filled us and
given us good things. You and I are called to
recognise the rights and the authority of the status of God.
He is God and we are not. All of us are called to disclose
the knowledge of agreement with in other words.
When we make a mistake, we say God, I acknowledge it was my
mistake and finally, we are called to express gratitude and
obligation to God. He has bought us with a price.
Deuteronomy 817 puts it this way.
You may say to yourself. My power and the strength of my
hands have produced this wealth for me.
But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the
ability to produce wealth. Look, you may think you're
slaving away at your 9:00 to 5:00 every week, that it's on
your power that you were able to accumulate wealth and buy your
things and do that. No, no, no, Scripture reminds us
it's God himself who gives us the ability to even produce
wealth. None of it belongs to us.
That's why as Christians, we freely give back to God.
The encouragement of Daniel Forest to acknowledge God for
all of it. To acknowledge God when there's
food on your plate. When your boss notices your
work. To acknowledge God when you you
surprised yourself at how well you did on the test.
When you're giving influence over others.
Acknowledge God when your child randomly comes up to you and
gives you a hug and says I love you.
Acknowledge God every single day when you wake up and you have
breath in your lungs. We are called to acknowledge Him
in all things. There's a thousand ways to give
him his glory and exalt his name and praise his name.
This is how we live a life of worship, and it's a humble
recognition that we know where it all comes from.
It's all from Him. This is the kind of attitude
that fosters humility and it undermines pride.
So my encouragement to all of us here today is to look up to
heaven like Nebuchadnezzar, to look up to heaven and have our
sanity restored. So literally, practically this
week. My, my, my encouragement, my.
Challenge to you is to. Literally go out and look up at
the night sky and look up at the stars.
When's the last time you did that, by the way?
When's the last time you just like fathomed the depths and the
greatness of of God Almighty, the one who names every star,
trillions of them, Go look up to heaven and be returned to your
sanity. Look up to heaven, look into
eternity and realize how small you really are.
Psalms 90 puts it this way. Teach us to number our days so
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Teach us to number our days. We know it's limited.
We know we're not eternal that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Ask God for a realistic self appraisal.
Killing our pride does not mean that we wallow around like a
slug on the ground thinking we're no good, right That's.
That's the opposite. But rather, we're inviting
reality in. So as we think about the story
of Nebuchadnezzar, one thing I want to ask you is do.
You have truth tellers in your life like Daniel.
Do you have people who can? Call you out before you fall to
pride. And do you listen to them?
Do you have people who will meet you with love and concern even
when they have to bring difficult news?
The bottom line for us today is this.
We are humans in God's world, not God's in a human world.
We are just humans living. In God's world, not God's living
in a human world. Look, we live in a secular age
church where all we see here today is what we can see and
what we can touch and what we can taste, right?
And so we're deceived. To thinking we are actually
God's, that this is all there is, that there's no real meaning
or intention or purpose. That's the message of the world
here today. And if we operate from a
perspective that this is all there is to life, we will miss
out on the humble recognition that God is greater than all of
it. So many of us live as if we're.
In a human world and we try to play God.
Look, we have infinite knowledge.
It seems through the Internet and through AI we have.
Access to the latest and greatest resources for mental
and physical health we live in. One of the richest countries of
the world. Those are all great things, but
the danger is that all of these things will allure us into
believing and acting as if we're God's in the human world.
And our temptation to preserve beauty and to cheat death, and
to indulge in pleasure and to live comfortably and to elevate
ourselves has. To be brought back into reality
that God is above it all. We want to live in a Burger King
world where we have it our way. But we are not gods in a human
world. We're just humans in God's
world. This is the message of Daniel.
He is the Sovereign. 1 Daniel had an opportunity to show his
own pride here too, right? He could have condemned
Nebuchadnezzar. He could have lowered him down.
But Daniel didn't just have the wisdom of God, he also had the
character of God. And he respond with compassion.
And so when we are confronted with oppressive people.
Over us. Look, you and I have an
opportunity to model Jesus in those moments.
Well, to model Jesus who turned the other cheek and as it says
in First Peter, that when they hurled insults at him, he did
not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no
threats and instead he entrusted himself to him who judges
justly. Church, the world needs less
harsh critics and more truth tellers like Daniel.
We can call out evil when it's necessary, but we can do it with
compassion and love in God's timing.
So maybe here today you are actually one of the prideful
people who are in a season of humiliation.
Maybe you're in a season where you feel like you have been
lowered, like you are a a chopped tree and a stump that's
barely sticking out of the ground.
Maybe you feel. Lower than you've ever been
before. Maybe you're facing obstacles,
maybe you you realize how far you've fallen.
And I just want to encourage you here today and to say that that
even in that season where Nebuchadnezzar was being chopped
down, there was still a word of hope and encouragement for him.
Because it said in Daniel 415, it said, but let the stump and
its roots bound with iron and bronze remain in the ground.
In other words, the stump of Nebuchadnezzar's life wasn't
pulled up. Uprooted and thrown away.
Instead, in God's grace, bounded with iron and bronze.
In other words, God protected Nebuchadnezzar even in the midst
of his lowest moment. And so if you're here today and
you feel like you've been chopped to pieces, you're low to
the ground, and you feel like hope is lost, let me just
encourage you that it doesn't necessarily mean that God is
done with you. Just because you're in a season
of being lowered doesn't mean it's the end.
Hebrews 12/16 it says because the Lord disciplines the one he
loves. John 15 reminds us that he cuts
off every branch in me that bears no fruit.
Well, every branch that does bear fruit.
He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
God is not done with you yet. Even if you're in a season of,
of humiliation and your pride is being killed right here and now,
God may be putting his protection of iron and bronze
around you. He is not wanting to uproot you,
He is wanting to refine you. To circle back to when I was in
elementary school, even though I had to go through a moment of,
of realistic self evaluation, even though I wasn't maybe a
smart or intelligent or a brainiac like I liked to
believe, there was still this moment that took place when I
was in 5th or 6th grade where I was invited to go to a youth
camp at Fort Dodge. And I was invited to, to go
because my teachers actually identified me.
My, my guidance counselor recommended me as someone who,
who showed leadership potential. And I think I was, I think I
was, I was 1, one, one person chosen from our entire school.
I think it was one boy and one girl.
And I remember going to that camp, I remember being, having,
having instilled in me these leadership principles as I
taught me skills of communication, as I taught me
problem solving, teamwork. And I got to do a bunch of other
fun stuff. And, and I'd kind of forgotten
about that memory until this week as I was talking about
being lowered and I was talking and thinking about the idea of
God restoring people even in the midst when they're being humble.
And I and I share that story about being selected for that,
not because it's about me whatsoever, but it just reminded
me of God's faithfulness in my life.
It reminded me that even though I had to be lowered, even though
my pride was maybe cut, cut away from me, that God was still
moving and he still had his hand on my life.
And even at a young age, for whatever reason, God chose me to
be a leader, not even having any idea that I would one day be
helping lead a church and one day be given more and more
opportunities. But all along the way, it was
just A1 symbol of many of God's faithfulness, of bringing
incredible leaders, incredible mentors, incredible parents,
incredible people who believed in me all along the way.
And I shared the story, not to talk about myself whatsoever,
but but to invite you to recall. Has God been faithful like that
in your life too? I wonder if for some of you who
are feeling lower than ever at this point in your life, I
wonder if God is just bringing you through a season of
refinement. And I wonder if this season is
necessary, not so that God can get rid of you, but so that He
can use you for even greater purposes down the road.
What if this is just the beginning of God using you for
something beautiful and good? And are you willing to humble
yourself enough to say yes, God, here I am, send me whatever it
is. God loves restoring people who
are broken. Maybe you're just broken in the
room today. I wonder if God wants to bring
restoration to you. If God was willing to show his
compassion to King Nebuchadnezzar by giving him a
second chance, how much more compassion will he show you, his
beloved child? Psalm 113, as I close it, says
he raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the
ash. He he seats them with Princess
and with the Princess of his people.
Luke 1 says. He has brought down the rulers
from their Thrones, but has lifted up the humble.
The Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms of earth, and he
sets even the lowliest of people over those kingdoms.
Jesus Christ was the lowliest person who ever lived, but yet
He was elevated to the place of highest authority over every
Kingdom for all time, for all of eternity.
And even Jesus himself was willing to pray to the Father.
Yet not my will, but yours be done.
I pray that we we would be able to pray that same prayer.
We are not gods in a human world, we're just children in
our father's world.