Well, good morning. Welcome to
our continuing Bible study in the book of Daniel. And today
we're going to work through chapter 4. Chapter 4, Another Dream. You know, as we go through the
book of Daniel, and we mentioned this in our introduction and
in our first few chapters, The main thing that we're looking
for, the main thing that we see through Daniel is Messiah the
Prince. Jesus said, search the Scriptures,
for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they
that testify of me. that's largely what we find in
the book of Daniel, that all these things come about for a
purpose. The captivity, the remnant that's left from them, and all
these things point to the coming of the Messiah, the Prince, and
all these governments that we talked about last time in the
statue, the image that Nebuchadnezzar had the dream about in chapter
three, the head of gold, the breast and arms of silver and
the belly of brass and the legs of iron and clay and all those
things represented a different country that was going to take
over, culminating in the Roman Empire, which we would find be
in control of that region when Messiah the Prince was walking
among them, all according to the purpose of God. And so we
always need to keep that in mind as we're going through this and
not just get caught up in the all the dreams and the interpretations
and all that stuff that people make eschatology remarks about. So today, you know, we are introduced
to the Most High. That's what Nebuchadnezzar calls
God. And we have a couple of verses
in this chapter that, as sovereign grace believers, that we refer
to all the time about the sovereignty of God. In verse 34 and 35, all
the inhabitants of the earth are repeated as nothing, and
He doeth as according to His will in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants. None can stay at hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? And also, we're introduced to
the watchers, the holy ones that bring a message from God. Chapter 4 is the last time we
hear about Nebuchadnezzar. Chapter 4. His reign doesn't really end
chronologically at the end of chapter four, but he reigned
43 years and then his progeny took over. And we'll look at
that here in just a minute. But in this chapter, this chapter
is really a narrative produced by Nebuchadnezzar. He's the king
and he's, producing a narrative that, and this would have been
a kind of a narrative that would have been copied down by scribes
and sent out throughout the kingdom by posts. And you find that very
terminology in other places in the Old Testament. The king made
a decree and it was sent by, the letters were sent by post
out throughout the kingdom to make this announcement that whatever
the king said regarding a policy or rule or law or something. And so he has another dream,
Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, but this time he remembers pretty
much what it is. It's a little different than
the other dream. But it's a dream according to the purpose of God. You remember when we went through
chapter three, Daniel interpreted the dream for him. And he said,
well, he had this image, and the image had a head of gold.
And then he said, that is you, O king, the head of gold. But
you're going to be replaced by an inferior kingdom of silver. And then that's going to be replaced
by a kingdom of brass, and then that's going to be replaced by
a kingdom of iron and clay. And Nebuchadnezzar says, oh no,
I'm just going to make a whole image all of gold. And I'll live,
oh king, live forever kind of thing. My kingdom shall never
end. So we find that kind of thinking
that in an unregenerate person that I is the central part of
their thinking, the me. And so chapter four is, we have
a change in that for Nebuchadnezzar, and he's told that he's going
to be reduced as a ruler and brought to a low estate. And
Daniel again is called in to interpret the dream. And the
chapter, this chapter covers about seven years. in the narrative. So it's, maybe a little more
even. And Daniel, and I bring this
up just because, you know, you read through, it's only 12 chapters
and Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, and the Lion's Den and all those
other things. And Daniel would have been like
almost 50 by this time. chronologically. So he's a mature man and he's
well known in the kingdom, widely respected. He has the king's
ear. The king depends on him for things
that he can't get anywhere else. So he's well known and respected
in the kingdom. His contemporaries that wrote,
other prophets that wrote at that time, Ezekiel chapter 14. Ezekiel was a little bit out
a little bit north of Babylon called the River Chebar. We covered
that in one of our other lessons. And he said, I was down at the
River Chebar with the captives, and they all came to me with
this issue. And in chapter 14, verse 14 says,
in Ezekiel 14, 14, though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and
Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their
righteousness, saith the Lord. And so he's saying that they
can't, They can't stand in the place of the nation of idolaters
and save them. And that's true of religion today. You have a saved person, they
can't transfer that through osmosis to their progeny or their friends
or their family or their neighbors. And he says, even these three
men that are recognized as being righteous, they're not going
to save the vast majority of those people, but there's going
to be a remnant. And in Ezekiel 28, he writes about the Prince
of Tyre, and he says, Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel. There's
no secret that they can hide from thee. And he goes on about
the prophecies regarding the prince of Tyrus. And so chapter four, again, would
have been an official decree or statement from the king. Scribes
would have recorded his words. And copies would have been dispatched
throughout the kingdom. And so let's go to Daniel chapter
four there, and we'll read through that. Nebuchadnezzar the king unto
all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth.
Peace be multiplied unto you. He thought he had something important
to say to a lot of people. I thought it good to show the
signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me. How
great are His signs! How mighty are His wonders! His
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation
to generation." How different He looks at things. Isn't that
interesting how the view of... We were talking this morning
about how when people become born again, when they become
believers, their view of things changes. And he's no longer looking
at things like I. And he's going to kind of cover
that here in just a moment as we read through here. He says, I, Nebuchadnezzar, was
at rest in mine house and flourishing in my palace. Isn't that the
case that we find so many people are in the world, and we seem
to be doing OK, and things are going our way and flourishing? and I was at rest in those things.
I was comfortable in them. He said, I saw a dream though
which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the
visions of my head troubled me. Therefore made I a decree to
bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me that they might
make known unto me the interpretation of the dream. Then came in the
magicians, the astrologers, the chaldeans, the soothsayers, and
I told the dream before them, but they did not make known unto
me the interpretation thereof. But at the last, Daniel came
in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the
name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.
And before him, I told the dream saying, and in our text there,
it's the little h, little g, holy gods. And in his narrative, he's saying,
at this time, I viewed the God of Daniel as just another one
of the many, many, many, many gods that were everywhere. So I told him, oh, Belty Shazar,
master of the magicians. He was like the head of all the
ones that could tell the future and prophecy and interpret and Master the magician, because
I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no
secret troubleth thee. Tell me the visions of my dream
that I have seen, and the interpretation thereof. Thus were the visions
of my head in my bed, I saw, and behold." He's going to tell
Daniel, here's what my dream was. I behold, and behold a tree
in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great.
And the tree grew and was strong, and the height thereof reached
unto heaven. and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth.
You know, we find a similar vision in Exodus that God gave to Pharaoh. And so it was kind of a thing
that God used to portray, as metaphorically portray things
that were going to happen and a representation of things. The
tree grew and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto
heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth.
The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much. And in it was meat for all, the
beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of heaven
dwelt in the bowels thereof, and all the flesh was fed of
it. And God said, you know, when
he prophesied about Nebuchadnezzar, He said, I'm going to give him
a kingdom, and he's going to be above everybody, and it's
going to be a great kingdom, and all these wonderful things. And He said, I saw in the visions of my head
upon my bed, and behold, a Watcher and a Holy One came down from
heaven. And he cried aloud and said thus,
hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, and shake off his
leaves, and scatter his fruit, and let the beet get away from
under it, and the fowls from under his branches. Nevertheless,
leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band
of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field, and let it
be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the
beasts in the grass of the earth. and let his heart be changed
from a man's, and let a beast's heart be given to him, and let
seven times pass over him. This matter is by the decree
of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones,
to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth
in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and
setteth up over it the basest of men. This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar,
have seen, Now thou, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof,
for as much as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to
make known unto me the interpretation, but thou art able, for the spirit
of the holy gods is in thee. So then, verse 19, then Daniel,
whose name was Belteshazzar, was astounded for one hour, and
his thoughts troubled him. And the king spake and said,
Belteshazzar, let not the dream nor the interpretation thereof
trouble thee. Remember the last time he said,
anybody that can't interpret my dream gets cut in a million
pieces and their house gets made a dung hill. So maybe he's thinking
that same thing might be going to happen here. So, Belty Shazar answered and
said, My Lorm, my Lord, the dream be to them that hate thee and
the interpretation thereof to thine enemies. I think that the translation
of that is a little misleading. I like how the NIV version of
it brings it out. He says, don't let the dream
trouble you or its meaning alarm you. And Balthazar answered,
my lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning
to your adversaries. Because he says this dream concerns
you, the king. And it's not about your enemies
or them that hate you. Although they might be gratified
to see this happen to you, it doesn't really concern them.
So I like the way they translated that. The tree that thou sawest, which
grew and was strong, whose height reached unto heaven, and the
sight thereof to all the earth, whose leaves were fair, and the
fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all, under which
the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls
of heaven had their habitation, it is thou, O King. that art
grown and become strong. For thy greatness is grown and
reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.
Whereas the king saw a watcher and a holy one come down from
heaven, saying, hew the tree down and destroy it, yet leave
the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band
of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field, and let it
be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the
beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him. This is
the interpretation, O King." So he outlines again the things
covered in the dream. He says, O King, this is the
decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord, the King. Now, there's a sect of people
that believe that God has little council meeting, and he leaves
it up to his subordinates to arrange things sometimes. But
because it said, this is by the decree of the watchers and the
holy ones, the demand of the holy ones, like God said, would
you guys take care of this, handle this? But really, they're just
the messengers. And that's what that term means.
That watcher means a messenger, an angel that we find. Really, this is the only place
that they're really talked about in our canon. But here he says, this is the
decree of the Most High. So God is the Most High, and
God is the one that decreed this stuff and sent them to deliver
the message to him in this dream. So this is the decree of the
Most High which has come upon my Lord the King, verse 25, that
they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with
the beasts in the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass
as an oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven,
Seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most
High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever
he will. And where, as they commanded
to leave the stump of the root, thy kingdom shall be sure unto
thee. After that, thou shalt have known that the heavens do
rule. Wherefore, O King, let my counsel be acceptable to thee,
And break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing
mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility."
He says, quit making yourself up to be the self-righteous,
almighty one that he says, recognize that all this stuff has been
granted to you by the Most High, and He can give it to you or
He can take it away. And he said, if you knock that
off, Maybe your tranquility will last. And verse 28 says, All
this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. This is his words. He's saying
this. He says, this is what they predicted
would happen. And it all came true. It all
happened. But not right away. He says,
at the end of 12 months, he walked in the palace of the kingdom
of Babylon. So after he has this dream and
the interpretation of it, he's walking around about a year later,
and he says, The king spake and said, is this not great Babylon
that I have built for the house of the kingdom by my might of
my power for the honor of my majesty? Isn't that the interpretation
that the natural man always has of their own self-importance
and self-will? And while the word was in the
king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven. And so Nebuchadnezzar
saying this, I was just bragging on myself. Much like Paul on
the road to Damascus, I'm on my way to Damascus to eradicate
the believers. I'm on my way to arrest them
and do all kinds of things in the name of, aren't I a mighty
defender of the faith? There fell a voice from heaven,
saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom
is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from
man, and thy dwelling place shall be with the beasts of the field.
And they shall make thee to eat grass as an oxen, and seven times
shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most High ruleth
in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The
same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was
driven from men, and did eat grass as an oxen, and his body
was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like
eagle feathers, and his nails like bird claws." And, verse
34, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my
eyes to heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me." Interesting
way that the Lord phrases that, and the way that He understood
it, and the way that He relates it to us. My understanding returned. He's kind of like what Norman
was talking about, the maniac of Gadara. He was sitting in
his right mind at the feet of Jesus. And I blessed the Most
High. And I praised and honored him
that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. And
his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? At the same time, my reason returned
unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and brightness
returned unto me, and my counselors, my Lord, sought unto me, and
I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added
unto me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the capital K, King of heaven. all whose
works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk
in pride he's able to abase." This all happened to me, he said. It's kind of like the similar
story that Paul says, you know, I was I was a Pharisee of the
Pharisees. I was this. I did that and profited
above many in my religion. But God brought him down. The
same thing happened here, I believe. And this is the last we hear
of Nebuchadnezzar right here at the end of Chapter 4. And
again, he reigned 43 years. And there seems to be this big
change wrought in the demeanor of Nebuchadnezzar from earlier
when he disregarded the world. Well, Daniel told me this dream
and I said, yeah. You know, that was just a dream. I don't have to pay any attention
to that. It's like many people's attitude
toward the gospel. Yeah, it's just words. It doesn't
mean anything. Don't have to pay any attention
to that. So he's changed from when he erected a monument to
himself to praising and extolling the King of Heaven. So this second dream, which we
just described and read, occurred earlier, which he's now relating
after this period has gone by. By the time he issues this proclamation, He got the dream, a year went
by after that. And then he was made to go out
and be like an animal in the field for seven years. So we're
talking like a minimum of eight years here during this, and before
he writes this proclamation to the kingdom and nations and peoples.
And so some time passes, and we don't think about Daniel much
in that regard, but he's eight years older at the end of this
thing. And some time has passed between
when this occurred and the previous episode in Chapter 3. So now, Some of these words are the decree
of the watchers, again a term used to describe a heavenly messenger
or angel. In that day, in that era, When you talk about a watcher
or somebody that's on a watch, they were supposed to watch out. They had people on sentry duty,
we might call it. Like, say, Jerusalem, they would
have men on the walls at night, and the Hebrews divided the night
watch into three watches, they called it. and three separate shift changes,
as you might say. And these people would be on
the wall and they would be looking out saying, you see any Babylonians
coming? Nope, all clear, two o'clock
and all clear. So they were the watchers. And
they had, they were called the wakeful ones. because they had
to be on their toes. They had to be awake and watching
out. And he calls them, I looked and there
before me was a holy one, a messenger coming down from heaven in the
NIV translation of that as opposed to the watcher term. And The word of the Watcher in
the dream concerning the decree of the Most High, again, we kind
of mentioned that a minute ago, that in verse 17, it was the
decree of the Watchers and the demand of the Holy One. But in
verse 24, it's the decree of the Most High. That's where it
comes from. A lot of commentaries say, well,
you know, God has these subcommittees that He puts in charge of different
things, and they were supposed to take care of that. Well, He's
the one that sets up kings and gives the kingdom to whomsoever
He will and set it over at the basis of men. So it's the decree
of the Most High. And then the conclusion of the
interpretation in this caution, this advice given to the king,
he says, you're just too full of yourself.
You're not recognizing what you even knew earlier that God, the
Most High God, gave all this into your hand for His purpose.
And again, we've got to keep in mind the focus of all these
things are coming about to Messiah the Prince, and Messiah the Prince
being cut off. And all these things God has
purposed and decreed, every single thing that comes into play here
that we read, and that's been prophesied about by Isaiah and
Jeremiah and Ezra, all these things, Cyrus I have named, he's
going to cause the city to be rebuilt because the Babylonians
tore it all down and burnt the temple. So it's obliterated. So all these things working according
to the purpose of God to bring about the Messiah, the Prince,
and the redemption of the church. And so this King admits to having
a lofty opinion of his self and his accomplishments. And every one of them was accorded
to him by divine decree. And I mentioned earlier that
the Ezekiel was directed of God to deliver, I think I said Exodus,
but I meant Ezekiel, a similar message to Pharaoh, king of Egypt
in Ezekiel 31. And he uses similar descriptive
metaphors about a great tree and according to God's purpose
and grace. And so in verse 31 of our chapter
today, this great voice happens to navigate. He heard a great,
he heard a voice from heaven and seems to changed his view, changed his view. And he had
been given the word, It really didn't have any effect for a
year. That's an interesting thing for us to always keep in mind.
You know, we always expect instant results. And religion today is
really big on instant results. We're going to have an evangelical,
tent meeting and we're going to have 1,000 people there. And
we want to see 482 people saved. And we're going
to do everything we can to get them to come down here and make
a confession of faith and repeat this abracadabra prayer, because
we want instant results. But here it's like the word came
to him and it was a year later that he's still full of himself.
And finally he gets the effectual call as we might say. So this is the last we hear of
Nebuchadnezzar, the king that God raised up for his purpose
to bring the captivity of the Jewish people, 70 years. His son, he was succeeded, the
Hebrew, his son had a Chaldean name, but the Hebrews interpreted
it, and I think this was a kind of a, tempted them to, play on words as it were, because
his actual name was Aul Merodach, and in the Hebrew it
came out Evil Merodach. And that's how it's written in
the Book of the Kings, I think, or Chronicles. But evil Merodach
was his replacement. He reigned two years. So we know
that Nebuchadnezzar was in his first early in his reign when
he, when he captured Jerusalem, he besieged it three times. He
reigned 43 years. So, you know, Daniel being 12
or 15 when that happened, 43 year reign of Nebuchadnezzar. You can do the math. Two years
under his son, Evel Meredith. Then Nero Glasser, his, son-in-law
reigned then four years, so we can add four more years. And
then Laborer O. Soroko, the son of Neraglasur,
he reigned nine months, and then he was assassinated. And the
group of conspirators appointed a general called Nabonidus to
be the new king, And Nabonidus, he wasn't really all that interested
in hanging around Babylon and being the ruler. And he spent
a lot of time in Arabia and Egypt. And so he made his son Belshazzar
co-regent with him. He was actually the king, but
he said, I'm going to be gone a lot. So Belshazzar, you reign.
You take control while I'm gone. And so we find that when we get
into the next chapter where things happen with Belshazzar and he
has a dream, he offers to make Daniel the third ruler in the
kingdom if he will give him the interpretation of it. And that's
why that is because Nabonidus was the official head guy and
his son, Belshazzar was the the in-place ruler, but he's really
a co-regent. And so we have a span of some
like nine years after Nebuchadnezzar departs. So we have 43 years, nine years,
you can do the math. So Daniel is aging like we all
do. And so he's not a young pup anymore. Because I think so often we just
think, well, he's just a young guy that got thrown in the lion's
den. He was like 90 when that happened,
I think, or 80, in his 80s. He was a pretty old dude. So Daniel would have been in the
neighborhood of about 70. When Cyrus the Great actually was
the one, when we get into the next chapter where Belshazzar
gets the handwriting on the wall and the kingdom is taken from
him and the kingdom is given to Darius the Mede, he was the
son-in-law of Cyrus the Great. he married Cyrus's daughter.
And Cyrus said, I got a lot of fish to fry, you rule Babylon
for me. So we have Darius, Darius being
the ruler in the kingdom, and we have several instances of
of that, several chapters that deal with him. Not to get bogged
down in chronological stuff, but I'm just trying to point
out that time is going by in these four chapters and five
chapters, and Daniel is aging. And we're going to find out that
chronologically, Daniel, the book of Daniel is
not written chronologically, and we have just a couple of
minutes here, but chapter five deals with Belshazzar, and he
was made king, and he had the great feast, and he desecrated
all the vessels of the temple, and got the handwriting on the
wall, and et cetera, et cetera, and then at the end of the chapter, Then that night was Belshazzar,
king of the Chaldeans, slain. And Darius the Median took the
kingdom." Or actually, that word means received the kingdom. He
was not the conqueror. His father-in-law did it. But
he received the kingdom. And he was 3 score and 2 years
old when that happened, so 62 years. If we fast forward to chapter
9, we go backwards. In chapter 9,
it says, In the first year of Darius, the son of Hazarus, of
the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm
of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel,
understood by the books the number of years whereof the word of
the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish
70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. So it kind of goes
back and forth, and it's not really a chronological thing. We already saw evidence of that
in chapter 1 and chapter 2. So you kind of understand that
function of the Book of Daniel. So that's where we're going to
leave her for today. Next time we get together, the end of Belshazzar. So in the meantime, be free.