Early Signs of the Kingdom
Dan 2 Feb 12, 2012
Intro:
The king sat bolt upright in bed, heart pounding, panicked eyes darting back and forth, sweat-soaked sheet falling off his shoulders, his scream of terror still echoing in his ears. It had happened again. The servants came running as always, just behind the guards with spears and swords at the ready. But the enemy was in his mind – in his dreams; there was nothing they could do.
Nebuchadnezzar laid his head back on the pillow, knowing it was futile. He still felt the fear, his soul so deeply disturbed that he knew there would be no more sleep tonight. Just like last night, and the night before that as well. He did make one decision: this dream was not going away; he had to get to the bottom of it. First thing tomorrow, he would summon all his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers. They had books and books of dream interpretations; they had supposed skill in delving deep into the meanings and the symbolism; perhaps they could unmask this fear, and thus rob the dream of its hold on him.
But how could he know they were telling the truth? Having decided to demand an answer of them, Nebuchadnezzar lay in bed staring at the ceiling. How could he know they spoke truth, and not just some made up lies? Then it came to him: he wouldn’t tell them the dream. He would make them reveal both the dream and the interpretation…
Dan 2:1-12
2 He called in his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers, and he demanded that they tell him what he had dreamed. As they stood before the king, 3 he said,
King Nebuchadnezzar: I have had a dream that deeply troubles me, and I must know what it means.
4 Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic,
Crowd of Advisors: Long live the king! Tell us the dream, and we will tell you what it means.
5 But the king said to the astrologers,
King Nebuchadnezzar: I am serious about this. If you don’t tell me what my dream was and what it means, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be turned into heaps of rubble! 6 But if you tell me what I dreamed and what the dream means, I will give you many wonderful gifts and honors. Just tell me the dream and what it means!
7 They said again,
Crowd of Advisors: Please, Your Majesty. Tell us the dream, and we will tell you what it means.
8 The king replied,
King Nebuchadnezzar: I know what you are doing! You’re stalling for time because you know I am serious when I say, 9 If you don’t tell me the dream, you are doomed. So you have conspired to tell me lies, hoping I will change my mind. But tell me the dream, and then I’ll know that you can tell me what it means.
10 The astrologers replied to the king,
Crowd of Advisors: No one on earth can tell the king his dream! And no king, however great and powerful, has ever asked such a thing of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer! 11 The king’s demand is impossible. No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they do not live here among people.
12 The king was furious when he heard this, and he ordered that all the wise men of Babylon be executed.
King Nebuchadnezzar: All the wise men of Babylon must be executed!
Remember Daniel and friends?
Now wait a moment. Last Sunday we met three young Israelite men, children of the nobility who had been carried back to Babylon as slaves to King Nebuchadnezzar. And we read that 18 When the training period ordered by the king was completed, the chief of staff brought all the young men to King Nebuchadnezzar. 19 The king talked with them, and no one impressed him as much as Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they entered the royal service. 20 Whenever the king consulted them in any matter requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, he found them ten times more capable than any of the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.
So these four are among the wise men; and their necks are now on the chopping block.
Dan 2:12-18
12 The king was furious when he heard this, and he ordered that all the wise men of Babylon be executed. 13 And because of the king’s decree, men were sent to find and kill Daniel and his friends.
14 When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, came to kill them, Daniel handled the situation with wisdom and discretion. 15 He asked Arioch, Why has the king issued such a harsh decree? So Arioch told him all that had happened. 16 Daniel went at once to see the king and requested more time to tell the king what the dream meant.
17 Then Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what had happened. 18 He urged them to ask the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret, so they would not be executed along with the other wise men of Babylon.
Notice carefully: what did Daniel do when his neck was on the chopping block? He called his friends, and they went to prayer together. There is something pretty important here, don’t you think? Who could save them from the king? Who could fix the problem of the dream that was terrifying the king?? Who could reveal the secret, unveil the mystery, intervene in the situation with power??? God, that’s who. Daniel knows this, so they ask. And they listen for the answer. I think we need this reminder: call some friends together and pray; and listen for the answer. I sometimes wonder if God sometimes feels like the stereotypical henpecked husband whose wife never lets him get a word in edgewise – you know, the one on TV who talks and talks and complains and complains and asks and asks but never pauses to take a breath let alone actually listen to an answer. Are you with me? When you pray, how much talking do you do compared to how much time you spend listening to God answering?? Most of the prayers I hear, including the ones I hear myself praying, are a monologue. A litany of things God already knows with some requests for Him to act to change something. That’s not what prayer is! Prayer is both speaking and listening, both request and praise, both expectation of action on God’s part and a quickening of hand and foot on our part that shapes us in active obedience to God and to Kingdom living. And that is the kind of prayer Daniel and friends pray. They ask, and they listen, and God answers:
Dan 2:19-23
19 That night the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven.
The answer came, and they listened, and Daniel responded with a Psalm of praise:
20 He said,
Praise the name of God forever and ever,
for he has all wisdom and power.
21 He controls the course of world events;
he removes kings and sets up other kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the scholars.
22 He reveals deep and mysterious things
and knows what lies hidden in darkness,
though he is surrounded by light.
23 I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors,
for you have given me wisdom and strength.
You have told me what we asked of you
and revealed to us what the king demanded.
Do you still believe the words of Daniel’s psalm? Especially the He controls the course of world events; He removes kings and sets up other kings? I do. It gives me hope for our world. It reminds me that even where I see evil and injustice, God can and will act; change can and will come; God is still sovereign.
Dan 2:24-30
24 Then Daniel went in to see Arioch, whom the king had ordered to execute the wise men of Babylon. Daniel said to him, Don’t kill the wise men. Take me to the king, and I will tell him the meaning of his dream.
25 Arioch quickly took Daniel to the king and said, I have found one of the captives from Judah who will tell the king the meaning of his dream!
Really? Arioch found one of the captives? See this guy trying to take credit for something he had nothing to do with? Looking to advance himself in the eyes of the king? I don’t think so. It is a small detail, but one that stands in striking contrast to the attitude we are about to see from Daniel.
Regardless, Nebuchadnezzar is desparate:
26 The king said to Daniel (also known as Belteshazzar), Is this true? Can you tell me what my dream was and what it means?
27 Daniel replied, There are no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or fortune-tellers who can reveal the king’s secret. 28 But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the future. Now I will tell you your dream and the visions you saw as you lay on your bed.
29 While Your Majesty was sleeping, you dreamed about coming events. He who reveals secrets has shown you what is going to happen. 30 And it is not because I am wiser than anyone else that I know the secret of your dream, but because God wants you to understand what was in your heart.
Who gets the credit? Arioch tried to get some for himself, without deserving any. Daniel could have taken it all, could have reveled in the glory, could have been the king’s rescuer. But he doesn’t – he gives all the credit to God. Not just once, in vss. 27-28, but a second time in vs. 30. This is a little bit of a foreign idea today. We are more encouraged to work hard ourselves, to strive and accomplish, to take responsibility. And when successful, we are expected to graciously accept whatever those successes are – not arrogantly or boastfully, of course, but to accept those successes as a reward for our hard work.
But that is not the case with Daniel, and it is not the way of the Kingdom of God. See, in the Kingdom of God we recognize that God is the source of every good thing. That we are only stewards – caretakers – even of the skills and abilities we have and we use to be successful. So then God gets the credit, and God gets the glory. But that rubs some of us the wrong way: I worked hard for that promotion. I went to school a long time to learn my profession. It took me a long time to paint that picture or write that song. I practiced a long time before I was able to make that shot. I deserve those rewards, I earned them.
Baloney. Where did you get the breath? Where did your brain come from? What did you do to deserve to be born in this country with all these opportunities? How come you have two hands that work, eyes that see, legs that move – when many other people in our world don’t? Only because God has given those to you in the first place.
It is a radically different way of looking at life – one that Daniel models for us, and a defining characteristic of living as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. God gets all the glory.
Dan 2:31-49
Let’s finish the story:
31 In your vision, Your Majesty, you saw standing before you a huge, shining statue of a man. It was a frightening sight. 32 The head of the statue was made of fine gold. Its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, 33 its legs were iron, and its feet were a combination of iron and baked clay. 34 As you watched, a rock was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands. It struck the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits. 35 The whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold. Then the wind blew them away without a trace, like chaff on a threshing floor. But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth.
36 That was the dream. Now we will tell the king what it means. 37 Your Majesty, you are the greatest of kings. The God of heaven has given you sovereignty, power, strength, and honor. 38 He has made you the ruler over all the inhabited world and has put even the wild animals and birds under your control. You are the head of gold.
39 But after your kingdom comes to an end, another kingdom, inferior to yours, will rise to take your place. After that kingdom has fallen, yet a third kingdom, represented by bronze, will rise to rule the world. 40 Following that kingdom, there will be a fourth one, as strong as iron. That kingdom will smash and crush all previous empires, just as iron smashes and crushes everything it strikes. 41 The feet and toes you saw were a combination of iron and baked clay, showing that this kingdom will be divided. Like iron mixed with clay, it will have some of the strength of iron. 42 But while some parts of it will be as strong as iron, other parts will be as weak as clay. 43 This mixture of iron and clay also shows that these kingdoms will try to strengthen themselves by forming alliances with each other through intermarriage. But they will not hold together, just as iron and clay do not mix.
44 During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever. 45 That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain, though not by human hands, that crushed to pieces the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God was showing the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its meaning is certain.
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar threw himself down before Daniel and worshiped him, and he commanded his people to offer sacrifices and burn sweet incense before him. 47 The king said to Daniel, Truly, your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret.
48 Then the king appointed Daniel to a high position and gave him many valuable gifts. He made Daniel ruler over the whole province of Babylon, as well as chief over all his wise men. 49 At Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon, while Daniel remained in the king’s court.
So there is the dream, there is the interpretation. A statue that gets crushed by a rock. All of us who have had nightmares can imagine how the violence and the scale of destruction could be terrifying in a dream. And I’m sure you can imagine the scholars debating all the symbolism, and which kingdoms are which, and I’m not going to delve into that today. Except for one: what is this one at the end? This last kingdom, the rock that crushes all the others, that grows mighty as a mountain, that will never be destroyed or conquered, that will stand forever? Any guesses??
Throughout Scripture, the image of a mighty rock is used as a picture of God – a picture of strength, steadfastness, and power. Moses brought water from the rock, and Paul tells us that rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:3).
But Peter actually describes this best. Remember Peter, the one whose Jewish name meant rock and to whom Jesus referred when He said on this rock I will build my church (Matt 18:16). Here is what he wrote in 1 Pet 2:
4 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.
5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 6 As the Scriptures say,
I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,
chosen for great honor,
and anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.
7 Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him,
The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.
8 And,
He is the stone that makes people stumble,
the rock that makes them fall.
They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.
9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
Conclusion:
So what does this all come down to? The nightmare Nebuchadnezzar had was of us, as the Kingdom of God. Eventually triumphant. Indestructible. Our buildings may fill up with water, their foundations may become unstable, but not us. Not the living stones, formed around the cornerstone of Christ Himself. We are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own. Nebuchadnezzar was right to be terrified, he wasn’t part of God’s Kingdom. But we are, so we have nothing to fear - if we are part of God’s Kingdom, living under His reign, submitting ourselves to His will each and every day. Are you? Does that describe your life – not just what you say with your words and affirm in your head, but the values and priorities and actions; the way you spend your time and money; the way you make decisions each and every day. Are those under the Lordship of Jesus Christ?
The final song our worship team is going to lead us in is an opportunity for re-affirmation of our Kingdom loyalties. I pray you can sing it with integrity, as a deep prayer of response.
