Series: When Cultures Collide
Topic: Who’s The Man
June 16, 2002
Daniel 2:1-3
Introduction: Ill. Roller coaster-fun to experience. The turns, shakes, rolls, acceleration, hills, etc., but we know there is control; same experience as a passenger in a car and we will fear for our lives. The difference is control. As long as we feel in control, or that we can trust the one in control our hearts are settled and our mind is at ease. Remove that sense of control and panic results.
This happens to the king. Has a dream that just devastates his self confidence-his ability to be in control.
Recap of last week [Topic: Letting God Use Who You Are]
Wise men survived by image of being in control; of wisdom, faculties of the mind.
Nebuchadnezzar is a man in control. Kings are accustomed to being in control. Others depend upon them. Military, political, financial leaders.
When leaders aren’t in control, or when they allow themselves to be seen as such it weakens their ability to lead and provide vision and support. Military questions such a leader-morale drops drastically. For business and economic leaders financial markets take a plunge. With no vision, strong leadership people will question their future; they will fear for their livelihood. Chaos makes for a bad economy.
Nebuchadnezzar is a king in control of a vast empire
deports best and brightest
converts them into Chaldean wise men.
But, something happens that sets him off...
He has a dream. A dream so large that it haunts him; looming over his every move. A dream so enormous that before the night is even over he’s begging for an interpretation to what the dream means. What about this dream has disrupted his life so? What about it has caused him so much anxiety?
Simply this...the dream is about control, or rather the loss thereof.
A good friend once told me, "Control is an allusion." Nebuchadnezzar is given a glimpse, a revelation of a broader perspective. He is given an awareness that the God of Israel is in control. And for a king to feel out of control is a frightening thing. As the king, so the people. But God wants Nebuchadnezzar to understand His authority and position.
Daniel 2:24-30
God comes to the king in a dream and reveals the splendor of His authority. Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of the Babylonian empire, the superpower of that day; the king of kings across the known world; the one who the nations bow in reverence for his power, wisdom, and might; the one who salutes his own majesty by bringing the temple goods, symbols of the power of Israel’s God, into the treasury of his own god’s temple; this, the great king comes face to face with YHWH, the Lord God of Heaven.
Amos 5:8 "He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name" (RSV)
Job 41:11 "Who has given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine." (RSV)
Job 38:3-6, 31-33; 41:34 "Stand up now like a man and answer the questions I ask you. Were you there when I made the world? If you know so much, tell me about it. Who decided how large it would be? Who stretched the measuring line over it? Do you know all the answers? What holds up the pillars that support the earth? Who laid the cornerstone of the world?...Can you tie the Pleiades together or loosen the bonds that hold Orion? Can you guide the stars season by season and direct the Big and the Little Dipper? Do you know the laws that govern the skies, and can you make them apply to the earth?...He beholds everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride." (TEV/GN/RSV)
In spite of all his power and authority God wants the king [and us] to learn a few things...
1. God Is Establishing His Plans (vs 28)
Kings/ Leaders are accustomed to establishing schedules. Schedules that reflect their personal plans and policies. The kings schedule may have been something like this:
7 am Wake up
8 am breakfast with proconsul
9 am meet with temple priests and discuss kingdom morale
10 am brunch with Assyrian ambassador
11 am tour military facility
noon lunch with harem
1 pm siesta with harem
2 pm sign new edicts into law
4 pm meet with business leaders
5 pm plan conquest of Palestine and Syria
Proverb 16:9 "A man’s mind plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps." (RSV)
We are no different. How often we do the same thing; planning our lives but not giving place to God. [What kind of schedules do you make...] We should begin, "Lord, what are your plans for this day?" If He holds the future, why don’t we trust Him with the present?
James 4:13-16 "Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain"; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil." (RSV)
2. God Is Building His Kingdom (vss 31-45)
Scripture doesn’t let us know who the kings/ kingdoms are. [Various interpretations] Not the issue/ not important. It’s letting the king know that his plans will only go so far. Our hopes/ dreams for a legacy to leave behind will be as nothing. King Nebuchadnezzar was the great king, the golden head [golden age of America, the greatest generation...]; things couldn’t get any better. But what came after was of a less noble stock.
Isaiah 2:2-3 "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." (RSV)
Contrary to many who say it’s getting worse, history is culminating in that final Day of the Lord when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. [cf. Revelation 21, Matthew 24-25]
3. God Wants His Faithful To Be A Part Of It (vss 46-49)
Daniel put in high position that God would be able to use him...
God has put you where you are for a reason...
Conclusion: Ill. State of the Union address– reports on past year and gives direction for the future. Praises nation for the hope of a future and strength, but America will not last forever. My identity is not in my nationality, but in Christ and His Kingdom. God is establishing His plans, He is building His kingdom, and He wants His faithful to be a part of it. Where do you stand?
