Daniel 4
H.A. Ironside · Citado em PreceptAustin
Daniel 4
Ironside observes that the king at this time still unconverted was "At rest and flourishing while still in his sins and a stranger to God. There is a deceitful rest, a deceitful peace, which lulls many a soul into a false security (Je 6:14, 23:17, Lam 2:14, Ezek 13:22, 2Pe 2:1-note). To be untroubled is no evidence of safety. To be at peace does not prove that all is well. I once caught hold of a blind man and drew him back just in time to keep him from plunging headlong into an open cellar way. He thought all was well and was in peace of mind as he walked along, yet two more steps and he would have gone down! Be sure that your peace is founded on the blood of Christ shed on the cross (Col 1:19, 20-note); then you will have that peace which is true and lasting (Ro 5:1-note). Every other is false and fleeting. The peace of God is that which comes from relying on the testimony of God and follows the confession of sins that have separated the soul from Him. (Daniel 4 Commentary) As Nebuchadnezzar eloquently testifies, God is able (Da 4:37) to arouse each of us out of our spiritual stupor and false sense of security, regardless of what we are placing our trust in (be it plenty, power, prestige, people, possessions, etc) other than His goodness and grace in Christ. May a Romans 12:1 (note) attitude be foremost in our heart and mind each day of the rest of our lives so that we might continually experience His rest in Christ in our lives. What had Nebuchadnezzar forgotten? In Daniel 2 in the interpretation of the king's dream the prophet declares... You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory; and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. (Da 2:37, 38) Comment: Daniel could not have been clearer about why Nebuchadnezzar was such a mighty king. Three times he emphasized that God sovereignly bestowed his kingdom and his submissive subjects upon the king. It was not the king's incredible military prowess, nor his intelligent rule, nor anything inherently within Nebuchadnezzar. It was from God and should have prompted praise and thanks to God instead of pomposity and pride! Adam Clarke... I had returned to my palace in Babylon after having subdued Syria, Phoenicia, Judea, Egypt, and Arabia. It was probably these great conquests that puffed him up with pride, and brought that chastisement upon him which he afterwards describes. Flourishing in my palace - He was the epitome of self-satisfaction. After all he was in control of everything! Or so he thought! As Campbell says... Then God spoke—it is well to remember that God can deal with ungodly men, even those in high and secure places, when human resistance cannot reach them (Campbell, D. Daniel God's Man in a Secular Society) Criswell envisions this great king's self-satisfied and fully satiated state... His army is at peace. He’s not a general any more. He’s not marching at the head of that ravenous, destructive, Chaldean horde. His enemies on the outside are all vanquished. And all of his fears on the inside are allayed. He is at rest. He has those great fortifications—one of the Wonders of the World, they’re all built—and he has a mighty army ready to rise at the blast of the trumpet in his defense. He is at rest in his house and flourishing in his palace. There is nothing wanting. Every goblet is filled with wine. Every corner of every room echoes with music. Every palace is a refuge from fear and terror. And he lays his head down on a pillow of down. And expects to dream dreams of affluence and wealth and luxury and splendor. He is at rest in his house and flourishing in his palace. Monuments, cities, fortifications: the glory of the greatest golden city the world ever knew, Babylon. (Sermon) Walvoord sees a more wide ranging prophetic symbolism in this Daniel 4 writing that... the contest between God and Nebuchadnezzar is a broad illustration of God’s dealings with the entire human race and especially the Gentile world in its creaturely pride and failure to recognize the sovereignty of God. (Chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar’s Pride And Punishment) Joseph Parker elaborates on Nebuchadnezzar's declaration observing that... there was nothing wanting; every goblet full of wine, every corner an echo of music, every chamber a refuge from pagan trouble and imperial excitement: I never was more comfortable or restful in my life; the house never was so charming, the palace was never so grand, and I pillowed my head on down, and expected to see visions that would make me glad by doubling and redoubling all the poetry and music and wealth of my existence: that was my delightful case; and even in the midst of that enjoyment "I saw a dream which made me afraid. (The People's Bible Volume 16) Archer attempts to nail down a time period for the events in Daniel 4 writing that... Presumably the events in chapter 4 took place some eight or nine years before the end of the siege of Tyre in 573. (H.W.F. Saggs, The Greatness That Was Babylon [New York. Mentor, 1968], p. 148, estimates that the siege ended in 571 B.C.; See Ezek 26:7, which foretold this major effort against the Phoenician capital.) This would allow for a seven-year interval of mental illness, during which no major military operations were undertaken—say from 582 to 575. Perhaps it was in 583 that Nebuchadnezzar had his dream, with its sinister warning. (Ibid) Daniel 4:5 "I saw a dream and it made me fearful; and these fantasies as I lay on my bed and the visions in my mind kept alarming me. dream: Da 2:1 5:5,6,10 7:28 Ge 41:1 Job 7:13,14 visions: Da 2:28,29 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries It made me fearful...kept alarming me - This great king who had never lost a battle, who had defeated all his enemies, who ruled as the king of kings, the head of gold...we would have thought fear and alarm would not be words in his personal vocabulary! Had it been an enemy force approaching his city, he would have called his virile forces to battle stations. But a dream. How can one defend against a dream? Especially a dream sent by the Almighty? And so we see the greatest monarch of all time turning into a craven, cowardly knave. Ironside comments on the fear and alarm associated with Nebuchadnezzar's dream, noting that... The vision was sent for this very purpose. God saw that he needed to be troubled—he needed to be awakened from his sleep of death. It was grace that thus exercised him. And in some way every soul that is saved has to pass through this period of soul-anxiety and concern. Dreams had been God's righteous "weapon" in the past to alert sinners, as when Abimelech sent for Abram's wife Sarai... But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married." (Ge 20:2) Joseph Parker describes this dream in graphic language... "I saw a dream which made me afraid." Let us not tamper with this graphic language, but take it as it stands in the English tongue. Nebuchadnezzar "saw" a dream: it was part of himself, yet it was wholly outside, so that he could fasten his eyes upon it; it was in him and without him, above him, round about him, beneath him; and he was "afraid." Sometimes we ask the question, Do dreams come true? Why, they are true. A dream does not need to come true, because it is there, a fact; it is already part of the history of the brain. There need be no other hell than a dream. Who can count the resources of God? In a dream we can be burned; in a dream we can be encoiled by serpents; in a dream we can be eternally suffocated; in a dream the serpent's fang may be within one inch of striking our life, and we may have no power of resistance or flight. The dream made Nebuchadnezzar afraid, and Nebuchadnezzar was not accustomed to fear, for he had brass enough, iron enough, chariots enough, horsemen enough; at the blast of his trumpet an empire stood up in his defence: but a dream made a fool of him. You cannot strike a dream; you cannot lay your hands upon it and compel it to make terms with you. These are the resources of God. If he would fight us with lightning we could make some device that might catch the lightning and bear it away; if he would fight us always with whirlwinds we could order our masonry accordingly, and hide ourselves behind the granite wall till the great euroclydon cried itself to rest: but he will not do this; he will trouble us with dreams, and make us afraid with visions; and whilst we are flourishing in the palace he will make the floor tremble under us, or there will be a movement behind the screen, the curtain, the arras, and that movement will frighten us more than we ever were affrighted by thunderstorm at midnight. If Nebuchadnezzar had heard that an army was thundering at one of the gates of Babylon, he would have been delighted: war is the amusement of kings; battle is the recreation of royal luxury and ambition: but this was a dream that came through the great brass gates that made the great wall of Babylon memorable as one of the finest structures in the world. You cannot bar out a dream, or lock it out, or bolt it out, or set a watch to keep it out; a wakeful sentry, armed at every point, may be looking at the dream while it touches him, and he cannot touch it, or blow it back, or threaten it, or defy it; it smiles upon him, and passes on, to work its murder in the king's head and the king's heart, and turn the king's imagination into an intolerable perdition. When Pilate was puzzled about the new king and the new theology and the unheard-of sedition which was not written in the Roman books, "his wife sent unto him, saying, 'Have thou nothing to do with that just Man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him'." (Mt 27:19) God has made great use of dreams in history. Spiritual impressions may be laughed at by those who read nothing but cold type; but they are regarded as having unutterable suggestion to those of a more sensitive and exalted order of mind. (The People's Bible: Volume 16) Made me fearful - Nebuchadnezzar's ease was a false sense of security and serenity and it was soon disrupted by a dream God either sent or allowed. Fearful...fantasies...alarming - Divine insomnia can have this effect! Daniel 4:6 "So I gave orders to bring into my presence all the wise men of Babylon, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Da 2:2 Ge 41:7,8 Isa 8:19 47:12-14 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries The wise men of Babylon - This is essentially the same pagan brain trust that failed miserably to describe and interpret the king's dream in Daniel 2. Jamieson observes that "It may seem strange that Daniel was not first summoned (Ed: And remember that if the dating of many is correct, Daniel's previous interpretation would have been over 25-30 years earlier!). But it was ordered by God's providence that he should be reserved to the last, in order that all mere human means should be proved vain, before God manifested His power through His servant; thus the haughty king was stripped of all fleshly confidences. These wise men were not in contact with the All Wise God. Paul spoke about natural man's "defect" in spiritual matters in his first letter to the Corinthians noting that "a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised ("the wise men of Babylon"). But he who is spiritual (cp Daniel) appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." (1Co 2:14-16) Daniel 4:7 "Then the magicians, the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners came in and I related the dream to them, but they could not make its interpretation known to me. Da 2:1,2 but: Da 2:7 Isa 44:25 Jer 27:9,10 2Ti 3:8,9 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Then - Then what? Well, "old habits die hard" as they say and so once again the king turned to the wrong source for advice in his time of difficulty. How about us beloved? Who do we turn to FIRST in our time of difficulty? To the "best" that humanistic wisdom (the latest best seller telling you how to "fix all that ails you", the talking heads on TV, the bloviating [definition] blogs, etc) has to offer (the magicians, the conjurers, etc) or to the source of true wisdom, to God and His godly representatives? Could not make its interpretation known - Once again we see the bankruptcy of Babylonian wisdom, surely a picture of all wisdom of fallen man as opposed to the incomparable wisdom of God. James says human wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. (Jas 3:15) In contrast James says that... the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. (Jas 3:17) Campbell relates how... Dietrich Bonhoeffer once delivered a stinging indictment against his American theological education that is reminiscent of Nebuchadnezzar's experience with his "teachers": A theology is not to be found here. . . . They chatter till all is blue without any factual foundation or any criteria of thought becoming visible. . . . They intoxicate themselves with liberal and humanistic expressions, laugh at the fundamentalists, and basically they are not even a match for them. Often it goes through and through me when here in a lecture they dismiss Christ, and laugh outright when a word of Luther's is quoted on the forgiveness of sin. (Mary Bosanquet, The Life and Death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer [New York: Harper and Row, 19691, 83). (Campbell, D. Daniel God's Man in a Secular Society) Joseph Parker writes of Nebuchadnezzar that... He was more earnest this time than he was in the first instance. We have not forgotten that in the first instance he insisted upon the magicians telling him the dream itself, and then the interpretation (Da 2:5-note); now Nebuchadnezzar speaks from the centre of fear, the dark point of mental apprehension, and therefore he tells the magicians all the dream in the hope that they may be able to explain it away. They could make nothing of it; before these ciphers they could set no unit to turn them into value; these men had not the key of this mystery. (The People's Bible: Volume 16) Daniel 4:8 "But finally Daniel came in before me, whose name is Belteshazzar according to the name of my god, and in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and I related the dream to him, saying, Belteshazzar: Da 1:7 5:12 Isa 46:1 Jer 50:2 Da 4:9,18 2:11 5:11,14 Nu 11:17-30 Isa 63:11 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries But finally - At last. Joseph Parker remarks that... "At the last Daniel came in." It is always so; if we can do without the true man we will. Physicians know the meaning of this; they tell us that not until patients have exhausted every other source of inquiry do they come to them that they may test their skill (Parker goes on to apply this thought to our lives noting that) It is in human nature not to go to Christ first. We begin by doctoring ourselves, by interpreting our own dreams, by asking any liar if he will accept a bribe to flatter us into security. It was always so with Jesus Christ, the Son of God; nobody went to him in the first instance: "He was despised and rejected of men." (The People's Bible: Volume 16) But finally Daniel came in before me - Not because Nebuchadnezzar had chosen to believe in Daniel's God but because he had come to recognize Daniel's spiritual insight (Da 1:17-note, Da 1:19-note, Da 1:20-note). Daniel - His Hebrew name means God is Judge or God is my judge. Belteshazzar (10x in 8v - Da1:7 2:26 4:8 4:9 4:18 4:19 5:12 10:1) - His Babylonian name means something like "protect his life" (Akkadian balusu-usur, ‘may he [Bel] protect his life’). Notice that Nebuchadnezzar calls Daniel by both his Hebrew name and his Babylonian name, but emphasizes the latter name. Gingrich - Calling upon God or God’s man is usually done as a last resort (Da 4:8)—Finding no help from within or without, we finally look up. The name of my god - Bel was Nebuchadnezzar's God, despite the fact that he has seen signs and wonders of the Most High God in Daniel 2 and Daniel 3. At the time he is relating the story, Bel would seem to still be his personal god. But by the end of the story, after the period of humbling, the only name on his lips is the Most High God and His praiseworthy attributes. Pharaoh made a statement similar to Nebuchadnezzar... "Can we find a man like this, in whom is a divine spirit?" So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. (Ge 41:38, 39) Gods - Clearly despite Nebuchadnezzar's prior revelations of the one true God, he still believed in many gods (polytheism). In whom is a spirit of the holy gods - The king clearly recognized that there was something different about Daniel and that he was "set apart" from the pagan occultists. What set Daniel apart? (1) In Daniel 1:8-note Daniel made a decision to obey God which brought God's blessing on his life (Da 1:9-note), and the king witnessed the divine effect. (2) In Daniel 2 upon the revelation of his dream and interpretation, the king "paid homage to Daniel" and recognized his God as a "revealer of mysteries" (Da 2:47-note). In short, Daniel's exemplary life made him a "light to the Gentiles", reflecting in his life the God he worshiped. The axiomatic principle is that a man's life always reflects what he truly worships! Does your life reflect a holy (not a "holier than thou") heart to the pagans in your sphere of influence? Does the way you conduct yourself before others open or shut doors for you to speak the gospel with your lips? John MacArthur relates the powerful effect of a holy life, in the story of the famous duo, Stanley and Livingstone... When Henry Stanley found David Livingstone in the heart of Africa, he stayed with him for four months. Stanley was a professed skeptic when he found Livingstone, but came away a Christian. Asked what Livingstone said that converted him, Stanley replied that it was what Livingstone was that brought him to Christ. According to Stanley's report Livingstone never asked him if he was a Christian, never preached to him, and never appeared to pray for his conversion. But Livingstone was so thoroughly a Christian that it dawned on Stanley that one who was not a Christian was something less than a Christian. Livingstone was a man of God who permitted the Lord to live through him. Consequently his life was one of victory and blessing. By the sheer influence and impact of his virtue Livingstone brought Stanley to Christ (see Henry Stanley's How I Found Livingstone, 1913]). Daniel 4:9 'O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery baffles you, tell me the visions of my dream which I have seen, along with its interpretation. master: Da 1:20 2:48 5:11 the spirit: Da 4:8 Ge 41:38 1Sa 4:8 no secret: Da 4:5 2:3 Ge 11:6-8 Isa 33:18 54:14 Eze 28:3) (tell: Da 4:18 2:4,5 Ge 40:9-19 41:15-36 Jdg 7:13-15 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Centuries earlier the God used His servant Joseph to interpret Pharaoh's dream... Then Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find a man like this, in whom is a divine spirit?" (Ge 41:38) Spirit of the holy gods - Brenton's English rendering of the Septuagint is "the Holy Spirit of God is in thee".
Daniel 4
Ironside comments... Nebuchadnezzar must have discerned the anxiety and sorrow in the face of his minister, for he speaks in a way to give him confidence to proceed with the interpretation. He did not want smooth words made up for the occasion. Little though he (the king) realized what was coming, he still desired to know the truth. It is a blessed thing for any soul to get to the place where he can say: "Give me God's Word, and let me know it is His Word, and I will receive it, no matter how it cuts, and interferes with my most cherished thoughts." (cp 1Th 2:13-note) Joseph Parker eloquently paints the picture of Daniel's dilemma writing that... It was like a blow struck upon the very centre of his forehead; when he saw what was going to befall the king he was struck, as it were, with a spear of lightning, his voice altered, as did the fashion of his countenance. He had a message to deliver, and yet he delivered it with tears that were hidden in the tone of his voice. He was not flippant; he was solemn with an ineffable solemnity. Never was he in such a position before. Only the Divine Spirit could make him equal to the responsibilities of that critical hour. Many words we can utter easily, but to pronounce doom upon a life, any life, old man's or little child's, is a task which drives our words back again down the throat. We cannot utter them, yet we must do so; we wait in the hope that some relief will come, but relief does not come from this burden-bearing in the sanctuary of life. The preacher is often as much astonished as the hearer, and as much terrified. In proportion as the preacher is faithful to the book which he has to read, expound, and enforce, will he sometimes come to passages that he would rather not read. It would be delightful if we could expel the idea of penalty from our human intercommunion. Men have tried to fill up the pit of hell with flowers, and all the flowers have been consumed. It would be delightful to hide by concealment of any kind the horrors that await the wicked man, but to hide those horrors is to aggravate them. It can be no joy to any man to go forth and say, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." No man could utter such words but in obedience to the election and ordination of God. It is easy, if we consult our own flesh and sense and taste alone, to hide the Cross of agony and shame; but he who hides the Cross hides the salvation which it symbolises, and without which it is impossible. It is not easy for any man, Jonah or Daniel, Hosea or Joel, to say unto the wicked, It shall be ill with thee. We would rather live upon the other side of the hill, where the sun smiles all day, where the flowers grow as if they would never cease to unfold some new secret of colour and beauty, and where the birds trill a song from hour to hour, as if growing in capacity as they multiply in service. But the hill of the Lord is many-sided; we should be unfaithful and unjust if we did not recognise its multifold aspects, and show them to those who have come to see the reality and the mystery of the divine kingdom amongst men. Daniel looks wondrously well in the moment of his astonishment. The man's best self is now in his face. How quiet he is, and what singular tenderness plays around the sternness which befits the message that he is about to deliver! What a mixture of emotion, what an interplay of colour, what an agony of sensation! yet Daniel is a true man, and he will speak the true word, come of it what may, so far as he himself is concerned; furnace of fire or den of lions, he must speak the word which the Lord has given to him. Why do we not follow his example? Why do we try to take out of the divine word all things offensive? It would be easy to pander to human taste, and to flatter human vanity, and to assure the half-damned man that the process cannot be completed, but that after all he will be taken to heaven and made a seraph of. Who can tell lies so thick, so black? Let him eschew the altar and the Cross. (The People's Bible: Volume 16) Daniel 4:20 'The tree that you saw, which became large and grew strong, whose height reached to the sky and was visible to all the earth Da 4:10-12 Eze 31:3,16 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Showers comments that... God’s representation of Nebuchadnezzar as a large tree that provided food and lodging for all was very fitting for at least two reasons. First, in several of his inscriptions Nebuchadnezzar had boasted about the peaceful shelter and abundance of food that he had provided for his subjects through Babylon. Indeed, in these boasts he used language descriptive of a tree when referring to his rule through Babylon. In one inscription he said, “The produce of the lands, the product of the mountains, the bountiful wealth of the sea within her I received. Under her everlasting shadow I gathered all men in peace. Vast heaps of grain beyond measure I stored up within her.” In another inscription he declared, “Under her everlasting shadow I gathered all men in peace. A reign of abundance, years of plenty I caused to be in my land.” Second, as a result of military campaigns that took him several times through the forests of Lebanon, Nebuchadnezzar became greatly captivated by the huge cedar trees of that land. This attitude was reflected in one of his inscriptions where he described the trees as follows: “mighty cedars, tall and strong, of costly value, whose dark forms towered aloft, the massive growth of Lebanon.” Indeed, in his inscriptions Nebuchadnezzar boasted that he personally had cut down some of these huge trees with his own hands. He even had a picture of himself cutting a cedar inscribed on stone. One gets the impression that the king exalted in the fact that he could cut down such a towering giant of strength. (The Most High God- A Commentary on the Book of Daniel). Daniel 4:21 and whose foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt and in whose branches the birds of the sky lodged-- Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Daniel 4:22 it is you, O king; for you have become great and grown strong, and your majesty has become great and reached to the sky and your dominion to the end of the earth. thou: Da 2:37,38 2Sa 12:7 Mt 14:4 thy greatness: Da 5:18-23 Ge 11:4 28:12 2Ch 28:9 Ps 36:5 108:4 Jer 27:6-8 Rev 18:5 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries It is you O King (cp Nathan to King David - 2Sa 12:7) - With one sharp stroke Daniel delivers the solemn interpretation. The tree is Nebuchadnezzar. Jamieson... While pitying the king, he uncompromisingly pronounces his sentence of punishment. Let ministers steer the mean between, on the one hand, fulminations against sinners under the pretext of zeal, without any symptom of compassion; and, on the other, flattery of sinners under the pretext of moderation. (Ed note: Or as I once heard someone say, the preaching should be such that it comforts the afflicted, but afflicts the comfortable!) To this Joseph Parker writes... There are some things we must speak abruptly, or we never shall speak them at all; they must, so to say, be forced out of us: the word must come like the shot of a musket: "It is thou, O king," a short sharp stroke. Who would vacillate when he knew he was going to deliver sentence of death, worse than death, all deaths in one agonizing humiliation? Better it should be after the pattern of Daniel, clear, simple, prompt, resonant, put in the very smallest words, words that a child could understand and repeat, monosyllables that made the heavens black with unimaginable terror:—"It is thou, O king."...Sometimes the preacher has to say even to a millionaire, It is thou, O rich man: it is with infinite difficulty thou canst get near Christ: how hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom of heaven! thou hast wine, and beast's flesh, and fowls of the air, and bread in plentifulness; but thou shalt sleep with strange bedfellows, yea with poverty and affliction and loathsomeness: set thine house in order: riches take unto themselves wings, and flee away; he who yesterday gave orders on the Exchange, tomorrow will beg a piece of bread to break his fast. Sometimes the teacher has to address himself to the boastful man, and say, It is thou, O boastful man: thou didst suppose thyself to be in possession of everything; to be lord and king and mighty man and counsellor and lawgiver; the word shall die on thy blackening lips, and thou who didst serve in the house of vanity shall be a bondman in the house of disappointment. This was personal preaching, the kind of preaching that is resented. We are willing that any man shall be preached to except ourselves. The minister who succumbs to that dire temptation was ordained by men, but the ordaining hand of Christ was never laid upon his faithless head. (Ibid) Daniel 4:23 'In that the king saw an angelic watcher, a holy one, descending from heaven and saying, "Chop down the tree and destroy it; yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground, but with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field, and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him share with the beasts of the field until seven periods of time pass over him", saw: Da 4:13-17 and let his: Da 4:15 5:21 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Chop down the tree and destroy it - Nebuchadnezzar's was every man's (outside of Christ) problem for he imagined that the tree (his kingdom and kingship) had become great and grown strong by virtue of his own strength and ability and it was for this reason that he had to be cut down and humbled. He must for a time (seven times) lose his throne, his wealth, the respect of his subjects and even his sanity in order that he might come to his "spiritual senses". Band of iron and bronze around it - This is one of the more enigmatic aspects of this description and commentaries offer a wide range of interpretation. Some see the band as figurative allusion to the king's being bound by mental illness. Others see it as a sign that the stump would be protected thus assuring its survival. Daniel 4:24 this is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king: the decree: Da 4:17 Job 20:29: Ps 2:7 148:6 Isa 14:24-27 23:9 46:10,11 come: Job 1:12-19 40:11,12 Ps 107:40 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries This is the decree of the Most High - In Da 4:17 God's emissaries carried the message of His decree in the dream, but God is the Source of the decree. Daniel 4:25 that you be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field, and you be given grass to eat like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven; and seven periods of time will pass over you, until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes. drive: Da 4:32,33 5:21-31 Job 30:3-8 Mk 5:3,4 to eat: Ps 106:20 Until: Da 4:17,32,34,35 2:21 5:21 Ps 83:18 Jer 27:5 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries MAN WITHOUT GOD IS LIKE A BEAST! Below is William Blake's famous portrait of what the prideful king may have looked like for seven years You be driven away from mankind - Unlike the story below, Nebuchadnezzar's condition was brought about by the Jehovah's hand of judgment on the king's pride. The psalmist records that... But man in his pomp will not endure. He is like the beasts that perish. (Ps 49:12)
Daniel 4
Ironside applies the importance of divine recognition or rejection on a national scale writing that... history teaches us the value of a national recognition of God's moral government. A story is told of a heathen chieftain who came from his distant domain to visit Queen Victoria. One day he asked her if she would tell him the secret of England's progress and greatness. In response, it is said the queen presented him with a Bible saying, "This Book will tell you." Who can doubt that according to the measure in which that Book of books has been believed and loved by any people, God has honored them? And every nation that has welcomed and protected the gospel has been cared for and blessed in a special way. On the other hand, let there be a national rejection of His Word, and you will find disaster following disaster. This was the case of the French people, who were among the first favored by Him in Reformation times but who drove out the truth He gave them. He who cannot lie has said, "Them that honour me, I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed" (1Sa 2:30). Daniel 4:27 'Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you: break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.' let: Ge 41:33-37 Ps 119:46 Ac 24:25 2Co 5:11 break: Job 34:31,32 Pr 16:6 28:13 Isa 55:6,7 Eze 18:21,27-32 Mt 3:8 Ac 8:22 26:20 Jas 4:8-10 1Pe 4:8 by showing: Ps 41:1-3 Isa 58:5-7,10-12 Eze 18:7 Lk 11:41 Ac 10:2-4 Ga 5:6,13,22 Eph 4:28 if it: 1Ki 21:29 Joe 2:14 Jon 3:9 Zep 2:2,3 Daniel 4 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Therefore - Always pause to ponder this strategic term of conclusion. In this case the term of conclusion actually precedes the advice. Because the hammer of the Lord is coming down to smash your pride. In view of that absolute certainty, change your heart and experience the times of refreshing (cp Peter's advice to the stubborn, prideful Jews in Acts 3:19, 20). May my advice be pleasing to you - Daniel cared enough to confront. Courageous confrontation was necessary. And if we are honest, loving confrontation always takes courage. Let us in the church age be diligent to heed the caution and exhortations of Paul Brethren, even if a man is caught (passive voice, the Greek means to be overtaken, to be caught unawares = what a pix of sin chasing, surprising and overtaking us!) in any trespass (paraptoma = deviation from living according to what has been revealed as the right way), you who are spiritual (i.e., controlled by the Spirit = Gal 5:16-note, Eph 5:18-note), restore (katartizo in the present imperative = command to make this our lifestyle to put in order, to restore to a former condition, mend, repair. How possible? Only by being continually filled with the Spirit) such a one in a spirit of gentleness (prautes - which also comes from the Spirit = Gal 5:23-note); each one looking (skopeo) to yourself (Why?), lest you too be tempted (cp 1Co 10:12). Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ (see Gal 5:15, cp Jn 13:34, Ro 13:8, 9, 10-note). (Gal 6:1, 2) Illustration of the need to bear one another's burdens: The Sequoia trees of California tower as much as 300 feet above the ground. Strangely, these giants have unusually shallow root systems that reach out in all directions to capture the greatest amount of surface moisture. Seldom will you see a redwood standing alone, because high winds would quickly uproot it. That's why they grow in clusters. Their intertwining roots provide support for one another against the storms. Archer reminds us "Daniel needed real courage to inform his royal master that his rule was marred by the sin of oppression and callousness toward the poor and disadvantaged among his people. Daniel's candor might have cost him his high office or even his life." REPENT! or BE "CHOPPED DOWN"! Break away (in the form of a command) now from your sins...from your iniquities - In light of the certainty of the fulfillment of the decree of the Most High, Daniel calls on the king to have a change of heart or to repent and demonstrate the genuineness of his repentance by performing works of righteousness and mercy. Note that the works are the fruit (they are not meritorious, they do not earn salvation), while repentance (and belief -- cp Mk 1:15) is the "root" which leads to the changed behavior. John the Baptist echoed this truth in the NT exhorting his hearers to... Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance (Lk 3:8, cp Acts 26:20) Righteousness...mercy - These are two marks of genuine conversion. Righteousness that God accepts (contrast Isa 64:6) can only be accomplished by grace through faith (cp Ge 15:6, Ro 4:5-note). Study these related passages pronouncing divine judgment and the response - the cases of Hezekiah, Isa 38:1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and of Nineveh, Jonah 3:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and Jer 18:7, 8. Warren