"God Has Numbered the Days of Your Kingdom" -- Daniel 5:13-31

The Eleventh in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Daniel

It was a party like no other.  Wine was flowing freely and the thousand or so royal guests seem completely oblivious to the fact that within hours the party’s host (the Babylonian king Belshazzar) would be dead and the Persian army will have captured the city and the palace in which his guests were partying.  King Belshazzar and the great Babylonian empire will be no more.  Yet, the events of this fateful evening should not come as a surprise to Belshazzar.  YHWH warned Belshazzar’s more famous predecessor (Nebuchadnezzar) of this very thing, in a dream recorded in Daniel 2.  Nebuchadnezzar saw a gigantic metallic statue with a head of gold (presenting Nebuchadnezzar and his empire).  But that empire would at some point give way to the Persian empire (represented by the silver arms and chest of the statue).  It was the Hebrew prophet Daniel, who, when interpreting the dream, told Nebuchadnezzar of these events yet to transpire.  On this very night, YHWH issues a warning of impending judgment–in the form of a mysterious handwritten message which suddenly appeared on the wall of the palace.  Daniel is summoned to the king’s palace yet again.  This time, Daniel is to interpret a mysterious handwritten message which absolutely terrified Belshazzar as well as his guests.  The message does not bring good news to Belshazzar.  It is YHWH’s declaration of judgment, fulfilling the scene in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

One of the sure signs that God is directing all things to his appointed ends is that the last night of the Babylonian empire is also the same night in which the intoxicated king ordered that the gold and silver vessels, originally taken as the spoils of war from the temple of YHWH in Jerusalem, be used at his  party as vessels with which to toast the Babylonian gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.  These are the same elements which composed the statue of Nebuchadnezzaer’s dream, which was crushed by a rock cut without human hands (Christ’s kingdom), but which are worshiped by the Babylonian pagans.  This is an act of out and out sacrilege by Belshazzar and nothing short of the intentional blasphemy of YHWH.  We do not know if Belshazzar knew that this would be the night his empire would fall (there is no mention of him leading his troops or making an effort to rally Babylon’s defenders), but he does make an intentional effort to mock the God of Israel.  But YHWH will not be mocked–especially by the likes of Belshazzar.  So YHWH crashes the party by directing that an angel (or perhaps the pre-incarnate Jesus) write a message of warning on the wall of the royal palace for all to see, warning the king and his guests of sure and certain judgment coming later that evening.  

While Belshazzar saw the hand of YHWH, his guests saw the writing.  No one present could read it–certainly not the useless court magicians and wise men.  Belshazzar was terribly shaken by the sight of the hand leaving the message.  All color left his face, he looked faint and he was so shaken he could not walk.  Overhearing the kerfulle in the palace, the queen mother entered the banquet hall and remembered a Hebrew prophet Daniel–who was now well up in years, and likely had not served in the royal court for some time.  Daniel will be summoned to interpret the dream, only to warn Belshazzar that he will die this very evening.  In this we see the overarching theme of the entire chapter–YHWH raises up kings and kingdoms.  He removes kings when and how he wills.  Belshazzar’s kingdom will be taken from him and then given to another.  The point of this incident is to give encouragement to the Jewish exiles then living in Babylon.  By the next morning, Darius the Mede (Cyrus) will be in charge, and he will issue his decree to allow the Jews to return home to Jerusalem to rebuild.  This too, has been ordained by God.

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"There Is a Man in Your Kingdom" -- Daniel 5:1-12

The Tenth in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Daniel

Nebuchadnezzar foresaw this terrible night in a dream–a great empire, crumbing by the day, now entering its final hours.  In his visionary dream of a gigantic metallic statue with a head of gold, Nebuchadnezzar saw the greatness of his own empire, even as Daniel warned him that both the king and his empire would come to an end–crushed by a rock cut from a mountain without human hands.  Now, Nebuchadnezzar is long since dead and gone with the last of the Babylonian kings (Belshazzar, co-regent with his father–Nabonidus) on the throne.  The year is 539 BC.  Although Daniel does not reveal the circumstances behind the debauchery seen in the opening verses of chapter 5 until the closing verses of the chapter, this is the Kingdom of Babylon’s last night.  Persian armies are about to take Babylon through a daring commando raid using the city’s dried-up water supply.  Instead of leading the city’s defenders in an effort to save the city, Belshazzar hosts a huge drunken party as though all were right with the world.  On this night, the last hours of the great Babylonian empire,  Belshazzar spends it drinking and mocking YHWH, even as YHWH takes his kingdom from him and gives it to another–the Persian conqueror of the city, Darius the Mede.  All of this was foretold in king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of Daniel 2.

We resume our series on the Book of Daniel picking up in Daniel 5, where the circumstances are greatly different from those at the end of Daniel 4 (v. 37), when Nebuchadnezzar confessed–even if reluctantly–“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”  Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 BC–23 years before the events of recounted here.  A list of short-term successors had taken Nebuchadnezzar’s place.  The first was the king’s own son, Amel-Marduk, who was assassinated by his brother-in-law in 560 (reigning just two years).  One of those who plotted his death (Neriglessar) ruled unto 556, and was succeeded by his own son, Labashi-Marduk, who was brought down just a few months into his reign by a coup lead by Nabonidus, an unpopular eccentric known for his devotion to the god “Sin” instead of the traditional and most favored Babylonian god, Marduk (Bel).

Nabonidus was hated by the people, so for some ten years he ruled from the Arabian wilderness over the rapidly declining, increasingly decadent, and about to be defeated Babylonian empire–appointing his son Belshazzar as a co-regent representing the “pro-Marduk” wing of the Babylonian court.  It fell to Belshazzar to remain in Babylon when the Persians finally breached the city’s walls (after damming-up the Euphrates river so that an elite unit could enter the walled city using the dried up riverbed which ran through the heart of the city).  After the fall of Babylon (his capital), the cowardly Nabonidus later surrendered to the Persian king Cyrus and lived out his life in exile.  Darius the Mede and Cyrus are likely one and the same man–Darius the Mede is the conquering king’s birth name, while Cyrus is thought to be his Persian royal throne name.  

The scene in Daniel 5 is one in which the city’s fate has already been determined–it is just a matter of time before the Persians open the gates from the inside so that the Persian army can enter the undamaged city in triumph.  We can even precisely date the events of this night to October 11, 539, because Persian military records tell us that Darius’ victorious armies marched into Babylon on 16 Tishri, 539 (October 12).  According to verse 30, the king’s banquet occurred the very night the city fell to Darius.

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"All His Works Are Right and His Ways Are Just" -- Daniel 4:19-37

The Ninth in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Daniel

King Nebuchadnezzar has had a second terrifying dream.  Once again his court magicians and wise men cannot interpret his dream.  Greatly troubled, the Babylonian king summons his Hebrew servant Daniel to interpret this dream which has disrupted the king’s life of relative ease and comfort.  Daniel will reveal that the unsettling circumstances foretold in Nebuchadnezzar’s previous dream are soon to come to pass.  In the prior dream (as recounted in Daniel 2), the king saw a frightening metallic stature with a head of gold, which represented the king and his empire.  But that kingdom will fall before a series of empires yet to follow.  Nebuchadnezzar and his vast kingdom will come to an end–replaced by the Persian empire then just beginning to rise to power.  Although Nebuchadnezzar remains convinced that his kingdom is mighty and that it stands as a testimony to his own accomplishments and greatness, as a consequence of these two dreams, the king is beginning to realize that his kingdom is no match for YHWH’s.  YHWH rules all the kingdoms of the earth from heaven.  His kingdom is not of this world.  His kingdom is eternal.  None of this can be said of any earthly kingdom, including Nebuchadnezzar’s.

As we continue our series on the Book of Daniel we pick-up where we left off last time (v. 19 of Daniel 4) when the king had another troubling dream and then summoned the Hebrew prophet (Daniel) to interpret the dream for him.  Ironically, it was Daniel (a believing Jew), who, in gaining favor with the king after interpreting his first dream successfully was appointed prefect over Nebuchadnezzar’s pagan court magicians.  The king’s magicians fail again and so it falls to Daniel to explain to the king what his second dream foretold–events which Nebuchadnezzar probably suspected (based upon his previous terrifying dream years before), yet which now brought him to a breaking point.  

As we saw last time, ideally this passage (Daniel 4–Nebuchadnezzar’s last appearance in the Book of Daniel) is best treated in one sermon, but the tyranny of time does not allow us to cover the passage in enough detail in one sermon to fully unpack its contents.  Since this is a “part two” sermon in a sense, I’ll briefly recap the ground we covered last time, before we turn to our text–the balance of Daniel 4.  

The scene described in Daniel 4 comes late in Nebuchadnezzar’s life and forty-plus year career, likely at some point after his prolonged military campaigns in Judah and Tyre, yet before his final campaign in Egypt and his death in 562 BC.  Chapter 4 contains a first-person account from the king (in the form of a letter) about his dream, his subsequent break with reality, followed by his equally dramatic restoration.  The king has witnessed YHWH’s power and sovereign hand often enough to willingly confess that YHWH is the Most High God (v. 1), who is all powerful (v. 35), and whose kingdom will never end (vv. 3, 34).  Yet Nebuchadnezzar never confesses his sins nor repents of them (or even acknowledges that he is a sinner).  He never rejects the pagan gods of Babylon, even though he is forced to acknowledge that Daniel’s God (YHWH) is much more powerful than Bel (Marduk), the king’s preferred god from among the legion of Babylonian deities.  We see in this chapter that Nebuchadnezzar has reached the pinnacle of his career, has another frightening dream, suffers a mental collapse (as foretold in the dream), and then has his sanity restored.  All of this is YHWH’s doing.

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"The Most High Rules the Kingdom of Men" -- Daniel 4:1-18

The Eighth in A Series of Sermons on the Book of Daniel

In Daniel chapter 4, we are given remarkable insight into a man who has played a key role in Daniel’s prophecy–the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.  In each of the three chapters of Daniel we have covered so far, Nebuchadnezzar has exerted his royal power and authority, demonstrated his hot temper and tyrannical nature, while championing the “gods of Babylon.”  We have also seen that both his “gods” and his Chaldeans (the wise men and court magicians) repeatedly failed to give the king what he needed.  The great king was even forced to seek help from one of his young Hebrew servants to interpret a troubling dream–which he will do yet again in chapter 4.  YHWH has clearly won the battle with the idols of Babylon.  Through all of this, it has become clear that YHWH is sovereign over all things, a fact which Nebuchadnezzar has been forced to admit repeatedly when neither his idols nor his Chaldeans could help him, and then again in chapter 3 when Nebuchadnezzar personally witnessed three Hebrew officials (who were friends of Daniel) survive being thrown into a super-heated fiery furnace with the aid of a mysterious fourth man (the pre-incarnate Christ, or an angel of the Lord).  

In Daniel chapter 4 everything has changed.  Much time has passed and Nebuchadnezzar is a different man.  But Nebuchadnezzar has yet another dream which Daniel must interpret for him–only this dream comes much later in the king’s career, toward the end his life.  In this chapter–filled with remarkable contrasts and ironies–we read of a king whose days as a cruel tyrant seem to be past.  We find a man who greatly enjoys the creature comforts accrued after a long career as ruler of a great empire.  Daniel’s report almost makes us feel sorry for Nebuchadnezzar as the pagan king is forced to wrestle with the fact that YHWH is the sovereign Lord, who rules the affairs of men and nations, and of whom Nebuchadnezar will affirm, “how great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.”  

We also learn in this chapter that Nebuchadnezzar has yet another dream which must be interpreted by Daniel after we read again of the inability of the king’s court magicians to do so.  We also learn (in vv. 28-33), that at some point during this period of his life, the great king experiences what used to be described as a “nervous breakdown.”  This complete mental and emotional unraveling causes the king to flee his palace and his capital city to live among wild animals, while eating grass and becoming almost unrecognizable in appearance.  Chapter four ends with Nebuchadnezzar regaining his sanity and affirming YHWH’s greatness, but not making a credible profession of faith.  

On the one hand, this is a fascinating story as we witness such a mighty and cruel man come to the brink of faith, then instead fall into madness, only to be restored unto sanity.  On the other hand, Nebuchadnezzar’s inner-struggles are revealed by Daniel to serve as a powerful reminder to the Jewish exiles then living under Nebuchadnezzar’s rule in Babylon (those who are the initial recipients of Daniel’s prophecy), that no human king is truly sovereign over the dealings of men and nations–only YHWH is.  Kings rule only as YHWH allows them.  YHWH can and will protect his people, even as they suffer under a tyrant’s rule, Daniel and his three friends being the proof.  

Daniel’s message to the exiles is that YHWH chose to give this particular kingdom to this man at this time and place–YHWH even forces Nebuchadnezzar to realize that fact.  But YHWH can just as easily give Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom to another–as we will see with the fall of Babylon to the Persians, shortly before the end of Daniel’s life.  YHWH is Nebuchadnezzar’s Lord.  YHWH is the one who ultimately determines the fate of the Jewish exiles.  Through his prophets YHWH has revealed to the exiles in Babylon that one day their exile will come to an end, and YHWH’s people will return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and its temple.  Nebuchadnezzar cannot stop this, and in this chapter we are given a glimpse into why this is the case.  The great king is a mere man, with a great many problems, fears, and weaknesses of his own.

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"But I See Four Men" -- Daniel 3:1-30

The Seventh in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Daniel

After Daniel interpreted the king’s frightening dream, Nebuchadnezzaer was greatly relieved.  In fact, the king was so thankful to Daniel that he acknowledged his young Hebrew servant’s God as “God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries.”  The Babylonian king even made good on his promise to reward anyone who could interpret his dream.  He “gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon” (v. 48).  Daniel remained in service to the royal court until his death about 538 BC–living well into his eighties.  But while Daniel remained a trusted court advisor to both Babylonian and Persian officials, his three Hebrew friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were serving elsewhere as high officials in the province of Babylon–a favor which Nebuchadnezzar granted to Daniel on their behalf.  Although Nebuchadnezzar offered high praise to YHWH because he revealed the meaning of the dream to his servant Daniel (as recounted in chapter 2), it will become clear that the Babylonian king never gave up his pagan ways and erected a golden statue, demanding that his subjects worship it.  This strange demand is a mix of a gigantic royal ego, ancient near-eastern power politics, combined with pagan religion.  Once again, Daniel’s friends’ lives are in danger, and this time Daniel will not rescue them–YHWH will, in what amounts to the next round in the on-going conflict between YHWH and the idols of Babylon.  

As believers in YHWH, Daniel’s three friends (who were taken captive when Daniel was) refuse to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, believing this to be a violation of the first two commandments in the law given to Israel by YHWH–There are no Gods but YHWH, and YHWH’s people are not to worship idols.  Upon learning that three of his own appointed officials refused to worship the statue–especially three men who were serving in this capacity as a favor to Daniel–Nebuchadnezzar erupts in his characteristic rage and fury.  The king demands the execution of these rebellious Hebrew officials–just as he had ordered previously with his court magicians.  Yet, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, will be spared again, only this by far more dramatic and miraculous means.  

This passage (Daniel 3) is one of the most famous of the so-called “Bible stories” (along with “Daniel in the lion’s den”) which Christian children are taught, and which few forget because of the nature of the story, its ability to capture a child’s imagination, and because of the sing-songy names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  While Bible stories are anything but harmful, they are often sanitized and prone to miss the main redemptive-historical point of the original event, which is, in this case, the conflict between YHWH and the idols, reflected in the difficult struggle faced by YHWH’s faithful servants in exile, who are under tremendous pressure from a pagan king to renounce their faith, and who threatens their lives if they refuse to renounce their faith in YHWH.  The alternative is death and martyrdom–such as we have recently seen on the evening news, ironically, in the same location.
 
As we continue our series on the Book of Daniel, we come to an episode which reflects the struggle of Hebrew exiles living in Babylon now living under the heavy hand of a tyrannical king like Nebuchadnezzar.  Although commanded by YHWH to live their lives to the fullest during their exile (cf. Jeremiah 29:1-9)–including serving in the government of the nation which was bringing havoc upon their own people (Israel)–YHWH’s people are to worship and serve him only throughout their time away from the promised land.  Nebuchadnezzar, however, now demands that all his subjects worship a newly-erected golden statue–an edict which includes all the exiled Hebrews in Babylon.  Nebuchadnezzar’s order also included the rulers throughout his entire kingdom, likely extending to the Jewish vassal king back in Judah (Zedekiah).  In any case, the act of bowing before such a statue would have been an extreme violation of a Jew’s conscience, and an act of open disobedience to YHWH’s commands.

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"Your God is God of Gods and Lord of Kings" -- Daniel 2:44-49

The Sixth in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Daniel

Nebuchadnezzar had a frightening dream–it was not a nightmare, but divine revelation.  In this dream, the Babylonian king saw a statue of a mighty and brilliant figure which absolutely terrified him–and he was a man who prided himself on his ability to terrify others.  Knowing this was no ordinary dream and that it foretold his own future as well as that of the empire he ruled, the king demanded that his court magicians recount the contents of the dream and then give the king an interpretation.  When it became clear to Nebuchadnezzar that his magicians cannot recount the details of the dream, much less interpret it for him, the king grows furious and threatens his magicians with death–along with the entire palace staff, including Daniel and his three friends.  The image which the king saw in his dream had a head made of gold, its chest and arms were made of silver, its belly and thighs were made of bronze, while its feet were an odd mixture of clay and iron.  Suddenly, in the dream, a rock hit the statue’s feet, shattering them and causing the entire statue to crumble into pieces.  The fractured remains eventually disintegrate into dust which was scattered by the wind so that nothing of the statue remained behind.  The rock which smashed the feet of the statue had been cut from a mountain without human hands, and rapidly grew into a giant mountain which eventually filled the entire earth.  What did all of this mean?

This dream terrified Nebuchadnezzar because it had been given to him by none other than YHWH (the true and living God), who, in turn, revealed both the dream and its contents to a young Hebrew servant in the Babylonian royal court, who also happened to be a prophet of YHWH.  In the dramatic conflict between Daniel and the wise men and magicians (the Chaldeans) which plays out in the Babylonian royal court (in reality this is a conflict between YHWH and the idols of Babylon), Nebuchadnezzar learns the fate of his empire–it will be defeated and destroyed.  At the same time, the people of God are given a panoramic vision of the four great empires which will arise and then fall until the coming of Israel’s Messiah (Jesus) who will crush the last of these great empires as his kingdom extends into all the earth and endures until the very end of time.  It is Daniel’s God, not Nebuchadnezzar’s “gods,” who rules heaven and earth, and directs the affairs of people and nations.  King Nebuchadnezzar is terrified for good reason–his “gods” and his magicians cannot help him.  Nebuchadnezzar is at the mercy of YHWH.  

We wrap-up the account of Nebuchadnezzaer’s dream (in Daniel 2), by considering the king’s unexpected response to the amazing ability of Daniel to do what the king’s expert magicians cannot do–recall and explain this bizarre and frightening dream.  The 49 verses of the second chapter of the Book of Daniel can be divided into four parts.  The first part (vv. 1-13), deals with Nebuchadnezzaer’s dream and the king’s challenge to the Chaldeans to recall and explain the meaning of the dream.  In the second part of the chapter (vv. 14-23), Daniel recounts that YHWH revealed both the contents of the dream and its meaning to Daniel–which Nebuchadnezzar demanded from his court magicians but which they could not provide for the king.  The third part of the chapter (vv. 24-45), which we covered last time, involves Daniel’s recounting and explanation of the meaning of the dream to the king.  We will wrap up our time in Daniel 2 by considering the fourth part of the chapter (vv. 46-49), which describes Nebuchadnezzar’s response to Daniel, after his young Hebrew servant interprets the dream for the great king.

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"A God in Heaven Who Reveals Mysteries" -- Daniel 2:24-45

The Fifth in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Daniel

King Nebuchadnezzar is in a rage and is threatening to execute his entire palace staff.  He had been awakened by a troubling dream which both confused and frightened him.  He then summoned his court magicians and wise men (“the Chaldeans”) to explain the meaning of what he had just dreamt.  But his Chaldeans cannot recount the details of his dream much less offer an interpretation.  No help in relieving the king’s anxiety, and upon seeing the king’s anger at them, the Chaldeans seek to stall Nebuchadnezzar, hoping he will forget about the dream and move on to other things.  Meanwhile, the young Hebrew servant Daniel, who has impressed the king from the moment he first appeared before the king in the royal court, offers the very thing the king’s magicians, sorcerers, and wise men cannot.  Daniel will recount the details of the king’s dream, and then give him an interpretation.  In the scene which plays out in chapter 2 of Daniel’s prophecy, we learn that YHWH has given his young servant Daniel the gift of wisdom, and also revealed to the prophet both the content and the meaning of the king’s dream.  In the contest between Daniel and the court magicians which follows, Daniel will easily win because the Babylonian “gods” are nothing but the figment of human imagination and superstition, while YHWH is the true and living God, who directs the course of history, who grants wisdom, who speaks, and who answers prayer.

We continue our series on the Book of Daniel and we are working our way through the 49 verses of chapter 2.  Last time, we covered the first two parts of this chapter.  In first part (vv. 1-13), we considered the king’s dream and his challenge to his court magicians to recall and explain meaning of it to him.  The second part of the chapter (vv. 14-23), describes God’s revelation of the dream to Daniel–the very thing which Nebuchadnezzar demands from his court magicians.  The third part of the chapter, which we will take up, includes Daniel’s God-given recounting and explanation of the dream to the king (vv. 24-45).  Then finally, we have the king’s very favorable response after Daniel interprets the dream for Nebuchadnezzar (vv. 46-49)–a matter to which we will return next time.

After the king blows the royal gasket, Daniel’s quick and decisive action saved the lives of the entire Babylonian royal court, all of whom are about to be killed because of Nebuchadnezzar’s outrage stemming from the fact that his Chaldeans can neither recount his dream nor interpret it.  Under threat of imminent execution, Daniel spoke directly to the captain of palace guard, the man assigned to put to death the “Chaldeans,” and all the court servants (including Daniel and his three friends).  As we read in verses 14–16, “then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He declared to Arioch, the king’s captain, “Why is the decree of the king so urgent?” Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.”  The king wants an interpretation to his dream, and if his court magicians cannot do so, then the king will see to it that the entire palace staff is executed.

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"Whose Dwelling Is Not With Flesh" -- Daniel 2:1-24

The Fourth in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Daniel

The mood in the Babylonian court has completely changed between the time Nebuchadnezzar claimed the throne in 605 BC, and the scene which unfolds in Daniel chapter 2.  In the opening chapter of his prophecy, Daniel describes Nebuchadnezzar as an all-powerful king, bestowing favors on those servants who have successfully completed their transformation from captured youths into humble and efficient servants in the Babylonian court, young men who come from the various peoples defeated by the Babylonians, now dedicated to serve the king and worship his Babylonian “gods.”  But in chapter 2 (which takes place two years later in 603 BC), the king is troubled and frightened because he has had a dream–the meaning of which escapes him.  The royal court which seemed so dominant over its humiliated subjects is now depicted as a place of fear, helplessness, and brutality.  Whatever it was that the king had dreamed, coupled with the failure of Nebuchadnezzer’s magicians and astrologers to interpret the dream for him for him, at first leads to great peril for Daniel and his friends, but then becomes an opportunity for Daniel to ascend in rank and importance in the court.  This is because YHWH is Daniel’s shield and defender, and the source of both Nebuchadnezzaer’s dream and Daniel’s interpretation.

We resume our series on the Book of Daniel, and we now take up Daniel’s second chapter.  Chapter 2 contains a 49 verse story dominated by Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a bizarre statue composed of four different metals (which represent four different earthly kingdoms), which is then destroyed by a giant rock (which represents an eternal kingdom established by the God of Heaven).  The revelation given by the Lord to Daniel regarding the meaning of the king’s dream tempts us to focus entirely upon the sequence of future events revealed, for as we will see, the dream contains a remarkably accurate prediction of the rise of future empires and events.  Yet, we must not overlook the big picture purpose of the story of the king’s dream and Daniel’s interpretation of that dream.  Although the details of the vision which follows are interesting and important because the dream predicts the histories of the great world empires, this is not as important to Daniel’s message as the fact that only YHWH knows the future, because he is the author of the future.  It is YHWH’s kingdom, not any of the four which Nebuchadnezzar sees in his dream, which triumphs over all other kingdoms of the world in the end.

For the next several weeks we must deal with the tyranny of time.  The account in Daniel 2 of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Daniel’s interpretation of it, is a single unit which is best covered in one sitting.  But this requires far more time than the half-hour or so we can spend on Sunday sermons.  So rather than skimming through the entire chapter and then just hitting the highlights (there are too many and the dream is too important for that), we will break the chapter in four parts and spend several Sundays going through the various parts.  The first part is the king’s dream and his challenge to his court magicians to recall and explain it to him (vv. 1-13).  The second part is God’s revelation of the dream to Daniel (vv. 14-23).  We will cover both of these sections this time.  The third part of the chapter is Daniel’s God-given explanation of the dream to the king (vv. 24-45), and then finally, we have the king’s very favorable response after Daniel interprets the dream for Nebuchadnezzar (vv. 46-49).

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"Ten Times Better" -- Daniel 1:17-21

The Third in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Daniel

I think it fair to say that one reason why preachers often turn the great events of redemptive history into object lessons or timeless truths–and often times even these are obscured by illustrations, stories and multi-media presentations–is because neither they nor their congregations know the Bible well enough (or care to know the Bible well enough) to let the biblical story tell itself, and then trust God to apply his word to the hearts of those hearing it proclaimed.  Because it is a difficult book, requiring a great deal of background, the Book of Daniel is far too often subject to such unfortunate moralizing treatment.  This is a shame, because the story of four young Jewish boys, taken captive, forced to conform to foreign ways, and then finding themselves standing before the king of Babylon (the man who has done these evil things to them) and out-performing by ten times the king’s own best and brightest, is far more interesting than any illustration I might find, any story that I might tell, or any timeless truth we may attempt to identify.  Their story is especially compelling when we know the biblical background which puts this account into perspective–the reason why I will spend some time developing that background.  Yes, this is a wonderful story of faith under pressure and resistance in the face of temptation.  But it is also a story of God working all things after the counsel of his will, while still caring for these four young men.  God has chosen Daniel to reveal future chapters in the great story of redemption.

We are continuing our series on the Book of Daniel and we will be wrapping up our time in chapter 1.  As I mentioned several weeks ago, the Book of Daniel can be quite challenging to understand–because of its apocalyptic visions and its direct ties to ancient near-eastern history–as well as a difficult book from which to preach (for the same reasons just mentioned).  So we are slowly “easing” into our study of Daniel’s remarkable prophecy.  In our first sermon we spent some time on the background to the book, we looked at its literary structure, and then we established that two themes run simultaneously through the course of this book–themes bound together in the person of Daniel, a prophet of YHWH, and the author of the book which bears his name.  

The first theme is the sovereignty of God over the empires and rulers of the world–including the Babylonian empire and its king current Nebuchadnezzar.  We have considered Daniel’s stress the upon the sovereignty of God in the opening chapter of his prophecy–god “gave” Israel’s king Johaikim over to Nebuchadnezzar, along with many gold and silver vessels from the Jerusalem temple used in the worship of YHWH (v. 2).  The very idea of Israel’s king being led in chains to Babylon, as well as Jewish gold and silver, which had been used in the Jerusalem temple for the worship of YHWH, now placed in the Babylonian treasury and dedicated to the “gods” worshiped by Nebuchadnezzar, was unthinkable to any Jew.  The symbolism attached to these events is not to be missed by Daniel’s reader.  Nebuchadnezzer thinks his kingdom is far greater then Judah, and his “gods” are vastly superior to YHWH.  He will soon discover otherwise.  Yet at the same time Daniel tells us that this tragic set of events occurred because God willed that they occur–the covenant curses meted out by YHWH upon disobedient Israel.

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"God Gave Daniel Favor and Compassion" -- Daniel 1:8-21

The Second in a Series on the Book of Daniel

Perhaps you heard the same sermons on Daniel I did growing up.  As Daniel resisted the temptation to embrace worldly ways, keeping his faith under pressure to conform, so we too should resist “worldliness” and stand strong in our beliefs in the face of those reject them.  The application we were to draw from this was not to smoke, drink, date non-Christians, lie, steal, and so on, when non–Christians tell us these things are OK.  While there is truth in this, when we read of Daniel being forced to resist the pressure to compromise his faith we are tempted to read Daniel’s struggle in light of our own struggles to live godly lives and progress in our sanctification.  But, as I will suggest throughout this series, we should understand Daniel’s situation as much more like that which a Christian in modern Syria and Iraq must endure when their community has been overrun by ISIS.  Daniel faced a constant, coercive, and humiliating pressure to reject his religion and his national citizenship, to embrace foreign gods, foreign rulers, and a way of life completely alien to the faith of Israel’s patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Daniel faced intense pressure to conform at a level difficult for us to imagine, especially when we consider that he was still a youth serving in the royal court (and therefore in the presence) of the very king (Nebuchadnezzar) who was attempting to subjugate Daniel’s people and nation through the most diabolical of means.  Throughout his struggle to not compromise his fundamental beliefs, YHWH is with him every step of the way, all the while directing the affairs of kings and nations to their divinely-appointed ends.

As we resume our series on the Book of Daniel, we consider two related themes as we continue to work our way through the opening chapter of Daniel.  Last time we covered introductory and background matters, and established the fact that in the prophecy of Daniel two elements unfold simultaneously throughout the book.  One element is Daniel’s stress upon God’s sovereign control over all of history, as YHWH brings Israel through a time of judgment (exile) and restoration (a new Exodus) leading up to the coming of the Messiah, and then on to the end of the age.  The second element is God’s providential care for Daniel and his three friends while they struggle to remain faithful to YHWH while in Babylon.  It is this second element of Daniel’s prophecy we will consider in this sermon as two related sub-themes appear–Nebuchadnezzaer’s coercive attempts to turn young Hebrew royals into pagan Babylonians, and Daniel’s resistance to this intense pressure to conform to the king’s scheme to weaken, if not destroy, the people of Israel through Babylonian domination.

The opening verses of Daniel reveal the details of Nebuchadnezzar’s efforts to cripple the nation of Israel, as well as explaining the circumstances which led to Daniel’s captivity and exile in Babylon in 605 BC.  We read in verses 1-2, “in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.  And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.”  We can date this to precisely 605 BC when Nebuchadnezzear (who is still crown prince and not yet king) led the Babylonians to victory over an Egyptian army led by Pharaoh Neco at Carchemish (modern Syria).  Pursing the routed Egyptians, Nebuchadnezzer went south to Jerusalem, laying siege to the city, when word came to him that his father had died.  Nebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon for his coronation. 

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