Daniel (part 4) Humble Grass Pie
(By Ben Fronczek)
How many of you consider yourself a quick
learner? Some are in many areas, but unfortunately concerning some
things some may have to learn the ‘hard way’. And what do I mean by ‘the
hard way’. It’s when we don’t learn a lesson the first time or right
away because we have an unteachable spirit because sometimes we are
stubborn, proud, arrogant, or we think we know it all, or because we
simply keep putting off what we do know we should do.
In our study today we’ll see that Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of Babylon was one those guys who had to learn a spiritual lesson the hard way.
In the first three chapters of Daniel we
see where King Nebuchadnezzar learned of our Lord God and saw His power
demonstrated through Daniel and his companions Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. In Chapter 2 with the Lord’s help Daniel was the only
one in Babylon who could tell the king what he dreamt one night and then
was able to give him an interpretation of that dream with God’s help.
It was something that had never been done before. And even though
Nebuchadnezzar was blown away and threw himself prostrate before Daniel
and declared that Daniel’s God was the God of gods, the Lord of kings,
and the revealer of mysteries. The best he could do was offer God some
praise and give Daniel a good position in his kingdom.
In chapter three we saw how arrogant and
puffed up Nebuchadnezzar was when he had a 90 foot statue of gold of
himself erected and then commanded everyone to bow down and worship it.
To me it almost sounded like Nebuchadnezzar saw himself as some kind of
god and was trying to start a new religion (who knows maybe called
Nebuchadnezzar-ism) where he and his statue would be memorialized and
worshipped for years to come. In that story we saw how Shadrach,
Meshach,
and Abednego refused to bow down and worship that statue. They could
not do it knowing it would displease our Lord and God who commanded His
people not to make or worship an idol or graven image. As the story goes
Nebuchadnezzar in a fury of anger had them thrown into a blazing
furnace. But again our Lord God demonstrates His power when He protects
and saves Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fire. The three men
came out of the fire unharmed not even smelling of smoke and again
Nebuchadnezzar praises the God of the Jews.
But apart from praising God and promoting
these three men and telling everyone not to say anything against God,
that’s as far as his faith took him.
Even though God showed Nebuchadnezzar that
He personally put him in his high position of power and leadership,
there was no personal commitment, no allegiance on his part to the God
of Heaven, just a little admiration and praise.
You see it one thing to appreciate and
praise our Lord, it’s quite another to pledge one’s allegiance to Him
and recognize Him as our personal Lord.
In Matthew 7:21 Jesus says
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
In Luke 6:46 He says
”Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
So in Daniel 4, We are going to see
Nebuchadnezzar sharing the story of how God taught him a lesson
concerning who was really in control, and who really deserves our praise
and worship and allegiance. Basically how he became a believer.
Actually this is all we will hear of Nebuchadnezzar. This is the last story we have
of him in scripture.
Read Daniel 4:1-3
“King Nebuchadnezzar,
To the nations and peoples of every language, who live in all the earth:
May you prosper greatly!
It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.
3 How great are
his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom;
his dominion endures from generation to generation.”
To begin with I want you to notice who the author of this portion of scripture is, who his is addressing, and the perspective he is writing from.
To begin with I want you to notice who the author of this portion of scripture is, who his is addressing, and the perspective he is writing from.
- First of all: This is a personal letter
from Nebuchadnezzar. He is the author. He either wrote it himself or at
least dictating it to a scribe.
- 2nd, He addresses it to everyone; to all people, every nation , to people of every language who live on this planet. (Maybe even us in our time)
- 3rd, He writes this from the viewpoint of a humble believer. Something happened to change his attitude and heart.
Then he tells his story: Read Daniel 4:4-18 (Click on verse to read)
So Nebuchadnezzar had another disturbing
dream and like we saw in Chapter 2 no one else could tell him what it
meant except Daniel. As we read we see that Daniel is a little nervous
apprehensive about telling the king what he saw in his dream.
Read Daniel 4:19-26 (Click on verse to read)
Daniel lets the king know that as great as
he is, the Lord God of Heaven was about to humble him. For whatever
reason Nebuchadnezzar would lose his mind and he would be driven out of
Babylon and would eat grass like an animal for 7 years when he would
finally acknowledge God for who He is, the Most High and Sovereign Lord
over all, the one worthy of praise and honor.
Then in verse 27 Daniel goes on to give Nebuchadnezzar some good advice and wise counsel that he apparently ignored Read 4:27
“27 Therefore,
Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by
doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed.
It may be that then your prosperity will continue.”
And then Nebuchadnezzar shares what happens to him a year later, and why and how it changed him. Read Daniel 4:28-37 (Click on verse to read)
Nebuchadnezzar had to learn a lesson the hard way, but at least he learned.
What about you? How many
times have you heard a teaching from God, a preacher, or the Bible, and
you know that the teaching applies to you because it hits the nail on
the head and you know it is right and true yet for some reason you do nothing and don’t apply it to your life?
Maybe God tells you to forgive yet you do
not forgive. His word tells you not to gossip or be quarrelsome but
rather to seek peace and show mercy, yet you say nasty things either to
someone or maybe behind their back.
We are told to fix our thoughts on things
that are true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and to think about
things that are worthy of praise; not on selfish ambition,
discord, sexual impurity or getting more and more stuff. Yet what do
we do and what do we put most of our time and
effort and into?
Maybe you’ve heard a preacher teach that we
should be helpful, loving and generous and share with others, yet you
turn you back on the needs of others and dip into your bag of excuses
when faced with a need.
Daniels advise to Nebuchadnezzar was to stop doing anything evil and start being kind to those who are oppressed so that he would continue to proper…. But did he listen? NO. So God had to teach him a lesson.
In 1 Corinthians 10:11-13 the Apostle Paul wrote
“These things happened to those individuals as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. 12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The
temptations in your life are no different from what others experience.
And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than
you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that
you can endure.” NLT
Yes I want you to acknowledge and praise
God, but more importantly I want to encourage you to accept Him as your
God, as your Lord and the master of your life and do what He says,
and do those things because you love Him. And as Daniel counselled
Nebuchadnezzar, if you do these things then you will prosper, and I
believe you will feel good, having peace of mind knowing that you have
done your best to please your Lord..
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