Hope for the Arrogant (Daniel 4:1-9; 19-33)

Good morning. We are continuing our sermon series on the book of Daniel this morning, and today we come to Daniel chapter four. I have really enjoyed preparing this sermon. You might not enjoy it as much as I did, but the book of Daniel is such a rich and amazing book. If you ever have the opportunity to study it deeply, I'd encourage you to do that.

I have to admit, though, that during the week as I looked at the intricate literary beauty of this book, I felt a little bit like, "Really, God? I'm going to preach on this? This might be a little bit beyond my pay grade." As I was researching it, I was looking for different references and illustrations, and I came across the fact that in 2019, the rapper Kanye West—following his breakdown where he was in the hospital in 2016, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and then came to faith apparently—decided to put on an opera titled Nebuchadnezzar, which was really all about these three chapters of Daniel: two, three, and four.

According to critics, it apparently wasn't very good. If you want to watch it, you can—I made it through about 40% of it—but it appeared that Kanye just showed up and literally all he did was read the book of Daniel while somebody was on stage acting out the things that Nebuchadnezzar did, and a choir sang in the background some generic music. People could be seen—stagehands could be seen still putting it together on stage while the performance was happening. At one point, Kanye was reading, "Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face," and the actor on stage didn't fall on his face. So he read it again, and the actor didn't do it. He read it a third time, still didn't do it, and Kanye just laughed and moved on.

I hope this isn't like that. But I do think it's an interesting thing that Kanye West identified with Nebuchadnezzar enough to want to put on this giant production as a way of proclaiming his newfound faith. I have questions about the sincerity or depth of Kanye's faith—maybe some of you do too. He's kind of an unlikely convert, and some of the things that he says, perhaps because of his disorder, make you go, "I don't know about that."

But one thing that he did say in an interview: "I'm the only person I know who's messed up as bad as I have who is still as successful as I've been. I know I don't deserve any success, and so the only explanation I have is God." I think that in many ways does really faithfully connect with what we experience of Nebuchadnezzar specifically in this chapter.

The Literary Depth of Daniel

The depth and literary depth—I want you to see this before we read it. Some of the things that are going on: A lot of the book is written in Aramaic, and a lot of it is written in Hebrew. It moves back and forth between two different languages, different styles, and different voices in order to emphasize different things. In this chapter, there's a big switch—it's mostly in Aramaic, but there's this big switch between a first-person description. Nebuchadnezzar himself takes the microphone from Daniel in this chapter and starts speaking. Then, when he goes crazy, it goes back to the general narrator voice.

In order to honor that and capture some of that, I've asked Kevin to help me read so that we get a sense of two different voices. Instead of following along on the screen, I just want you to listen this morning.

Kevin, if you'll come forward—I'll begin, and Kevin, you're going to be the narrator. I'm going to be Nebuchadnezzar. Here we go. This is God's word.

King Nebuchadnezzar, to those of every people, nation, and language who live on the whole earth: May your prosperity increase. I am pleased to tell you about the miracles and wonders the Most High God has done for me.

Now, I want to highlight something here. This part of the text switches to poetry. He's singing, okay? I'm not going to sing.

How great are his miracles and how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.

He switches back to just speaking.

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace. I had a dream, and it frightened me while in my bed. The images and visions in my mind alarmed me. So I issued a decree to bring all the wise men of Babylon to me in order that they might make the dream's interpretation known to me. When the magicians, mediums, Chaldeans, and diviners came in, I told them the dream, but they could not make its interpretation known to me. Finally, Daniel, named Belshazzar...

After the name of my god and a spirit of the holy gods is in him, he came before me. I told him the dream. Belshazzar, head of magicians, because I know you have the spirit of the holy gods and that no mystery puzzles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I saw in its interpretation.

In the visions of my mind, I was lying in bed. I saw this. Now it's poetry again. He's singing.

There was a tree in the middle of Earth, and it was very tall. The tree grew large and strong. Its top reached to the sky, and it was visible to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful. Its fruit was abundant, and on it was food for all. Wild animals found shelter under it. The birds of the sky lived in its branches and every creature was fed from it. — Daniel 4

He goes back to speaking. As I was lying in my bed, I also saw the visions of my mind, a watcher, a holy one coming down from heaven. He called out loudly. This again is in song. Different tune perhaps.

Cut down the tree and chop off its branches. Strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it and the birds from its branches, but leave the stump with its roots in the ground and a band of iron and bronze around it in the tender grass of the field. Let him be drenched with dew from the sky and share the plants of the earth with the animals. Let his mind be changed from that of a human, and let him be given the mind of an animal for seven periods' time. This word is by decree of the watchers, and the decision is by command of the holy ones. This is so that the living will know that the most high is ruler over all human kingdoms. He gives them to anyone he wants and sets the lowliest of people over them. — Daniel 4

He stops singing, talking again. This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, had. Now, Belshazzar, tell me the interpretation because none of the wise men of my kingdom can make the interpretation known to me but you can because you have the spirit of the holy gods.

Interpretation

Then Daniel, whose name is Belteshar, was stunned for a moment and his thoughts alarmed him. The king said, Belteshar, don't let the dream or its interpretation alarm you. Belteshar answered, my lord, may the dream apply to those who hate you and its interpretation to your enemies.

The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, whose top reached to the sky and was visible to the whole earth, and whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all. Under it, the wild animals lived, and in its branches, the birds of the sky lived. That tree is you, your majesty. For you have become great and strong. Your greatness has grown and even reaches the sky and your dominion extends to the ends of the earth. — Daniel 4

The king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump with its roots in the ground, and with a band of iron and bronze around it, in the tender grass of the field.

Let him be drenched with dew from the sky and share food with the wild animals for seven periods of time. This is the interpretation, your majesty, and this is the decree of the most high that has been issued against my lord, the king. You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals. You will feed on grass like cattle and be drenched with dew from the sky for seven periods of time. Until you acknowledge that the most high is ruler over human kingdoms. And he gives them to anyone he wants. As for the command to leave the tree's stump with its roots, your kingdom will be restored to you as soon as you acknowledge that heaven rules. — Daniel 4

Therefore, may my advice seem good to you, my king. Separate yourself from your sins by doing what is right and from your injustices by showing mercy to the needy. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.

All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, the king exclaimed, is this not Babylon the great that I have built to be a royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory.

While the words were still in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven.

King Nebuchadnezzar, to you, it is declared that the kingdom has departed from you. You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals and you will feed on grass like cattle for seven periods of time until you acknowledge that the most high is ruler over human kingdoms. And he gives them to anyone he wants. — Daniel 4

At that moment, the message against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people. He ate grass like cattle. And his body was drenched with dew from the sky. Until his hair grew like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws.

But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven and my sanity returned to me. Then I praised the most high god and honored and glorified him who lives forever and this is a song again.

For his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing and he does what he wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can block his hand or say to him, what have you done?

Now, he's speaking again.

At that time, my sanity returned to me and my majesty and splendor returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and my nobles sought me out. I was reestablished over my kingdom and even more greatness came to me. Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the king of the heavens because all his works are true and his ways are just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

This is God's word. Thanks be to God. Way to hang in there. It's a long chapter. I could just pray now. We could go maybe. No, we're going to look at this a little bit in-depth, but what a rich way to write this. Do you sense the dramatic aspect of the book of Daniel? It's very present in the original language of Aramaic as you read it and study it. I never studied Aramaic, but I read a lot of people who were talking about the beauty of this and the structure of it. The way Daniel is structured is so poetic from a Hebrew mindset. You notice as you read the book, and maybe Jeff talked about some of this when he introduced it. Like, there's echoes of Genesis. Do you hear that? Like, have you heard that in the book of Daniel? Echoes of Genesis. There's pieces of this like, oh, this prideful Babylonian. What does that sound like? This really tall tree that the whole world can see and recognize. You hear the Tower of Babel in that? Like this echo of that pride, right? There's echoes of the Garden of Eden in this, right? A tree. There's echoes of Joseph with Pharaoh, right? Interpreting dreams, prophesying the future, Daniel doing that. It's linked to Genesis. The book of Daniel is also linked to Revelation. It's kind of a hinge point in scripture where you turn from looking at the very ancient past to looking at our promised foretold future. We're going to really see that in chapter seven when it starts talking about the beast that rule nations and you're going to see a link to Revelation. So it's really rich text with a lot of different directions that we could go and talk about. I'm not going to talk about a lot of those. And in fact, most people, I think when they preach this text, they boil it down to this: this is a story about how you should not be prideful. Don't be prideful like Nebuchadnezzar. I think in fact, that's probably what Kanye saw in this. He was like, I was prideful like Nebuchadnezzar. In fact, in one of his songs earlier, he referred to himself as God. So, I think his identification is appropriate. My—I do think that this passage and certainly the Bible condemns pridefulness, but this is not a story about pride. That's the landscape. This is a story about something else and I'm going to convince you by the time we're done.

Here's our outline: A royal warning, royal hubris, a royal rescue, and a royal audience. So: warning, hubris, rescue, audience. That's our outline. Let's dive in.

A Royal Warning

You caught the warning, right? Nebuchadnezzar has a nightmare. Have you ever had a nightmare? I had a nightmare last night that I was preaching this sermon and it was not going well. I hope that wasn't prophetic in the way that this one was, right? But you ever have a nightmare where you just can't shake it? You get up and you're kind of disturbed. It's especially disturbing if you don't know what it means, and he has to call Daniel in to explain it to him. But we see here really clearly that this is a terrible nightmare, right? As Daniel explains to him the meaning, he's pictured first as this beautiful tree cut to a stump, right? He reached to the sky, visible to the whole earth, producing food for everyone, shade and shelter. Again, there's this nod to both the Garden of Eden and to the Tower of Babel.

It's interesting to note that Nebuchadnezzar the Second, do you know what he's famous for beyond being king? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. So it's interesting in the dream he's portrayed as vegetation, right? The thing that he's famous for—this luxurious tree—represents him and his kingdom. It's something that could house all of the nations, could be a blessing to everyone, right? But it's not.

A watcher comes down and proclaims that it's going to be cut down and it is. It's cut down, chopped down, branches are cut off, fruit is scattered, there's no attendance, birds and animals flee, but the stump is left. There's hope in this nightmare. The stump is left. There's still hope for growth later. Do you see?

But there's a shackle of iron on the tree. This is where the dream starts to mix its metaphors, right? There's this shackle of iron put around the tree as though it's enslaved. It's losing its will, its freedom because I guess trees could wander off or get away. No. It's starting to shift from a picture of a tree back towards—this is not just talking about a tree. This is talking about a person who's enslaved. So he's not only chopped down but he's enslaved. He's no longer autonomous. He's no longer free to do what he wants. He's bound. And he's thrown out to just be soaked in dew and feed off of the grass. He's in the wilderness experiencing the provisions of wilderness. No longer at the king's table, right? Daniel one with all these rich foods and amazing meals. It's no, go out into the wilderness and scavenge. So he loses his provision and also he's given the mind of an animal. He loses his glory. He's no longer this glorious image-bearing person. No longer this glorious king, ruler of everything. He's like an animal. Just another beast out in the field, losing his ability to reason, and it's not a good picture.

Daniel, of course, interprets all of this, tells him that it's about you. But what's interesting to note and pay attention to this because this is subtle and this is some of the beauty of Daniel and kind of his writing—notice that Daniel is alarmed. He's troubled that Nebuchadnezzar has had this dream about himself. He gets it right away that this is about him, but notice how he's awfully kind to him. I mean, this is a man who's been enslaved by this man, whose entire nation has been carried off into captivity, right? And notice he's like, gosh, this is terrible. I feel so bad for you. His language is:

"My lord, if only the dream had applied to those who hate you and its interpretation to your adversaries."

Put a pin in that. If only this dream applied to your adversaries. If you want to know who the adversaries, the enemies of Babylon were, and those who hated Babylon—I'm not going to do this for the sake of the kids—but flip around in your Bibles to Psalm 137. Skip down to the end and notice what the Psalm says about the children of Babylon. You might find the most hateful statement that you will ever find in the Bible describing what should be done to the children of Babylon. The enemies, the adversaries of Babylon are the Jewish people who are in captivity, and Daniel saying, if only this had applied to them. Weird. Put a pin in that.

He does offer some hope. He says, well, you know, maybe if you wipe away your sin by being righteous, if you wipe away wrongdoings by caring for the poor, your prosperity will be prolonged. But he doesn't say it's not going to happen to you. He's like, hey, try this and maybe you'll go for a little while, but eventually this is going to catch up with you.

What I want you to see here, coming back to that pin, is Daniel's pulling a Nathan. Prophets love to do this where they pretend to talk about one person but they're really talking about someone else. Remember when the prophet Nathan went to David and he said, "Hey, there's this other king. He's done this really terrible thing," and David is like, "That's awful. We gotta get that guy," and he's like, "It's you, right? It's you."

What is Daniel doing here? He's comparing the exile of Nebuchadnezzar to the exile of the Jewish people. This dream, what is happening to Nebuchadnezzar is very similar to what has happened to them. Think about it. The tree has been cut down, right? The temple's destroyed. The temple was representative of the garden. The tree is chopped down but the stump is still there. It's in shackles though, like the people of Israel who are in bondage under Nebuchadnezzar, right? They're kind of not really experiencing life to the fullness. They're kind of back in the wilderness, right? And they've lost the glory of being God's chosen people, his representative, his redeemed image bearers in the world. Do you see how he's sneakily inviting the audience to identify with Nebuchadnezzar here? That's important. That's real important to understanding that this isn't a warning against pride because Daniel's not warning his people about pride. They've already been prideful. They've already been cut off. They're already experiencing the exile. He wants them to identify with where Nebuchadnezzar is going.

So that's the first point. Let's look at the second point: royal pride. All of this is in verse 28 where Nebuchadnezzar kind of looks at his kingdom. Notice that it's twelve months later. Twelve months later. He doesn't say a year. He says twelve months. Daniel loves numbers. What else is 12? There's 12 tribes. Twelve months later, Nebuchadnezzar says this:

"I, myself, have built by my vast power, Babylon the Great, for my majestic glory."

Let's look at that individually.

I, myself, have built by my vast power. The most powerful man on the earth, Nebuchadnezzar—certainly the known earth. His title was in Sumerian, Lugul Kaduri Uster. That's the only Sumerian I know. It means the king of the universe. That's pretty prideful, walking around calling yourself king of the universe.

They worked up to that in Mesopotamia. They started with lower titles of kings and then eventually that became the title, and all of the kings of Mesopotamia loved to use that. Nebuchadnezzar adopted it. His reign marked the height of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. So what he saw when he looked at himself was a self-made man. He's like, I did this. He conquered a lot of people and built a lot of things, but did he go fight those wars by himself? He inherited an army from his father who was the king. He was born into royalty. Did he grow the hanging gardens? Did he plant them himself? Did he design the buildings and structures that made them so glorious? No, slaves did that. But he's taking credit for all of it. He's a self-made man. I did all of this.

Notice that the reality is what the Jews see: he didn't self-exist. He was born to a king. He inherited the kingdom. He didn't make the plants grow. He didn't build the city himself. They were a part of that—as slaves, as part of his administration. They saw that as something that they did. Even his defeat of the Jews was given to him by God. The prophets told them it was a punishment to them. He didn't earn any of this. It was all given to him.

In the kind of mirror aspect of Daniel's writings, he's showing them exactly what they had done. They had taken credit for becoming this great kingdom. They had felt like they had earned it. They had felt like they needed to continue to earn it, that they had to defend it, that it wasn't all from God, that they had grown up and done it.

Don't we do that? Don't we look at our lives from time to time and see the little paltry efforts that we've put in and say, we are self-made. We pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and created all that we have. We take credit for that. We like to pat ourselves on the back and comfort ourselves with that at night. That's the pride of Nebuchadnezzar. But it's not just his—it's ours. It's Kanye's. It's mine. It's the Jewish people's.

Babylon the Great

Nebuchadnezzar also saw a great kingdom, Babylon the Great. This was Neo-Babylon, again known for the garden. I think there's probably some sense—there's actually been archaeological digs that have found seals from Neo-Babylon that essentially used garden imagery, like Garden of Eden imagery. A man and a woman sitting by a tree with a snake kind of coming through it. Where'd that come from? In Neo-Babylon, they knew the story. So I think there's probably a sense in which Babylon, in these hanging gardens, King Nebuchadnezzar probably kind of built this as a new Eden, a little bit. Certainly saw it as kind of like a new heaven on earth and spoke of it that way. That's how he's thinking of it now.

And that's often how we kind of interpret the great things of this world that we experience. Right? Like, man, we built a great civilization. Amazon Prime—that stuff shows up in a day. A new heaven. Isn't it glorious? Isn't it great?

But the Jews see this. They see that it's built on bloodshed. It's built on violence. It's built on slavery. It's not good. It's feared more than revered. It was a kingdom that existed quickly for just one person. It was all about Nebuchadnezzar and his glory. That's the end of this verse: for my majestic glory. Glory in this context is his fame and renown. He wants to be known. The same reason the tower was built—to create a name for himself.

The Jews saw him for what he was, though: an insecure, empty person who was trying to garner from fear all that he could for himself.

There's a lot of kingdoms like that in the world. Kingdoms that are built for one, that are designed to narcissistically point everyone back to the creator of that kingdom and to make it theirs so that they can be honored and glorified in all those things. You probably have a couple in mind right now as I'm saying this.

There's other personal kingdoms out there built on bloodshed, violence, slavery, and self-aggrandizing principles. So that's what Nebuchadnezzar saw, and that's what the Jews saw when they heard all of this. They saw right through him.

But what did God see? And this is what's fascinating. This is what I think is the point of this story. God saw a man who's lost his glory, who was enslaved by his sin and himself, and unable to provide for not only himself but those whom he was supposed to lead, and who had settled for a puny kingdom far below what he was created for.

And so God in his great mercy decided to help him to see by giving him a nightmare. And then when that didn't work, making him live the dream. A royal rescue is our next point. Nebuchadnezzar lived this terrible dream and his eyes were lifted towards the field. He became essentially what God saw so that he could see what he had become. And he's like that until, what does it say, he lifts his eyes up to heaven. He finally sees that the paltry kind of reality of his world, what he had created was really nothing compared to the god of heaven.

He lifts his eyes to heaven and who does he see? He sees the king of heaven. This is the only passage in the Old Testament really, in the whole Bible that refers to God as the king of heaven. I was shocked by that because we use that phrase all the time. But he looked up and he saw, I'm not the great king. He's the great king.

He does according to his will among the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth, and no one can fend off his hand or say to him, what have you done?

He recognized that he wasn't a self-made man. He was a made man. Made by the only god who made himself a man. Do you see how Daniel points us to Christ? How Nebuchadnezzar, like really realizing his limitedness and god's greatness, ultimately was pointing him towards a different kind of kingdom, a different kind of king. One who instead of making himself into a god, would make himself into a man in order to empty himself and love others.

For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him, all things hold together. — Colossians 1:15

Kinda sounds like Nebuchadnezzar's song. Nebuchadnezzar is singing about the king of heaven, our great king Jesus. He just doesn't know it fully. And then notice how the kingdom that he's seeing, this great celestial city, heaven and earth together. He has his will among the army of heavens and among the inhabitants of earth. Heaven and earth together, holy brought together in peace. Shalom. This everlasting kingdom and dominion knows no end. He's talking about this beautiful kingdom that is ever expanding. He's looking up in the heavens and he's just seeing the breadth of it, the width of it, the majesty of it. And he's like, it just goes on forever. It's amazing.

You think about creation and how we understand creation as Christians. Like, why did God create the world? Why did he create mankind? The Westminster Confession says to glorify and enjoy him. He created it because he loved the other persons of the trinity. He was in this place of beautiful, triune love and it exploded into this creation that was designed to bring glory to himself, to the community of the trinity. And then it wasn't enough that they would celebrate it and enjoy it. He wanted that love to extend to creation, so he made man in his image so that he could also enjoy it. He made all of creation out of love not only for himself but also for the creatures that he was making rulers and glorious kings over it.

Nebuchadnezzar had a kingdom that was shrinking. It was becoming a kingdom of one. It was all about him. God has a kingdom that is ever expanding like the heavens, growing and expanding and including people that you would never think. Jesus talks about the kingdom of god in Luke 13 like a mustard seed.

What is the kingdom of god like? What shall I compare it to? It's like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden and it grew and became a tree and the birds perched in all of its branches.

He's using the language of Daniel there. Like all the birds perching in the branches, it's this big tree that kind of houses everybody. God's glory, his image was made to bring him glory but also to share in his glory. Heavenly glory is the ever expanding kingdom of god.

Paul describes it this way:

For this reason, I kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that he may grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you being rooted and firmly established in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width and height and depth of god's love and know Christ's love that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of god.

God's kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar realizes, is an ever expanding kingdom. It's a beautiful kingdom and it can include him. And so he rejects his pride and he asks for help. Submits to the king of heaven and is saved.

That's what we're presented with and he's not only saved but he's like, Daniel, give me the microphone. I gotta tell these people every nation, every language. That's how Daniel four begins. Do you notice? It's Babel, all the languages. We've got to tell all the languages, everybody, about this great God. I'm not just gonna tell them, I'm gonna sing about it. I'm gonna make an opera. Right? And that's what he does in the story.

Who Was This Written For?

Now, I wanna turn our attention to the audience. Who was this written for? I think you can make a case that it's written for all the nations, all the tongues, because that's how it starts. But really I think this is written for God's people. Daniel was a book that was meant to engage with the people who were in exile, who had experienced exile. And I think the original audience's temptation, what Daniel is preaching against, is giving up on God and adopting the ways of their captors or believing that God has given up on them.

It would have been tempting for them to think, right? Hey, God isn't going to save us. God has led us into captivity. He's not a good God. You know what's really good? The food of the Babylonians. Give me some of that food, right? Let me eat at the king's table. Let me explore the riches and the glory of the hanging gardens of Babylon. This is a great life.

Daniel's written this chapter to tell them, you know what? If the king of Babylon can look at his kingdom, think it's great but then suddenly be shown that it is as hollow and terrible and meaningless as being cast out into the fields, then maybe that's true.

The Temptation We Face

I think we struggle with this, CTK. I think we struggle with this. We walk in a world. We're in exile here in this life and I think we are enamored by the trappings of it sometimes and we want to kind of go, hey, if I just buy into this a little bit more, maybe I'll get the good life. Daniel wants to say to us, hey, it ain't that good. And I think that we really do struggle with this.

You know why? Because we struggle with evangelism. We're not singing operas about the greatness of the Savior of our God to our neighbors, to every nation tongue because honestly, I think that we kind of think, hey, we've got this Christian thing but it's really more of a burden, isn't it? Than a blessing? What if we're wrong about that? What if in Christ Jesus, we have the great King of the heavens whose love expands far further than we think.

In the new members class this morning we were talking about people that had no business being saved. We were identifying different people that had become Christians that we were like, How did that happen? Rosaria Butterfield. How did that happen? Right? A practicing lesbian who's talking about like as a professor how wrong the biblical ethic of sexuality is in a newspaper article. She gets invited over to dinner by one of the most conservative pastors in America. They start a friendship, and she's now married to a pastor in that denomination. That shouldn't have happened. I don't think that should have happened. Most of us don't think that should have happened. Most of us probably too go, Did Nebuchadnezzar really become a Christian? Was that sincere? Like, was that real?

God is at work saving and extending His love beyond what we even think possible. That's how great He is. That's how amazing our God is.

When God Seems Far Away

And then I think there's another group of us that we're just kind of like, Well, God's given up on us. There's some of us that are experiencing real suffering and we're kind of going, I think God's given up on me. I think He is really He just hates me. He's pouring out His wrath on me. He's done with me. And I probably deserve it. I think like that sometimes. I interpret different events. I'm like, This is the judgment, the wrath of God being poured out on me.

But you see, Daniel speaks to that too in this chapter. He's saying, if God can save Nebuchadnezzar the Second who conquered and killed all these people, this horrible kind of ruler who's built a kingdom on bloodshed. Maybe he can save you. That's what Daniel was saying to the original audience. He's like, if God loved Nebuchadnezzar enough to save him, this horrible person that brought judgment against his people, maybe he loves his people enough to bring them out of their exile and bring them home too.

So we have that hope, CTK. We have the hope of the King of heaven. And if we ever give up, every now and then God's gonna save somebody that we think has no business being saved. And through that person, he's gonna speak to us and say, Hey, guess what? I'm real. My love is real. It's really great. And we need to be encouraged by that.

That's why we do testimonies when people join. Like, we give the mic to the Nebuchadnezzars and then allow everyone to share. Hey, this is what God has done.

That's why we do gospel hospitality and we share the peace of Christ that we have with one another because you're meeting Nebuchadnezzar's the seconds who are sitting next to you and you're being reminded and told of the greatness and goodness of the love of God. Isn't it a beautiful thing that his kingdom expands and includes us? And even goes beyond us to places that we think it has no business going.

CTK, I think we're going to be surprised by the population of heaven. I think we're going to be surprised by the goodness of our God. And I hope that we enjoy some of that surprise on our way to getting there. I hope we're a little surprised by guys like Kanye who's not put together for sure but God seems to be doing something with him. God is doing things with people all around us.

CTK, you prideful, arrogant builders of your own kingdom like me. You will never be able to find, earn, or build a kingdom that will live up to the glory that you were made for. And if you are truly his, he will use our exile to open your eyes so that you can see how truly magnificent he is, how much he loves you, and how great a kingdom he's inviting you into.

May our eyes be opened to his glory, the glory of the king of heaven. In the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we thank you that we don't have to be self-made people because you were a self-made person who came and experienced the worst kind of exile on our behalf so that we might be returned to the glory that you created us for. Lord, would you fill our hearts with expectation and rejoicing at the greatness of you, our beautiful king. Turn our eyes to you, Lord. Help us to see you clearly even as we see ourself clearly and allow us to rejoice at the goodness of the work that you're doing.

Lord, help us here at Christ the King to have a vision for your ever expanding kingdom and have the heart that led you to redeem the world as we go about working alongside of you in the family business. Lord, help us to engage the lost and to trust that you are at work not only to bring those to salvation but to encourage us by the work that your spirit can do.

Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.