Sunday, June 13, 2021 AM

Worship together this morning. We'll start with a few announcements this morning. Looking ahead, come back for our evening service tonight at 5 .30 here at the church. And then Wednesday dinner at 5 .45 here for the whole church.

And at 6 .30 we'll have Bible study and prayer time for everyone together since TAC is kind of taking a little bit of a break. And then coming up next Sunday, Father's Day on June 20th. And then at the end of the month, end of June, we'll have communion in the morning and then truth group that evening for the young adults.

This week's fighter verse comes from First Timothy chapter two, verse five. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man, Jesus Christ. We still have some Operation Christmas Child needs.

You can see those in your bulletin for the month of June. Summer Sunday school session is gonna be coming up here at the beginning of July. So if you got a bulletin this morning, there should be an insert inside where you can pick what session you would like to attend.

This is from ages seventh grade all the way through to adults, but there's four classes, Build on Solid Ground, Reformation Truths, the Book of Job and the Sunnyside Bible Study Method. So if you're interested in attending one of those, you can go ahead and mark your choice, put your name on the bottom and then on your way out, you can just put those in the offering plate and we'll gather those for those future classes.

Still need some volunteers for the nursery for the month of July and you can contact Marla Hovarder about that. And then finally, in preparation for something we have this afternoon, which is a piano recital at four p .m., anybody is welcome to attend, but Mrs. B has some students that she would like to have them play, but if you wanna come back at four p .m. for that recital, you are welcome to attend.

But to prepare for that, we do need a few men to help us move the kind of the podium out of the way and bring the piano front and center for that recital. So after the service, if you could help with that, we would appreciate it.

All right, any other announcements before we get started this morning? Yes, sir. No Timothy School today. No Timothy School today. So if you are in Timothy School, we'll take the week off. Anything else?

All right, well, we are going to prepare our hearts for worship just in prayer, and then once we're done with that, Jerry Brown will open us in prayer.

Thank you for Sundays, a special day when we can come and just fellowship together with your people and hear your word taught and sung. Just, Father, breathe with us this morning. Help us to be attentive and to hear what you have to say to all of us, and to each one specifically.

You have a word for each individual. Just help us to hear that. We pray for those that are in a medical need, especially Tommy and Diane, and others that have medical situations. Just be with them, put your healing hand on them, your hand of encouragement.

We just look forward to a special time this morning in your word, your perfect word. Just be with us and help us to soak up everything we can. Be with Michael, encourage him. Just pray that you'd clear his mind and help him to share with us what you've shared with him.

Thank you again for the Lord Jesus, for what he means to all his people. In Christ's name, amen.

Call to Worship from Psalm 67

Hey, would you stand with me for our call to worship this morning? Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 67. We'll be reading verses three and four. Read with me together. Let the peoples praise you, O God.

Let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations, I'm glad, and sing for joy. For you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon the earth. And we're gonna sing just that song, May the Peoples Praise You.

There was a handout in the back, hope you got that.

Comes from the book of Amos.

We'll be looking at chapter three, the whole chapter, verses one through 15. Amos chapter three, verse one. Word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt.

You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet? Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey?

Does a young lion cry out from his den if he has taken nothing? Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground when it has taken nothing?

Is a trumpet blown in a city and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it? For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants, the prophets.

The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken. Who can but prophesy? Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt and say, assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria and see the great tumults within her and the oppressed in her midst.

They do not know how to do right, declares the Lord. Those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, an adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you and your strongholds shall be plundered.

Thus says the Lord, as the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued with the corner of a couch and a part of a bed.

Hear and testify against the house of Jacob, declares the Lord God, the God of hosts, that on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.

I will strike the winter house along with the summer house and the houses of ivory shall perish and the great houses shall come to an end, declares the Lord. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, your word is unfailing, is ever true and will always come to pass.

The words that you declare with your mouth and in your scripture will always come to pass. Help us to look to your word for wisdom, look to your word for guidance, to trust in your word when our culture says that it's a relic of the past, not to be listened to anymore, that we have ascended far above whatever wisdom primitive man might have gleaned from it.

Father, you are before the beginning, after the end, you are eternal. Your word is eternal, its truth is eternal. There as we gather together, as we worship in the proclaiming of your word, as we listen to the proclaiming of your word, help us to value it above all things.

Father, we thank you for this time together. We pray for our brothers and sisters around the world that are worshiping together, some publicly, some secretly, some being persecuted. We ask for your grace and your mercy to fall on them now.

And we look forward to the day when we can all worship together. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.

Our next two songs are in our normal blue hymnals. If you would, please turn to page 25. We'll sing Immortal, Invisible. We'll sing all four verses. And then also page 343, we'll sing verse one.

For this day, gracious, generous God, the saver and the keeper of life, I thank you that you have revealed yourself in such a way that we may know you, be right with you, and love you all through your son, Jesus Christ.

We thank you for sending forth your Holy Spirit who indwells us, your people, that we are not orphans, but that we may commune with you and dwell with you. So we thank you, we thank you, and we thank you for your multitudes of grace, mercy, loving kindness, compassion.

We come before you today looking at your word. Give us insight into your word through your Holy Spirit. Give us understanding of the text. I pray that you would teach us, correct us, rebuke us, instruct us, that in all things, Christ would have the preeminence in our lives, in our church, in our families, and in this world today.

Pray these things for his sake, the one with whom you are well-pleased. Amen. I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Daniel chapter two. Daniel chapter two, we'll be looking at verses one through 13 this morning.

Daniel chapter two, verses one through 13. The title of this next portion of Daniel here in chapter two, justified by her children. Justified by her children. If you're wondering who the her is, it's wisdom.

And it comes from a saying of Jesus. And we're talking about wisdom because Daniel is a book full of riddles. Real life riddles in matters of statecraft where life and death are on the line. Apocalyptic riddles in the fabric of dreams and visions which displayed the rise and fall of empires.

Daniel is a book chock full of riddles in which wisdom triumphs over all. And in fact, the whole riddle of Daniel is beautifully unspun in the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who unravels all the riddles of Daniel because wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord and culminates in Christ.

Now in chapter one, we saw the wisdom. We saw wisdom as the principle thing. Wisdom is the principle thing, Proverbs says, therefore in all you're getting, get wisdom and get understanding. So wisdom is the principle thing for God fearing resistance within a pagan power structure.

We saw that with Daniel and his friends. And he led his friends in a resolve to remain undefiled. A resolve to remain undefiled. Through their non-conformity to paganism, they remained wise, fearing the Lord.

Those around them didn't think that that was a good idea. The best way to get along was to go along and they thought that was wisdom. And yet in the end, the wisdom and skill and knowledge and understanding that God gave to Daniel and his friends was reported as 10 times better than all of the other experts in Nebuchadnezzar's realm.

And that contrast at the end of chapter one leads directly into the crisis of chapter two. So let's read together. If you'll stand with me, I'm gonna read from the word of God, the words of Christ by his spirit through his prophet Daniel.

Daniel two verses one through 13. Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. And his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams.

So they came and stood before the king and the king said to them, I have had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the dream. Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic. Oh king, live forever.

Tell your servants the dream and we will give the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, my decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made an ash heap.

However, if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards and great honor. Therefore tell me the dream and its interpretation. They answered again and said, let the king tell his servants the dream and we will give its interpretation.

The king answered and said, I know for certain that you would gain time because you see that my decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you, for you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the time has changed.

Therefore tell me the dream and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation. The Chaldeans answered the king and said, there is not a man on earth who can tell the king's matter. Therefore, no king, Lord or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer or Chaldean.

It is a difficult thing that the king requests and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this reason, the king was angry and very furious and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

So the decree went out and they began killing the wise men and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. We have grown accustomed to hearing expressions and phrases like these.

Experts have told us. Experts have proven. Experts predict. We have become so accustomed to hearing these phrases and reading these phrases that we don't realize what we're engaging with. When you hear these phrases, experts have proven.

Experts have told us. Experts predict. You must understand that when this is coming from a so-called secular perspective, which secularism is a myth, doesn't exist, there's always a God being worshiped.

When you hear these phrases, you are receiving priestly unctions and prophetic oracles of a pagan religion. Do not be deceived. Do not be deceived. Being pagan in origin, these predictions are predictably despairing of life, confident in men, and horribly wrong.

The Boston Globe reported in 1970 that the Ice Age would begin in the year 2000. I don't remember year 2000. I don't know if it was cold or not, but in 1978, it was reported by the New York Times there was no end in sight of the 30-year cooling trend.

In the year 2000, it was reported in the United Kingdom that children will not know what snow is. In 2008, ABC ran a special in which they were very fearful and confident that Manhattan would be underwater by 2015, if only.

Throughout the 2000s, we were told that the Arctic would be completely ice-free by the experts. And if you deny this, then you're a science hater, science denier, truth hater. The Arctic will be ice-free in 2013, no way.

2014, no way. 2015, no way. 2018, then they gave up. Sounds like these rapture prediction people. Sell a new book every 10 years because, oh, now, now, now it's gonna happen. In 1966, we were told that the oil would be gone in 10 years by the experts.

Well, in 1977, the Department of Energy declared that the oil would peak in the 1990s. And in 1996, it was declared that oil was gonna peak in 2020. How much stock are you really putting in the experts?

The experts have proven. The experts predict. The experts tell us. Joseph Stalin's science advisor, Trofim Lysenko, knew how to work the system. He was a talented flatterer, but he was, indeed, the leading expert in his field of agriculture.

He was a leading expert. His word was like gospel, and he believed that plants, just like good communists, could be educated. You laugh now, but the things the experts say now are equally insane. Plants can be educated.

Peas and wheat can be trained to grow in winter. And also salute, right? The Soviet Ministry of Agriculture then acted upon Lysenko's bogus theories and managed to ruin crops all over Eurasia and starve as many as 10 million people.

Don't forget that later his ideas influenced agricultural policy in Mao's China, and many million more died because the experts have proven. Also remember the experts have told us that unborn babies are not humans, and that murdering them is social justice.

Now, why do we believe the experts? Well, often, often, the words of men touch upon our fear of death, and we often give them much more credence than we should. The end, the end sells. The end sells and sells and sells.

But rather being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, either Christian doctrine or pagan doctrine, we must sail true by faith, by God's wisdom. I've taken the title for this next multi-part sermon from Matthew 11, verses 16 through 19.

Jesus says, but to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions and saying, we played the flute for you, and you did not dance. You ever wonder where the expression didn't dance to his tune came from?

Came from Jesus. And saying, we played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We mourned to you, and you did not lament. He's saying, this generation is like a bunch of children playing games in the marketplace, and they say, let's play a wedding, and they play their tune, and like, why aren't you dancing with us?

And let's play funeral, let's all be sad now. Why won't you play with us? Why won't you do what we're doing? Jesus says, John did not come, came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, oh, he has a demon.

The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, look, a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. But wisdom is justified by her children. Wisdom is not justified by public opinion.

Wisdom is not justified by the games that men play. Wisdom is proven over time through the lives of those who fear God. As we see in Daniel 2, God exposes the folly of these children in the marketplace.

He exposes the folly of the experts who always expect others to dance or lament according to their fancy. Here's the thought for chapter two of Daniel. The wisdom of God alone makes sense of his world.

The wisdom of God alone makes sense of his world. Man in his wisdom may observe this or that about God's world, but the wisdom of God alone makes sense of his world. Okay, so chapter two, verses one through 13, we're considering fools in their folly.

Notice verse one again. Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. I wanna clarify a couple of illuminating points here in this first verse.

One is historical, the other grammatical. The historical note is this. Second year of Nebuchadnezzar. Wait, we just read Daniel chapter one, and Daniel and his friends completed a three-year education course.

How do they complete a three-year education course and Nebuchadnezzar is now in his second year of reigning, and Daniel and his friends are counted among the wise men of Babylon? How does that math work?

Well, Nebuchadnezzar was a family name, and the son actually reigned with the father during a two-year transitional period. Plus, it was common to not count the first year of a reign, calling it his sessional year, and so only after he had gotten to the first day of the first full year, calendar year, would you start counting.

So anyway, in that math, there's plenty of time for a three-year education of Daniel and his friends to occur before this timeframe with Nebuchadnezzar. Now the grammatical. The very first word in the verse should be some kind of conjunction.

I have the word now. Then would work well, but it's there in the Hebrew. There's a coordinating conjunction between chapter one and chapter two, and back then, Daniel didn't stop with chapter one and then crack his knuckles and then write chapter two and then get going.

He's just writing, inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He's writing through the end of chapter one. He's still writing into chapter two. So there's a connection here. There is a continuance of thought here.

We're told at the end of chapter one that Daniel and his friends are gifted in wisdom, tenfold, 10 times better than the others. Well, how's that going to manifest? What is that gonna look like? Well, we see that now.

We're gonna see that happen in chapter two. We're gonna see Daniel tenfold in wisdom compared to the rest of the experts in Babylon. Also, we're told at the end of chapter one that Daniel continued to the first year of King Cyrus, which means he outlasted all of Babylon and King Darius the Mede.

And we're also going to then consider in chapter two and following how continuing, how staying alive for that long in a pagan monarchy was nothing short of miraculous. The fact that Daniel, having as much prestige and authority and focus, was able to last from one king to the next within the same monarchy.

Not only that, but also last from the transition from one empire to the next empire. That's the hand of God. That is the grace of God. So, there is a connection between chapter one and chapter two. We're still gonna see the work of God and the life of Daniel.

And we also need to recognize that God is doing something here. When we read that Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was troubled, it wasn't that Nebuchadnezzar had never had a dream before, but he had something happen to him that was unlike anything else that ever happened before and it drove him nuts.

God is at work. God is doing something here. Nebuchadnezzar is sleeping in his royal bed, secure in his royal city, fortified behind legendary wealth, walls, and warriors. But then dreams lay siege to his mind and all of his sleep flees in terror.

His solace is left in ruins and his confidence has been burnt to the ground. His spirit was troubled. Exact same word used of Pharaoh in Genesis 41 before Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dream. What trouble?

What's the trouble? Why is he so troubled? It's just a dream. The word trouble in the Hebrew is often used to communicate getting pushed around, being impelled or disturbed. What happens here in Daniel chapter two, verse one?

God kicks in the front door of Nebuchadnezzar's mind. He roughs him up and slaps him around and leaves him fearfully gasping for breath on the floor. Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar had a similar experience.

Suddenly, suddenly this world's current ruler, suddenly he knows he's not safe. Suddenly he realizes he's not in charge of everything. It's like someone wrestled with him all night long and he wakes wanting to know his name.

God has got a hold of Nebuchadnezzar and he's going to do something with him. What God does here is create opportunity to humble men and magnify his name. Particularly this Nebuchadnezzar, remember, who had taken from the Lord's temple, stolen the holy vessels and took them like trophies to his treasure house of his own God and put them there to say, ha, I defeated the God of Israel.

Well, the God of Israel has come knocking and you're in trouble. When God shakes up world leaders, he's humbling them. He's humbling them and showing no, no, you don't have it all planned. No, no, you don't have it all together.

You don't get to do what you want. It's always disturbing when God goes idle toppling. And it's a moment like that when we have to wonder how anchored are we to Christ? How anchored are we? Where is our security?

God shakes him up and he is showing that he is Lord over empires and emperors. Now, in verses two through four, we have a scene of trusting the experts. Verses two through four, this is what the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams.

So they came and stood before the king and the king said to them, I have had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the dream. Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic. Oh, king live forever, tell your servants the dream and we will give the interpretation.

Nebuchadnezzar wastes no time in calling for the experts. There is a crisis in the state. The chief mind is in disarray. The experts must come and they must solve the problem. And who does Nebuchadnezzar turn to?

Magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, Chaldeans. Of course, a Chaldean was a Babylonian, but this word Chaldean means a Chaldean of Chaldeans. The arbiter of all things invented in Chaldea. And these were the chief men and they spoke for all the others as we'll see in the text.

So these are all the leading men. They are the best experts that the empire has to offer. And they were accustomed to interpreting not only dreams, but visions and oracles and omens. They said that they could read the stars and contact the dead.

They could receive special hidden information that nobody else had access to. I got handouts on the back table underneath the map if you're interested in July, we're going to be going through a series about pagan wordcraft.

And we're going to be talking about some of these lists in the Bible that we have, prohibitions against magicians and astrologers and sorcerers and things like that. And we sometimes look at those lists and we say, yeah, they had that problem back then, didn't they?

So anyway, we're going to talk about beginning in July, Lord willing, on Sunday nights, we're going to talk about how those things are still live and engaging our world today and how they are still sins and we need to identify them and repent of them.

Okay, moving on. There are the experts. There are two parts to experts. First, is there special access to information that only they can collate and understand? Well, that's true. I'm an expert in the field of whatever.

I have special access to information that only I can collate and understand. Second, is there a unique ability, therefore, to solve all the problems that they discover? This is not so much the case. Now, this works really, really well when the predicted disaster, which was not going to happen, is solved by the prescribed solution, which was only a placebo.

And they get paid and their client feels secure. Now, these were probably not all, I don't think they were all cynical con men, but I think there are many true believers in witchcraft, sorcery, and demonology, for sure.

But in any case, they sought to understand the most important, most complex issues of the day without fearing the Lord, the maker of all things. That we're going to understand all things without fearing the maker of all things.

And since the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, you might say that when it comes to truth, these fools didn't know where to start. Yes, they collated some facts. Yes, they could do algebra.

Yes, they could prescribe medicinal plants for certain ailments. But they couldn't give an account for any of it. They couldn't make sense of it. But what do they say to the king? Oh, king, live forever.

That's what we're here for. Right, that's what the experts were there for. They were there to ensure the stability, the health, and the power of the state. Yes, Nebuchadnezzar, your father, Nebuchadnezzar is dead.

Long live Nebuchadnezzar, right? Oh, king, live forever. Oh, state, there's no end to our empire. That's what we're here for. The experts are there to ensure the longevity, indeed, the eternality of the state.

With these kinds of experts, they say, with us around, no worries. No worries. But they did know they had to keep the king happy. But when they say, oh, king, live forever, he just had a dream where it was obvious he was not going to live forever.

He saw the dream. He had some inkling of what it might mean, but he was scared and confused and wanted to know what this dream was about. He needed somebody to tell him. And it was clear that he wasn't going to live forever.

Neither would his empire. Well, God had sent the dream. God had given Nebuchadnezzar power. God had made Babylon his ascendant instrument of judgment for that time period. And God had created this world that these experts studied and tried to manipulate.

But in that room, notice there was not a single God-fearing man among them. And so what we have here is the scene of absolute, even comical, futility. Consider what we're left with when we do not fear God.

Consider what we're left with when we don't fear God. We don't have his word. If we're not being led by his spirit, we have nothing that we can trust. We have no idea. If we don't trust the scripture, if we have no idea of its content, if we are prayerless, if we are pointless in our lives, if we are cut off from God, what is there?

It's the chaos of Babel. Isaiah 8, verses 19 to 20 says, "'And when they say to you, "'seek those who are mediums and wizards "'who whisper and mutter, "'should not a people seek their God? "'Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?

"'To the law and to the testimony. "'If they do not speak according to this word, "'it is because there is no light in them.'". Consider what we're left with when we don't fear the Lord and go to his word.

Left with nothing. Godless experts. Well, he was accustomed to trusting the experts, but now we see Nebuchadnezzar, something has changed in him. Perhaps the force of the dream. Perhaps the fact that the dream scared him to death and here are his experts placating him, "'Oh, king, live forever.'.

And he's thinking, "'These guys don't know what's going on.'". Perhaps it was his interview with Daniel and his friends wherein these four young Hebrew lads, having refused his food for three years and came out untainted from his three-year re-education camp.

These four young Jewish lads who were tenfold better in wisdom and skill and understanding and knowledge compared to all of the experts of his realm. Maybe that destabilized his trust in his experts. And so now he tests them to see if their claims are really true.

Verse five, the king answered and said to the Chaldeans, "'My decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces and your houses will be made an ash heap.

However, if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore, tell me the dream and its interpretation.'. They answered again and said, "'Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will give its interpretation.'.

The king answered and said, "'I know for certain that you had gained time because you see that my decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you, for you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the time has changed.

Therefore, tell me the dream and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation.'". The Nebuchadnezzar is not happy with his board of directors. You can tell, there's some tension in the room. "'Didn't you get the memo?' he's saying.

"'Look at verse two. Tell me my dreams. Tell me my dreams. Not just interpret my dreams, tell me my dreams. That's what I ordered you here for.'". He obviously, he's obviously one that believes that with a proper motivation, his team will achieve whatever benchmarks he sets for them.

So he says, "'Fail to tell me my dream and interpret it and I'll have you butchered and your houses burnt. But tell me the dream and interpret it and you'll get promoted with a bonus.'". He's motivating his team.

"'But these experts are not accustomed to having to go gather their own straw to make their bricks. And so they stupidly repeat their original request. You tell us the dream and then we'll tell you the interpretation.

That's how it works.'". So in verse five and in verse eight, Nebuchadnezzar is firm. He challenges his experts and he accuses them. He says, "'You're stalling. You're stalling. If you expect me to believe your interpretation of dreams, you better prove it by telling to me the dream itself.

And if you can't, you're a bunch of con artists. You're trying to scam me. God is busting up the ruling power. God is bringing confusion and chaos.'". Notice he's breaking down the communication and he's breaking up the cohesion again in Babel.

And we laugh at our incoherent chief executive but this is God's judgment when he makes fools foolish. He also humbled our previous chief executive, didn't he? God humbles the proud, doesn't he? He resists the proud and he makes very foolish those who are fools.

Now I see an opportunity here. I hope you see the opportunity as well. In the ensuing loss of faith in the experts, we have a God-created, God-given opportunity for a turning to his wisdom, a turning to his word, shaking loose the faith in the experts.

Ah, well, who can we believe? Who can we trust? You can turn back to the Lord, repentance. The wisdom of God alone makes sense of his world. Look at Babylon, what a horrible place, a place of fear and helplessness and brutality, a truly pagan place.

These diviners must produce interpretation for the king if not outright revelation. They just got to make it up. And should they fail in that, they know their patronage and their lives will fail as well.

So they have a very strong motive to simply develop and disseminate whatever will keep them wealthy, healthy, and alive. And Abba Genezer begins to suspect that there is some falsehood and some deviousness at work in his experts, some phoniness.

And this destabilization of trust makes for an opportunity. Now, Nebuchadnezzar, you could say, well, he's young and he's full of unreasonableness and he's angry, he's demanding something that is absolutely impossible.

I mean, the experts are right when they tell him, no man alive can do this for you. You know, this is impossible, you're asking too much. And we could say, well, yeah, Nebuchadnezzar's kind of flying off the handle, kind of going overboard here, isn't he?

Well, in one sense, yes, but in another sense, no. Because his experts for so long have been promoting themselves and wanting him to depend on them as the sources of revelation. And so he puts it to the test and they can't pass that test.

Experts will always fail the test when they make themselves the whole of revelation. Our hope is not in pagan experts. And as God exposes their folly and futility, so should we. High priest Fauci is a little irritated.

Apparently, some people have begun to question his integrity as we have been mocking his consistency. But this last week in an interview, I'm not making this up, he defended himself by declaring that he was the way, the truth, and the science.

Attacks against me are attacks against science, against the truth is what he said. He has declared himself the way, the truth, and the science, and all men who oppose him hate life, spirit of Antichrist.

Recognize it. Well, the king turns on the experts in verses 10 through 13. The Chaldeans answered the king and said, there is not a man on earth who can tell the king's matter, therefore no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean.

It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. For this reason, the king was angry and very furious and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.