Daniel 4 | Daniel's Big Idea

Lord God, we come to you in submission to your will. There are times where it seems that the world is in control, but you are sovereign.

And as we study in the book of Daniel, we see the sovereignty of God over all things.

We are charged, we are charged to be salt and light in the world, but at the end of the day, you are the sovereign

God. We seek after you, we seek your wisdom, for in it is truth. We pray for your word today, in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Sometimes the rulers of the world in the political realm are known.

You know who the president of Russia is, Putin. Ukraine, Zelensky. America's got

Biden in the presidency. But sometimes there are leaders who behind the scenes are influencing and in many ways exerting authority.

One of those would be Klaus Schwab, who you've heard of, the leader of the World Economic Forum.

He has a little minion that is sort of like his right -hand man, whose name is Harari.

Harari this last week in an interview said that with the advent of AI, there will finally be a superhuman intelligence to give us a book, a holy scripture, that is actually correct.

So this was a direct, head -on attack against the true word of God, which does come from supernatural higher intelligence.

So you don't believe that the song they just put out with the Beatles by AI is really a

Beatles song? I didn't hear about that one. They just released the latest

Beatles on AI. It was done by AI, yes. Wow. Well, it's a brave new world, isn't it?

Yes. Oh, yes. And it would be, well, that's, I'm so glad you just said that, scary.

It would be scary if we didn't know that the same

God that could change Nebuchadnezzar's heart and break through the most willful, stubborn, wicked heart on earth.

I mean, think about the wickedness of Nebuchadnezzar. What did he do just in the previous chapter that we studied?

He burned up. He put them in the furnace. He built a furnace and an idol, and if anybody wouldn't worship the idol, he would throw them in a furnace.

Can you get more wicked than that? That is pretty well the definition of wickedness, just like Yuval Harari.

So God actually is sovereign, even over the most wicked human hearts on the planet.

Some people have taught, and this is essentially Arminian theology, that the sovereign, the final arbiter in terms of human destination is the human will.

The human will. Everybody should acknowledge that God is sovereign, but people also assert that man has free will, and what happens if these two run headlong into one another?

Which one is finally decisive? That is the question between the Calvinist and the

Arminian. It cannot be both because ultimately there's only one that's sovereign in that particular headlong collision, head -on collision.

The quiet part of the Arminian theology was stated loudly by someone named

Stephen Furtick. Stephen Furtick said, there is one thing that God cannot do.

He cannot override your unbelief. Ultimately, in that scheme, if someone's will resisting the

Holy Spirit does not want to do the things of God, God cannot do differently.

Now, what is the teaching of Scripture? John 6, 44. We saw it again in John 14.

Cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Again and again, just as in Romans 8, 7 and 8, there is something that cannot be done.

It is man cannot please God. Does that mean he can't say no to God?

You're putting me on the spot right now, brother. No, we agree. God is sovereign. Man will say no to God.

If man says no to God, God has the sovereignty to say, okay.

He could, yes. He could absolutely. If someone says no, and it is within man's ability to say no to God, we agree.

Correct, correct. Because people do resist God's will. In fact, I'll take it a step farther. In agreement with John, it is man's nature to say no to God.

That's part of the sinful fault. A slave to sin, a child of Satan, John chapter eight will say no to God.

That is the natural state of fallen man. They are dead in sin and they do resist his will.

That's their natural. Yeah, God just said, okay, Pharaoh. Correct. He says he hardened his heart, but his heart was hardened and God allowed him to go down that path.

Yeah, and that is sovereign. Correct. The judicial hardening, when God judicially hardened somebody, they themselves, he's not taking someone who's saying, save me, save me,

I want to be saved. And God says, no, you will be hard and die. It's not that. The natural wicked moral state of man is to resist

God's will. It is to say no to God. Correct. Here's what he should not say.

What Stephen Furtick said, and what Arminian theology says, there's something that God cannot do.

He cannot override your unbelief. Do you want to know an example of God overriding unbelief?

Daniel chapter four. Let's go. Did you know

I had that planned the whole time? My introductions obviously come from the main thing.

The way John and I study in scripture and preach is to spend time doing exegesis of the text.

And that pericope will give to you the main idea of what the author wants to communicate.

It's our responsibility to communicate that. And the preacher does bridge the world of the scripture to the world in which we live, no matter the time.

So we make application of those things, but we're only saying what the scripture says in human illustrations of today.

Does that make sense? So that's the point. There is a point of Daniel four.

And this particular pericope, I could not break up into smaller sections because it really functions as a unit, the fourth chapter.

So we're going to go through the whole fourth chapter. And this chapter is the big idea of Daniel the book.

This is the point. The big idea of the book of Daniel is the sovereignty of God.

John taught an entire lesson on this so well, did an amazing job over all human history.

All human history. As seen in the ease with which God directs even the most willful and wicked of human hearts.

He easily overrides Nebuchadnezzar's unbelief.

The most wicked and most powerful king in the world, he turns his heart like a watercourse.

The scripture says God can turn the heart of a king like a watercourse. And we're about to see him do it. So today, instead of having a lot of subtext to read, because we have so much territory to cover, we're going to go around the room and just read

Daniel four, 37 verses. And I'll comment as we go. How's that sound? That sounds better to tell for Jeff.

Better to tell for Jeff, right. Yes, verse by verse, verse by verse, let's go. Daniel chapter four, verse one.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of all the peoples, nations, and men of every language that live in all the earth, may your peace abound.

I'm glad your translation had it as Nebuchadnezzar coming first. Nebuchadnezzar, the king. The idea here is to emphasize his sovereignty.

He is the king. He's the sovereign over the land. And he is directing the peoples, the nations, the languages that dwell in, note this word, all, all the earth.

The idea here is that the Babylonian kingdom, having replaced Assyria as the world power, is now the power over all the earth.

Now, of course, that wouldn't, they wouldn't really know Japan. And they wouldn't know the United, what is now the United States of America.

They wouldn't know North America. But as far as the known world, there was none that could stand against this empire.

It had dominion over anything it wanted. It had gone as far as Egypt.

And really, the dominant power, so when it says in all the earth, the idea here is dominion.

It's the empire. And he says, peace be multiplied to you. Candy versus two and three?

Yeah. First of all, everything you've said about Nebuchadnezzar, the fact that he would say peace to you, in and of itself is ironic.

Yeah. Man of peace, right? Yes. As long as you do what I tell you. Otherwise, the peace means you're at peace in a fiery furnace.

Yes, right. All right. Verses two and three. It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the most high

God has done for me. How great are his signs, but how mighty his wonders.

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

Okay, so that is a powerful statement. And you're gonna see it at least three major places in chapter four.

So it's the restatement of it that clues in the reader that this is the point, okay?

The point of the book is to say that it's God's kingdom, not Nebuchadnezzar's, not

Babylon, but God's kingdom that is sovereign. It is the everlasting, it has dominion.

And here it is Nebuchadnezzar himself that confesses it.

You think that was part of God's plan? No, sure. To put these words into the mouth of the most powerful man on earth.

And prior to this chapter, he's still wicked. Now, what's happening here is he's writing a letter after something occurs to him.

It's really a seven -year ordeal that he's gonna go through. And he's now prefacing the telling of that by writing a letter to all the people.

He is publishing the news. It's amazing. Can you imagine this, that Israel was sent into captivity and the king then sent the message of Yahweh throughout all of the land?

Anybody who believes in Yahweh will be saved. So Israel was a lighthouse to the nations.

The creation of the nation Israel, beginning in Genesis 12 and culminating in the rest of the book of Genesis, as the tribes are born from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was to mediate blessing to the world.

They are the lighthouse to the nations. They have the true God, whereas all the surrounding gods are nothing but idols.

And here in the captivity, they're brought into captivity and that light is sent to the ends of the earth.

I think it is a picture of the missionary heart of God that will come to fruition in the new covenant.

When rather than a magnet for the nations, like the queen of Sheba to come see Solomon, this lighthouse in the center of the world, in the missionary mandate of the great commission, we will have

God's heart for the nations explicitly go and tell, go into all the earth.

Instead of come and see, it will become go and tell, but you're seeing pictures of it even here. This gospel, this good news of Yahweh is being published to the ends of the earth, yeah.

Is the one through four, are these the words of Nebuchadnezzar?

Yes, amazingly, yeah. Oh, okay, but there's no quotes or anything.

They're not saying, Nebuchadnezzar said, or, oh, it's intended, she says.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't Daniel talking about Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar talked about.

Well, look at the pro, in the Hebrew, things like quotations and stuff like that don't exist, so the writing, the intent of this is

I, Nebuchadnezzar, and saying this to all the people is the implication these are his words in a letter to all the people.

Right, and when you get to verse four, it becomes explicit, because he'll identify the I, Nebuchadnezzar, but in verses two and three, the pronoun there, me, you have to follow the pronouns in order to get to who's speaking.

Yeah, so in verses two and three, it seemed good to me, and then in verse four,

I, Nebuchadnezzar, yeah, so you'll learn it at that point, yeah. All right, so let's do that. Verses four and five.

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house and flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

Okay, consider the contrast. Sugarplums? Sugarplums, yeah. Well, the idea there, he's at rest.

Janet, what version is that? New King James. New King James, he's at rest. ESV says at ease.

Then it follows with prosperity. The idea here is he's just resting at ease and prosperity.

He is, he has no worry in the world. He's fine, everything is good.

He's on top of the mountain. He's the king of kings in the land, all is well.

Job, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Here in just a night's sleep, the peace departs from him, and all of a sudden, he still has everything, but he's completely ridden with anxiety.

He says, I saw a dream that made me afraid. Fear grips him, and we don't get from the sense of this that it's like, oh, you know, you wake up in a little night terror, and then you shake it off by the time you go to the bathroom.

The idea here is he's gripped by, I became afraid as I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me.

Whatever he saw, just like the first time this happened to him, remember? That when he was, it troubled him so much, he called all the astrologers.

He knows that this is something significant, and he is alarmed, that's the word.

It alarmed me, make sense? The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. He's just totally lost his peace.

Okay, Barbara, if you would read six to nine. So I commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be brought before me to interpret the dream for me.

When the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners came, I told them the dream, but they could not interpret it for me.

Finally, Daniel came into my presence, and I told him the dream. He called Belteshazzar after the name of my

God, and the spirit of the holy gods is in him. I said, Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians,

I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no mystery is too difficult for you.

Here is my dream, interpret it for me. Isn't this ironic? Nebuchadnezzar is very hard -hearted.

He is very willful, because he's been down this road before. Earlier on, he had this troubling, alarming dream, and something clicked in his mind.

My astrologers, and my enchanters, and my Chaldeans, these guys are a fraud. I'm gonna make them tell me what

I dream before they give me the interpretation. But then along comes Daniel, who actually is able to do that by the spirit of Yahweh alone.

And instead of submitting to Yahweh as the only sovereign, what does he do? He clearly has reverted back to his old ways.

He still has magicians, and enchanters, and Chaldeans, and he considers them useful, helpful guides.

In fact, he's even forgotten his earlier revelation, which is that these guys could just be totally making stuff up.

In the past, he would make them tell what the dream is before they interpret it. Here, he tells them the dream, and says, what's the interpretation?

Now, they can't even do that. They're so impotent, they can't even come up with a good, believable story.

Which is just another little piece of the sovereignty of God that these wise guys, wise men, their mouths were shut.

They were shut. They would have, but God said no. Like they couldn't even think of something believable.

In the past, they were more prideful, and more quick with their tongue. And next thing you know, now they're just completely rendered impotent.

And yet, the point here, though, is the king is reverting to his old ways. Remember, he's already confessed the sovereignty of God earlier in the book, and then he built an idol.

And he's back to his old ways. He's got his magicians, just the gods of the land. He's back to his old ways.

He's hard -hearted, and can God really break this hard heart? That's the question.

I mean, this guy has all the power in the world, and he's as wicked as the day is long.

He's back to his old ways. What's gonna happen? And what he says here later, he called on Daniel.

Again, consider the grace of God. This isn't the first time. He's already seen

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come through the fiery furnace. What more is it gonna take to change this man's heart, and to cause him to believe in the sovereignty of God, Yahweh, over everything?

Not just a God amongst many. What's gonna change him? Well, at last, Daniel came in before me.

He who was named Belteshazzar, after the name of my God. What does that say?

He's still trusting in his God. Yeah, and when does he tell this story? When is he writing this to the people?

After the fact. After the fact, yeah. It could very well be from this evidence that even when

God forces him to confess, as we see at the end of Daniel 4, he's still not getting it.

And so there's debate between scholars. Is Nebuchadnezzar gonna be in heaven? Guess who knows that?

We'll leave that up to God. Yes, let God be the judge of all the earth. There's some indication here that he's only seeing

Belteshazzar as being one among the gods, and he's named after this other God. Or he could simply be here reminding us that earlier on, he considered

Daniel just another guy and named him after his God. And then the culmination is at the end of the book, where he's saying, forget all the other gods, this is the one true

God. This is something that troubles me. Our neighbor across the street is constantly complaining about the wickedness in the world, which is really great.

Yeah. But it's a matter of power. An awful lot of things have to do with retaining your own power.

Okay. And I think his mindset, from where he was comfortable and prosperous there, came from his previous idols and wishes and things like that.

When put to the test, he had to admit God was real. Yeah. But to fall back into,

I've seen it a hundred times. Falling back, yeah. Sadly, we've seen it so many times, haven't we?

Just over the years, all of us. Just people that we thought had gotten it, and then they fall back. And of course, 1

John tells us that shows that they never really were of us. In other words, we didn't judge perfectly that this was truly a saved person, because we don't know.

We don't know who genuinely is saved. We have enough indication to know them by their fruit and make judgements and treat people that way, but we're not infallible in that knowledge.

So here, he's recognizing that Daniel can do what the others can't.

Chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you. That's kind of where he's at at the moment, in this occurrence.

No mystery is too difficult for you. Tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation.

Think God can do it? Carol, do you want to read 10 to 12? Sure. While I was lying in my bed, this is what

I dreamed. I saw a large tree in the middle of the earth. The tree grew very tall and strong, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see.

It had fresh green leaves, and it was loaded with fruit for all to eat. Wild animals lived in its shade, and birds nested in its branches.

All the world was fed from this tree. Okay. So clearly, this is a picture of his ease and prosperity.

The flowering of the world, the tree is just a shelter for the birds, and it is just providing food, and everything is beautiful and easy and prosperous.

And then, verse 13 to 18. Okay. And I saw in the visions of my head, as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven.

He proclaimed out loud, said to us, chop down the tree, lop off its branches, strip off its leaves, scatter its fruit.

Let the beasts flee from under it, and the birds from its branches, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a hand of iron and bronze.

Amid the tender grass of the field, let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth.

Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him.

The sentence is by decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end, that the living may know that the

Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he wills, and sets over it to the lowliest of men.

This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw, and you, O Beth -sagir, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able for the spirit of the holy

God, God is in you. Interesting. So the vision takes a dark turn.

But it's actually the watchers, the holy ones who come. Much has been studied and talked about with regard to who are these watchers.

There's a scholar named Michael Heiser who's brought out a lot of capital from this. I don't think that the point of the text here is really angelology per se.

I don't think that God here is wanting us to speculate on what the counsel is that surrounds

God. All that I think is meant here is that these are created beings that are not human.

These are angels, if you use it in the broader sense, that some kind of non -human, sentient being that's conscious and very powerful.

It's some kind of angel that God sends into the situation.

So the arrival of this watcher is in verse 13. A watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven.

What does watcher imply? Somebody who can observe. Observe. Somebody who can see.

Somebody who can see. Do you think there's angels that can see us right now? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Do you think that all of those angels in that sense are good angels or are some foe?

Foe. There's a world that we can't see that can see us.

There is an angelic spiritual realm and we have to be aware of that.

I think through the enlightenment in our western eyes, a materialistic kind of worldview, we forget that.

That there are, in fact, angels and demons. Aren't watchers referred to in the book of Enoch?

Yes, and there's a lot of debate as to how authentic what we currently have in our English translation, which comes from a

Mormon publishing company in Utah. I think you refer to it. Yeah. What's that? Jude, does he refer?

Yeah, Jude does, yeah. He refers to Enoch, yeah. Yeah, so who these watchers are.

My point is I don't think we should go too far down the lane of speculating on those things, but we are to be aware that these watchers exist.

They can see what's going on. They have a purpose that God. But see, the bigger idea, we don't want to miss this. God is sovereignly dispatching this angel, this watcher.

Because he's going to change things. And in verse 14, he proclaims aloud and said thus, chop down the tree.

Wow, wow, humble the prideful. Who is the sovereign here?

It is not the tree. The tree God allowed to grow and for those purposes.

Yes, he was causing the earth to prosper in many ways. Even though he's a wicked man, because of the empire, there are benefits that came.

You see that also in the Roman empire. As wicked as it was, you have the Pax Romana. You have Rhodesville, you have peace.

Very often that can happen. But it's actually God doing it for whatever his purpose is.

We study this at length in Isaiah chapter 10, when God would wield the kingdom of Assyria for his purpose, even though the king himself did not so intend in his heart.

You have this parallel, invisible world and what's happening visibly, running in tandem for different purposes.

God is doing one thing while the empire has its own purpose. And the Roman Bruins allowed the spread of the gospel.

Yeah, that was God's purpose. Yeah, he was paving the way for the gospel. Joe? Yes.

At the end of verse 18. Yes. For the spirit of the holy gospel is in you.

Yeah. Nebuchadnezzar recognizing that. Is that referring to the angels or the

Holy Spirit? I think it's more of that nebulous idea that God is with the angel.

Is he recognizing God's presence? Yeah, but see, again, it's not. But he says the God. Yeah.

Again, even here, he's not confessing the true God. So, and maybe that's just him at the time.

You know, when he hasn't yet come to the full understanding because Daniel hasn't even given the answer yet. Yes, Bob? In that part, he was talking about the destruction of the tree.

If there's any question with regard to what he's talking about, he uses the word him at the bottom, at the middle of verse 15.

Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven. Right, yeah. Goes from the inanimate to the animate. Right, right, right.

And stuff after that isn't very happy either. Right, yeah. Well, put yourself in Daniel's shoes.

I guess. Yeah, well, just saying that, well, during this time too, God's had specific purposes there.

Some for rain, some for war, some for, and so part of the thinking that's happening there is, as he's saying the

God's, this particular God, Yahweh, is really good at interpreting dreams. This God is really good about, you know,

I mean, that's what he's saying. That's where he's at in this point in the text. Yeah, right. It's more of an action than it is the understanding the presence of a holy

God. Yeah, he's the supreme God. So there's a, at this point in time, there still seems to be a struggle within Nebuchadnezzar because in verse 17, he acknowledges the watcher's decree.

He says, to the end of the living may know that thee most high. Thee, yeah. Okay, but at the end of it, he comes back to,

I know you are for the spirit of the holy gods. So he's still struggling with an acknowledgment.

That's right. Rod, would you read for us verse 19? Yes. Then Daniel, whose name is

Belteshazzar, was appalled for a while as his thoughts alarmed him. The king responded and said,

Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation alarm you. Belteshazzar replied, my lord, if only the dream applied to those who hate you and its interpretation to your adversaries.

Just stop there. Can you imagine what Daniel has to say to the most powerful man on the earth? Sir, good news and bad news.

Yeah. The good news is bad. Yeah. This is tough, but it requires courage.

When you have a situation where you have to say hard things to a family member, somebody close to you, a friend, somebody you don't want to say it.

It is so much easier for you to shade the truth, but it takes courage.

Now, here's the thing. Truth -telling means that you are speaking for the benefit of the other.

If you want to do what's best for your own comfort, then you'll shade the truth.

Think about that for a second. If you're willing to say the hardest things, that's for the good of others.

You care about others. But if you're not willing to say hard things, that means you're really only caring about yourself, making your life easier.

Now, ultimately, it's not for your good, by the way. Your good would be to tell the truth and then to have eternal reward for being on the side of truth.

But here, I love Daniel's heart because he softens it by the sense of saying, I don't want this to be what

I have to tell you. I'm not delighting in what I'm about to say. I wish this was about your enemies,

King, and not about you. But look, he has the courage to say it. So, 20 to 26, Rich, will you do it?

20 to 26, oh, okay. The tree you saw, which grew and became strong so that its top reached to the heavens, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which the beasts of the field found shade, and in those branches the birds of the air lived.

It is you, oh, King, who have grown and become strong.

Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth, and because the king saw and watched a watcher, a holy one.

He saw a watcher. A watcher, yes. Coming down from heaven and saying, chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump and its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him.

This is the interpretation of King. It is a decree of the most high, which has come upon my lord, the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling will be with the beasts of the field.

You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the most high rules the kingdom of men, and give it to whom he will.

Capitalized. Yeah. And as it is commanded, as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that heaven rules.

And there in two words is a summary of the main idea of the book of David. Until you know that heaven rules.

Heaven rules. Stated elsewise here, the most high rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will.

It's God who's on the throne. Nebuchadnezzar didn't understand that, because he thought he was the tree, and he was the top, but yeah, it was

God. How far into the future is Daniel himself able to see? I mean, he's being given prophecy from God.

Yeah. But it's curious to know. Well, okay. How's the story? So in different instances, he sees farther, but it's always according to the spirit of revelation given in that prophecy.

So the farthest that we know he saw is in Daniel 9, 24 to 27. He actually sees 483 years, and then there's a gap, and he even sees the last seven years of this world.

And in Daniel 12, three, he sees the resurrection of the dead. So I think he sees the very end.

And I'm thinking in terms of what he knows about Nebuchadnezzar. Oh, in this particular vision?

Yeah, I mean, this isn't very practical for him. Can he see what's going to happen to Nebuchadnezzar eventually?

Yes, well, he's seeing the seven years and the restoration of him after that. So yeah, he's seeing for this case, at least the seven years.

Verse 27, he gives him good counsel, and every good counselor should say what this person says.

Unfortunately, most counselors in America today refuse to say this.

Counselors today will affirm you in your sin and tell you that you're good as you are, and God perfectly accepts you just as you are.

You don't need to change. Listen to Daniel. Verse 27, therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you.

Break off your sins, break off your sins by practicing righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may be perhaps a lengthening of your prosperity.

He counseled. Perhaps. Perhaps, it could take a lot. Like the longer you go walking with God, this will not, something is going to trigger this event, and you can stay that.

Of course, God knows in his plan. He's not gonna change God's plan from God's perspective, but here's my counsel to you,

Nebuchadnezzar. Do good and stop sinning. It'll go well for you.

That's what I can tell you. Now, verses 28 to 33. Joyce, would you mind reading this?

From the NIV I have. We accept that. It's the need improvement version, but we do accept it.

The need improvement version. I'm sorry. Well, it has a cultural background. Yeah, I know.

I'm just messing around. It's a good translation. The 2011 TNIV became gender neutral, and that's why

I mock it. You know, like they would take the his and change it to they kind of thing. So, yeah.

There you go. Okay, here we go.

So, instead of saying brothers, it would say brothers and sisters, but the Greek says adelphoi. It doesn't say, yeah.

So, yeah. So, it says, all this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 12 months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, is not this the great

Babylon I have built as the royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?

Even as the words were on his lips, a voice came from heaven. This is what is decreed for you,

King Nebuchadnezzar. Your royal authority has been taken from you. You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals.

You will eat grass like the ox. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the most high is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.

Immediately, what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox.

His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.

He's got these claws, he's got long hair. Before, it was while the word was still in his mouth, is not this

Babylon that I have built, right? The boasting in his pride as the king. While the words are still in his mouth, he's reduced to the state of an animal.

The nails start to grow up in the hair and for seven years, he grazes about eating grass like an ox.

And again, it's stated in verse 32, until you know. You guys catching the thesis of the book of Daniel?

Because it's the repetition again and again. That the most high rules, there's the sovereign.

The sovereign is God, the most high. Over the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

The will of God, Ephesians 111. All things happen according to the counsel of his will.

And that was the context of predestination. But it enlarges it, not just who would be saved, but all things happen according to the counsel of his will.

That's the issue, verse 32. His will. Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar.

He's driven from among men and eats grass like an ox. He's wet with dew, eagle feathers for hair and claws, bird claws for nails.

This poor guy. They were the first dreadlocks. Oh, the first dreadlocks, nice. But he had been warned.

He had been warned. But he's still continuing in that willful, hard, prideful heart.

And it takes this, that's the whole point. God can so easily reduce him to the state of an animal.

And then once he realizes the most high reigns, restore him and restore his kingdom amazingly.

Surprising that they would give him the reigns back after he had acted like an animal for seven years. That's an optic lesson of proper 1618.

Proper 1618. Yeah, go ahead. But aren't they, at least what

I have recently learned in some schools, that if a child wants to identify as a furry animal, they can clearly even behave as a furry animal.

And so, wow, and here in this, the cultural context of this gives plenty of that.

And it says, it actually says here that it's a, there's many scholars say it's a psychological disorder.

It is, yeah. And that identifying as a furry animal, here they are teaching that it's acceptable for a child to think that it's okay.

But we who know the scriptures and are aware that there is another world, how demonic is it when someone thinks that they're a fox?

Right? Yes. There are spiritual forces at play. And there is the judgment of God. God is giving people over in the lust of their flesh to worship and serve created things.

That's a sign of judgment on a culture. When you have large numbers of its youth believing they're the opposite gender or some animal or something like that, that is an indication that people are being given over.

But here's the good news. God can still restore them. And there are many that have come out from that and God can restore them to a right mind.

Let's hear the thesis of the book. I think verses 34 to 37, John and I said this at the beginning, that right from the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar, this is the point of the book of Daniel.

Daniel's big idea stated in, whenever I'm talking about the sovereignty of God, his free will over salvation, that nothing can stay his hand, all of these things are summarized.

I love this verse, this chapter, this section, verses 34 to 37. We don't have any idea how much time took place between 33 and 34, do we?

Seven. Seven. Seven years. Well, it's the end of the days, which implies the seven -year period, yeah.

Yeah, I think, yeah. Sue, if you would. And at the end of the time,

I, Nebuchadnezzar, that bid my eyes to heaven and my understanding return to me, and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever.

For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.

All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

No one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? Wow. At the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me.

My counselors and nobles restored to me. I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and his ways justice, and those who walk in profit.

He is able to put an end to. Wow. Yeah, I think we're gonna see him. Yeah, there's a good sign there.

Yeah. As long as he didn't revert again again. But yeah,

I think that's a pretty clear statement, and the point though of the book is that God puts that in the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar.

God is able to put it in his heart too, and that if he put it in his heart, God knows that he's in heaven, right?

Praise God, he's able to do it. He's able to say it, but look at those words just one last time.

Verse 34, his dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

Back in that generation, it was Nebuchadnezzar, in ours, it's the Klaus Schwab's and the Putin's and the

Zelensky's. Be at ease, because our

God reigns. Our God is still on the throne. He will raise up people, and he will put them down in his time.

We have nothing to fear. We're to do what we can. We're salt and we're light. That's a preservative.

Salt is a preservative. Light is casting out darkness and bringing truth in this dark culture.

So we say what we say, but ultimately, we trust God. How many of you have been fretting about the state of the world and of our country?

Don't fret. If you look at the external evidence, how could you not?

It's a clear trajectory. From Obergefell now to trans, what's next?

Is it children? Is it animals? Is it reverting to the state of an animal? These kind of things.

But God, he is allowing whatever he does for his purposes and for a time.

Ultimately, he's coming back. He will reign forever, and that's the point of Daniel 4.

As bad as it looked there, look how quickly he changed it. Make Nebuchadnezzar an animal for seven years and then cause him to issue a decree that Yahweh is the most high.

It can happen like this for God. It's easy for God. Yeah, what's that? I keep trying to tell Larry. Yeah. I'll let you guys know how the story goes.

Amen. So the reason I raise my hand that I do the prayer. Yeah, God is sovereign, and I know that.

I've read the end of the book. I know how it ends. There's no reason. It's my grandchildren.

And it's my grandchildren's, the influence that the world has.

It's the children that are going to university, even seminary, and the influence on them is

God is sovereign. He is sovereign, but yet you pray with concern. Can you pray for them now and close this and pray for this chapter as well?

Lord God, you are sovereign. Yes. What more can be said? You are sovereign.

But our Lord God, in your design, you allow Satan to have a reign within your bounds.

We know that from the book of Job. So Lord, we do pray that the truth of your word will reach into our hearts, our children's hearts, our grandchildren's hearts, as it took

Nebuchadnezzar to have this amazing punishment laid down on him.

But at the end of it, he does confess. Instead of saying that there are, you are one of the most high gods, you are the most high

God. You are the sovereign God. We pray that although Satan is here, but God is the hope that we hold too.