Introduction to Chapter 4 (Daniel 4:1-9)

Good morning, and welcome to Adult Sunday School at Kootenai Community Church. We'll be looking again into the book of Daniel, and we should be able to start chapter four this morning.

But before we do that, let's open with prayer. Father, this morning, it is your word that we look to for illumination and for encouragement, for blessing, and for correction.

Lord, you have said that every part of your scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, that we might be made whole and able to live a life that you've given to us, to live in glory, to glorify your son, the

Lord Jesus Christ. We ask for that today. Might we honor you in what we hear, and see, and say, and do.

And Lord, might we pay attention and hear the Holy Spirit this morning to guide us into better behavior for your son, the

Lord Jesus Christ. This world needs him, and they don't want him, but we know they need him, and so let us be emissaries of him.

We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. So, let's do a little bit of refresh, review, since I've been enjoying our foray into 1

John with Dave. But it does kind of break things up, and so it's fun to do review, though, because then you get to remember, you get to find out if I say the same things twice.

Actually, I probably won't. I'd probably say a whole bunch of other stuff. But last time we were together, which would have been, oh my,

December 6th, so it was a year ago. That was, that always works.

We looked at the final situation with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as they were, as they survived the furnace, not only survived, but thrived, and the

Lord delivered them from it, and then Nebuchadnezzar caused them, it says in verse 30, to prosper in the province of Babylon.

So the tattletale's designs were to destroy the three men, and what ended up happening is they became high officials in the

Babylonian empire because of their courage, because of their willingness to stand where they might have died.

Remember what the three men said. They said, God may deliver us, but He may not. Now, I'm paraphrasing, but He may not.

But no matter what, we will not bow down. And that is a remarkable thing in the face of death.

And they followed through, and God honored them, and they became great in the kingdom of Babylon.

Now, interestingly enough, as I mentioned last time we were together, this is the last time we hear about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the book of Daniel.

Their story is finished, and has provided encouragement to the Jewish captives that there is still courage in Israel, and there is still those who are willing to stand for the word of God, stand for Jehovah, no matter the cost.

And it would be an encouragement for them to do the same, and it should be an encouragement for us to do the same as well, to stand no matter what.

In this country, there is not the kind of persecution that we see around the world, where people are actually deprived of life, liberty, and property, and food.

And here, we're bad -mouthed on Facebook. And now I know there's others who have had more than that happen to them, but for the most part, that is a test.

It is for us to begin standing for the glory of God, and doing it in a manner that will honor

Him. So as we prepare for this morning, we're going to be looking at chapter four. And what

I would like to do is read the whole chapter to start with, and of course, we won't get anywhere near through the whole chapter.

If we make five verses, we'll be doing wonderful. But let's look at Daniel, chapter four.

Couple of, little bit of information about this before we read. It's going to be interesting to see what many critics have avoided, or have shown great disrespect to.

And that is that it's very possible, very possible, that a pagan wrote this book, this chapter of the

Bible. An unconverted pagan. Do you think God could manage that? Yeah, there's nothing

God can't do. But at any rate, we'll talk about that as we get to it. Nebuchadnezzar, verse one, chapter four. Nebuchadnezzar, the king to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language that live in all the earth.

May your peace abound. It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me.

How great are his signs, and how mighty are his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house, flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream, and it made me fearful.

And these fantasies, as I lay on my bed, and the visions of my mind, kept alarming me. So I gave orders to bring into my presence all the wise men of Babylon, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.

Then the magicians, the conjurers, the Chaldeans, and the diviners came in, and I related the dream to them.

But they could not make its interpretation known to me. Go figure. But finally,

Daniel came in before me, whose name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.

And I related the dream to him, saying, O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no mystery baffles you, tell me the visions of my dream, which

I have seen, along with its interpretation. Now, these were the visions in my mind, as I lay on my bed.

I was looking, and behold, there was a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew large, and became strong, and its height reached to the sky, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.

Its foliage was beautiful, and its fruit abundant. And in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches, and all living creatures fed themselves from it.

I was looking in the visions in my mind, as I lay on my bed, and behold, an angelic watcher, a holy one, descended from heaven.

He shouted out and spoke as follows. Chop down the tree, and cut off its branches.

Strip off its foliage, and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it, and the birds from its branches.

Yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground, but with a band of iron and bronze around it, in the new grass of the field.

And let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth.

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

This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers. And the decision is a command of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the

Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it on whom he wishes, and sets over it the lowliest of men.

This is the dream which I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, tell me its interpretation, inasmuch as none of the wise men of my kingdom is able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for a spirit of the holy gods is in you.

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 answered and said, my lord, if only the dream applied to those who hate you, and its interpretation to your adversaries.

The tree that you saw, which became large and grew strong, whose height reached to the sky and was visible to all the earth, and whose foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under the beasts of the field, under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and in whose branches the birds of the sky lodged, it is you,

O king, for you have become great and grown strong, and your majesty has become great, and reached to the sky, and your dominion to the end of the earth.

And in that, the king saw an angelic watcher, a holy one, descending from heaven and saying, chop down the tree and destroy it, yet leave the stump with its roots in the ground with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field, and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him share with the beasts of the field until seven periods of time pass over him.

This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most high, which has come upon my lord the king, that you be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field, and you be given grass to eat like cattle, and be drenched with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes.

And in that it was commanded to leave the stump with the roots of the tree, your kingdom will be assured to you after you recognize that it is heaven that rules.

Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you. Break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.

All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king. 12 months later, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon.

The king reflected and said, is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?

While the word was in the king's mouth, a voice came from heaven saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared, sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field.

You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind, and he bestows it on whomever he wishes.

Immediately, the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled, and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws.

But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned 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 endures from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth, and among the inhabitants of earth, and no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what hast thou done?

At that time, my reason returned to me, and my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my noblers began seeking me out, so I was reestablished in my sovereignty and surpassing greatness was added to me.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the king of heaven, for all his works are true, and his ways are just, and he is able to humble those who walk in pride.

It's a long chapter. Actually, it's one of the longest in the book of Daniel, and it's the story of God's humbling of the most powerful man alive at the time.

There are certainly many prophetic overtones here, just demonstrating that God is sovereign over all of human history, and that he will eventually subdue all powers to himself, but contrary to critics who claim that this is a myth that was promulgated during the second century

B .C., scholarly investigation clearly supports that this is a true story written either by Nebuchadnezzar himself, or more likely by one of his scribes, or by Daniel, under the direction of the king.

Any one of those three will suffice. God can use, as we know, he can use the rocks to cry out and praise him.

So it was either written by Nebuchadnezzar, or by a scribe of his, or by Daniel, and placed into the scriptures.

The Qumran evidence alone supports this as being a very real chapter in Nebuchadnezzar's life. Now, chapter four and five are the center of a chiasm.

Remember, we talked about what a chiasm is. It's a literary device where something is declared, and then it is declared in reverse, in reverse order.

So the whole book of Daniel is a chiasm. The chapters themselves are often occupied as a chiasm.

So remember, it's a literary device in which in the immediate form, or in book form, a sequence of ideas is presented, and then repeated in reverse order.

Walvoord notes it this way in his commentary. He says, structurally, chapter four is parallel to chapter five, and sits at the center of the chiasm formed in the

Aramaic section of the book. Chapters two and seven highlight the certain coming of God's kingdom following the rise of four successive

Gentile powers. Chapters three and six focus on the need for God's people to remain faithful despite opposition and persecution as they await

His kingdom. Good chapters for us today. And chapters four and five, featuring the kings,

God identifies as the starting in Daniel chapter two, verses 37 through 38, and ending,

Daniel chapter five, verse 30 through 31, it identifies as the starting and the ending king in the first Gentile empire.

They serve as reminders that even Gentile rulers will eventually acknowledge that ultimate power and control over nations rests with the

God of heaven. So the chapter I said as itself is chiastic, starting and ending with praise of Jehovah.

Also the chapter where some see Nebuchadnezzar returning to God, this is the chapter where some see him turning to God.

Others like Leopold and Calvin do not come to this conclusion. They conclude that Nebuchadnezzar never became a follower of Jehovah.

It should also be noted that this chapter with Nebuchadnezzar's musings on his greatness and ending with his return to grace after falling in pride precedes the chapter in which describes the actual fall of Babylon.

No coincidence. The Septuagint translators date this incident about 18 years into Nebuchadnezzar's reign, or about 587

BC, but it more likely occurred later in his reign because the text references the great building projects that had occurred in verse 30, including many presume the great hanging gardens of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar reigned 43 years from 605 to 562 BC. So others think that this was later in his reign, possibly around 570

BC. Daniel would have been about 50 years old. So this chapter has been called by conservative scholars a literary gem that not only gives a tremendously uplifting and interesting story about the life of the great king, not uplifting necessarily through the middle, but towards the end, but it also provides insight into the mind of God regarding his sovereignty and thus his control of human history.

It needs to be something that is always in the forefront of our minds and our hearts that God is sovereign.

Nothing escapes his view. Nothing is too hard for him. Now, he will never violate his character.

We know that, but sometimes I think, brothers and sisters, that we look at the things that are happening, we think it's all over, but the shouting, well, it may be, but the shouting will be hallelujah in heaven because God is in control.

Really, he's in control. This is not even a blip on his, if he has, a radar screen.

That dates me, doesn't it? I guess today it would be a monitor. Anyway, God is in control, and this is something that the

Jews of this time really need to hear again and again and again because they were just, they were taken from their homes and brought into captivity.

They were conquered by a Gentile king in battle, and so to them, to those who were not paying attention or to, who didn't have the faith of others like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, this was evidence to them that their

God wasn't what they thought he was. Romans 8, 28, had not been written back then, but it's still true.

Everything that happens in the life of a believer is for his own good, everything, no matter how difficult it seems, and so this chapter, this chapter is an excellent one where we see what

Nebuchadnezzar never thought could happen to him. He was the king of the earth, driven into the field to eat grass like a cow.

You gotta be kidding me, that's a joke, right? Finally, so then, as we pointed out, the

Septuagint, we should know this, the Septuagint starts chapter four differently. If you look, if you read the

Septuagint, the first three verses of chapter four compose the end of chapter three, and chapter four starts with verse four, so in the

Septuagint, the first verse of chapter four is I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace.

That's the first verse in the Septuagint. So it is possible, as I said, that this chapter was written by Nebuchadnezzar, and if so, that makes it unique in all of scripture as being the only portion of the

Bible written by an unconverted Gentile, regardless of who it was actually penned by.

God saw fit to include it in the canon, and so here we have a Gentile king proclamation that is recorded in the pages of scripture, and what a proclamation.

A dream that starts with glory, the middle of it is deposing and humiliation, and then it ends in glorifying

God. Again, a chiasm. What a dream. So with that, let's launch into chapter four, verse one.

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

Can you imagine that the critics attacked this verse? I think they had a pegboard, and they looked at every way they could attack, every verse, every which way.

It must just be what they do. Nebuchadnezzar, or his scribe, or Daniel, or whomever wrote this, begins the chapter with a standard greeting of kings of the day.

As mentioned earlier, this chapter begins and even sustains all the way through verse 33, a section that describes in detail the reduction of a king, the greatest king of the time, to the level of beasts in the field.

Nebuchadnezzar explains the situation by virtue of detailing his dream to Daniel through verse 18.

Then Daniel interprets, reluctantly I might add, he still, kind of as an aside, he still was a servant to a king in Babylon who were known for their cruelty.

And so when this dream came to him, to Nebuchadnezzar, and he detailed it to Daniel, and Daniel realized that this was a really bad situation for Nebuchadnezzar, I can't imagine that the other scribes and astrologers and et cetera, if they knew even an inkling of what this dream was about, they would have backed away and not interpreted it.

But Daniel, because he knew God was sovereign, does interpret it. So, Daniel interprets reluctantly the dream, verses 19 through 33, with the remainder of the chapter from verse 34 through 37 being the restoration of Nebuchadnezzar to his former glory, and then his pontification about the glory of Jehovah.

So there's no doubt that Nebuchadnezzar understood that he did not have rule over the entire planet when he says this.

It's just what those kings did. It was a common statement of potentates that they were the king of all the earth.

It meant that he was the ruler of everything. This is what the critics attacked. Well, he said he was the king of the whole earth and he knew better, therefore it's not scripture.

Well, thank you for crying out in the sink. He had conquered all the land around him, all the nations around him.

Many of the kings in ancient history claimed rule over the whole earth, and any objection to the divine authority of this because of Nebuchadnezzar's decree is dismissed when one observes that this was common language of the kings of old.

Walvard, in his commentary, gives some examples. He says this, examples can be found of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III and Esarhaddon.

Esarhaddon. if that's how it's pronounced. They issued statements in which they claim to be, quote, king of all the world.

And Ashurbanipal claimed the title, king of the world, king of Assyria, king of all four rims of the earth.

And he lived in the Middle East. That would be like me saying, I'm king of the world. And I live in Westman.

And I'm not even king of Westman. But, you know, that's different. On the

Cyrus cylinder, the king who conquered Babylon said of himself, I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, legitimate king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of all the four rims of the earth.

This was common language. It was understood. It was expected. And by the way, if you were listening to this king's proclamation, you didn't argue with it.

You're not king of the whole world. We got a furnace for you. The declaration, he says, may your peace abound, was also a typical greeting of kings of that day.

It is an interesting greeting because the Babylonian kings were anything but peacemakers. They were conquerors of other nations, destroyers of people who differed with them.

But he says, anyway, may your peace abound. They spent most of their entire reigns conquering and enslaving other people groups.

This verse is Lebuchadnezzar's launch into the description, what he really feels is important to begin, important to give to his entire country, what happened to him, what the dream that happened to him.

So he says in verse 2, it has seemed good to me to declare all the signs and wonders which the

Most High God has done for me. So here's the beginning of the chiasm which Lebuchadnezzar in which he praises

Jehovah. It was apparent to him at least that it was important for him to let his entire realm know about the things that the

God of heaven had done to him and for him. He again uses the Chaldean word for supreme, which is translated most high or most high, most or most high.

It is becoming more and more evident to him at this time that God is far above the sad deities that he and his ancestors have worshipped for centuries.

Far more capable, far more sovereign. But even now, it is my belief at least, that he hasn't come to the conclusion that the rest of these deities are no gods at all.

They are either imaginations or demons. And that Jehovah God is the supreme God of the universe.

So this does not necessarily indicate that Lebuchadnezzar had given up his false gods, but rather he recognized at least from his pagan perspective that the

God of the Hebrews is superior to the gods he has worshipped all his life. That's an unsettling thing when whatever we have as a

God finally is pointed out to us that it's not all that supreme, not all that worthy of following, whether it's security or money or some person, somebody that we have elevated far above where we should have elevated them.

This is what's beginning, I think, to happen to Lebuchadnezzar. When the Lord regenerates a person, when he changes his mind so that he can actually see the truth and trust

Christ, this is what I believe is beginning to happen to Lebuchadnezzar. Any questions or comments about verses 1 and 2?

Verse 3, I, oops, I jumped to verse 4. Verse 3, again, part of the chiasm, how great are his signs and how mighty are his wonders.

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation. That sounds like something

Ezekiel would say or Jeremiah or John in Revelation. That's a remarkable statement.

Here, Lebuchadnezzar continues his exaltation of Jehovah God. This is not necessarily, as I said, an indication that he has become a convert to Judaism or an exclusive devotee of God.

The words he uses for signs and wonders are the Chaldean words for portent and miracle.

He's talking about miracles, things that happen that don't have, that are outside the natural order of things.

And indeed, the things that God had done to and for Lebuchadnezzar were certainly miraculous.

Remember when he jumps up from his seat because he sees four people walking in the furnace? Didn't we throw three people in there?

This was a wonder, this was a sign that he saw. These would have been foremost in his mind. He acknowledges the fact that the kingdom of Jehovah is forever and that he exercises sovereignty over every generation, which means every king, including himself.

A remarkable statement. This would be an incredible statement from the Babylonian king. He is deferring to Jehovah and not his gods, not

Marduk, not Bel, not Nebo, not all of the Babylonian gods, but a pantheon that they had over every little thing.

So any questions about verse 3? Comments? Yes. So your question,

I want to make sure that I have to repeat the question. The question is, could it be that because this is actually the first verses of the

Hebrew Bible that he's referring to what just happened to him? It could be, but it's very likely this is years later.

It could be what happened to him in referencing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It could be.

I think all of those things were swirling in his mind as memories of the great signs and wonders that God had done.

That would have been foremost among them because that was pretty astounding, to throw people into a thousands of degree furnace and have them walk around.

Yeah, there's probably 10 or more years. Or it could be referring to more marvelous things that had happened after that.

Yeah. Yeah, there's no doubt that Jehovah was making a serious statement in Babylon in the 6th century

BC for many reasons, for the Jews, for the Hebrews, for the captives, for Nebuchadnezzar.

And guess what? For us. The scripture is for our instruction. That's one of the things that scripture says.

And so all of these things, God would be doing all of these. I don't know how. He can manage a quadrillion things in a second.

That's probably a small number for him. But so somehow he was managing to create prophecy, create a historical record, depose a king, bring him back up and do it all in a time frame that would be for the instruction of the

Jews, for our instruction, for the history of the world to understand, to demonstrate and declare his sovereignty.

Because the book of Daniel is primarily about the sovereignty of God. That would be the main theme, the sovereignty of God.

It's something that I think we can never speak too much about. Any other questions? Does that help?

Okay. So verse 4, I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace.

Here starts the narrative of the dream that Nebuchadnezzar has in this chapter that Daniel, as I said, interprets very reluctantly.

Coming as it does on the heels of his previous declaration of God's sovereignty and performance of mighty deeds in the first section, first three verses of this chapter, it is clear that Nebuchadnezzar is acknowledging that the ease he had in his house and the flourishing that was occurring is in his kingdom were results of Jehovah's actions in his life and in the kingdom of Babylon.

And here we have one of the items it helps us date, that helps us date if imperfectly this period of his life.

Since he was flourishing in his palace, it is clear that the palace was built. I'm a detective, look out.

This would include the hanging gardens most likely, which was more of his one, his more ambitious hanging or building programs, hanging programs, thinking about the way he treats people.

History shows a seven year period which Nebuchadnezzar was not conducting any military campaigns between 582 and 575

BC. This may very well, and I'm not going to be dogmatic about this, but this may very well have been the seven year period that he was insane.

And if so, the dream would have come late, have come sometime in late 583 BC or early 582

BC. So then he says Nebuchadnezzar finishes with or begins with this. He says, I saw a dream in verse five and it made me fearful.

And these fantasies as I lay on my bed and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.

Although Nebuchadnezzar did not necessarily understand the dream he had nor its importance, he knew that it was negative.

He knew that it was terrifying. He knew that it was bad. It was frightening him. The word fearful, thus the word fearful comes from a root implying dread.

And interestingly enough, this is a Kaldi word that comes from a root which has the idea of a snake slinking along.

So we've always associated alarm and fear from time immemorial with snakes.

I wonder where that came from. Genesis one comes to mind. The second word alarming implies a hastening of trouble and means to terrify.

This was the kind of dream that you will wake up out of screaming in a sweat. It frightens you very bad.

He's had one of these before, you know, years before. This was a nightmare of the first order.

The whole idea here is in these compact, carefully chosen words by the

Lord paints a picture of extreme fright and terror. Most likely, as I said, he awoke in a sweat.

He was fearful. He was terrified and his mind kept, they kept alarming him.

They kept just stunning him, upsetting him. So then he's in verse six, he says, so I gave orders to bring into my presence all the wise men of Babylon that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.

So here Nebuchadnezzar does whatever the king had always done. He has something he doesn't understand that he dreamed, so he calls his wise men in to translate it.

The wise men would have come with their dream books and their encyclopedias and all the stuff that they had used before for different dreams, for different kings, for the kings, you know, from Nebuchadnezzar and even before, ready to give the king an understanding of what he had dreamed.

So at least it would have been an understanding from their limited perspective and possible conniving minds.

Remember the previous dream when he wouldn't tell them the dream and they wouldn't even consider giving an interpretation.

Probably wise, but make some wise men. At any rate, so he calls in, he follows the same, he does what comes naturally.

He calls the wise men. Well, then the magicians, the conjurers, verse seven, the Chaldeans and the diviners come in, came in and I related the dream to them, but they could not make its interpretation known to me.

Imagine the sigh of relief the magicians and conjurers and diviners had when the king decided to actually tell them his dream this time.

You know, because there might have been, some of them may have been present years before when he brought in the soothsayers to interpret the dream that refused to tell them.

Others may have heard the story. At any rate, it would have been a fearful thing to come into the presence of the king knowing he was going to ask you to interpret a dream.

What if he didn't tell you the dream again? What if Daniel isn't around to genuinely interpret it and protect us all?

Prevent the slaughter that was proposed those years ago, but the king gave them the details of his dream and for whatever reason they were unable to interpret it.

When we see the interpretation Daniel gives, we may understand some of the reason, maybe some of the diviners kept their mouth shut, but it most likely is that they just didn't know what it meant and they were willing to tell the king that.

We don't know. Maybe at this point in his reign he had become more tempered and stopped threatening to kill people and rip them to shreds and send their body parts around the kingdom if they didn't give him everything he wanted.

I don't know. But at any rate, at this time, the interpreters, so -called, come in, they can interpret, and the king lets them off the hook immediately.

Can you just imagine? I'm not going to be ripped to shreds. I'm going to be sent home.

That'll be wonderful. We'll do another verse or so and then we'll get, if there's any questions. Well, actually, let's stop there because we may not make it all the way.

We've got to make it very much farther. Are there any questions about verses 4, 5, 6, and 7?

Okay. So verse 8. And does it in such a way that at least evinces to most who read this that he was still an adherent to the false gods of his day.

In whom he says, and whose name is Belteshazzar according to the name of my

God. So he's still an adherent. And by his Hebrew name, which ends, by the way, with the two letters that signify

Jehovah God, E -L. The fact that Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that Belteshazzar is the name that was fashioned using the name of his

God, at least just to most who read this, indicates that Nebuchadnezzar was still a polytheist.

Daniel was most likely attending to some of the business in the nation because of the high position the king had put him in.

And he was not able to come in with the other diviners. So there is debate now, again, this is a suspect verse, if you will, to the critics.

There is debate as to whether or not the second noun gods is singular or plural. There is a great deal of evidence that indicates that it is singular.

And based upon this, many commentators have decided that this is a tribute to the fact that Nebuchadnezzar here was or was becoming a believer in Jehovah.

In any event, he realizes that Daniel is different from all of his other prognosticators.

So it is possible, as some commentators have surmised, that since Nebuchadnezzar recognized the dream having consequences for he and his kingdom, he went to his other soothsayers first, hoping they would give him some sort of interpretation.

When they could not even do it, he summoned Daniel because he knew that this is most likely where he would get his answers.

But he also knew that Daniel was the kind of guy who would tell him the truth no matter how much it was negative, no matter how much it might hurt.

He may not have wanted to really know what his dream was. He knew it was significant. And these are all surmisings, by the way.

You can't hang your hat on some of the things I'm saying. This is just, you know, sanctified imagination, if you will.

So we're going to end with verse 9. Yes? So you're wondering if maybe

Nebuchadnezzar was hoping they would give him some... Ah, he wanted a helpful interpretation, a nice interpretation.

He didn't tell them... He did tell them a dream, so maybe this time he would get a better interpretation. Yeah. Well, it could very well be.

The first dream ended up having him not be the king for a long time. He ended up with his kingdom ending.

So then in verse 9 he says this, O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery baffles you, tell me the visions of my dream, which

I have seen, along with its interpretation. So he was expecting Daniel, and Daniel could do this, to revisit and rehash the dream, talk about it, and Daniel does that.

We'll see that he does that when we get into the meat of the dream. And then tell him the interpretation, so that each little bit, each little vignette in the dream,

Daniel would have to... What he was asking him to do essentially was repeat it, and then tell him what it meant. Then repeat this section, and then tell him what it meant.

And then tell me this section, and then tell me what it meant, and I'm probably out of the camera, I probably shouldn't do that. I get carried away.

So, he's asking Daniel to interpret the dream. Some have concluded, by the way, some, who do you think?

Some have concluded that the word, actually it was the good guys, that the word magicians could be translated scholars.

That is in the pool of words that this Chaldean word has in it. It's in the Chaldean thesaurus, if you will.

To give the actual intent of Nebuchadnezzar's statement, Daniel is not a magician in the Babylonian sense, but rather he is a genuine worker of miraculous actions, which would have seemed magic to the pagans of Nebuchadnezzar's time, to those who looked on.

He understood things that no one else understood, and he was able to give clear interpretation when needed, that no one else could manage.

And then the things happened. So, this guy was a magician to those who looked on in the pagan society.

Daniel was thoroughly familiar with Babylonian history, and their astrology, and their religion, and therefore

Nebuchadnezzar knew that even if the other diviners could not answer his question about the dream, he had confidence both from those things, what

Daniel knew, and from the fact that what he was saying earlier about Daniel's God was true, that Daniel could give him the interpretation.

Now, as we read through the entire chapter, I cheated. You all know what the interpretation is, so you don't come next time wondering, you know, like the next installment of a sitcom, or not sitcom, well yeah, maybe that was a

Freudian slip. He calls on Daniel to give him the interpretation that he needs, that he knows

Daniel can provide. And in this interpretation, we're going to see, again, sweep of history, small sweep of history, some of the things that Jehovah wants to teach the nation of Israel at the time, again, that he is sovereign, that he is in control, that nothing is outside his ability.

They're going to see the king that conquered their entire nation eating grass like a cow.

Insane. There might have been a few smirks of delight among the Hebrews of that time, the seven -year period.

Don't want to laugh too loud, his second -in -command might throw you in the furnace, but it would have just been so satisfying.

That's not what God was after. He wasn't after their mirth and their smirking.

What he was after was devotion, realizing that even this king who destroyed the armies of Jerusalem, and I don't do very good snapping, but imagine someone who, just like that, is eating grass and no longer king.

Now, there's going to be a lot of speculation, there is a lot of speculation about what happened in those seven years while Nebuchadnezzar was not king, and we may talk about some of that as we go through this.

There's a great deal of exposition done on this section of the book of Daniel as well.

A lot of critics who think that it points out that it's not a genuine scripture, but most often, better than anything else, it actually cements the fact that this is a genuine work of Jehovah God included in the canon of scripture that details an actual history that happened and that has portent for, portent is maybe not a good word, but ramifications for our day as well.

So, any questions before we close? So, let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you have included this incredible book in your Word, that it is exciting and mesmerizing and confusing sometimes, but that you have included it because you want to demonstrate for the most part that you are sovereign over our lives.

And so, we bow our knees and acknowledge your sovereignty in our lives. We thank you,

Lord, that nothing escapes your notice, that even the difficult times we are in are but a blip on the screen of time to you, but that you care for everyone in this time that is your child and that you will work things out in their lives to the good for your glory.