- 00:00
- 815. I guess I wasn't early enough. All right.
- 00:05
- Open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 4. Well, that's somebody teaching math, isn't it?
- 00:48
- For those that read ahead, just remember next week we won't be in chapter 5.
- 00:55
- We're going to be in chapter 7. 7, 8, 5, 6.
- 01:01
- That's the chronological order and that's how we're going to teach it. All right. I'm going to read the chapter and then
- 01:07
- I'll try to gather my thoughts a little bit here. Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language that live in all the earth, may your peace abound.
- 01:24
- It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and the wonders which the Most High God has done for me.
- 01:32
- How great are his signs and how mighty are his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
- 01:38
- His dominion is for generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace.
- 01:47
- I saw a dream and it made me fearful. These fantasies as I lay in my bed, the visions of my mind kept alarming me.
- 01:56
- So I gave orders to bring in my presence all the wise men of Babylon that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.
- 02:05
- Then the magicians and the conjurers and the Chaldeans and the diviners came in and relayed the dream.
- 02:11
- I related the dream to them but they could not make its interpretation known to me.
- 02:17
- But finally Daniel came in before me whose name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my
- 02:23
- God and whom is a spirit of the holy gods. And I relayed the dream to him saying,
- 02:29
- O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery baffles you, tell me the visions of my dream which
- 02:38
- I have seen along with its interpretation. Now these were the visions in my mind as I lay on my bed.
- 02:44
- I was looking and behold there was a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great.
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- The tree grew large and became strong. Its height reached to the sky. It was visible to the end of the whole earth.
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- Its foliage was beautiful, its fruit abundant and in it was food for all.
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- The beast of the field found shade under it. The birds of the sky dwelt in its branches and all living creatures fed themselves from it.
- 03:14
- I was looking in the visions of my mind as I lay in my bed and behold an angelic watcher, a holy one, descended from heaven and he shouted out and he spoke as follows, chop down the tree, cut off its branches, strip of its foliage and scatter its fruit.
- 03:30
- 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 put a band of bronze and iron around it in the new grass of the field and let it be drenched with the dew of the heaven and let him share with the beast of the grass of the earth.
- 03:52
- 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.
- 04:02
- This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers and the decision is the command of the holy ones in order that the living may know that the most high is the ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom he wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men.
- 04:20
- This is the dream which I Nebuchadnezzar have seen. Now you Belteshazzar tell me its interpretation in so much as none of the other wise men of my kingdom has been able to make known to me its interpretation but you are able for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.
- 04:36
- Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was appalled for a while as his thoughts alarmed him.
- 04:41
- The king responded and said Belteshazzar do not let the dream or its interpretation alarm you.
- 04:47
- Belteshazzar replied my lord only if the dream would have applied to the ones whom you hate and its interpretation to your adversaries.
