Daniel 4:1-27: The Tree

Daniel chapter 4, starting with verse 19. Hear now the inspired word of God. Then Daniel, whose name was 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. 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 which was food for all, 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. 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, 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. 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 on it 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. Let's pray. Father, once again we simply ask that you'd bless the preaching of the word.

To the end, Father, that as it goes forth it would accomplish every purpose for which you send it, just as you have promised. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Well, as you heard, in two weeks we'll be having several people enter the waters of baptism here at Hope.

That's always one of the highlights of our church events. It's a serious and a solemn time in the life of the church, yet at the same time it's one of the most joyful. I'm always moved as the individuals publicly give their testimony of their conversion.

One can't help but notice that God calls people in different ways and uses different means to bring them to faith. Now this was the norm even in biblical times as we read in the scriptures. Timothy was brought to faith by the teaching and influence of his godly mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois.

Paul details that in 2 Timothy. The Ethiopian eunuch was brought to faith by reading Isaiah and simply having the scriptures explained to him. On the day of Pentecost, 3 ,000 were saved by the preaching of the word at a public meeting.

But Paul, who was an overt enemy of the church, it took drastic measures. He was converted on the Damascus road when confronted by the risen Christ in all of his glory that even struck him blind. We could go around this room today and hear all kinds of different conversion stories and different means and methods that God has used to draw people to build his church.

But instead we're going to hear the story of King Nebuchadnezzar. It was another hard case, another one like the Apostle Paul. And we're going to see what it is that God used to bring him to faith. But first, a couple of words for context.

We're still in, if you remember, we broke down the book of Daniel in several different ways in our introduction. We're still in the Aramaic section. In other words, these parts were written in the Aramaic language, not Hebrew.

And we have been since chapter 2 when the Chaldeans first spoke to the king. Second important point is that this section of Daniel is written by the king himself. You'll see that he uses the first person plural numerous times in this.

Now when we say that the king wrote this, it does leave room for a scribe writing it, but the words are belonging to Nebuchadnezzar. But in fact, some people even propose that perhaps Daniel was his scribe.

Paul used someone else to write many of the letters that made it into scripture. It was common practice. The third important point is to recognize that the introduction to the chapter, the first couple of verses, was actually written after the events that the chapter details.

It becomes obvious. Look at verse 2. It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me. It only makes sense that these events have already taken place if he's now going to write about them.

That also explains how and why he would begin with these words in verse 3. Look at verse 3. 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.

He wasn't ready for that yet. We'll see that he does get to that place and we'll expand on those words at the end of the chapter. But lastly, I'm only going to expound upon the vision and the interpretation today.

Next week we'll continue to examine the fulfillment of the vision and also look at some more of the symbolism which we will introduce today, but we'll follow up next week on more of the symbolism in this passage of Scripture.

It's important to spend some time to understand how the vision of the statue, the erecting of the false image, and the present vision in chapter 4 work together in God's plan to bring Nebuchadnezzar to the place that he acknowledges him as Savior.

But for today, let's first come to the king's narrative. Look at the setting. Verse 4 of Daniel 4. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace. You could almost say that's a conclusion of his life before Christ.

Sometimes, though, these seemingly insignificant verses can tell you a lot about the situation. People read that and they pass right over it. Look at the king's words. Basically what he's saying is this.

This was a normal day. Things were going well in the palace. There were no emergencies, no crises to deal with. It says the king, I was at ease and enjoying my prosperity. Business was good in the palace.

I can picture the king walking around the palace admiring his hanging gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, stopping and literally smelling the roses. I don't think it's far-reaching to speculate that at some point he laid down on his divan and fell asleep.

After all, all's well in the kingdom. That changed rather quickly. Because in verse 5, he says, I saw a dream and it made me fearful. And these fantasies as I lay on my bed and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.

I wonder if he said to himself, Oh no, here we go again. Whatever he was thinking, it doesn't appear that his fear rose to the level of his previous vision, where he lost sleep. He was completely distraught.

For his reaction is not nearly as severe and threatening. This time he calls for all the wise men in his court. But his request is far more reasonable than the last time. He doesn't require them to tell him the dream first, just interpret it.

And there's no threats of death if they fail in their mission. But they do fail. And so enter Daniel once again. The appearance of Daniel before the king in verses 8 and 9 is instructive for us. I'll mention it now, but we'll pick up on some more of the significance in the coming weeks.

But verses 8 and 9 show that the king is very syncretistic in his theology. Now I don't mean to throw out these large words. What I mean by that is, he's not pure anything at this point. He has mixed many theological systems together.

He actually acknowledges the God of Israel, that he is a God and that he's capable of mighty things. But he also erects a statue that he calls the God. And then he wants Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he wants them to worship his gods, the gods of Babylon.

So he's very eclectic in where he stands. But he does recognize that the spirit of God, Daniel's God, reveals mysteries like nothing else he's ever seen before. So he asks Daniel to reveal the interpretation of the dream.

The king then tells Daniel his dream. And I think it's worthwhile to read that portion again because it is a rather interesting portion of Scripture. Starts in verse 10. 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. Its height reached to the sky and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.

Its foliage was beautiful, its fruit abundant. And in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it. The birds of the sky dwelt in its branches. 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. Cut off its branches.

Strip off its foliage. 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.

That's the king's dream. Now what's interesting is Daniel's reaction just to the dream. Look at verse 19 again. Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was appalled for a while as his thoughts alarmed him.

Daniel was appalled. Apparently Daniel didn't see this coming for his thoughts about the dream alarmed him. He was appalled. The wording that's used is incredible. Shocked, appalled about the dream. So much so that his reaction, Daniel's reaction, is noted by the king.

I think it's fair to say that at this time Daniel knew that God had plans for Nebuchadnezzar. God had revealed some of these things to Daniel in the first dream. Remember, he was the golden head. He was the glorious kingdom.

And while he knew the king's empire wouldn't last forever, he didn't see these events coming. Based upon Daniel's integrity and character, we also know that the king respected him. So they had formed a relationship.

And the king obviously trusted Daniel. He had made him number two man in the court. He also knew that what made Daniel different from all his other counselors was his relationship to his God. The point I'm making is this.

Daniel understands the dream and what it means for Nebuchadnezzar. And he's so concerned for the king's welfare that he comments that he wishes only if these commands, these decrees were for your enemies.

That shows the relationship that he already had with the king. Interesting, isn't it? That a man could get that close. You know, every once in a while I hear someone say, especially a believer, if only we could see into the future, to know what God has in store for us, to be able to know how things turn out.

I can remember saying that a number of times in my younger and much more foolish days. But the older I get, I realize that that may not be what I really want. Ginger and I have often said many times as we're sitting down and reminiscing on our past, we're glad we didn't know what God had in store for us.

Better that it was a surprise than agonize about it for months and years ahead of time. Let me give you some pastoral counsel. Here's what you need to know about the future. Living a godly life in this world is not always an easy road.

There I said it. Shocked? Surprised? You can expect that you will have trouble based upon your testimony of Jesus Christ. That is the consistent message of scripture, and I can promise you that that will come true.

So I'll paraphrase the words of Peter. Don't be surprised when trouble comes your way. As though it was something unexpected. But along with that counsel comes these words. Remember, in the midst of the fire, Jesus is with you.

Jesus has promised that he would never leave us nor forsake us. He promised that the evil one can't even touch us without his express permission. He's promised that whatever trouble you're in, it will not be greater than you can handle.

And he will always provide a way of escape that you can endure it. And even if people lie about you and cast insults at you, for Christ's sake, you're blessed. For in the end, Christ's church will be victorious, and you will spend eternity basking in the love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Back to Nebuchadnezzar. So Daniel sees the future and what lies ahead of his friend, the king. Words that have never come out of my mouth. My friend, the king. Well, that's not true, because Jesus is my friend and he is a king.

So he's, and this is the interesting part, he's so alarmed about what he sees from Nebuchadnezzar that the king consoles him. It's okay, Daniel. But Daniel is an honorable man. A man of integrity who understands who God is.

And so he continues and he interprets the dream. Let's look at the interpretation. First look at the tree. Verse 20. 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 which the beasts of the field dwelt, and in whose branches the birds of the sky lodged.

I'm just going to stop there. I want you to just look at that description before we get to seeing that it is in fact the king. For this is very typical biblical imagery. It's metaphorical and allegorical imagery.

It's hyperbolic, meaning that it's exaggerated to make the points that it's making. The tree reaches to the sky so that it's visible to the whole earth. Now if you look at this from an agricultural perspective, you say that's impossible.

And if you do that, you've missed the whole point. The vision describes something unusual, not the norm, like the head of gold in the king's previous vision. So this tree is completely unique. And look how the description continues.

It's tall. It's strong. It reached the sky, visible to the whole earth. And then it goes on. Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant. You know, just another pause for a second. Too often Christians, when reading scripture like these, pass over the passages and only look at them superficially.

Oh yeah, I get it. The tree is the king. What else I need to know? But that misses much of the imagery of the text. The tree is a description of the king as he has been exalted by almighty God. These descriptions are not just fillers to add to the poetry of the passage.

They mean something. First, trees have symbolic meaning throughout scripture, starting right in the Garden of Eden. Eat from every tree except this one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day you eat of it, you'll die.

There was another tree, the tree of life, which also has great meaning. Israel was represented by a tree numerous times by Jesus. The kingdom of God is represented by a tree that grows to fill the whole garden.

And interestingly enough, birds come and nest in the tree. And now we're told that this tree is Nebuchadnezzar. And it's described in a very glowing and, yeah, I say it, fantastic words. The foliage, beautiful.

You know, biblical beauty is not the superficial beauty of our contemporary culture. Israel was described as the beautiful land. Paul, quoting Isaiah, says how beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news.

And the tree also produces abundant fruit. So much so that both the birds and the beasts are nourished by the tree and seek shelter from the elements in the tree. You're starting to get a picture of this tree?

This is a glorious tree. And so to make sure the king doesn't miss the point, Daniel tells him, it is you, O king. Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar had become this glorious, glorious kingdom. The head of gold, now the glorious tree.

The kingdom of Babylon had filled the earth and had favor with the Most High God. That this was obvious since we know that God raises up kingdoms and tears them down. Babylon wouldn't have been great if it wasn't for God.

And all according to his plan and his purposes. That was one of the lessons we learned from the first vision. And now God is reminding the king of his majestic position. And he's also reminding him that it was the Lord God Almighty who gave him this kingdom.

Now think about this before we move on. The king had not only heard about the God of Israel. But he had seen him in action up close and personal. In his first dream, the first dream was interpreted by Daniel without him even telling him what the dream was.

That was no magic trick, it was the work of Almighty God. Second, he saw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walking around in the midst of the furnace and blazing fire. And when they come out, not even a smell of smoke, not even a hair singed.

And yet though he acknowledged the greatness of God, he still didn't turn to him. To this point he remained an arrogant, prideful, and merciless ruler. That's not an exaggeration. He was ready to tear down whole households, kill whole households if they couldn't tell him the dream.

And so Daniel continues with the interpretation. An angelic watcher descends from heaven. I love that term for angels, the watchers. Because that's one of the things, one of the primary missions is watching.

I've made mention of this before, but it's true. Right now as we are sitting in this room, this building inside here is surrounded by angels. Don't misunderstand that. The reality of that. And they're watching.

They're watching our worship. That's why we hold to the regular principle of worship. We don't want to tick off the angels. We've seen, we've read what angels can do. But King Nebuchadnezzar remained arrogant, prideful, and merciless.

The angelic watcher descends from heaven with a message. The description from heaven makes it clear that this was a message from God. Let's read verse 23. In that the king saw an angelic watcher, a holy one descending from heaven saying, Chop down the tree, destroy it.

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. Let him share with the beasts of the field until seven periods of time pass over.

Message in a nutshell, chop down the tree. Destroy it. Daniel shortens this part of the narrative, but I want to go over it for our purposes today. This is how the king reports the dream. The angelic watcher descends from heaven, shouts, chop down the tree, cut off its branches, strip off its foliage, scatter its fruit, let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches, yet leave the stump with its roots and the band of iron.

In other words, everything that made this tree glorious taken away. Besides the tree itself being chopped down, the branches are to be cut off, the beautiful foliage gone, the fruit scattered. No more homes for the birds and the beasts.

Just a stump. The stump was to be preserved, and in a very specific way. The roots are left in the ground, and a band of iron and bronze wrapped around it. This gives us a glimpse already of what, perhaps, that God has not finished with the tree yet.

We can understand the roots being left, but why the band of iron and bronze? Daniel doesn't comment on it, but because of this specific description, the band, I believe there has to be meaning in it. A metal band would do two things to the stump.

First, keep it from any further harm, and second, to keep it from growing. That seems to be in line with the judgment pronounced. But notice the metals on the band. Bronze and iron, does that sound familiar?

The two lower metals on the image. If nothing else, it's ironic that the two metals that prevent the tree from growing back are the two lower metals on the statue of the first vision. The stump is a painful reminder of the glory days gone by.

But Daniel isn't finished with his interpretation yet. Verse 25. That you shall be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field, and you will be given grass to eat like cattle, and be drenched with the dew of heaven.

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. You realize that's a somber decree. The king is going to be driven away from mankind, and his place will be with the beasts of the field.

The symbolism here is too important to pass over. Remember, man was created after the image of God. He is the crown of God's creation. Contrary to what the tree huggers say, we are not intruders in this land, we are to be the rulers over this land.

Man is made to reflect the image of God on earth. And among the creation mandates that God gave, he gave man dominion over this world. He was told to rule under the direction and auspices of God himself.

In other words, rule according to the design of God. Now, here's the thing. The closer man gets to God, the more he reflects the image of God accurately. The further away from God, the more he resembles the beasts of the field.

This becomes very clear when you get to the book of the Revelation. There the one who stands against the church and against God is called what? The beast. He is the one who opposes God and Christ in every respect.

He is the epitome of sinfulness and is rightly identified as a beast. He is one of many antichrists in the world. And that's the same imagery applied to the king. The further he moved away from God, the more he resembles the beast until God made him live among the beasts.

He has been given ample opportunity to repent, to humble himself before the Most High God, and he has consistently refused. Therefore, by the decree of God, he is relegated to live with the beast. He acted like one, so now he will become one.

He will not have the protection of the palace any longer. He will not be lounging in the hanging gardens. He will not be eating from the king's table in his private dining room. He will have the mind of a beast, eat like a beast, live like a beast in the field, and waking up every morning with the dew of heaven upon his body.

Wow.

Talk about a fall from grace. But God is merciful, and he has definitely been merciful to the king. And he is here as well. He even tells him he will be restored to his kingdom. He even gives him the time frame for his punishment.

Before it ends, two conditions must be met. First, it will be for seven periods of time. Now, the phrase seven periods of time doesn't specify what that period is. Most commentators translate it as seven years, others seven months.

Either way, it's a long period of time to be grazing on the fields. Second criteria is much more important. Until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whoever he wishes.

In other words, Nebuchadnezzar, stop thinking that you have made the empire of Babylon so great. Acknowledge what you have seen before your eyes. See, the vision is not all doom and gloom. It's a tough prophecy to hear, but there's light at the end of the tunnel.

The stump is the proof of that. The tree was not uprooted and utterly annihilated. It was cut down, but the stump remained. And because it remained, it means the kingdom will be restored. All he has to do is acknowledge that heaven rules.

When you understand what God has been telling you from the beginning, that your rule is under the God of heaven, when you're ready to do that, O king, you will have your kingdom back. I want to close with Daniel's counsel.

The clear impression we get from the text is that this was not a pleasant task for Daniel. He had wished he could pronounce this judgment on the king's enemies instead of him. That was before he had relayed the interpretation to the king.

Now it's over. The king got the message. Daniel understood that the king was in trouble unless he repented and that repentance had to be genuine and produce fruit. Reproduce fruit of genuine repentance.

Verse 27. This is what Daniel says to the king. Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you. Break away 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.

Daniel uses his relationship with the king to plead for him to turn, to break away from his sinful ways. Daniel is saying, you have valued my advice in the past and we know that he has. Then please, says Daniel, listen to me now.

Break away from your sinful ways by doing righteousness. And restated, break away from your iniquities by showing mercy. He says, do this now just in case God may prolong your prosperity. Daniel was a true prophet.

And when given the chance, he preaches the gospel. I hope everyone will be here on May 21st as you will witness the results of the gospel being preached in several lives. You'll also hear that not everyone comes to Christ in the same way.

Some are blessed and grow up in Christian homes. Others are exposed to the teaching of godly parents. Some are tough cases like Nebuchadnezzar with all that he has seen first hand. And even under the warning of the second vision.

And Daniel's call to repentance. Listen to what Nebuchadnezzar says at the end before the fulfillment. All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar, to the king. Twelve months later, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon.

The king reflected and said, now remember this is after he heard the dream. Is this not Babylon the great? Which I myself have built up 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. Christian, be comforted by the promises of scripture.

That during the tough times you are not alone. He's in the furnace with you. To the non-Christian, don't wait for some tragedy to strike. Nebuchadnezzar had to go through a field, a period of time where he was in a field like a beast.

My counsel to you is the same as Daniel to the king. Repent, break away from your sinful ways, turn to Jesus Christ. Let's pray.