Participants: Ty Gibson & James Rafferty
Series Code: DBOTB
Program Code: DBOTB00003B
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00:01 Welcome back friends!
00:03 We are in Daniel Chapter 2. 00:04 We are discovering some fascinating things here James. 00:07 Powerful truths. 00:08 I am just noting here that the character of Daniel, 00:12 the attitude up Daniel and the actions of Daniel toward his 00:18 captors, his enemies, is revealing to us the heart of God 00:24 toward Nebuchadnezzar and toward the captors of Israel, those who 00:28 have enslaved God's people. 00:30 I think it is beautiful in Chapter 2:24 where Daniel says 00:35 Do not destroy the wisemen of Babylon. 00:39 Take me in before the king, I'll give the interpretation 00:42 of the dream, that is the heart of Jesus, that's the heart of 00:45 God, do not destroy even those who hate me. 00:50 My enemies, it reminds me of Jesus hanging on the cross 00:54 and crying out, "Father forgive them," they don't know what 00:58 they are doing. This is the heart of God 01:02 towards sinners. 01:03 What a powerful lesson for political leaders today. 01:06 You look at Daniel, you look at 01:08 even this situation, he is in a 01:10 political situation here, 01:12 and yet going past the 01:15 mudslinging, going past all of 01:17 the digging through garbage that we see in our world today, 01:21 a political scenario, Daniel just goes right past all of 01:25 that, he ignores it, and again how does he do it? 01:28 He does it by the influence of the grace of God 01:31 on his heart. 01:32 He himself is deeply impressed back in verse 18, with the 01:36 mercies of God, he knows God to be the kind of God he can 01:41 come to with his petitions in knowing God in this light 01:46 Daniel's heart is soft towards even his enemies. 01:50 do not destroy the wiseman of Babylon. 01:52 Even though they have taken me captive, I'm enslaved to this 01:55 foreign nation. 01:57 So then Daniel comes in before the King. 01:59 If it would have been reversed do you think the wisemen 02:00 would have been saying that about Daniel? 02:02 Well later on in the book of Daniel it is evident that they 02:05 are trying to trap him and sent him up and get Daniel out of 02:09 favor with the King. Exactly! 02:10 So no, if the tables were turned his enemies would pursue to 02:15 take his life, but Daniel doesn't respond unkind. 02:18 Is all the influence of God. Yes! 02:20 So Daniel is before the king now and it is amazing that the 02:26 King is looking for an answer to his dream. 02:29 He doesn't want niceties, all he wants is what is the dream? 02:32 What is the interpretation of the dream? 02:35 So Daniel is brought before king Nebuchadnezzar, 02:36 and he begins by immediately telling the king the secret 02:40 which the king has demanded. 02:43 The wisemen, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, 02:48 cannot declare to the king. 02:50 No one can reveal what the king is asking. 02:54 Yeah this is powerful. 02:55 It is set up because Arioch, 02:57 who is the guy that is suppose 02:59 to be over all the wisemen, 03:01 Arioch when Daniel comes to him 03:03 and says I will show the King the interpretation. 03:04 Arioch runs in before the king and brings Daniel in haste 03:09 verse 25, and he says I found the man. 03:11 I found a man, so what you have here is a stage 03:15 being set up here. 03:16 Arioch is directing attention to Daniel. 03:18 I found a man, in a sense he is taking a little glory to himself 03:21 You know? I found the man! 03:23 Really Arioch were you searching day and night for this guy? 03:26 Was it something that took a lot of effort? 03:29 No, Daniel was the one that actually made himself 03:32 known to Arioch. 03:33 I found the man, and then Nebuchadnezzar directs his 03:35 attention to Daniel, Are you able? 03:37 Then Daniel immediately directs the attention of Nebuchadnezzar 03:41 and the rest to the failure of all his wisemen for a reason. 03:47 Not to contrast himself with all the wisemen, but rather, as we 03:51 would think, we would think oh he is going to show that all 03:54 these wisemen couldn't do it, and now he is going to direct 03:57 the attention to him, No! He steps completely out of the way. 04:00 Daniel becomes invisible. 04:02 He directs the attention from the wisemen that failed and 04:06 bypasses himself, and directs the king to God. 04:10 Verse 28, "But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets 04:15 and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be 04:20 in the latter days. " 04:21 I love it! Yeah so Daniel deflects all 04:25 attention to the Lord, the contrast that we see here as a 04:28 contrast between all the wisdom all the wise of this world, 04:32 and the wisdom of God alone. 04:35 The contrast is not between the wise men of Babylon and 04:38 and wise Daniel. Right! 04:39 This is the theme that follows us through the book of Daniel. 04:42 Consistently human nature wants to attribute to the 04:46 man some glory, some credit. Yes! Yes! 04:49 Over and over again the men of Babylon and Media Persia 04:53 try to attribute to Daniel the glory and the credit and Daniel 04:56 is continuously reflecting, deflecting all of that and 05:00 putting the attention, or focusing the attention to God. 05:03 It's evident here that God has a 05:06 plan, not only to reveal world 05:09 history in advance for all 05:11 future generations, 05:13 but God has a plan to reach 05:14 the heart of Nebuchadnezzar. 05:16 I mean Daniel is the Prophet here, Daniel is the Israelite. 05:20 Daniel is God's man, so to speak and Nebuchadnezzar is a 05:24 unbelieving king. 05:25 Why would God give the dream to Nebuchadnezzar? 05:29 Why not give the dream to Daniel? 05:32 If it is just a utilitarian objective, just to get the 05:36 information on the table so the world can study this world 05:41 history in advance, there would be no point, 05:42 it is more than that. 05:45 What God is seeking to do is help Nebuchadnezzar feel 05:47 his own need, his personal need 05:49 for God that goes beyond what he 05:52 has in this world with its 05:53 riches and its wealth, 05:54 and its wisdom. 05:55 So God says I could give the dream to Daniel, but I'm going 05:59 to give the dream to an unbelieving King and through 06:04 giving him this dream, I'm going to reach his heart and 06:08 turn him to Me, 06:09 Also Daniel is helping Nebuchadnezzar recognize his 06:14 own need, and his need is to deal with his uncertainty 06:18 about the future. 06:19 Now all of us have that friends. 06:21 Every one of us has an uncertainty about the future. 06:23 What does the future hold? 06:24 Not just the future of our country, the economy, the 06:29 world's economy, but the future itself because the Bible says 06:33 that God has put eternity in our hearts. 06:34 We were made to live for ever. 06:37 But there is an uncertainty there. 06:39 Sin has placed uncertainty in the future of our own hearts. 06:43 So we tremble when we think am I ready for the future? 06:47 What is the future? What happens after death? 06:49 kept God wants to awaken that realization and then he wants to 06:53 satisfy an understanding that He alone has of what that 06:58 future, the hope of that future, has for each one of us. 07:00 James, check out verse 30. 07:02 Here were Daniel continues on in his discourse before the King 07:06 Obviously, as you pointed out, all the attention is on Daniel. 07:10 Daniel is on the stage. 07:12 He's the man, so to speak. 07:13 Then he says okay, verse 30, "but as for me," he does have 07:19 something to say about himself. 07:20 "as for me, he says, this secret has not been revealed to me 07:26 because I have more wisdom then any one living but for our sakes 07:33 who make known the interpretation to the king 07:36 and that you may know the thoughts of your heart. " 07:41 Yes, yes, yes I'm going to reveal these things to you 07:46 God is saying to Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel. 07:50 I'm going to reveal these things and Daniel my son and Meshach, 07:57 Shadrach and Abednego, they are going to be 08:00 preserved through this, but also King Nebuchadnezzar, I want 08:03 you to know, I want you to know your dream and it's 08:07 interpretation I am communicating to you 08:11 Nebuchadnezzar, I'm the God of heaven, I'm communicating to you 08:15 I want you to know about the future. 08:17 That is the question mark you have. 08:19 That you know about the future. What I want you to know 08:22 about future is not just that there is a future, but that 08:26 it is limited and you need to be aware of it. 08:28 You need to be prepared for that 08:30 because there are some things 08:32 that you need to do and know 08:34 in order to be a part of 08:35 the future and hope I have 08:37 for you, God has a future and hope for each one of us. 08:39 But their future and hope can only be realized in God and in 08:44 our belief in God. 08:45 So then comes the dream 08:46 and the interpretation. 08:47 Daniel from verse 31 onward 08:50 unfolds to the king his dream. 08:53 He says King you saw a great image, that image had a head 08:58 of gold, it had a chest and arms that were of silver, 09:02 it had a belly and thighs were of brass, it had legs 09:06 of iron and feet that were a mixture of iron and clay and 09:11 then you saw, in your dream King didn't you? 09:13 You saw a great stone smite the image at the feet. 09:18 Grind it to powder and grow into a great mountain. 09:21 At this point Nebuchadnezzar is amazed and that's my dream. 09:25 That's exactly my dream. 09:26 He says I can't believe this. Yes! 09:28 You did it, this is unbelievable! 09:30 He's ready for the interpretation. 09:31 Now what does that mean? Daniel basically tells him 09:34 this great image is a representation of kingdoms. 09:36 You're the first kingdom, you're the head of gold. 09:38 There will be another kingdom after you. 09:40 It will be inferior to you, Media Persia. 09:41 And another kingdom after that inferior, Greece. 09:44 And another kingdom, Rome. 09:45 Then there are the 10 toes, a division, a dividing 09:48 of those nations that make up Europe that for many years 09:53 controlled most of the world. 09:54 So you have all this world history from Babylon onward down 09:58 to the dividing of the European nations, the fragmenting of 10:02 the Roman empire. All that world history foretold 10:05 in advance which does a couple of things for us. 10:08 Number one, it confirms our confidence in Scripture. 10:11 It is phenomenal that the Bible reveals that secession of 10:18 kingdoms in advance before it ever took place it is 10:22 revealed right here. 10:23 Which can be confirmed in any history book. 10:24 Yes that is right! 10:25 Secondly, what this does for us is that it takes us to the 10:29 crucial period of human history where Daniel points out to 10:33 King Nebuchadnezzar, there is a final universal eternal kingdom 10:39 that is going to be set up and it is not Babylon. 10:42 It's not your kingdom Nebuchadnezzar, it is the 10:44 kingdom of Lord God Almighty and His kingdom is going to be 10:48 ultimately established and will be eternal. 10:51 It is the kingdom of Jesus Christ, He is the Stone, 10:54 He is the Rock, and that is the kingdom that's going 10:55 to be set up. 10:57 Nebuchadnezzar when this all gets done, Nebuchadnezzar 10:59 is so impressed, now this is what truth does. 11:02 Truth impresses Daniel, it changes him. 11:07 It powerfully impacts him. 11:09 Truth affects Nebuchadnezzar, a king, not even a believer. 11:13 It changes him, it transforms him and so when this is all 11:16 finished, Nebuchadnezzar is impacted. 11:18 Verse 46, it says he fell down on his face and he worshiped 11:22 Daniel and he offered him oblations and odors and said, 11:27 in verse 47, of a truth it is, Daniel, your God is the God 11:31 of gods, the Lord of Kings, and the revealer of secrets. 11:35 What a transition from a God who is puny, I can take him 11:38 and put his vessels in my other gods now who is the God of gods 11:44 and the Lord of lords, and the revealer of secrets. 11:47 This is a radical transformation in Nebuchadnezzar. 11:50 But we also need to recognize 11:52 that at this point it is 11:54 pretty intellectual, 11:56 it's pretty intellectual because 11:57 as we are going to see in our 11:58 next program it opens up in Chapter 3 with Nebuchadnezzar 12:04 defying the image that God gave him. 12:07 That's right, in fact when you look at this whole book 12:10 is developing this character transition that is taking place 12:16 in Nebuchadnezzar's heart and experience. 12:17 Nebuchadnezzar is like, in a sense, we look at today, 12:21 we look at Christians, we look at Muslims, Nebuchadnezzar 12:24 is this king of today it would be Iran, and he is a man that 12:29 has a different belief system, maybe then Daniel does. 12:32 and now he is intellectually convicted of a truth of a 12:36 different God then the one he worships. 12:38 We see him beginning to make this transition but the 12:41 transition takes time. 12:42 With all of us friends, it takes time and God patiently reveals 12:47 His goodness to us, works with us and draws us to Him. 12:50 so that we can at last see Him in who He really is. 12:52 That is our prayer for you. |
Revised 2014-12-17