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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then Daniel (also called Belteshazzar) was greatly perplexed
for a time, and his thoughts terrified him. So the king said, “Belteshazzar, do
not let the dream or its meaning alarm you.”
Belteshazzar answered, “My lord, if only the dream applied
to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries! The tree you saw, which
grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole
earth, with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving
shelter to the wild animals, and having nesting places in its branches for the
birds—Your Majesty, you are that tree! You have become great and strong; your
greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to
distant parts of the earth.”
“Your Majesty saw a holy one, a messenger, coming down from
heaven and saying, ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump,
bound with iron and bronze, in the grass of the field, while its roots remain
in the ground. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven; let him live with
the wild animals, until seven times pass by for him.’”
“This is the interpretation, Your Majesty, and this is the
decree the Most High has issued against my lord the king: You will be driven
away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like
the ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven. 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. The command to leave the stump of the tree
with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you
acknowledge that Heaven rules. Therefore, Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my
advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being
kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.”
Daniel 4:19-27
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Sin is a terrible affliction and we’re all infected with it.
Like any disease, there are varying degrees of it and a person might even find
themselves in remission from time to time. In its worst state, sin can consume
us to the point where we can no longer see how wicked we have become.
Point in case can be found in King Nebuchadnezzar, the king
of Babylon who we find receiving some rather disappointing news from Daniel in
the form of a revelation in today’s scripture passage from Daniel, Chapter 4.
Before we dig into the passage, we need to go back to
yesterday’s devotion and revisit the king’s dream. For after he testified about
the greatness and majesty of the God of Daniel and Judah, he proceeded to
reveal the particulars from a second dream he had, one that involved a tree.
Here’s what he shared about that vision:
“I looked, and there
before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The
tree grew large and strong and its top touched the sky; it was visible to the
ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was
food for all. Under it the wild animals found shelter, and the birds lived in
its branches; from it every creature was fed.”
“In the visions I saw
while lying in bed, I looked, and there before me was a holy one, a messenger,
coming down from heaven. He called in a loud voice: ‘Cut down the tree and trim
off its branches; strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals
flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But let the stump and its
roots, bound with iron and bronze, remain in the ground, in the grass of the
field.”
“‘Let him be drenched
with the dew of heaven, and let him live with the animals among the plants of
the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let him be given the
mind of an animal, till seven times pass by for him.” Daniel 4:10-16
This is what Nebuchadnezzar shared and then immediately
asked Daniel to do what he had done before and reveal the meaning of the dream.
As we see our scripture passage open today, we find Daniel very reluctant to
disclose the meaning to the king. Look at these verses again and you’ll see
why:
Then Daniel (also
called Belteshazzar) was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts
terrified him. So the king said, “Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its
meaning alarm you.”
Belteshazzar
answered, “My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning
to your adversaries! The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its
top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth, with beautiful leaves and
abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the wild animals, and
having nesting places in its branches for the birds—Your Majesty, you are that
tree! You have become great and strong; your greatness has grown until it
reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to distant parts of the earth.”
“Your Majesty saw a
holy one, a messenger, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Cut down the tree
and destroy it, but leave the stump, bound with iron and bronze, in the grass
of the field, while its roots remain in the ground. Let him be drenched with
the dew of heaven; let him live with the wild animals, until seven times pass
by for him.’”
“This is the
interpretation, Your Majesty, and this is the decree the Most High has issued
against my lord the king: You will be driven away from people and will live
with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox and be drenched with the
dew of heaven. 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. The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that
your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules. Therefore,
Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what
is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that
then your prosperity will continue.” Daniel
4:19-27
Now we don’t really get it from Nebuchadnezzar’s words
earlier in this chapter but it’s rather obvious by the way Daniel speaks that
Nebuchadnezzar has not given a thought that the vision might be about him. Rather,
the king of Babylon believed that the tree represented all of his enemies,
adversaries who would be wiped out by the God of all gods, the Lord God
Almighty, the God of Daniel and the Jews.
Unfortunately for Nebuchadnezzar, the revelation placed him
at the center of the vision as the great tree which would be fallen. Remember
when Nebuchadnezzar had first praised God after Daniel interpreted his first
dream and then followed that up by setting up a golden image and forcing his
people to bow down and worship it. It was rather obvious that Nebuchadnezzar’s
heart wasn’t truly committed to God but rather he used God as a convenience,
like one of his many servants that he could summon at will. The king of Babylon
proclaimed Daniel’s God as the God of gods but he really didn’t behave in a way
that showed he really meant it.
And so God was going to act in a way that would get his
attention. Nebuchadnezzar would “driven away from people” where he would “live
with the wild animals”, “eat grass like the ox”, and “be drenched with the dew
of heaven”. There, he would be in that place for seven years (seven times)
until the deposed king of Babylon would “acknowledge that the Most High is
sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to whoever He wishes.” In
other words, Nebuchadnezzar would finally realize that he was under God and not
over Him. It would be a tough lesson to learn, a lesson grounded in humility, but
one the king needed to learn.
In the meantime, Daniel added some additional words of
counsel for the soon to be displaced king:
“Renounce your sins
by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It
may be that then your prosperity will continue.”
It wasn’t enough to just say you believed in God as the God
of gods, you had to show that you were willing to submit to His will and way,
something Nebuchadnezzar was obviously unwilling to do without some form of
coercion. Now that the king knew God’s judgment would be upon him, Daniel was
simply showing him the way back to God’s favor, a place where he might find
himself return to prosperity, rewarded by God for his commitment to turn from
his sin and wickedness, turning instead toward righteousness and justice.
Perhaps this account of Nebuchadnezzar’s downfall should be
a revelation for all of us today as we read this. For how many times do we
carry ourselves through life doing what we want to do, chasing after the
desires of our own hearts like some king who feels he can do what he wants to
do without an ounce of accountability from the very God who placed him in power
in the first place?
How many times have we been like Nebuchadnezzar ourselves?
Maybe more times than we would want to admit.
So what guidance do you think Daniel would give us if he
were to address us as he did the king?
I believe his counsel would be the same: Renounce your sins
and repent, and turn away from wickedness toward the righteousness that can
only be gained by following God.
For it’s only when we are right with God that we can ever
hope to fully experience the riches of His blessings, living a life that is
pleasing in His sight, a life full of the prosperity found in the treasures of
heaven.
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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