SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/5/2013 10:37 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Agitation: The king’s dream
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Daniel
4:4-18
Message of the
verses: In order to set the stage
for this chapter I wish to begin with a couple of end notes from Warren
Wiersbe’s commentary. 1. “Verses 28-33
were written by another hand, but Nebuchadnezzar picks up the narrative in
verse 34. Daniel himself may have written
verses 28-33 and inserted them in the official royal document. Luke followed a similar approach in Acts
23:25-30. Neither the Babylonian king
nor the Roman officer was inspired by the Spirit when they wrote, but Daniel
and Luke were led by the Spirit to include their writings in what we know as
Holy Scripture. 2. Since verses 1-2 were
written after the kings recovery, we’ll consider them when we study verses
34-37.”
Daniel was one of the first books that I looked at after
being saved; in fact the Lord used parts of Daniel’s prophecies to bring me to
the Lord. With this said I have to admit
that I had never heard that this chapter, chapter four, was a written document
that sent out to all of the providences in Babylon. It is hard to believe that this proud king
would do this unless he came to believe in the one true God, which is what many
commentators believe, happened to him as evidenced in this chapter. King Nebuchadnezzar learned a very difficult
truth that Solomon wrote about in Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty
spirit before a fall.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “There are five ‘acts’ in this
extraordinary drama,” we will consider the first act in this SD.
4 "I,
Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace. 5 "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. 6 "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. 7 “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. 8 “But finally Daniel came in before me,
whose name is Belteshazzar according to the name of my god, and in whom is a
spirit of the holy gods; and I related the dream to him, saying, 9 ’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. 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. 11 ’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. 12 ’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. 13 ’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. 14
’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. 15 “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. 16 “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. 17 "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." 18 ’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.’”
As I read through this section it seems to me that I have
seen some of the things that are in this chapter that were in previous
chapters. Now first of all we need to
learn that it was probably some twenty to thirty years since the last chapter
of Daniel had occurred, the chapter about the fiery furnace. King Nebuchadnezzar had concurred all of his
enemies and was not living in a time of peace, a time when he could begin to
build things in his city. Babylon was
noted for many wonderful buildings and gardens.
The city was build so that a river flowed through it and the walls
around the city were very high and very wide so those who lived in the city
were safe, at least they thought they were safe as we will see in the next
chapter of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar was a
very proud man who believed that all of his kingdom was made by him and did not
think about the God of heaven who was really the one who was behind all of his
success.
The Old Testament shows that God is in charge and that
after sin came into the world that God would send His Messiah into the world to
care for the biggest problem that faced man, and that is the problem of
sin. From reading how the children of
Israel had sinned and the result of that sin was being captured by Babylon and
living in that country we may think that this was a failure, but it was all in
the plan of God, and would bring glory to Him.
One would think that Nebuchadnezzar would have just sent
for Daniel right away to show him what his dream was about, but he sent for his
own people first and just like the other times they failed him and so he had to
send for Daniel. The first time that we
read about this the magicians told him that if they knew the dream that they
could tell him the meaning of it. This
time he tells them the dream and they still can’t interpret it.
Nebuchadnezzar was afraid in chapter two of Daniel, but
he was terrified from the dream that he had here. I think that the key verse in this section is
verse seventeen as it gives the reason for the dream and gives glory to the
Lord. "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."
6/5/2013 11:44 AM
6/5/2013 5:10 PM
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I think that one
of the most important things that believers can learn from their reading and
studying of the Scriptures is how they see God in the passages that they read
and study. I have seen an all knowing
God along with a God who is completely in charge in the passages that I have
looked at today.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to see the Lord in what happens in
my life each day, trusting him to guide my paths and teach me from His Word.
Memory verses for the
week: 2 Cor. 5:17-21
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who
reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to
Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us
the word of reconciliation. 20
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal
through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on
our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “To kill Jacob” (Genesis
27:41).”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was Paul entreating to
show good fidelity?” This is a hard
question so I will give you a hint: See
Titus 2:9-10.
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
6/5/2013 5:24 PM
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