SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/6/2013 12:48 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Interpretation: The king’s danger
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Daniel
4:19-26
Message of the verses: I thought that because this fourth chapter of Daniel has a lot to do with the pride of king Nebuchadnezzar that I would quote some of the times that the word “pride” is found in the book of Proverbs.
“Pr 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate. Pr 11:2 When pride comes, then comes dishonor, But with the humble is wisdom. Pr 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling. Pr 21:24 “Proud," "Haughty," "Scoffer," are his names, Who acts with insolent pride. Pr 29:23 A man’s pride will bring him low, But a humble spirit will obtain honor.
Pr 15:25 The LORD will tear down the house of the proud, But He will establish the boundary of the widow. Pr 16:5 Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished. Pr 16:19 It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly Than to divide the spoil with the proud. Pr 21:4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin. Pr 21:24 “Proud," "Haughty," "Scoffer," are his names, Who acts with insolent pride.”
Daniel 4:19-26 “19 “Then Daniel, whose name is 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! 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 21 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- 22 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. 23 ’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, and let him share with the beasts of the field until seven periods of time pass over him," 24 this is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king: 25 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 it on whomever He wishes. 26 ’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.”
I want to begin by saying that there are some
commentators who would say that Nebuchadnezzar was not really talking about the
God of heaven, but there are also many
who say that is who he is talking about.
I have to agree with those who say that he was talking about the One
True God who made the heavens and the earth.
Next I want to say that the warning that is seen in this chapter is
speaking to all future rulers who think that they are the one who is in
charge. I think it was Warren Wiersbe
who stated that a good leader always knows that he is second in command. Nebuchadnezzar had to learn that he was
second in charge the hard way as we will see in the interpretation of his dream
that was given to him by Daniel. This
message is not only for all rulers, but for all people, and especially for
believers. It becomes a battle from many
people as they think that they are completely in control of their lives. We, as believers can take comfort that God is
indeed in charge of our lives, for even when things are not going as we want
them to go we can rest assured that our God is faithful and He will work all
things out for good for those who love Him and it will also be worked out for
His glory.
When we begin to look at this section we see that Daniel
was perplexed when he received the interpretation of the dream from the Lord,
and I believe that the reason that he was so upset was because he had a genuine
love for the king. Daniel was a great
man who had a great deal of faith in the Lord as can be seen by the writings of
his book. We have stated in the last SD
the events in chapter four probably took place some 25-30 years after the
events in chapter three so that would make Daniel close to fifty years old and
he must have spent a lot of time in the presence of the king and therefore had
a great desire for the king to know the One True God. Another reason for me to think of the
greatness of this man Daniel is that it was Nebuchadnezzar the one who had
destroyed Daniel’s nation and the temple of God, and yet when we get to chapter
nine and his very long prayer we will see that Daniel knew that it was the sin
of the nation of Israel that caused God to destroy their nation and He only
used Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Judah. I
believe that Daniel had a great love for Nebuchadnezzar and that is the main
reason that he was so very upset about what this dream meant.
Here is a list of different times when Scripture speaks
of trees as leaders and political authority: (Ezekiel 17; 31; Hosea 14; Zech.
11:1-2; Luke 23:31). Once Israel was
destroyed then we moved into the times of the Gentiles and as we remember
Daniel chapter two we see that Babylon, and king Nebuchadnezzar was the head of
gold in Gentile nations that would rule the world or known world. The metals became less precious, but their
strength became stronger. The problem
with Nebuchadnezzar was that he thought that he was the one who did all of
this, but as stated before he was about to find out different.
The promise of when the tree was cut down was that the stump and the roots would remain, which meant that God promised that Nebuchadnezzar would return to rule Babylon. This was the promise that God gave to him and when one thinks about it we would have to conclude that the only reason that Nebuchadnezzar would return to rule was because that is what God said would happen. Other nations would hear about this, but they would not be able to conquer Babylon because of the promise that God had given to Nebuchadnezzar that he would return to his rule, but after this he would realize that he was second in command. When we see that the stump was banded we believe that this was the protection that God had given to Nebuchadnezzar. There is a passage in Isaiah that tells of the future Messiah. God would allow the “tree” of Israel to be cut down however from the stump would come the Messiah: Isaiah 10:33-11:5 “33 Behold, the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash; Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down And those who are lofty will be abased. 34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.”
“1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 3 And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; 4 But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. 5 Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes:
“The grand lesson God wanted the king to learn-and that we must learn
today—is that God alone is
sovereign and will not permit mortals to usurp His throne or take credit for
His works. We are but creatures, and God
is the Creator; we are only subjects, but He is the King of Kings. When men and women refuse to submit
themselves to God as creatures made in His image, they are in grave danger of
descending to the level of animals. It’s
worth noting that God used animals when He wanted to describe the great empires
of history (Daniel 7), and that the last great world dictator is called ‘the
beast.’ (Rev. 11:7; 13:1ff; 14:9, 11; etc).
“Men and women are made in the image of God, but when
they leave God out of their lives and resist His will, they can descend to the
level of animals. ‘Do not be like the
horse or like the mule,’ warns King David, who was guilty of acting like both
(Ps. 32:9, NKJV). Like the impulsive
horse, he rushed into sin when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then
life the stubborn mule, he delayed confessing his sins and repenting (2Sam.
11:12_. When the Lord arrested Saul of
Tarsus on the Damascus Road, He compared the pious rabbi to a stubborn ox when
He said, ‘It is hard for you to kick against the goads’ (Acts 9:5).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I don’t want to
kick against the goads. I don’t want to
be proud.
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 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 on our
behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Servants” (Titus 2:9-10).
Today’s Bible
Question: “What happened in nature when
Jesus was crucified?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
6/6/2013 5:00 PM
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