Nebuchadnezzar has another dream. (Daniel Chapter 4)

 Chapter 4 of the book of Daniel is a bit unusual. It is told from King Nebuchadnezzar's point of view, as if he were writing the story himself. So that is how I will approach this chapter as well. Let's begin:

  I, King Nebuchadnezzar, was sleeping very comfortably when I was awakened by a disturbing dream. I didn't even wait until morning. I summoned all my wise men in the kingdom to interpret this dream for me right then and there. I told them about the dream that had upset me so, but none of them could or would interpret it for me. Perhaps my ruthless reputation preceded me, and they were fearful for their lives. Nevertheless, I finally called for Daniel. He had already demonstrated that he could interpret dreams, although he said it was God who interpreted them and that he was just the messenger. When Daniel arrived, I told him about my disturbing dream. I saw a gigantic tree with beautiful leaves and many kinds of delicious fruit. It provided food for the wild animals resting in its shade and for the birds as well. Then I saw an angel descend from heaven and cut down the tree. The angel also removed all the branches and destroyed the fruit. Only a stump remained, but the angel instructed leaving it with the roots still intact. Now, here’s the really strange part; the stump, which previously had the mind of a man, has now been given the mind of a wild beast, and the angel declared that this would last for seven years!

 After I shared my dream, I looked up at Daniel. He appeared visibly shaken. I tried to calm him and told him not to let my dream cause him any fear. "Just tell me what it means," I said. Daniel finally responded, saying he wished this dream were about my enemies, not about me. He explained that the tree represented me, Nebuchadnezzar, and that my kingdom had grown strong and prosperous. However, you will be removed from your kingdom. You will be like an ox in the field, eating grass and sleeping on the ground. This will last for seven years, after which you will acknowledge that God rules over everything from heaven. Then you will be restored, and your kingdom will return to you. Daniel urged me to repent of my sins.

A year passed, and I, King Nebuchadnezzar, had long dismissed my dream as nothing more than a nighttime story, born out of fear and maybe something I ate before bed. In the last twelve months, nothing even close to what I dreamed about had happened. My kingdom was thriving, and I was living in the beautiful palace. I decided to go up to the roof and look over my kingdom. Once I reached the roof, a wave of overwhelming pride filled my heart. Look at all this, I thought. Then I shouted, "Isn't this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power, and all for my own glory?" Almost immediately, I heard a loud voice from heaven. "Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom has departed from you, and you will be driven out from among men. You will live among the beasts in the fields for seven years. Once you understand that the kingdoms of this world are ruled by Me, The Most High, and given to those whom I choose, then, and only then, will the kingdom be restored to you." I don't need to tell you, I felt fear like never before. 

 Before I knew it, I fell to the ground and started crawling on all fours. I tried to call out to my servants, but the words only turned into growls. My heart began pounding out of my chest! I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk, and I felt driven to leave the castle. I plodded past the guards. I really wonder what they were thinking as I went from an upright ruler to scurrying by them on my hands and knees. As I crossed the bridge connecting my castle to the second set of guards, I lost my shoes, and my knuckles bled from dragging them on the ground. My robe caught on a bush as I turned toward a nearby field. By the time I reached the field, my royal robes were tattered rags, and my braided beard looked like a mop.

 After seven years of living in the wild, eating grass like a wild ox, and being unable to bathe or groom myself, I became hideous to look at. My hair grew long and was so matted it resembled tattered eagle feathers. My nails grew long and grotesque, like ragged bird claws. Then, finally, after seven years, I lifted my eyes to heaven, and my senses returned to me. I praised and honored the Most High with my heart and my lips. (Romans 10:9) For once in my life, I realized that God is God, and I am not. He is in charge of everything. Nothing happens in the world that is not filtered through Him. My kingdom is not my own. It is His. All I have is His. Anything that I thought I accomplished was really His doing. (Colossians 1:16-17) Then it happened. My royal subjects, my counselors, and wise men sought me out in the fields. My kingdom was restored to me, and I spent the last years of my life constantly praising God for who He is, and continually thanking Him for all the blessings in my life. 

 Wow! What a story! We can learn many lessons from this chapter. Nebuchadnezzar himself highlighted a few of them, such as gratitude and praising God. Psalm 109:30 states this exact sentiment: "With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord, and I will praise Him." He also emphasized that God is in control of all things, so we must trust Him. We also see that being prideful is not Godly. James 4:6 says that God opposes the proud, and Proverbs 16:18 states that pride goes before destruction. Pride traces back to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil, who said they could be as great as God if they ate from the fruit, and the rest is history. James 4:6 says God resists the proud. I don't know about you, but I’d rather have God on my side than against me! Next time, we will see if Nebuchadnezzar's son follows in his father's footsteps.  

The Fiery Furnace Part 2. (Daniel Chapter 3 vs. 19-30)

 When we left off last time, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had been tossed into the very, very hot fiery furnace by an extremely upset king Nebuchadnezzar. The 3 boys did not bow down to the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had made so Nebuchadnezzar had the 3 boys brought to him in front of many onlookers who had gathered to dedicate the statue. He gave the boys one more chance to bow down, but they said that they would never bow down to anyone accept for the one true God. And that's why Nebuchadnezzar flew into a rage. He was basically humiliated in front of thousands of people. He ordered that the 3 boys be tied up and tossed into the furnace immediately! 

  As the 3 boys were tossed into the fire, the ropes were burned off of them, and the guards that were doing the tossing, were killed because the flames were so hot! Nebuchadnezzar stood at a safe distance and peered into the furnace. "Didn't we throw 3 men into the fire?" He asked one of the surviving guards who answered, "Why yes we did your majesty.                                                                                               "Then why do I see 4 men casually walking around in there? And one of them looks like a divine being!" Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed. He was absolutely astonished. All he could think of to do, was to call the 3 men out by name. "Shadrach! Meshach! Abednego! Come out of the furnace!"

God surely could have kept Shadrach Meshach and Adednego from the fiery furnace. He could have welded the door shut so that the guards could not open the furnace. But He didn't. He could have put the fire out with one blow. But He didn't. But He allowed them to be tied up and tossed in. As the boys were tossed in, I'm sure it was very scary for them. But they trusted God.

Sometimes God allows us to go through tough things in our lives, rather than take us around the bad thing. We trust God because we know He is good! Now here is the amazing thing! God allows us to go through bad things, but He promises to be with us in it. So who was that fourth man in the fire with the three boys? That was Jesus! Yes, Jesus showed up several time in the Old Testament before he was even born a man! God kept His promise to Shadrach, Meshach, and AbedNego. He was there with them! I don't know about you, but I would much rather be in the middle of something hard with Jesus, than going around that tough thing and waving to Jesus from a distance!

Nebuchadnezzar recognized from a distance that the extra man in the furnace looked like a man, but maybe he had a glow or something. No matter what, Nebuchadnezzar knew something was different about Him. When the 3 men heard their names called by the king, they stepped out of the furnace. The large crowd was really buzzing now! The remaining guards, the statesmen, governors and officials were astonished. They walked up to the 3 men and noticed that their clothes didn't even smell like smoke. However, they saw that the ropes that bound them had been burnt off. The guards looked them over. Not even one hair on their heads had been singed! 

When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He breaks the chains of sin, just like he freed Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. He frees us from the prison of sin, so that we can live a life that brings Him glory. Jesus not only frees us to live God-honoring lives, He saves us. Just as Shadrach Meshach and Abednego were saved from the fiery furnace, Jesus saves us from hell, which in the book of Revelation is referred to as the Lake of Fire. Jesus is our Savior. His death on the cross for our sins allows all who believe in Him and trust Him to spend eternity with God. Now would be a good time to turn to God and accept what Jesus did for you. It's as easy as A-B-C. Admit, Believe, Commit. You can sincerely pray to God, something like this. Dear God, I admit that I have done wrong things, I believe that you sent Jesus to live a sinless life and die for MY sins. I commit my whole life to you. Thank you Father God for accepting me into your family. If you prayed that prayer, and meant it in your heart, the Bible says that the angels are throwing a party up in heaven right now!

Nebuchadnezzar had a decision to make, try again or embrace the fact that the God of these three boys was in fact God. In an effort to save face. He made this proclamation: “Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel to rescue his servants who trusted in him. They defied the king’s command and were willing to die rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore, I make this decree: If any people, whatever their race or nation or language, speak a word against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they will be torn limb from limb, and their houses will be turned into heaps of rubble. There is no other god who can rescue like this!” I'm, sure the 3 men didn't really like the fact that people who talked bad about God would be killed. This showed that Nebuchadnezzar still didn't really know God at all, because God gives us free will to choose Him or not. Then Nebuchadnezzar promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego right there on the spot. From that day forward they held high positions in the king's court.

We can stand on the promise of God, that even if He allows us to go through fiery trials, He will always be with us. (Deuteronomy 31:8)

2 Statues, 1 Dream and a Fiery Furnace (Daniel 2b-3)

 Last time we left off, Nebuchadnezzar issued a death warrant to all the wise men under him because no one could tell him what his dream was and what it meant. When the commander of the king's army showed up to bring in Daniel for execution, Daniel asked for a little more time, so he would be able to give the king what he wanted. The king agreed and Daniel went home and prayed with his 3 closest friends that God would reveal the king's dream to Daniel, and enlighten him about what it meant.

 That night Daniel had a vision. God revealed to Daniel what Nebuchadnezzar's dream was and what it meant. Daniel prayed again, praising God and thanking Him! The next morning Daniel went straight to the commander of the king's army, Arioch, and told him that he had the information that the king was looking for. So Arioch paused his mass execution of all the wise men and brought Daniel before the king. He wanted to score some points with the king, so instead of telling him the truth (that Daniel came to him), he told the king that he found one of the captives from Judah who could tell him and interpret his dream.

"Is this true?" Nebuchadnezzar asked Daniel. "Can you tell me my dream and what it means?"                     "It is not I, but the one true God that wants you to know what your dream means," Daniel answered. “In your vision, Your Majesty, you saw standing before you a huge, shining statue of a man. It was made of many different materials. A rock came flying out of a nearby mountain and hit the feet of the statue. Then the whole statue was crushed into small pieces of iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold and the wind blew them away without a trace. But the rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth. God has made you a mighty king, in charge of a vast kingdom, but your kingdom will fall and be replaced several times over. Finally, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever. That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain, though not by human hands, that crushed to pieces the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God was showing the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its meaning is certain.”

God speaks to us in many ways, through the Bible, through other people, when we sit quietly and listen, and even in our dreams. We need to not only keep our eyes and our ears open to what God might be telling us, but also our hearts. Ask God if that dream you had last night was from Him and what it meant.

Nebuchadnezzar was amazed that Daniel knew his dream and what it meant! He said, “Truly, your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret.”  Then the king appointed Daniel to a high position and gave him many valuable gifts. He made Daniel ruler over the whole province of Babylon, as well as chief over all his wise men.  At Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon, while Daniel remained in the king’s court.

Daniel continued to give God the glory, but he was also blessed. Whatever we do, we should do it for the glory of God. 1Corinthians 10:31 Anytime anyone compliments you, say thank you and pass that compliment along to God. After all, He gave you the ability to do whatever you did to get that compliment.

The idea of a statue must have remained in Nebuchadnezzar's brain, because soon afterward, he built a ninety-foot gold statue and commanded that, when the musical instruments rang out, all the people would fall on their faces and worship the statue. Anyone who didn't comply would be thrown into a fiery furnace. So, every time the music sounded the people fell to their knees and worshipped the statue. However, some of the king's wise men noticed that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not worship the statue when the instruments were played and they went straight to the king and told him. (You would think that they would have been so happy that Daniel was able to tell the king his dream and save their lives, that they would have kept their mouths shut) Nebuchadnezzar was furious! He demanded that the three men be brought to him and tossed in the furnace. Remember when we first met Nebuchadnezzar, we said that he was very impulsive. He showed it again when blew up and demanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be executed. But by the time they were rounded up and brought before the king, he had calmed down a bit and gave them one last chance to worship the statue when the musical instruments played. But the three men told the king that they had no intention of worshipping anyone or anything but the One True God. And even more, they told the king that their God was able to rescue them from the fiery furnace, but even if he didn't, they would still never worship the gold statue. Nebuchadnezzar flew into even more of a rage than he had before. He demanded that the furnace be heated to 7 times hotter than usual and that the three men be tossed in. So some guards tied up the men, while other guards fired up the furnace. The furnace was so hot, that when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were tossed in, the guards that did the tossing were killed instantly.

Sometimes it is hard to be a follower of Jesus. The Bible says that yes, we will have troubles, but God says that He will be with us in those troubles. Jesus said that we will also be persecuted. Which means people will not be nice to us just because we love Jesus. But Jesus said to stay strong because He is stronger than anything this world can throw at us.

As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell into the furnace, the ropes that bound them burned off. Nebuchadnezzar got as close as he could to the furnace without getting burned and he peered into it. Next time we will see what happened to them.