Daniel 2:1-49 | The Unending Kingdom

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

I'm sure that many of you are ready and waiting for me to say, please open your Bibles to Matthew 24.

But I'm going to spare you this morning.

Please open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

Last Sunday I mentioned that I was hoping to have a document prepared for you on some walkthrough of why I think the section near the end of Matthew 24 refers to the second coming of Christ rather than the rapture.

And if you are just all confused by hearing that, that's okay.

You have to go back and listen to the last two sermons to understand that.

But if you are interested in having some help, falling asleep in your afternoon nap this afternoon, this is available for you at the infodesk out here.

This is a document I put together that walks through some of the arguments for Matthew 24, verses 36 to 44, as to why some think it refers to the rapture and why some think it refers to the second coming of Christ.

Matthew 24:36–44

So if you want some of the details that go into all of that, that is available for you out in the foyer here at the info desk.

I have it available after the service so that you don't get distracted during the service.

So please don't rush out and get it.

It's more for your afternoon nap or your going to sleep tonight.

But this morning I'd like to work through Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

And it is not entirely a different direction from Matthew chapter 24.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

It actually fits in quite well.

In our scripture reading in Zechariah chapter 5, we saw this image of a basket, a bucket, if you will, filled with the sins of the people of Israel.

Zechariah 5 · chapter mention

Sins that are so overflowing that a lid has to be placed on it.

And not just any lid, but a leaden lid, a heavy lid, to keep those sins squashed down inside of that.

So that they don't overflow out of it.

God doesn't forgive those sins.

Instead, he sends them away to a place called Shinar.

In Daniel chapter 2, we see where that story picks up.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

God's people are in Babylon, having been carried away in judgment for their sins.

But before we look at Daniel chapter 2, I'd like you to think about Psalm 137.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

You don't have to turn there.

Psalm 137 begins like this.

It says, By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, we hung up our lyres.

For there our captors required of us songs and our tormentors, mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

Cheer us up.

O captives.

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?

That psalm provides a glimpse of the torment God's people endured during their exile in ancient Babylon.

Terms like captors and tormentors bring up memories filled with pain and anxiety and grief.

And so when we understand that this is captives singing in a foreign land and being tormented by to sing songs of joy when all they want to do is be at home with their families hundreds of miles away across a desert.

It makes sense why the first line of this psalm speaks of sitting down and weeping.

And yet, when we read it in line with Zechariah chapter 5, we understand that they are there because of their sin.

Zechariah 5 · chapter mention

God has taken them there because of their sin.

He's not taking their sin away, he's judging their sin.

Israel has moved from captivity, from to captivity from freedom.

They have moved from being full of hope to hopeless.

Any dreams they might have had of returning to what once was were snuffed out by the glory of Babylon and the might of this new king named Nebuchadnezzar.

A teenager by the name of Daniel, Daniel, was among those very first captives taken away from Israel.

Transported as a captive to a foreign land and forced into a pagan culture where he went through a redoctrination program.

And during that time he wrote a book about his experience in that ancient city.

His experience in a basket with a leaden cover.

We don't know precisely when Daniel's book was recorded and distributed to the exiles.

But it reminded God's people that God was sovereign.

And God was more powerful than this king Nebuchadnezzar.

He was more glorious than the golden walls of Babylon.

And that should have encouraged the captives and given hope to the tormented.

Encouragement and hope would have been desperately needed as the months in exile turned into years, and as the years turned into decades, and as those decades passed with yet another pagan king.

A measure of hope and encouragement came near the beginning of Israel's exile.

The second chapter of Daniel tells us that the event recorded here took place in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

And just give you a little bit of context, that would have been the third year of Daniel's re-education process.

How does the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign equal the third year of Daniel's re-education process?

Well, it goes back to the way they counted years during that time period.

In the way of Babylonian counting, the first year a king ruled on the throne was called his ascension year.

So that was when he actually became king.

The following year was technically his first year of rule.

So this is the second year of his rule, which meant this is the third year of Daniel's exile, the third year of his training process to become Babylonian.

Here's what took place.

In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams.

Plural.

His spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.

Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams.

So they came in and stood before the king.

And the king said to them, I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.

Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever.

Just tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.

The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The word from me is firm.

If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.

But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor.

Therefore, show me the dream and its interpretation.

They answered a second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.

King answered and said, I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see that the word from me is firm.

Now, if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you.

You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change.

Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.

Chaldeans answered the king and said, Are you nuts?

There's not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked any such thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean.

The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.

Because of this, the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed.

So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed, and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them.

Let's pause there.

I know you want to hear the rest of the story.

Let's take it in steps.

We've all had dreams awaken us in the middle of the night, right?

We've been there.

Sometimes you have the same dream on multiple nights.

We don't know what happened here.

We know that dreams is plural were these multiple dreams in the same night.

Was it the same dream over and over again on the same night?

Was it the same dream on multiple nights?

We don't know those details.

Some dreams that we have are terrifying or so intense that we cannot go back to sleep.

Nebuchadnezzar had one of those dreams.

And it seems as though it was not just once, but many times.

Dreams had religious ties in the ancient world.

They were believed to be ways in which the gods, the lowercase g, communicated with the world.

It was the way they made things happen in human lives.

Nebuchadnezzar's dreams that we'll see in a minute were about a massive statue that he probably thought represented him.

But that statue was destroyed in his dream.

So if the gods were trying to tell Nebuchadnezzar something, and what they showed him was this massive statue being destroyed, he might begin to understand his fright.

What does this destroyed statue represent?

What am I seeing?

What are the gods trying to tell me?

As we will see, that fright led to the king's demand, a young man's reliance on God, a divine revelation, and a human declaration.

Let's look first at this king's inability to know the future.

You remember what Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 24?

You cannot know.

Neither could King Nebuchadnezzar.

He called in all the wise men that he had so that he might interpret the dreams.

So there's several categories of counselors that a king would have.

And Daniel goes into great detail here.

He wants us to slow our pace so that we build tension in our thoughts.

The king commanded that the magicians, not just the magicians, but the enchanters.

Not just the magicians and the enchanters, but the magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers come in.

He's sparing no expense to understand this dream, but it's not just those three, it's the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans.

This is serious.

Anybody who has any sense of wisdom is brought into the king so that the king can know what the gods are trying to tell him.

But this time the king is not so much in a charitable mood, is he?

The typical pattern is that the king would explain the dream to his wise men and they would interpret it.

But this time the king wanted them to tell him the dream and interpret it.

I have questions.

Did he forget the dream?

And he wants to be reminded of it?

Or is he really just trying to test them?

Maybe some of that will become clear to us.

But this is understandable, an understandable demand if you if you look at it from the seat of a fearful king.

As I said to you, we haven't read it yet, but the dream showed some kind of destruction.

So Nebuchadnezzar might be imagining some assault on his rule.

He may have imagined an assassin or an imposter among the wise men.

Maybe he feared a coup of some sort developing.

And if the wise men were in on it, then they would quickly be led to deceive him as to the dream's meaning.

So Nebuchadnezzar wanted to ensure that his wise men were honest with him, that they were on his side.

And that becomes especially important as we look forward in history, because as we do that, the next two of the next three kings following Nebuchadnezzar were assassinated.

So it makes sense why Nebuchadnezzar might be skeptical of his own wise men.

Maybe if we read into verse 9 a little bit, you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me.

He may have had reason to be suspicious.

So the response of the wise men naturally is, fine, King, tell us the dream and we'll tell you what it means.

History shows us that there were dream books containing what we might call standard operating procedures for interpreting dreams.

So there were lists of certain elements found in dreams and then a corresponding interpretation for that element.

Once the wise men knew the dream, all they had to do was connect the dots and add all the things up, and they could tell the king what the dream meant.

But Nebuchadnezzar didn't trust them.

He wanted to ensure that he was given an accurate interpretation.

So he says, the thing from me, the word from me, what I'm commanding you is firm.

I'm not going to change my mind.

If you do not make known to me both the dream and the interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.

Now the king's request is impossible, isn't it?

And his warning is brutal.

No one can read the king's mind and tell him what he dreamed during the night.

Now they would be handsomely rewarded if they did.

But here, the wise men are now in grave danger because they've been asked to do the impossible.

And don't question whether or not Nebuchadnezzar would actually follow through on his warning.

This is the king that had no qualms about feeding people to the lions, about putting out the eyes of other kings or burning people alive.

Now here it's death by dismemberment, and that was actually a common punishment of the time.

And we have archaeological records of the houses of enemies being demolished and turned into public bathrooms.

All of that to say Nebuchadnezzar is not joking.

This seems far away and quite brutal to our way of thinking, but this was very normal for a pagan king.

And Nebuchadnezzar's no fool.

He knew that his wise men were stalling.

They were trying to gain time to figure out what do we do?

We've never been in this situation before.

How do we handle this?

What do we say to him?

So after declaring a second time that the king has to tell them the dream, the exasperated and scared wise men say, There's nobody on earth that can meet the king's demand.

Nobody can do this.

Nobody can show this dream to the king except the gods, and the gods aren't here with human beings.

Sounds a lot like what the magicians in Egypt said to Pharaoh.

When God, through Moses, turned dust into lice.

I said, No, sorry, Pharaoh, we can't do this because this is the finger of God.

What the king asked had never been asked before.

He wanted them to read his mind, something only a divine being could do.

And according to these pagan men, human beings couldn't ask a god to tell them what Nebuchadnezzar dreamed in the middle of the night.

And so Nebuchadnezzar is infuriated and he sends out the command to destroy all the wise men in his kingdom.

Makes you wonder what wise men would be left.

None.

None.

And that is where the tension in this story begins to ramp up.

The problem is that Daniel and his three friends are now counted among the wise men.

Now we need to remember that Daniel is not some old, experienced, bearded wise man.

He's likely still a teenager.

Probably no more than twenty years old, maybe?

Eighteen to twenty years old.

He's gone through the whole education system.

He's now considered to be a wise man among the Babylonians, yet he's still youthful.

And while there's this king who recognizes that he has no ability to understand this dream, that clearly the gods are trying to tell him something, there is a young man in his kingdom who has reliance on the God who does know.

Remember, the Babylonian wise men did not believe in divine intervention to reveal the mind of a sleeping king.

What do we see now in verse 14?

Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.

He declared to Ariok, the king's captain, Why is the decree of the king so urgent?

Might be better translated, harsh instead of urgent.

Then Ariok told Daniel what was going on, and Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time that he might show the interpretation to the king.

Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions.

And he told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night.

And then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might.

He changes times and seasons.

He removes kings and sets up kings.

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

He reveals deep and hidden things.

He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.

To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you.

For you have made known to us the king's matter.

Therefore Daniel went into Ariok, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon.

He went and said thus to him, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon.

Bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation.

Then Arich brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said to the king, I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.

The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Beltashazzar, Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?

Daniel answered the king and said, No.

No wise man, no enchanter, no magician, no astrologer can show the king the mystery that the king has asked.

But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.

Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these.

To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this.

And he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be.

But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind.

Remember, Daniel and his other likely teenage friends were newbies among the wise men.

But as part of that group, they're about to be put to death.

But Daniel displayed great wisdom and tact when the chief executioner arrived to take Daniel and his friends.

He interacts with Ariok, the king's captain, with prudence and discretion.

He didn't come across as an arrogant young man or as a know-it-all.

Instead, he acted with meekness and tact appropriate to his place.

So after hearing the news and asking for time to respond, Daniel goes home and he tells Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah to pray.

Maybe you don't know those three friends.

You might know them by their other names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

I encourage you.

Memorize their Hebrew names, not their Babylonian names.

Meshael, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

The four of them prayed.

It kind of seems like they prayed through the night, maybe.

What did they pray for?

Oh God, please show us what the king dreamed.

No.

God, show us the interpretation, no?

They prayed for mercy.

They prayed for mercy.

Why are they here in the first place?

Because of the basket with the leaden lid representing the sins of all of the people getting taken away to Babylon.

And here, in essence, is a symbol of their judgment for their people's sin.

And they're begging God for mercy.

God don't give us what we deserve.

In other words, we deserve, because of our sin, to be put to death.

Oh, God, be merciful to us sinners.

That we don't see them demanding that God respond as they desire.

They humbly sought something from God that they knew they did not deserve.

Now remember how the wise men said that there was no way that they could know the king's dream?

Because gods don't live among human beings.

That was back in verse 11.

But subtly woven through this account is the truth that the God of heaven, the God of Israel, is greater than Babylon's gods of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the earth.

Because he did what the wise men thought was impossible.

He revealed the unknown to God.

Even though the gods don't live with human beings, the God of heaven still reveals the truth.

And Daniel's response is praise.

These young men knew that they must rely on God.

He is the only source of wisdom and might.

They knew that he sovereignly installs and removes kings.

They knew that God could reveal what is unknown because he knows the deep and hidden things and what is in the darkness, even in the king's mind in the dark of night.

Oh, that God would give us teenagers that know that.

My friends, do we and our children have that kind of faith?

They knew that their God, Israel's God, the God of their fathers, could reveal the king's dreams to them if he so chose.

And God honored their reliance on him so that the king would know what occurred, would occur in the future.

Young Daniel and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah sought God and relied on him to make himself known.

And God honored that.

Now, Ariarch, the king's captain, is the opposite of Daniel.

He wants to take all the credit.

King Nebuchadnezzar, look at what I found for you.

I found you somebody that can help you.

No, he didn't.

Daniel came to him.

And God revealed it to Daniel.

First thing that Daniel says to the king is, no human being can do what the king had asked.

Not even Daniel.

Not even Daniel.

This is sort of a preview of what Jesus says in Matthew 24, isn't it?

No one knows the day, hour, the hour.

Not the angels in heaven.

Not even the Son of Man, but only the Father.

Here's Daniel previewing that.

No, King, you're asking something that simply is not possible.

This cannot happen among human beings.

The gods of Babylon could not reveal what the king desired.

Daniel acknowledged the same impossibility as the rest of the wise men, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.

Daniel is wise and humble, and he wants to point to God whenever he can.

So any ability, any knowledge, any wisdom is only the gift of our gracious God.

God revealed the mystery of the king's dream to Daniel so that Daniel could explain this divine revelation of the future through a dream.

The dream, we are told, was about to about what would come in the future.

The revealer of mysteries unveils a mystery to Nebuchadnezzar.

Did you ever wonder whether God directs pagan people?

It's right there.

God is involved in every human being's life, and he even is involved in giving revelation to unsaved kings.

Let's look at verse 31.

You saw, O king.

And behold, a great image.

This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening.

Can you imagine being Nebuchadnezzar sitting on your throne and hearing this young teenager telling you what you dreamed?

And reliving that from the words of somebody else who wasn't in your head that night?

The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and its thighs of bronze.

That's weird.

Its legs of iron and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

And as you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand.

And it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces.

Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold all together were broken in pieces and became like the chaff of summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found.

But that stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

That was the dream.

Now we will tell the king its interpretation.

You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might and the glory.

Wait a minute.

Do you see what he's doing there?

Nebuchadnezzar, you're the king, not just the king, but the king of kings.

But who's bigger than you?

The king of heaven.

The God of heaven has given you all of this.

Let's put things in perspective, King.

And into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven, making you rule over them all.

You, you are the head of gold.

Another kingdom inferior to you shall rise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.

And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things.

And like iron that crushes it shall break and crush all these.

And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.

And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.

And as you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.

And then in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.

It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms, and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.

Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, a great God has made known to the king what shall be after this.

The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.

Well, now we know why Nebuchadnezzar couldn't sleep.

It's a strange dream.

A massive image constructed of different materials appearing in his dream, only to be destroyed, and not just destroyed, but pulverized so that it's blown away by the winds, all destroyed by a single stone that has no human origin.

Now we know in this God-given dream, the golden head is meant to picture Nebuchadnezzar.

The beauty and the value of the gold mirrored the wealth and greatness of Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom.

It's his royal city, after all, that had the famous hanging gardens, which were one of the wonders of the ancient world.

If they were really real.

We don't know.

But another kingdom would come after him.

Not quite the equal of the golden kingdom.

This lesser kingdom was pictured with silver.

After that, another more inferior kingdom would arise, and then a fourth kingdom, a kingdom of great strength, would appear.

Verse 40 tells us that this kingdom is as strong as iron because it crushes, it breaks in pieces, and it shatters.

Those are words reflecting great strength and great power.

Now there are several opinions about which earthly kingdoms these are.

We are told that the golden head is Nebuchadnezzar.

The silver, it probably makes the most sense to be the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians coming right after Babylon.

Followed by the bronze kingdom, which probably suggests Greece, led by Alexander the Great, and then the iron, which mixed with clay, seems to be the Roman Empire.

Getting caught up in the mapping out of this dream in human history is so easy.

And it's fascinating.

People have spent enormous amounts of time attempting to prove which human rulers and kingdoms are indicated.

And there's benefit to thinking through that.

But the point of this dream and the point of this chapter of Daniel is not about the particular kingdoms of men.

The point of this chapter is that the kingdoms of men will not last.

They come and they go.

One rises up and another takes its place.

They rise and fall as God Himself has determined.

God is the one who sets up and removes kings and kingdoms.

And in his wisdom, certain kingdoms would grow and then be replaced by others, but all of them would be destroyed, including Nebuchadnezzar's.

My friends, whenever you hear accounts, whatever news accounts you hear about Russia and Ukraine and France and whomever else is blowing up and burning and rioting all over the world and warring, who's in control?

Your God is in control.

That's not a surprise to him.

And here, Daniel and his people are hearing in a subtle way.

Your God has carried you in a basket to deal with your sins.

He's still in charge.

He's still in charge.

This is an essential point for us to hear.

Beloved, it's the 4th of July.

Have fun.

But the United States of America will perish.

By God's grace, this country has lasted for 247 years.

Officially.

The Babylonian Empire lasted approximately 65 years.

It's the golden head.

The Medo-Persian Empire lasted about 205 years.

Greece ruled for 185 years.

Rome's various versions lasted about 500 years, but they're all gone.

Loving our nation is good because God has graciously given us this country.

But we ought not to become so wrapped up and consumed by these things that we forget the bigger picture.

Our country, this country, will perish.

It will go away as will all others.

Russia will perish, Britain will perish, Spain and France will go away, Brazil, India, every other nation will cease to be.

And God Himself will bring them down.

He will destroy them because He intends to set up one kingdom.

An enduring kingdom.

An eternal kingdom that will last forever.

And in that kingdom, what is stated here will be reversed.

For the dwelling of God will be with men through the person of Jesus Christ.

That if this nation that we call ours and consider home, if it will not last but is sure to come to an end, and our citizenship is in heaven, from which we await a Savior, which kingdom ought to receive a more significant amount of our energies?

Should we be focused and pour out our time and energies on the one that will be blown away or the one that will endure forever?

And Nebuchadnezzar here is shown the future, which was then borne out in history.

Nebuchadnezzar was challenged to see that his greatness should not be found in his lavishness, in his power, and in his wealth, and in his greatness, but in the God of heaven.

And that revelation led to a new kind of kingly awareness.

When Daniel recounted what Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dreams and revealed what the God of heaven intended to do, the king made two declarations, seen in verses 46 through 49.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel.

Interesting.

Didn't pay homage to Daniel's God, but to Daniel.

And he commanded that an offering and an incense be offered up to Daniel.

The king answered and said to Daniel, Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.

Wait a minute.

Didn't Daniel just say, I can't?

The king's missed this.

Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.

Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon.

But Daniel remained at the king's court.

So the first declaration of Nebuchadnezzar is to declare Daniel's God, our God, to be the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and the revealer of mysteries.

That's all right.

God revealed to Nebuchadnezzar what was going to take place, and Nebuchadnezzar came to grasp a measure of the greatness of God accurately.

And by celebrating Daniel, by honoring Daniel, he is in some way recognizing the God who revealed the unknown to Daniel.

Then he follows that with a second declaration to honor Daniel, making him the ruler of all the wise men and honoring Daniel's request to honor his friends.

Now we might be tempted to think very highly of Nebuchadnezzar at this point.

His knowledge of God is broadened and deepened and hopefully goes up to the heights of heaven.

He even acknowledged God, and maybe, maybe we might be able to say he worshipped him at this point.

But Nebuchadnezzar is like so many other people.

He knew of the God of heaven.

He even believed in God's power to reveal the unknown at this point.

But he did not, he did not acknowledge God as the ultimate sovereign before whom he must bow and in whom he must believe.

How do we know that?

Because of the next chapter.

Don't worry, I'm not going to preach on it.

The next chapter is about Nebuchadnezzar making a colossal statue, not of different kinds of material, but all of gold.

The whole thing, head to foot.

Nearly 90 feet tall.

It would have stood out in the Middle Eastern sun like a brilliant, shining representation of the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar, like the people in Noah's day, and like the people at the time of the great stone coming to smash everything.

He's oblivious to what God is doing.

God showed Nebuchadnezzar that he was great, but not that great.

His kingdom was magnificent, but not that magnificent.

He was but the golden head.

God's revelation and builds a statue of himself that's not merely a golden head, but a whole image of gold.

That's not belief in God, but a strong denial of what God's telling him is going to happen.

He's not about to allow his kingdom to fail.

He's going to go against what God has revealed and said, Yeah, right, God.

See?

See my power.

It's like the Tower of Babel all over.

You think you're God?

Let me show you what I can do.

He's not about to allow his kingdom to fail.

And that surely was what the Jewish exiles were feeling.

They must have felt beside the rivers of Babylon as though the Babylonian kingdom just kept going and going and going.

And there's no relief in sight.

They would be captives forever.

They would be weeping beside the waters of Babylon year after year, decade after decade.

But Nebuchadnezzar's God-given dream reminded all of his exiles that Babylon isn't going to go on forever.

Because God's kingdom is coming.

And God's kingdom will destroy all earthly kingdoms.

There was hope for God's people.

There was hope when wicked rulers succeeded and pagan corrupt governments prevailed.

There was hope when their freedoms were taken away and they had to obey their captors and their tormentors.

And the same hope is given by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 24.

Daniel's hope himself, his hope, began to be realized about 65 years later or so, when some Jewish captives returned to their homeland.

But the lasting hope, the lasting hope only began to gain traction about 600 years later, after Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

For it was then that a young teenager, not much younger than Daniel, was told that she would give birth to a son.

And she was told that that son will reign over the throne, over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

That son would proclaim the good news, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

The God of heaven sent his only son to initiate the program that would eventually crush all human programs.

When Nebuchadnezzar said, but when his wise men said, The dwelling of God are not with human beings, God said, Oh yes, let me show you.

The Lord Jesus took on flesh and being found in human form, he gave himself for us.

That sun is the stone cut without hands, the stone that the builders rejected, and the stone who is a stumbling block for many, but is a rock of salvation for those who believe.

Like those exiles who looked forward to the kingdom that God promised.

We can look back at its initiation, at Christ's first coming, and be encouraged.

God did what he promised, but he's not done yet, for his kingdom has not yet destroyed all earthly kingdoms.

That is still coming, that is ahead of us, that awaits us.

But we can look back and see the hand of God at work, fulfilling his word to Nebuchadnezzar.

And what has been fulfilled and initiated now in the Lord Jesus' first coming should move us to be filled with hope and strength and encouragement and strength and anticipation and perseverance for what is coming ahead.

Our hope can be strengthened as we await with readiness his return.

We can do as Jesus said.

Stay awake.

Stay awake and be ready for that day.

For Nebuchadnezzar's dream is God's way of saying that kingdoms and nations will come and go.

But don't worry, my friends.

Jesus says, My kingdom will break all of those kingdoms in pieces.

It will blow them away, it will bring them to an end.

And my kingdom will stand forever.

And we as God's people look up, waiting for the Lord Jesus to come back and fulfill his word.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, may you do what you've said.

We believe you.

We believe what the scriptures have said that you came to this earth the first time to pay for sin.

So that you might call out a people for yourself.

We rejoice in that.

But we also look forward and anticipate the day when you will complete your work, when you will gather us together as your people, when you will come and destroy all sin away from this world, and that you will cleanse it once and for all.

And that we will be with you in your kingdom.

So we look forward to that day and we say, even so come, Lord Jesus.

But in the meantime, we ask that your spirit would strengthen us for endurance, for perseverance, and that you would grant us boldness to declare the hope that is found in you, the God who came to dwell with men, and that they might find their hope in you.

We ask this for the praise of your eternal glory.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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