Daniel 2:17-49 – Who’s In Charge

So we're picking up our story of Daniel in the middle of Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

Still kind of new into our sermon series in the book of Daniel.

And so let me just remind us of a couple things before we read.

And so this is a story that's set when the people of Israel, they're in exile in Babylon, and so they have been conquered.

And so the promised land, the temple, the city of Jerusalem, the Davidic King, all the kind of big storylines of the Old Testament have seemingly come to an end.

Or at least it's come to a tension point of great question.

And Daniel, he begins his story with the acknowledgement that God had given Israel into Nebuchadnezzar's hand.

That God is the one who had done it.

But God hadn't removed his hand.

He actually remained to give grace to his people for whoever would trust him.

And so a big storyline of the book of Daniel is that God is still in control and worthy of trust.

And so we're going to be looking at that many times as we go through this book.

In particular, this morning, we're picking up a story where King Nebuchadnezzar has had a bad dream.

He has had a bad dream, and he's looking for wisdom about what it means.

And so we're going to pick up the story where Daniel has been given the answer, and he then will in turn give it to King Nebuchadnezzar.

And so we're going to read Daniel chapter 2, beginning in verse 17.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

We're going to go back a little bit of what we looked at last Sunday and then read through the end of the chapter.

It's a long reading, and so let's try to give our attention to it together.

So Daniel chapter 2, starting in verse 17.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

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 what with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

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

And 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 season, 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 made now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king's matter.

Therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon, and he went and he 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 Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him, I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.

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

Daniel answered the king and said, No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to 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.

You saw, O King, and behold, a great image.

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

The head of its image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, and its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

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 altogether were broken in pieces and became like chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found.

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

This was the dream, and 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, and into whose hand he has given wherever they dwell the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all, you are the head of gold.

Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise 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 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.

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 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.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him.

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.

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 promises, provinces of Babylon.

But Daniel remained at the king's court.

This is the word of the Lord.

Let's pray as we give more attention and ask for God's help.

Heavenly Father, we want to know you as the God who reveals mysteries.

And so, most of all, would you reveal the mystery of how you would want to relate to us and how we should relate to you?

We ask that by your spirit you would do this through your word in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, the main theme of today's passage is once again in the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar.

It's something that we're going to see repeated in the story of Daniel that the pagan kings are often the ones learning the lesson.

And so King Nebuchadnezzar, he says, truly, your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings.

A repeated line and theme of Daniel, God's sovereignty.

It's a big word that just means God's power and authority to rule over all things.

And let me just say at the beginning, let's all get on the same page, that God's sovereignty is a hard thing to believe.

God's sovereignty is a hard thing to believe, and we can admit that.

Actually, God knows that this will be a challenge.

That's why a lot of the Bible was written to answer that question.

But maybe not in the way we might want or expect.

You see, the Bible spends very little time kind of explaining God's sovereignty.

It spends very little time kind of explaining how it makes sense that God would be sovereign and in control, and yet we would be free humans with wills to act and make impact on the world.

You know, part of that might be because the Bible is written for a different time.

And so the Bible was written before the time of rationalism, before we expected logic and proof and kind of human-centered understanding to explain all things.

Most of the Bible was written at a time when the life and activity of the gods was assumed.

It was more of a question of which God was sovereign.

And that's a helpful word when it comes to understanding sovereignty.

Sovereign.

It's the title for a king.

And so, really, the biggest question is who is in charge?

And in that way, the Bible, it explains God's sovereignty with a story.

It makes the case for why God, the God of the Bible, is the rightful and good king, especially why he can be made known through the Lord Jesus.

And so it's kind of like that scene that gets repeated in the classic Western.

You know, the guy walks into the bar, the swinging doors fly open, you hear the spurs jingling.

Who's in charge around here?

It's a challenge.

The gauntlet has been thrown down, and really the rest of the story answers the question.

Who is in charge in this place?

Is it the lawman or is it the bandit?

You don't get everything all at once.

That would be a bad story.

It wouldn't move you, it wouldn't convince you, it wouldn't get to the depth of real life.

You see, stories, they're meant to capture you and to do something to you by the end.

And that's how the book of Daniel will work, that it is a story of God's rule over the kingdoms of humanity.

That God is ruling over them, and for this morning, especially, the big surprise is that God is going to bring good and even redemption through them.

And so our aim is to grow to trust the story of God's kingdom.

And so to help us go through this passage, it's a long one, and so we're just gonna break it down in these uh three points that God He rules, God reveals, and then God redeems.

And as we get into it, just another announcement I forgot to make, but we do have a number of these scripture journals, and so this is a standalone of the book of Daniel that includes the text from one side and then space on the other side for notes.

And so we do have a handful of these, they're out in the foyer.

Um you can very easily sneak out to get one if you want one even now.

And so if we run out, we'll order some more.

And so let's look at our passage together.

And first, the the point I think is clear.

God rules.

God is the one ruling over and even through the kingdoms of the world.

And so last week we began in chapter two with King Nebuchadnezzar.

He's he's tormented by a reoccurring dream.

And unlike that old Disney song, in this case, the dream isn't a wish his heart has made, all right?

So we need to just get past this.

This is not some like Freudian struggle kind of welding up within Nebuchadnezzar that he's trying to figure out.

No, instead, this was a message from God.

This was a message from God.

But the king had a problem because he didn't know what the dream meant, but he sensed the meaning wasn't good, or at least he sensed that the meaning was significant.

And so he needed wisdom.

And that's a big theme of the book of Daniel.

Wisdom, how to live well in this world.

What do you need to know?

If you knew where it was all going, if you knew the end result, you could live well now.

But the problem is that none of his wise men, none of the wise men of Babylon could give him the answers he needs.

And their um kind of overall claim, the way they justify themselves before the king, is basically saying that kind of wisdom, knowledge of the future, it belongs only to the gods, and the gods don't dwell with flesh.

And so notice their worldview is that we have an experience down here that we can know a lot about, but there is something up there in their mind, kind of the realm of the gods, that has control, but we can't know it.

You know, and actually, in reality, a lot of people do function like that, whether we call it karma or fate or destiny or whether we call it um uh kind of enlightenment.

We all have a sense that there was something out there.

Well, the king he had no sympathy for their position, and so he decided that these wise men weren't actually any use to him, and so he gives them the pink slip, which in the case of the king was an execution order, and so that's where Daniel enters back into the story.

When we were picked up in verse 17, Daniel has just heard the result that the wise men are all going to be destroyed.

But he and his friends were different.

He knew a God who reveals mysteries.

You see, he had a very different worldview.

They assumed a connection with God who does dwell with flesh.

And so in verse 18, they pray, they seek mercy from the God of heaven.

And just like that, in verse 19, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night.

And so, really, the the revelation of the dream is a small task for God.

It's not that big of a deal.

In a similar way, as we go through the details of the dream, the exact details of the dream are a small deal for God.

And so we'll talk about them and kind of explain them a little bit, but you might be left wanting more.

And so, starting in verse 31, Daniel he answers the king's questions.

And so the dream itself, it's fairly simple.

In verse 31, he says, You saw, O king, and behold, a great image.

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

And so he goes on to describe this as an image of a man.

It's fashioned out of different layers of materials, a head of gold, and then silver in the chest, and then bronze as you go down, and iron down at the legs and the feet, and then finally you get this iron mixed with clay.

Now to us, this dream it may not seem very frightening at all, but isn't it true that the ordinary things of life often become terrifying when they make their way into our dreams?

How often we've woken up with a dead sweat about some ridiculous dream that was going on in our mind.

You know, and probably what worried the king the most was the stone at the end that destroys everything.

And so in verse 36, Daniel he begins to tell the king the interpretation.

And it's kind of a good news, bad news situation.

Good news, you're the head of gold.

Perhaps this was a reassuring message for King Nebuchadnezzar.

The head of gold, a splendor, uh splendid expression of human power and might and glory.

And indeed, Nebuchadnezzar was in an amazing situation of human power.

I wonder if you noticed how he gets described by Daniel.

In verse 37, Daniel he tells Nebuchadnezzar that the reason he has risen so high is because God has given him the kingdom, the power, and the might and the glory.

Sound familiar?

It's usually a description used of God.

It's usually a description used of God, and here it is.

God has, in a way, given his power and glory and might to Nebuchadnezzar.

In fact, Daniel tells us that God was ruling through Nebuchadnezzar.

Look down in verse 38.

Into your hand God has given wherever they dwell the children of man, the beasts of the fields, the birds of the heaven, and he's making you rule over them all.

Does that sound familiar?

Very similar to the description of Genesis 1, where humanity is given the command to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, to have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and over every livery thing that moves on the earth.

You see, just as God had planned to rule creation through Adam and through humanity, so now God who rules over his creation is doing so through Nebuchadnezzar.

You see, this is part of the Bible story of God's sovereignty, that he rules through ordinary means, like the natural world and even through humanity.

And so as we stop along the way, let's just understand that at their best, this is the role of human rulers.

That under God's common grace, he's still upholding the world, and so he's promoting good and restraining evil, and he does so through the work of human rulers and kingdoms.

It's a hard truth for us to think that God would choose to work through those fallen ways.

And you know, it would have been a hard truth for Israel as well.

Maybe they had felt the conviction of their their life that they had uh rejected God, they had rebelled against him, but really was Babylon any better?

Why would God choose to rule through them?

Well, Daniel goes on with the bad news for Nebuchadnezzar.

It's a bad news for every human king and government and position of power after you.

After you.

Daniel, he goes on to describe three more kingdoms, all kingdoms that would follow after Babylon, after Nebuchadnezzar, varying degrees of splendor and strength.

And the clearer implication is that the invisible hand of God would establish their reigns as well.

Just as he has raised up Nebuchadnezzar, then after him, he will raise up someone else.

He is the one who gives earthly power to men and to women.

So the big question, of course, is who are the kingdoms?

And let me just say at the beginning, here's an important point.

Daniel doesn't exactly say.

Daniel doesn't exactly say, and it doesn't seem to really matter for the point of the dream.

And so I am gonna give you, I think, some good answers, and I think we have good reason to think it, but I think the vision is meant to be left, at least this stage in Daniel's story, it's meant to be left a bit vague.

But let me tell you what it seems like.

As the story of Daniel goes on, it seems to get even more clear, and so we'll look at some other visions that give even more details, and so we'll spend more time talking about history then.

But basically, what seems to be going here on here is Daniel is getting a vision of the big empires of the world starting in Babylon, mighty but short, then Persia, okay, somehow in kind of a twist of fate, you could say, they they take over Babylon, but they don't actually have a great stranglehold on their empire themselves.

And then finally the Greek Empire comes along, and that's where you get the real strength.

This empire of bronze, strong over the whole earth.

And so it was where the Greek Empire really took over the known world at the time.

And then finally, this fourth empire, as you get down to the feet, the strong like iron, is almost certainly the Roman Empire.

Strong yet iron and yet brittle.

Fatal flaws.

And so we're gonna talk more about these kingdoms in future weeks as we look at some of the more detailed visions that Daniel gets.

But here's the point, and here's why I think Daniel doesn't spend too much detail explaining the future.

I think the point is clear that God is ruling even in and over the large empires of the world.

And so two implications, I think.

One, all human authority comes from God.

All human authority comes from God.

You see, the kings and kingdoms of our day are no accident.

The kings and kingdoms of our day are no accident, and it would be just as hard for us to believe it as it was for Daniel.

Really?

That's the ruler you've set up?

Really, that's the nation that seems to have it all going for them?

No, but they are ordained by the ruling God of heaven.

It's equally true then that God has given us into the hands of human kingdoms.

And so just as Daniel and his friends found themselves living providentially under God's ruling through Nebuchadnezzar, so we find ourselves in places and in situations where we have to accept from his hand human authority.

But notice the other implication that is so clear here human authority is temporary.

It's always passing away and giving way.

And so while we respect human authority as God ordained, we don't worship human authority as the final word.

And we do tend to get obsessed with human power and authority.

I wonder if you remember the viral trend from a couple years ago.

Um basically, you were supposed to ask your boyfriend or your husband how often they think about the Roman Empire.

It's kind of ridiculous that this became a trend, but it did.

It's kind of silly, but it points to the reality that we actually are tempted to idolize and to obsess over the achievements of humanity.

Man, they really had it going.

They really did it well.

But notice here's the expression that we have they all have feet of clay.

So many great expressions that we use come from the story of Daniel, writing on the wall, thrown into the furnace, thrown to the lions.

It's all from the story of Daniel, actually.

But they all have feet of clay.

These are the implications that are true for all the power structures around us.

So we don't say down with them.

No, God is ruling, but we don't bow down to them.

They are temporary and flawed.

Every human authority and power, this is the story, after.

After.

After who will rule.

And this is really why, secondly, then, God reveals his rule.

And so God is ruling, that's the claim that the Bible makes.

But then it also makes the secondary claim that he reveals his rule, that he wants people to know the truth.

And so the Bible it acknowledges that knowledge of and trust in the sovereignty of God is not a given.

It has to be revealed.

And so we might have a sense of this, as I explained earlier.

And so we have a desire.

Desire of fate or karma, we we think natural law should have everything under control.

We have an expectation that there would be forces at play beyond just randomness.

And so even we could talk about simulation theory and things like that.

Or sometimes maybe we think that human activity is just the most powerful deciding factor.

And that in itself is making a claim about how this world works.

See, the Bible is making a contradictory claim that there is a God outside of our created world that would need to and want to reveal himself.

And let me just suggest that to deny that possibility, to deny the possibility of a sovereign God, is to kind of cut off the argument before it even starts.

To say that there's nothing outside of our realm of understanding, the realm of our logic, the realm of our vision, there's nothing outside of there.

You're kind of cutting yourself up from the possibility.

And so in this passage, we can see God revealing his rule both as a comforting message to the believer, but then also as a confronting message to the non-believer.

And so, first, notice how he reveals his rule to his people as a comforting message to those who already know him.

But they would have had questions and doubts.

And so, Daniel, it's written for people in exile.

It seems as though God has abandoned them.

Maybe God has lost control, especially when the temple gets destroyed and the vessels of God's temple are taken and placed in Nebuchadnezzar's temple instead.

It seems to be, at least in everything you can see in the world, who is the big player?

Who is the head of gold?

It really does seem like it is Nebuchadnezzar.

And so God sends this revealing message to Daniel that he wants his people to know that he is still ruling.

He'll still continue to rule long after Babylon's gone and the kingdom after that, and the kingdom after that, and the kingdom after that.

But notice he also wants to reveal his rule to people who don't know him yet, to confront their view of the world and to invite a change.

And so he wanted to reveal his rule to King Nebuchadnezzar.

The point's made three times in our reading that again and again we were told that this message would give in so that King Nebuchadnezzar could know.

God wants him to know.

And so let's just take a moment and realize that God could have done this a different way.

And so he could have just sent the message to Daniel.

And Daniel he could have praised God for giving him wisdom.

He could have written down the dream for the rest of the exiles, but in that case, King Nebuchadnezzar, he would have still been in the dark.

If you remember, it's part of the reason why this central section of the book of Daniel is written in Aramaic, the common language of the day, that it wasn't just a message for the Israelites, it was a message for all people.

You notice he also could have just given the dream and the interpretation to King Nebuchadnezzar.

He could have just skipped Daniel and the exiles, but then maybe the king wouldn't have realized that it was the God of heaven, the God of the Israelites, the God of creation who had revealed the mystery.

And Daniel and the exiles, they would have missed the chance to hear and to remember, to be encouraged that God was indeed still ruling.

You see, what we see both in this chapter and throughout the book of Daniel is that God is working to reveal his rule, that both to those who already know him and those who still need to hear.

God is after King Nebuchadnezzar, just as he continues to go after his people.

He wants people to know him.

He wants to be knowable.

And so even today, God is still revealing his roles in ways that make us stop and ask, who's in charge?

Who's in charge?

You know, it doesn't always work in the same way, and so in Daniel chapter 2, it's through this strange dream.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

In Daniel chapter 3, it's through the suffering of God's people.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

You see, God, he brings about his rule, he reveals his care for his world in so many ways, often through more ordinary ways.

And so in the New Testament, Paul, one of the early Christians, he writes in Romans chapter 1, he says that what can be known about God is plain, because God has shown it to them.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

For his invisible attributes, the things you can't see, his eternal power and his divine nature, they have been clearly perceived in the creation of the world in the things that have been made.

You see, God has created so that he can be known.

And so how do we respond to the revelation of God's rule?

Well, notice that in our chapter, it's kind of the universal response of some type of humble submission.

That actually it might be part of the reason why God has not explained his sovereignty to us, in the sense that our response has to be some level of humble submission.

This response is clear in Daniel's case.

And so he receives the answer from God and he praises God for it.

And then at great personal risk, he goes before the king and he tells him the truth.

And do you remember, realize it it would have been a hard thing for Daniel to do?

The king of the world at the time says, I've had a bad dream.

Tell me the meaning.

Here's the meaning, king.

Your kingdom's gonna come crashing down, and my God will win.

It wouldn't have been a popular message.

And yet, Daniel he speaks with respect and honesty.

God had given him a message for the king, and so he went and he spoke before the king.

You see, God, he, Daniel, he responds with humble submission because he knew that the same God who ruled over the exiled servant also ruled over the Babylonian king.

And amazingly, at least in part, the king gets it as well.

And so if you look down at the end of the story in verse 47, King Nebuchadnezzar responds to this revelation of God's rule by praising Daniel's God.

Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, a revealer of mysteries.

It's a good start.

But as we'll see next week and the weeks to come, God still has more work to do for King Nebuchadnezzar.

You see, this is the response to God's revealed will.

The response to him revealing his rule that we have two ways to go: a start of humble submission to desire to know him, or of refusal.

It's actually how Romans 1 goes as well.

Although the people, Paul writes, the people they knew God, they had a sense that there was a God, they did not honor him or give thanks to him.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator.

You see, even though God has been working to reveal his rule, there's still more work to be done.

2,000 years later, there's still more work to be done.

And so that's why the story of the dream continues on.

We need not only for God to rule, to reveal his rule, but actually he needs to use his rule to redeem.

And that's really where this dream goes.

It's the climax of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the interpretation.

And so look down, starting in verse 44.

Daniel he gets to the point of the interpretation where he tells of a time when God would flex his rule in a new way.

And so he's been ruling all throughout, but there will come a time when he'll do it in a new way.

He says, in the days of those kings.

And so this, once again, is why this vision seems to be a bit timeless.

There's a timeless nature to this dream.

In the days of those kings, so in the days when human kingdoms look like this, one after another after another, in the days of those kings, there'll be a new player when it comes to world politics.

Notice that it's still part of this world, and so it's cut from a stone is cut from a mountain, and yet it's obviously unique.

And so Daniel he says it's going to be a divine kingdom.

The God kingdom he would start as a stone cut out by no human hand, a stone of this world, but not fashioned by this world.

You see, the kingdom was this image fashioned after the splendor of man.

And this stone is like the mountain fashioned after the creative splendor of God.

And this kingdom would also be a worldwide kingdom, an eternal kingdom.

And so the stone would grow into a great mountain, filling the whole earth.

You know, Babylon, they had conquered the Middle East for a time.

And Daniel says this kingdom of stone would fill the earth and outlive all the others.

But what Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar saw only in shadow, we get to see in reality.

The New Testament makes clear that this divinely appointed stone, this inaugurated kingdom hewn out not by a hand of a human, this new kingdom is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus.

And so when Jesus came on the scene 600 years later, what does he come preaching?

The kingdom of God is at hand.

Now is the time.

See, the days prophesied by Daniel, they arrive in Jesus.

The time of the mountain is now.

You see, through Jesus, God's not only revealing his rule, but he's also extending it through Jesus to redeem.

That's what we see as God's rule is extended either in salvation or judgment.

You know, Paul again, not in Romans, but this time in Acts 17, when he's preaching to the Greeks, he's keen in on these big themes.

He tells them, I can see that you are desiring to know the God who is above it all.

I see that you are seeking after him.

And I want you to know that God has overlooked your times of ignorance.

He's realized that you haven't got the right answer yet.

But now God has set a day when he will judge, and he's giving clear proof.

How?

By the resurrection of Jesus.

Rule, God is ruling, and he has revealed it through Jesus.

And what is the offer?

The offer is redemption.

That's why the Apostle Peter, he describes the Christian as one who comes to the living stone.

The stone that's not quite like a human stone.

A living stone, one that can grow into a stone house.

And so even today, God's kingdom is growing to encompass the whole earth.

But we can be honest, it actually is a hard time to see the mountain.

It's hard to think that God is really establishing his kingdom in this way.

After all, God's kingdom does look different than the kingdoms of men.

It doesn't look as impressive.

You don't see the head of gold, you don't see the silver and the bronze and the iron.

Most of this dream is hard to see.

But notice that some of it, you see, the nations and empires of this world becoming like chaff in the summer threshing floor.

Even the mighty empire of Rome, brittle.

Brittle and broken away.

The wind carries it away like chaff.

You know, sometimes the best way to see God's rule isn't in the big storylines.

He's there, and this prophecy from Daniel makes it clear.

But sometimes the story of God's rule is seen easier in his care for God's people.

You see it in a microchasm in Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

You know, Daniel's journey, it's been a bumpy ride, and we're only in chapter 2.

But even in chapter 2, God has shown his faithfulness to Daniel.

For Daniel, he has taken this life-threatening crisis and he's turned it into a blessing.

At the end there, Daniel in verse 48, he's raised by the king to the highest position in Babylon.

It would have been an extraordinary story at the time.

A Jew, a captive exile, forcibly taken from his home, is now raised to second only to Nebuchadnezzar.

You see, God's faithfulness to Daniel then extends to Daniel's people.

In verse 49, Daniel he raises up the three friends to share in this newfound authority.

They're raised up over all the affairs of Babylon, all for the exile's benefit.

That God had sent his people into exile, but he did not leave them without advocates.

And so as we come to an end, let's think about it in these two ways.

You know, the sovereign rule of God, it can be seen in the big picture.

God's revelations to Daniel are historically impressive.

And as we go through the book, they will get even more so.

In a similar way, God's revelation in the care and the expansion of the Christian church has been impressive.

I would encourage you to consider the rise of Christianity, especially in the early church.

That with no political power, economic influence, no military, yet under persecution, the church thrived and really took over the Roman world.

So it has been to that day, to this day.

Wherever the Christian church suffers under persecution, it tends to thrive, not through revolution, but through revelation, as people entrust themselves and their witness to God.

There's a big storyline of Christianity that makes you face the question, what is going on here?

How is this possible?

But perhaps the sovereign rule of God might be most convincing in his care for his people.

This was true of the individual story of Jesus.

This is a repeated theme of New Testament preaching, that God has vindicated Jesus, the individual.

That he, as the individual, the true human, the true man, entrusted himself to God, lived righteously, followed God's plan, and so God rescued him from death and enthroned him on high.

It's repeatedly true in the testimony of Christians since then.

That they have been most convinced and most cared for by God's sovereignty is through his care in the details of their life.

And so for those of us who may not be quite convinced yet, the imitation of Daniel is are you willing to let the story play out?

Because God is the one who wants to reveal it.

God's sovereignty is best experienced in a process of seeing the story.

It's kind of like walking around a sculpture or an art exhibit.

And so as you walk around and you look at it from different angles and details, you notice new things.

And so maybe you've had the chance to walk around the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

Rebecca and I had the chance to do this a couple years ago.

As you might know, the Sistine Chapel has an incredible display of artistic creativity and talent.

And they have big themes of the storyline of the Bible painted across the ceiling and walls, but then very thoughtfully and expertly, the artists have painted the two themes of Moses' life and Jesus' life in parallel.

Basically, the little details of two people's lives who get played out to see God's goodness at work.

In a similar way, we're invited to see the details of God's sovereignty in our own lives.

That as we grow to trust him and see him revealing his rule in our lives, we get to see the tapestries played out of this is what he did then.

This is how he worked that out.

This is how these details and forces I could never have controlled worked out for my good.

You see, the story of God's sovereignty is best believed as it is experienced.

And that's where humility comes in.

Not to capture God, to bring him down so that we could analyze him and yet to be allowed to capture us.

And so let's pray that God will continue to do that through the story of Daniel, both this morning and as we continue on.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this story.

We thank you, Lord God, that you are the King of the nations.

Us believing it doesn't make it true.

It is true.

And yet we thank you for your grace that you do not wield it over us, but instead you invite us into it.

And so, Lord God, we thank you by your spirit for the ways that you have already convinced us of your sovereign rule.

Would you help us to be encouraged by it and to submit ourselves to it?

And would you also meet us in the places where we continue to question and doubt?

That much like the story of Nebuchadnezzar, you would give us time and be patient with us as we learn our lessons through suffering and even through greatness.

We pray that you will continue that work by your Spirit.

And we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.