The Fall and Rise of King Nebuchadnezzar | A Testimony of Humility | Daniel 4:1-37

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Good morning, good morning, we talk good good morning, Hey,

good morning everybody.

Good job Chris.

Welcome to the Bible Guys.

Good job Chris.

It is Thursday, and I just realized I had not

sung good morning.

All week long.

A lot of times. You bring it in on Wednesday.

Yeah, well this so and weaved this week in surprise.

Today was the jingle of happy Days.

Yeah. It was so good.

Yeah.

I couldn't even get the tune. I couldn't get that key.

I was like, I was stumbling around. Should have listened

to it and started it and you know, practice it

and rehearsed it and all that. Anyway, Hey, today we

have a great segment because Desiree is committed to making

sure that our listeners get just the best news available.

Yes, and so our trusted source is the Babylon.

Bee, absolutely only the finest news yes for our people.

And today we are reading uh one. It's a warning

to some some you need to be warned, yeah, Others

it's a testimony about how difficult life can be if

you're going through let.

Me just read it. You can testify afterwards. If you're

going through a tough.

Time today, I could have written this.

Just know that you are not alone. Yes, right, here's

the article. Devastating. This man is wearing socks and he

just stepped in a little wet spot on the kitchen floor.

Yes, you hate that, don't you know?

It's one of my worst pet peas in the world.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin local man Aiden Jackson suffered a devastating blow

earlier today after he stepped in a little wet spot

on the kitchen floor while wearing socks. Sources to say

the event has ruined his day and perhaps his life.

You my feet are squishy and damp now, said the

man helplessly. Is the cruel liquid soaked into his side?

Why would a good God allow such a thing to happen?

That's about as bad as it gets, honestly, said Stacy Jackson,

Aiden's wife. I wear slippers in the kitchen myself to

avoid just such a sort of thing. Experts say that

the emotional damage of stepping in a puddle of water

while wearing socks is even worse than that of treading

barefoot on a pile of legos, and about the same

is having a piece of popcorn stuck between your teeth

with no way to get it out. Wow, this is

devastating for it, said Bradley Nelson, an expert. He'll have

to go change his socks now, so annoying. At publishing time,

Jackson's day had gotten even worse after realizing the wet

spot in the kitchen was caty. Oh no, oh, no,

that really Yeah, there you go, But being wet is

one of your least favorite things on the planet.

Yeah, so I have to clarify. So, wet socks are

the worst, like nothing worse than like wearing wet clothes,

like wet underwear.

Are you kidding me? It's the worst.

It's the worst.

However, the only caveat is this, I'm out in the rain,

I can't stand it. But if I have a hat on,

I'm actually fine with getting wet because it's actually it's

actually the feeling of water running down my scalp and

the hair getting wet and everything else.

If I have a.

Ball cap on and I'm running in the rain and

I'm like, well, it is what it is, I'm actually

not that irritated. I'm irritated that I'm wet, but nothing

nearly like if I don't have a hat on, not

even close. The other things are just like a really

big irritation. And the socks thing, buddy, that I'll get

you in a bad mood real quick. You're walking into

the kitchen, you step where like a thing of ice was,

and all of a sudden, it's like I literally have

to stop all things, and I'm like, I'll be back,

and I have to go upstairs and immediately change my socks.

There's no way I'm going to let it dry.

It'll just ruin your day.

It'll put me in a bad mood for like the

next half an hour.

Wow.

Yeah, I hate it. Okay, it's really bad.

So people make fun.

Of me, Yes, sometimes because I basically have one wardrobe.

It always looks like I'm either going on a fishing

trip or that's it, all of it. The only alternative

is that I have genes sometimes. But I buy all

clothes that drive very quickly. Yes, and they're all travel

stuff right. So one, I'm not very fashion forward. I

don't know if you've noticed that. So, so fashion is

not a thing for me. So I buy I buy

based on practicalities. And I travel so much. I'm gone

so often that I just want something that's going to

be comfortable on a plane. That is, I can take

the layers on and take the I'm wearing a vest

right now, take the layers on, take the layers off,

roll up the sleeves, and everything dries really fast, So

even my socks. I try to buy socks that dry quickly.

Yeah, yeah, all that kind of stuff.

So in other words, all that means if you step

in a little puddle of water.

That everything drives quick. So well, it's just and this

came to pass.

Yeah, not me, buddy, I am with this guy.

There's an article. There's a picture of a guy holding

his face like this.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, he looks like he's he's.

Devastated. His whole life has been turned upside out. The

best part about those article is he said, why would

a good God allow such a thing to happen?

It's so great, Well, talking about a devastated man whose

whole life has been turned upside down.

We're about to read Where's head.

And the God square off? Right?

Yeah, so remember yesterday we read about he builds an idol. Yes,

kind of represents him. He wants everybody to bow down

to it.

Ninety feet tall.

We never talked about that ninety nine story building. Yeah,

that is a heck of a statue of gold.

Yeah.

It must have been well built because there's only nine

feet wide ninety feet tall, nine feet wide.

That's really impressive construction.

Yeah.

But yeah, wow, nine feet wide. I wonder if it

had like a prep roud or something.

It must have must have had something in there.

Wow, or maybe wires are for something.

Yeah.

So he was kind of thinking of himself pretty highly,

and he sees God do this miracle for shadrag me

shack in a bed and to go. And then he says, okay,

from now on, nobody gets to make fun of chadreck

me shack in a bed and goes God. It's the

same as what he did for Daniel, right, right. And

he doesn't embrace the God. He just acknowledges their God. Right,

that's what happens. He doesn't embrace their God, but he

does say, okay, nobody's allowed to say anything bad about

shadwick me shacking to bed and goes God because no

god rescues like like their God. So he kind of

adds the god of the universe to his pantheon of

God's right is what he does.

So here's what it says.

You just turn the page again, because these are opportunities

for Nebu Canezar to just change his life and encounter

the true and living God. You turn the page in

chapter four and it says King Nebu Kinnezer sent this

message to the people of every race in national language

the world, Peace and prosperity to you. I want you

all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders of

the most High God has performed for me. How great

are his signs and how powerful his wonders. His kingdom

will last forever, and his rule through all generations. I,

Nebue Canezar, was living in my palace and comfort and prosperity.

But one night I had a dream that frightened me,

and I saw visions that terrified me as I lay

in my bed. So I iss an order calling all

the wise men of Babylon so they could tell me

what my dream meant. When all the magicians and enchanters

and astrologers and fortune tellers came in, I told them

the dream, but they could not tell me what it meant.

At last, Daniel came in before me, and I told

him the dream. He was named Belta Shazar, after my God,

and the spirit of Holy Gods is in him. I

said to him, belt the Shazar, chief of the magicians.

I know that the spirit of the Holy Gods is

in you, and that no mystery is too great for

you to solve. Now tell me what my dream means.

While I was laying in my bed, this is what

I dreamed. I saw a large tree in the middle

of the earth. And the tree grew very tall and strong,

reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see.

It had fresh green leaves, and it was loaded with

fruit for all to eat. Wild animals lived in its shade,

and birds nested in its branches. All the world was

fed from this tree. Then, as I lay there dreaming,

I saw a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven.

The messenger shouted, cut down the tree and lop off

its branches, shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit,

chase the wild animals from its shade and the birds

from its branches. Believe the stump and the roots in

the ground, bound with a band of iron and bronze,

and surrounded by tender grass. Now let him be drenched

with the dew of heaven, and let him live with

the wild animals among the plants of the field for

seven periods of time. Let him have the mind of

a wild animal instead of the mind of a human.

For this has been decreed by the messengers. It is

commanded by the Holy ones, so that everyone may know

that the most High rules over the kingdoms of the world.

He gives him to anyone he chooses, even to the

lowliest of people. Belt the Chazar that was the dream

that I, King Nebukenzer had, Now tell me what it means.

For none of the wise men of my kingdom can

do so, but you can tell me, because the spirit

of the Holy Gods is in you. Upon hearing this, Daniel,

also known as bent Belta Shazar, was overcome for a

time frightened by the meaning of the dream. When the

king said to him, Belta Shazar, don't be alarmed by

the dream and what it means, Belta Shazzar replied, I

wish the events foreshadowed this dream. What happened to your enemies,

my lord, and not to you. The tree you saw

was growing very tall and strong, reaching high into the

heavens for all the world to see. It had fresh

green leaves and was loaded with fruit for all to eat.

Wild animals lived in its shade, and birds nested in

its branches. That tree, your Majesty is you, for you

have grown strong and great. Your greatness reaches up to heaven,

and your rule to the ends of the earth. And

then you saw a messenger, a holy one, coming down

from heaven, saying, cut down the tree and destroy it,

But leave the stump and the roots of the ground,

bound with a band of iron and bronze, and surrounded

by tender grass. Let him be drenched by the udou

of the heaven. Let him live with the animals of

the field for seven periods of time. This is what

the dream means, Your majesty, what the Most High has

declared will happen to my Lord, the King. You will

be driven from human society. You will live in the

fields with the wild animals. You will eat grass like

a cow, and you will be drenched with dew of heaven.

Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way,

until you learn that the Most High rules over the

kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses,

but the stump and roots of the tree were left

in the ground. This means that you will receive your

kingdom back again when you've learned the heaven rules. King Nebukenzer,

please accept my advice. Stop sinning and do what is right.

Break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor.

Perhaps then you'll continue to prosper. But all these things

did happen to King nebuken aes. Twelve months later, he

was taking a walk on the flat roof the Royal

Palace and Babylon. As he looked out across the city,

he said, look at this great city of Babylon.

By my own mighty.

Power, I've built this beautiful city as my royal residence

to display my majestic splendor. And while these words were

still in his mouth, a voice called down from heaven,

Oh King Nebukenez, Sure this message is for you. You

are no longer ruler of this kingdom. You will be

driven from human society. You will live in the fields

of the wild animals, and you eat grass like a cow.

Seven periods of time will pass while you live this way,

until you learn that the most high rules over the

kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses.

In that same hour, the judgment was fulfilled, and Nebu

Canezer was driven from human society. He ate grass like

a cow, and he was drenched with the dew of heaven.

He lived this way until his hair was as long

as eagles feathers, and his nails were like bird's claws.

After this time he had passed, I Nebu Canezar, looked

up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and

worshiped the most High and honored the one who lives forever.

His rule is everlasting, his kingdom is eternal. All the

people of the earth are nothing compared to him. He

does as he pleases among the angels of heaven, among

the people of the earth. No one can stop him

or say to him, what do you mean by these things?

Doing these things? When my sanity returned to me, so

did my honor and glory and kingdom. My advisers and

nobles sought me out. I was restored as head of

my kingdom with even greater honor than before. Now I

Nebe can praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven.

All his acts are just and pure, and he is

able to humble the proud man.

What a story, dude.

I love the way that is written, don't you.

Oh yeah, it's it's it's it's Nebukednezzar who is telling

a story of the past.

It's his own testimony.

It's his own testimony.

But then he brings you into it as if it's

happening real time, because he says, and then this is

what happened, and then this is and and and then

he goes back to reminding us that this is something

of the past, because he says, then my standard, my

sandy was restored. And uh, man, what an unbelievable, wild

and obscure story.

I've never heard this in a sermon.

By the way, have you ever heard this particular chapter

in a su Yeah you have.

Really wow, I heard uh one of the old leaders

of our of our.

Previous movement reach on it.

Oh phenomenally yeah, yeah, Oh wow.

It's a great message.

Yeah yeah.

And so this is a wonderful and yet horrific thing

to even imagine. Right. The wonderful part of it is

is that man, God can God can choose whenever he

wants to demonstrate his power, and it's not held back

by any power. So nebukid Nezzar, I mean, he walks

around on his flat roof and says, is there anybody

greater than me? And then all of a sudden a

voice comes down for a voice. By the way, that's

crazy because there's not too many times in the entire

Bible that that happens. And then the voice, almost word

for word, repeats what Daniel said.

A year earlier. And so can you imagine A year

goes by.

You're probably scared at first if you're nebright, and all

of a sudden, a year you know, you've forgotten about it.

You're walking around in your own little you know power,

look what I've done, and all of a sudden this

voice comes down and you're like, oh, yeah, Daniel did

tell me that.

A year until you learn.

That the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the

world and gives them that anyone he chooses, anyone he chooses.

So I can remember.

When I was young, probably a teenager, maybe in my

early twenties, and you know, I like archaeology, I like history,

I like all that stuff. And Nibie Kenezer is one

of the greatest kings in all of history, so even

outside the Bible, there's a ton about him, right, And

and was the one of the first after the Egyptians.

Like the Assyrians were big and tough, but they weren't

like on the same scale as the Egyptians. And then

Nebu Kenezer comes in and takes you know, he's the first,

one of the first great world conquerors, took over all

the world that he knew of at the time and

defeated just about everybody. So historically he's just so powerful.

I thought, surely seven years, right, that he's out of

his mind, and then he's restored back to his throne.

That has that have been in history somewhere, So I

started digging around looking to see if it was. And

there's no direct thing in history that says he lost

his ever.

Love and mind for seven years, right.

But there are a couple things I had to relok it,

I had to look it back up again.

But I remember these as soon as I saw them.

I remembered. So one thing, ancient.

Historical records are extraordinarily selective about what they say about kings, right,

But there is the in the the Prayer of Nabonitis,

which was in the Dead Sea Scrolls. There's this description

of King Nabonitis, which is the last king of Babylon,

not nebue Canezer, but it was Nebuner's kids and nephews

that wind up taking over the kingdom, and while he

was out, and then he gets restored, and then after

that his nephew takes back over and then king his

the Babylonian kingdom gets wiped out by Meets and Persians.

So it could have been highlighting he was the last

great king of Babylon, and it mentions in the prayer Nabonitis,

it mentions that this king was struck with a skin

disease by God for seven years until he humbled himself

and prayed and was healed. So it may have been

that it was recognizing he had some kind of disease

for seven years and he had to repent from God

in order to be healed. So there's that It could

have just been that it was wrong, you know, because

this isn't a Bible thing, it's just a historical thing.

It could have been wrong on the facts. But seven

years the last great king of Babylon given a disease

by God until he repented. That's all in the prayer

and Nabinidis that was found in the Dead Sea scrolls.

Then there's Barasis there in the third century BC, so

three hundred years before Jesus, this Babylonian priest rites in

Greek that nebu Kenezer became ill towards the end of

his life and left his son to govern.

So we do know that there.

Was this illness at the end of his life, and

though it's vague and brief, it does echo some kind

of a thing. So you have the prayer and Nabonitis

recognizes there was this seven year period in Nebukenezer's life

that he was under judgment from God with some kind

of disease. And then Borosis, a Babylonian priest in three

hundred BC.

Says, yeah, he had he was so.

Sick he had to hand off some of the leadership

for a while. Well, we know that he comes back

and he only rules for a short amount of time

after this time, and then it's the end of it.

So I think it's kind of interesting that even historically

there seems to be a hint that something bad happened

in Nebucinezer and it lasted for like a seven year period.

So this is what actually happened in a neat Yeah.

Oh, it's very neat.

I love that stuff.

Yeah.

Well, when the Bible was able to be verified outside

of it outside of itself, right, and so it's verified

with every new discovery with archaeology in the estricially in

the Middle East, and then.

Well, you know, almost primarily in the Middle.

East, and then also with every single historical record that

you know, there's nothing that can flis right, there's nothing.

Think about all.

The writings of history that exist in the world, right.

And then and the things that you know, the Scripture

talk about are able to be coupled with history and

their timelines.

They match up.

Everything matches up, which is amazing. And some things match up, uh,

and we've only discovered them in our lifetime, right, Some

things that you're like, uh, you know, I can't remember

off the top of my head. But was it, man,

it wasn't something just discovered and it was like no

way to get it verified what the Bible said. I

can't remember what it was. Maybe I'll look it up

and share with it.

Yeah.

Sure.

I follow archaeology a lot, and every few months. Stuff

comes out of Israel in particular that highlights particularly they're

digging around the city of David right now, there's a

lot of things that have come up that seem to

point towards the ancient fathers and the ancient Israel and

all that kind of stuff. It comes up all the time. So, yeah,

I'm curious to see what it is that you just

recently read.

Yeah, so so you know, where are the sermons in here?

So the sermons in here are there's.

A God in heaven that appoints kings and takes away

their power.

That's right, that's right, Well, it's it's it's also it's

also recognizing that, yes, if you're the provider of your family,

or you're the builder of your business, or you know,

you're the one that accomplishes, you're the one that earns

a paycheck. Yes, of course that is that is you

who does it. But you have to understand that it

is God who allows you to do it, and God alone.

So God's the one who gives you the ability. He

gives you your health, he gives you your intelligence, he

gives you your you know, capabilities, all that your giftedness,

and uh and so and so God allows you to

do all those things. And so so many times when

we talk about, you know, recognizing that everything is God's.

Uh, you know, we are to give back to God.

God's God is the giver of all things. People sometimes,

you know, pop out their chest like Nebuked Nezzer and

they walk around on their flat roofs and they say,

what are you talking about?

This was me.

I've worked hard, Nobody gave me a hand up right,

I'm the one.

I'm self built, I'm self made. I'm the one that

has done this. And so stop asking me to recognize

that it's somebody other than me. Stop asking me to

give back to God, you know, whether financially would earn

service or volunteerism, because I'm the one and uh, and

God's reminding Nebuke and us that it's actually him.

Yeah, we just came through. We're recording the weekend in

the week right after Easter right now, so this will

play in another week or two and we will have

had a staff meeting by then with the whole staff

coming up and after any big week. We just had

over fourteen thousand people participate live with us in twenty

two services. We solve a thousand professions of faith. It

was just it was an unbelievable week, like a high

water mark.

Right.

And so in all of those staff meetings after the

after big days, big baptism days, big Salvation days, big

attendance days, I'll usually give very similar speech that God

is doing these amazing things among us. Of course he's

using us, right, we give him the very best we have.

We work hard, we plan well, we do all the

things we can do. But then God chooses to send

the increase.

Right.

God does these things, and so we have to stay

humble because God opposes the proud, but he gives grace

to the humble, and we.

Have to stay holy.

God opposes those who choose to compromise with the world,

but he gives grace and power to those who choose

to be holy people walk away from the world.

He said, I'll be like a father to you.

You'd be like children to me, right when He comes

out from among them, and be separate. And then we

need to be helpful, building others up, encouraging others.

Right, those three things all the time.

And so as God is blessing us, one of the

things you and I are constantly working out with our

team is we got to stay holy, humble and helpful, Holy,

humble and helpful.

Yep.

And I've mentioned we just had celebrated our twenty fifth anniversary,

and I wanted one of the last songs on that

big celebration night to be a song that I listened to.

I never told him by this before the twenty fifth

anniversary that there's a song from Charles Billingsley back in

two thousand that he wrote and it just says the

church is empty, but I just can't go home, so

I linger for a moment in the dark all alone.

I'm so overwhelmed how your spirit moved, and I'm just

glad I was in the room right, and I just

think about how incredible it is that God does things.

We did the work that we could do, but then

God shows up and it's just good to be a.

Part of it.

And that's the different I think between a king like

King Nebu Chancery sens was look what I did, and

we're trying to be godly leaders and say, look God,

we did everything we could do, but look what God

did with it, right, And so it's not that we're

just blowing it off and being humble.

Oh look, we didn't do anything.

We did a lot, right, right, Yeah, we did everything

we could do for God. We gave him the best

sacrifice we could give him. But then look what God

did with it, right right, Wow, it's all God.

It's not us. We did our part, but God.

And so a lot of times I'll pray when I'm

praying with the staff and I'll just say, God, it's

amazing to see what you're doing, and we're so glad

we get to be a part of it.

Yeah.

Right.

And by the way, just so, a lot of our

listeners do it in our church, and a lot of

them don't, of course, But for those who do, you

listen to that song? Is it after every big day?

Yeah?

I listened to it after every big day, after every

big baptism, after anything really good. It just kind of

it's my when I'm driving home by myself, it's usually

kind of my recentering it always talking about we made

jokes about you crying all the time. This is almost

every time. It still brings tears to my eyes.

That.

Yeah, it's just good that to be in the room God,

that's something special.

Yeah, this is what makes Cheff cry. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

exactly is Charles Billy.

Well, it's it's just reminded myself. God did amazing things.

I understand. So that's awesome. So wait, what a great chapter.

And here's all I know is a little kid from

Youngstown and a little kid from Elba, Michigan.

Yeah, we normally don't show.

Up in places like this and see these kinds of things.

Apart from God doing amazing things.

That's a great statement right there. So and we still

would have fought that's so funny.

That was so great.

All right, Hey, that is our time, and so hopefully

we will see you tomorrow on the Bible.

Gosh,