Daniel 2 - God Reigns Over Everything

Daniel chapter two, God reigns over everything.

God reigns over all things.

It is ordinarily my practice to read the passage.

The passage under our consideration this morning in Daniel chapter two is forty-nine verses long.

Some of those verses are a paragraph's length.

So in the interest of getting you to lunch before sunset, I will not read the passage in its entirety, but I will read some parts of it as I go along in the message.

Daniel chapter 2, continuing our sermon series in the book of Daniel.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

Well, consider this question to yourself.

If you're gonna watch a movie or read a book or watch a TV show, do you like or do you dislike spoilers?

You like to know what's gonna happen at the end?

Or does that annoy you?

People vary in that.

A couple years ago, there was an interesting study that was conducted to see how people responded differently to spoilers.

Some people were given a book to read or a movie to watch and they were told the ending, whereas others were given the same book or movie and not told the ending.

Some were in suspense about what was going to happen, and others had the ending revealed to them.

There was an interesting finding.

Many of the people who were given the spoiler ahead of time actually enjoyed the story more.

Sounds a little counterintuitive.

They enjoyed the story more when the ending was revealed.

The reason for that, the researchers uh hypothesized, was that it relieved some of the stress and some of the tension of not knowing.

Sometimes not knowing the end of something can be suspenseful, it can be stressful.

And sometimes we can relax a little more when we know the ending.

There was somebody quoted in an article about this study that I thought was interesting.

I wanted to share this quote with you.

She said this after I became a mother, I developed a much lower tolerance for stress and tension.

One way I deal with this is to embrace spoilers in books, TV shows, and movies.

If the action on the page or on the screen is too suspenseful, I go online to look up what happens next and release some of that tension.

Some people may hate spoilers, other people don't seem to mind them so much.

Well, wherever you stand on this question of spoilers, love them or hate them, I think we can agree that life itself can be suspenseful.

Life can be suspenseful because we don't know the future.

We don't know what's coming next.

We haven't seen the next act in the play.

And that can be a source of stress, it can be a source of suspense, it can be a source of anxiety.

Now, in our study in the book of Daniel, Daniel was a character in the Bible who must have felt that.

If there was anybody who might feel a sense of suspense and stress about what was coming, it was Daniel.

Daniel had been taken into captivity in a foreign land, among people that he didn't know, among a foreign culture and customs.

It was a huge transition.

And it must have been very suspenseful, nerve-wracking.

But here in this text, in Daniel chapter 2, God gives Daniel a little spoiler alert.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

God gives Daniel a heads up about some things that are to come.

God reveals to Daniel a little sneak preview of the future in order to give him some assurance.

Some of the events described in the book of Daniel are past tense for us, but they were future tense for Daniel and for King Nebuchadnezzar.

And God gives this sneak preview as a way of comforting and assuring the people that their future is in his hands.

And even if we do not know the end of the story, God does.

And God remains in control even in our moments of greatest suspense.

In Daniel chapter 2, the story begins with the king having a dream, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

He had a troubling dream.

It woke him up, it scared him.

He didn't know what to make of it.

And it says in verse 2 of Daniel chapter 2 that the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

These were the pagan priests of the Babylonian religion who supposedly had contact and communication with the stars and the planets and could figure out what was going on.

And yet, when Nebuchadnezzar calls them to try to figure out what's going on with his dream that he had, nobody's able to tell him.

The king requests that all these wise men tell him the dream.

But the king doesn't want to tell them the content of what the dream was.

They ask him, all right, tell us what you dreamed, and we'll interpret it.

And Nebuchadnezzar figures, wait a minute now, if you have some kind of connection to heaven to tell me the meaning of the dream, you ought to know what it is that I dreamed in the first place.

So you tell me what I dreamed, and then you tell me what it means.

And frankly, the wise men get a little irritated with the king.

Verse 11.

They say that what the king asks is too difficult.

No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.

The gods do not live among humans.

In other words, these pagan priests, as they were, of this Babylonian religion, they say that what you're asking is impossible.

We don't have some kind of direct line to God to figure out the answer.

What are you asking us for?

Well, at this the king is enraged, and he orders that all the wise men in Babylon be put to death.

Now Daniel catches wind of this.

Remember, this order affects Daniel because Daniel was now one of the wise men.

Daniel, we saw in chapter one, had been training in the king's court in the language and the literature of the Babylonians, and he was being trained up to be one of the king's wise men, one of the king's consultants, who would give the king advice and wisdom and insight.

But Nebuchadnezzar gets fed up with him and he says, off with all of their heads, and that includes Daniel.

So Daniel gets wind of this, that his life is now on the line because these sorcerers and enchanters made the king upset.

So Daniel goes back to his friends and he asks them to pray.

He asks them to pray.

Pray that the dream would be revealed.

Pray that there would be a way out of this bloody execution that Nebuchadnezzar has ordered.

And the dream is revealed to Daniel.

Daniel has connection to the one true God of the universe.

And God, the one true God, reveals the content of the dream directly to Daniel.

And Daniel comes to a new realization of God's power and God's might and God's control over all things that happen.

He realizes that God is in control of the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, and God is in control of revealing the message of that dream.

God chose to reveal the meaning of that dream to Daniel.

And in verse 20, Daniel prays.

And this prayer, it's a prayer of praise and exaltation, and it's one of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible, I think.

Starting in verse 20, Daniel says this praise be to the name of God forever and ever.

Wisdom and power are his.

He changes times and seasons.

He deposes kings and raises up others.

He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

He reveals deep and hidden things.

He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells within him.

I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors.

You have given me wisdom and power.

You have made known to me what we asked of you.

You have made known to us the dreams of the king.

Daniel asks God for wisdom, and he receives it.

And when he receives wisdom, he doesn't simply become inflated with a sense of his own importance or puffed up about his own intelligence, but he gives the glory and the credit to God.

He recognizes that all the wisdom he has, all the knowledge that he possesses, ultimately isn't his own, but comes from God Himself.

And all the gifts that we have, any talents, abilities that we have, those are direct gifts from God given to us so that we might serve his purposes.

Daniel provides us a great picture here of somebody who recognizes where his strength and power comes from and then gives the praise and the glory back to God for it.

The pagan philosophers and priests were unable to interpret the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and yet the one true God revealed it to Daniel.

And so now Daniel has the potential to intervene here.

All of the wise men were slated to be killed because none of them could figure out the meaning of the dream.

But now Daniel requests to go before the king.

He has both a humility and a boldness.

I love that about Daniel.

He's humble in recognizing that God is the source of his wisdom, and yet he is bold in taking action, armed with the confidence that God goes before him.

Verse 24.

All of that, Daniel went to his own executioner and said, Hold on a minute now.

That takes some gusto, I think.

Verse 24, he says, Do not execute the wise men of Babylon.

Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him.

Daniel has confidence, and when he goes before the king, he shows where that confidence comes from.

Verse 27 of Daniel chapter 2, he says, No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.

He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come.

Daniel says that this is not an understanding or insight that's the product merely of human intellect or wisdom, but that it comes directly from God.

We would do well to pause here for a moment and take note of the fact that any knowledge of God we have is because he has given it to us.

Any understanding of God we have is a gracious gift from him.

The fact that we have some comprehension of who God is is a reflection of his grace.

Any understanding of God is a pure gift on his part.

None of us has climbed an intellectual ladder and reached the top and found God waiting for us.

God is the one who has descended a ladder, found all of us lacking, and graciously given to us the knowledge of himself in Jesus Christ.

We operate from a place of dependence on God revealing himself to us.

And Daniel operates from a place of dependence, recognizing that the wisdom and understanding he has comes from the one true God.

And for the first time, we start to learn about the actual dream that Nebuchadnezzar had.

The dream itself has not been revealed.

There's an element of suspense in this story.

We don't actually know what the dream is, and it's not until about 31 verses in that we begin to learn something of Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

Daniel tells him the dream, says that in this dream the king saw a statue, and this statue's head was made of gold, its chest and arms were made of silver, and its stomach and thighs were made of bronze, its legs were iron, and its feet were a mixture of iron and clay.

That is one weird statue.

It's a statue made of a lot of different materials, and the materials get weaker the lower you go.

It starts out gold, and then by the time you get to the feet, it's clay.

There's this statue, and not only is there a statue in the dream, there is a large rock that comes to the statue and strikes it.

And the entire statue falls down.

The entire statue falls down.

It collapses, it vanishes to nothing.

But the rock that struck the statue became a large mountain and filled the entire earth.

So this is a vision of a statue that is composed of many different materials, some of them strong, some of them weak.

A rock comes and strikes that statue.

And no matter how strong parts of the statue are, even the strongest material on that statue can't withstand the force of that rock.

The entire statue collapses, but the rock that strikes it becomes larger and larger and larger.

Strange vision, isn't it?

What does it mean?

How are you supposed to make sense of that?

Daniel interprets the dream.

Daniel says that each of the different materials that compose the statue represent different empires on the world stage.

At the time of this prophecy, Daniel was in captivity in Babylon.

And Babylon was a great and powerful empire that had conquered nations, including Israel.

And the gold represents King Nebuchadnezzar, the great and mighty king of Babylon.

Shows that he's almighty and powerful.

But the other parts of the statue represent other kingdoms that will follow after.

Daniel says that following Nebuchadnezzar's reign in Babylon, there will be multiple other kingdoms that follow, a second, third, and fourth.

And there's some discussion about exactly which kingdoms these are, but they're often identified as the kingdoms of Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

And so the statue represents Babylon, which was in existence at the time of the prophecy, and then Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

Three empires that would follow Nebuchadnezzar's reign and that would bring us up to the time of Christ.

Jesus was born under the Roman Empire.

And so the prophecy of the multiple kingdoms to come takes us right up to the time of Christ.

And then in verse 44, Daniel says this.

Nor will it be left to another people.

And Daniel says that that rock that struck the statue, that represents the kingdom of God.

The large rock represents God's kingdom, which will be established and will never fade.

See, this dream represents a vision of a series of world empires, mighty and powerful in their strength.

And yet every one of them has their moment of fame, passes into oblivion, and is forgotten.

In this day and age, Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, this was the greatest kingdom known to mankind.

What country today worries about being invaded by Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon?

History.

Gone.

And yet, it says that the kingdom of God is an enduring kingdom that will never end.

And so the series of visions leads us right up to the time of Christ.

And when Jesus comes, he says in Mark chapter 1, the kingdom of God has come near.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

We might think of the kingdom of God quite simply as the reign of God.

Any place where God's reign is done, where God's will is carried out, where God is honored, is the reign of God, the kingdom of God.

And Jesus establishes the kingdom of God in part at his first coming by gathering to himself disciples, who then go out into the world and do the will of Jesus, teach others about him, and teach others to follow him.

Right now that's how the eternal kingdom of God is established, through the faithful witness of the local church.

And yet, at the second coming of Christ, there will be an establishment of the kingdom of God, the likes of which we've never seen.

Revelation chapter 11, verse 15 says this the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah.

Revelation 11:15

And he will reign forever and ever.

He will reign forever and ever and ever.

We haven't come to this yet.

The kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God are two distinct things.

Nations rage and nations conspire right now.

And perhaps it seems like the kingdom of God is on the losing team.

But the final chapter of history is not yet written.

And when Jesus returns in glory, God ultimately and once and for all will prevail.

We ask ourselves sometimes as we look at the world why there is such injustice to be seen.

If God is good, why is there such evil?

It's a difficult question, one that doesn't have an easy answer.

But I believe part of the answer is that we have to take a long-term view of history.

That just because justice is not triumphant right now does not mean that justice will not be triumphant for eternity.

Just because evil prevails now does not mean that evil will prevail for eternity.

Just because wrongdoing seems to go without judgment now doesn't mean that it will be so for eternity.

There is a day coming when all wrongs will be made right, and we look forward to that day and the establishment of God's kingdom above all else.

This text speaks about the sovereignty of God, the reign of God, that God is above and beyond all that we imagine, all that is in this world.

And we see specifically in this passage a couple ways in which God reigns.

How God is sovereign.

I've mentioned, I've alluded to some of this, but I want to share some of them with you.

We see in this text, first of all, that God reigns over all the religions of the world.

God reigns over all religions of the world.

We see here that God is greater than all human belief systems that operate independently of Him.

In this text, the king summoned magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, astrologers.

None of them could tell the king his dream.

None of them had access to the power of the one true God.

But it is in Jesus Christ that people find access to the one true God and this God's power.

1 Timothy 2, verse 5 says this there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 2:5

There is one God.

There are not millions of gods.

There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and mankind, the man Jesus Christ.

A mediator is somebody who stands in between and bridges a gap.

All of the religious ritual in the world is not sufficient to bridge the gap between fallen humanity and a perfect God.

It is in Jesus Christ alone that that gap is bridged and that we meet the one true God.

The sorcerers and the magicians themselves acknowledge in the story in verse 11, they say that nobody can reveal this to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.

Well, guess what?

In Jesus Christ, God came to live among humans.

In Jesus Christ, God became a human being and dwelt among us.

And in Jesus Christ, we have access to the one true God.

The Apostle Paul also describes in 2 Timothy chapter 3, he says that there are some who have a form of godliness but deny its power.

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

A form of godliness without the power.

In other words, Paul says that there are some people who have all the appearance of being connected to God but lack direct connection to God Himself.

On the outside, it appears to be perfectly religious, but there's no true power behind it because there's no true connection to God.

One of my most unfortunate uh experiences in going to a restaurant was the time that uh when I was up north, uh still before I moved down here, I went to a uh chain sandwich shop.

I won't mention the name, except to say that it was Pop Belly.

They're not around here.

I went in and I ordered a chicken salad sandwich.

I was I was very hungry, very, very hungry.

Ordered the biggest chicken salad sandwich that they had, and ordered takeout.

I paid, went home.

I get home and I go to bite into that sandwich.

And you know what they forgot on my chicken salad sandwich?

The chicken salad.

I paid somewhere near 20 bucks for a very large piece of toast.

From the outside, it was all wrapped up, very nice, very warm, toasty.

It looked like the real thing.

But on the inside, it was totally lacking in anything that would actually make it a sandwich.

It was a glorified piece of toast that looked like a sandwich.

The Apostle Paul says that some people have a form of godliness but deny its power.

They have all the appearance of connection to God, but there's nothing actually inside that is truly about the power of God.

It's just all external religion and ritual.

God is sovereign over all world religions.

Any other way apart from Christ that people seek to please God, to live before God, or to honor God, Jesus Christ casts judgment on.

We come to God through Jesus Christ and no other way.

God reigns over all world religions, and God reigns, the text tells us, over all nations.

We see that God reigns over all the nations of the world.

Nebuchadnezzar at the time was the king of kings.

He was top dog, he was the most powerful military conqueror that there was.

And yet, the vision reveals that Nebuchadnezzar will soon be no more.

Daniel prays.

He says that God deposes kings and raises up others.

When Daniel interprets the dream, he says to Nebuchadnezzar, verse 37, the God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory.

In other words, he says to Nebuchadnezzar that you may be powerful, you may be mighty, but all that you have, all that power is on loan to you from God.

So don't get a big head.

Some of us let power go to our head really quickly when we think that we have any kind of influence or control or competence about anything.

Goes to our head, we get puffed up, and we start to become God in our own eyes.

How much more if you were the king of a mighty army and you could command an army to do whatever you wished?

God reigns over all the nations.

And the mightiest armies in history are nothing in the sight of God.

The greatest empires in the world are a mere footnote in history.

The greatest armies look like a handful of G.I.

Joe action figures in comparison to God's might and strength.

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation, we should do so with gladness and with joy and with thanksgiving.

But it's also appropriate that it be infused with a healthy dose of humility.

That anything that any nation has, that anything that any people has comes from God, and it is only because of God that any society, any group of people are able to prosper.

That is a gift that comes from God and from God alone.

And we are to acknowledge him and give him glory for that.

We see that God reigns over all world religions, over all the nations, and God reigns, finally, over all of history.

Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings.

Verse 47.

God revealed to Daniel what would take place.

He speaks of kingdoms that are to come.

He speaks of what is in the future.

And it can be unsettling to recognize that we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

Even our surest plans are subject to change based on the circumstances of luck and fortune.

At least what seemed to be luck and fortune from our perspective.

But God knows the beginning from the end, and he knows everything that's going to happen to us tomorrow, and anything that takes us by surprise was something that God wrote down in the story of our life long ago.

The psalmist says in Psalm 139, verse 16, Your eyes saw my unformed body.

Psalms 139:16

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

God wrote down every day of our life and everything that will happen to us, and he intimately knows every detail of our lives, and he knows every future event that will take place.

God reigns over history.

And so when we look to the future with uncertainty and with fear, we can look to God with confidence that He reigns and that He is sovereign over history.

I think I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.

I lived out in the Washington, D.C.

area for a couple of years, and the town that I lived in there had an annual parade, kind of like here.

Had an annual parade, and it was packed.

The streets were packed when that parade went through town.

And sitting on the street corner looking at the floats, you see them one at a time as they passed by.

Now they also had live coverage of the parade via helicopter.

And guess what?

If you were watching it on TV from the vantage point of the helicopter, you could see the entire parade at once, beginning to end.

Whereas I experienced the parade sequentially, one by one, as it passed by me.

From a helicopter's vantage point, you could experience the whole thing simultaneously, beginning to end.

And Paul Nyquist says that while we experience things sequentially, one by one, as they happen, God experiences all things simultaneously.

God knows the beginning from the end.

He knows the agenda for tomorrow, even when we don't.

God reigns over all.

God reigns over all world religions, God reigns over all nations, and God reigns over each one of our lives.

We have a God to whom we can entrust our future, and we have a king who is worthy of following.

Let us pledge our allegiance to Him and live in light of this King's eternal reign.

Amen.