Daniel 4:1-37 – Cut Down to Grow Up

We're continuing our series through the Old Testament book of Daniel.

And just to give us a little bit of context to get us ready for the reading, I'll remind you of a couple things.

One is that the Daniel is a story of when the Israelites, the Old Testament people of God, who I think it's fair you can kind of think of as the Old Testament Christian, is a time when they had been sent into exile.

And so they had been disobedient and idolatrous before God.

And so they had become to look just like everyone else.

And so not honoring God with their lives.

And so God sent them into exile in Babylon.

But what we're seeing in this story is that even though God had sent them away, he had not left them.

That he had gone with them.

And often in the story of Daniel, what we find is that God's invisible hand, his work in the world that we don't always see so clearly, it remained to give grace for whoever would trust him.

And in the story of Daniel so far, the surprising test case of this reality is that it is happening for Nebuchadnezzar.

King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, the main character so far, he is the one that God has cared about.

He is the one that God will use to care for his people through working in and through Nebuchadnezzar.

And so really, so far, we've seen a development in his life.

And so let me just give you the highlights.

And so in chapter one, as Daniel and his friends find themselves in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar finds them and he realizes that their wisdom and understanding is ten times more than his own wise men.

That their God has been gracious to them, he has given them favor.

In chapter two, when Nebuchadnezzar has his first dream, Nebuchadnezzar learns that Daniel's God is the revealer of mysteries.

That there is a God in heaven who will reveal the unknown.

And then last week in chapter three, the famous story of the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Nebuchadnezzar declares that their God is the one who rescues his servants.

And so what we see in the story of Nebuchadnezzar so far is that he is having a growing theology.

And so he is learning more and more about God, and yet he is lacking application.

He is knowing about God, but yet personally it has not changed his life.

And so we're going to be reading Daniel chapter 4.

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

It's a long chapter.

We'll read the entire thing.

It can be found on page 879 if you're using the Church Bible.

So Daniel chapter 4, beginning in verse 1.

Daniel 4 · chapter mention

King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth.

Peace be multiplied to you.

It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.

How great are his signs, and how mighty his wonders.

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace, and I saw a dream that made me afraid.

As I lay in bed the fancies and visions of my head alarmed me.

So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, and that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.

Then the magicians and the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers, they came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation.

At last Daniel came in before me, he who was named Beltishazzar after the name of my God, and in whom the Spirit of the Holy Gods dwelled.

And I told him the dream, saying, O Beltashazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the Spirit of the Holy Gods is in you, and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw in their interpretation.

The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these.

But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field, let him be wet with the dew of heaven, let his portion be with the beast in the grass of the earth, let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him.

The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will, and sets over it the lowliests of men.

This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw, and you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.

Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him.

The king answered and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.

Beltashazar answered and said, My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its its interpretation for your enemies.

The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and his fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived, it is you, O king.

You have grown and become strong.

Your greatness has grown and reached to the heavens, and your dominion to the ends of the earth.

And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven, and saying, Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him.

This is the interpretation, O king.

It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.

You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives to gives it to whom he will.

And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for for you from the time that you know that heaven rules.

Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.

At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?

And while the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven.

O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken.

The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and you shall make be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar.

He was driven from among men, and he ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair grew as long as eagle's feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws.

At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the most high, and I praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, What have you done?

At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom my majesty and splendor returned to me, my counselors and my lords sought me out, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, for all his works are right, and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.

This is the word of the Lord.

Well, that's a long story, and so let's pray and ask for God's help as we give our attention to it.

Heavenly Father, we pray that you would open up our eyes to see wonderful things from your word this morning.

Would we even grow to the point of sharing in Nebuchadnezzar's praise, that you, God, are able to humble the proud.

May we see that as a good thing and experience your goodness.

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, here in chapter four, something has changed.

Something has changed, something big for King Nebuchadnezzar.

We have a personal testimony of when it all came crashing down.

And Nebuchadnezzar says, it is the best thing that ever happened to him.

You know, at the beginning of the chapter, it begins in many ways similar to what we've seen before.

And so in verse 1, King Nebuchadnezzar, he is preparing this message to go out to everyone.

He's already done this.

Several times he has already sent out this message, kind of praising the God of the Israelites, even threatening death to anybody who didn't honor.

And yet this time it is something different and new.

Notice in verse 2, if you look again, it has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.

For me, if it is a personal testimony, not an authoritative declaration.

And even in the wording he uses this signs and wonders, it's the language in the Bible that's most often used for salvation language, especially at the time of the Exodus.

And so King Nebuchadnezzar is seeing himself within God's story of salvation, and he is making it personal and saying, Today my life has changed.

And so it should be an inspiring and encouraging story.

And it is life transformation.

Yes, but maybe not.

You know, it's not necessarily an inspiring story about what a human can do.

You notice that he goes through his story.

His main goal is actually to recount what God has done.

It's there at the very end of this passage in verse 37.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, I praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.

It's a life-changing story, a transformation, yes, but maybe not.

It's not about overcoming obstacles.

That's a classic story we love of the underdog.

It's not how many times you get knocked down, but how you get up again.

Well, no, who was the obstacle in this story?

God was.

It's a story about trusting God's hand who gives the obstacles and even honoring him for it.

You know, the picture we're given here, the illustration, is something like pruning to produce growth.

Pruning to produce growth.

And so maybe you've seen some of these videos in social media where a wife comes into the room with a power saw and a drill, and he walks by the husband off to do some great project.

What's going on?

Trouble.

Well, that's life in our family every fall or end of summer as Rebecca gets the pruning saw out to go out to the yard and cut down all the trees, and when she's doing it, it looks like a disaster.

But of course, we know that the pruning, the cutting, needs to be done.

It needs to be done for the health and the future life that God has designed to bring.

So it is in this story with King Nebuchadnezzar, and so it is in God's work in our lives that deeper the disease, the deeper the cut.

And so this morning, as we look at Nebuchadnezzar's testimony, we want to grow to learn and even to trust and even to praise, to see it as a wonderful thing that God can humble the proud.

You know, ultimately he has to do that for our salvation, but he even has to do that for our growth.

And so it is a wonderful passage ahead of us.

Um, it's challenging because of its length, also because of how it kind of weaves together some big themes from the Old Testament that then get fulfilled in the new.

And so we have our work cut out for us, and to help us kind of not miss the forest for the tree, we're gonna simplify down just to two points.

Two points that summarize the story and then connect to the bigger story that God is writing in the Bible.

And I will mention, so we have Sunday school after the service, and we can have some time at the beginning to ask questions.

And so for things we don't cover or other connections that come up, feel free to ask towards the beginning of Adult Sunday School.

But for our time this morning, just two big points.

One, God disrupts what dehumanizes.

And then secondly, God restores what reveals.

And so God disrupts what dehumanizes.

Nebuchadnezzar's testimony, it's all about the disruption that God brings into his life.

And the way that God chooses to do it is through images and themes that bring out the dehumanizing nature of sin and especially of human pride.

And so we see this disruption there towards the very beginning.

Notice in verse 4, I, Nebuchadnezzar, I was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace.

As Nebuchadnezzar, he tells his story, he remembers back to what it had seemed like, and it seemed like everything was fine.

Comfortable, arrow pointing up.

And isn't that what human life sometimes looks like?

Everything pointing up, everything going well on top of the world.

But almost always a mirage or a temporary pause.

Because then in verse 5, I saw a dream and it made me afraid.

As I lay in bed, the fancies and visions of my head alarmed me.

And we should be clear that once again, God has broken into Nebuchadnezzar's life.

And so this isn't a Freudian dream driven by Nebuchadnezzar's kind of self-consciousness.

No, this is a message from God, and yet the picture of a dream can help us.

You know, the Disney song says, a dream is a wish your heart makes.

But how often that's not the case.

How often the dream is actually the fear that the heart expresses.

And so we have in Nebuchadnezzar's life this disruption.

So far in the story of Daniel, we've had these contest stories, and so contests or conflicts between Nebuchadnezzar and the gods of Babylon, and then Daniel and his friends and the God of Israel.

And so the first was that dream that no one could interpret about the tower, the image.

And then we have the fiery furnace that while everyone else is bowing down, we have the three friends of Daniel who are standing up.

And Nebuchadnezzar throws down the conflict.

Who can save out of my hand?

And Nebuchadnezzar, he has been slowly learning through these contests and conflicts that the God of Israel is to be taken seriously.

And yet, as time has passed, and Nebuchadnezzar has grown old, and so in the story of Daniel, there's signs that at this point we're getting towards the end of Nebuchadnezzar's reign.

There's been little signs of God's activity and yet no breakthrough.

How much like real life is that?

That as you look back on your life, you'll see signs of what God has done, or if you look back in the life of the loved ones you have, you see signs of God doing things and yet not enough.

And so for Nebuchadnezzar, everything seemed fine, and then God broke in once again.

And so we have the repeated themes here.

None of the wise men of Babylon can help, they have no answers.

And so in verse 8, at last Daniel comes in before him.

And notice that Nebuchadnezzar, he's showing signs of learning.

And so he says, Daniel came in before me, the one who was named Belshazzar after my God.

But no, no, he's Daniel.

He's Daniel, Yahweh is judge.

Yahweh, Daniel has connection to the God who reveals mysteries.

And as we look at his dream, it is a picture of human dignity and purpose.

It's a picture of human dignity and purpose.

And so, if we were just to summarize it, it's a dream about a tree that would grow to be visible throughout the whole earth and would provide care and sustenance.

And so, just to remind you of some of the connections in the Old Testament about the life of a tree, it's a common picture of humanity as it's meant to be.

And so you have tree of life in the garden, the source of life.

Maybe you know Psalm 1, the picture of the righteous man who is like a tree planted by streams of water that will grow strong and fern.

Or in the prophets, we have the oaks of righteousness in Isaiah.

And so the picture of a tree as the human as it was meant to be, that is a picture of creation.

And so even here we have this tree of Nebuchadnezzar combined with the creation mandate from Genesis, that this tree was meant to provide food for all and for the beasts of the field to find shade and for the birds of the air to live in it.

It's almost as if the creation account is coming new.

Here it is, it's been restored.

And yet there's a parallel story of trees.

Maybe you remember.

Along with the tree of life, there's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The temptation to do life apart from God, not dependent on God.

Not a tree, but very similar, the Tower of Babel, not to be fruitful and multiply, but to be raised up against God, so that when the prophets then come and they provide rebuke to the people, they talk about proud trees.

Trees that have grown proud on their own and need to be brought low.

And so when we get to the interpretation in verse 19, this is Daniel's fear.

He wishes this dream wasn't about that type of tree.

Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, he was dismayed and his thoughts alarmed him.

The king says, No, no, don't worry, just tell me the truth.

And Daniel says, I wish this was for your enemies.

It's a wonderful picture of the gracious heart of Daniel, actually, warning of God's judgment, but doing so with tears.

You know, this is God's heart as well.

Jesus does the same thing when he warns about the destruction of Jerusalem.

He does it with tears.

You see, God's judgment, it comes with the hope of redemption.

It's not a main point this morning, but I hope we could renew or recapture that perspective.

You know, the last years and decades have brought times when almost everyone has found political figures that they find especially incompetent or immoral.

I wonder if we could have such a gracious heart as Daniel for King Nebuchadnezzar.

That we would hope for the word of God, the word of the gospel to bring you redemption.

You see, the story of the Bible is one where God brings disruption to the dehumanization of sin, and especially the pride that would take humanity away from God or even against God.

And this is what we see as the dream develops.

This picture of the tree then devolves into a picture of dehumanization.

Verse 20 the tree you saw which grew strong and which grew and became strong so that it reached the top of the heavens, the tree in whose leaves everything found sustenance and shade.

It's you, O King.

You've grown and become strong.

Your greatness has reached the heavens.

Even God sees it.

And it was certainly true.

You know, you can go to museums and read in the histories of Babylon, and like so many other kingdoms like it, they did become great and did great things.

And even some of those things are used by God in his grace.

But the mighty tree was not self-sufficient nor self-determined.

Even the mightiest is small when seen from above.

That's the perspective we're invited to in verse 23.

When the king he sees a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven, saying, Chop down the tree and destroy it.

Leave a stump, but it's going to be bound with iron and bronze.

You see, the tree is cut down, but the stump is left.

And it's a picture of bondage.

It's a chains of slavery.

And so it's a picture of the foundation of Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom.

Great and yet destined to fail.

As you notice the transition in the dream from a tree to a he.

But he is becoming less human.

And the point of the disruption, it's clear in verse 24.

This is the interpretation, O king, it's the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King, that you shall be driven from among men.

Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.

You'll be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven.

Seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules and gives this kingdom to whom he will.

You see, the lesson is of humility and acknowledgement before God.

You see, it is a picture of the dehumanizing force of pride.

Maybe you know the psalmist in Psalm 73, when he's remembering his arrogance before God, he says, I was brutish and ignorant.

I was like a beast towards you.

You see, humanity created in God's image was to work with and for him.

And so sin then says, not your way, my way.

I'm going to go my own way.

And the result is what the Bible describes as the fall or being less.

Pain and struggle in the very things that God gave us to do.

And so fruitfulness and dominion now become trouble.

Our way apart from God is not the way it's supposed to be.

That's why in the Old Testament, the Bible often describes human activity without acknowledgement of God.

It describes it as a scurrying to and fro as if everything is fine and under control.

And so you can think of the illustration of like an ant's nest.

You know, if you walk outside today and you find the perfect ant's nest and you kick it over, you know what happens?

Right away, they get scurrying back to work.

Back to work, build it up again.

No idea that this huge human is just waiting to kick it over once more.

You see, it's silly to ignore the biggest player and act like all is well.

That's how humans act in pride.

Busy, busy, scurrying together, all the while ignoring the God who rules in the heavens.

But also, you know, with ants, they they fall back to their created instinct.

They work together, survival.

But you know the worst thing about humans in our pride is we don't often fall back to work together.

We work against each other, we destroy each other in our world.

It's unnatural.

And that's the reality of Nebuchadnezzar in verse 27.

Even though God has seen his kingdom as this great tree doing all these wonderful things, God sees beyond that.

Verse 27, therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you.

Break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed.

You see, the world might have thought that Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar were great, but God saw the truth, feet of clay.

God saw underneath the iniquities and the oppression.

He sees it all.

And so he's in here disrupting the dehumanizing behavior of Nebuchadnezzar.

He's bringing him to the end of the path that he's on.

And I do want to make clear that this is not a typical mental illness, and so we should not use this chapter to try to find insight or understanding about the mental struggles we might suffer with.

No, no, this was clearly an affliction given by God to bring about humility.

No, Jesus, he answers a question about whether suffering is a result of sin, and he says, no, but yes.

No, actually, it's not our place to determine whether all suffering is from particular sin.

No, it's not our place to imagine whether suffering is discipline or judgment from God about anything in particular.

And yet he says, yes.

What is wrong with this world, what we experience is wrong, is it a sign that all is not right, that something has gone wrong?

And so for Nebuchadnezzar, the full disruption comes in verse 28.

It's almost as if God says he was acting like an animal.

And so God made him feel it.

Verse 28, all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.

At the end of twelve months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?

And so many around him would say, Yes.

And yet while the words were still in his mouth, there fell a voice from heaven.

O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you.

You know, C.S.

Lewis, he describes pride as like a spiritual cancer, a silent killer.

He says it's so dangerous because we can even do good things, even right things in prideful ways for ourselves.

And so if you look back in human history, is human success for the glory of God and for the restoration of his purposes in humanity.

Does it humanize?

Or is human success for self and mine at the cost of you and yours?

You see, the Bible describes pride as a touch of madness.

Pride convinces us that we're more important than we really are.

Pride convinces us that we can use other people instead of loving them.

Pride convinces us that we can live our lives in any way we want without consequences.

It makes us numb and hard to our own sin.

We deserve it.

We can get away with it.

Pride puts all kinds of crazy notions in our head and it drives us to do crazy things.

And so in the life of Nebuchadnezzar, God makes visible the cancer that was growing on the inside.

You know, sometimes God's discipline will allow us to feel the sting and consequences of our pride.

So we can think about damaged relationships, the rifts and hurts from the words and actions spoken in pride.

You can think about the consequences of unrepented or tolerated sin.

Oh, I can handle it.

I deserve it, it'll be different with me.

And yet it rarely is.

You see, if left unchecked, pride leads to disaster.

And so will we trust God to cut just to the right depth?

And deeper the disease, the deeper the cut.

Well, the nice thing about our story, the wonderful thing about our God is that he does not just let this dehumanizing pressure of sin continue.

It has continued long in Nebuchadnezzar's life, seemingly unchecked, and yet he disrupts the story to tell a better one.

This is our second point and shorter now.

God restores what reveals.

God has disrupted the story of pride in Nebuchadnezzar's life, and he does it to restore what reveals, that he is creating a story to restore humanity into that which reveals his glory.

And that's what we see exemplified by Nebuchadnezzar.

That God had brought Nebuchadnezzar down low so that he could be ready to look up.

Did you notice in verse 34 we return to a firsthand account of Nebuchadnezzar?

You know, the previous section it was written by the narrator.

Why?

Because Nebuchadnezzar couldn't tell that part of the story.

He had lost it all.

Ultimate dehumanization, unable to speak.

And yet in verse 34, he comes back.

At the end of my days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High.

It's a wonderful way to tell his story that he looked up and his reason returned.

He says the most rational of humanity is to acknowledge and to live before God.

That's why in Proverbs 1 it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

To know how to live well, it starts with the acknowledgement of God and to take him seriously in life.

It's really what we're created to be.

Do you know that even Jesus himself, when he took on flesh and became man, he found this, he found his identity and his purpose within the story of trusting God.

Both in his incarnation, and so when he came and became a man, he trusted God's plan to live it out, even to the point of death.

And yet, even in his exaltation, as he now, even now is reigning in heaven, he says he doesn't even know the day of his return.

Instead, he entrusts it to the plan of his father.

It's the most rational thing.

And so Nebuchadnezzar says he lifted up and he understood.

His reason returned.

And then he describes the personal change, and I do think it is conversion.

I think Nebuchadnezzar, as an Old Testament person looking at God's grace, I think he was converted.

Because notice what he says, that he blessed and praised and honored.

An appropriate and realistic view of God, that suddenly he has got it for himself.

I looked up and I understood, and so what did I do?

I blessed and praised and honored.

And then what does he say of himself?

None can stay his hand or say to him, What have you done?

An appropriate and realistic view of humanity.

And all that then leads to his restoration.

Verse 36.

At the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me.

My counselors and my lord sought me out, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.

You see, still God had more for do more work to do through Babylon.

So what is his final word?

What did Nebuchadnezzar learn most of all?

It is right and just good and true for God to humble the proud.

Verse 37.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.

You see, Nebuchadnezzar, he is transformed into someone who now speaks and displays God's glory.

Restored to reveal.

Restored, restoring of humanity.

It's the right view of God that leads to the right view of ourselves.

And God often uses our personal testimonies to embody the sanity of the gospel.

So He uses our personal testimonies to make sense, to make visible and present what Christians believe by faith and outside of time.

It brings it into time, brings it into experience.

And so as we draw to a close, I want to end with three particular applications.

The first is to honor and trust that God is restoring to reveal.

To honor and trust that this is the story that God is about.

You know, the first audience of the book of Daniel, it would have been the Israelites, most likely after they first came back from exile.

And so it must have been right when they came back from exile, when they returned to their land that had been destroyed, to their nation that really was no more.

They had been sent into exile for their judgment.

They had been cut down.

Was that the end?

And so for them, the application was certainly to honor and to trust that God was still about his plan to restore and to reveal his glory in humanity and especially in his people.

And so they had to hold on to and believe this promise from the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah chapter 11, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, and the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

He shall strike the earth with a rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his fire he shall kill the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

You see, the people of Israel likewise have been cut down.

And the prophet Isaiah says, No, no, there is going to be a shoot, just the littlest glimpse of growth, and yet through that God was going to restore his purposes.

Wisdom, knowledge, fear of the Lord, delight in the ways of God.

And so when Jesus shows up on the scene and he fulfills this prophecy, what does he say?

He says, The kingdom of God is like a tree.

It would start small and then it would grow and it provide shelter and provision for anyone who would make it their home.

And so part of the testimony of the Christian person and the Christian community is that wherever true Christianity has taken root and grown, we see the kingdom of God breaking in, starting the restoration of humanity.

Not as a proud tree independent of God, but one that is built to reveal and to honor God.

And just so you remember, the end of the story will once again be the tree of life, providing healing for the nations.

And so we honor and we trust the story of God that He is restoring to reveal.

But that means then we need to come with humility.

That we need to come with humility, that the reality is that God will often cut to disrupt.

You know, Jesus, he did come as the root of Jesse.

He came to live out that story of the tree, but you know he also came as a second Adam.

That when he went to the cross, he went to the tree of judgment.

He went to the tree of salvation.

It's both for us.

We see the end result of sin, where sin would take us ultimately to death and facing God's judgment.

And yet he went there on our behalf.

So for us, it can be the tree of life, that we would even wear it around our necks.

And so, because of this, the Bible describes Jesus as the judge, the one we submit to and learn from in the small and temporary disruptions that God will bring into our life.

Or else we face the final disruption.

And so that makes this third and final application all the more dear.

And so we honor and trust the story that God is building.

We then come with humility, placing ourselves under his care.

And then finally, we need to praise and be encouraged.

This is where Nebuchadnezzar wants us to get to praise and be encouraged, that God can humble the proud.

No one is too far gone for God.

There's always hope that God will disrupt to restore.

And so maybe you think about the loved ones you have prayed for, prayed about for so long.

Isn't it wonderful?

That's what Nebuchadnezzar wants us to know.

Isn't it wonderful that God can work like this?

That when he cuts, it's just to the depth to take out the disease that would dehumanize.

Isn't it wonderful that God would pursue even this arrogant pagan king of Babylon his whole entire life until he brought him to the place of blessing and honor and dignity?

There's a great poem by Francis Thompson that describes this pursuit of God, his desire to follow after and to restore.

I shared it with some of you a couple of weeks ago in Sunday school.

It's called The Hound of Heaven.

It imagines that God's pursuit of us is like a hound chasing after us.

And it begins like this.

I fled him down the nights and down the days.

I fled him down the arches of the years.

I fled him down the labyrinth ways of my own mind and in the midst of tears.

I hid from him an underrunning laughter.

Of vistaid hopes I sped and shot precipitated, down titanic glooms of chasm fears.

For those strong feet that followed followed after.

But with unhurried chase and unperturbed pace, deliberate speed and majestic instancy, they beat, and a voice beat, more instant than the feet.

All things betray thee who betrayest me.

And the poem goes on to describe all the ways that we might resist God and his pursuit of us, all the ways where temptation and idolatry and even our own pride would keep us away from God.

And as the author flees from God, and as he's resisting his humbling hand, everything around him seems to come crashing down until nothing's left, almost to the point of death.

And the poem ends in this way, as the hound of heaven catches up.

Now of that long pursuit comes on at hand the brute.

The voice is round me like a bursting sea, and is thy earth so marred and shattered in shard on shard, lo all things fly thee, for thou fliest me.

Strange, piteous, futile thing, wherefore should any set thee love apart?

Seeing none but I makes much of naught.

And human love needs human meriting.

How hast thou s how hast thou merited of all men's clotted clay and dingious clot?

Alak thou knowest not how little worthy of any love thou art.

Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, save me, save only me.

All which I took from thee I did but take, not for thy harms, but just that thou mightst seek it in my arms.

All which thy child's mistake fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home.

Rise, clasp my hand, and come.

Halt by me that footfall, is my gloom after all.

Shade of his hand outstretched caressingly.

Offendest, blindest, weakest.

I am he whom thou seekest.

It's a wonderful description of the work of God in his grace for a prideful humanity.

That even those who like King Nebuchadnezzar would rise so high that they would seem to be the greatest in all the world, God could bring low just enough to find home with God.

Let's pray that he would do that for us and for those around us, and especially that we would grow to praise him for it.

Please pray with me.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this message and this testimony of King Nebuchadnezzar.

Well, we do pray and ask that he, like many others, we would find a great reunion in heaven, and that this would be our testimony.

Praise the Lord who would humble the proud, even me.

And so would you raise our faith to see the goodness of your hand, that as you bring pruning cuts into our lives and to those around us, we would be ready to declare and to believe and to trust on our behalf the goodness of your hand.

That in the gospel, Lord, you would bring life for us and restoration for the world.

And so we make this our prayer through Jesus' name.

Amen.