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Daniel 2
2:1 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. 2 Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. 3 And the king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.” 4 Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic,1 “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” 5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. 6 But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and its interpretation.” 7 They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.” 8 The king answered and said, “I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see that the word from me is firm—9 if you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.” 10 The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king’s demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. 11 The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”
12 Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. 13 So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought Daniel and his companions, to kill them. 14 Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. 15 He declared2 to Arioch, the king’s captain, “Why is the decree of the king so urgent?” Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. 16 And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.
17 Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, 18 and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 20 Daniel answered and said:
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
to whom belong wisdom and might.
21 He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;
22 he reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what is in the darkness,
and the light dwells with him.
23 To you, O God of my fathers,
I give thanks and praise,
for you have given me wisdom and might,
and have now made known to me what we asked of you,
for you have made known to us the king’s matter.”
24 Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation.”
25 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.” 26 The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” 27 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, 28 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: 29 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. 30 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.
31 “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. 32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 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. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the 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.
36 “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. 37 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, 38 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. 39 Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. 40 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. 41 And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. 42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage,3 but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. 44 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, 45 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.”
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. 47 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.” 48 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. 49 Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court.
[1] 2:4
[2] 2:15
[3] 2:43
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you would, open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 2. But before we read tonight's text, or before we get started, last week I realized I threw a whole lot at you. Actually, for the last 2 weeks, I think I've averaged preaching about 50 minutes a week. I was just wondering if there were any questions. Last week, we looked at seek the welfare of the city, from Jeremiah 29 and Daniel chapter 1.
Joel Brooks:And I know for those of you who've been in home groups, you probably got to discuss that a lot. We do Q and A, fairly often here as a church at large, and so I thought I would just throw that out there before we read tonight's text. Has anybody had any questions or something they wanted me to talk about more from last week because I do see Jeremiah 29 and Daniel 1 as being a very foundational text for who we are as a church, and that we're to be a people called to seek the welfare of the city, and we're called to be salt and light into a dying world. So are there any any questions? I heard a anybody?
Joel Brooks:Alright. Going once, twice. Alright. You had your chance. Alright.
Joel Brooks:I do wanna say just in case there was some confusion because I talked to some people afterwards when we would talk about seeking the welfare of the city, God doesn't love architecture and and really tall buildings, that's not what we're talking about, but cities are where a lot of people live, and God loves people, which is why he loves the city. And so he wants you to live as salt and light where people are, not just where big buildings are, and I feel like that's our calling as a church. Tonight, I want to read from Daniel chapter 2. It's a long reading and let me tell you what, we're going to read it in its entirety. There's no way to break it down, and we shouldn't even if we could.
Joel Brooks:These words are always more important than what I could ever say. We say this from time to time, but you read a whole lot during the week. Actually, I should say you skim a whole lot during the week. You sort of read an email, you kind of gaze your eyes over a blog, but what we're reading here is different. This is the word of God, and it deserves all of our attention.
Joel Brooks:Daniel chapter 2. In the 2nd year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So, they came in and stood before the king and the king said to them, I had a dream and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.
Joel Brooks:Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the word for me is firm, if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore, show me the dream and its interpretation.
Joel Brooks:They answered a second time and said, Let the kings tell his servants the dream and we will show its interpretation. And the king answered and said, I know with certainty that you were trying to gain time because you see that the word for me is firm. If you do not make known If you do not make the dream known to me there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore, tell me the dream and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.
Joel Brooks:The Chaldeans answered the king and said, there's not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand. For no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician, or enchanter, or Chaldean. The thing that the king asked is difficult, and no one can show it to the kings except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. Because of this, the king was angry and very furious and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the decree went out and the wise men were about to be killed, and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them.
Joel Brooks:Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He declared to Arioch, the king's captain, why is the decree of the king so urgent? Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel, and Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time that he might show the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night.
Joel Brooks:Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
Joel Brooks:He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. To you, oh God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise for you have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we ask of you, for you have made known to us the king's matter. Therefore, Daniel went into Arioch whom the king had appointed to destroy the men of Babylon. He went and said to him, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon.
Joel Brooks: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. The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, 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.
Joel Brooks: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 known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your mind. You saw, oh king, and behold a great image. The image, mighty and exceed of exceeding brightness stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of the image was of gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
Joel Brooks:As he 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 the 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 stuck the image struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This was the dream. Now, we will tell the king its interpretation. You, oh 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 beast of field, and the birds of heaven, making you rule over them all.
Joel Brooks: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 4th kingdom strong as iron because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things, and like iron that crushes, it will 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 he saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. 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.
Joel Brooks:It shall break into into pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. Just as he 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. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Our father, we thank you for your word. We pray now that through your spirit, it would already begin penetrating our hearts and our minds. Lord, if that doesn't happen, these are just black words on white pages, but we need to hear from you. So I pray in this moment my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. I actually have a couple of reoccurring dreams. One is that I could fly. I like that dream. Actually, I can't fly.
Joel Brooks:I could just jump really high and for a really long time, and often that's when I'm running. I just kind of jump and I float for a while or playing basketball and I can jump from one side of the court and I can dunk all the way on the other end. I like that dream. I've got another reoccurring dream, and that is that I somehow never graduated from college. The specifics of this dream change.
Joel Brooks:Sometimes I'm, still in college and I have just a couple of weeks left, and my advisor sits me down and says, you you realize you still have another year of French to go. I'm like, no, I graduate in 2 weeks. I'm sorry, you have another year of French. And I realized I'm not going to graduate. And, other times a dream it goes like this, I just now suddenly realized 19, 20 years later, that I never actually finished my math class, one of them, and that I never graduated, and I've been living a lie for all of these years.
Joel Brooks:And I don't like that dream. When I wake up my my stomach is in knots and I have to think there for a moment, did I really graduate? Did I really? Okay. I did.
Joel Brooks:I really did finish. I probably didn't deserve, but I really did finish and get my diploma. And you could probably interpret that dream. I'm sure there's some anxiety that's there. If you, you know, are really gifted at interpreting dreams, talk to me later.
Joel Brooks:I'd love to hear what you think that dream stands for. The story that we just read is about a reoccurring dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. This dream had happened over and over, and and each time it happened there was an ever increasing anxiety that accompanied it. Night after night he would have this dream and he would toss, and he would turn, and he would wake up probably in a cold sweat, or are there other nights he couldn't go to bed at all because he was already thinking of this dream. And finally, he reached a point where he dreaded bedtime.
Joel Brooks:And then when he would go to sleep that dream haunted him. And as any of you new parents know, lack of sleep just kind of destroys you. It makes all of life miserable, and you're a miserable person to be with. And this was happening to Nebuchadnezzar. He was deeply troubled over this, and finally he comes to a breaking point.
Joel Brooks:And so he gathers all the people who should be able to help the enchanters, the sorcerers, the magicians, the the Chaldeans who were known for doing all of those things, and he brought them in to interpret the dream. Now, interpreting dreams was something that these people were qualified to do. Archaeologists have actually found a number of books that are the interpretation of dreams. These people wrote down their dreams in vivid detail, and then they studied the events of history that happened immediately following these dreams to see if they could provide any kind of link, And they they found like, they they thought they found that you could really correctly interpret dreams, and they had huge long books, and these enchanters and sorcerers probably brought all these books with them as they were taken before the king, and they're like, Tell us what the dream is, and and we can probably with good certainty tell you what it means. But the king wouldn't go this way.
Joel Brooks:He said, no, you need to actually tell me what the dream was, not just the interpretation. I need you to tell me what I actually dreamed. Now this, of course, is an impossibility. If I were to ask you right now, what did I dream last night? You wouldn't have any idea.
Joel Brooks:I dreamed last night that I even after residing my house, water was flooding all in my house, and and I couldn't plug up all the holes in my house as it was rotting with wood, or the wood was rotting. Now, if you knew that was my dream, now that I just told you, you could probably come up with a pretty good interpretation, but all of you could. Joel, you're anxious about water coming into your house. Take it from me, I am wise concerning the interpretation of all dreams, and I can say with fairly, you know, a 100% certainty that you are just worried over those things, and you have been correct. Nebuchadnezzar didn't want that.
Joel Brooks:He didn't want them to know what the dream was because then they could just give an interpretation. And so, they needed to tell the dream and the interpretation. And one of the things he wanted to know was, was this dream divine in nature or not? Because if these enchanters, if if they really could communicate with God, then they could tell me what I dreamed. And I would know that this dream was from the Lord, because the dream itself is really not hard to interpret.
Joel Brooks:It's kind of like my roof leaking, my the siding leaking. It's it's not that hard to interpret. Nebuchadnezzar scared of the dream. He's scared of it because I think he has a pretty good idea, At least at his most basic level what this dream is about. He might not have known or worked out every little detail of the dream, but he gets the gist.
Joel Brooks:The statue is obviously him and his kingdom. I mean, we're gonna look at this next week. The heading says in chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar's golden image. He builds a statue next week. He's probably been thinking about building a giant statue for a long time in honor of himself and his glory.
Joel Brooks:So he knows what the statue is about. He knows it's him. And he likely knows what feet of clay are about. This means he's got a weakness. This means everything he's built, everything he is could come crumbling down in a moment.
Joel Brooks:Now, he doesn't know the details about it. He doesn't know about, like, all the different specific kingdoms, and what it represents, and I'm not going to go into there whether this is, you know, what each kingdom is because at its most basic level, I think we identify with what this dream is about. And it's that no matter how much we try to prove ourselves, no matter how successful we try to appear, we know in our heart of hearts we have feet of clay. We know it can all come crumbling down, and this is what terrifies Nebuchadnezzar. He knows that no matter how smart he is, no matter how many military battles he has won, and how many territories he has acquired, how much wealth he has accumulated, He still has all of this anxiety because he knows he could lose it all.
Joel Brooks:I mean, look at him. This is one of the most powerful men who has ever lived, and yet he's so weak it just takes a dream to cripple him. That's it. Just a thought, just a dream, and he is overcome with fear and anxiety. Let me ask you, is this a dream that you can relate to?
Joel Brooks:I think it is because I think all of us have dreams like this in which we dream of doing something great, something great with the life that we've been given. We dream of doing something that makes other people look at us and go, wow, wow. I mean, you've you've really done something with your life. And so, we spend our lives trying to build up this image of ourselves. For some of you, this image might be something as simple as your image.
Joel Brooks:It really could be your looks. Maybe sometime in the past somebody said, you know, you really have great hair, you know, or you, you know, you really have great legs or something like that, and it stuck from that point on, every time you went by the mirror you kind of like, I do have great hair. You know, I really do have good legs. You didn't really think much of it before, but but hearing somebody say that, you're like, that's right. And then you find yourself becoming obsessed with those things.
Joel Brooks:You never noticed if you had a bad hair a day before, but now you notice. You never notice if you got a few more wrinkles in your leg, but now you notice it's the image that you want to project. Maybe some of you it's it's something different. Maybe it's the dream of having the perfect family. You have that dream of having the the perfect husband, perfect wife, and the two point 5 kids, and the golden retriever, and the white picket fence, and that is the dream you want, and you say, When I get this then I will have arrived.
Joel Brooks:For some of you it might be wealth, you know, if you can have 2 homes by the age of 40, you will have made it. You'll have arrived. If you could retire by the age of 50, fantastic. For some of you, this image that you're building is power. You think if I could just climb up the corporate ladder and I could be an executive by maybe my mid thirties, then I'll have arrived and made it.
Joel Brooks:But these dreams are fragile, and you know it because they are the source of the anxiety in your life. You want them so badly, and yet you stress over them so much. We're anxious about achieving our dreams because we know even if we do achieve them, then we'll be anxious about keeping them because our foundation is weak. We have feet of clay. I can remember when I was a small child, 1st grade, my teacher was miss Burton.
Joel Brooks:I did not like miss Burton at all. I thought she was mean. You're probably good now she's an angel, but at the time I just thought she was really mean and I had a lot of anxiety going to 1st grade class. And I just kept thinking, well, if I could just get in another class, you know, if once this 1st grade stressful year is over, everything will be okay. And so, finally, I get the 2nd grade, and I was right.
Joel Brooks:I've never had any stress since. That that was the source of all anxiety was was miss Burton. No, it it doesn't work this way. You know, once you have you're in school, and you have all these anxieties, and these stresses in school, over your grades, over all the relationship drama, over all of your friendships. You you finally, you make it and you finish college, and then you're stressed about getting into the real world, stressed about finding a job, and then you get married, and you're anxious about getting your marriage to work now that you've gotten married, and then you're anxious about whether to have kids or not, and then you have kids, and you realize you've never had an anxious day in your life.
Joel Brooks:And now, the anxiety has really hit. So let me ask you. At what point in your life do the anxiety stop? Where where do they finally stop? Have you ever been right when you've thought the moment I the moment I get here, finally the anxieties and the stress ends.
Joel Brooks:Have you ever been right? At what point do you no longer have any fears? This dream here should cause us to ask ourselves these questions. It should ask cause us to ask why are we doing what we're doing? What's the image I'm trying to build?
Joel Brooks:What is my foundation? What is it that gives meaning to my life? Because if it's looks, well, there it's gonna fail. If it's money, well, it could go up and down with the stock market. Eventually I will lose it all at least to death.
Joel Brooks:Everything that we hold on to can crumble because it's all made of clay. Years ago, and I've I've referred this book probably too many times, at least 3 or 4, But I read a book by Ernest Becker called The Denial of Death. It's a it's a page turner. You you should read through it. That was completely sarcastic.
Joel Brooks:It won the Pulitzer Prize. It's somewhat of a difficult read. Ernest Becker was an atheist, but it was amazing for an atheist how he got so much right. And the basic premises of death awaits us all, and it is such a horrible event. We just have to do whatever we can to deny its existence.
Joel Brooks:The denial of death. And in one of the chapters, he wrote about what was called the apocalyptic romance, The apocalyptic romance, and and here he describes how people look to love or they look to sex, and they look to these things in order to get what he calls a sense of transcendence. In other words, if one doesn't believe that God is real, like he doesn't believe that God is real, then one has to look to other places to find meaning. So, we have to give godlike qualities to some things or to somebody, and often this is done through loving another person. Let me read you a section.
Joel Brooks:Here's how Becker describes it. We still still need to feel heroic, to know that life matters in the scheme of things. Man still wants to merge himself with some higher self absorbing meaning, and trust in gratitude, And if he no longer has God, how else is he to do this? Through the love partner who becomes the divine ideal within which to fulfill one's life. In one word this love object becomes God.
Joel Brooks:Why do we do this? Well, we want to be justified. We want to know our existence has not been in vain. We want redemption and nothing less. I thought that was quite profound for for an atheist realizing we have to have meaning, realizing that everywhere around us is basically feet of clay, and we have to attach ourselves to something that's transcendent, something that can pull us above this.
Joel Brooks:And he said, what we usually do is we make it love. We we say, if I just have the love of a spouse, then my life matters. If I just have the love of children then I am somebody, And so we give these people divine like qualities in order that we might have purpose. And if it's not an apocalyptic romance, then we do this with money. We think if we just have money, then I have purpose.
Joel Brooks:If I just have power, then I have purpose, and so it goes. All of us are trying to find meaning. Nebuchadnezzar is trying to find meaning, but as much as he has built up his life in order to validate his existence, he realizes he has feet of clay. One of the most powerful and influential people who ever lived knows it can all come tumbling down, And what he needs is just somebody to come and to confirm is is give me the specifics of this dream. And Daniel does.
Joel Brooks:Daniel comes, and when Daniel comes, you know, he hears about the king's decree. Here's he's about to be executed, and so he says, can you just hold off on that just for maybe a moment or 2 while I pray? He he asked for time to pray. He doesn't ask, you know, he doesn't use this as a delayed tactic in which he could plot and escape. Daniel goes to the Lord in this.
Joel Brooks:He gets on his knees with his friends and he does one of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible in which he recognizes God just as you change the seasons, you change kings and kingdoms. Everything is in your power. All wisdom comes from you. Daniel would be completely confused if you went into, like, a Barnes and Noble today and he saw a history section and then he saw a religion or a section about God. And he'd be, like, why do you have that over here and that over here?
Joel Brooks:As if history could ever happen apart from God who controls it. And so Daniel says, god, you are in control of every single thing that is happening, and my hope is in you. And God gives him the the wisdom and the insight to interpret the stream, and so he goes before the king. Daniel reveals to king Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom that he and his kingdom are the head of gold. Says underneath you are 3 other kingdoms, and he says, but a rock is gonna come is gonna smash them all.
Joel Brooks:One one rock is gonna come and smash them all. That this rock doesn't see it doesn't smash just the bottom kingdom, doesn't smash just the top. It smashes them as a unit because really all kingdoms in God's eyes are the same. They might take a different shape in a different form, but they're the same, and all kingdoms will come to an end. This rock is the kingdom of God.
Joel Brooks:This rock this this is the source of Nebuchadnezzar's anxiety. This is what he wants to know. What what is this? I mean, he knew he had feet of clay. He knew that he could crumble, but but who's this rock?
Joel Brooks:Is it an assassin? Is it a political enemy? Is it another country that's gonna come in? Where do I need to look? Daniel says it's the kingdom of God.
Joel Brooks:And and if you contrast the rock with the statue, you can you can make a number of observations about the kingdom of God that are helpful. Let me just go through a few. One thing that the rock how it's described and we have this several times, the rock is described as not created by human hands. Several times, it's not created by human hands. You read this in verse 34 and 45, and the kingdom of God is different than other kingdoms.
Joel Brooks:Other kingdoms, you know, are the result of hard work, result of effort built by human will, but the kingdom of God is established by God himself. No man can build it up, therefore no man can tear it down. Church fathers also thought that this talked about the virgin birth of Christ who is the rock of ages cleft for me. He was not created by any human hand. 2nd, we see that the rock is the least valuable of all the materials that are described.
Joel Brooks:I mean, you've got gold, you've got silver, you've got bronze, you have the iron and the clay, and then there's just rock. But that's how the kingdom of God is. At first, it looks like it has little value. For when our king come, he wasn't born in a palace. He's born in a lowly stable.
Joel Brooks:It's poor parents. He he he was a nobody living among an oppressed people. He preached blessed are the poor in spirit. And when he built his church, he didn't, like, pick from the who's who's catalog. He he picked those who were lowly.
Joel Brooks:He picked fishermen. He picked Hicks from Galilee is who he picked. He didn't select from the wise and the influential because God values weakness over strength. And finally, we see that the rock grows. While the statue comes crumbling down, the rock takes its place and begins growing and growing.
Joel Brooks:God will put every kingdom to an end. And when his kingdom come, it starts as imperceptibly small. Jesus talks about it in Matthew 13. He says it's, you know, like a mustard seed that's planted, then it grows and becomes a large tree, or it says it's like a little bit of leaven that you work in, and sometimes you work in through friendships, sometimes you pound it in through suffering, but you you pound the kingdom of God into our hearts, and eventually, the entire loaf is leavened. The kingdom of God starts so small, like a little baby in a manger, and yet it grows and grows.
Joel Brooks:Eventually, you have every knee bowing and every tongue confessing Jesus' lordship. It's how it works in our hearts too when the kingdom of God begins to take root and the gospel finds root in our hearts. It can start so imperceptibly small, but it begins to grow and to grow and to grow. Jesus identifies himself with this rock. Several places, he he quotes both from Psalm 18 and from Daniel chapter 2, which he says, have you never read the scriptures?
Joel Brooks:The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and the one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone it will crush him, And Jesus is saying this, you either build your life on me or I will crush you because my kingdom is coming. You know, this has been a good story for me to to be thinking about the course of the last few weeks because I'm I don't really suffer from anxiety. I don't stress really about much of anything. I rarely feel fear, and yet the last few weeks I've had incredible anxiety, and some of it is correlated with the move here. 3 nights in a row, I woke up and had to just run to the restroom to to empty the contents of my stomach.
Joel Brooks:Okay? That doesn't ever happen. And I was just why what what is going on? I I don't suffer from anxiety, and I would think, you know, I always feel like I lean on the gospel and I trust in God and I believe he's sovereign over my life. So what's happening here?
Joel Brooks:And God says, actually you don't really believe those things. Because when things just affect you, you do have a lot of peace and comfort, but it's not because you lean on me, it's because you think you're really self sufficient. You think you're really capable, and you know what? You are capable in a lot of things, and you could pull a whole lot of things off. So, but now I'm moving you to a place where you're not in control.
Joel Brooks:And so don't fool yourself and think, I believe God's really in control. He's really sovereign over me, but not over this over here. And as the church begins growing, I kinda feel out of control. For those who know me, I don't really like growth. I would much rather have 10 people and an open bible, and we could kinda talk.
Joel Brooks:But as it grows, I feel like I'm out of control. As we move here and that, you know, you you move into a money pit. Okay? And, like, I have all these fears and anxieties about financially wrecking the church by moving here, but, Lord, this is the only door that opened. Or do people want to be in here?
Joel Brooks:We're having to work our tail off just to make this place presentable. Like, all of these things, these fears, and then what if we actually do grow even more fear? God says, you have feet of clay. Okay? Let my kingdom smash those things to bits so that you can build your life on the solid rock of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Will you? Will you? And so I actually went and I confessed some of these things to some of the elders. I confessed these things to my wife, and it was amazing. Sleep came.
Joel Brooks:Simply just having the gospel worked into my heart and reminding me that Christ is the solid rock on whom I stand, that Jesus was the rock of ages cleft for me. And so he is the one who I want to build my life on, but I want you to hear from me that your pastor struggles with these things. That often even in my life, the the gospel comes and it's almost imperceptible, but it begins growing and growing, but it grows as it demolishes. And I need those things demolished so that I might rely more on him. You would pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Lord, every person in here wants to build an image. We want to validate our existence. Yet even if we build this giant image to ourselves that looks glorious and grand, we know in our heart of hearts we know that we have feet of clay and we live anxious scared lives. God, go ahead and demolish it. Knock it down.
Joel Brooks:Allow us to build our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus whose kingdom will never end. God, I pray through your spirit you would make that a reality in our hearts at this time, at this moment. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.