Daniel 2- Knowing vs. Doing

 

            Today we’re in the book of Daniel. And we’re focusing in on the character of King Nebuchadnezzar, who was a great and mighty king by human standards. He was the longest reigning king of Babylon and the Babylonian empire. He led military victories over Assyria, Egypt, and Jerusalem. But in Daniel chapter 2 we discover that for all his might, he had clear limits. There was a dream that he dreamed that troubled him and that he longed to understand, but he was not wise enough to understand. And even with all the forces under his control, he could find no one who could understand.

And Nebuchadnezzar was kind of smart here in that he didn’t just ask for an interpretation of the dream from his wise men, he asked first for them to tell him what his dream was. For anyone can make up some random interpretation of a dream to seem smart, but only those with real understanding could know what the dream was without being told. If they could discern what the dream was first, then they could be trusted to interpret the dream accurately and truthfully. But there were none in his court who could tell the king his dream, not his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, or astrologers. And when no one could give him the answers he desired he grew furious and wanted to destroy all the wise men. And his anger is going a little far here, but I get his frustration. That his empire is wasting tons of resources and money on a group of people who are all just shams and liars. None of them have any real power or understanding, all their wisemen were fakes.

Here's the first point I want to make: there are questions that no wise men of the world can answer. Questions like how did this world come to be, what is my purpose here on earth, is there a God, if so which one or ones are really god? All these crucially important questions, you can go to every scientist, every phd, they cannot give you the answer. Gurus can give you only mere speculation. There are answers no wise men of the world can answer, some answers can only be answered by God himself in revelation, in God’s revelation like the Bible. And thus the only people you should go to to find those answers are those who are versed in God’s revelation through the Bible and through the Holy Spirit.

             No wise men could give Nebuchadnezzar the answers he was searching for. But Daniel, Daniel was able to discern what Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was. Not because he had any special wisdom himself, but because he prayed to God, and God revealed it to him. And he knew that Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was of a tall statue. Its head was of gold, and as it got lower it was made instead of silver, then bronze, then iron, then clay. And then a stone was taken and it struck the statue and the statue collapsed into rubble and it disintegrated into chaff that blew away in the wind until it vanished. As I read the dream about the statue vanishing slowly into these dust like particles I could almost imagine in my head the Hollywood magic that happens at the death of so many characters such as in Marvel when Thanos snaps his fingers and half the world starts dissolving into dust, that’s how I imagine the statue vanishing. And then the dream ends by seeing that the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain filling the whole earth.

            And Daniel interpreted the dream saying that the statue represented Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom and various kingdoms that were to come after, gold represented Babylon, silver Persia, bronze Greece, and so on.  Each kingdom would eventually fall apart until God set up a kingdom that could never be destroyed. And the fact that Daniel was able to know his dream and interpret it such astounded the king such that he fell down and worshipped and confessed that Daniel’s God was the God of gods, the Lord of kings. This was a great confession of faith by Nebuchadnezzar. He basically was saying that of all the other gods of the world that if they existed, they existed only as subordinates or servants of Daniel’s God, the one true God. And he confessed that even all the kings of the earth, they too were only servants of a greater Lord.

            It was a pious and powerful confession of faith that Nebuchadnezzar gave as he prostrated himself in worship. And you would think that that would be the end of the story. That Nebuchadnezzar learned who the true God was, and thus would amend his ways to live as a servant of the true King of Kings, and that under his leadership he would guide Babylon towards godlier ways. But that’s not quite what happened. In the very next verses, as we transition to chapter 3, we hear instead of King Nebuchadnezzar doing something that seemed to contradict everything he just confessed. He built a large golden statue that was nearly 100 feet tall and ordered everyone in his empire to bow down and worship the idol he had made.

            The transition between Nebuchadnezzar’s pious confession of faith and his blasphemous idolatry happens so quickly, with no transitional narration to help us explain how this came to be. It’s shocking and jarring. And it almost makes no sense. And yet, we can understand it nonetheless. For indeed, it reminds me quite vividly of another jarring transition to idol worship, and that is the story of the golden calf from Exodus 32. In Exodus we also face the jarring transition as the Israelites who had just been rescued by God powerfully out of Egypt with miraculous plagues and with the parting of the Red Sea, the Israelites who had all just feared the Lord and believed in the Lord after witnessing God’s miracles, they too so quickly resort to making a golden calf as an idol to worship in place of God.

            Nebuchadnezzar’s transition from pious confession of faith to blasphemous idolatry is shocking, and yet understandable, for we know that we humans are fickle creatures who quickly alter our loyalties. Yes, Nebuchadnezzar’s idol has to be one of the most sacrilegious things done in the Bible. For not only was it an idol, not only was it an idol that he was worshipping, it was an idol that he was seeking to force everyone else around him to worship at penalty of death. And remember the dream that Nebuchadnezzar just had, the dream of the statue with the head of gold, and the head of gold represented Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, but he was shown that kingdoms of silver, and bronze, and iron, and clay were coming after. But by creating this statue of pure gold, Nebuchadnezzar is seemingly rejecting God’s vision. He’s saying my kingdom of gold will have no end, no other kingdoms will come after us or supplant us. Nebuchadnezzar rejects God’s vision, rejects the lessons he was meant to learn there, lessons about his finitude, how in the grand scheme of eternity his empire was just a passing thing of little account compared to God’s eternal kingdom, and instead Nebuchadnezzar chooses the path of pride, the path of arrogance.

            Interpreted in this way, that the gold statue represents the neverending reign of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar is asking people to basically worship his empire. He’s trying to teach all of his subjects that what matters most in this world is my kingdom, is you serving Babylon and my will. Indeed, this huge gold statue was a boast to Babylon’s wealth and glory. I recently bought some wedding rings, and I can tell you that the smallest ring of gold is quite expensive. Think how expensive a 100 foot statue of gold is. This giant statue was Nebuchadnezzar’s way of saying, what could possibly compare to the wealth and glory of Babylon?

            Nebuchadnezzar wanted people to worship his empire, his kingship. Is this relevant to today? Yes, because many people still worship empires today. How do I know?  Because there are many who would rather go against what God said than go against what their political party or political leader said. There are many who would rather gain power in America’s kingdom than be a servant in God’s kingdom. There are many who are more concerned with making America great than with making God’s name great. But faithful Christians today, like those in Daniel’s day, must refuse to bow down to idols, and especially to idols of nation or political power. For Babylon will fall. It is better to serve an eternal kingdom than a passing one. Indeed, this is a big theme in Revelation 18 as it proclaims, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! Alas, alas, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! In one hour your judgment has come.” And by Babylon there it means that every evil nation will one day fall until God’s righteous kingdom comes.

            And we’ll talk about this more next week about those who resisted the idol worship of Babylon and were miraculously saved form death. But here’s what I want to focus on right now is that after those events where Nebuchadnezzar again witnesses a miracle from God, that Nebuchadnezzar again made a pious confession of faith. He says that there’s no other god like their God, no God who can save like that, and he confesses that God’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. And yet again, it’s not long after that Nebuchadnezzar transitions again from pious confession of faith to blasphemous idolatry. For in Daniel 4:30 he says, “Is this not magnificent Babylon which I have built by my mighty power and for my glorious majesty?” And God punishes Nebuchadnezzar seriously for this sacrilegious statement, which we’ll hear more on in coming weeks.

            Well, why was this blasphemous? Here’s why. Any time you claim that you’ve done something by your power alone, you’re wrong. We’ve talked about this before, that everything we have is a gift from God. If Nebuchadnezzar is a king of mighty Babylon, he is only there because God has appointed him there. Everything we have is a gift, and to ever pretend otherwise is an affront to God who is sovereign over all and who has bestowed us with so many gifts, all that we have. And Nebuchadnezzar blasphemed by saying that Babylon existed for his own glory. Any time you think something exists for your own glory, you’re wrong. Everything in this world exists ultimately to bring glory to God. And whenever we seek to shine bright, not to shine up to God and reveal God’s glory, but to gather glory and praise to ourselves, every time we do that we idolatrously put ourselves above God.

            There’s a lot more that could be said today but my final point I want to focus in on is that it is way easier to confess Christian truths than it is to live a Christian life. We’ve seen this multiple times with Nebuchadnezzar. That he can get to places in his life where he can confess Christian truth, that he knows in his mind that God is God, he knows in his mind that he is merely a humble creature. But knowing is different than doing. And as life goes on and as rubber meets the road Nebuchadnezzar kept living his life in ways that denied the truths he claimed to profess. He knows intellectually that God’s kingdom is the only eternal kingdom, and yet he wants to set up his own kingdom as eternal. He knows intellectually that God alone is God, and yet he worships idols.

            And before we just all judge Nebuchadnezzar, let us look inward, and admit that often it is the same with us. That the way that we live our lives often falls far short of the Christian truths we claim to believe. How often do we confess in church that God’s law is good, and that his law is made for our benefit, not to deprive us, and yet we then go and do things against God’s laws even though we know they are bad and harmful to us and others. How often do we say that humility is good, and yet go out and brag and live in prideful ways to draw attention to ourselves. It is one thing to grasp the tenets and beliefs of our faith, it is another thing to live them out. And to our discredit, Christians in America are often living in ways no more moral than our non-Christian neighbors. And to our discredit our churches are full of hypocritical Christians who say one thing and do another. As Titus put it, they profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions.

            Today, I challenge us to strive to better live out the truths of our faith in how we live our lives in love, obedience, and generosity. May our actions line up with our beliefs. And when we fail, when we are like the Israelites or King Nebuchadnezzar who go from pious confession of faith to blasphemous idolatry with golden statues, may we repent and throw ourselves on the mercy of Jesus. And may we know that only one kingdom is eternal, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and might we learn that it is worth anything and everything just to end up as part of that kingdom.