Week 12: The Most High Warns His Lowliest Living Ruler
WEEK 12 | Daniel 4:1-18
If you are new to a Daniel community group, welcome! Although the lessons offer five days of engaging with God through His Word and prayer, you choose your level of engagement. The Central Passage of each lesson is the Sunday’s preaching text. You will study that usually over two days; for example, this lesson the Daniel Central Passage is Days 2 - 3. And the other three days? Each lesson is different, but those will always connect to the overarching message of the lesson in some way. Those days are optional; however, you are strongly encouraged to engage because these are the heart days, the application days. Engaging in those better prepares you for group discussion, and it also grows you to be a do-er of the Word whose heart is purely motivated.
Day 1 Deeper Daniel Father, open my eyes to see the truth in Your Word that I may know and love you more deeply.
Every person on earth is either a citizen of the domain of darkness or a citizen of the Kingdom of the beloved Son of God (See Colossians 1:13). As we studied Daniel and his three friends, it was clear these slaves of Babylon had already been rescued from the domain of darkness while Nebuchadnezzar remained dead in his pride, enslaved to the prince of the power of the air, indulging the desires of his flesh and mind. Unless God rescues Neb, he will remain a child of wrath and after his death be rightly judged (See Ephesians 2:1-3). What was so fascinating in our study of chapters 1-3 last semester was to watch God, the King of Heaven and Earth, reveal Himself to Nebuchadnezzar as his only option for rescue from the domain (kingdom) of darkness. In chapter four, God will move to reveal Himself to Nebuchadnezzar in a deeply personal way to call him to lowly repentance.
1. To see God’s work in Nebuchadnezzar, let’s begin with a bit of review. Under each chapter summary, jot some notes about what God is revealing to Nebuchadnezzar about Who He is and who Nebuchadnezzar is.
Chapter 1 -- God makes those who refused to compromise His commands -- Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah -- fatter and healthier than the youth who ate food sacrificed to idols. When these Hebrew youth stood before Nebuchadnezzar, he proclaimed their wisdom and understanding was ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters of his own kingdom.
Chapter 2 -- God sends Neb a dream to trouble him. None of his wise men can tell him the dream or the interpretation. Only Daniel, a Jew faithful to the God of Heaven, is able to give him the dream and its interpretation. God reveals that Neb’s kingdom shall end be replaced by another. Ultimately, God’s Stone will destroy all human kingdoms and His Kingdom will grow to fill the earth and endure forever. Neb concludes, “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.”
Chapter 3 -- Then Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold. When Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah refuse to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image, Neb in fury orders them to be cast into a fiery furnace heated seven times more than usual. Neb’s mighty men who cast them into the fire die, but God’s faithful three walk unbound in the fire with God’s Angel and emerge scorch-free. Neb concludes, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.”
2. After Jesus walked with His disciples for three years, after He died and rose again, after He taught His disciples for 40 more days and just before He ascended, the disciples asked Him a question --
So, when they had come together, they began asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 But He said to them, “It is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the Father has set by His own authority; 8 BUT you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.” Acts 6:6-8 NASB (emphasis mine)
As an educator, I can say, there IS such a thing as a dumb question. I am reminded of my students asking, “What is a thesis statement?” the day before I sent them off to take their state test. We had only been talking about that ALL year. A thesis statement is the guiding main idea of an essay, and Jesus’ guiding main idea was the Kingdom of God is here (and coming). The ATTITUDE behind this question is the kingdom is about Me Now. In the disciples’ case, “I want to rule your political kingdom with you now (Let’s bypass my suffering, & ignore others suffering too btw).” Neb had just a Me-Bow-Now kingdom attitude, but as the disciples show, we can hold a dark domain attitude, even as children of light.
Prayer -- Before you read Daniel 4:1-18 tomorrow, take time to reflect on your December and January, our mid-mester months. Confess to God any ways you demanded your way now. This might look like confessing your impatience with someone God is developing in His timing or worrying about something under His total control or grabbing what you want without seeking His will and wisdom. Those are some of mine. Let the Holy Spirit bring your confession to mind.
Read what is bolded in Acts 6:8. Praise God that He has given you His Spirit and He has a part for you in His Kingdom. In Day 4, you will enjoy seeking God for His goals for you this year.
Day 2 Part 1 Central Passage Father, open my eyes to see the truth in Your Word that I may know and love you more deeply.
King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! 2 It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.
3 How great are his signs,
how mighty his wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and his dominion endures from generation to generation.
4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. 5 I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. 6 So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. 7 Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation. 8 At last Daniel came in before me—he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods —and I told him the dream, saying, 9 “O Belteshazzar, 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 and their interpretation. 10 The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. 11 The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. 12 Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.
13 “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. 14 He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. 15 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 beasts in the grass of the earth.16 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. 17 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 lowliest of men.’ 18 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.”
OBSERVATION
Making a details chart can help you closely read a Bible passage. See Chart #1 for a model. Notice that not all columns have a detail and some details continue on. This chart covers the opening frame to chapter four. This frame is Nebuchadnezzar’s present, while the story he will share in Daniel 4:4-36 is his past. Verse 37, the closing frame, is again the present.
Chart #1 Daniel 4:1-3 – Study this chart as a model.
Historical Context – The expression “signs and wonders” recalls the plagues God ordained for Egypt to teach Pharaoh and his people about the One True God. Although Pharaoh did not yield his heart or nation to the rule of God, this epic battle of signs and wonders was known among the Gentile nations (Joshua 2:10; 1 Samuel 4:8). Verse 3 recalls Psalm 145:10-13, and it is remarkable that a Gentile ruler such as Nebuchadnezzar would make such a biblical proclamation. Consider the value of this statement framing Nebuchadnezzar’s story for all the peoples, nations, and languages under his leadership. What purposes might it serve?
After reviewing your observations from Chart 1, list any questions that come to your mind.
Go back to 4:10-12 and circle all the positive descriptors of this tree.
Historical Context –Hebrew prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Jesus all used the image of tree to represent an extensive kingdom (Ez 31:2-22; Isa 2:12-13; Mt 13:31-32). Every kingdom has a king at its center whose call is to create a structure that provides blessing for the people. Consider, however, how humanity’s fall imputed through Adam’s eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil affected the fulfillment of that call.
After reviewing your observations from Chart 2, list any questions that come to your mind.
Go back to 4:14-16 and underline the negative descriptors of the tree/beast.
After reviewing your observations from Chart 3, list any questions that come to your mind.
OBSERVE DICTION
Ask: Which words/phrases might provide clues to the author’s message? What do they literally mean?
Ex. watcher > In Aramaic, watcher means “waking or wakeful one”’; in Hebrew intertestamental literature it is used for angels, both holy and fallen (I Enoch 12:1-6; 20:1-7; 39:12-14).
Ex. holy one > This description clarifies that this angel is not a fallen angel. See also 4:16 where watcher and holy one are again written in a side by side (parallel) structure to describe angels
Ex. seven periods of time > In Scripture, the number seven signifies completion. The word iddan is used in general for time, but also for a specific period of time. Most likely in Dan 4:16, it refers to the specific period of a year.
Ex. decree of watchers/decision by the word of the holy ones > See Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6 for an example of how the angels stand before God in a council.
Day 3 Part 2 Central Passage Father, open my eyes to see the truth in Your Word that I may know and love you more deeply.
How to Read Your Bible (and The Princess Bride movie) – The overarching purpose for framing a story is to build an open-the-story and close-the-story structure that will carry the momentum of the author’s message via the story in the middle. For example, in the movie The Princess Bride, the story opens with a grandfather offering to read the book The Princess Bride to his grandson, who is home from school, supposedly sick but playing video games in his bed. The grandfather wants to spend time with his grandson and teach him about true love. Like most boys his age, the grandson is not interested in this mushy topic, but the grandfather gently humors him until the boy agrees to give the book a chance. Then the grandfather lets the adventure story be the teacher, only interjecting occasionally to redirect the boy to see how true lovers have an “as you wish” attitude for one another. In the closing frame, the grandfather finishes the story and stands at the door to leave. But the grandson, now mirroring his grandfather’s desire for time together, asks him to come tomorrow to read the story again. The grandfather tips his hat, smiling as he says, “As you wish.” Without this grandfather/grandson frame around Buttercup and her dear sweet Westley’s love story, we the readers would fail to see that true love is no mere romantic fairy tale but an adventure dearly purchased battle by battle. In our real world of pirates, six-fingered villains, evil kings, fire swamps and the like, we reveal how true we are to love by how we stand together for it.
Keep this true love theme in mind as we read chapter four, and if you have not watched The Princess Bride yet, grab the whole family together for some inspirational laughter.
INTERPRET
Ask: Why did the author choose to include these details, use these words, & make any figurative comparisons?
This lesson we are focusing only on the opening frame (v1-3), the people present at the telling of the dream, and the dream itself (v4-18). Next lesson we will focus on the interpretation of the dream, so try reallllllllly hard not to meander into the dream’s interpretation in your group discussion.
1 Our narrator has shifted from Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel is a Jew, an “insider” of the Kingdom of God. Until now, Nebuchadnezzar has been an “outsider,” but now we listen with rapt attention to this his first-person account.
What is striking about Nebuchadnezzar’s motive for writing: “It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me”
What is striking about Nebuchadnezzar’s praise: His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation?
How might Nebuchadnezzar’s view impact these readers: a Jew in exile, a servant of Nebuchadnezzar, the modern reader today? Choose one to share with your group.
2 In verses 10-12, what characterizes the tree? What does this say about the character of God?
3 The dream shifts dramatically beginning with verse 13. This shift to the negative helps us understand Nebuchadnezzar’s fear and command for all wise men to come before him.
Go to Chart #3 and discuss how each detail contributes to the overall characterization of the judgment on the tree. For example, how does a watcher|holy one contribute to helping us see the tree is being judged?
Go back to verse 4, the “when” Nebuchadnezzar was given this dream. Commentators date the events of chapter four as occurring after Nebuchadnezzar’s significant conquests. Why might God give Nebuchadnezzar an alarming dream while he is at ease and prospering?
Nebuchadnezzar states that Daniel has the spirit of the gods in him. What knowledge of the Spirit in Daniel is Nebuchadnezzar severely lacking at this point?
Where do you see God’s mercy even in the midst of judgment upon the tree?
How would you describe Daniel and the King’s relationship compared to earlier in the King’s reign?
Day 4 Deeper Daniel Father, open my eyes to see the truth in Your Word that I may know and love you more deeply.
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. — Colossians 1:13 NIV
1 Reflect on what Jesus said and did on earth that showed His character as the King of the Kingdom of God.
o Given your reflection, what would you say is the chief goal of Jesus’ life?
2 Jesus is the pioneer who ran the race before us as an example (Hebrews 12:1-2). So the chief goal of His life is our own. You will be writing down a few goals in the next question that will move you toward this chief goal. Before thinking about those, enjoy a time of prayer. Some prayer ideas are listed below. Space is provided so that you can write down anything that stood out to you during your prayer time that you want to remember.
o Thank Him for bringing you into a new life here with Him.
o Ask Him to show you if you have been intent on building your own kingdom. If so, how can you let that go with His help?
o Ask Him if you have been too “at ease” while others are laboring. If so, ask Him to help you to work cheerfully for Him.
o Ask Him what He taught you last year about Him and about this Kingdom where you serve Him at home, at work, at church, in the community.
o Ask Him to show you what He has for you next to learn about Him and where He wants you to grow in serving Him.
o Write down Matthew 6:33 below and then pray through that verse. Share with Him “all...things” that you worry about that might keep you from the joy of fully seeking His Kingdom this year.
3 Ask God to help you determine goals for this year that will “Seek first His Kingdom” and support the chief goal of your life. These can be very practical, such as – pay off my car loan, find a new job, or establish a cleaning/workout/study etc. routine. They can be spiritual, such as – take steps to forgive my dad, persevere in praying about ____________ , share the gospel freely, or grow in being a person of peace. Write any that occur to you today as possibilities. You will have more time to do this next lesson.
*Review your answers in Day 4 and put a star next to anything you would like to share with your group when you meet.
Day 5 Deeper Daniel Father, open my eyes to see the truth in Your Word that I may know and love you more deeply.
As Nebuchadnezzar shall learn, God centers history around the development of HIS Kingdom and no other. Period. However, we are created in the image of God and given rule in His Kingdom. In Day 1, we read how Jesus’ disciples were excited about the prospect of the Kingdom being established now. Jesus answered them: “It is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the Father has set by His own authority; BUT you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”
1 The most exciting call on our life is to serve the Kingdom of God as His witnesses to all the peoples, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth. God has given us all we need to do that, and He is patient as we grow in using what He has given us. But we do still battle our sin nature, live in the world, and have an enemy who seeks to destroy our living out our chief purpose. Reflect on those things in the S.W.O.T. chart below. The first line is done for you as a general example that is true of all of us.
2 Even as a pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar progressed so far as to acknowledge this: “There is no other god who is able to save in this way.” What we see happening in chapter four is God showing Neb just how true this is in a VERY intimate and personal way. Jesus says,
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Matthew 18:12-14
You are of the “one” the Shepherd pursued and continues to pursue. No other is able to save you in this way. Enjoy a time of praising God for how He saved and saves you.
3 When God saves such a one and that one testifies of how God moved in his or her life. What is the exciting result?
o Ask God to give you such an adventure this year!
o Continue this week to pray about and refine your goals (See Day 4) that will keep you pursuing that chief adventure.
*Review your answers in Day 5 and put a star next to anything you would like to share with your group when you meet.
Group Reflection Faithful in Exile
Trios & Quad Time – Get together with your last semester prayer partners. If new people are in your group, spread them out among the trios and quads so that they are learning from those who engaged in this last semester.
In your little group, discuss Day 4 Q2 and Q3. Then discuss the S.W.O.T chart from Day 5. If people did not get a chance to complete Day 4 or Day 5, they can still participate “off the cuff” and then later go back to pray and process this with the Lord more deeply. Try to have everyone share and share enough that the gist of where they are and the rough draft of where they want to grow is understood by the little group. That will enable you to pray well for one another during the week.
Prayer
Pray for God to refine us so that we are serving His Kingdom and not our own.
Ask Him to show us what goals we should pursue this year so that we can grow and be humble witnesses for Him.
Pray that we each would have God’s wisdom, strength, guidance in an ever-closer relationship with Him.
God’s joy & strength to you!