God Humbles the Proud | Daniel 4:1-18
Daniel 3:24-25
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”
Daniel 4:1-3
4 [a] 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.
God Humbles Us To Reveal His Glory Through Us
The Declaration (vs. 1-3)
The Description (vs 4-9)
The Dream (vs 10-16)
The Decision (vs 17-18)
The Declaration
Daniel 4:1-2
4 [a] 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.
Daniel 4:3
3 How great are his signs,
how mighty his wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and his dominion endures from generation to generation.
God Rules According To His Will and Does What He Wills With His Kingdom and That His Kingdom Is Forever
2. The Description
Daniel 4:4-5
4 [a] 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.
Daniel 4:6
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.
Daniel 4:7
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.
Daniel 4:8-9
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[a]—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.
The Declaration
The Description
The Dream
Daniel 4:10-11
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.
Daniel 4:12
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.
Daniel 4:13-14
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.
Daniel 4:15
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.
Preservation For Possible Restoration
Daniel 4:16
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.
God Humbles Us To Reveal His Glory Through Us
The Declaration
The Description
The Dream
The Decision
Daniel 4:17
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.’
God Rules According To His Will and Does What He Wills With His Kingdom and That His Kingdom Is Forever
Daniel 4:18
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.”
Luke 14:11
11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
God Humbles Us To Reveal His Glory Through Us