Faithful Living in a Faithless World:  Wake Up, Look Up and Kneel Down

Daniel 2

     Most of us have experienced times when we have so many thoughts running through our minds, troubling our minds, that we find it hard to sleep. Has that ever been true of you? Have you had times when, even when you do get to sleep, those thoughts come out in your dreams, often recurring wild dreams. I rarely remember any of my dreams.  But, my wife Chris does.  When we first got married, she had a recurring dream of a huge mechanical spider chasing her.  She occasionally woke me up by swatting at me.

      Sometimes, these dreams, when they recur, make us wonder whether the dreams actually constitute a message to us, maybe even a message from God.  If you can relate to that – as I’m guessing most of you can – then you’ll be able to empathize with what King Nebuchadnezzar was going through as we come to Daniel 2. 

     Before we look at his story, I want to tell you that when your mind and heart is troubled, then those times of distress may really be God asking you to turn to him, to fall in faith upon him and to find him to be the one he promises to be in Psalm 46, i.e., “a very present help in times of trouble.”  Today, we’ll consider that truth as we look at two different men in times of trouble as God calls them to 1) wake up, 2) look up, and 3) bow down.

Wake Up – Your troubled thoughts might be God wanting to break into your life in a new way (2:1-13).

     When you read vv.1-13, it’s immediately clear that Babylon at this time was a place of fear and brutality.  Nebuchadnezzar II and his father before him, had led in such a way that people were terrified about doing anything that displeased the king. But, the shocker (for many readers) is that Nebuchadnezzar himself was anxious and fear-filled.  This was so true that a dream of a metallic monster that seemed to have his head on its body -- and that then was destroyed -- hit him as more than a dream. It seemed like an omen from the gods.

     You see, Nebuchadnezzar had tried to make himself into an invincible giant leader towering over all other kings.  He had erected many statues of Babylon’s gods. He may have viewed himself as one of them.  In other words, he knew he was powerful.  But, at the same time, his dream brought to the surface his subconscious doubts about the strength of all he was building. He was anxious that it wouldn’t last.

     The Babylonians believed, as almost all people have always believed, that there is both a material/physical world and an immaterial/spiritual world.  They also believed that visions and dreams were some of the main ways of communicating between these two worlds.  In fact, there were so-called “wise men” whose profession was to interpret dreams.  So, the king called in his experts to help him understand this dream.

     But, it seems that he didn’t really trust his wise men.  He demanded that they both reveal what the dream was as well as its meaning.  How would you like to be commanded to do that? I can imagine the king thought they might be bogus and without any real knowledge of the spiritual world.  After all, he probably thought, anybody could take a reported dream and then concoct some kind of explanation of it.  So, this time, the king told the wise men they had to consult the spiritual world to find out first what the dream was -- and then interpret it. 

     I can empathize with their exasperation when they said, “There is no one on earth who can do what you ask!”  But, the king would have none of their excuses.  After all, these people were supposed to possess a real connection to the gods.  So, furious about their inability to do what he asked, Nebuchadnezzar ordered the summary execution of all the wise men of Babylon – including Daniel and his three Jewish friends.

     Let’s stop there for a moment.  History records that King Nebuchadnezzar was a deeply religious – even superstitious -- man in spite of the fact that he was narcissistic and cruel.  But, it’s also clear that he was not alive to the real eternal God personally. He was spiritually asleep -- to the fact of the existence of the one eternal God.  The same was true of his magicians and sorcerers.  But, God knew Nebuchadnezzar.  One of the most remarkable things in this chapter is that God personally chose to break into the life of the pagan king so that the king might know of his presence and sovereignty over all things.  Through sending the king this dream, God was giving him a chance to wake up to his reality.  What Nebuchadnezzar needed to do was wake up – and realize that there is a God over all kings; a God who is at work in this world.  The king needed to turn to God!

     As I’ve thought about this, I’ve begun to wonder about how many who go to church might really be asleep to God.  I’m not accusing anybody in church today of not believing at all in God.  Nebuchadnezzar certainly believed in the gods. He built statues to them all over the city!  But, he didn’t know the one true God.  Do you?

     When you suffer from ongoing troubling thoughts and dreams, it may well be that God is letting you know that he knows you, loves you, and wants you to come awake to his presence.  The dream God gave the king, bottom line, was that there is a God who is at work in this world and in control of all things.  God sent the king a much-needed a gift, albeit an unwanted gift.  God sent a dream to wake the king up to God’s reality.  The king needed to wake up to the fact that there is only one eternal king and one invincible kingdom. If Nebuchadnezzar had accepted that, it would have changed his self-centered, self-directed life – and his nation.

     So, I wonder about you today.  Are you asleep to God’s presence in your life?  Or, are you living like what I call a “practical agnostic”, i.e., saying you believe in God but living day-by-day as if God is not real at all?  Wake up! God may be wanting to meet you, to work in your life in a new way.

Look Up – Let your troubles lead you to seek God in prayer (2:14-45).  Men were sent to look for Daniel and put them to death (2:13).

     For a first-time reader, the main point in this part of the Daniel 2 seems to be that Daniel becomes the great rescuer in Babylon.  Only he was able to act decisively and confidently where the so-called religious experts seemed numb in the face of the king’s threats.  Only Daniel stepped into the crisis and, because he did, neither he nor any of the “wise men” in Babylon were killed.

     But, it wasn’t really Daniel who was the rescuer, was it?  Actually, Daniel himself was in deep trouble.  His life was at risk.  But, Daniel was awake to God.  What we see Daniel do flows out of a genuine relationship to the living God.  He and his believing friends look up to God in prayer.

     I can relate to what happened.  The commander of the king’s guard came to Daniel to kill him.  Daniel said, “Wait!  Let me talk to the king.”  So, the commander held off on killing Daniel and set up a meeting for him with Nebuchadnezzar.  The king asked, “Can you tell me the dream and its meaning?”  Daniel said, “Sure.  Let me go and consult my God and I’ll get back to you.”  So, Daniel rushed over to his three godly friends and said, “We have to pray (2:18)!  If God doesn’t help us, we have no hope!”  So, they looked up to God in prayer, God met them – and God gave Daniel what he needed.

     We’re church people here today.  But, I can imagine most of us saying what the Babylonian wise men said to the king, i.e., “No human being can do this, King.”  But, I have found that it’s usually when we acknowledge that without God, we are lost, that we discover that God is real and present and sufficient for our needs.  Otherwise, we tend to try to live like “practical agnostics” too.  We think we can work it out.  When we cannot, then everything seems hopeless.  Let’s face it: We often live in the midst of our troubles like these Babylonian wise men:  just trying to solve things ourselves without looking up to God saying, “Without you, I am lost.” 

     Daniel alone, among all the those considered to be the wise men of Babylon, was in touch with the true God who cares and who in at work in this world.  Please notice that this kind of genuine relationship with God, lived out with an ongoing life of prayer, changed things in Daniel’s life and in his world. It enabled Daniel to serve and speak to a threatening king with calm and clarity but without a bit of superficial self-confidence. 

     Notice this: When Nebuchadnezzar had problems, he took them to bed.  When Daniel had problems, he took them to God. Where do you take yours?

     So, when God answered his prayer and revealed the king’s dream, Daniel didn’t say, “I did it!”  No, he broke into a beautiful and heart-felt prayer of praise in vv.20-23. 

Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his.
He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others...
He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness…
You have made known what we asked of you. You have made known the dream of the king.”

     With this conviction that God was at work, Daniel was able to be brutally honest when he explained the dream to the king.  Daniel told him the dream in vv. 31-35. He said that the God of heaven had broken into the king’s life “to let you know what will happen in the days to come.”  The dream itself was of a large statue with a head of gold that is attached to a body with its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of silver, its legs of iron and its feel of iron and clay.  But a stone not made by human hands would come and strike the statue on its feet and then grow to become a mountain filling the whole earth.

    Many preachers have almost obsessed about identifying what kingdoms are represented in this dream.  I won’t do that today.  Let me simply give you a summary of the interpretation God gave through Daniel:

The time of the existence of Nebuchadnezzar’s empire will be powerful but relatively short-lived.  It will be instrumental in giving place to three other empires, each in its own way impressive and mighty.  But, the day is coming when all the magnificence of all earthly kingdoms will be seen to rest on feet of crumbly clay that cannot sustain them.  Someday, all the world’s empires will crumble because the kingdoms of this world must give way to another kingdom that will come, that must come, and that will fill the rest of the future.  That eternal kingdom will start small, like a stone, but it will grow to be like a magnificent mountain. It will fill the whole earth.  Because of this, someday Nebuchadnezzar’s empire and all those that follow it will cease.

      Bible scholars dispute the details about these coming kingdoms.  But, the main point of the dream is unmistakable:  God is at work in this world.  When he is done, all other kingdoms will crumble.  God will reign in his eternal kingdom of justice and peace.  With that in mind, we who are his people know this and should become like Daniel, i.e., people who already have access to this powerful God through prayer.  When we know God and that God is at work in this world, we will still face what seem like impossible situations. But, for God, they are not impossible! So, when you pray, you can be assured that God can and will be sufficient for your troubles. When you’re troubled, look up to him!   

Bow Down – Learn to surrender your entire life to God, who alone is greater than all troubles (2:46-49). 

      Nebuchadnezzar was profoundly moved when he heard Daniel describe his dream accurately and then explain its meaning to him.  He said exuberantly, “Daniel, your God is the God over all gods!”  But, even though he said that, he didn’t bow down to God.  Indeed, he gave more acclaim to Daniel than to God.  It seems that he was willing to accept Daniel’s God as a great god among the other Babylonian gods – and to view Daniel as the one who could get this great God to do what Nebuchadnezzar wanted him to do. 

     The day will come in the future when this king will be humbled – but that doesn’t happen until chapter 4.  Instead, just after receiving Daniel’s message, in Dan. 3:1, Nebuchadnezzar erects a 100-foot-tall statue, it seems, to himself.  The statue is made in gold just like the head in his dream.  It’s like the king is proudly saying, “I’m the gold head!  The others are only silver and lead and iron.  I’m the greatest!”  But, it seemed, as of this time, that he could not accept that those clay feet can’t sustain such a big head!  When the stone of the eternal kingdom strikes those fragile feet, the statue will tumble, head and all.

     There’s a warning here: Nebuchadnezzar shows us that a religious experience can bring about an immediate response at a superficial level but still leave us untouched in the depths of our beings.  I’ve seen it so often.  A person goes to church deeply troubled. We pray. God provides. The person becomes extremely excited and ready to do anything for God.  But, it doesn’t last.  It’s not a real relationship of faith in God.

     Centuries later, Jesus would say in Mark 4 that this kind of person is like seed sown on rocky places.  They hear God’s Word and at once receive it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes again, they quickly fall away. Do you know anyone like that?  Are you?

     It’s Daniel who shows us what a life of genuine faith is like.  It’s the life of one who trusts God through the troubles.  It’s a faith that bows down to the God who loves us and who alone is worthy to be worshipped.  How do we know God in this genuine way?  That brings us to the question of who this stone is in the king’s dream; this one who is not made by human hands.  He’s the one who brings God’s kingdom into our lives.

     So, who is the stone not made with human hands?  “Stone” is a word used for the one who was to come in the line of Abraham.  He’s the one who came in humility and gave his life to rescue those he loves – even while we were sinners.  He’s the one who will someday find that all creation will bow down before him and acknowledge that he is Lord. The Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 2:4-6 that the stone is Jesus himself: As you come to him, the living Stone — rejected by people but chosen by God and precious to him — you also, like living stones, are built into a spiritual house…. The one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.  Have you placed your trust in Jesus, the living stone?

     This dream spoke directly to Nebuchadnezzar, the king who wanted to dominate the entire world.  But, I think it speaks to us too.  It speaks to all those kingdoms that we think we have to build in order to view ourselves as successful.  It speaks to all our plans to be recognized: on stage, in music, or in sports.  It speaks of our boasts of making great business deals, or of bragging that our kids got into an Ivy League school, or of winning some kind of competition.  It speaks to all those things – great or small – in which we take such pride that, if we lost them, we would crumble inside.  You might accomplish any of those things – but I imagine that, someday, you may have a dream like Nebuchadnezzar had, that they will be lost.  For, those things will be lost.  None of those things, whether good or bad, will last.  We mortals stress out as we try to erect all kinds of little thrones in our world that we feel we have to have in order to be at peace.  This passage calls us to find our rest in God alone, our rock and our salvation.

     Mostly in this sermon, as your pastor, I care about those times when your hearts and minds are troubled.  Let me ask you:  When you have those troubling thoughts filling your mind and robbing you of your peace, are you more like Nebuchadnezzar or like Daniel?  Do you simply get upset with everyone and everything around you like the king did?  Or, have you learned to join with your brothers and sisters in prayer and to cast all your cares on the Lord – knowing that he cares for you?

     And, he does care for you, you know.  Jesus, the stone prophesied in this dream, has come into this world and, out of his love for you and me, died in our place on a cross so that we might be made alive to God. 

     Jesus came not just to bring sinful kingdoms to an end – but to bring sinful people like us into his eternal kingdom.  And it cost him his life.

     We end our service today remembering that, i.e., remembering the coming of this “stone” into this world.  We will remember his life, one lived without sin.  And, we will remember his death in our place – to bring us to God.  We now will go to the communion table…