Flight DAN01 - Part B

What is interesting to me is that Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel saw the same truth from two different viewpoints. Nebuchadnezzar saw it from a human viewpoint. Daniel saw it from God's viewpoint. Nebuchadnezzar was impressed with this statue.

Gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone. God saw them from a divine standpoint or Daniel did and that is just a bunch of ravenous, beasts destroying each other, killing each other, no beauty at all in it. The visions and prophecies of Daniel can seem confusing and even a little weird. But as we study them today on Connect with Skip Hitek, you'll see how they give you deeper confidence in God's Word. But before we begin, we want to let you know about a resource that shows you how you can live in the peace of Jesus and free from your worries. Christians can be ambushed by surprise struggles. You know how that feels. Listen to Skip Hitek. Anxiety is the problem.

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Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely or call 800-922-1888. Now we're in the Book of Daniel as Skip Hitek gets into today's message. Verse 8, But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. A three-year training course for these captives, to pamper them, to indulge them, to get them thinking man life is a lot better here in Babylon than it ever was in Jerusalem and then to put the dots together saying well our God did not protect us from the Babylonians and life was bad in Jerusalem my goodness it pays to live in the worldly system this is great who would want to go back to Jerusalem he could have easily said when in Babylon do as the Babylonians even if I do return to Judah what happens in Babylon stays in Babylon he could have had all sorts of excuses why not indulge who's watching who cares but Daniel wasn't looking for an excuse because Daniel was living with a purpose and when you live with the purpose you're not looking for an excuse he purposed in his heart he made an internal commitment you might say Daniel conquered inner space we have celebrated 50 years after going to the moon it's it's great I saw that little special they did on Apollo 11 it was moving how we got from this speck of dust in the Milky Way galaxy to that speck of dust amazing we can conquer outer space pretty well our big problem is we don't do so well with our inner space when it comes to your own life what's around you the way to conquer your outer space is to first conquer your inner space to conquer what's inside to purpose something in your heart to live with conviction so that you don't fall in compromise chapter two is that we have to is a good illustration of how God can use insomnia in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign Nebuchadnezzar had dreams his spirit was so troubled the word means agitated or disturbed that his sleep left him the old boy has a case of insomnia then the king gave the command to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dream so they came and stood before the king and the king said to them I've had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the dream there's a great old saying uneasy lies the head that wears the crown it's great to be king that's what Tom Petty's saying but with it comes a price tag all the worries about the kingdom all the fear of the future if I conquered this kingdom I'm in charge but who else out there could be stronger than me waiting to conquer me so he's troubled he's agitated he's tossing he's turning you and I dream do you know that you dream every night and I don't know I remember my dreams frequently these days maybe it's because it says your young men will see visions your old men will dream dreams but the truth is we all dream and you start dreaming about 90 minutes after you fall asleep it's when you go into REM and every 90 minutes through the evening you go into another dream that's and when you do I mean thereabouts that's the average span each one gets a little longer as you go through the night that's why typically you remember those right before you wake up the large cells in your brain stem fire spontaneous spontaneously and send the stimuli to the cortex of your brain that's what causes you to have the memory of the dream you dream now all of that happens for everyone but in this case god's behind it god is causing the cortical stimulation to occur with just the right images at just the right time and just the right intensity so Nebuchadnezzar calls his men to him and he makes a demand now I said that he had he had a a short a hot temper and a short fuse here's his demand I don't just want to know the interpretation of what I was dreaming I want to know the contents of what I was dreaming you tell me what I dreamed and you tell me what it means now they were waiting to say king tell us what you dreamt and we'll tell you what it means well anybody can do that I can make anything up and that's what they were waiting for they had no real power anybody can give fortune cookie predictions it's going to rain tomorrow somewhere in the world or whatever some generic kind of a prescription but for him it wasn't good enough he demanded what the contents were as well as the interpretation well they couldn't do it so he said great I'm going to do it I'm going to do it I'm going to do well they couldn't do it so he said great here's the deal I'm going to round you all up kill you chop you up and destroy all your homes and your families sorry so Daniel hears of it tells the keeper of the guy rounding up all the help tell the king to stop this I'm going to pray and we'll tell the king the dream and the interpretation he gets his buddies together that night goes boys we need to we need a prayer meeting our heads on the line this whole event is a real pain in the neck our heads could come off tomorrow so let's pray and see if God gives us interpretation he did Daniel goes into the king and says king there's a God in heaven God in heaven who knows what you dreamed and in verse 32 of chapter 2 he reveals the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had that night of a huge statue an image that represented four world governing empires who would also not only rule the world at their time but have control over the Jewish people verse 32 he mentions a head of fine gold that represents Nebuchadnezzar he had absolute power he was the absolute monarch he shared his power with no one he was the head of gold followed by the chest and arms of silver which is the medo-persian empire this is all explained by Daniel to the king don't have time to go through the whole thing the whole thing it's one empire with two arms medo-persia the Medes and the Persians the coalesce to form one followed by the belly and thighs of bronze which is the Greek empire and the Greek soldiers who aren't even really around yet of any substance would be called the bronze coated Greeks or the brass coated Greeks then legs of iron this is the Roman empire this is the longest part of the statue Rome had the longest rule of any of those world governing empires a thousand years but like legs that divide from the trunk the empire was divided east and west then finally feet partly of iron and partly of clay Daniel will explain in the interpretation of the dream he's just telling Nebuchadnezzar what he saw he will explain down in verse 44 of chapter 2 that those 10 toes are 10 future kings now that verse of those 10 coming kings goes along with chapter 7 of Daniel where Daniel sees a beast with 10 horns also shows up in the book of revelation chapter 17 where we are told the 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings so Daniel and revelation interface and agree on that point now because of these passages in Daniel and revelation for 2,000 years scholars have been looking for what they call a revived Roman empire of sorts okay keep that in mind as we go on verse 34 you watched he continues you watched Neb while a stone was cut without hands which struck the image on the feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces Nebuchadnezzar was able to dream the future he is looking into the future all the way through the times of the gentiles ever heard that term the phrase times of the gentiles it's a it's a phrase used by Jesus it is a phrase used by scholars to speak about world dominion by non-Jewish leaders gentile leaders he gets a peek into the times of the gentiles Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome all the way to the second coming of Christ which this stone represents then verse 35 the iron clay bronze silver gold were crushed together became like chaff from the summer threshing floor and the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth by the time we get to chapter 7 Daniel has his own vision it's the same exact vision but no not the same vision the same exact meaning with a different vision he doesn't see a statue and four successive kingdoms he sees wild crazy ravenous beasts but they are then identified afterwards as the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and then a final empire which we find out is Rome this is essentially chapter 2 and chapter 7 of Daniel a picture of man's rule on the earth and successive empires that will come in contrast to the day of the Lord I hope you are familiar with that phrase the day of the Lord the day of the Lord is represented by the stone that strikes the image decimates it grows into a mountain that fills the earth here's what is to me interesting what did Nebuchadnezzar see in his vision uh an image a statue an idol uh an image a statue an idol Babylon was the land of idols to me it's significant that God was speaking to Nebuchadnezzar in a language Nebuchadnezzar could understand he was used to statues man he was used to idols he was used to images he sees that who wish God is this as he sees this polymetallic image in his vision in his dream um I just need to make this note because we're not going to be able to go through chapter 7 in depth again this is the bible from 30 000 feet but what Nebuchadnezzar sees a statue and what Daniel sees four beasts same truth different visions is vindicated by history indeed after Babylon did come the Medo-Persian empire they overcame the Babylonians and reigned after that the Grecian empire ruled the world under Alexander the Great after that the world was conquered by Rome and we are awaiting a coalition a coalition of some group of 10 nations in the end times what is interesting to me is that Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel saw the same truth from two different viewpoints Nebuchadnezzar saw it from a human viewpoint Daniel saw it from God's viewpoint Nebuchadnezzar was impressed with this statue gold silver bronze iron strong God saw them from a divine standpoint or Daniel did and that is just a bunch of ravenous beasts destroying each other killing each other no beauty at all in it all in it also gold is first silver a second bronze and then iron the metals decrease in value as the vision continues as time goes on the metals grow stronger but less valuable again the opposite of what the truth is we we think you know as time progresses we get more golden aged we kind of start out as primitive man iron and clay and then then another generation comes we get stronger than another generation finally we're now in the golden age of technology we have a backwards now you're dreaming if you think that the truth is we're degradating and the real truth is Daniel chapter 7 people are destroying each other well that's chapter 2 16 years pass after chapter 2 when we get to chapter 3 Nebuchadnezzar had a very moving time he acknowledged God but 16 years go by he is more powerful he is more prideful chapter 3 verse 1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of what not gold silver bronze and iron but just gold whose height was 60 cubits that's 90 feet its width was 6 cubits that's 9 feet he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon verse 5 he said at the time that you hear the sound of the horn flute harp lyre and psaltery in symphony with all kinds of music you shall fall down and worship the image of gold that king Nebuchadnezzar has set up and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace that was the deal for all the babylonians in that town the babylonian philharmonic orchestra was going to play their tune and as soon as the music and the symbols go everybody hits the ground and worships you see their bow or burn that's the command boy when i read chapter 3 i think you know Nebuchadnezzar was a prideful man because essentially what he's saying is nuts to the silver and bronze and iron i'm going to make a statue of all gold as if to say i'm going to have an eternal long lasting kingdom nobody's taken over i think chapter 3 is a 16 year old response to the vision he gets in chapter 2 it's his his response of response of defiance so to speak well shadrach mishank and abednego you know the story from sunday school they didn't bow so they were thrown into the furnace to burn they didn't burn because he sees a fourth man he says there's one like the son of god it looks like some translations say a son of the gods in the midst of the fiery furnace with them protecting them i actually believe it was the son of god i believe it was a a theophany a christophany it was christ in a pre-incarnate form some kind of a form appearing there to protect them and so they get delivered from that verse 30 they get promoted because of it chapter four is um another interesting dream vision that Nebuchadnezzar gets there's an old saying let me kind of preview chapter four it says you can put a pig in a parlor and it will not change the pig but it will certainly change the parlor right that makes sense doesn't it you can dress up a pig put a bow tie on the pig put them in a parlor perfume them you're not going to change the pig still a pig can act like a pig but you will change that parlor if you turn them loose in that now in chapter four the pig changes you could put Nebuchadnezzar anywhere and he doesn't change until now something radically changes him and he writes about it in fact chapter four is mostly written by king Nebuchadnezzar not Daniel it's the only chapter in the bible written by a gentile king it's his personal testimony he writes it and it is posted everywhere in the kingdom now this is toward the end of king Nebuchadnezzar's reign this is this is um several years as i said after chapter three probably 25 years after chapter three so think of a daniel two then daniel three is 16 years after two now 25 years after chapter three daniel is probably in his 50s and um Nebuchadnezzar has a dream he has a dream of a tree that grows up it fills the earth you can see it from afar and all the kingdoms of the world is you know think of jack and the beanstalk it's so tall it goes from earth all the way to heaven and then there's this angelic watcher who after the tree grows up calls down and says chop down that tree and the tree gets chopped down to a stump and Nebuchadnezzar is troubled and daniel comes in and Nebuchadnezzar goes i had another dream what does it mean he goes well i got good news and bad news the good news i i can tell you what the dream means the bad news is you're the tree who's going to get chopped down in fact we might as well call you stumpy no he didn't say that but he said you are that tree you're it's about you king go down to verse 29 of chapter 4 at the end of the 12 months he was walking about the royal palaces of babylon and the king spoke saying is not this the great babylon that i have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty humanly speaking he had every reason to boast as i mentioned it was a magnificent city babylon was called or this Nebuchadnezzar's palace was called the marvel of mankind he had hanging gardens to look like a mountain peak because his wife hated babylon it was flat desert and so he built a mountain in the city that was watered it was one of the wonders of the world and that was where he lived there's a there's a proverb in proverb six that says there's six things god hates remember that scripture seven are an abomination so god gives you a list of everything he hates you do well to memorize that list because you don't want to ever do any of those things on that list i mean if god hates it you want you don't want to do it right one of the things god hates is a proud look this man was filled with pride and so the tree gets chopped down verse 31 while the word was still in the king's mouth i'm awesome look at the babylon a voice fell from heaven king Nebuchadnezzar to you it is spoken the kingdom has departed from you he was going i did this and i did that and god is saying i'm speaking to you and i'm taking this from you that's Skip Heitzigened with a message from his series the bible from 30 000 feet now here's Skip with a listener letter to share how you can keep these messages coming your way to connect you and others to god's word we love sharing how your support is bringing others closer to jesus than ever before listen to this note a listener sent in i want to say thank you for spreading the good news that is the gospel god is shaping and moving my family in beautiful ways during these challenging times we've been able to be strong for others due to the leadership and teaching of pastor Skip thank you for constantly redirecting all of us to create and build upon a relationship with jesus you know letters like this are possible because of friends like you who give so we can get god's word out to more people if you're interested in helping encourage more people with god's word keep listening to hear how you can do that through your gift of support today give us a call at 800-922-1888 to give a gift today 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate that's connectwithskip.com slash donate your generosity will keep this biblical encouragement coming your way and going out to help change lives 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