There Is a God in Heaven (Part 1 of 2)

In the book of Daniel we read how King Nebuchadnezzar threatened his servants because they were unable to interpret the meaning of his troubling dream.

And while the king's reaction is alarming, it provides insight into our own insecurities. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains how Nebuchadnezzar's dream can teach us a lesson about our own lives. Daniel chapter 2 and verse 1, in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams.

His spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king, and the king said to them, I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. And then in verse 11, verse 10, the Chaldeans answered the king and said, There's not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean.

The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. And then, verse 17, then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. And verse 25, then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him, I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation. The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation? Daniel answered the king and said, No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked. But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.

Your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in your bed are these. And then, verse 46, the King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his faith and paid homage to Daniel and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. The king answered and said to Daniel, 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.

And then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon. And then to the end of the chapter, this is the word of the Lord. Father, thank you for the Bible.

Thank you for these songs which set our minds in the right direction, that you are the God of everlasting truth and righteousness, that you have made yourself known finally and savingly in Jesus, and that you continue to speak as your word is opened up. We pray that not only will we understand something of the Bible, but that we might have a life-shaping encounter with you, the living God, who has given to us the Bible. And we pray for help to be attentive and to be free from distractions and to hear from you. For we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, this is a long chapter. As you will see, some of you may have read ahead and said to yourself, Well, I wonder how we're going to handle all of these verses. And I've been thinking the same thing. And with my mathematical ability, I have been able to work out that if I gave three minutes to each verse, then our study would last for two hours and 27 minutes.

So clearly, that is not going to happen. And although the entire chapter clearly forms a unity, it's important, if we're going to come to terms with it this morning, that we grasp the big picture while actually working our way somewhat selectively through the text. You can assume that the parts that I leave out, I don't really understand.

And there's no point in me telling lies to you. And then you can go and figure them out. And then as you've already begun to do, you can come and fill in the blanks for me when I'm walking around the camp and tell me all the parts I didn't get.

That's fine. Well, it begins clearly with this agitation, this sleeplessness on the part of this great king. Verse 1 is a clear statement of his predicament. He was troubled in his spirit, and his sleep left him. This, of course, is very significant, because we've already been told just what a great king he is.

He is powerful, he's successful, his policy of military expansion has been quite unparalleled, his frontiers and his borders are largely under control, and so from the outside looking in, clearly he has nothing really to be worried about. Yet, despite the outward signs of stability, he was being emotionally and continually destabilized by what we're actually told in the text were divinely appointed nightmares. His sleeplessness was actually due to the fact that God was at work in the darkness, not only of the night but in the darkness of his own mind. And he had dark, disturbing doubts about the future. In the Phantom of the Opera, which some of you will recall, the phantom at one point sings, nighttime darkens, heightens each sensation. And of course, notions that appear problematic in the daylight can become paralyzing in the darkness.

I don't know about you, but when I have my three o'clock in the morning wake-up session, I find that the things that destabilize me when I'm lying down don't seem quite as bad when I'm standing up. And that may be an experience that is shared. Now, whether Nebuchadnezzar was lying down or standing up, it would be hard to believe that this individual whose word was never questioned, whose directives were never disputed, could himself be suffering from a deep-rooted, growing sense of insecurity. For that's what we're being told. And it is on account of that that he does what was customary to do—send for his Chaldeans, for his magicians, and for his enchanters. Who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters. And so it is that they arrive, right on cue. And in verse 3, the king makes known to them his request. Verse 4, their polite response. And it's quite funny, actually, isn't it? And there they tell him that nobody has ever really been confronted by the kind of thing. But the king answered and said to the Chaldeans, verse 5, the word from me is firm.

If you do not make known to me the dream in its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. That's pretty straightforward stuff, isn't it? Nobody's saying, do you get what he just said, or could you be a little clearer?

No, it's quite amazing. Now, one of the interesting questions, of course, is did he know what his dream was or not? There's nothing to tell us in the text whether he did or whether he didn't. He just says that he wants them to tell him the dream and the interpretation. He might have known the dream, and he didn't trust these characters. And if they didn't tell him the dream, they could give him any interpretation that they wanted. And so perhaps that's the reason.

I actually don't think so. I think he didn't know the dream. I think he was disturbed. I think he had a deep-seated sense of being somehow or another magnificent and powerful and yet somehow amazingly vulnerable. And so he employs his tactical approach.

If you show the dream in its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards. So he tries the carrot, and he tries the steak. At one moment he's the wolf to the three little pigs, and at the next moment he's Humpty Dumpty who is falling off the wall, and none of the king's horses and none of the king's men will be able to put him back together again. He must have been a real problem to live with, don't you think? There's nothing in here about his wife, but if we'd had a little sidebar from his wife or from his children, they said, Oh, goodness gracious, you should see this fellow when he gets off his throne.

Unbelievable, morose, paranoid, threatening, all kinds of things, looking over his shoulder all of the time. And his astrologers, who are just really unravelled by this, finally, in verse 10, pluck up the courage just to give it back to him straight. The Chaldeans answered the king and said, There's not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand.

Those are just the facts. There is not a man on earth. They said, However, if there was ever to be an interpretation, it would have to come from the realm of the gods with a small g. Now, I don't know about you, but I sympathize with their predicament, and at the same time, I admire their courage. I wish that some of our more modern-day wizards and astrologers would be prepared to admit their complete inability as well, but that's for another time. In verse 11, of course, they were partially correct. These issues belong to the realm of divinity and eternity. Their polytheism stands in the way of discovering the truth, which is going to come, as we see, through Daniel himself. As a result of that, verse 12, the agitation of the king reaches its high point. He's angry, he's very furious, and he commands all the wise men of Babylon to be destroyed. Let's just kill the whole lot of them.

Quite amazing, isn't it? You think you live in a tough, tough time? You think you've got a problem with leadership?

Try this for size. Fast forward in your mind through the years and see another king upon his throne, infuriated by the wise men, and ordering the slaughter of the innocent children in Bethlehem. Both Nebuchadnezzar, 600 B.C., and Herod, the so-called Great, in the first century, depict the often vicious reaction of man qua man when he senses that his position in the universe is not as secure as he actually believed it to be.

And in recognizing this, it quickly becomes apparent that Nebuchadnezzar doesn't stand alone on the stage of human history. He, in his kingship here, is a prototype of others who have risen on the stage of history and who have been marked by a deep-seated hostility against God. The reaction of his humanity in the face of divinity is akin to that expressed by the great godless Nietzsche when he said, If there is a God, how can I bear not to be that God?

If there is a God, it probably should be me. Or Reinhold Niebuhr, in his book The Nature and Destiny of Man, sees this insecurity, what he refers to as this anxiety complex, at the root of much of our modern political tyranny, that the lust for power is prompted by a darkly unconscious or conscious realization of man's insecurity, the insecurity of his very existence. Now, you're students of history, we established that on Sunday morning, I know, and so you can roam through your history books as you like. Can you explain a little man like Hitler, apart from the demonic response of humanity bringing its fist in the face of divinity, of a deep-seated insecurity in his own personal existence that manifests itself in that way?

Can you explain the clown in North Korea at the moment, whose attempts at political machinations include bringing some of our brightest and best basketball players to act as the ambassadors of sanity and stability and political effectiveness? This is not simply an interesting perspective on world affairs, because, let's be honest, no matter whether you have the corner office or you're on the fourth floor or you head up the children's wing or whatever else it is or you're the pastor of a church, these things take their hold on each of us. We don't miss the fact that Nebuchadnezzar's behavior and his uneasy dreams speak into our personal worlds, our own insecurities and hostilities. They're not exclusive to the mighty.

What's wrong with me and my angry outbursts that are often irrational? Where does this horrible sense of one-upmanship emerge in the fabric of local churches or in the gatherings of pastors? For we, in the feebleness of our flesh, confronted by our own sense of insecurity, creating our own peculiar identity, are at sea in these matters until we find our identity in our union with Christ and our security in the work of Christ. And then our union with one another in Christ is marked in such a way that it speaks to this kind of world. Wallace, in his commentary, says at this point, Why is it that even in our moments of triumph there comes the strange, disturbing thought that even this may be the material of tragedy? Why is so much that is good and beautiful marked so deeply and indelibly with clear signs of instability and frailty? Well, you see, we, like Nebuchadnezzar before us, need not simply to be provided with an interpretation of our predicament, but we need to be brought face to face with our problem.

His agitation, his sleeplessness, responded to by the best of human wisdom, could not fix him. What he needed was a word from above. Enter Daniel 13. So the decree went out that all the fellows were about to be killed, and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them.

You take the knock at the door. Hello, Daniel? The boys in there with you? Yes. We're here on a special mission. You're going to be slaughtered.

Oh, thanks for letting us know. Let me get my shoes. I'll be right out in just a moment. Now, I think I have six things in my notes here.

I won't expand on them, but I'll give them to you. In noticing how Daniel approaches this, number one, he was tactful. He was tactful. That almost goes without saying, doesn't it? I think it's a good time for tact, doesn't it? You don't want to get your answer wrong at this point. We're here to kill you. Oh, verse 14, then Daniel replied, with prudence and discretion.

That's super in the ESV. With prudence and discretion. He doesn't overreact, despite the fact that his personal prospects are not bright. He doesn't go stark raving nuts.

But he does take the initiative again, doesn't he? He doesn't say, Oh well, must be the will of God, we're all going to die. Let's all just have a prayer meeting. He's going to have a prayer meeting, but that's not what he's going to be praying about, about how he can die. No, this is no fatalism.

This is no strange sense. This is no ca sera sera, whatever we'll be will be. His confidence in God did not make him indolent. His confidence in God propelled him into action. Consider how many opportunities that we have missed by a striking light of initiative, how we've often abused the opportunity by a kind of blustering heavy-handedness that was nowhere close to prudence and to discretion. It's a characteristic that I think is greatly needed in our day, isn't it? It's not the same as zeal.

It has to do with understanding the ways of God, learning what kind of action is appropriate in any given set of circumstances. That's why we need each other. That's why you need country music. It's why you've got to know when to hold them and when to fold them and when to walk away and when to run.

And you never count your money when you're sitting at the table, right? He was tactful. Secondly, he was practical. In verse 17, then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah. And he told them to make sure that we pray to God, verse 18, to seek mercy from heaven concerning this mystery and so that Hinnah clause, that we'll have a prayer meeting so that we don't get killed.

That's pretty practical. So that we don't get executed. How much self-preservation was involved in this?

We'll have to wait to find out. But in actual fact, you will notice that practicality and spirituality are quite happy to share the same bed. So he's tactful, he's practical. Thirdly, he's prayerful. The explanation of verse 17 was fuel for his intercession, and the implication in verse 19 seems to be that this season of prayer may actually have been prolonged during the night. He was not only prayerful, but he was thankful. Again, we're in verse 19. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in the vision of the night, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven, and he thanked him. How God desires from us a thankful heart. There was no possible way out, and yet, like others before and after, he had acted in supreme confidence that God would supply a way if it was necessary. And he was purposeful. Again, in keeping with the purpose established in chapter 1, his prayer doesn't remove him from the realm of action. Rather, as we see in verse 24, Daniel went to Aaron, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Okay?

That's very straightforward. Do not destroy them. Please do not execute them. Take me to the king, and I will interpret the dream. We'll learn about what happened when Daniel came before King Nebuchadnezzar tomorrow in part two of this message on Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. It's interesting that King Nebuchadnezzar seemed to have everything.

An expansive kingdom, he had a strong military, great power, wealth, respect, and yet his nightmare revealed his deep-rooted insecurity. Daniel, on the other hand, faced imminent danger with relative confidence. And as Alistair pointed out, Daniel's stability was grounded in the essential truths that God is sovereignly in control and his kingdom will prevail. The theme of God's sovereignty is central to a new book we're offering. The book is titled Brave by Faith, God-Sized Confidence in a Post-Christian World, and the book is written by Alistair. In this new release, Alistair draws from the book of Daniel to highlight the remarkable similarities that exist between the world Daniel lived in and our world today.

In both settings, living according to God's commands was and is countercultural. So how does somebody stay faithful to God? Well, Alistair walks through the book of Daniel in this book Brave by Faith and encourages us. He shows us how God delivered Daniel and his friends time and again, and he reminds us that while it may be tempting to put Daniel on a pedestal for his unwavering trust in God, it's actually God's faithfulness to his people that is at the heart of this story. The book Brave by Faith reminds us that Daniel's God is our God.

He will always remain faithful to his people. Request your copy of Brave by Faith today when you donate to Truth for Life. You'll find the book on our mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash donate, or you can request it when you call us at 888-588-7884. Well, we have been digging deep into the book of Daniel throughout this week, and the reason is because at Truth for Life, teaching God's Word is at the heart of all we do. Our mission is very simple, to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance. We believe that God's Word is infallible, that its instruction is the guidepost for our lives. That's why we teach it every day with the expectation that God will work through his Word to convert unbelievers, to establish believers, and to strengthen local churches in the process. We hope that this has been your experience as you listen each day. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for joining us. Tomorrow we'll find out why certain portions of Scripture give us a taste of how God's future kingdom will look. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.