This morning I want to talk to you about Daniel's message to you. You know, the prophet Daniel lived during the 500s BC, contemporary with two of the world's greatest empires. Daniel served during the administrations of great men such as King Nebuchadnezzar the Great and King Darius the Mede. He personally knew these men. And so, based upon his experiences with them, his various encounters with them, and this time in world history, God, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, led him to write a book. But what is his overall message to us in this book? What is the theme? Well, in a nutshell, it is this, that our God is sovereign in the affairs of men. time and again Daniel states this idea. An example of this would be in Daniel chapter 2 verses 20 through 22. In Daniel chapter 2 were told that Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. And he changeth the times and the seasons, he removeth kings, and setteth up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. And so Daniel reminds us that God is a God of wisdom and a God of might. He knows everything. He can do anything. And he is running the entire show. It is he who raises up kings to their thrones. It is he who takes kings down from their thrones. Now what I want us to observe this morning is how it is Daniel goes about conveying this overall message and this theme. And to understand that you have to appreciate the way in which Daniel puts his book together, the way in which he structures it. And so the book of Daniel basically breaks down to three major parts. Chapter 1, then chapters 2 through 7, and finally there would be chapters 8 through 12. Chapter 1, 2-7, and 8-12. In Chapter 1, Daniel basically sets the scene and introduces the key characters to us. He does so in a way that supports his overriding theme, but basically it's just kind of setting the stage for us. It is a prologue, so to speak. I want to jump ahead to the third and final section of his book, chapters 8-12. In chapters 8-12, Daniel sends a message to his fellow Jews, the Jewish people, in which he predicts the future and tells them they are in for a lot of troubling times in the years ahead. Daniel tells them times will be difficult. Now, through all these difficult times, God will be with them, he will protect them, and he will preserve them, but he certainly is not going to guarantee them a life of health, wealth, and prosperity. Anything but that. For example, in Daniel chapter 9, he predicts how the city of Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians, would be rebuilt, and the temple would be rebuilt. But, way out in the future, The Romans would come along and they would destroy the city of Jerusalem, they would destroy that temple, and they would execute the Messiah. It's a very precise prophecy because Daniel, in fact, actually tells us how to calculate exactly when the Messiah would make his appearance on the world stage. But the point is that the Romans would thus persecute the Jewish people. in Daniel chapter 11. He talks about the rise of Alexander the Great and how so quickly he would conquer the world but then while yet a very young man he would die and then his empire would be carved up and divided up by his four top generals. One of those generals would take the region to the north of Israel, Syria. One of the other generals would take control of the country to the south of Israel, Egypt. And these kings and their successors in the years ahead would constantly be fighting back and forth for control of each other's territory. And what falls between Syria and Egypt? Israel. Israel will be right in the middle of all this back and forth, and they'll get caught up in all of this. And sometimes when a king, such as a northern king, throws a temper tantrum because he loses a battle down in Egypt, as he's on his way back home, he takes out his anger on the Jewish people. And so Daniel predicts this type of thing. So Daniel is saying, it's going to be very tough for my people, the Jewish people, but He says, hang in there, because through it all God will preserve you. And of course we see that God has done this, going all the way back to the time of Abraham, nearly 4,000 years the Jews have been through much, things such as the Holocaust. But God has always brought them through. And so writing in the Hebrew language, the language of the Jewish people, he tells them, hang in there. But now the question is this, how can they be so sure that their God, the God they worship, can protect and preserve them from all these Gentile powers and these Gentile kings? You know, the Romans and the Greeks and so forth. Well, that's a question that Daniel anticipates in the preceding chapters, chapters 2 through 7. And so he already sets the stage by answering that question in chapters 2 through 7. And in a nutshell, it's a very short and simple answer. The answer is because the God that the Jewish people worship, Jehovah, isn't just the God of the Jews. He's the God of the whole world. He's the God of the Gentiles as well. Well, you see, in the end, there is really only one God. only one God. Now, in so saying, Daniel is going very counter-cultural. This was not the thinking of the time. In the time of Daniel, his contemporaries believed in the existence of multiple gods, and so You know, rather than Jehovah, for example, they believe that there in Babylon, the gods who were in control of that particular geographic region of the earth would be more gods like Marduk, Bel, Nebel. Or if one lived in Egypt, why, there it was the Egyptian gods who were in power. If one lived in ancient Greece, well, it was the Greek gods who held sway over Athens and so forth. And so they believed in a multiplicity of gods, each of who held sway and power that they wielded in various geographic regions of the world. But Daniel comes along and says, no, there's only one true God. And he's not just the God of the Jews, he's the God of the whole world, the God of the Gentiles as well. And as there is one God, so correspondingly there is only one truth. And it is God's truth. So there's not my God and your God. There is not my truth and your truth. One God, one truth. And this one God is sovereign over the affairs of men. And so he is as much the God of the Gentiles as he is the God of the Jews. Now, because I assume most of us listening to this and watching this this morning are not Jews but rather Gentiles, that's a message that should resonate with us and indeed Daniel intended that it would. This is why Daniel writes chapters two through seven not in the language of his fellow Jewish people, the Hebrew language, but rather in the Aramaic language. In Daniel's time, Aramaic was the lingua franca. That is, it was the language of international trade, diplomacy, and so forth. It was, to the ancient world, what English is today. Most people around the world can speak English. In Daniel's time, most people could read and understand Aramaic. And so, he says, this isn't a message just for the Jews, it's a message for the whole world. I want you to hear loud and clear. There's one God and there's one truth, and I don't care who you are or how powerful you think you are. That principle applies. For example, when we say there's one truth, you know two plus two equals four. That's true for a peasant. It's true for the great and powerful Nebuchadnezzar the Great. As powerful as Nebuchadnezzar might be, if he thinks that simply by fiat he can declare that two plus two equals five, he is mistaken. Because the truth is what it is. One truth and one God. Now, To convey this particular message that Daniel is conveying then about God being not just the God of the Jews but the God of the whole world, the God of the Gentiles as well, Daniel uses a literary device that is common in ancient Semitic literature, common in the writings of the Old Testament among the Jewish people. It is a device that employs a degree of repetition, or parallelism of ideas, or pairing together ideas that are complementary. In this regard, then, chapters 2 and 7 go together as a unit. 2 and 7 convey parallel or complementary ideas. Likewise, chapters 3 and 6 go together as a pair. They also convey the same message. And finally, chapters 4 and 5 go together. They also convey a similar message. In this regard, then, you could picture or think of the structure of chapters 2 through 7 as being somewhat like a series of concentric circles or maybe a target that one shoots at or shoots an arrow at. And so the outer rings of the target are chapters 2 and 7. And then the inner ring consists of chapters 3 through 6. Finally, smack dab in the middle, the bullseye of the target, so to speak, would be chapters 4 through 5. Now, as one works his way from the outer rings toward the center, toward the bullseye, the truth that Daniel wishes to convey gets intensified, or he steps up the emphasis on the point that he's trying to make. And as we work our way toward the middle, then, we finally get to the climax, so to speak, smack dab in the middle, chapters 4 and 5. This is very different than our approach toward literature in the Western world, in the Western hemisphere. We usually build slowly and work toward a climax that comes at the end. But here the climax doesn't come at the end, there in chapter 7, it's in the middle of the structure, chapters 4 through 5. So let us review the content briefly this morning of these various chapters and follow the progression as we try to come to an understanding of the message that Daniel was conveying for us. We'll begin by examining chapters 2 and 7. We start with chapter 2. For the sake of time, I'm going to summarize some of the content of this chapter. And in a nutshell, what happens in Chapter 2 is that the powerful King Nebuchadnezzar, founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, has this dream. And he knows it means something, but he can't quite figure out exactly what it means. So he wants all of his wise men and his advisors to be able to tell him what it is he dreamed, and then the meaning or the interpretation of the dream. Now, if he told them what the dream was up front, well, they could make up some interpretation. But how could he know they really knew what they were talking about? And so he said, I'm not going to tell you what the dream is. You tell me what I dreamed, and you tell me the meaning of the dream. Well, none of his wise men can do it. But finally, word gets to Daniel. Daniel comes before the king, and he says, hey, I can do this, because God will tell me what you dreamed and what the dream is. And so Daniel begins to describe the dream for the king. And in a nutshell, this is what the king dreamed, according to Daniel. And the king affirmed Daniel was right. In the dream, the king sees this huge image, a statue, so to speak, of a human being, of some man. But the statue is composed of various metals. The head is made of gold. The chest, the arms, of silver. The belly and the thighs are made of bronze, the legs of iron. And so he sees this image of a man, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, a stone blasts into the feet of the image, and the whole thing just disintegrates, and then the stone grows into a great mountain. So Daniel says, that's what you dreamed. King says, well you're right, that's the dream. But what does it mean? And Daniel says, well I'll tell you. Now I want us to look at Daniel chapter 2 now, as Daniel interprets the dream. And notice how he interprets it. Daniel chapter 2, verses 37 through 40. He says, Thou, O King, art the King of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and has made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom in fear to thee. and another third kingdom of brass which shall bear rule over the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and so doeth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these shall it break in pieces, and it shall bruise." So he talks about these different various metals and he says they represent different kingdoms. And then finally you get to the stones and he interprets, excuse me, the stone and he interprets this in verse 44. He says, In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever. Well, Daniel has now told him what the dream was, and he's provided an interpretation of the king's response in verse 47. Is Daniel of a truth? It is that your God is a God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and the revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret. In a nutshell then, back in verse 37, as Daniel begins to interpret the dream, he says, you know what? That hat of gold represents you, Nebuchadnezzar. You're this powerful king, but make no mistake about it. You're a powerful king because God has granted that power to you. It is God who has raised you up. It is God who has raised up the Babylonian Empire, and He has put you upon the throne. He can do that because He's God, because He is sovereign. But then Daniel cautions him and says, but understand, your kingdom is not an eternal kingdom. It's not going to last forever. Eventually it will go away. It will be replaced by another kingdom, and yet another kingdom after that, and another kingdom after that. Now here, Daniel does identify the head of Godus representing the Babylonian Empire. He doesn't name by name the other kingdoms here. But later in the book, he comes back and he fills in some of the gaps. He doesn't give all the information right here at the beginning, the information overload. So he introduces the basic concept, but as you progress through the book of Daniel, he begins to fill in these details. And what we learn from the rest of the book Daniel actually names what these kingdoms are. So the head of gold, as we said, does represent Babylon. But he goes on to tell us that that chest of silver, the silver represents the kingdom of Persia that will succeed Babylon. He tells us that the bronze represents the kingdom of Greece. He tells us that the legs represents the kingdom of Rome. And then finally, that stone, as we've seen here in chapter 2, verse 44, really represents God's kingdom. God will establish a kingdom that will come to earth, and that kingdom will never go away. It will be eternal. Now, what is Daniel's point? Well, Daniel's point is this, that God is claiming to be sovereign. See, that's the point. God is saying, hey, I'm sovereign. You're on the throne, but you're on the throne because I put you on the throne. And, because I know everything, and because I'm in control of everything, I can predict the future. So, God just lays it all out. I'm going to tell you in advance. Here's what's going to happen. Your kingdom will be followed then by Persia. That's going to be followed by Greece. That's going to be followed by Rome. Finally, in the end times, my kingdom will come to earth. So, God just gives them the whole picture. The whole thing in advance. as a way of saying, I'm sovereign, I'm running the show, I know this, because I'm the one that's doing it. Now, this way of God simply stating, putting it out there for the record, I'm sovereign, I'm the one running the show, not you Nebuchadnezzar, that same message then is conveyed, as we said in chapter 7, in a parallel fashion. all the details are different but the basic lesson, the basic takeaway is the same. So take a look over at Daniel chapter 7 and notice how Daniel conveys the same message. Now this time, this time it's not during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar but Belshazzar. Daniel chapter 7 verses 1 through 7, he says, In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heavens strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings. I beheld to the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon its feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And, behold, another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it, between the teeth of it, and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and, lo, another, like a leopard, which had upon its back of it four wings of a fowl. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and, behold, a fourth beast, dreadful, and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and break in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it, and it was diverse from all the beasts that before it, and it had ten horns. And so, Daniel basically has this vision in which he sees four different beasts arise out of the sea in sequence. And what do these beasts represent? Well, later down in the chapter, verses 17 through 18, here's the interpretation. These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall rise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever. and ever. In other words, these four beasts represent four great kingdoms, and these are the same four kingdoms that Daniel had previously referenced back in chapter 2. In other words, the lion parallels the gold, represents Babylon. This bear parallels the chest of silver in the image, representing the kingdom of Persia. The leopard parallels the bronze in the image of the man and represents the kingdom of Greece. This fourth beast, he doesn't know what it is. He just says it's different from all the others. Well, it parallels the iron in chapter 2, represents the kingdom of Rome. And then finally, later in the chapter, we didn't read this, but he talks about this character whom he identifies as the son of man, who becomes then this king of a kingdom that will never be succeeded, because it will be an everlasting kingdom. You may recognize, of course, that when Christ is introduced to us in the Gospels, he identifies himself by that very designation. He calls himself the son of man. He is the king. It is his kingdom that someday will come to earth. But you see the parallel there again. Daniel is simply predicting the course of world history. And so he begins back in chapter 2 by telling us about this dream that was had by Nebuchadnezzar, the first king and founder of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. He then bookends this in chapter 7 with a dream that he had during the beginning of the reign of Belshazzar, who would be the last king of the Babylonian Empire. And so at the beginning and the end of the empire, Daniel sends a message. God is claiming to be sovereign in the affairs of men. It's not you great and powerful kings that are running the show. It is God. And He's not just our God, the God of the Jews, He's your God too. So, this essentially is the message. For us, this is all history now, or most of its history, other than God's kingdom coming to earth, which Daniel puts at the end times. But the rest of that, that's all history. We know it all panned out, just like Daniel said. Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, no question. It all happened just like that. So it's easy for us to look back and say, well, yeah, I can buy that. I can believe that, because it happened that way. But understand that for Daniel and his contemporaries, this was prophecy. These things had not yet come to pass. Daniel was putting bold claims out there about what the future held as a demonstration, as a claim to the sovereignty of God. But the question was, would they believe these claims? After all, anybody can claim anything. I could tell you that a year from now, in the month of July, on the 4th of July, we're going to have a snowstorm. That would be an incredible prediction, but that's a year away. We don't know that's going to happen or not. You might or might not choose to believe me. And so this is the position that Daniel's contemporaries are in, including these great and powerful kings. And God recognizes that, so he starts with the claim, but he doesn't end there. Therefore, as we progress through the book, as we move to the inner ring from chapters 2 and 7 to chapters 3 and 6, Daniel steps it up. He intensifies it a bit. Here, God doesn't simply make a claim to being sovereign. Instead, he actually interferes, he intervenes in the affairs of mankind in a miraculous way to show and demonstrate that he really is sovereign in the affairs of men. Now, God normally runs the show in a providential way. He works quietly, silently, behind the curtains. But every now and then God pulls back the curtains and gives us a glimpse into who is really running the show. And this is precisely then what Daniel records God doing in both chapter 3 and again in chapter 6. Now, how does he do this in chapter 3? Well, chapter 3 is where we find a story where King Nebuchadnezzar doesn't like the dream that he had and the interpretation of it. So, in a defiant manner, he rebels against the God of the Jews. And how so? Well, he builds a giant image of himself, similar to what he would have seen in the dream, but this is himself in the image. And again, in the dream, why, this image consisted of these different metals here, the gold, you know, and the silver, and the bronze, and the iron, but in the dream, the king makes the entire image out of gold. You remember the gold represents the Babylonian Empire. It represents Nebuchadnezzar. So what is he saying by making an entire image that's coated over with gold? He's saying there will be no successors to Babylon, no successors to my kingdom. My kingdom is the eternal kingdom. He makes this image, he sets it up on a massive plane, he makes all the people in the area assemble there on a certain day, and he says, at the right time, during the ceremony, when the music sounds, everybody is to bow and worship before me. I run the show. You will bow before me and acknowledge my power. Well, Daniel's not there at that time, but he has three good godly friends who are, who serve in the administration of the king. and they absolutely refuse to bow. They worship only God. They will worship no man. Well, of course, that gets them in trouble with the king, so they're hauled before the king. And this is where we pick up the story then in Daniel chapter 3, verses 13 through 18. And let's review what happens on this occasion when these men refuse to worship the king. Chapter 3, verse 13 through 18. We're told, Then Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage and fury, commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And they brought these men before the king. And Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now, if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, the harp, the sagba, the psaltery, the dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made, well, But if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace, and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. And so these men basically come before the king and say, look, our God is able to deliver us. You've raised a child and he said, listen, if you don't do this, I'm going to throw you in that fiery furnace and what God could save you, huh? Where's your God going to be then? And they say, our God can save us if he wants. Now we don't know if he will want to save us or not. He may or may not. We don't serve him just because he makes life easy for us. So we don't know if he's going to save us or not. He might let us die. But regardless of what he chooses, we will not bow down and worship that image. So, the king, of course, is angry, and he commits them to the flames. And recall how the story progresses then. They're in the flames, and picking up in verse 24 and following, verse 24 and following, Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his consulars, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king, He answered and said, Lo, I seat four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the former of the fourth is like the Son of God." Pause here. When he references the Son of God, he doesn't mean the Son of God is unlike Jesus, that the Son of God is in the Trinity. This is the expression in the ancient world for literally a son of the gods, meaning some kind of spiritual being. He kind of looks human, but more like a spiritual being, a supernatural being in there. And so, he nonetheless sees the fourth in there, and they're all walking around. Well, continue in verse 26, Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth from the midst of the fire. And the princes, and the governors, and the captains, and the king's consulars, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was the hair of their heads singed, neither were their coats changed, nor even the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, and language which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made of dunghill, because there is no other God that can deliver after this sword." And so here's the point. He said, look, I'm going to throw you in the fire. And what God can deliver you then? Well, he finds out the God of the Jews, Jehovah, You see, God trumps Nebuchadnezzar. His plan is for them to die in a fire, and God says, no, no. I don't want them to die. They don't die. In fact, the fire didn't hurt them at all. Not a hair was singed, not even the smell of smoke. Indeed, God was there with them, or an angel that he had sent, a spiritual being walking around in the fire with them to protect them. And so you see, as powerful as King Nebuchadnezzar thought he was, God actually intervened in the affairs of mankind and miraculously protected them to say, no, no. You see, I told you I'm sovereign. Now I just illustrated that fact. I'm the God who is in control. And in this regard, it's important then to understand the point that Daniel is really trying to drive home by telling this story. Unfortunately, sometimes I think I've heard preachers in sermons or teachers in Sunday school slightly miss the intended point that Daniel was trying to make, well-meaning perhaps, but somewhat misapplying the scriptures. For often they have held up these three young men as a role model for us that we should emulate. Boy, weren't they great men? Weren't they brave men? Boy, they wouldn't bow to the king. In fact, there's even a little gospel song, of course. They wouldn't bend. They wouldn't bow. They wouldn't burn. Well, that's all true. They were courageous men. They didn't bow. They didn't bend. And no, they didn't burn. But that's not really the point of the story. The point of the story is, boy, I want these great men. You should be like them. It's not about them. It's about God. The point is not that they were great men, but that they served a great God, a God who is sovereign in the affairs of men. Now that's Chapter 3. As we said then, the story in Chapter 3 and the message there is paralleled then by Chapter 6. Well notice what we find in Chapter 6. This time it's a story that doesn't involve Daniel's friends but rather Daniel himself. Now it's not the Babylonian Empire, the Persians have now taken over and Daniel is serving now under a Persian king, Darius. This Persian leader, King Darius, is a good man. He likes Daniel. So the problem doesn't come from the king, so much as other people in the king's administration, powerful and influential individuals, who don't like Daniel. They're out to take him down. And so they managed to get this law passed that they know Daniel in good conscience cannot keep. And then the prescribed penalty for violating this law is that you're thrown alive to a den of hungry lions. And so they set Daniel up. And sure enough, Daniel, of course, in good conscience, cannot observe this law. And so now, sure enough, he's going to have to be thrown in the den of lions. And in the Persian Empire, the king is limited by the laws of the land. He can't just do anything he wishes. His word is not law. And he can't flout the law. So, this good king who really likes Daniel, who saw Daniel as a wise and trusted advisor, now finds his hands tied. There's nothing he can do to rescue Daniel. Chapter 6, verse 14. Chapter 6, verse 14, explicitly says, When he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him, and he labored to the going down of the sun to deliver him. He did everything he could to try to figure out some way to get around this law, some kind of loophole, something. But alas, there is nothing he can do. Even the hands of the king are tied. And so Daniel is thrown alive into this den of lions. But what happens? Well, as the story continues, verse 18 and following, verse 18 and following, we're told, Then the king went to his palace and passed the night fasting. Neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep went from him. Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste unto this den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel. And the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou service continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? And then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever. My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lion's mouth that they have not hurt me. For as much as before him innocency was found in me, and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. And so you see, Daniel survived. He was perfectly fine and safe. You read the rest of the story, the king is so angry at these men who tried to take an innocent life that the king ordered those men to be thrown into the lions. And the lions were so hungry that before their bodies even came to the bottom of the pit, the lions jumped up in the air and literally caught their bodies in midair in their mouths and devoured them. These were hungry lions. And yet they never touched Daniel. So God, you see, once again intervenes in the affairs of mankind in a very obvious way. He works this miracle to save Daniel. And in so doing, he's able to accomplish what even the king cannot accomplish. So again, what's the point of the story? That God is sovereign in the affairs of men. Even these Gentile kings are subject to him and his sovereign choices. And so, once again, when we come to this story about Daniel and the lions, then, this is where we want to be careful not to misapply scriptures. Daniel, yes, was a man of courage. He was a noble man. He was a man worth emulating. But the point of the story here is not, well, you see what a great, brave man Daniel was? Be like Daniel. Daniel didn't write this book to tell people, hey, look at me, see how great I am? Be like me. That's not Daniel's point. Daniel's point is, look what a great God I serve. Serve God. He's a great God. He is sovereign. And he has just illustrated it by these two miraculous interventions in the affairs of mankind. So this then is the emphasis that we find in chapters 3 through 6. So, chapters 2-7, God makes the claim that he is sovereign in the affairs of men. In chapters 3-6, God now illustrates his sovereignty in the affairs of men as he performs miracles. Finally now, we come to the very middle of this section of Daniel's book, chapters 4-5. This is the climax. This is where Daniel steps it up a bit. And what do we find Daniel basically showing us here? He shows us that God is through talking, he's through giving illustrations. Now, in his capacity as the sovereign creator of the universe, God will step in and intervene once again in the affairs of mankind, and he will exercise his divine prerogatives as the sovereign of the universe. And his theme is, he runs the show, he raises up kingdoms, he takes them down. He puts kings on the throne, he takes them off the throne. And he can do so anytime he wishes. And so that power should never go to the head of any king, for they rule by his pleasure. Well, King Nebuchadnezzar again, founder of this powerful neo-Babylonian empire, is a very proud and arrogant man. God has told him that he's sovereign. God has shown him his sovereignty by trumping his power there with the fiery furnace. But alas, he remains proud and arrogant. And so the story we find in Daniel chapter 4 is this. Notice what we're told in Daniel chapter 4. All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? And while the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass like an oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair were grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird's claws. And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What dost thou? At the same time, my reason returned unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me, and my consulars and my lords sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Basically, God says, OK, Nebuchadnezzar, since you think you run the show and not me, it's time to remove you from the throne. And so God does. God causes Nebuchadnezzar, temporarily, for a period of seven years, to develop a mental illness. It's a kind of mental illness that is known to psychologists. It is rare, but it is known. It's called zoanthropy. It's where a person thinks he is an animal, begins to identify with a certain animal, sometimes perhaps with a wolf. They call it lycanthropy. Probably the backdrop to the legendary stories of a werewolf character, because a person literally thinks he is a wolf, goes out at night and howls at the moon. Some people, they think they're dogs or cats. In the case of King Nebuchadnezzar, he identified as some kind of cattle or oxen. He went out to pasture and he became a vegetarian, eating grass and so forth. And so obviously he could not rule and reign for seven years. And after seven years, God is gracious and then restores the kingdom. During that seven years, it's likely that his son, Amal Marduk, sat on the throne. He would eventually succeed him to the throne when he did die. And so he probably temporarily held that throne. And then after seven years, Nebuchadnezzar comes back to rule again. There's an interesting fragmentary text from ancient Babylon that's a contemporary text of the time written in the ancient cuneiform language and it references King Nebuchadnezzar having this kind of illness that incapacitated him for some period of time, and he wasn't able to rule, and then he returned to the throne. Alas, the text is fragmentary, so we lack some of the details, but it seems to match up and confirm the very story that we find recorded here in the Bible. And so, you see, God is through talking. God literally takes this powerful king and removes him from the throne, and then after seven years, and God puts him right back on the throne, the kingdom is restored to him. we find is being paralleled in chapter five. Oh, again, the circumstances are different but the principle is the same. In chapter four, why the arrogant king was Nebuchadnezzar again, the first king of the Babylonian Empire. We get to chapter five, Daniel now introduces us to an incident that occurred during the time of King Belshazzar, who was the last king to rule from Babylon, the Babylonian Empire. And so notice what Daniel tells us in chapter five. in Daniel chapter 5. Now the backdrop to the story here is where the king is holding a big feast. He's been threatened by the Persians but he doesn't believe that Babylon is going to fall to the Persians and so in an act of defiance and overconfidence he throws a big feast for all his lords and nobles there in Babylon being safely hidden behind those walls. And while the feast is going on suddenly a hand, just a hand, mysteriously appears next to the wall and begins to write in the plaster on the wall. But the message is in code. He can't figure out what it says. The king is terrified. Finally, Daniel is brought in before the king. And, of course, he's able to interpret the code language and what it all means. And so this is where we pick up the story in chapter 5, verse 18. Daniel tells King Belshazzar, O thou King, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor. And for the majesty that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled in fear before him. Whom he would, he slew, and whom he would, he kept alive. Whom he would, he set up, and whom he would, he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. And he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, his dwelling was with the wild asses, they fed him with grass like oxen, his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over whomsoever he will. And thou, his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven. And they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords and thy wives and thy concubines have drunk wine in them, and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass and iron, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know. and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified. Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written. And this is the writing that was written, Manet, Manet, Takeo, Uphersin. And this is the interpretation of the thing. Manet, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. to Cael. Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. Piraeus, thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. And that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Mede took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old. And so God basically says, Belshazzar, you know about your ancestor, the great king Nebuchadnezzar, who once ruled over Babylon, how I humbled him. But you didn't learn the lesson. You're just as proud. You think you run the world. You think you run this kingdom. You don't realize you sit on that throne at my pleasure. And therefore, I'm going to take you from the throne. In fact, I'm going to bring the whole kingdom of Babylon to an end. It's over. I'm giving it to the Persians. very night the Persians conquered Babylon and King Belshazzar was slain. We know about this, ancient documents from the time, from that very time, October 539 BC, recounting the fall of Babylon. Later the Greek historian Herodotus tells us likewise about how the Persians conquered Babylon, and it fell. They accomplished this by diverting the Euphrates River, which literally ran right through the middle of the city of Babylon. They diverted it to an old and ancient canal, and then they were able to march in through the dry riverbed up under the city gates into the city and conquered it. And King Belshazzar was slain that night. So you see, the God of the Jews isn't just the God of the Jews. He's not limited to the land of Israel. His power is global. He puts kings on the throne and he takes them off the throne. And so, in summary then, here you have it. In chapters 2 and 7, God claims that he is sovereign over the affairs of men. Progressing to chapters 3 and 6, Daniel steps it up by showing God actually illustrating his sovereignty, just a little illustration how he can intervene in the affairs of mankind, trump the words of the king, do what even the king cannot accomplish. And finally, we get to the bullseye of the target, chapters four and five, God steps into action and actually exercises his divine prerogatives as the sovereign of the universe, putting kings on the throne, taking kings off of the throne. And along the way, as Daniel teaches us about the sovereignty of God, he also then teaches the proper response to this truth. Before you see, all truth that is encountered requires a response. There are ramifications to truth. We have to understand and appreciate those ramifications. We then have to respond and do something with the truth we know. We are always accountable for the truth we know. What is the proper response to the truth that God is sovereign in the affairs of men? Well, several aspects of the response. First of all, we need to humble ourselves before God. No man is the master of his fate or the captain of his soul. You are not the master of your fate. Every beat of your heart, every breath you breathe is in the hand of a sovereign God. You live at his pleasure. Not only must we humble ourselves before God, we find that this is a God that we can trust and should trust. For though God in his sovereignty often allows trying times and difficult times, trials and tribulations, as Lord knows the Jews would face in the years ahead. And Daniel said, prepare yourself, brace yourself, it's coming. Times will be tough, but trust God because he'll bring you through. He'll bring you through the tough times. And finally, the third response to this truth is, therefore, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Daniel's three friends didn't respond in fear, because they knew God was sovereign. Daniel, when threatened with a den of lions, didn't respond in fear, but rather with courage, because he knew God is in control. And boy, you know, at a time like what we're dealing with now, again, this worldwide pandemic and the shutdowns, the lock-ins, the loss of jobs, the economic devastation that has been brought, isn't it good to know that God still sits on the throne, that God rules in the affairs of men? Fear not. Fear not.