Questions for thought:
1. What should be our response if the rulers tell us we have to do something our conscience tells us we cannot do?
2. Nebuchadnezzar was shown the power of God several times, but he continued to fall back into his old ways. How is that similar to us today?
3. When we see the past and know what God has done, how should that affect our lives today?
Last time we learned how God allowed Daniel to tell King Nebuchadnezzar what he had dreamed and what his dream meant. Daniel and his friends were then set up as rulers in Babylon and everything looked pretty good for them.
But now we go to Daniel 3 where King Nebuchadnezzar has set up an image of gold and demanded all the people to fall down and worship the image when they heard the music playing. Any who refused according to verse 6 would be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. Of course, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could not fall down to this idol and they did not. Others in the kingdom realized this and reported them to the king. The king called them to him and gave them another chance to worship the image, but they told him if he cast them into the furnace, their God could save them if He chose to, but if He chose not to, they still would not serve the king’s gods nor worship the image. Can you see what great faith these men had. It was obvious from the first time we met them when they refused the king’s food that they were faithful to God, but here their lives are at stake. They know God can save them, but even if He chose not to, they were ok with it. How many today show such faith?
Nebuchadnezzar was very angry and he commanded the furnace to be heated seven times more than common and to cast them in. It was so hot the men who cast them in were consumed by the fire! But when the king looked into the furnace, there were four men walking around unharmed and the king even said the fourth one was like the Son of God. Nebuchadnezzar called to the men walking around. He called them servants of the most high God. He told them to come forth. They were not harmed at all and did not even have the smell of smoke on their clothes. Nebuchadnezzar praised their God and made a decree if anyone spoke anything bad against their God, he would be cut in pieces and his house would be like an ash heap because there was no other God that could deliver like their God. Then he gave them a promotion in the land.
God’s workings seemed to make a great impression upon Nebuchadnezzar. In chapter 4 he is praising God and saying how great His signs were. He even gave God credit in verse 3 for having an everlasting kingdom with dominion from generation to generation. Then Nebuchadnezzar told the people about another vision he had and how when his magicians, astrologers, the Chaldeans, and soothsayers could not explain it, Daniel explained it to him. Historians say this dream was probably about 15 years after the first one. This dream was about a huge tree that had lovely leaves and lots of fruit. It provided shade for beasts and birds lived in its branches. One came down from heaven and ordered the tree cut down and his branches cut off. His leaves were to be shaken off and the fruit scattered. The beasts and birds were to leave the tree. The stump was to remain and he was to be wet with dew. His heart was to be changed from a man’s heart and he was to be given a beast’s heart. He was to remain in this state for seven times or seasons or years. The king said the matter was by the decree of the watchers and was given so the living may know the most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He will and sets up over the kingdom of men the lowest or basest of men. Notice how the dream started out to be about a tree but then the king keeps referring to the tree as “he” or “his.”
Daniel had to think for a while and his thoughts troubled him according to chapter 4 verse 19. It seems like the king could tell he was troubled as he told Daniel whom he called Belteshazzar to not be troubled about the dream or the interpretation. Then Daniel told him the tree in the dream was the king himself. He had grown strong and reached the heaven in the sight of all the earth. His leaves were fair and his fruit was much but he was about to be cut down. He would be driven from man and made to dwell with the beasts of the field until he knew the most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives the kingdom to whomever He chooses. Daniel told the king he needed to break off from his sins and be righteous and show mercy to the poor in an attempt to prolong the fulfillment of this dream.
Like so many today, King Nebuchadnezzar could not humble himself. Even after seeing the power of God several times, he continued to refuse to humble himself. We too find ourselves honoring God with our lips but our heart is far from Him in that we are proud and boastful about our accomplishments and we often do not give God the credit due. At the end of the year, as Nebuchadnezzar was walking in the palace, he began bragging about the great Babylon he had built by the might of his power and for his honor. As he was talking a voice came from heaven and said the kingdom is departed from you. The voice told him he was to be driven from men and would dwell with the beasts of the field eating grass as the oxen. That same hour it happened just as Daniel had interpreted the dream. According to verse 34 at the end of the appointed time, Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes to heaven with his understanding being returned and blessed the most High. He praised and honored Him that lives forever whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and His kingdom from generation to generation. The king said all the inhabitants of the earth are considered as nothing and the most High does what He wants to in heaven and among men.
When we get to chapter 5 we have a new king, so we are missing a few years in Daniel’s account. History tells us Belshazzar was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. It seems he followed in the same foolish steps as Nebuchadnezzar often walked. Belshazzar made a great feast for 1000 of his lords. While they were feasting, Belshazzar commanded someone to bring the golden and silver vessels which his forefather Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem. He was going to let the princes, his wives and concubines, and himself drink from them. As they drank, they praised the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone. And then the fingers of a man’s hand appeared, and wrote on the plaster of the wall. The king was terrified and he called for all his men to read the writing and interpret it. Of course, they could not read or interpret but the queen remembered Daniel and told Belshazzar about him. Daniel was brought in and asked to read and interpret and promised gifts even to being the third ruler in the kingdom if he could do so.
Daniel told the king to keep his gifts or give them to someone else, but he would read and interpret for him. Then Daniel reminded the king of how God had given Nebuchadnezzar a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor. He reminded him how when Nebuchadnezzar had become proud, God had deposed him and taken away his glory until he acknowledged God as the ruler in the kingdom of men and gave Him credit for appointing whomever He chose over that kingdom. Then in verse 22 Daniel told King Belshazzar he had not humbled himself even though he knew all about what had happened in the past. Instead, he had lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven by bringing in the vessels from the temple for the people to drink from and by praising false gods. Many times today, we have seen the past but refuse to let it change us so we are better people than before. We must study the past to know what God desires and then do His will.
Then Daniel told Belshazzar the writing, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARZIN meaning God had numbered Belshazzar’s kingdom and finished it. He had been weighed in the balances and found wanting. His kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and Persians. With this destruction of Belshazzar, the head of gold from Nebuchadnezzar’s first dream was gone and now the second kingdom from that dream was made evident in that it would be the Medes and Persians.
Daniel was given the gifts anyway and made third ruler in the kingdom and that night Belshazzar was killed. Darius began to reign and next time we will look at Daniel’s plight under this king.
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