God's Plan
Notes
Transcript
What do you trust? What do you check ________ against to verify trustworthiness? The source… How does that apply to scripture?
Point 1 first. Listen for when Neb begins to lean in. Imagine in your mind’s eye the color draining from his face. Notice his jaw going slack in amazement as Daniel verbalizes what he had only known in an unconscious state.
31 “You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening.
32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze,
33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36 “This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation.
37 You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory,
38 and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are the head of gold.
39 Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.
40 And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these.
41 And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle.
43 As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay.
44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,
45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him.
47 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.”
48 Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.
49 Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court.
Gold -Babylonian under Nebuchadnezzar 605
Silver -Medo-Persian under Cyrus et. al. 539
Bronze -Greek beginning with Alexander the Great 332
Iron -Roman beginning in 146 BC
Iron and clay -Current or Future kingdom rising up from where the Roman empire held power.
The Rock -Kingdom of God
‘in the time of those kings’ points to the time of the ten-kingdom alliance
Divine origin
Eternal
Our best understanding is this as Christ’s earthly reign beginning when He sets up His kingdom here.
Jesus was, in the NT, described as the stone the builders rejected.
God Knows How to Get Our Attention
The sovereign control of God extends to the dream patterns of pagan kings.
v. 36 This was the dream. With that statement Daniel was finished ‘reading Neb’s mind’. Telling the king what was in the dream sealed the deal for him. It was what he had decided would measure the authenticity of the interpretation. The trustworthiness of the wise man.
The message we have now comes from the Word of God. I’m coming back. Keep your lamp full of oil. Proclaim the message of reconciliation.
We said last week we can see how God has laid the plow to the field. We said it is time to cast seed.
Ignoring the warnings of God found in the Word of God is a devastating thing.
He gives them to us as a boundary. Because He loves us. Remember the other interpreter of dreams? Joseph? If Pharaoh had ignored the warning in his dreams as explained by Joseph, the nation would have perished. It would have had devastating results for the known world.
The pickle the Jews found themselves in during the story unfolding before us in scripture is a direct result of ignoring the warnings of the prophets of God.
The Blessing of Obedience Extends far Beyond Us
v. 24 Daniel told Arioch, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon.
And it extends far beyond the right now.
We said the final kingdom in the dream is the Kingdom of God. When Christ takes the throne here, reigning over His kingdom, we will see the obedient blessed exponentially. 10 fold. 20 fold. 100 fold.
We often long to know what that Kingdom will actually be like. Well, it begins with the Millennial reign. Jesus on earth for 1000 years. Human lives extended. Peace. Look at how Isaiah describes it:
23 In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24 In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,
25 whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”
Can you imagine that level of peace? Egyptians, Assyrians and Jews serving, worshipping WITH one another.
God gave Neb a dream that included Jesus. Daniel gives us prophecy of His kingdom from that dream. The stone the builders rejected, become the cornerstone, will abolish all other kingdoms. And rule over them! With a just and merciful hand. That day is coming. As sure as the sun came up this morning, it is coming. Are you ready?
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