Cut Down (Daniel 4)

We’re at the midway point in our 7-week series through the book of Daniel.¹ Where we’ve been talking about how to thrive as God sends us to seek the good of our city.  

If you’ve been following along the past few weeks: 

• [Dan. 2] – Talked about the God who REVEALS (mysteries about God’s eternal kingdom) 
• [Dan. 3] – God who RESCUES (fiery furnace—He rescues those put their trust in him alone) 
• [Dan. 4] – God who RULES (from Heaven and he shows his ruling power by bringing strong men low) 

When I was a youth pastor, I used to give our graduating seniors a book by Tim Keller called The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness partly because it’s short enough I thought they might actually read it.  

But also because I knew the minute they left our ministry, the world would be ready to tear them down. They’d be told to either rely on their own effort or be crushed by unmet expectations, and that these things would define who they are. That’s why I wanted to plant a different message in their minds—one that pointed them back to the gospel. And that’s not just for teenagers. It’s the same message Nebuchadnezzar needed to hear, and it’s a message we still need today. 

We need the Daniels of the world to come tell us that humiliation hurts, but pride kills. Which means sometimes success is even more dangerous than failure. But God is so gracious that he’d rather us face the pain of humility than the dangers of pride. And nothing says that more than what happens to Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel.  

If you have your Bible, turn with me – Daniel 4. Also, on the screen.

¹ Works Consulted: 

• “Knockout” – Greear 
• “Pride: The Case of Nebuchadnezzar” – Keller 
• The Message of Daniel: His Kingdom Cannot Fail – Davis 
• TGC – Daniel – Chase 

[v. 1] – King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! 2 It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.

3 How great are his signs,     how mighty his wonders!

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,     and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

Now, let me pause here because this is King Nebuchadnezzar speaking, and if you’ve been here for any part of our series, then you know, this doesn’t sound like him at all. Let me point out two things for us: 

FIRST – Nebuchadnezzar addresses all the peoples of the earth. Now, for us, that just sounds like a normal day. Isn’t that the audience we address every time we post on social media? (BTW – You don’t have the world at your fingertips; not that important). But in those days, Nebuchadnezzar was one of the few people who would warrant this kind of attention as the most powerful ruler in the world. And he has a story he wants the world to hear. 

SECOND – So far, the book of Daniel has given us lots of engaging stories about God working in Babylon. But now, Nebuchadnezzar (pagan king) picks up the pen to write the story himself. And based on what we know, you’d think Nebuchadnezzar’s going to declare how awesome he is. Look at what I’ve done. Look at how great I am. Look at my kingdom come. 

That’s what autobiography does. Autobiography tells you the story of a person’s life from their perspective. It’s a story about me written by me. But Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t write an autobiography. He writes a testimony.  

A testimony is you praising God for what he’s done in your life. The main difference isn’t in the details of what happened, but in who gets the credit at the end of the story. So, when you look back over your life, do you say “Look at me. I did that!” or do you say, “Look at God. He did that!”?  

Now, let me remind you we’re talking about a guy who, one chapter ago, erected a golden statue of himself and commanded everyone in Babylon to bow or burn. So, we would expect him to say, “I did that.”  

Instead, he says, “It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me” (v. 2). How do you go from “worship me or burn” to “Praise the Lord and his eternal kingdom forever”? Like I said, Nebuchadnezzar has a story to tell. And his story is a reminder to us that being a Christian is not by our own doing. It’s a miracle of God.  

So, here’s how it happened…[v. 4] – I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. 5 I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me.”  

Here we go again with his crazy dreams. So, Nebuchadnezzar goes through his whole process again. He commands all his wise men to come and interpret his dream. And this time, at least he tells them the dream (v. 7), but his wise men still can’t figure it out. [v. 8] – At last Daniel came in before me—he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods—and I told him the dream, saying, 9 “O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation.  

Now, up to this point, Daniel’s faith has been a net positive in Babylon. He hasn’t tried to hide who he is. In chapter 1, he advocates for the freedom to practice his faith and in the following chapters he leverages his faith to bless those around him. And people have noticed.  

While Nebuchadnezzar calls Daniel by his Babylonian name, it’s clear that Daniel lives by faith in God. Nebuchadnezzar’s basically saying here, “I don’t believe the same things Daniel believes, but I’m convinced he does.” That matters. Just because you call yourself a Christian doesn’t mean you’re living out your faith. But when Christians walk by the Spirit, others see God’s power working through them.  

Nebuchadnezzar recognizes Daniel is different from everyone else in Babylon because he has the Spirit of the holy God in him. Meaning, what sets us apart from any other faith is not how virtuous we are or how closely we follow our religion. It’s that the Spirit of the living God dwells within us. 

Living the Christian life is hard, but without the Holy Spirit, it would be impossible. The Holy Spirit is what gives us the power to abide and thrive as we share the gospel with those around us. 

Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the Spirit of God in Daniel and he concedes that Daniel’s God has power. If he didn’t believe that he wouldn’t have asked for Daniel’s help.  

So Nebuchadnezzar shares his dream with Daniel… 

[v. 10] – The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. 11 The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. 12 Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shadeunder it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

Nebuchadnezzar sees a great tree that covers the whole earth. It’s abundant, it’s fruitful, it’s desirable. But as he’s admiring the tree, a heavenly messenger comes down to say to him in [v. 14]: 

‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. 15 But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. 16 Lethis mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. 17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’ 18 Thisdream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw…

When the wise men heard the dream, they were stumped. They couldn’t make sense of it. But when Daniel heard the dream, he was stunned. [v.19] says he was “dismayed for a while…”because he knew this dream meant bad news for Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel’s gut reaction was sorrow. “Nebuchadnezzar, may this not happen to you.”  

Now, I point this out because I want you to see the spiritual fruit being produced in the heart of Daniel. See, Daniel cares about Nebuchadnezzar. Which, if you think about it, is a work of the Spirit of God in Daniel. How else could he want good for the man responsible for destroying his home, mocking his God, and trying to have his friends killed? 

But Daniel was devoted to God and a love for God and obedience to his Word always produces a love for others. Always. That’s what walking in the Spirit does to you.  

Walking in the Spirit is what gives you the power and freedom to realize you’re not at the center of the universe. Let me ask you this: What’s your purpose as you navigate the world of KL?  

Is it for people to bow in service to you (or at least to not inconvenience you)? Or is the goal for you to make Christ known by whatever means God’s called you to?  

If Daniel had decided not to share his faith in Babylon, God still would’ve accomplished his purposes. If not by Daniel, then God will pour out his blessings through someone else. We probably wouldn’t have the book of Daniel, but maybe we’d have the book of Azariah. The point is that God wants to use us to shine his light in the dark places, but he’s not limited by us.  

Sometimes I think it’s a miracle that God can accomplish anything through me. But then I realize I’m focusing too much on my weaknesses and not enough on his strength.  

The whole point of Nebuchadnezzar’s story is to point us to a God who’s gracious enough to humble proud people. See, proud people resist the plans of God, but humble people—those who walk closely with 

God—they’re ready to be used by him to do great things for his glory. 

So, will our neighbors in KL encounter Jesus through us, or will God have to use someone else? 

As we come back to the story [v. 22] Daniel interprets the dream. He tells Nebuchadnezzar the tree you saw is you. “…Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth.  

But you’ve failed to give credit where credit’s due. That’s why God’s messenger says from heaven [23] – ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth…till seven periods of time pass over him,’ 24 this is the interpretation, O king: It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, 25 that you shall be drivenfrom among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.  

That’s the second time it’s been pointed out that the Most High God rules. God puts the reality of his reign in front of Nebuchadnezzar to help expose his massive pride problem. Here’s the problem of pride: 

1. Pride plagiarizes God.

Imagine reading a bestselling autobiography of a person who seems to have achieved everything. They’ve gone viral, been on talk shows, and inspired millions. But then, it comes out that the author didn’t actually write about their own life. Instead, they took real stories from other people and passed them off as their own.  

That’s what plagiarism is: taking someone else’s work, ideas, or gifts and claiming them as your own. 

That’s what the prideful person does to God. We take God’s good gifts and we use them for our selfish ambitions and then say, “Look at what I’ve done.”  

Which begs the question: What do any of us have that hasn’t come from the Lord? Just think about this:  

• You didn’t get to decide where you were born. When you were born. 

Who you were born to. (era; nationality; ethnicity) – You didn’t get to decide your genetic make-up.  

• You didn’t get to decide if all your human faculties would work.  

We say, look at how smart I am. Look at how good-looking I am. Look at how capable I am. You look at all your successes and say, “I must be great.”  

That’s exactly what Nebuchadnezzar does. Look at the kingdom I built. But God’s saying you think you’re successful because you’re so great, but you’ve failed to acknowledge the most important thing—that “the Most 

High [God] rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will…”  

You didn’t do this yourself. We shouldn’t look at things we’ve received as justification for our greatness. We should acknowledge them as good gifts from God and give him thanks. Praise his Name.  

It’s impossible to stay proud when you spend time with the LORD just like it’s impossible to think yourself strong when you stand next to the strongest man in the world. This guy dwarfs me. Who can spend time regularly looking at the glory of God and then go about shouting their own praise? 

That brings us to 2. Pride overinflates ME.  

Pride puts ME at the center of the universe. Pride isn’t just taking credit for more than we deserve; it’s elevating ourselves to a place only God should occupy. This is important to understand because prideful people can be great successes AND massive failures.  

Proud people are masters at making everything about them. For example, they’re great at: 

• Self-promotion – They’re constantly fishing for others to praise them. I once had a boss who, when we had a team project, would sometimes contribute very little of the work, but didn’t have a problem taking all of the credit. Proud people feed off the praise of others.  
• Great at Self-justification – proud people always assume the moral high ground, which means everyone else is always looking up at them. So listen, if in every argument you’re always 100% right and the other person is always 100% wrong, then you 100% struggle with pride and your head’s probably so inflated you can’t even see it.  

You’re like a balloon with too much air. You bounce around like all the other balloons, but if someone breathes on you wrong you’ll pop. 

Proud people can make everything about them even when they fail. 

They’re great at: 

• Self-deprecation – They will be overly critical of themselves as a way of drawing attention to ME. People like this can’t enjoy someone else’s success. They’d rather focus on all the things they failed to do than enjoy all the things someone else did right. They would rather loathe their failures than enjoy someone else’s victories.  
• Great at Self-pity – Self-pity is when you’re absorbed by your troubles. This often comes out in conflict. When a proud person offends someone else, they throw a pity party. They talk about how bad they are and how everyone must hate them. They want you to feel bad for them for the wrong they did to you. Which means you can’t even address the harm done because they’ve made it all about them.  

Pride takes credit for the good gifts God gives and makes ME the center of the universe God made. So, the only effective way to kill pride is to cut it down and that usually means we can surrender or we can suffer.  

So, as we come back to Daniel’s interpretation, he puts it like this:  

• Nebuchadnezzar, you’ve become this great tree and your kingdom covers the whole earth, but it’s rotten to the core and if you don’t do something about it that tree’s going to become nothing more than a stump in the ground. But you can be restored if you acknowledge that God rules. 

[27] – Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.”

Daniel gives Nebuchadnezzar two words of advice we all need to hear:  

• FIRST – You need to acknowledge that God in Heaven rules, not you.  
• SECOND – You need to repent of your sin and follow his ways.  

This is the warning God gives to Nebuchadnezzar, and it’s the same warning he gives to all of us. And God’s not swift in his judgment. He’s been trying to get Nebuchadnezzar’s attention for 4 chapters through signs and wonders. Even after this dream, Nebuchadnezzar’s given a whole year to repent and turn to the LORD. But that’s not what Nebuchadnezzar does: 

3. Pride always downgrades.

It’s like what the Apostle Paul teaches in Romans 1:21-23: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him…claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”  

Pride promises we can become like God, but in the end, we devolve into something less than human. It’s like the slogan from the old Snickers commercials: You’re not you when you’re hungry (PIC). Well, you’re not you when you play God. You become less than human. You become like the beast of the field.  

Pick up with me again [v. 29] – At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” 31 While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, 32 and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” 33 Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.

Nebuchadnezzar refuses to humble himself. So God does it for him. Let me make three observations about God’s judgment:  

FIRST – God’s judgment is proportional (to Nebuchadnezzar’s pride). If you remember, on multiple occasions, we’ve seen Nebuchadnezzar use his power to threaten swift and harsh judgment against those who don’t meet his demands.  

In Daniel 2:5, Nebuchadnezzar says to the wise men if you can’t interpret my dream you’re going to “be torn limb from limb and your houses laid in ruins.”  

In Daniel 3:29, after Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego are rescued 

Nebuchadnezzar makes a decree that anyone who speaks against their God “shall be torn limb from limb and their houses laid in ruins.” 

But now it’s Nebuchadnezzar’s turn. No wonder, God depicts him as a great tree that gets torn limb from limb and his kingdom departs from him. God judges Nebuchadnezzar in the same manner Nebuchadnezzar treated everyone else.  

SECOND – God’s judgment is gracious. When Nebuchadnezzar played God, he threatened to destroy people. But when God humbles you, he does it to heal you. And his healing hand can be painful. But God’s desire isn’t to pay us back for our wrongdoing. It’s to bring us back to him.  

Proud men stumble and fall, but God works to restore the humbled. That’s why he reduces Nebuchadnezzar to a stump in the ground. The picture of a stump in place of a great tree is devastating. But sometimes we need to be devastated. We don’t need to avoid the troubles of life. We need to learn to cling to God as we walk through them. We need to remember that God does some of his best work when we’ve hit rock bottom. Sometimes, that’s what it takes for us to open our hearts to him. 

It is far better to walk through failure with God than to enjoy success without him.  

THIRD – God’s judgment is purposeful. We’re told for 7 periods of time, Nebuchadnezzar’s going to lose his mind. He’s going to live like a beast of the field. Some scholars believe 7 periods means 7 seasons (~1.5 years). 

Others think it means 7 years. Either way, it’s a long time for 

Nebuchadnezzar to walk in this kind of humiliation. However long the duration is, the number 7 is important because it’s the biblical number for completion.  

He says in [v. 32] the judgment will last “until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” God’s judgment is not without purpose. He has an end in sight and he has a reason for it. God desires for us to repent and be restored. But that can’t happen without God’s help, and the hardest thing for proud people to do is to ask for it. 

Sarah and I’ve been slowly reading The Chronicles of Narnia to our kids. It’s a Christian-influenced fantasy series where kids discover a magical world filled with talking animals and epic battles.  

In the book we’re reading now, there’s a story about a boy named Eustace, and Eustace is as proud as they come. Just a beast of a boy. In the story, Eustace wanders off on his own and eventually falls asleep next to a treasure guarded by a dragon he thinks is dead. And when he wakes up, Eustace discovers that he’s turned into the dragon himself, which puts him in a panic. He tries everything he can to get rid of his dragon skin, but no matter how hard he tries, he’s still a dragon underneath. 

Finally, Eustace meets Aslan, the Christ figure in Narnia. Aslan is a fierce lion; so you can imagine Eustace’s hesitation when Aslan says to him, “You’ll have to let me undress you.” So, Aslan takes his paws and begins to tear away at Eustace’s skin. Eustace later says, “I thought it was going to kill me. I thought it would go right to my heart.” But it’s the only way he could be restored.  

The story illustrates how deep pride really goes and how helpless we are to overcome it on our own. But when God restores us, he doesn’t mean to bring us back to where he found us. He means to heal what sin distorted. He means to make us new.  

That’s what God offered Nebuchadnezzar. That’s what he offers you.  

The message of pride says you have to live for yourself by your own strength for your own glory. But God says you were never made for that. You were made for him. And you don’t have to rely on your own strength anymore. You don’t have to build your own kingdom. There’s a greater kingdom and a greater glory for the world to know. Praise God, it’s not about us.  

Yes, God humbles the proud, and he will cut you down to a stump if he has to. That’s okay. He can take dead things and bring them back to life. He wants to transform you. The question is: Will you surrender to God’s will for your life? Will you trust him to satisfy the healing process? Because you can’t be healed apart from God’s intervention. You’ll have to let him cut and prune. See, Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation was his road to restoration. That’s his testimony.  

[v. 32] – At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,     and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;

[37] – Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

If think back to the Apostle Paul, Paul was bold in sharing his testimony with others. In First Timothy 1 he calls himself the chief of sinners as a way of testifying to God’s saving power. It’s as if to say, if God can save a sinner like me he can save anyone. Likewise, Nebuchadnezzarsays I was the proudest of all men, and the Lord humbled me. If God can overcome my pride, he can conquer yours too with saving faith.  

What’s the story of your life about? How you beat all the odds to become great? Or how a merciful God overcame great sin to save you? Do you live your life to the glory of ME or to the praise of King Jesus who died and rose again to save you from sin and death?  

Who gets the throne?