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Your heart races.
Your palms sweat. Your vision blurs as you lose focus. You feel
trapped, panicked as seconds drag into hours. You can't seem to find
the words. You're lost, hopeless and despondent.
We all know this
feeling. It's the one you get when you're at a restaurant with some
friends or family. You're chatting casually, not paying much
attention, and the server arrives and asks if you're ready to order.
You laugh and begin to say something about not having looked at the
menu, when suddenly someone else at the table orders. Then,
miraculously, although you are certain no one else has even opened
the menu, everyone else orders, too. You alone are left. Every eye
in the restaurant turns to you as you quickly read through every
option on the menu. You want to scrutinize each option, but you know
that would take too much time. Everyone is waiting. You have to
choose, but you want to choose properly, knowing that your choice
will determine whether lunch is good or not.
We take our choices
seriously because they have serious ramifications on our lives. Your
choice at lunch may determine how you feel for the rest of the day.
What you choose to wear may affect how others receive you. Choosing
a car may determine how much time and money you spend at a mechanic.
Choosing the right house in the right school district may have
long-lasting effects.
Every day, we make
countless choices. Many of these we make without even thinking. You
probably choose what you ate for breakfast this morning without much
thought, because it may well be the same thing you've eaten for
breakfast for the past twenty years. You might not have thought
about the path you chose to come to church, because it's so ingrained
in your life. You might not have thought about what pew you sat in,
because you sit in the same place. Or you may have thought
carefully, not wanting to sit in someone else's usual spot.
Let's think about
some bigger choices. What you wear doesn't have much effect on your
character, but how you choose to spend your time can have a big
effect on your life. If you choose to spend your time mindlessly,
you'll miss out on chances to grow in faith. If you choose to spend
time in prayer and time in God's Word, you'll be drawing nearer to
God. If you make this choice day after day, your faithfulness will
grow throughout your life. If you choose to make your life about
you, taking all the credit and doing whatever it takes to get ahead,
your character will be weak and others won't respect you.
Eventually, you'll realize that all the success you sought after
doesn't provide the happiness you craved. You'll soon realize that
your choices led you to emptiness. If, however, you choose to serve
others and invest in the people around you, helping to build strong
community and putting a priority in the next generation, you'll
recognize that you are being built up as a child of God and making a
contribution that will last beyond your years here on earth.
You have a choice
to make. Every day, our choices shape the kind of people we become.
Today, we're
talking about Nebuchadnezzar. But first, we're going to talk about
Psalm 1.
In Psalm 1, we're
presented with a choice. The Psalmist details the two ways we can
live. The first is the way of the wicked. The Psalm tells us that
the way of the wicked will perish, being driven away by the wind,
scattered to the corners of the earth. When the righteous gather to
celebrate God for all of eternity, the wicked will not be there,
because they will have passed away.
The righteous path,
on the other hand, finds its delight in the law of the Lord. We're
told that those who choose this path meditate on God's Word. They
prosper in all they do and are like trees by a river—their roots go
deep and are strong. The righteous are watched over by the Lord, and
they shall celebrate in the congregation of the righteous.
Psalm 1 tells us
there are two ways, and that we are free to choose which way we shall
travel in our time here on earth. There is no middle way, no
compromise, no half-commitment. You can choose the way of the
righteous, or you can be scattered by the wind. You can choose.
Nebuchadnezzar was
the king of Babylon, and he was a very, very successful king. In the
dream he has in Daniel 4, his kingdom as portrayed as a tree in the
center of the world, a strong and tall tree that is covered with
leaves and heavy with fruit. Animals rest in the tree's shade, and
birds make their nests in the branches. Every nation and earth
subsists on the fruit of the tree.
Nebuchadnezzar's
life is strong and powerful, and he is the center of the universe.
He has every need met, and everyone has to come to him when they are
in need. What more could a king want?
Well, there's a
second half to the dream. This is the part where an angel of God
commands the tree to be cut down and then casts the king out into the
wilderness to live like an animal in order to teach the king that God
is the one truly in control.
Nebuchadnezzar
wasn't too fond of this dream. We're told that it was horrifying to
him, and so he sent for Daniel, the interpreter of dreams. No one
else but Daniel could sort this dream out, and so Daniel came to give
the king the bad news.
Keep in mind that
this is the same king who seems awfully fond of having limbs cut off
of people he doesn't like. This isn't the sort of man to whom you
want to be delivering bad news.
But Daniel has
courage, and he gives the king the news. The dream is about
Nebuchadnezzar, and if he doesn't turn from his sins and live right,
having mercy on those who are mistreated, as it says in verse 27,
then it will come true.
This is important:
God gives Nebuchadnezzar time to correct his sins. God gives
Nebuchadnezzar time to repent and prevent this judgment.
Nebuchadnezzar is warned of what will happen if he doesn't.
God
is extremely patient. God could have killed Nebuchadnezzar in an
instant, giving no consideration to what might be good in him. God
could have wiped him from the face of the earth as a notice to
everyone else of how powerful God is. Nebuchadnezzar was treated
like a god, and Nebuchadnezzar believed he was the center of the
universe, but rather than quickly depose him, God chose to give him
time.
He
gave him a year. You'd think this dream would be unsettling enough
to cause Nebuchadnezzar to change his ways. You'd think that if you
had such a dream and a clear interpretation, you'd change your ways,
too. If you were told that you'd lose everything and live in the
woods like a wild animal if you didn't change, you'd make some
different choices, too.
Nebuchadnezzar
didn't change. Truth be told, we often don't change either, even
when we know we need to. Old habits die hard.
A
year after this prophetic warning, Nebuchadnezzar is walking on the
roof of the palace and admiring the city of Babylon when he says to
himself, just look at this wonderful capital city that I
have built by my own power and for my own glory.
Nebuchadnezzar
hasn't received the message. He thinks it's all about him. He
thinks the purpose of life is to glorify himself. He thinks he is
the center of the universe.
God,
however, has a different idea. And so he sends Nebuchadnezzar out
into the wilderness to live like an animal. Because Nebuchadnezzar
continually chose to glorify himself, to place himself at the center
of the universe, God humbled him. Because he wouldn't humble
himself, God took everything from him. Nebuchadnezzar chose himself,
rather than God, and there were ramifications to his choice. Choices
have consequences, and we often have to suffer them. Here,
Nebuchadnezzar, because of his failure to chose humility before God,
has to live in the wilderness with the mind of an animal for seven
years because of his choice.
At
the end of those seven years, however, Nebuchadnezzar has another
choice to make. Does he want to continue to live like an animal? Or
does he want to acknowledge God as head and Lord of all? Does he
want to make his life about him? Or does he want to give God his
rightful place at the center of our lives, our hearts, our world?
What will he choose?
We're
told in Daniel 4:34 that Nebuchadnezzar chose to glorify God. He
recognized that it is God's kingdom that will last forever. He sees
how great and glorious God is, and he gives the glory to God, rather
than choosing to keep it for himself. He knows that his own life
will not last, but that God's reign will last forever. He chooses to
acknowledge that God can shatter the power of anyone in the world, no
matter how powerful. He recognizes God as Lord of all.
And
so must we, if we want our life to speak wisely. Each and every day,
we must choose to make our lives about God, to place him at the
center of our choices. When we do business, when we interact with
others, are we going to let God be at the center of that, or will we
choose to profit ourselves, to trample our neighbors, to do whatever
it takes to get ahead, forgetting that no matter how far ahead we get
of others, God is still more powerful and will choose to humble us if
we refuse to humble ourselves.
And
so we focus on the importance of God, but we lose an opportunity to
proclaim something about the majesty and grace of God if we stop
here. In the first 4 chapters of Daniel, notice how passionately God
pursues Nebuchadnezzar's heart. God refuses to give up on
Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar throws Godly men into a furnace, only
to have God reveal himself in the midst of the fire. Nebuchadnezzar
has an earlier dream about
the demise of his own kingdom, and while he recognizes God's wisdom
and power then, he clearly forgets it and returns to his
self-centered ways. Time and time again, Nebuchadnezzar is given the
opportunity to center his life around God, and for a moment the
proper words are in his mouth, but they are quickly forgotten, an
exterior conversion that never takes hold of the heart, a
re-arranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic that is never enough
to save him from himself. Here in Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar is given
a clear warning about his fate if he doesn't repent, and then he is
given a year to amend his ways. But Nebuchadnezzar doesn't change.
He refuses to acknowledge God as sovereign. He refuses to remove
himself from the center of his universe. He clings to his own
self-image.
So
God drives him out. God takes him mind and his power and his place
in society.
But
God doesn't forget about him. God never abandons him. God doesn't
leave him.
God
pursues him. God chases him down, giving him one more chance after
the last chance he had. God longs for Nebuchadnezzar to return to
him, to acknowledge him as Lord of all, to let his life be centered
around God. God pursues Nebuchadnezzar.
And
God pursues you. No matter how lost you may feel, no matter how many
last chances you feel like you've had, no matter how much you feel
like you've resisted God. God still pursues you, and will continue
to do so every day of your life. God wants your life here on earth
to be centered around Christ, and he wants you to dwell forever in
the glory of the Trinity, and he won't let you go. He'll pursue you
in his great love, to the ends of the earth and beyond.
Let
us pray
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