Daniel 4:34-37 “Heaven Rules”
Say “hey” to group watching on big screen television at 9am Thursday!
Now we did not read the part about the dream that Nebuchadnezzer had Daniel interpret for him. This is a long chapter, and there was too much to read from the pulpit this morning. The dream is about chopping down a tree. Nebuchadnezzer has a dream in which the tree is chopped down and all the branches are cut. The fruit is removed. The animals that find shade under the tree are scattered.
This dream just reminds me so much of a time when we were missionaries in Thailand. We lived right next to a vacant lot. In this vacant lot was a mango tree that had some rather tasty mangoes. We would see people come off from the road to go over and grab a mango or two when they were ripe. It was really kind of a point of grace for the neighborhood.
So, one day I hear a chopping noise coming from the lot next door. I look out the window to see a man whacking away at the mango tree. Right away I went out and confronted him. I asked him, “Is this your tree to chop down?” “Is this your property?” I had no idea whose property it was actually. The man replied that it was not his property but that he wanted to get the fruit from the tree, so he was chopping it down. I asked him why he did not use a ladder. He did not have one! Then, I pointed out that the fruit was not even really ripe yet. He told me he had to get the fruit from the tree and take it to market before someone else came and got a similar idea. I was amazed. I did not even think anybody would buy the fruit and that it would not ripen properly as it was just too young still. So, I told the man to go away before I called the police! He scowled at me and said something against my race.
Since that time, I have run into this problem time and time again. That is to say, I have not seen people running around randomly chopping down mango trees, but I have seen people chopping down the very thing that can sustain them long term in order to get a relatively small short term gain. Here I am going to insert a political statement. I believe that we are in the economic crisis we are in today exactly because of this very same attitude. The recent news about Goldman Sachs betting against their own financial products in the derivatives market points this out. In this case they were chopping down the very thing that has sustained them in order to get short-term profit. To be sure, Goldman Sachs is not the only firm that had been doing this, but they are the ones most recently in the news. Many, many have been involved in this idea of chopping down the tree that bears the fruit, provides the shade, and sustains.
I have another word study for you all to do on your own when you get home today. I know it is Mother’s Day and you may have other plans, but you should give your mother the honor due, or receive the honor due to you, then go immediately and look in the Bible at all of the references to trees, and fruit, and chopping down. I think you would be amazed. Throw “harvest” into the word study, too! From the tree in the Garden of Eden, to the stump of Jesse, to Nebuchadnezzer’s dream, to Jesus zapping the fig tree, to Zacchaeus in the tree, to the final harvest in the End Time. The Bible is just like God’s little arboretum!
However, the point is that we should not be as shortsighted as Nebuchadnezzer. We have to think about planting trees that will bear fruit for the harvest—not chopping them down. So, here is a mother’s day reference! We have to be nurturing and bearing up the good fruit!
Getting back to the dream that Nebuchadnezzer had. The next part of it is that the mind of a human is going to be changed into that of the mind of an animal. As we discover later, in fact the great and learned king Nebuchadnezzer has some kind of a mental breakdown at which time he actually is found eating the grass out in the field like a mule.
Last week I was confronted with so many examples of less than “humanly civilized” behavior. I don’t know how else to categorize it but as animalistic. I saw students at the high school rip a no-parking sign right out of the ground and start swinging the pole around in triumph. Then, I saw those same students stomp my neighbor’s garbage can. Apparently really enjoying the experience. Then, those same students threw rocks at me while my back was turned to them. Others tipped over and smashed the garbage can on the path to Big Save. Still others proceeded to kick through the panels on the doors at the Boys and Girls Club. Still others have torn a part of the foundation out from our rummage sale building—not the first time they have done this either.
In spite of all this, I know that we still have it relatively good on the island! The national Geographic magazine for this month has a story on the on-going drug wars in Mexico. The focus of the article has to do with the fact that some people there in Mexico have forsaken Jesus and have started worshipping the La Santa Muerta. This translates as the “saint of death.” The people there are worshipping death! This is to be understood in the context of living in such places as Juarez that as an average murder rate of six bodies a day. In the article, there is a startling picture of a grandmother with her granddaughter washing the blood out of the street in front of their house.
I will once again be totally honest with you the animalistic carnage that we see in Mexico today did not start off with anything more than, you know, some kids destroying pulling and private property while high on drugs. Kind of what we have here now. We need to be very vigilant that our island does not turn into Juarez! We have to recognize those whose behavior has slipped below human normalcy. Recognize their “death worshipping” ways! We have to so this before we are wiping our neighbor’s blood off our own streets.
I still want to get to the part that we heard read form the pulpit, too. This is a glories time when Nebuchadnezzer comes to his senses and praises God. But first, I want you all to see that this chapter four is very special in that it is written in the first person from the point of view of Nebuchadnezzer himself. Did You notice that before? It starts out with “I.” The beginning of the chapter starts with him acknowledging God, but as the chapter continues on, the focus shifts to his own greatness as a king. Then, it goes to the low point of his becoming like an animal. In the end, he is made sane again and he praises God once more. This chapter is like a microcosm of so many of our own lives!
Truly, we are born knowing God is the Supreme Being over our lives. Then, as it turns out, the “I” starts taking over. It is actually a proven fact that children have no sense of “I,” but that they always start talking with the third person rather than the first. Carl Jung based much of his developmental psychology on this idea. We develop the sense of the “I” as time goes on. We become more self-aware. This is fine as long as we do not become too self-centered, too self-absorbed.
As it was for Nebuchadnezzer, he forsook the God that ruled over his life and thought that he could rule his own life. That is when God stepped in; check out verse 25 as Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzer about God’s plan for him: “You shall be driven away from human society, and your dwelling shall be with the animals. You shall be made to eat grass. . . .until you have learned that the Most High has sovereignty over the kingdom of mortals. . . .”
Mothers, fathers, teachers, brothers and sisters, Modern society tells us that the most important thing that we can teach our offspring is a sense of self-worth to become fully developed individuals. I tell you this morning that that is what is causing our children to become like animals. Even the basest worm in your garden has this kind of self-understanding! To the garden worm, life is all about being the garden worm! Even the lowliest worm has pride in the mud hole he is digging himself into!
The last lines of chapter four enlightens us to what Nebuchadnezzer finally sees after being an animal eating grass: “Praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are truth, and his ways are justice, and he is able to bring low those who walk in pride.”
I want us to consider the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was tempted for forty days in the wilderness by Satan. He was hungry, so Satan tells him to change the stone into bread. Jesus realizes that this denies the spiritual power and turns himself over to the animalistic. Jesus is offered all the kingdoms of the world, but this denies the power of the Kingdom of God. Even on the Cross Jesus is offered the chance to save himself, instead he turns his life over to God.
If we do not know that there is a God over us, then we might as well be animals. If we do not know that heaven rules over our lives, then we are truly lost. We have much to consider. We should not live our lives in such a way that we chop down the tree to get the fruit. We should not live our lives as if we were merely animals. We need to accept that heaven rules over us. That is our only salvation.
Amen.