Royals: Always Give Up, Always Surrender to the King of Kings
Focus statement: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully. God will reign in our lives; we can submit now or when it is too late.
Setting the Scene:
The Israelites have been exiled to Babylon! After the Southern Kingdom (Judah) and Northern Kingdom (Israel) split due to dueling factions of King Rehoboam and King Jeroboam, the kingdoms each experienced a series of kings (and one queen) that led them down a path of self-destruction. Israel had all bad kings, but Judah (whose kingdom we will focus on today) had a few kings who did right in the sight of the LORD. However, this ebb and flow of evil, somewhat compromised, and good kings could not stop Judah’s steady drift towards judgment. When King Jehoiakim takes the throne, he is besieged by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire and Judah is taken into captivity. This is where our story begins.
We will now shift our focus from Kings of Judah to the King of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar’s story is covered in the first four chapters of Daniel and it will mirror many of the themes of the Kings of Judah. In his story we will see that he consistently acknowledges God but also consistently lives in the way he wants to live and rebels against God’s sovereignty. It is not until he is forcefully humbled and broken that he truly turns to God at the end of his story.
We will consider his story and our focus statement in four sections: The Diet, the Dream, the Furnace, and the Beast.
The Diet:
In the beginning of the Israelites’ captivity four faithful characters emerge: Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar) and his three friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (whom were called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego). They are brought into the king’s palace along with others to be educated about the kingdom’s culture and laws and will eventually stand before the king.
These four young men refuse to eat the king’s food because it is against the law of God. They strike a deal with the steward of the king to eat the food sanctioned by God for 10 days and then they will compare with the other men. At the end of the 10 days, they are proven to be in far better condition than their counterparts and the steward orders their diet to replace the king’s. Finally, they are brought before the king and are found to be 10 times better than all of the king’s current advisors and are raised up to prominent positions in the kingdom. (Daniel 1:8-21)
Through this story, King Nebuchadnezzar is given a taste of this fact: God’s ways are better. It is his first of many encounters with this truth.
The Dream:
In Daniel 2:1-16, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that troubles him and keeps him up at night. He summons his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and Chaldeans and commands them not only to interpret his dream, but he challenges them to reveal his dream without him telling them. They cannot do this and try to extrapolate the dream so they can make up an interpretation.
“Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.” (Daniel 2:4-5 ESV)
Seeing that their fate is all but decided, the wise men seek our Daniel, whom they know possesses the gift of interpretation. Daniel stops their execution and comes before the king. He then reveals the dream and interprets it thus: God has a plan to raise up kingdom after kingdom, all of them rising and falling until a kingdom rises up that is not made by human hands that will rule supreme over all of the previous kingdoms.
(Daniel 2:24-45)
The dream is an illustration of God’s sovereignty to all kingdoms and kings, including the kingdom of Babylon and the great king Nebuchadnezzar. It is a stark statement that God is ultimately in control despite the successes of Babylon over Judah.
To this, King Nebuchadnezzar falls on his face and declares a seemingly complete acknowledgment of Daniel’s God, our God:
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.” 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. 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. (Daniel 2:47-49)
It would seem that Nebuchadnezzar has learned and retained a valuable lesson. But the very next verse in chapter 3 tells a different story, which emphasizes the first part of our focus statement: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully.
The Furnace:
Daniel 3:1a opens with this statement:
King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold…
But the king had acknowledged God fully in the previous story, didn’t he? And yet, he constructs an image of gold for all to bow down to and worship in complete contradiction with the laws of the “God of gods and Lord of kings.”
Ultimately, an acknowledgment of the One True God is meaningless if it does not result in full submission to Him.
The story continues. Nebuchadnezzar constructs a 90ft golden idol that is placed in the middle of Dura, which was in the province of Babylon. He commands that whenever the residents of Babylon (including the captive Jews) hear the distinct sound of instruments, they are to respond by bowing down and worshiping the golden image. If they do not, they will be cast into a burning fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse. They are brought before the king and when asked to do it they respond thus:
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
(Daniel 3:16-18)
The king then heats the furnace up 7x more than it was originally, to really make sure he takes care of these fools, and has some of the mighty men of his army bind the three men and throw them in. The fire is so hot that the men who threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in die.
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.” Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
(Daniel 3:24-30)
Nebuchadnezzar not only saw this miracle but he saw the One who performed it in the fourth man of the fire. Many interpret this individual to be Jesus Christ Himself, standing with and protecting those who refused to bow down to anyone but Him. This is a stark exhortation to Nebuchadnezzar that the only One worthy of full submission, of worship, of bending the knee to is Jesus – the One True God. Not a golden idol, not himself, but only God deserves such praise and honor. The king proclaims:
King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.
How great are his signs,
how mighty his wonders!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and his dominion endures from generation to generation.
(Daniel 4:1-3)
Nebuchadnezzar has seen three wonders, each one better than the next, and he has acknowledged the superiority of God every time and especially this last time. But… our story will continue in Daniel 4:4-27.
The Beast:
After the story of the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar is given a second dream. When Daniel interprets it, it is found to be a warning to the king that if he does not break off from his sins by practicing righteousness and all of his iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, he will experience a humbling so harsh that he will literally live like a beast of the field. (Daniel 4:4-27)
Once again, Nebuchadnezzar receives a mercy from God in the form of a miracle and he chooses to acknowledge it, then ignore it. We see him walking on the roof of his palace and praising himself:
At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 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?” (Daniel 4:29-30)
Let’s Talk About It!
Let’s revisit our focus statement: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully. God will reign in our lives; we can submit now or when it is too late.
Nebuchadnezzar over and over again pays grandiose lip service to God, statements that when read seem like he is turning the corner. He has fully acknowledged God and said all the right things one should say when encountering God’s wonders and God Himself, but ultimately his words are empty because they are followed by Nebuchadnezzar’s insistence to live the way he wants to live. His faith in God has stopped at mere acknowledgement and has not followed through with obedience and submission.
Have you ever done this? Do you know someone who has?
It is an all-too-common thing to customize our belief system to fit with our preferences. If you don’t like the idea that homosexual acts are sinful, you can find a belief system that doesn’t teach that. Don’t like the idea that some people go to hell? There are plenty of belief stystems that deny its existence.
Nebuchadnezzar essentially did this. He did not like that a belief in the Most High God would make him submit and obey God, so he decided he would praise God, yes, but then make a golden idol, attempt to kill the servants of God, and praise himself, his actual god, when observing his perceived greatness. It was a belief system that included the One True God but precluded any disruption in his preferred lifestyle. He made up his own belief system.
But we should not believe in Christianity simply because it is our preferred belief system. In fact, for anyone who is intellectually honest, Christianity is a harsh pill to swallow: loved ones will go to Hell if they do not repent and believe, we are called to lay down our lives and take up our crosses to follow Jesus, we are promised hate, persecution, and even death for our beliefs, it’s not all roses!
But the reason we should believe in Christianity, in Christ, is because it is true.
It is a fact that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose again from the dead on the third day. Since that is true, Jesus is who He said He is: He is God, the God of gods and Lord of kings. If we do not submit fully to that reality then we would deny reality itself.
But the reality of Jesus is also that Jesus is love, that He died for us so that we might live through Him, that He wants our best and desires to walk alongside us through this life and the next. It is a beautiful reality not just to be acknowledged, but to be submitted to fully. Don’t you want to place the outcome of your eternity on the truth?
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7-12)
But, the wrath of God remains on those who do not submit to God:
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)
We don’t get to acknowledge reality without submitting to it and think that everything will work out in the end. If you believe in the reality of gravity yet deny it by jumping off the Sears Tower in attempts to fly, guess what will happen?
So here is the challenge: Seek that which is true.
Start with the empty tomb. Seek and find the truth as to why Jesus Christ’s tomb was empty. Every theory falls flat, like it leapt off the Sears Tower, except for the truth that Jesus Christ said He would rise from the dead and He did. Since that is true, what does it demand of your life? Will it be simply nodding to this truth or will it be a transformative recognition that Jesus loves you and that Jesus is God, Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is the only one who can save you from the wrath of God?
So we need to make a decision. If Christ did not rise from the dead then Christianity is pure evil. It would demand complete submission and self-sacrifice for nothing and Christians will waste their life and are to be pitied among all (1 Corinthians 15:12-19) But if He did rise from the dead, He is worth it all.
The Beast (cont.)
Let’s finish our story. Remember the focus statement, especially the last part: True faith in God cannot be customized to fit a lifestyle or belief but must be submitted to fully. God will reign in our lives; we can submit now or when it is too late.
Nebuchadnezzar has received a warning from his second dream to break off from his sin, practice righteousness, and show mercy to the oppressed or he will become like a beast of the field.
All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 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?” 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, 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.” 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.
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;
all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”
At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. 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.
(Daniel 4:28-37)
We see in this final passage that Nebuchadnezzar was able to “successfully” customize and limit his submission to God until God literally humbled him by making him a beast of the field. Then, and only then, did Nebuchadnezzar truly submit.
Jesus promises that this submission will happen within all of our lives, whether we like it or not.
By myself I have sworn;
from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.’
(Isaiah 45:23)
…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians 2:10b-11)
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
(Revelation 5:13)
So this is the truth: you will submit to Jesus and proclaim that He is Lord. But your choice is whether to do it on this side of glory or the next. Nebuchadnezzar was fortunate enough to have God intervene in his life and humble him to the point of submission before he died. That is not a promise God makes to all, but a merciful choice He makes to few.
What he promises is that if you bow to him now, He has a way that is better for you as exemplified in Daniel’s diet, He has truth and revelation for you in His Word as modeled in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and that He will protect and walk alongside you as shown in the fiery furnace.
Don’t be like Nebuchadnezzar and pick, choose, and customize your relationship with God’s truth until God humbles you, likely when it is too late. Instead, choose Jesus. Choose truth. Bask in the security that His death, burial, and resurrection provide to your eternal soul and live a life dedicated to honoring Him and leading others home. It is the best God has for you in this life.
So if you do not yet believe or if you have lived your life on the fence, come home. Come home to Jesus. He is true, He is the God of gods and Lord of kings, He is so, so good.