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Sunday morning after the worship service
a woman approached the pastor and thanked him for the encouraging
sermon he had preached. Struggling to respond he said, “Oh,
do not thank me, but thank the Lord.” He waited for what
seemed to be a long minute and then she answered with, “Well,
I thought about that, but the sermon was not THAT good!”
We laugh at the situation but the pastor’s point is true.
It is God’s Spirit that produces good in our lives. Yet
not everyone will agree or realize that God should receive the
credit. We will see shortly that Nebuchadnezzar has his own
view!
God
Honors An Unbelieving King.
During our last study we saw that God had revealed a dream to
Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 2:29 told us that Nebuchadnezzar had
been on his bed thinking about the future and that God can read
our thoughts. Have you ever wondered if God can read your thoughts?
Then this verse answers your question.
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As
for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts turned
to what would take place in the future; and He who reveals
mysteries has made known to you what will take place.
(NASB) Daniel 2:29 |
God knew his thoughts. Thoughts he had while in bed; and
God answered his wish - he did not even pray. God graciously
reached out to this man one more time, to a man who did not
worship Him. The king did not believe in the one true God but
in many gods. Stop to think - God gave the first outline of
the future to one who did not worship the one true God. Now
if God cared for one who did not love Him, how much more does
He love His saints. God is good!
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Nebuchadnezzar wanted to
know the meaning of his dream but his “wise men” had
failed him. So he decided to kill them. But Daniel asked for
time to discover and interpret the dream. After Daniel and his
friends prayed, God gave the dream and its interpretation to
Daniel. Then Daniel returned to the king and told him that God
had given him the dream along with the interpretation. Daniel
rejected any personal glory or credit and gave it all to God.
The
Dream Revealed.
Then Daniel proceeded to describe the dream.
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You,
O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great
statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary
splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance
was awesome. The head of that statue was made of fine
gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and
its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly
of iron and partly of clay. You continued looking until
a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue
on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them. Then the
iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were
crushed all at the same time, and became like chaff from
the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them
away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone
that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled
the whole earth. This was the dream . . . (NASB) Daniel
2:31-36 |
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