Advent Midweek Daniel's View of the End: Part 1

2008-12-03

Our Text For this evening is Daniel 2:19-45

19 During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven 20 and said: "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. 21 He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. 22 He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. 23 I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king." 24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, "Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king, and I will interpret his dream for him." 25 Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, "I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means." 26 The king asked Daniel (who is also called Belteshazzar), "Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?" 27 Daniel replied, "No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed are these: 29 "As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. 30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind. 31 "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue-- an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. 36 "This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. 39 "After you, another kingdom will rise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron-- for iron breaks and smashes everything-- and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. 44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands-- a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. "The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."

So Far the TEXT!

In the Name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Pharaoh dreamed strange dreams of skinny cows and skinny ears of corns devouring their plump brothers. Through Joseph Pharaoh learned what this meant and was prepared for the future. He stored up grain according to Joseph's wisdom and grew richer and fatter in famine. But he died in unbelief. His kingdom was spared for one generation. But his wisdom wasn't enough to save his soul.

Nebuchadnezzar's strange dream of a statue did not seem so practical. Through Daniel God revealed to Nebuchadnezzar the character of the kingdoms that would follow his. It didn't seem to have much to do with day to day life or the governing of a kingdom. And yet it was more practical and more important than that! It was not just about Babylon, Egypt, or Israel. It was not just about a famine or the future. It was about the reconciliation of all mankind to the Father. It contained even an offer of forgiveness and grace for old Neb. He, too, could be saved and freed from his own tyranny!

The eternal Kingdom of Neb's dream has been established by the Rock not cut with hands, the Man born without an earthly father. He smashed the statue's clay and iron feet. The Romans and the Greeks were defeated outside Jerusalem 600 or so years after Neb dreamed it, whether they knew it or not. Their imagined pantheon was emptied. There are no halls, no castles, no kingdoms left on Mt. Olympus, Mt. Fuji, or Mt. Kailash. Mecca, Stonehenge, and Fatima hold no power. The Sphinx and Area 53 are just bad cartoons. Where men still worship in these pagan ways they bind themselves back to slavery that need not be. That virgin born Rock toppled all the kingdoms of men and of Hell. He set Himself up as the Kingdom that will never be destroyed, for He has come out of death. Men have done their worst. The devil has had his day. They meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And now the Kingdom of Grace rules in the hearts of those who believe. No one will snatch them away from God.

Nebuchadnezzar learned this truth the only way that men ever learn: by being brought low and emptied of himself so that He could be filled with Christ. After this statue dream and the prophecy of Grace that conquers evil men, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed again. He dreamed of a great tree that was cut down. Daniel told him what it meant. His pride was too much. He would be brought low, struck with insanity consistent with his vanity. He would live as an animal, wet with dew in the mornings, eating grass with the cattle. He dismissed the warning and it came to pass, so much so that his hair grew like feathers and his nails like claws while his kingdom was ruled by another. He thus suffered in fulfillment of the prophecy for seven years. But this humiliation was merciful. Nebuchadnezzar's feet were knocked out from beneath him to drive him to his knees, so that He would know where to find certainty and stability, so that He would know peace. He found it in Daniel's God, the true and only God. The only sane course is to hope and trust in the mercy revealed to Moses and fulfilled in Mary's Son. Nebuchadnezzar found sanity in humility and mercy in prayer. He submitted to the God who forgives more quickly than He judges. This great and mighty God has made a people for Himself and populated this Holy Church with the likes of the tyrant Nebuchadnezzar, the prophet Daniel, the harlot Rahab, the cowards Elijah and Peter, the doubter Thomas, and you and me. This is a Kingdom not merit or of birthright, but of Grace.

Thus does that Holy Mighty Rock cut without hands prophesy and expounds: "Have you never read in the Scriptures: 'The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes'' Therefore I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of It. And whoever falls on this Stone will be broken; but on whomever It falls, It will grind him to powder" (Matthew 21:42-44). Thus the words of Jesus!

Falling on the Stone is repentance. It breaks a man. But the alternative is to have the Stone fall on you and be crushed to powder. Repent. The grace of God is such that He only breaks to rebuild and to heal. Our souls are like broken bones wrongly set by the devil so that they are cutting into our flesh and inhibiting our movements. They must be broken again by God for the sake of resetting them in the proper way, for true healing and restoration. Let our Advent prayer be that we follow in the steps of Nebuchadnezzar, broken and bound up again, with grass-stained lips making our petitions for mercy and for the end. Nebuchadnezzar has come to the reward of grace. His humiliation, his foolish pride, his old pagan ways are no more. May it be the same for all of us. Repent and empty yourselves and be filled with the grace of God in Christ Jesus.

In T Jesus' Name. Amen.