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THE BEAST HEART AND THE MAN HEART
THE BEAST HEART AND THE MAN
HEART
(The conversion of a
King)
03-07-71
Daniel
4:33
Explanation: This tract Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel to
write.
Nebuchadnezzar, a prophet? This inspired
word of God? Inspiration, inerrancy, infallibility faithfully recorded what
Satan did and what Satan speaks.
Job’s
comforters.
Review: Nebuchadnezzar “at
rest.”
The dream of the terrible towering
tree that was cut down. The interpretation and appeal of Daniel to repent in
4:27.
I. Why the awesome
judgment?
1. His cruel
reign.
(a) Personally--a violent, cruel,
tempestuous man. No self-restraint in his
anger.
Chapter 2, ready to butcher whole class of
men.
Chapter 3, preparing fiery
furnace.
Jer. 29:22, he names two Jews that
Nebuchadnezar roasted in the fire.
II
Kings 25:7 He refined cruelty and put out king Zedekiah’s eyes only after
he had slain his sons before his face.
II Kings
24:8 He takes Jehoiachin at age 18 and imprisons him for an offense for
thirty-six years.
(b) Politically--Following
example learned in Assyria, vast deportation. Uprooted the people from homes.
Hopeless, helpless misery. Victor’s path strewn with corpses. Women,
children unable to travel. Enslavement in a strange land. Not content to make
tributary.
Psalms
137.
(c) Pridefully--Misery of deportation,
slave labor, to gratify his ambition.
Ever
grasping for more: image, golden head. Insisted it all be of gold, all of
him.
Every victory tended to make him more
arrogant, vain, grander.
Compare: Dan. 3:15
regarded himself more powerful than his gods, if displease, burns the priests
and raises the temple to the ground.
2. His
refusal to repent.
Daniel’s pleas 4:27
(a) “break off sins by
righteousness.”
Successful, but righteousness
formed no part of his program.
Compare: Hab.
1:6-9
(b) “Mercy to the poor.” Think
nothing of human misery.
Compare: Babylon built by
slave labor. Every brick, every construction cost thousands of
lives.
Compare: Napoleon, men common
fodder.
New to him that people had
rights.
II. The judgment that
fell.
1. The passing of the period of
probates. 4:29
God speaks in love, patient,
waiting.
Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten. But not
God.
The mills of God is
slow,
But they grind exceeding
small.
And though he tarry long in
grinding,
Yet with exactness, he grinds us
all.
2. Some men require the heavy rod. Will not obey
loving appeal, gentle whisper. Some stubborn, incorrigible,
self-willed.
The smarting rod to break,
humble.
3. The day of disaster, judgment.
4:30,31,32,33.
In palace, officers of state in
attendance, followed him up to the terrace, turning aside for him to pass
through, then respectfully followed again. But he marks not their presence.
Filled with vain glory.
Then--mind, reason,
snaps. He is insane! A moment before standing arrogant monarch of the
civilized world, his eyes steady, his gaze clear, his mind the gifted genius of
that golden head; and the next moment his eye is unsteady. Now a beast. Eye
wanders, look is furtive and afraid, strange delusion sweep through his
mind.
The scepter shatters as it falls from his
hand to the floor. Driven by his own fears, with a loud cry of dismay and
despair, he runs away to hide in the deep thickets along the Euphrates River.
He is no longer a king. He is a monomaniac.
The
abasement was abysmal and remorseless. Life became despair and desperate. The
man who bravely led armies.....like a clap of
thunder.
The king who feasted on grandeur and
arrogance is now a grass eating ox.
4. The
curse of Babylonian system and of Nebuchadnezzar as a mad man. Nations and
rulers made drunk with the false teachings of the Babylonian system. Beast
nations and beast rulers.
Compare: Dan. 7, 8
“beast nations” typified by wild animals. Nation like wild beasts,
leaping at each other.
World War
I
World War II
North
Korea, North Vietnam
Babylon system in Russia,
China.
Cursed with Leaders who act like wild
beasts, mad:
Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Napoleon,
Nero, Tamburlaine
Forgetting
God.
III. The conversion of the king and his
testimony.
Dan. 7:4 depicted. From a furious lion
to a man who stood upon feet with a heart. He now saw his will for peace, not
war.
1. The blessed promise.
4:17,25,26
When he returns, humbles himself,
God’s ready to forgive, restore.
2. The
day of repentance. 4:34a
Compare: Psalms
121:1
Compare: Luke 15:17 “came to
himself.”
Compare: Mark 5:15 “sitting,
clothed, in his right mind.”
3.
Restoration to his kingdom.
Immediately shows
there were those who maintained kingdom for the
king.
Compare: Amytis, Median
wife.
Compare: Daniel faithful
vizier.
When Nebuchadnezzar died, Evil Merodach,
son, throne, 3 year reign, murdered.
But for 7
years, no rebellion. Nations not rebuilt. Willful tribes, not
rampage.
At allotted time, known to Daniel,
counselor sought him led by hand.
Conclusion
4. His
testimony.
The same grace changed him, blest him,
change our lives.
Have we not today to fear?
God’s goodness to us, the cross that saves us, gratitude,
thankfulness.
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