Daniel 04: Beast Mode

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, daniel, chapter 4, andtoday's title is Beast Mode.
We're going to talk about BeastMode today, and if you're a
football fan, there is a playerwho he just gets into this zone
and they call it Beast Mode, andthat's just where he just takes
over the game.

(00:20):
He just runs over people.
That's a good thing.
Today's Beast Mode is a badthing.
We're going to talk about thatin just a moment.
But if you like what we'redoing here while you're getting
your Bible out.
Turning to Daniel 4, make sureyou also take a moment, pause
the video or pause the podcastand like, share, subscribe to
the YouTube channel and thepodcast.
It really does help and itdoesn't cost you anything.
Make sure you also leave us afive-star review on the podcast

(00:42):
and make sure you're going tothe Bible Breakdown Discussion
on Facebook.
Do a wonderful job there and,as always, the more we dig, the
more we find.
Well, once again, we arecontinuing to move through the
book of Daniel, and the overalltheme of Daniel is God is in
control, and that's such animportant thing that we remember
because he is in a place whereit doesn't look like God's in

(01:04):
control.
All kinds of crazy stuff ishappening, but it doesn't stop
God from being in control, andwe saw in chapter one how he
said I am not going to defilemyself, and so I'm going to
honor my God, even when I'm in aplace I don't want to be.
Chapter two we saw how God usedhim to interpret a dream and
just did amazing things,bringing glory to God Yesterday.
In chapter three, we talkedabout how, you know, even in

(01:28):
this horrible position, shadrach, meshach and Abednego were like
I am going to continue to serveGod, and they were thrown into
a fire because of it, but theydidn't die and it brought glory
to God again and we love thatphrase.
When they basically said God isable, but even if he doesn't,
he's still God.
I love that so much.
Well, today we're going to jumpinto Daniel, chapter 4.

(01:51):
We're going to watch just someweird stuff.
This is just kind of some weirdstuff that is happening in the
area of Babylon, especially whenit comes to Nebuchadnezzar.
Apparently, he's a dreamer.
He has another dream and heturns into a beast, maybe
something close to a werewolf.
We'll see.
Are you ready?
Daniel, chapter 4, verse 1, saysthis King, nebuchadnezzar, sent

(02:15):
this message to the people ofevery race and nation and
language throughout the world.
As you do right when you're incharge of like everything, here
we go Peace and prosperity toyou.
I want you all to know aboutthe miraculous signs and wonders
the most high God has performedfor me.
So he's given glory to Yahweh.
Here we go.
How great are his signs, howpowerful his wonders.

(02:39):
His kingdom will last forever,his rule through all generations
.
I, nebuchadnezzar, was living inmy palace in comfort and
prosperity, but one night I hada dream that frightened me and I
saw visions that terrified meas I lay in my bed.
So I issued an order callingall the wise men of Babylon so
they could tell me what my dreammeant.

(02:59):
When magicians, enchanters,astrologers and fortune tellers
came in, I told them the dream.
They could not tell me what itmeant.
At last, daniel came in beforeme and I told him the dream.
He was named Belshazzar aftermy God, and the spirit of the
holy gods is in him.
I said to him Belshazzar, kingof the magicians or chief of the

(03:23):
magicians.
I said to him Belshazzar, kingof the magicians or chief of the
magicians.
I know that the spirit of theholy gods is in you, and no
mystery is too great for you tosolve.
Now tell me what my dream means.
While I was lying in my bed,this is what I dreamed I saw a
large tree in the middle of theearth.
The tree grew very tall andstrong, reaching into the high

(03:49):
heavens for all the world to see.
It had fresh green leaves andit was loaded with fruit for all
to eat.
Wild animals lived in its shade, birds nested in its branches.
All the world was fed from thistree.
Then, as I lay there dreaming,I saw a messenger, a holy one,
coming down from heaven.
The messenger shouted cut downthe tree and lop off its

(04:12):
branches, shake off its leavesand scatter its fruit, chase the
wild animals from its shade andthe birds from its branches,
but leave the stump and theroots in the ground, bound with
a band of iron and bronze andsurrounded by tender grass.
Now let him be drenched withthe dew of heaven and let him
live with the wild animals amongthe plants of the field For

(04:35):
seven periods of time.
Let him have the mind of a wildanimal instead of the mind of a
human, for this has beendecreed by the messengers, and
it is commanded by the holy onesthat everyone may know that the
Most High rules over thekingdoms of the world.
He gives them to anyone hechooses, to everyone.
Let me try this again he givesthem to anyone he chooses, even

(04:59):
the lowliest of people.
Belshazzar, that was what Idreamed, I Nebuchadnezzar, and I
had it.
Now, tell me what it means, fornone of my wise men in my
kingdom can do it, but you cantell people, because the Spirit
of the Holy Gods is in you.
Upon hearing this, daniel, alsoknown as Belshazzar, was

(05:19):
overcome for a time, frightenedby the meaning of the dream.
Then the king said to himBelshazzar, don't be alarmed by
the dream and what it means.
Belshazzar replied I wish theevents foreshadowed in this
dream would happen to yourenemies, my lord, not to you.
The tree you saw that wasgrowing very tall and strong,
reaching high into the heavensfor all the world to see.

(05:40):
It had green leaves and wasloaded with fruit for all to eat
, and even the wild animalslived in the shade and the birds
nested in its branches.
That tree, your majesty, is you, for you have grown strong and
great, and greatness reaches upto the heaven and your rule to
the ends of the earth.
Then you saw a messenger, aholy one, coming down from

(06:04):
heaven and saying Cut down thetree and destroy it, but leave
the stump and the roots in theground, bound with a band of
iron and bronze and surroundedby tender grass.
Let him be drenched with thedew of heaven.
Let him live with the animalsof the field for seven periods
of time.
This is what the dream means,your majesty, and what the whole

(06:26):
the most high has declared willhappen to my lord, the king.
You will be driven from humansociety.
You will live in the fieldswith the wild animals, you will
eat grass like a cow and you'llbe drenched with the dew of
heaven.
Seven periods of time will passwhile you live this way, until
you learn that the most highrules over the kingdoms of the

(06:48):
world and gives them to anyonehe chooses, but the stump and
the roots where the tree wereleft in the ground.
This means that you willreceive your kingdom back again
when you have learned thatheaven rules.
King nebuchadnezzar, pleaseaccept my advice stop sinning
and do what is right.
Bring from a break from yourwicked past and be merciful to

(07:09):
the poor.
Perhaps then you will continueto prosper.
But all these things did happento king nebuchadnezzar to
prosper.
But all these things did happento King Nebuchadnezzar.
Twelve months later, he wastaking a walk on the flat roof
of the royal palace in Babylon.
He looked out across the cityand said look at this great city
of Babylon.
By my own power have I builtthis beautiful city as my royal

(07:32):
residence to display my majesticsplendor.
While these words were still inhis mouth, a voice called from
heaven O King Nebuchadnezzar,this message is for you.
You are no longer.
You are no longer ruler of thiskingdom.
You will be driven from humansociety.
You will live in the fieldswith wild animals.

(07:52):
You will eat grass like a cow.
Seven periods of time will passwhile you live this way, until
you learn that the Most Highrules over the kingdoms of the
world and gives them to anyonehe chooses.
That same hour, the judgmentwas fulfilled.
Nebuchadnezzar was driven fromhuman society.
He ate grass like a cow.

(08:12):
He was drenched with the dew ofheaven and he lived this way
until his hair was long aseagles' feathers and his nails
were like birds' claws.
Wow, after the time had passed,I, nebuchadnezzar, looked up to
heaven.
My sanity returned.
I praised and worshipped theMost High and honored the One
who lives forever.
His rule is everlasting.

(08:33):
His kingdom is eternal.
All the people of earth arenothing compared to him.
He does as he pleases among theangels of heaven and among the
people of the earth.
No one can stop him or sayanything to him.
What do you mean by doing noone?
No one can stop him or say tohim.
What do you mean by doing thesethings?
When my sanity returned to me,when my sanity returned to me,

(08:54):
so did my honor and glory andkingdom.
My advisors and nobles soughtme out and I was restored as
head of my kingdom, and withgreater honor than before.
Now I, nebuchadnezzar, praiseand glorify and honor the King
of heaven.
All of his acts are just andtrue, and he is able to humble

(09:15):
the proud.
Wow, okay.
So here's what happened.
I'm going to break this downfor us.
King Nebuchadnezzar was a jerk.
Apparently, he was really,really prideful and he was like
see all this as me, seeeverything that's over there as
me too.
No one's as awesome as me.
See all this over there as metoo.
No one's as awesome as me.
And God had enough of it.

(09:37):
And so he gave Nebuchadnezzar adream and he told him in the
dream that is what's going tohappen.
You are way too proud, so youare going to basically lose your
mind for a season.
You're going to run off andyou're going to live in the
woods until you realize that youare not all that, sir.
And so you know, what's amazingis, the heart of Daniel is, when

(09:57):
Daniel understood what this was, he was brokenhearted for the
king and he said King, I wouldpray that this is what happened
to your enemies, not to you.
I don't want this to happen toyou, my king, but it did.
And what's also amazing and wedon't know this, I'm going to
use my imagination, but when hesomehow lost his mind, we don't
know exactly what happened.
Many people think he had somekind of psychotic break, maybe

(10:19):
he developed some kind ofschizophrenia or something, but
whatever happened, he basicallyjust went insane and he lived
out in the fields and just couldnot be contained for a season
and it was just really, reallysad, if you think about it, and
he just he should have losteverything.
But you know, what I wonder isI wonder if it was Daniel who
said wait a minute.

(10:41):
God said this was going tohappen and the Most High said he
was going to bring him back tosanity and all that.
So to me, there's multiplemiracles that's happening here.
First of all, the miracle isthat God decreed this was going
to happen and then it did.
But the second miracle was isthat he didn't die while he was
out there.
If he's living with the animals, he could have easily been
overrun, died of exposure,whatever, and he didn't.

(11:03):
Number three is he got hissanity back and gave glory to
God.
And then, number four, theygave his kingdom back.
Like there's a lot of miracleshappening in this.
They gave him his kingdom back.
Like there's a lot of miracleshappening in this.
And the bottom line was he saidthat God is able to make humble
the proud, but the goal of itwas not just to humble him.
The goal of it was to bringglory to God and restore him

(11:27):
with the right attitude.
And so what?
Based on God's word, what canwe apply today?
So many things.
You've got to go to the Biblebreakdown discussion and listen
to what they're doing with thisand then also give us your
takeaways.
But here's a takeaway for me,and that is this it is possible
for anybody to go throughseasons.
When they deal with pride, it'spossible for people to forget

(11:51):
where it all truly comes from.
It really is.
I know good people who havestruggled with pride before, and
you don't have to be a jerk tostruggle with pride, right?
Here's the thing.
The Bible says that pride comesand then a fall.
So God will sometimes humble us, but here's the thing God loves
us, so he doesn't humble us inorder to destroy us.

(12:14):
He humbles us in order to fixour perspective, so then he can
restore us with the rightperspective.
And so I think sometimes we getthis idea that, you know, god is
mean and angry and vengeful andhe is out to destroy you and
he's just done.
Well, haven't we read enough ofthe Bible to know that's not
our God?
Remember when we were readingEzekiel and all these bad things

(12:36):
were happening?
And throughout all those badthings, god kept saying but I'm
going to redeem you, but I'mgoing to restore you.
I've still got a plan for you.
And so the main takeaway to mein this is when I'm reading
about the life of Nebuchadnezzar, I see somebody who could very
easily be us.
You look around at this homethat God has given you and for

(12:57):
just a moment you forget that hegave it to you and you start
being so thankful you werewilling to work those extra
hours so you could earn it.
You look around and you seeyour kids doing well in school
and just for a moment you forgetthat they're primarily his kids
and you're so thankful thatyou're such a good parent.
You know you're able to affordto do great things for your

(13:18):
family and you forget that thevery heartbeat that you have
comes from him, and so we starttaking the glory for ourself.
Well, god, because he loves us,will not let us stay in that,
because that will destroy us andso many times he will humble us
.
But the lesson here is hedoesn't humble us to destroy us.
He humbles us so he can buildus back up again, so we can have

(13:42):
more honor than before, butthis time giving glory to God.
So if you're going through adifficult season and you feel
like maybe God has humbled you,can I just encourage you?
God's not trying to destroy you.
He's trying to heal you of adangerous and broken attitude,
so that he can restore you.
So your next step is repentance.
Bring it before the Lord.
God, I'm so sorry.

(14:02):
I walk in pride.
I'm so sorry that I forget thatit all comes from you.
God doesn't want you to walk inshame.
He wants you to walk in freedom.
Freedom is freedom from prideor shame.
It's walking in the middle,going man.
God's given me gifts, but it'sall from him.
That's the balance you'relooking for.
When you do that, just likeNebuchadnezzar, god wants to
restore you, so then you canbring glory to him.

(14:25):
Let's pray together right now,god, thank you so much for today
.
Thank you, god, that you'rewith us and that you're for us.
God, I have no idea what somepeople may be going through
right now, but I know that youdo and I know, lord, that you
want to bring glory to yourselfthrough us.
I pray you will help us to seeeverything we do as a gift from

(14:46):
you, so everything we see andeverything we do is an
opportunity to celebrate.
I'm thankful for you today.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amenand amen.
Well, God's word says in Daniel3, verse 17,.
God is able to save us, buteven if he doesn't, we will
never serve your God.
My prayer is that you have thatkind of confidence in God to
realize that, no matter whathappens in your life.
God is in control.

(15:07):
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow forDaniel, chapter 5.