Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Who is Your True Self? | The Writings | Daniel 4

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Are you living with a false sense of self? Do you know who you really are? What about whose you really are? In today's episode, Jeff uses Daniel 4 of living as and knowing your true self and your true creator. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Daniel 4 2 Seen

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. As you listen to this, there's a chance, maybe even a really good chance, that you're living with a false self. That phrase, false self, is explored by the theologian and author Thomas Merton. Pastor Steve Cuss quotes Merton in his book, Managing Leadership Anxiety. And here's how Merton describes the false self.

Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person, a false self. For most people in the world, there is no greater subjective reality than this false self of theirs. A life devoted to the cult of this shadow is what is called a life of sin. Merton goes on to say this. In our zeal, to become the landlords of our own being, we cling to each achievement as a kind of verifference. of our self-proclaimed reality. We become the center, and God somehow recedes into an invisible fringe. The false self that Merton's talking about here, it assumes a view of ourselves and a view of

God that is completely out of touch with reality. We get a story of someone being transformed out of the false self in a wild narrative from Daniel, Chapter 4. This final portrait of King Nebuchadnezzar shows us the hope for gospel transformation and exile as we experience freedom from the false self. As we prepare to engage with this passage, let's ask for God's grace to work through our time together. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gifts of life and breath and for your word. Jesus help us abide in you as we engage with your truth.

Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in the book of Daniel. As we read these words of yours, let your words read us and restore us. In Jesus' name, amen. We're going to start our time by jumping down to verse four. Verses one through three are vitally important, but we're going to come back to them at the end. Verse four opens with King Nebuchadnezzar, the king over the mighty Babylonian empire, at ease in his house. But then we get to verse five. Nebuchadnezzar sees a vision that makes him afraid, and alarmed. Like his first dream earlier in Daniel, his own magicians and astrologers are unable to help him out. So he turns to Daniel to interpret this uncomfortable vision. Nebuchadnezzar

recounts the vision that he has. He sees a tree that's so tall and so great that its top reached to heaven. Now this detail is interesting. It creates a biblical connection to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. And interestingly, in Hebrew, It's actually the same word for Babel and Babylon. There in Genesis 11, humanity attempts to make their name great by using their ability and their power to build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. It's a kind of pillar moment of tragedy in the story of the Bible, where human beings attempt to grasp a full and flourishing life apart from their creator.

Now, back to the dream, this beautiful and powerful tree does not remain standing. A being comes from heaven and commands for the tree to be cut down and stripped. And the tree is described in a personified kind of way. He's to remain among the animals and have his mind changed from a man's mind to the mind of a beast for seven periods of time. Then in verse 17, we get the reason for that vision, that the living may know that the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. Daniel goes on to an interpret the dream and tells Nebuchadnezzar, you, King Nebuchadnezzar, you are that great tall tree. The great Nebuchadnezzar will himself be driven to live among the beasts of the field.

He will experience humiliation for seven periods of time until he knows that the most high God, that Yahweh is the one true king over all things. In verse 27, we see Daniel counseling the king to change direction, to submit his trust, loyalty and allegiance to God. But instead of changing course, Nebuchadnezzar continues his trajectory of self-importance and glory. He clings to the false self. A year goes by, and in verse 29, we meet Nebuchadnezzar on the roof of his palace, almost comically saying this to himself, is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty. He continues to see himself as the landlord of his own being, as the center of the universe.

But in verse 31, we read this. 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 should be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. So this moment is the fulfillment of his vision from earlier. He will experience humiliation until he knows that Yahweh, the most high, is the one who rules. He is cut down and he is humbled. And in a way, he's seeing himself for what he's really been all this time. He thinks that he's been mighty, but in reality, he's been miserable living for his little kingdom.

His false self is exposed. This strange experience is a living picture of how his sinful, self-centered view of life fueled his own dehumanization. But this isn't the end of Nebuchadnezzar. It turns out that his humiliation is the precursor to his transformation. Let's pick up the story in verse 34 with these astounding words from the king of Babylon. 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. His worship of God concludes with this weighty statement in verse 37.

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. Notice that twice in this section, Daniel says that Nebuchadnezzar's reason returns to him. He sees himself rightly now because he sees God rightly. This formerly self-absorbed king now sees that the living God is the truly sovereign one. His final words here in Daniel punctuate the big idea for us. those who walk in pride, God is able to humble. Those who live with the false self can be humbled and free to live under the sovereign care of their creator.

Now at this point, let's jump back to the first verses of chapter four. These beginning verses are a summary of Nebuchadnezzar's praise of the Lord after his transformation. They highlight an important point. We read this. King Nebuchadnezzar, to all people's, 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. Now notice the people this message is addressed to. It says all peoples, nations, and languages. Those are the same words that Nebuchadnezzar

used when he commanded people to worship his golden image back in chapter three. So the same words used then are used here in chapter four, but in a totally God-centered fashion, is the Bible's way of highlighting how Nebuchadnezzar's false self has been flipped upside down into a humble submission of the self to God. And notice to all of this, this process of transformation, he says that it's something that God has done for him. God's glory is good for him. Let's finish by asking a question that we regularly consider

in these passages within the writings. If we were among the people of God, living in exile under the rule of the Greeks or the Romans, how would this narrative strike us? What response would it stir up in us? Well, first, there is a call to be humbled by refining our allegiance to God over time. Those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.

Sin causes us to act like landlords of our own being, but in the gospel, we are free to live under the care of the Lord who holds our being together. Sin presumes that we are at the center, but the gospel reorientes our location to reality, where God is at the center. Secondly, we're struck by how Nebuchadnezzar is an unlikely candidate to experience this kind of transformation. It's a reminder to God's exiled people that the hope of his kingdom is meant to extend beyond their lives. they're meant to be a blessing to the nations to show those who seem furthest away

what freedom is like in God's kingdom. And in many ways, this is a preview of Jesus' ministry as he connects with and transforms improbable groups of people. We're meant to not only reject the false self here, but also selflessly love our neighbors and our enemies. Lastly, the foundation for all of this is the loving sovereignty of God. if he's in control of this mighty king of Babylon,

how can he not be in control as we live in our version of exile? The repeated refrain here is that God is the most high. He's the one who reigns over all things. His reign didn't stop in Daniel's day and it hasn't stopped today. So just think through some questions together. Are there ways that you're clinging to a kind of false self, pretending like you're the landlord of your being? How are you prone to place yourself at the center of the universe and how can you humble yourself

before God today? Are there other people you're inclined to ignore or even dehumanize because you imagine that they're kind of like Nebuchadnezzar that they're somehow beyond the scope of God's transforming grace? What would it look like for you to love them, to pray for them, to be a picture of Jesus' love to them? This final portrait of Nebuchadnezzar reminds us that our good king, is in control, that he's calling us to live humbly before him, and that we all have a hope for our false selves to be transformed by His faithfulness in Jesus.