MERCY IN JUDGMENT
[This week we continue our journey through the book of Daniel]
Greetings church family!
Daniel 4:19-27 - Then Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar, was stunned for a moment, and his thoughts alarmed him. The king said, “Belteshazzar, don’t let the dream or its interpretation alarm you.” Belteshazzar answered, “My lord, may the dream apply to those who hate you, and its interpretation to your enemies! The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, whose top reached to the sky and was visible to the whole earth, and whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant — and on it was food for all, under it the wild animals lived, and in its branches the birds of the sky lived — that tree is you, Your Majesty. For you have become great and strong: your greatness has grown and even reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to the ends of the earth.
“The king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump with its roots in the ground and with a band of iron and bronze around it in the tender grass of the field. Let him be drenched with dew from the sky and share food with the wild animals for seven periods of time.’ This is the interpretation, Your Majesty, and this is the decree of the Most High that has been issued against my lord the king: You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals. You will feed on grass like cattle and be drenched with dew from the sky for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants. As for the command to leave the tree’s stump with its roots, your kingdom will be restored to you as soon as you acknowledge that Heaven rules. Therefore, may my advice seem good to you my king. Separate yourself from your sins by doing what is right, and from your injustices by showing mercy to the needy. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.”
During my senior year at Thunderbird Adventist Academy, I was hired to be the early morning resident assistant in the boys’ dorm. I was on duty from 5:30 am to 7:00 am. My job was to turn off all of the door alarms, empty the trash, clean the dorm kitchen, and fulfill the requested morning wakeup calls. Things went well for about 3 weeks. After that, I was struggling to wake up when my 5:00 am alarm clock went off. I found myself checking into work at 5:45 am instead of 5:30 am. Then I was clocking in at 6:00 am instead of 5:30 am.
My head dean pulled me aside one morning and took some time trying to find a diplomatic way to give me some much-needed blunt truth. He loved me as a person, but he couldn’t condone my lack of punctuality. I ended up reading between the lines and starting the conversation. “I know, I’m not showing up to work on time.” That was all he needed. Not only did he agree with me, but he shared with me that the next time we had to have this conversation, he would invite me to look for different employment on campus.
Sometimes we have to have the difficult conversation with people we care for. This was the situation Daniel (the king calls him by his Babylonian name - Belteshazzar) finds himself in. Daniel has a degree of care and admiration for King Nebuchadnezzar. Thus, when the Babylonian king tells Daniel of his dream and asks Daniel for an interpretation, Daniel tries to soften the blow. “My lord, may the dream apply to those who hate you, and its interpretation to your enemies!” Yet Daniel had to utter the whole truth - “that tree is you!”
In his dream, that tree would be cut down, though the stump would remain. What was God’s message to Nebuchadnezzar in this dream?
You are not God!
My guess is that most of you reading this devotional do not run an empire. But how easy is it for all of us to build smaller kingdoms. Our education. Our careers. Our reputations. Our families. Our money. And at some point, it can be tempting to think in our hearts, “Look at what I have built.”
What we miss is that earthly “kingdoms” are temporary and fragile. Kings are dethroned. Presidents leave office. Generals surrender command. People retire from careers. Money only goes so far. There is only one eternal King - and it isn’t you or I or King Nebuchadnezzar. It is God and God alone.
Through Daniel, God shares with Nebuchadnezzar that judgment is coming. “You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals. You will feed on grass like cattle and be drenched with dew from the sky for seven periods of time, until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants.”
However, God also reveals his everlasting mercy. “Therefore, may my advice seem good to you my king. Separate yourself from your sins by doing what is right, and from your injustices by showing mercy to the needy. Perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.”
Through Daniel, God was essentially saying, Nebuchadnezzar, you do not have to continue down this road. That is still how God works with us. Sometimes the Holy Spirit makes us uncomfortable about our pride, our attitudes, our relationships, or our priorities. We may initially experience conviction as something unpleasant. But conviction is actually mercy. God exposes what is destroying us before it destroys us completely.
The uncomfortable voice saying, "Something needs to change," may actually be one of the clearest demonstrations of God's love.
Church family, how is God pursuing you in mercy through what might feel like judgment? Just remember (as Jesus declares in John 3:17) God’s aim is not to condemn you, but to save you!
Blessings church family!
Pastor Chris
