We've been hearing throughout the sermons on the book of Revelation how important it is for us to raise our eyes to heaven, visions of the heavenly city coming down from heaven to earth, not the kingdoms and empires that we build from earth to the skies. And that is very much a text that we find in Daniel chapter 4. You have your Bibles turned to Daniel 4, verses 19 through 37. It was one of those dreams that Daniel interpreted for Nebuchadnezzar. Then Daniel, whose name was Balthazar, was dismissed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. the king answered and said, Balthasar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you. Balthasar answered and said, My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies. The tree you saw which grew and became strong so that its top reached to heaven and it was visible to the end of the whole earth whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant and in which was food for all under which beasts of the field found shade and in whose branches the birds of the heavens live, it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven and your dominion to all the ends of the earth. And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven and let his portion be with the beasts of the field till seven periods of time pass over him. This is the interpretation of king. It is a decree of the Most High which has come upon my Lord the King that you shall be driven from among men and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven and seven periods of time shall pass over you till you know that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of men and gives it to whom He will. And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that heaven rules. Therefore, O King, let my counsel be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by practicing righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be lengthening of your prosperity. All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of 12 months, he was walking on the roof of his royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, Is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty? 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 shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of men, and gives it to whomever he will. Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up 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. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. He does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? At the same time, my reason returned to me. And for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my Lord sought me out and I was established in my kingdom. And still more greatness was added to me. 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. You know, there were many differences between the Reformers and their rivals in the 16th century, but everyone recognized that there was a judgment coming. Everyone recognized that there would be a great seize at which everyone would give an account. And so the question, how can we appear before God, was a valid one for everyone. Everyone recognized that as a relevant and important question. Today, however, it isn't apparent that this is a major question in our culture because we've closed the world off at the ceiling. One of the great philosophers at the close of the 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche, said, we have wiped the horizon of the upper world so that now we can affirm this world. We may have come from nowhere special. We may be going to nowhere special. But in the middle of it all, we can make something special of ourselves and perhaps leave a legacy to others. It's the survival of the fittest. It's the will to power. It's exactly what we see on the evening news. If there is a kind of recognition of transcendence, that which is extraordinary, it's within the realm of this world, a baseball game or a football game or a ballet performance that just blows people's mind, a sense of transcendence, being a part of a movement where you think that you're part of the march of history. It's transcendence, but it's all transcendence within this world. Is there anything important in our lives that we can't access with a smartphone? Is there anything above the horizon? When we talk about prayer, for example, do we think of prayer as actually talking to God? A lot of people don't. A lot of people don't mind if you pray. It's a sort of bonding thing at times of tragedy, national tragedy. They want the president to pray. They want everyone to pray. It sort of brings us all together. But do people really think they're talking to God? That's kind of strange today. Maybe not for everyone here, but for your children or your grandchildren. You think about it and talk to them about this. It's very hard these days to think that there's anything above the roof of this world that is truly transcendent, that is truly beyond. And so we look down, we look within. Maybe that's where religion has some significance to help us with inner peace or inner experience to maybe give us a liver shiver for a moment in this otherwise bleak and doleful existence? But do we really believe that there is a God outside of us? Do we believe that we're actually praying to God and not just expressing our emotions? Confession of sin. A lot of people might come into a service like this from the street and say, well, that's good. Confession is what? Good for the soul. They're not thinking in terms of Psalm 51 with David saying, against you and you only have I sinned. That absolutely vertical sense of ultimately God being the one who's offended by our sin. But we still haven't been able to completely evade this sense of being creatures and guilty creatures to boot. One pioneer of brain research, Robert Lifton, observes that the source of many neuroses in our society today is a sense of nagging incompleteness and guilt, but without any clear idea of its origin. You see, that's because everything's closed off at the ceiling. No sense of actually connecting with a God outside of us, a God beyond us. And so prayer and confession, preaching, the sacraments. Sacraments might be a time to sort of experience things and remember things. But does Jesus actually show up? Do we really believe that, that Jesus gives his body and blood to us through this sacrament? That's weird. People off the street walk in and say, that's weird. And maybe some of us say, that's weird. It's very hard for us to think above the sun. And that's precisely what we see in this passage. It's about 535 B.C. in what's known today as Iraq. Nebuchadnezzar had just completed several conquests, Egypt, the whole kingdom of Egypt, as well as Jerusalem, and also just before this event, the kingdom of Tyre. And so he had acquired vast wealth and now had quite an empire. His court name, Bel, Belteshazzar, means Bel protects me. The god Bel protects me. But he came to realize one day that the Spirit of God is in Daniel, as he put it, as he, rather than the court magicians, interpreted his dreams. And so that was the event of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, with God himself joining them in the fiery furnace. And after that event, Nebuchadnezzar said, Surely this is the true God. And this is the reason why, here in chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar then goes back over that experience and elaborates on how it all happened. Shamelessly narcissistic, he demanded that when the band plays, everybody falls to the ground and worships his image. And that's when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't fall into line. And so Nebuchadnezzar was converted by watching all of that, saying, therefore I make a decree any people, nation, or language that utters blasphemy against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses laid to ruins. For there is no other God who is able to deliver in this way. So Nebuchadnezzar is still a pretty angry guy. Everything he does is sort of bull in a china shop. Tell everybody limb from limb who doesn't believe in this God because no God, no God, even Bel, no God can deliver like this. This God has control over nature. And so as Daniel 4 begins, Nebuchadnezzar is still extolling the sovereignty of the Yahweh of Israel. Verse 3 and verse 37 provide the theme for this chapter. Verse 3 says, How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders, his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation, which is then repeated in verse 34. Nebuchadnezzar further then relates his conversion that he had briefly described in chapter 3. See, if Yahweh's in control of nature, as demonstrated in the fiery furnace, then surely he has the whole world in his hands, including Nebuchadnezzar. Ironically, while the people of God had forgotten the mighty signs and wonders that Yahweh had done for Israel, Nebuchadnezzar sees God's sign, and he believes. God delivers his people who call on his name, so you better be among those who call upon his name, and even Nebuchadnezzar is included in that list. But what I find really interesting, I'm going to focus on this, what I find fascinating about this episode is the connection between God and sanity. You notice that Nebuchadnezzar loses his reason when he becomes intoxicated with his own importance. One of my favorite, favorite in sort of the way Sister Amy is Dr. Godfrey's favorite person to talk to, just out of pure interest, not because I agree at all, a poet is Walt Whitman, and you'll recognize this song, song of myself, which could really be an anthem of the American culture, I celebrate myself and sing myself creeds and churches in abeyance, retiring back a while sufficed at what they are but never forgotten. I harbor for good or bad, I permit myself to speak at every hazard, nature without check with original energy. I accept reality and dare not question it, materialism first and last imbuing. Walt Whitman, a cosmos of Manhattan, the sun. Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from. The scent of these armpits aroma finer than prayer. This head more than churches, Bibles, and all the creeds. If I worship one thing more than another, it shall be the spread of my own body, or any part of it, translucent mold of me, it shall be you. I dote on myself. There's a lot of me, and so luscious. Each moment and whatever happens thrills me with joy. I cannot tell how my ankles bend, nor whence the cause of my faintest wish, nor the cause of the friendship I omit, nor the cause of the friendship I take again. I know perfectly well my own egotism, know my omnivorous lines, and must not write any less, and would fetch you whoever you are flush with myself. Sermons, creeds, theology, but the fathomless human brain, and what is reason, and what is love, and what is light? Now I ascend from the moon. I ascend from the night. I perceive that the ghastly glimmer is noonday sunbeams reflected and debauch to the steady and central from the offspring, great or small. Now, he needed to have himself chopped down like a tree, didn't he? Nebuchadnezzar did. His eyes were turned in on himself. Look at me, fall down before my image when the music plays. But here, the dream that Daniel interpreted to Nebuchadnezzar actually comes true. He lost his sanity as well as his kingdom. Now, children, you could ask your parents or grandparents about this person, But Howard Hughes was found in his death surrounded by his own feces in urine, in jars, in an apartment. Richest man in America at the time. Great paragon of everything that people considered valuable. was the great center of Hollywood entertainment, was a great businessman, a great figure, a great patron of the arts. Everyone wanted to be like Howard Hughes, and Howard Hughes wanted to be very much like himself, but not at the end. His fingernails grew like the claws of an eagle, his hair like feathers, exactly like Nebuchadnezzar here. It's sad. But this is exactly what happens when you deny reality. God is sovereign. Not you or me or any nation, any people, any industry. God alone is sovereign. And when we lose that, we lose perspective. It's not that we become irreligious, it's that we become stupid. We lose our mind. Because we're not living with a grain of reality. One of the inscriptions, I was able to see this in Berlin, the Ishtar Gate of Nebuchadnezzar, and one of the inscriptions refers to 20 temples that he built to himself in his own honor, including a vast system of fortifications and shipping docks. And one inscription says, the fortifications of Esgalia, the temple of Marduk, and Babylon, I strengthened and established the name of my reign forever. See, he knew he would die, but somehow he wanted to live forever in his monuments, in the things that he accomplished. And we can do that in our own lives. What legacy can we leave to make ourselves immortal? It really is the fear of death. We still don't know what to do with death, even with our eyes turned in. But finally, his eyes turn up, and that's when his sanity is restored. We read, at the end of that time, 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. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no one can push back his hand or say to him, What have you done? You know, all doctrine and doxology and discipleship flows out of a drama, an unfolding story. And here, Nebuchadnezzar realizes that the story isn't about him. As he's prancing on the top of his palace, looking down at the great buildings and architecture and wealth of his kingdom, he loses his reason. He loses perspective. He forgets that the story is about God. God doesn't play, Bel doesn't play a minor role in his story as a sort of mascot. Mascot Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, just a mascot for the kingdom. Rather, God, this God, actually acts in history. He's not a mascot. He actually moves and works and acts in history, and he has control over nature. Who is this God who delivers in this way? My story is vanity, Nebuchadnezzar realizes after that time. In mercy, God kills him in this episode and writes him into his story. I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my sanity was restored. And then he praised God out of that new drama, sense of a new story that he was written into, the doctrine that arises out of it, a new doxology, new praise. Instead of praising himself on the roof of his palace, he sings, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes to heaven and my reason was restored. I praise this God because he has an everlasting dominion. It's the first thing he praises God for, an eternal dominion. Earthly rulers come and go. That's why they try to leave their monuments. They try to leave behind some sense that I was here. That's their immortality. But God has an eternal dominion. Secondly, God has a sovereign dominion. Even Nebuchadnezzar, he now realizes, is a bit player in God's great old unfolding story. He has sovereign dominion. And thirdly, it's a gracious dominion. You know, Nebuchadnezzar wasn't gracious. Another bit tyrant in the history of tyrants. He didn't have sovereignty and he wasn't merciful. Only after this conversion, now, did he become concerned about the oppressed and show mercy toward the oppressed. Because here's what it does. When you look up, it causes you to look out to those who are in need. And it also causes you to look out to the history that God is bringing to its summation. that drama that is culminating in the coming of the Messiah. Once he turned his eyes up, away from himself, he turned his eyes out. And the whole book of Daniel unfolds as the prophecy of the great civilizations of the world giving way each to the other until finally there is a kingdom that cannot be shaken, a kingdom that will outlast the Greco-Roman Empire. And he will be the anointed Messiah to whom all of the kings of the earth must come. In the short term, the Persian Empire under Cyrus would lay Babylon to waste and send remnants of the exiles back to Jerusalem to rebuild its ruins with supplies including gold for the rebuilding of the temple. You see, it's always God's promise rooted in that promise he made to Adam and Eve crushing the serpent's head in Genesis 3.15 that keeps history moving forward in spite of the unfaithful servant. One day there will be a king, a king greater than Cyrus, a king even greater than David, who will build the end-time temple made without hands. He will unseat all of the haughty and proud of the earth and comfort all who mourn in exile. Even in its own land, Israel was not yet in the messianic age. They realized that corrupt and non-Davidic king, blasphemous, tyrannical lord called Caesar, yet even Caesar is God's servant, whether he likes it or not. And so we find it interesting, as we're approaching the Christmas season, we find it interesting that Matthew in his genealogy ends verse 12 through 16 with this. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jehokaniah was the father of Shiltiel, and Shiltiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Ovid, the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim, the father of Azor, and Azor, the father of Zadok, and Zadok, the father of Achim, Achim, the father of Eliud, Eliud, the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar, the father of Matan, and Matan, the father of Jacob, and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. So what I'd like us to do now is turn to Luke chapter 1, and I want us to pray verses 46 to 55 together out loud. Much like Nebuchadnezzar's prayer, but with richer, fuller detail, now that the promise is fulfilled, Mary's Magnificat reads, beginning at verse 46 of Luke 1. Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. And holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown the strength of His armor. He has shattered the reality of the Lord's heart. He has brought down the mighty people in their home. And he called to build His humble shape. He has killed the hungry with good things. And the rich He has spent away from Him. He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy. As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham. Amen.