Neba's Nightmare

Neba's Nightmare.jpg

NEBUCHADNEZZAR

The called him the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the GOAT and the greatest thing since crushed grain. Simply put, Neba was the man. He made old ladies blush and young ladies squeal. When he walked into the room, young men would stand at attention and look away out of fear and respect. They say that he was 6 foot 7, that he could hold his breath for 9 minutes, that he spoke 12 languages, that he got a perfect score on the Babylonian Aptitude Exam.

Neba would go on to conquer most of the middle east and Egypt. He was the longest reigning and most powerful ruler of the Babylonians. His capitol is now the largest archeological site in the modern world. The destroyer of Solomon’s temple, the one who brought the Egyptians to heel, could anyone doubt the power and ambition of this young ruler? In 606 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, the glorious leader of the Neo-Babylonian empire laid his majestic head upon the imperial pillow for a well-deserved rest.

Sleeping, one of the most common functions of the human body, should have come easily to him. At the center of his empire, secure in his citadel, he had all the comforts and protection that such immense power could offer. Why even the commoner on the street could knock down a solid 8-hour night of sleep, maybe even a noon day nap as well. And yet, he couldn’t sleep.

How could this be? Turns out that third of each day, the time to rest, is the most vulnerable part of the day as well. Alone in the dark with his own thoughts, feeling no control while he is unconscious, Neba has the sinking feeling his power is an illusion and him being a vulnerable babe in God’s hands was reality.

 

Daniel chapter 2:1

In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his mind was troubled and he could not sleep. So the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, he said to them, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”

He summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers. He also made a call to his therapist, his life coach, the new Primary Care physician he recently switched to, a yoga instructor in the area and his pastor. Neba called up his weed dealer, his lawyer, his girlfriend, he hopped on Twitch and Twitter, he read articles on self-care, and Pilates. They brought in a therapy cat, a political commentator, and a pro athlete. They all stood before him and he said, “I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.”

They all grinned in unison. “Sure!” they said. “Tell us the dream and we’ll interpret it for you.”

Daniel 2:4

Then the astrologers answered the king, “May the king live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

5 The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble. 6 But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.”

7 Once more they replied, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it.”

8 Then the king answered, “I am certain that you are trying to gain time, because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided: 9 If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know that you can interpret it for me.”

10 The astrologers answered the king, “There is no one on earth who can do what the king asks! No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. 11 What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among humans.”

 

Tell me the dream and I’ll know you know what it means. A truly strange request from the Emperor. Perhaps Neba doesn’t even remember the content of the dream, just the feeling. Maybe the vision what of he saw is too jarring for him to consciously bring to his mind.

His team of experts is unable to fulfill the request. They can only interpret, not know and interpret. Hot-headed, passionate, emotionally volatile Nebuchadnezzar is so angry that he orders the whole lot of them to be taken out:

Daniel 2:12: This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.

If these no-good bums can’t give him the answers he’s looking for than what’s he keeping them around for anyhow? Get rid of them! Fire everybody! Let’s start over and rebuild this thing right. No more lying wise men in Babylon, they are going to decisively make the transition to a nation of truth-telling fools. And just like that Neba has them cut to pieces and turns their houses into piles of rubble.

 

DANIEL

Unfortunately for Daniel, his life has already been cut to pieces and his house has already been turned into a pile of rubble. “I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.” This slogan that will one day be printed on the t-shirts of American teenagers at Bible Camp, is the word spoken to the Jewish exiles as they’ve forcibly dragged from their homes and made to live in another context, another language, another country.

Like oppressing nations throughout history, the first thing the Babylonians do with Daniel and his companions is replace their names with one’s they can pronounce.

“How do you say it again?”

Daniel.”

“Danielle?”

Daniel!”

“Danny L?”

No!”

“Ok, we’re going to call you Belteshazzar instead, that’s way easier to say.”

Previously Nebuchadnezzar had said there was quote “None equal to Daniel and his companions.” But in the rigmarole of managing such a vast Empire, Neba has long since forgotten about them. At this moment, Daniel and his friends are such insignificant members of the wise men group that they have to send a guy to go find them before they kill them.

Daniel 2:13 So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to put them to death.

Imagine the work order that went out that day. “Hey, we’re trying to find Daniel and his guys to kill them, have you seen them lately? What was it they were supposed to be working on??”

Daniel will very shortly be promoted to Secretary of State of the Babylonian empire, but what do you imagine his original job within the administration was? Low level administrator in the department of agriculture? Perhaps a mail room clerk at the institute for the development of Babylonian Art? No, that can’t be right.

Daniel and his companions were Jews, foreigners, exiles. Surely there’s no way they would be employed in positions of power. Conquered peoples are not appropriate for roles of decision making, however small. Knowing what we know about empires, they had to be employed in something related to the occupation of their people. Perhaps the Department of Foreigner Affairs, or the Department of Babylonian Propaganda and Revision of Historical Inaccuracies – the DBP. They’d be pretty low down the organizational flowchart if they aren’t even sure where they are at that moment. They must have been leaders in the Jewish Dance Troupe. A singing and dancing group giving praise to Glorious Babylon. You’ve probably heard some of their songs – smash hits such as “Take Me Home Babylonian Road” and “Judea Misbehavin”.   

 

Daniel finds out he is on the kings ‘to kill’ list and asks for some time to interpret the dream.

Daniel 2:14-16 When Arioch, the commander of the king’s guard, had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. He asked the king’s officer, “Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?” Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, so that he might interpret the dream for him.

He goes home that night and God gives him not only the interpretation of the dream but a vision of the dream itself. He praises God for revealing what is in the darkness, for exposing what lies in the deep, for the changing of times and seasons, for the rise and fall of kings and orders.

The next day he is taken immediately to see Neba. How could he have felt at this moment? Awe and excitement to stand before the most powerful man alive? And yet, this is also the man who destroyed his nation, broke up their families, and took everything (including his name) from Daniel.

 

THE DREAM

Unlike his neurotic nighttime self, Neba feels strongest in the morning. He is a man of iron and decisiveness. This business of killing the wise men may seem unreasonable to others, but once he’s made up his mind, he’s all in. If you believe in a decision, follow it all the way to the end – that’s the philosophy that’s worked for him so far, and it’s brought him to the pinnacle of power.

Word passes that one of the low level wise men is able to interpret the dream for him. One of the Jews, captured in the siege of Jerusalem. When they bring one of the exiles to him, he senses a vague familiarity about this young man. He has met him sometime or somewhere. A brief flicker of fear and unease begins to grow in the king’s belly. Neba pushes that feeling away, he must project firmness.

Daniel 2:26 The king asked Daniel (also called Belteshazzar), “Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?”

 

As Daniel speaks, he never looks up to make eye contact with the king. His voice is soft and trembling, a potent mixture of the fear and rage he feels towards the king. The words are spoken in his clearly proficient, yet heavily accented Akkadian. It all has a chilling effect on Neba.

Daniel 2:29

29 “As Your Majesty was lying there, your mind turned to things to come, and the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. 30 As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than anyone else alive, but so that Your Majesty may know the interpretation and that you may understand what went through your mind.

31 “Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

36 “This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. 37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.

39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”

 

THE INTERPRETATION

In the vision, a statue of five different sections, representing different world empires. These empires are so vast and powerful at the time, it is difficult to imagine them passing away. At the end a rock comes representing a different kind of empire. One characterized by peace not violence, self-sacrifice not oppression, mercy not vengeance, and humility not accumulation of power. This empire strikes the feet of the statue and it collapses in on itself. The statue breaks into thousands of tiny pieces and is blown away by the wind.

Nebuchadnezzar falls prostrate before Daniel because he’s finally in the presence of something more powerful than himself. The answer to the dream is revealed and it turns out he is not the center of the universe but just a piece of the whole. For Neba the vision is terrifying, but given in love. His power, wealth and importance are but a fleeting instance, which will one day be like chaff on the threshing floor in summer.

Despite the tendency to paint him as a villain in this story, God loves Nebuchadnezzar and doesn’t want his ego, a false sense of importance, independence, and identity to lead to his destruction. God will at times take away identity out of love. It’s tough love, but love.

Daniel is in the midst of this tough love and struggling to hold on to the identity God’s given him. For him, the dream represents a light at the end of the tunnel, a hope that his people’s circumstances can be redeemed. A nightmare for the oppressor is a dream for the oppressed.          

Vengeance was in fact exacted on Nebuchadnezzar, though not in the way you might think. He original name was Nebuchadrezzar, which means “God protect my first-born son.” But we remember him as “Nebuchadnezzar”, a derogatory pun used by the Israelites that means “God protect my jackass.” Every time we say his name, we repeat the punchline to a several thousand years old joke from the exiles.

Nebuchadrezzar, the donkey king is one of the first people to foretell the coming of a different kind of kingdom. He dreamed of another king, One who was also called an ass, who rode a donkey instead of a warhorse to take his place is in history. That king’s empire became a huge mountain, that filled the whole earth. They call him the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the GOAT and the greatest thing since crushed grain.

ReligionDrew Fralick