The Land of Hope
Yesterday we celebrated the 250th birthday of the United States of America. We have much to be thankful for in this nation. In an effort to push back against the growing cultural pessimism and cynicism, I wrote an article for the church newsletter this month talking about what makes America great. I talked about our great beginnings, our great system of government, our great economy, and our great religious freedom.
By “great” I mean distinguished and remarkable. Our country is also great because of our unique weightiness on the world stage. We’re great in the sense of having a power that’s unparalleled in the world right now (though waning by some measures), a power unparalleled in human history. America is the country creating the technology the world uses, the country sending rockets to the moon again, the country driving the world economy, the country combating evil regimes, and for now, a country doing pretty well in the World Cup. America is still the country that a vast majority of people in the world would choose to live in if they could.
America in these senses is truly a great nation. If you don’t believe me, ask an immigrant what they think about living in America compared to living in the country they came from. There’s a reason why many in this room who weren’t born here decided to move here, and why the rest of us come from families who in generations past made the audacious and scary decision to leave their homeland, cross an ocean, and start a new life in a new land. It’s because they believed they could make a better life for themselves in America. For these reasons, one historian calls America “The Land of Hope.”[1]
Another (Truly) Great Kingdom
America is great but is yet another nation in a long line of nations that has come and will go. The fact that all the empires of the world have come to an end should give us great pause as we evaluate America’s greatness. America is great but it will not last forever.
Patriotism, or loving one’s country, is good and right. But followers of Jesus understand that we ultimately belong to another country, a better country. We understand that we’re ultimately allegiant to another kingdom, the kingdom of God.
Our text this morning, Daniel 4:34-37, tells us why. This text reminds us that our ultimate loyalty is to the kingdom of God because God is strong (v. 34) and man is weak (v. 35), and that therefore, praise for God is the proper response (vv. 36-37). This text helps us set America’s greatness in its proper context. It reorients us toward that which is eternally great.
God is Strong
In verse 34, we see why the kingdom of God must have our first allegiance, because God is strong. King Nebuchadnezzar offers a prayer of praise to God “at the end of the days.” What does that refer to? Earlier in chapter 4, he has a dream where the Lord shows him, through Daniel’s interpretation, that he’ll be humbled by God until he turns from his pride and acknowledges God’s supremacy over all things (vv. 24-25). In light of this dream, Daniel calls him to repent (v. 27). But verses 28-30 tell us that he didn’t and instead continued boasting about his greatness and power. And so God’s judgment comes swiftly in verses 31-33.
God’s word had such a staggering impact on Nebuchadnezzar’s mind that it triggered a psychotic condition causing him to act like an animal. Some have compared this to what psychologists call lycanthropy, or when a person is deluded into thinking that they turn into an animal. Whatever it was, it was bad. But eventually Nebuchadnezzar turned to God, his “reason returned to him,” and he blessed and praised God (v. 34).
God and His Kingdom is Eternal
Notice the specific things Nebuchadnezzar says about God. He says he “lives forever.” This is the doctrine of God’s eternality. God is timeless. He has no beginning, no end, and no succession of moments. Job 36:26, “The number of his years is unsearchable.” He is the “alpha and omega” (Rev. 1:8, 4:8). His name is “I am who I am” (Ex. 3:14).
Everyone and everything else in the universe, including America, is bound by time. Our country had a beginning and will have an end. America will not “live forever.” Only God “lives forever.” This is why our allegiance must ultimately be oriented toward God.
Then Nebuchadnezzar says that God’s “dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation” (v. 34). Not only is God’s person eternal, so is his kingdom, or his rule and reign. God eternally exercises dominion over all things. God’s rule transcends time because he transcends time. There will never be a moment when God is not firmly in charge over every single thing happening in this world. The divine King and his kingdom are forever.
God’s kingdom “endures from generation to generation.” The world’s kingdoms have tried to snuff out God’s kingdom. Imperial Rome, Nazi Germany, communist China, and secular America have all worked to stop the spread of God’s kingdom. Christians in these kingdoms have been persecuted and killed. These kingdoms have tried to sideline Christians and obstruct our witness. They’ve tried to push us to the margins. But the kingdom of God endured. And it will endure to the next generation. This creates gratitude in our hearts to God (Heb. 12:28).
A Stone that Becomes a Great Mountain
Remember the parable of the mustard seed in Luke 13 that we looked at last week. Jesus said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?” Then he said, “It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches” (vv. 18-19).
Jesus is saying that God’s kingdom may have an obscure beginning with him and his small band of disciples, but it’ll grow to supersede all the kingdoms of the earth. It may start small and be unnoticed, but it’ll grow and be big enough for all to see. The kingdom is hardly perceptible from a human point of view, but its growth and advancement is unstoppable.
This parable parallels an earlier dream that Daniel interprets for Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 2. In the dream, Nebuchadnezzar sees a man with a golden head, chest of silver, thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet that are half iron and half clay. These correspond to the kingdoms that will come after Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon: the Medo-Perian, Grecian, and Roman.
But in the dream something unusual happens. Hands that aren’t human throw a stone at the image and crush it into pieces and the stone becomes a great mountain (vv. 34-35). When Daniel interprets the dream, he says that the “stone” that destroys all the kingdoms is a kingdom set up by God (vv. 44-45). God’s “stone” destroys man’s kingdoms and becomes a “great mountain” (v. 35) that will “stand forever” (v. 44).
The small stone that becomes a great mountain parallels Jesus’ mustard seed that starts small yet grows and becomes larger than all the trees in the garden (Mt. 13:32). The point of the dream and the point of the parable is that God’s kingdom starts small, but it grows and eventually fills the whole earth (Dan. 2:35).
This is what Isaiah said a couple hundred years before Daniel, “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it” (2:2).
Tying all these threads together, Jesus tells a parable about the wicked tenants (Lk. 20:9-18), where he identifies himself as the “stone” from Daniel’s vision. Quoting Psalm 118:22, Jesus says to his opponents, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him” (vv. 17-18).
Jesus and the kingdom he brought with him is the stone that grows into a mountain, the mustard seed that grows into a tree. It’s small and imperceptible at first, but its growth is unstoppable. Why? Back to Daniel 4, because his kingdom “is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation” (v. 34).
Jesus’ kingdom is eternal, will not be stopped, and upon his return, will swallow up the whole earth and be full of all the nations. When that happens, America will become a footnote in the history of the earth. Therefore, make sure your life is oriented around the right kingdom today.
Man is Weak
Our ultimate allegiance is to God’s kingdom because God is strong. And, secondly, our ultimate allegiance is to God’s kingdom because man is weak (v. 35).
Nebuchadnezzar says that everyone on earth is “as nothing” before the Lord. This echoes what Isaiah says in Isaiah 40, “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales…All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness” (vv. 15, 17). The Lord isn’t saying that humans are worthless or not valuable. He’s saying that compared to him, they’re nothing.
Human are utterly different from the Creator God. “Small” and “weak” suggest that God is just bigger or stronger versions of us. But God is categorically different from us. He’s qualitatively, not quantitatively, different from us. This is why we’re “accounted as nothing” before him.
Nebuchadnezzar finally sees himself clearly. He finally understands and confesses that even the greatest of men (like himself) are nothing compared to the great God. His majesty as king of Babylon was nothing compared to God’s majesty as King of the Universe.
Understanding how small and weak you are is a sure sign you have a heart changed by God. Someone who sees themselves as the center of the universe, and treats people accordingly, reveals that they don’t know the Master of the Universe. But someone with a heart subdued by God understands their dependence on God, and treats people accordingly. They don’t live as autonomous Masters of their Destiny but as servants of the Master of their destiny. True joy comes when we realize that God is King and we are not, that his kingdom is ultimate, not ours.
Praise the Proper Response
Because God is strong and we are weak, because his kingdom not ours lasts forever, the only proper response is praise. This is what we see in verses 36-37.
Don’t miss the connection between Nebuchadnezzar’s new heart posture and the return of his reason, “my reason returned to me” (v. 36, cf. v. 34). There’s a connection between his faith and his ability to think clearly. While he was consumed with himself, everything revolved around him. The quintessential narcissist, his self-absorbed heart kept him from seeing beyond himself. Because narcissists like him are spiritually blind, they can’t fathom the harm they do to others or to themselves. But God’s grace can make the blind see, and many times that grace comes to us in the form of suffering. Only when Nebuchadnezzar realized how frail and small he was did he finally have the ability to see beyond himself.
Nebuchadnezzar praises God for his mercy, seen in all the good gifts that flowed back to him in verse 36. The Lord mercifully restored the glory of his kingdom, his friends sought him, his rule was reestablished, and his kingdom was even greater than before. He understands that all this is undeserved, so he praises the “King of heaven” for his gifts of mercy (v. 37).
Then in verse 37, Nebuchadnezzar praises God for his justice, “all his works are right and his ways are just.” He confesses that everything God does is right and just. Even though God dealt with him severely, he knows that God’s dealings with him were an appropriate and just response to his sin. He knows God’s justice demands that he deal with his sin.
When we confess our sins to God, agreeing with him that we’ve broken his rules and look to what Christ has done on the cross for us as our only hope, John says we’ll be forgiven because God is “faithful and just” (1 Jn. 1:9). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Jesus satisfied God’s justice toward our sins on the cross, so when we confess our sins to God, he justly forgives us because Jesus earned that forgiveness for all who call out to him in faith.
Nebuchadnezzar praises God for his restorative mercy and for always doing what’s right. But then at the end of verse 37, he says that God’s justice means that he humbles the proud.
Of all people, Nebuchadnezzar knew this to be true, and he learned it the hard way. I often pray that the Lord would help me humble myself so that he doesn’t have to. But sometimes when our pride reaches a certain point, God intervenes to remind us who is truly King and who’s kingdom is the only one that truly matters.
Nebuchadnezzar’s life illustrates David’s words in Psalm 18:
“With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down…You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great…The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation…Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever” (vv. 25-27, 35, 46, 50).
The Lord saved king Nebuchadnezzar from his pride, but another King is “God’s king…his anointed.” Jesus is David’s offspring and was saved from death because God loves him with an eternal love. Anyone who turns from their pride and submits to King Jesus is brought into his eternal kingdom and realizes that his kingdom is much sweeter than any kingdom of this earth.
A Better Country
As Christians, it’s good and right for us to be patriotic, to love our country. But patriotism must not grow into an idolatrous nationalism, where we begin to put our ultimate hope and trust in our nation rather than in God. Loving one’s country is good; worshipping one’s country is sin.
While I want to encourage you to be patriotic, I also want to caution you against idolatry. As followers of Christ, we’re historically and geographically located. God has put us in a certain time and place, and we’re to be grateful for where we are.
But the Bible also says we’re immigrants in this world, that we’re “strangers and exiles on the earth…looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God…seeking a homeland…desiring a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:13, 10, 14, 16).
Even the most patriotic followers of Jesus know that they’re just passing through this world. They’ve tasted the sweetness of the “better country” that Jesus is taking them into. This heavenward mentality pleases God, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (11:16).
No matter how great or not great America is, in Christ, we’re part of an eternally great kingdom. As we endure the challenges of this country, remember that each day brings us closer to “a better country.” Friends, if you have true faith in Christ, you’re almost home.
[1]Wilfred M. McClay, The Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story (New York: Encounter Books, 2020).