Nebuchadnezzar's Proclamation

Jeremy Walker (00:21):

And welcome back to another episode of the Last Kingdom. I am Jeremy Walker, your host. And this is episode number 22 for September 13th, 2024. And this episode is entitled Nebuchadnezzar's Proclamation. We're going to be discussing about how Christians should see the world based on what God has told us about himself and how the world operates. And this should, after all, affect us in a very impactful way. We're also going to be doing some quick fire, a Christian reconstructionist viewpoint on news and media, hopefully give you a different way to look at things and how Christians should view things going on around the world.

(01:13):

So let's go ahead and jump right into this episode, I want to do so starting with our scriptural passage, Daniel chapter four, we're going to be discussing verses 33 through 37 primarily.

(01:30):

Now, let me set the stage because a lot of people are, all around the world, obsessed, that's a good word for it, obsessed with politics, obsessed with what's going on and wanting to know what's going on. They want to talk about it. They want to try to figure out what's going to happen next in some way. They want to see how people are trying to take over the world, how they're going to force mandates for everybody, the new world order and how it's going to operate and what we can do about it.

(02:03):

Well, I hate to be the bearer of good news, but we don't have to worry too much about it at all. The Bible's very clear that the government of the world is not on man's shoulders. That's right. It's not on your shoulders or the President's shoulders or Congress's shoulders. It's not on any man's shoulders. The burden of government and responsibility is on Christ, and that is a very, very wonderful thing.

(02:36):

Jumping into Daniel 4, let's talk about it a little bit, because Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest king with the greatest kingdom and he had power upon power, upon power. He had so much power, he became very prideful, extraordinarily so. And it wasn't so much like we look at America today, we are very powerful, but we don't even have an inkling to how rich these countries were, how powerful they were in the ancient kingdom.

(03:11):

But let's go ahead and jump into verse 33 through 37, quote, "The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and he did eat grass as an oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws.

(03:34):

At the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up my eyes unto heaven and my understanding returned unto me and I blessed the most high and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, "What doest thou?"

(04:11):

At the same time, my reason returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and brightness returned unto me. And my counselors and my lords sought unto me and I was established in my kingdom. An excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways, judgment. And those that walk in pride, he is able to abase." Unquote.

(04:44):

This is a personal testimony from one of the most powerful kings that ever existed on the planet. This is amazing, and it is also amazingly ignored, ignored, completely ignored. This is a senior top-of-the-barrel king. It doesn't get any higher than King Nebuchadnezzar. These guys, presidents and kings around the world today are nothing compared to the power of this one man. He had all the power that he could ever want, and it, of course, made him prideful. And God debased him, made him an animal, took away his reason, took away his ability to do anything, and eventually, gave it back, and then, gave us the story.

(05:39):

But we as Christians sit around wringing our hands, "What is going on in the world? Who's got it under control?" No one, apparently. God has everything perfectly under control, we are just too foolish and too stupid to read things like this and then become educated and use it as passages to give us comfort.

(06:01):

Nothing is out of control, it never has been. One of the most powerful kings of all time sat down, penned his testimony so you could read it, so you could understand that even the most high king on the planet, this is what he says, "all those who walk in pride, he is able to abase." There is no struggle in the world for control and that's why I love doing this podcast, The Last Kingdom. It's also why it's labeled The Last Kingdom because in this story, prior to all this, King Nebuchadnezzar was given the dream of the statue, of course, and he was the head of gold. And by the end, of course, comes the rock, smashes all of the rest of the statue and grows until it fills the entire world. And that was going to be the last Kingdom, not a kingdom of man, but that this king, God's king, Christ, was going to come and destroy the kingdoms of men and his dominion would never, never diminish and never cease.

(07:14):

That is the Christian message if we're wise enough to know what it is, not foolish enough to ignore it. When we have our children, this should give them great, great comfort. I'm reminded of the old movie, The Rock, Nicolas Cage was in that one. There's a scene at the very beginning and he was lamenting the idea that anyone would bring a child into this world. It would just be a cruel and inhuman punishment for a child to be brought into a crazy world of tumultuous chaos. And so, this was the most loving thing you could do is never have children because this is a horrible, terrible place to be forced to live in and you should never do that.

(08:06):

Nothing could be farther from the truth. We live in an amazingly wonderful place that is completely under control. We also have a job. We have a purpose in all of this. We've been given a job to live a life of good works, earn reward, love our families, eat and drink, and do good works, which we can be rewarded for as well.

(08:32):

There is nothing that should make us sad, there is nothing that should make us depressed, except maybe our own sin, maybe our own shortcomings. We shouldn't be worried about politics in the world, at least in the point of being concerned that it's not under control. Like if somebody's going to steal an election, was that planned? Yeah, it was. If it indeed was stolen, maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Either way, in America today, we were supposed to have a Biden-Harris presidency, President Trump, we cover this on this podcast a couple of weeks back, attempted assassination, they tried to murder the former president, Trump, didn't work, still here. So those plans did not succeed, even though people wanted him dead.

(09:28):

See, things are not just spinning out of control out there. It's really important that we as Christians, not only understand this, but we believe it and we also act on it. Fellow Christian, if you're listening to this, that is one of the main reasons that I do this podcast in particular is people are pessimistic, they get too concerned and it stops them from just getting up and getting to work.

(09:52):

Why don't you, like a child... Because the Bible does say this, we have to have the faith of a child, and I have, myself, 11 children personally, and I can tell you that my children never had to wake up and be concerned about how their day was going to go. Why? Daddy, mommy were always there. We're there taking care of them. We tell them what to do, where to go. And if they had a problem or if they became scared, they came to us and we took care of everything.

(10:21):

And we should be like that, even as adults, with our heavenly father. You should understand that God's got it all under control, you don't. You're just like the child in the back seat, getting buckled in, eating your little gummies with your sippy cup, but you're not in charge of things, you never will be. Children do not run the world, they don't do it. And that's the same way we should look at our lives as adults. We don't run the world. We have a job. Our father has given us a job to do, that includes being a good parent, husband, wife, being good in business, means not stealing, working hard, being a good example, evangelizing, all those things are our to do. Just like when you take the child to school or you come home, "Now, go play. Be nice to your friends. Don't hurt anybody." And you tell the child to go do whatever it is you want them to do and then they go and they're supposed to do that. And the child can live a carefree life without worry or concern.

(11:28):

Nebuchadnezzar's proclamation here about the surety, the surety of God's providence. Nobody even gets to question God and say, "Why did you do that, God," no, no one can question. It is utter surety. There is no question mark in the mind of King Nebuchadnezzar if somehow God might be pretty powerful, but not fully in charge. No, no, God took away his kingdom, his mind, and then, also gave it back, and then, added more on top of it. God establishes all power everywhere.

(12:08):

When we're talking about the vast immigration that's going on today, and it is purposefully planned, yeah, insidious, you bet it is, it definitely is insidious. But is it out of control? No, it's not. The Bible is full of times where God moves around people and he uses them for his purposes, and usually, it's judgment.

(12:28):

And so, maybe we should be less concerned about foreigners coming to our land illegally, which we should be concerned about that, they should not be allowed to do that, and we should be working every fiber of our being to make sure that the laws of the land are upheld. We don't want a lawless place, we want a place established by law and countries have to have them and we should want that, but at the same time, we have to question ourselves and say, "Is that the problem or is it that we already have laws and we're just not enforcing them?" It's that we have laws, but nobody cares about righteousness.

(13:05):

And even, do we care about righteousness on an individual level? Are we worthy of God's blessing? Are we, are our families, are our schools, our churches? Is our nation worth giving a reward to? That I think is a better question. Instead of publicizing the evils of the illegals every day on every single news channel, everywhere in the world, every social media post.

(13:34):

Now, it's about the pets. People are eating pets. And my son, because he was paying attention and I congratulated him for this because a lot of times, he doesn't pay attention. We were having discussion and he says, "Well, technically, there's nothing wrong with eating animals," as long as, there's only two kind of categories that God says, "These are off-limits," and this was scripturally backed up by the Bible, he says, "you're not allowed to eat people," obviously, cannibalism, literally, off the table, so to speak, "and two, you can't eat things that are dying of itself or specifically have the blood in them. Animals have to be bled, not allowed to eat blood.

(14:22):

So my son had it right. Lots of different cultures have different eating habits. Thankfully, most of the Western world actually has more of a dietary laws kind of adoption, not that it's necessarily enforced or forced upon us, but it's something that we have kind of carried over from the biblical times. And so, we do pretty much have a kosher diet, except for the eating of say pork and say shellfish. Otherwise, we don't eat bats, we don't eat puppies.

(14:54):

But I did hear a great teacher that I listen to a lot talking about his time on an Indian reservation. And there, they weren't eating the cats, they were eating, not the geese, but they were eating puppies. Apparently, that was the delicacy, puppies. So if you had a puppy you had to watch out, otherwise, somebody was going to find that puppy and he was going to end up in somebody's stew.

(15:19):

But you also have to remember that different cultures have different dietary kind of cultural things that they do. So the fact that a foreigner comes to America that has mostly dietary restrictions based on the guidelines of the Bible and we have revulsion about what they're eating, it doesn't make it wrong. And that's not even the problem with having the person here because once again, let's say they did come here legally, is it still wrong? Well, if there's a law against eating certain animals like a bald eagle, I heard that one of the animals which were killed was a bald eagle, there is some really big restrictions on that. Or if you're going to eat sea turtles, which are, of course, protected species and things like this, you are going to get a lot of trouble.

(16:09):

Now, we have all kinds of stuff, but as Christians, we kind of have to see ourselves and go, what is the question mark here about us? And what is it that's going on? And if America wants to be blessed by God, then it's going to have to do something, it's going to have to do something worthy of being blessed. If it wants mercy, then it's going to have to repent first.

(16:31):

And the illegals that are coming here, God did that. I know people like the little stickers they put around at the gas stations where it's Biden and it says, "I did that." Well, God did everything else in the world too. Yeah, I know we like to tribute. Every time there's something wonderful that happens, we like to say, "Well, God did that. Look, God does miracles." Well, God is also judgment. Don't forget that. Every single thing that happens, God has allowed and planned to happen, everything.

(17:02):

I heard a man talking about the story of Job and he didn't like the story of Job because it clearly states that, like Nebuchadnezzar, God is in full government and judgment on the world. He plans everything out and he acts upon his wishes, not yours, not mine, not the church, not the government's, his, his determination is what happens in the world. And for job, it was for him to lose his health, his wealth and his 10 children all in the same time.

(17:34):

Now, the man had a struggle of faith, to a certain point, because he said, "Why do we get promises of blessing and protection from God if, at the same time, it's not a guarantee, right? It's not a guarantee. You're being good and your children haven't done anything wrong that you're aware of, but some tragedy strikes your family, your business, your nation, whatever.

(18:01):

And all of a sudden, you go, "But God, but God, you are supposed to only bless, nothing bad should ever happen to me. I should never have a miscarriage. We shouldn't have a death in the family." That's not how God works. The Bible is full of this stuff. Nebuchadnezzar pointed it out in his proclamation. No one gets a chance to say, "What are you doing, God?" God knows what he's doing and you don't, you don't get to ask that question. And Job, which is a wonderful book, if you haven't read it, read it, when he got the chance to meet God face to face, he wisely put his hand on his mouth and said, "I'm not going to ask that question. I don't have the right to ask that question," and so he didn't.

(18:47):

So if we want something from God, we're going to have to do something worthy of a blessing. And on top of that, God's ways are not known by us, nor does he explain them most of the time. We do have to let God be God and us try to be men.

(19:05):

So let's go ahead and jump into some quickfire. I like doing these little things. I'm a Christian reconstructionist, which basically just means I believe that when God converts a man, he changes that man, he gives him a new purpose in life, he has a new creation. Where first he ran away from God, he runs to God. Where he loved his sin, he hates his sin and he repents daily where he wanted to break God's commandments, he now wants to keep God's commandments.

(19:31):

And that means it changes him, it changes his family, it changes his business, it changes his entire outlook, and also, changes the nation he lives in as he's able to influence it. And so, that is Christian reconstruction. It is not a political movement, it's not a political ideal, it is one that comes from God's miraculous change of man. And then, like waves, you know when a pebble has been dropped because there are ripples. And all the other things are just the effects, the ripples if you will, of man's creation or new creation under God, he changed him, and now, he reconstructs the world under God instead of trying to tear it down.

(20:21):

So let's jump into quite a few things here in our little post and see what we got. One was a post came up on social media, Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters, good music, front man, he reveals on Instagram that he has recently welcomed a baby daughter with a woman outside his 23-year-old marriage to Jordyn Blum. And it goes on from there.

(20:45):

The point is it's kind of put into a positive, he's welcoming a baby that was conceived outside of his marriage. In other words, he's an adulterer who is having children with another woman that's not his wife. This is not a positive thing. It shouldn't be seen as a positive thing. This shouldn't be something we go, "Oh, well, he made a mistake and he's going to welcome the child. He knows it was a mistake, but he's going to welcome the child. And he is going to love that child."

(21:16):

They're making the entire subject matter, not about what he did, right, just about the child. Of course, you should have pity on the poor child who is getting stuck in the middle of all this stuff because of their sins. And hopefully, God will bless them despite the fact that what these people did was wrong. The child will not be restrained by having to follow in the footprints of their family, of their parents. They can do a better job, not become adulterers, not become fornicators, and they can have a blessed life.

(21:49):

Now, under God's law, David Grohl wouldn't be making some kind of little apology here, this is a death penalty offense. People don't properly understand just how evil, evil adultery is, and it talks about how they're going to try to move on the family and the other children will try to bring daddy back and love him. They're never going to forgive him, forget it, never going to happen, and he doesn't deserve it. See, whenever you cheapen sin, whenever it's not really that big of a deal, then it's not really that horrific.

(22:22):

Now, if he had chopped somebody up and ate their pet, now all of a sudden, if he killed somebody's favorite cat, oh, somebody want him in jail, somebody would want him, horrible punishment. But the fact that he completely destroyed his wife, he betrays his family, hates God, all these things are no big deal because after all, he's going to try to do better next time. No, we have to not cheapen sin. We have to teach it to be the horrible thing that it is. And he completely...

(22:54):

This is like murder. It is literally defined in the concept of murder whenever people are doing this because he is destroying his wife and his children. We need to take a lot more look at these types of things and see if we can help people just not cheapen sin.

(23:16):

Another quick one was two little tables set up, one has the line, the other one has nobody at it. The first has a sign above, it says John 3:16, the other one says John 3:16 through 21. Bible verses people love to quote the Bible, but they don't like context, and that's what this little meme was about. And as I became a Christian a long time ago, that is what mainstream Christianity is, it loves its little Bible verses, but it doesn't like the context, it doesn't like understanding what God actually wants it to say. In other words, they take the Bible verses and they give it their own meaning. They don't want God's meaning, they want their meaning, which is kind of why we don't study Nebuchadnezzar or his proclamation or believe what's in it.

(24:01):

One more meme here to kind of wrap us up here. It says, "Remember, a prostitute will tell you whatever you want to hear as long as you pay her." And it shows a female politician, not just females, it's the males too, all politicians are just going to tell you whatever they want so they can get in office and then do pretty much whatever they want.

(24:22):

So we aren't to be fools, we're supposed to be Christians and learn how to operate in the real world. Don't look at what a person says, look at what they do. And that includes you as well.

(24:35):

Thank you again for joining me for The Last Kingdom, this is Jeremy Walker saying, God bless.