Episode Transcript
All right, so take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Daniel, chapter 4, and God willing will be expounding verses 13 and 14.
Daniel chapter 4, verses 13 and 14.
The title of the message this morning is Fallen Trees.
Fallen Trees.
We're studying the second dream that God gave King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled the Babylonian Empire, from 605 to 562 BC.
And last week we studied the first half of Nebuchadnezzar's second dream as he related to Daniel in verses 10 through 12.
So to refresh our memories, let's go ahead and read those verses together.
The Bible says, thus were the visions of mine head in my bed.
I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth.
And the height thereof was great.
The tree grew and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth.
The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat that is food for all.
The beast of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the bows thereof.
And all flesh was fed of it.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your precious word.
I thank you for each person who's here this morning and for the Answers to prayers you've already answered for us this morning, Lord, for me and Tammy.
We're so grateful, God.
You're such a wonderful, gracious God.
And Father, I pray that you'll take your word and your Holy Spirit will feed us, Lord.
Teach us your word.
Open the eyes of our understanding, and may all praise and glory return to you.
In Jesus' wonderful name.
Amen.
Last week we learned that in Bible prophecy, God frequently uses trees to represent kingdoms and the kings who rule them.
We learned that the beast who dwelt under the tree in Nebuchadnezzar's dream represent the people of this world, while the fowl who dwelt in the branches represented the people uh whom God was protecting who believe in him through the nation that they were lodging in.
In Nebuchadnezzar's dream the tree had beautiful leaves And it had abundant fruit.
And that represented the health and the economic prosperity of that kingdom.
And it was a great tree, the Bible says it reached unto heaven, as if to give himself credit. for the success of the kingdom instead of God.
And to lift himself up above where only God has a right to be.
And now, God willing, we will study the second part of Nebuchadnezzar's dream as we begin in verse 13.
The Bible says, I saw in the visions of mine head Upon my bed, and behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven After witnessing the power and glory of the great tree in his dream, Nebuchadnezzar saw what he described as a watcher and unholy one.
And a watcher is someone who stays awake to keep watch.
Such as a guard, a soldier, or a night watchman.
Okay?
And we don't have to guess who or what this watcher was because of the second description of this person.
Not only was he a watcher, but he was also a holy one.
You see that?
And and so this watcher, this holy one is an angel of God.
In Matthew chapter 25, verse 31, Jesus said, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.
Now while we have that text up here on the screen, and I'm so thankful for our tech team and the great job they do.
So we have holy angels and watch the connection here Between the angels and the throne.
You see that?
The angels and the throne.
You cannot separate. the connection between Jesus holy angels and the throne of God In Revelation chapter 7, verse 11, the Bible says, and all the angels stood round about where?
The throne. and about the elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their faces and worship God.
Once again you cannot accept uh separate God's angels from God's throne.
This watcher was a holy angel.
He was a defender of God's kingdom throne.
You remember in the Garden of Eden when God cast Adam and Eve out?
He put one of those holy ones, he put cherub, a cherubim. outside of the Garden Eden to keep watch and to protect the path, the entrance back in the Garden of Eden to keep them from eating the tree of life.
Remember in the most holy place in the temple There were two holy ones, two angels, and they were keeping watch over the mercy seat and over the unbroken laws where God resided that were underneath that mercy seat.
So, do you see what's happening here?
As a defender of God's kingdom throne, this holy angel, what did he do?
Look back in your text.
He came down from heaven.
You see that?
Do you see what's happening here?
In in its great pride, the tree rose up to heaven.
And so now heaven is coming down to the tree.
The earthly kingdom rose up.
So now the heavenly kingdom comes down.
Now, it doesn't say the watcher fell down from heaven.
Says the watcher, what?
Came down from heaven.
This isn't a fall of the heavenly kingdom.
This is the heavenly kingdom coming down.
To do business with the earthly kingdom.
The same as in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
They then hid them, then what did God do?
He then came down and walked in that garden to say, Adam, where are you and what you done?
He's doing business with Adam.
Adam fell But God came down.
You see the difference?
And so this is an angel coming down to do business on God's behalf. kingdom throne.
Now notice that though the tree had grown taller than everything on earth, It was still under the kingdom of God.
Take your Bible and underscore the words where it says here.
Came down from heaven.
Came down from heaven.
You see that Though the tree had grown taller than everything on earth, it was still under the kingdom of God.
In spite of how tall it had grown, the angel still had to come down to where it was.
And though many men have tried, no man has or ever will be like the Most High.
Here's the kingdom truth for you this morning.
The highest man on earth is still beneath the lowest angel in heaven.
The highest man on earth Is still beneath the lowest angel in heaven.
And when this angel came down from heaven, look now in verse 14, he cried aloud and said, Hew down the tree.
We'd say, cut down the tree, right?
Cut it down.
Underscore the words hew down in your Bible Hewed down.
You see, the tree had risen up to heaven, so the king of heaven is giving the order to chop it down.
Now, when this tree, remember this tree in the first part of the dream, this tree grows all the way up to heaven.
So here it is way up here.
How about this?
I'm going to come up here and make it even taller.
Brother Doug, for your sake, I should stand in the chair on one foot.
Because that's what you would do.
But I'm going to be more modest.
The tree's way up here in heaven.
Now when this tree. whose top is in heaven, when this tree gets cut down, this tree is going to fall from heaven You making the connection here?
This is the imagery that God's given us.
This tree is now going to fall from heaven.
That's very important for us to understand.
And that's one thing that it's going to have in common with the devil.
See how that works?
Describing the consequence of Satan's rebellion in heaven.
In Luke chapter 10 verse 18, Jesus said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven And we read last week in Isaiah's prophecy how speaking to King the King of Babylon, the prophet was speaking to the devil.
Saying, You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will be like the Most High, and yet what happens?
He falls from heaven.
And so once again, there is this connection being made here between what happens to the king of Babylon and his kingdom, his world empire. falling from heaven to what happens to the king of this fallen world, which is the devil. falling from heaven.
Okay?
So he said, I saw, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
And that's why the fall of Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible And the fall of the kings of the Empire of Babylon is a picture of the fall of Satan.
Both kings would become fallen trees.
The angel said, hew down the tree, look back in your text, and cut off his branches.
And cut off his branches.
The tree would be cut down.
Its branches would be cut off.
The branches provided the shade for the beast to dwell under the tree.
And the lodgings provided the uh branches provide the lodgings for the birds to dwell in at the top of the tree in heaven.
And when a tree is cut down, and I imagine being in East Texas, most everybody in here has had the experience sometime in their life. where somebody was cutting a tree down or trimming it up, and next thing you know, you got some orphan squirrels or some orphan baby birds or some raccoon that was in the tree or something like that.
And now you're having to deal with it.
But definitely when you start cutting that tree down, if there's any birds in that tree, they're all going to scatter.
The squirrels are going to scatter.
Everything's going to scatter.
And so when a tree is cut down, the creatures who inhabit it scatter.
The branches being cut off, it shows the great impact that the fall of this kingdom is going to have on all the people who had benefited from it.
We learned last week that the fruit of that tree represented the gross national product of that tree.
That's how we would describe it today.
It's production.
It's produce.
Both believer and unbeliever alike.
The believers were the fowls in the top of the tree.
The unbelievers were the beast under the tree.
Both were being sustained by the tree.
And so both believer and unbeliever alike would suffer from the fall of this tree.
And that's why we are commanded in the Bible to pray for the earthly kings that rule over us In 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 2.
1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 2, we are told to pray and give thanks, quote, for kings.
And for all that are in authority.
Why?
That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
You know, once you make your nest in a tree, you kind of like to stay there.
Once you fluff your nest all up and everything's doing well, you've got the deed to your property.
Maybe you got your home paid off in your later years.
Everything's going well.
You got your income coming in.
Whether it's your job that God's given you or now through retirement or Social Security, which is social security is definitely a benefit of the tree, right?
It's a benefit of the tree.
Benefit of the system, the economic system. that produces that fruit that sustains the people, the economic system that provides the jobs that sustain the people But when the tree falls, the branches get cut off.
The fruit, as we'll see in a minute, gets scattered.
And so that's why we are to pray for the tree that we lodge in Because the strength of the tree allows us to live in a comfortable nest I don't want my tree shaken.
I don't want the branches of this country to be cut off.
I don't want this tree to fall down.
I'm quite comfortable the way things are right now.
Are you?
I don't want havoc in our land.
But if you don't pray for your president and your nation, then you are failing to support the tree that holds you up.
I don't care what president you have.
You don't have to like the president, but you need to pray for the president.
You need to pray for the leaders.
You don't have to like them, but you need to pray for them.
If we don't thank God for the provision that He has provided us through our tree, we might well lose the branches that we dwell in.
Pray for them.
The angel said, look back in the text, not only cut off the branches, but look shake off his leaves Shake off his leaves.
Now, see, you see the detail in this dream?
Listen carefully to the words.
They're not put there uh for uh some type of superfluous meaning.
They're put there for a very good reason.
Shake off his leaves.
Remember the leaves are the health and the beauty of the tree.
I've got fruit trees planted all over my yard.
I love Going out and getting figs and pears and peaches and whatever I get my hands on.
And there's one thing.
Y'all have fruit anyone who has fruit trees in her yard?
Oh my goodness.
Y'all gonna become my house if the tribulation ever starts.
Everyone's gonna be over my house, get fruit off my tree There's one thing about the fruit trees.
Because this tree bears fruit, right?
It had fruit for that was meat for all, the Bible says.
In the springtime, which comes first?
The leaves or the fruit?
Huh?
How many say the leaves?
How many the fruit?
You say the fruit comes first, Jonathan?
Well you need to go back and learn the parable of the tree.
For those of y'all who didn't see him, Jonathan's a Jonathan's a young man.
All right.
The leaves come before the fruit.
It takes the leaves to provide the photosynthesis to produce the fruit.
You don't see fruit pop up and then leaves come after it.
You see the leaves come out.
The leaves are the infrastructure of that tree. that initiate its productivity.
And so by shaking the leaves off this tree He's saying, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to shake the infrastructure of this kingdom.
And when the leaves get shaken, what's going to happen?
The production's going down.
This is what we're seeing here in this dream.
Now watch.
He says, shake off his leaves.
So the removal of the leaves signals the remover of that the removal of that infrastructure needed to support the kingdom.
And notice how the leaves would be removed.
The angel didn't say pluck off the leaves.
He said, shake off the leaves.
Very important.
No matter how tall a tree gets, it can always be shaken.
Just dwell in East Texas during the storm season and you'll see.
We've all seen these big trees that have been there for a long time, and next thing you know, you're driving to work one day or going uptown to the grocery store, and you see that thing just falling over and all of its roots up here.
And next thing you know, you got chainsaw crew coming out there.
But no matter how tall a tree gets, it can always be shaken.
Now remember, The book of Daniel is a book of prophecy.
The fall of the kingdom in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. is a picture of the final fall of this world at the end of time.
It's a picture of the uh the system of government, the worldwide system of government that will exist at the end of time.
And speaking of that time in the book of Revelation, the very last book in the Bible, chapter 3, I'm sorry, chapter 6, verse 13, the Bible says, listen to how it describes.
This end-time collapse of the fallen world system.
Revelation 6.
13.
And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth fell.
Even as a fig tree.
There's another fig.
There's a man, sorry, there's another tree.
There's another fruit tree.
The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is what?
Shaken.
You see that?
Shaken.
In the end time, there's going to be a shaking going on That drops the leaves and fruit's going to fall and ultimately the tree is going to come over and collapse.
It's going to be cut down. when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
A mighty wind.
That's funny because in the book of Acts On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was described as what?
A rushing mighty wind.
Here's the kingdom truth.
The Old Testament prophecies are double references.
Speaking of the things that were, they tell us what shall be The Old Testament prophecies are double references, speaking of the things that were the fall of Babylon in the Old Testament, the fall of Babylon in history, world history.
Speaking of the things that were, they tell us what shall be.
Is that not amazing?
It's absolutely amazing.
At the end of time, everything in this world will be shaken.
Because everything in this world system has been overseen by the devil ruling in the in lies, working in government, trying his best to put together this this rebellious Entity on earth so he can rule as God.
And so at the very end of time, everything in this world that sin and Satan and fallen man has set up.
The system is going to be shaken that we may receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
The kingdom that we and this angel now belong to and the kingdom we're waiting to come.
Speaking of Jesus, our heavenly King.
The book of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12, 28, 5 through 28, Hebrews 12, 25 through 28, the Bible says, see that ye refuse not him that speaketh.
That's talking about Jesus.
For if they escape not, who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. whose voice, this time about in the Old Testament, out in the Sinai Desert, then shook the earth.
You remember when God spoke and the earthquaked?
Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
Remember the stars of heaven fell.
Shaken.
And this world yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made. that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Isn't that amazing?
The things that are going to be shaken are the things that God created.
The creation can be shaken.
The creator cannot.
That's why we want to make sure That we lodge our home in the eternal branches of God Himself, in the covenant that He's made for us in the gospel.
So he goes on to say in verse 28, we're here in Hebrews 12, 28.
Wherefore, on account of this, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved.
That is a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
We're waiting on this kingdom to come that cannot be shaken.
Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence. and godly fear.
The angel said, cut down the tree, cut off its branches, shake off its leaves.
Now look back in your text in Daniel.
What else did he say to do?
And scatter his fruit.
Scatter his fruit.
Remember, the fruit is the wealth of the nation.
It's the gross domestic product.
And now its wealth is going to be what?
Scattered.
Brother Shepard, I couldn't help but think about when Barack Obama said, we just need to spread the wealth around.
The scattering of the wealth is never a good thing.
Creating wealth is good.
Spreading it around is not good.
You see, if you create wealth, you gain more wealth.
If you spread wealth around, wealth is diminished.
You can't spread wealth to one person without taking it from another.
The fruit being scattered here signals both the loss of wealth that this nation would suffer and the loss of every earthly possession. that people will lose when this world falls at the end of time.
Speaking of the things that were, it tells us what shall be.
And so as the fruit gets scattered, I've got chickens at the house.
And if I come out with a little treat with some seed, the chickens would much rather eat out of my hand.
They need off the ground.
And that right, Brother Jesse?
He knows he's had chickens.
You throw that seed, they gotta go around looking everywhere for it.
But boy, you've got it in your hand and they just wealth is being scattered.
Which brings scarcity.
When the wealth is scattered, wealth becomes scarce.
And when you look in the book of the Revelation, it's going to get that way.
It's going to get hard. in the during the Great Tribulation.
The fruit being scattered again signals the loss of the wealth of this nation, and that every earthly possession people will have at the end of time will come to loss because you can't take the things of this world with you which is why jesus said labor for heavenly treasures that you can store up in heaven Not here on earth Because that fruit's going to be scattered.
That tree is going to be cut down.
The angel said, look back in your text.
Let the beast get away from under it.
The beast who were dwelling under its shade.
Let him leave it.
And the fowls from his branches.
Let him fly away.
The fall of this great kingdom would cause a destabilization in the economy. in the stability that its citizens once enjoyed.
When the tree fell, they would no longer be able to rely on the system that once nourished them.
We take great comfort in knowing.
I was looking at an advertisement for some investments the other day.
And someone who wasn't financially savvy said, is this FDIC insured?
And uh they just didn't understand.
And uh we take great comfort in knowing that the money we put in a bank is protected by the FDIC But the FDIC is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.
So if the United States ever falls, so does the FDIC, and if that falls, so does our wealth.
So does the stability of our nation and the blessings that we've enjoyed from it.
When Israel fell, to Babylon.
The fowl who lodged in that nation's branches, they had to restlessly fly away.
That's how Daniel got into Babylon.
He had been in the branches of Israel.
So now lodging in Babylon, but I'll give you a little spoiler on this dream.
Soon those branches would be cut off too.
And that's why the only eternal home for man is the kingdom of God's dear Son.
Speaking of the fall of this world, in Revelation chapter 14, verse 8, at the end of time, listen to how Revelation 14, 8 describes the fall of this world at the end of time.
The Bible says, and there followed another angel.
Look at look, another angel, you see, another holy one, saying, Babylon is fallen.
Watch that.
Babylon was 500 years before Christ came.
It has already fallen But in the book of the Revelation, Babylon falls again.
Speaking of the things that were, the prophecies tell us what shall be.
You see how that works?
So he says here, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
People who don't study the Old Testament as we're doing by God's grace in Daniel this morning will never understand these passages in Revelation, for as you can see.
They are the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.
In the Old Testament, we learn the moral of the prophecy.
In the New Testament, we learn the meaning.
In the end, the lofty tree shall fall, and the sun shall rise and reign forever.
For he is the tree that cannot be shaken, and his leaves shall never fall.
And thank God the people who dwell in his branches shall never fall as well.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father, for setting your word in a clear light to us.
Thank you, Father, for giving us understanding.
Thank you, Father God, for giving us these prophecies.
Thank you, Father God, for giving us your word so that we can read and be informed, that we do not walk around in this world as children of the night who cannot see.
But children of the day who know, praise God, full well where they're going.
In Jesus' precious name we thank you.
Amen.
