Last week, in our message series from the book of Daniel called Living With Lions, Pastor Bart introduced us to our first lion, Ambition. In this week’s message, Pastor Bart talks about our second lion, Control.

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Daniel 2:1-11
¹One night during the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that disturbed him so much that he couldn’t sleep. ²He called in his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers, and he demanded that they tell him what he had dreamed. As they stood before the king, ³he said, “I have had a dream that troubles me. Tell me what I dreamed, for I must know what it means.”
⁴Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, “Long live the king! Tell us the dream, and we will tell you what it means.”
⁵But the king said to the astrologers, “I am serious about this. If you don’t tell me what my dream was and what it means, you will be torn limb from limb, and your houses will be demolished into heaps of rubble! ⁶But if you tell me what I dreamed and what the dream means, I will give you many wonderful gifts and honors. Just tell me the dream and what it means!”
⁷They said again, “Please, Your Majesty. Tell us the dream, and we will tell you what it means.”
⁸The king replied, “I can see through your trick! You are trying to stall for time because you know I am serious about what I said. ⁹If you don’t tell me the dream, you will be condemned. You have conspired to tell me lies in hopes that something will change. But tell me the dream, and then I will know that you can tell me what it means.”
¹⁰The astrologers replied to the king, “There isn’t a man alive who can tell Your Majesty his dream! And no king, however great and powerful, has ever asked such a thing of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer! ¹¹This is an impossible thing the king requires. No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they do not live among people.”

Reflect

In Chapter 2 of Daniel we take a look at the Lion of Control. Many of us have had a dream where we felt completely helpless. You finally wake up, sometimes sweating and breathing hard, because it seems so real. A lot of times, our dream made us feel completely out of control. What did you do about it?
Nebuchadnezzar had this type of dream. There was something disturbing about this dream and there is some sense that Nebuchadnezzar didn’t fully remember the details of his dream but had a general sense that the dream was unusually significant. He also didn’t trust his advisors. He thought that they had been making things up in the past.
Nebuchadnezzar faced a problem. He felt out of control. He knew the dream was significant but didn’t know what it meant. So, he attempted to regain some control by threatening his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers. He threatened their life by telling them to not only telling him what his dream meant, but also what he dreamed about. He took matters into his own hands and transferred his lack of control to them. In their answer, his advisors reflected their lack of control, “There isn’t a man alive who can tell Your Majesty his dream!” They couldn’t take control because the king had handed them an impossible situation.
They then proceeded to acknowledge the lesson that we should all take away from today’s reading. That any control we have over any situation comes from God down to us and not through anything we can do.

Respond

1. What happened that made Nebuchadnezzar feel out of control? How did he deal with it?
2. What made his advisors feel out of control? How did they deal with it?
3. What lesson can we take away from today’s reading?
4. How can you deal with feeling out of control?

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