Eye of the Beholder with Pastor Ben Carruthers

A terrifying dream wakes up the most powerful king on earth, and his response is pure panic: “Tell me the dream and its interpretation or you die.” That pressure lands on Daniel, a teenager in exile with no leverage except faith. What happens next isn’t just a famous Bible story from Daniel chapter 2, it’s a mirror for how we react when life feels unstable and we’re desperate for control.

We walk through Nebuchadnezzar’s impossible demand, Daniel’s night of prayer, and the stunning revelation of the statue dream and the rock “not cut by human hands.” Along the way, we keep coming back to one simple theme: God’s sovereignty is real, but the real difference shows up in our response. Daniel runs to God first, prays for mercy, prays for people who aren’t even on his team, and then gives God all the credit. Nebuchadnezzar runs to the tools of this world, lashes out in fear, and even ends up worshiping the wrong thing when the truth is right in front of him.

From a story about being pulled farther and farther into dangerous surf, to a prison ministry testimony of radical transformation, we connect Daniel 2 to everyday struggles like anxiety, resentment, spiritual drift, and the question of who we trust when we’re out of answers. The gospel lands with Romans 5:8: while we’re still sinners, Christ dies for us, which means there’s no “too far gone” for God’s grace.

If this challenged you, subscribe for more, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s your first move when trouble hits: prayer or control?

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Transcript

Series Setup And Today’s Theme

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My name is Ben Caruthers. I'm the associate pastor here at Central. Great to be with you, worshiping. And for those of you online, I know there are a few. The cabin season are approaching, so glad you're able to tune in that way. And uh yeah, just glad to be here this morning as we dive into week two of our sermon series on the book of Daniel. And so we started last week with this idea of pattern to promise. And the pattern is human behavior. Throughout the Old Testament, throughout the book of Daniel, throughout the New Testament in our lives today, we see this pattern of rebelling and drifting and moving away from God. This pattern that continues to go in our life, but comes back, always, always, always comes back to the promise of God, which is simply that we are children of God and forgiven and brought back into the fold of God's grace and mercy. So this idea of pattern to promise, I love that we're doing Daniel, and I've talked to a lot of people who are excited about it, because Daniel's one of those books that you may know a couple stories from. But our goal over the next few weeks is to dive deeper into these stories and maybe find a little something that we missed the first, the second, the third time that we've read through Daniel. And so this morning, as we go into Daniel 2, we're obviously reminded of God's power and control, which is what we talked about last week. And it's on stage in a big way in this chapter. But we want to look at this week, it's a little bit deeper than that. And the sermon title is called The Eye of the Beholder. The Eye of the Beholder, because what we're gonna see here is God's power on display in an incredible way. And then we're gonna see two men respond to that power in two different ways. The same power, two different responses. The same picture, two different

Optical Illusions And Two Viewpoints

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views. So you guys have probably seen some of these over the years, these optical illusion images that you know you see one thing, but there's also another one there. So let's look at this one here together. So raise your hand if you see a duck. Raise your hand if you see a rabbit. Raise your hand if you don't like raising your hand in public and in large groups. Few of you. Yeah, right? So the duck is proof. Now, when I said, Do you see a rabbit? I heard, oh, right? It's probably just same picture, and that was about 50-50. How about this one? How many of you see two an elderly couple looking at each other? How many of you see within their faces a gentleman in a sombrero playing guitar and someone listening? Yeah. That one took me a while. It's just kind of a creepy image, actually. I'm like, whoa, what is this? How about this one? How many of you see just a beautiful woman in a flowy hat? How many of you see an old hag in a flowy hat? The same image, different ways of viewing it. This morning in Daniel chapter 2, we see, Daniel sees, King Nebuchadnezzar sees God's power in an incredible, amazing way, but they respond completely different. It's a story of two men responding to God in two completely different ways. And so this morning, as we dive into Daniel chapter 2, that's what I want us to focus on this morning. Is the reality that we know, at least we hope we know or believe in our hearts that God is in power and is in control. And how are you going to respond to that?

Prayer And Hearing Daniel Fresh

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So as we dive into Daniel chapter 2, will you pray with me? God, we give you thanks and praise for this morning and opportunity to come together to dive into this ancient text with this ancient story. Lord, I pray that many of us have heard the story of Daniel and his struggles. We've heard the story of his friends in the furnace and Daniel in the lion's den and today, Nebuchadnezzar's dream. We've heard these stories. So Lord, let us hear it with a new set of ears, new eyes, a new heart to receive your word this morning, and maybe challenge us a little bit on how we respond to the power of you in our lives today. Amen.

Babylon’s Pressure And Daniel’s Stakes

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So we have to set the stage here, right? We have to tell the story of what's going on here in Daniel chapter two. And so we've we remembered from last week that Daniel is just a teenager when Babylon comes and uh takes over the southern kingdom of Judah. And uh Babylon takes all the best and the brightest, the most handsome, strapping young men, uh, probably of some kind of power or from a prestigious family, and they take all those groups of young men and they bring them to Babylon to indoctrinate them into their culture. So he was just a teenager. Chapter two starts off just a couple years into Nebuchadnezzar's reign, and he's the king of Babylon. So Daniel is still a teenager at this point, but is included in this group of wise men. He's a wise man in training. So Daniel chapter two tells us that Nebuchadnezzar has this dream, a horrible, awful dream that he wakes up from in the middle of the night, and it was so bad that he can't go back to

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream And Threat

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sleep. And in the morning, he calls his closest wise men and magicians into the room, and he says this. Check this out from Daniel chapter two. The king answered the Shaldeans. Now, the Chaldeans is the group of the wise men and the magicians. It's just a group of people that he would call his closest wise men counselors, magicians. This is a public decree. If you do not tell me both the dream and its interpretation, so Nebuchadnezzar is not going to tell them the dream. He wants them to tell him his dream. So if you do not tell me both the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. He needs some anger management therapy. This guy's a little off the rails. But if you do tell me the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore, tell me the dream and its interpretation. So Nebuchadnezzar brings his best and brightest. Daniel and his crew aren't really there at this moment. They're not part of this inner circle yet. And he says, I have this horrible dream, and I want you to tell me what it was and interpret it. And these magicians and wise men go back and forth throughout the opening chapter, saying, King, just you know, give us a little hint, right? Give us a little hint of what's going on. No one can do this. No human has the power to do this. And so Nebuchadnezzar gets an answer that no king wants, and the answer is no. And so, because of that, he sends out his chief executioner to go and kill all of the wise men, all of the magicians, and their households. Now, this included Daniel, Rakshak, and Benny, all of his buddies. This included all of them. And so our scripture picked off today where the chief executioner goes to Daniel's house, or maybe probably more likely placed in the palace, because that's where he was, and he goes there to kill Daniel and his buddies. And he does this because that is what the king wants

Daniel Prays For Mercy Together

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them to do. Well, Daniel, very smart, very wise, says, goes to the king himself, which is incredibly scary to do, right? He goes to the king and he says, Listen, king, give me one night. Give me one night to see if I can interpret. First of all, hear what your dream is, interpret your dream, and I'll come back tomorrow morning. Just give me one night. Daniel 2, verse 18 says this. Then Daniel went to his home and informed his companions, Hananiah, Meshel, and Azariah, those are the Hebrew names of Rakh Shak and Beni, and told them to seek mercy from God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions, with the rest of the wise men of Babylon, might not perish. So the king says, All right, you have one night. And the first thing that Daniel does is goes back to his group of friends and says, Listen, we need to pray. Because if we can't figure this out, we're all gone. Not just me, not just you, but all of the wise men in the entire palace. The king is gonna wipe us all out. So his first response is to go and to pray. And of course, in the middle of the night, God's power shows up, and Daniel is given the dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had the night before, and how to interpret it.

The Statue Dream And God’s Kingdom

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And it's this incredible, crazy dream of this giant statue. Looks something like this. There it is. Handsome man. This giant statue. This giant statue is made of gold, silver, bronze, metal, clay, all these different types of materials. And they represent the kingdoms of the world. The head of gold represents Babylon, then the Persian Empire, then the Greeks, then Rome, and then the clay feet represent Rome shattered. This statue represents over the next thousand years of who will have power on earth. And in this dream, there is a boulder ripped from a mountain and thrown at the statue's feet, which makes the entire statue crumble. And it's known in Scripture, it's said in Scripture that there is no way a human or any man could rip this boulder out of the mountain. This dream is a clear interpretation of God's power and control on earth. His kingdom is going to come, and his kingdom is far stronger and better than any of the kingdoms of the world. And so Daniel is given this vision, this dream, and goes to Nebuchadnezzar and tells them all about it. He says, I got it. Here's your dream. This is what you dreamed, and this is the interpretation. And King Nebuchadnezzar responds to this. Daniel 4, 46 through 47 says this. I think I jumped ahead one, Mark. Sorry. Go ahead and hit uh Yeah, here we go. This is the king's response to Daniel. Then King Nebuchadnezzar threw himself down before Daniel and worshiped him. And he commanded his people to offer sacrifices and burnt sweet incense before him. The king said to Daniel, Truly your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of your mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret. And Scripture tells us, he goes on. Now, this is a big moment in Daniel and his buddies' uh history, because they are elevated to an even higher place of power. And this is where people start to turn on Daniel and his buddies. And this is what we see in chapter two. Now, on the face, it's so clear that this passage tells us of God's everlasting power, right? That is the message to King Nebuchadnezzar, to God's people. That's what's going on here. But I want us to go a little bit deeper and ask ourselves in the view of this awesome display of God's power, how did Daniel respond and how did Nebuchadnezzar respond? In seeing this display of God's power, we have the same display of God's power, two very different responses.

Daniel’s Response: Prayer Mercy Humility

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So, first we have Daniel. First, we have Daniel, and in view of this horrible news that he and his buddies are going to be murdered because no one can think of this dream or interpret it. The first thing that Daniel does is goes to God. Goes to God and prays for God's mercy. He gets together with his buddies and says, Listen, we need to pray to God because we are at the end of the line. We are in the worst situation that we can think of, and we have to go to God. Daniel 2, 17 through 18 again says this. Then Daniel went to his home and informed his companions, Hanani and Michel, and Isaiah, and told them to seek mercy from God of heaven concerning this mystery. They're in the thick of it, the worst of the worst, and the first place that he goes is to God. Central, my question is to you where or who do you go when you're in trouble? Daniel's first response was to go before God. Think about that for a little bit. The second way that Daniel responds to the power of God is in this same passage. Daniel responds by the power of God by praying for himself, by praying for his friends, but then it says to save himself, his friends, and all of the wise men. Now, all of these wise men wouldn't be his buddies. They would be in competition with Daniel. Matter of fact, these wise men and magicians are the same guys that in chapter three and later on that you see them trying to get Daniel to be put to death. They're the same guys that put Rakh Shack and Benny in the furnace in chapter three. It's this group of people, you can label it Daniel's enemies or adversaries, however you want to view it. Daniel prays for their lives. He just doesn't go before God and say, God save me. He doesn't say, God save me and my friends. He says, God save us all, including those who see things differently than me. Central, how do you treat those who see things different than you? So he goes to God right away. He prays for his enemies. And third, he gives all credit and glory to God. All credit and glory to God. And we read that, we're like, yeah, that's expected. This is Daniel. He's the hero. That's what's supposed to happen. But remember, he's in front of the most powerful person on the planet. And he just did exactly what no one else could. He could have asked for anything. He could have taken all the glory. He could have taken a little bit of the glory, but he gives all the credit to God. And he says it beautifully here in verse 20 through 25. This is Daniel's response after he's given the dream and the interpretation. Praise be to the name of God forever and ever. Wisdom and power are his. You have given me wisdom and power. You have made known to me what we asked, what was asked of you. You have made known to us the dream of this king. That's an incredible way to say thanks. And it makes my way of saying thanks, God. It's like, oh, I gotta put a little more time and effort into it. This is pretty good. But he gives all the glory and credit to God. Look at this from verse 27. Daniel replied, There are no wise men, enchanters, and magicians. He's talking to King Nebuchadnezzar or fortune tellers who can reveal the king's secret. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the future. Not one little mention of, like, well, I did have the dream, you know. My name's Daniel, don't forget. Everything gives glory and credit to God. This is how Daniel responds. Daniel responds to God's power in the world by going directly to God when he's in trouble, by praying for his enemies, and giving all the glory and credit to God. That's Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Response: Misplaced Worship

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How did Nebuchadnezzar respond? The first thing that he did when he woke up and he had a problem, he went to the people of this world. He went to the wise men, the magicians, those who worshiped and prayed 12, 15, 20 different gods. He went and asked them for help. And after that, he was gonna kill him. When Nebuchadnezzar was scared and feared for his life, he tried to find the answers in the things of this world. That's how he responded. He failed to see it as God, but still Daniel. Look at Daniel verse 40 something, 46. Then King Nebuchadnezzar threw himself before Daniel and worshiped him, and he commanded his people to offer sacrifices and burnt sweet incense before him. Then King Nebuchadnezzar, after being told by Daniel that this is all of God, threw himself down before who? Daniel. And worshiped who? Daniel. The display and power of God is there for him to be seen. And the person who brought him this news is telling him exactly who brought this power to him. And he still doesn't see it. He still worships the people of this world. And even if he did for a moment think, oh, maybe Daniel's God is pretty powerful. Chapter 3, about 15 years later, after this moment, Sonia will talk about this next week. Nebuchadnezzar builds a statue of a giant person. Pretty much what he saw in his vision in chapter 2. And he tells everyone, worship this idol. Just 15 years pass and he forgets everything. This is how Nebuchadnezzar responds to the power of God. By seeking the answers in this world, by still not seeing the power of God, even when it's told to you in front of your face, and he forgets all about it in a moment's time. So my question to you, Central, who do you relate to this morning?

Who Do We Resemble In Real Life

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When you hear these stories of two men responding to God's power, who do you relate to? And I wish I could stand up here and tell you, Daniel. Man, I look at that, that's me. The first thing I do when I'm in trouble, I go to God. I pray for my enemies. But when I break this story down, I look more like a Nebuchadnezzar. I seem to forget about the things that God has done in my life. I seem to run to the things of this world to solve the problems of my life. Who do you relate to? Daniel turns to God immediately. Do you want to know who the first person is that I turn to when I'm in trouble or I'm in need? You're looking at him. Worst place to start. Someone in the first service said, Your wife. I'm like, that's a good better answer. I go to me because you know what? Because I can take care of the problems. I can take all of the weight and put it on my shoulders until I can't. And then I crumble. Why don't I run to God? Why do I think I can do it and take care of it? Daniel turns to God immediately. How about treat your enemies the way that he treated? Prayed for his enemies to save their lives. You can ask any one of my kids that when I'm driving and there's a guy on my bumper and he speeds around me real fast, the first thing I do is pray to God that he gets a ticket immediately. It probably just happened yesterday, didn't it, Maya? Yeah, exactly. It's my enemy. Ask me how many times I've prayed for Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love. Zero. Ask me how many times I've prayed for those who think differently politically than me. Ask you how many times I've prayed for those who think different in a faith than me. Not so much. Daniel prayed for his enemies. What about all the credit given to God? When's the last time that I woke up with just an attitude of gratitude for the good and the bad in my life? When I said thanks to God for him being in control and not me. Even if it looks scary. Daniel had a moment where he could have taken all of the glory and he gave it back to God. Yeah, I look a little bit more like Nebuchadnezzar. I don't think we mean to. I don't think we wake up in the morning and be like, well, I'm gonna do this and this and this, and we want to look more like our goal is to be like Daniel. We read this story and he's the hero, and we want to dare to be a Daniel, just like the song says. But somehow we get away from that.

The Undertow Story Of Slow Drift

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For years, I've brought uh high school students down to Florida Beach Camp and we're going there again in July. And I went there as a kid, and so now I've had the privilege to bring students down there, and it's a pretty cool place. One year in particular, I was in my mid-20s, so pretty young, into the youth ministry thing. I was leading a group of guys who were like 17, 18, they were all seniors, and I had led them forever. I had them in VBS, and so we had built a pretty strong relationship. Well, it happened this day that there were like hurricane like situations going on in Panama City Beach, not an actual hurricane, but the winds were really bad and the undertow was horrible. And they flew the red flag, which means stay out of the water. And so that morning I get up in front of all the leaders and all the students and I say, hey, listen, there's a red flag flying. We're not going in the water today. It's extremely dangerous. Don't even think. About it. Everyone's okay, okay. So we go to small groups. I'm sitting here with these young men who I've been with for probably over 10 years, seeing them from elementary, middle to now graduating seniors, and we're discussing our Bible study, and we look out the window and we see the weather. It's crazy, man. Rain's coming in hard, but we see incredible waves in the ocean. And we love to surf. And so they look at me and they're like, you know, we can go outside. You didn't say we couldn't go outside. I'm like, you're right. I didn't say that. Let's go outside. So we walk outside and we're standing in the sand, and the water's just beating down on us, and the waves are getting bigger and bigger. And they look at me and they said, you know, we don't have to surf. We could just dip our toes in the water. I was like, you're right, we can do that. So all of us go and dip our toes in the water. And the waves are big and the undertoes powerful, man. You can just see the surf would be awesome. And I've been with these guys for so long, and this is kind of our last year. They're gonna go to college, and they look at me, and we're like, let's make a memory. And we jump in the ocean and we surf incredible waves. And then I come in, and there's one of my adult leaders staring at me. I was like, uh-oh. And I knew I had done wrong. I knew I made mistakes, and I had to get up in front of all those students and all those leaders and apologize and ask for their forgiveness. And it's something I would never do again, parents, if you're thinking about letting your kids come to Florida. All right? I won't do it. But I think that's how it works for us in our life. I knew going out there was the wrong choice. But I mean, going outside and standing in the sand, that's fine. And they kind of pull you a little bit further in and be like, well, I can go stand in the water. We're not surfing. Yeah, we can do that. And the next thing you know, man, you're in the middle of the ocean where you shouldn't be. And you know it. I think that's how we can look like Nebuchadnezzar's. I think that's how it happens. But here's the great part.

Romans 5:8 And God’s Pursuing Grace

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It's when you and me are out in the ocean where we shouldn't be, and we've been pulled in there by the world or the temptations or whatever it might be, and we're out there and we think, man, I've screwed up so much. How am I ever gonna get back? There's no way this is it, this is the end. It's in that moment in our lives today when God's power shines through. Because you can't go far enough in the ocean, you can't do enough things wrong that God won't come after you. That God will send his son to die for you. Because Romans 5.8 says, While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. If we are looking for the power of God in our lives, that's it. It's that in this church this morning sits a couple hundred sinners who maybe look a little bit more like Nebuchadnezzar, but the power of God says it's okay. Because I came to die for the Nebuchadnezzars. I came to die for those who are far out in the ocean and think there's no return. Because this is the power and love and grace and forgiveness of God. Romans 5.8 also says this in the message translation. And I love this. Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't and doesn't wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for the sacrificial death when we were too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do, anyways. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God puts his love on the line for us by offering his son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. This is the power of God that we live in today. And it's on display in your life today. And it's incredible when we open up and see it with our own eyes.

Prison Testimony And Changed Hearts

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I did my clinical pastoral education at Stillwater Prison, where I met a bunch of inmates there. And one gentleman, I'll call him D. He was incredible from the get-go, man. He was always smiling, and he'd been there for a long time, 15 plus years, serving a life sentence. He was smiling way too much for a man whose future did not look that great. Now always smiling. And his job in Stillwater was to minister to inmates in the hole, solitary confinement, the worst of the worst places. And I heard stories of things that happened there, and it's awful. And D chose to go there. Chose to go to this place where no one would want to go and to show these inmates love. He chose to do this. He was an incredible man. And he shared his story a little bit. And when he was in prison the first few years, he came to know Christ and had this radical transformation. He wanted to share that with those people in those cells by themselves. Incredible story. But what makes his story even more incredible is this is I knew that he was in there probably for murder because he would give him a life sentence. And the last day we went around and shared our testimonies and we really put it all out there and became vulnerable. It was one of the worst days of my life, by the way. And he told me, he told the group what he had done. And what he had done was murdered the mother of his daughter. And that's how I was in there serving a life sentence. And God had taken someone like that, and by his power changed his heart to minister to the worst of the worst in one of the worst places. He had transformed his life where he is starting to go to the family and say, I'm sorry. He's rebuilding a relationship with his daughter. That's the power of our God on display. Because God doesn't give up on any of us.

The Question: How Will You Respond Today

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So, Central Lutheran Church, the question I want to leave you with this morning is this. Not how are you going to respond to this next week, how are you going to respond to this next month or a year? Don't plan it out. But today, this morning, how are you going to respond to the power of God in your life? Today. How are you going to respond to it? Because you've been presented with a story. You've been presented with the good news of the gospel. Here it is. Christ came to die for you. No matter how far you've drifted off, no matter what you've done, God came and died for you. This is the good news. What are you going to do with it today? Are you going to make that phone call to that person you don't want to talk to? You're going to offer someone forgiveness who you feel like you shouldn't? Are you going to serve your enemy? Are you simply going to live today with an attitude of gratitude? And in all things, good and bad, give thanks and praise to God. So today, Central Lutheran Church, how will you respond? Amen.