After King Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed the dream, He made a big beautiful statue all of gold.   He was puffed up in his heart thinking that he would always be the only one to be king over the whole world, instead of the five kingdoms like God showed him in the dream.

Then he brought men who could play music real well and made all his people everywhere to bow down to the statue, not the Lord our Maker, when the music was playing. But the statue couldn’t walk or talk or do anything. It couldn’t help anyone or make anyone happy.

Anyone who wouldn’t bow down to the statue was tied up and thrown into a big room full of fire, called a furnace. Some bad men of the king hated Daniel and his three friends so told on them that they weren’t bowing down to the statue.

The king called them and gave them another chance to bow down to his statue but they wouldn’t do it at all. They told him, No, Our God is able to save us from the fire, and even if He doesn’t, even if you kill us, we won’t bow down to your statue, ever.

So the king had his soldiers tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and make the oven seven time hotter and then threw them in it. The room was so hot that the fire burned up the soldiers that took Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to put them in the furnace.

Then the king looked and was amazed. He said, Didn’t we throw three men into the furnace. I see four men walking around in there. And one of them looks like the Son of God.

Then the king took them out of the furnace and all the people crowded around them to see the men who the fire couldn’t hurt. Their clothes didn’t even smell smoky.

Nebuchadnezzar said, I make a law that all people everywhere say nothing bad about the God of Shadrach, Mechach, and Abednego. Anyone who does will be chopped up into little pieces and their houses made a potty.

Because there is no God anywhere that can save like the God of heaven saved these men. Then the king made Shadrach, Mechach, and Abednego princes in his kingdom.

King Nebuchadnezzar, in Babylon, the place where some children of Israel had been captured and taken, wrote what happened to him and sent the letter to all the people of all the countries all around the world.

He said, I think its good to show you the signs and wonderful things the High God did to me. His signs are great big and the amazing things He does are very strong and full of wonder.

His kingdom lasts forever and ever and he rules over everything everywhere through all the years and all the families and all the countries of the world for always.

Now here is what happened to me, said the king. I was resting in my house and enjoying everything in my palace when I saw a dream that made me real scared.

So I sent to all the smart men in my country to come to me and tell me what it meant. So all the magicians came and all the ones who read the stars and all the scientists and all the fortunetellers came to me but couldn’t tell me what the dream said to me.

But then at the last, Daniel came in to me. The Spirit of the holy God is in him. I told him about my dream.

I said to Daniel, I know that the Spirit of the holy God is in you and no secret is too hard for you to know.

I was on my bed resting and saw a tree in the middle of the earth. It was very tall and reached up to heaven and its branches spread out over the whole world.

The tree had beautiful leaves and there was lots of fruit on it, enough for food to feed all the birds and animals and people in the world.

Then I saw a watcher, a holy one, come down from heaven and yelled out real loud, Cut down the tree and shake off its leaves and throw it fruit all around.

Let the animals get out from under it and all the birds in it fly away. But leave the stump in the ground and the roots going down with a band of iron and brass. And let the dew of earth make it wet.

Give him a heart like an animal for 7 years. This is set strong by the watchers and demanded by the word of the holy ones so that all people living will know that it is the Most High God that is in charge, ruling over everything everywhere in the kingdom of men and He puts in charge over it anyone He wants, the lowest men.

So now, Daniel, the king said, Tell me what this means. You can do it. The Spirit of the holy God is in you. Daniel sat still and quiet for an hour, he was so amazed at the dream. Then the king said, Don’t let it dream upset you. Tell me what it means.

So Daniel said, The tree you saw that grew strong and reached up into heaven that all the world could see with its beautiful leaves and food for all and under it the animals rested in its shade and the birds lived in its branches, the tree is you, O king.

You have grown strong and great and reach to heaven and rule over everything all over the world.

The watcher you saw is a holy one coming down from heaven saying, Cut down the tree but leave the roots and stump kept right where they are with a band of iron and brass, and let it be that way for 7 years, this is what it means.

This is what the Most High says about you. Men will chase you from your palace and your job of ruling over everyone and you will live in the field like an animal with the animals for 7 years until you learn to know that it is the Most High God who causes everything to happen and rules over everything and gives the ruling to whoever He wants.

The stump being kept with its roots in the ground means that after the seven years you will be made the king over the world again, when you know that it is the Most High who is really in charge over everything.

Daniel said then, Please listen to what I say so maybe this won’t happen to you. Stop turning away from God and do what He says is right. Don’t be puffed up but be kind to the poor, helping them.

All that the dream showed happened to king Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord gave him 1 year to turn away from doing bad, but he didn’t.

He was walking around the palace of his kingdom bragging how he had made the kingdom great by himself and bragging about all the beauty and splendor of his kingdom, when a voice came from heaven saying to him, Your kingdom is taken away from you.

You will be chased away from people and live with the animals. You will eat the grass like a cow for 7 years, until you know that the Most High is in charge over the kingdom of men and gives it to who He wants.

That same hour it happened like the Lord said. The king was chased away and lived out in the fields like an animal and ate grass like the cows. His body was wet with the dew and his hair grew long like eagles feathers and his fingernail turned like birds claws.

At the end of 7 years he looked up to heaven and his right thinking came back to him and he was happy to know the God of heaven and said good things to him. He told the best high words to the Lord who is in charge over everything.

All the ones who live in the world are nothing next to the Lord. He does what He wants in all the armies of the angels in the heavens too, and all with the people in the world.

No one can stop anything He wants. Who can say to Him, What do you think You are doing?

At the time the king’s thinking came back and king Nebuchadnezzar was put in charge over the kingdom of the world again, and he was made very great and majestic. All his leaders who had left came back to listen to him and obey him.

He said, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, hold high and say the best words about the King of heaven who does everything true and right. He knows how to bring down the puffed up ones.