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The Pride of Nebuchadnezzar

By Trent Willcocks

Have you ever been selfish?

That plainly said is, pride. Pride is thinking about yourself more than you should, thinking about your greatness in contrast to others. It is the deception of our heart to believe ourselves to be the hero of our story. Here we have King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon going head-to-head with the Almighty. He is completely obsessed with himself; he built a giant self-image of gold and commanded the people to worship or die. You might stop here and think, “I’m not like Nebuchadnezzar, I have no need of this devotion”, but it might be that very thought itself that proves you wrong. We have all made our lives our own pursuit, we seek this and covet that, we pursue success and want promotion. We crave respect and desire appreciation… We have, yet need more… We know God, yet our minds are riddled with ways to please ourselves. We stretch to grasp the things God has for us and fail because we did not submit, honour, or ask Him… and we wonder why we live in anxiety and confusion, even as Christians.

Here in these passages, we find the reality of our life’s condition and the cure.

Ch. 4 is the culmination of the king’s spiritual journey, which upon Daniel’s arrival into Babylon, has seen him spiritually surpassed at every turn. He takes a humbling journey of encounters with the powerful God of Daniel. Daniel is a testimony of a man in sole ownership to God. He knows exactly who he is, even amid Babylon - the epitome of sin and lawlessness. It is no wonder why the bible depicts Babylon as a prophetic image of the kingdom of sin, and the ultimate sin of this nation being ‘pride’. Babylon is prophetically used throughout scripture to tell us how our creaturely nature is a prideful one, one that fails to recognize the sovereignty of God and that one day Babylon will be overthrown (Rev. 18:21, Ish. 13:19).

Nebuchadnezzar comes as a broad illustration of God’s dealings with us. Ch. 4 demonstrates that when we walk in pride – our life’s natural custom, we act like a beast of the field. God punished Nebuchadnezzar because he thought himself great, and God thinks this is a beastly frame of mind, therefore making him like a beast. This is a great lesson of God’s sovereignty being taught versus the emptiness of Babylonian wisdom and power in which God uses Daniel (his servant) to continually out-perform, demonstrating that there is only one God, and all other gods are the works or the pride of men. Be sure of this, we are naturally inclined like Nebuchadnezzar to walk in pride. Pride attracts sin, and sin, destruction. Jesus says that the meek shall inherit the earth, the pure shall see God, the kingdom of heaven belongs to those poor in spirit (Matt 5:3-10). Our world teaches us that it is weak to be meek and that meekness will profit you nothing. The opposite is true, we serve an upside-down God, where the way up is down, the way to greatness is to serve, the way to wealth is giving, the way to power and authority is surrender. Daniel, who was the opposite to Nebuchadnezzar, purposed in his heart to serve the Lord. We see him deny the king's food to not defile himself in ch.1 to show a wicked land that God is better for you than the best pleasures of Babylon. He was a living testimony that God in him made him what Babylon desperately desired. God gave Daniel wisdom, authority, strength, honour, favour, health, wealth, and when offered greatness by the king, Daniel declined because it was God whom he served and God who truly rewards (Prov. 11:2)

Humility cures worldliness. We see in James 4:1-10 that when we submit and draw near to God by removing our crown not only will the devil flee, but God will also draw near to lift us up, higher than our own striving. This is done through repentance. Have you repented recently? Repentance is allowing God to take control of your beastly life and lead you to live right. The moment Nebuchadnezzar repents and blesses the Most High God is the moment he is restored from being like a beast.

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity to serve You! Please help us to not let pride get in the way of pursuing You and being an example to others. Bring people around us who can point out any areas of our lives that we need to submit to You. Humble us in Your name. Amen.