“The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?” Daniel 4:30, KJV.
Focal Passage: Daniel 4
Pride is defined as a sense of one's own proper dignity or value; also it can also be pleasure or satisfaction taken in an achievement, possession, or association. This can easily lead to a feeling of self-sufficiency, self-centeredness, and arrogance. “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate,” Proverbs 8:13, KJV.
Daniel 4 goes further with the rule of Nebuchadnezzar. As touched on in the previous post, King Nebuchadnezzar had seen the display of God’s power through the interpretation of a dream he had. No one outside of Daniel, the servant of God, could interpret this dream. In the dream interpretation the Lord provided to Nebuchadnezzar his future. In this chapter of Daniel, it is made known that the dream is indeed referring to the king and all that will happen to him. “This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king: That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will,” Daniel 4:24-25, KJV.
Just as in the previous chapter (Daniel 3) Nebuchadnezzar soon lost sight of who was in charge. The words from his mouth soon became self-centered instead of God centered. “In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them,” Proverbs 14:3, KJV. The king began professing things as if he was in charge. One thing we have to consistently realize is that everything that we have is not ours—it’s God’s. This is an example of where we could lose our heads. “The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee,” Daniel 4:30-31, KJV.
Often people get to a point in their lives and careers and forget about who got them there. It is only by the grace, mercy, and favor of the Lord that we afford many of things that we do on today. With the king, everything that was spoken in that dream came true. This is the omniscience of God knowing the beginning and the end. Knowing what we’ll do before we actually do it. I’m sure many will say, “Well, why doesn’t God stop it?” The answer is that He gives us free will to choose. It is not His will that anyone should perish. He places “stop signs” in our paths giving us the opportunity to make the right decision. He makes provisions on our behalf. When I look back on my life, seeing many mistakes that I’ve made, often I can clearly see where God provided that way of escape. “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall,” Proverbs 16:18, KJV.
In the dream, it was noted that the king was going to be brought low: “The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws,” Daniel 4:33, KJV. Notice what Proverbs 29:23 states, “A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.”
This king later stated that as he looked to heaven his understanding returned to him and he blessed the most High. This experience of going through helped him in realizing who God is and that He is very real. “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase,” Daniel 4:37, KJV.
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