So, last week we talked about how, when we think so highly of ourselves, that God sometimes has to take us down a notch or two, to humble us, to get us to see reality, to help us understand who is really on the throne.
Some of you are old enough to remember Mike Tyson. He was a great heavyweight boxer in the 80’s and early 90’s. He had a string of heavyweight challenges between 1985-1990 which he knocked out in 1 minute or less—ten of them. But at the peak of his career, in 1990, Iron Mike squared off against a no-name fighter by the name of Buster Douglas. This wasn’t even supposed to be a challenge. Tyson had knocked out his previous opponent in 93 seconds, so the bets were not on whether he would win, but how long it would take.
But Mike was had such a big head from his previous successes that he didn’t even prepare for this fight. He stayed out late partying the night before.
You can guess what happened: Buster Douglas won by knockout in the 10th round. That no-name boxer beat the champion. Tyson’s career went rapidly downhill from there. Mike Tyson’s life illustrates a tragic truth: defeat is difficult, but success can be fatal. It can cause us to take things for granted and believe we are invincible and the creator of all this success.
God did the same thing for Nebuchadnezzar. In the midst of all his success and glory, God took him down a notch of two and literally made him eat grass. But through it all, Nebuchandezzar learned his lesson and came out a winner again.
The world is filled with people who think they don’t need God, or believe that they are God—that is, capable of living their own lives to their own satisfaction. But God still knows how to humble the proud.
British playwright George Bernard Shaw put it this way:
There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire, and the other is to gain it. We don’t look at it that way. In our eyes gaining your heart’s desire is the very purpose of life itself. But how many people have achieved their dreams only to be ruined in the process? Success can be just as big a temptation as failure, perhaps more so since success tends to make us take life for granted. While it is true that God speaks to us both ways, we tend to listen more when God speaks through sorrow, pain, loss, and personal failure. Success tends to make us complacent but failure cannot be denied.
In this chapter of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar is enjoying the zenith of success. Everything is going his way. He has conquered many nations, he has built a beautiful city, the envy of the world, he was living in peace and abundance and luxury. But God was going to teach him a lesson about how little he was and how big God is.
We enjoy hearing the testimonies of those who have come to put their trust in Jesus Christ. Sometimes those stories are very dramatic, in which people have been saved out of a traumatic or wicked past and God’s grace is made much of. Others grew up in Christian homes and their story, while maybe not as dramatic, is still real and relevant as they speak of how God used various influences in their lives to acquaint them with the gospel.
In Daniel chapter 4 we have the testimony of Nebuchadnezzar.
Chapter 4 begins like a letter, like the New Testament epistles: “King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you!” (Dan. 4:1)
Doesn’t that sound similar to the way Paul introduces his epistles? “Grace and peace…”
The opening formula, ‘(From) X [the writer] to Y’[the recipients], is common in Aramaic letters of the Persian period (Fitzmyer 1974: 211), and is also found in Neo-Babylonian letters (Knutson 1983: 20) (Ernest Lucas, Daniel, ed. David W. Baker and Gordon J. Wenham, vol. 20, Apollos Old Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Apollos; InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 108). A greeting very much like 4:1 is found in Daniel 6:25 where Darius wrote a similar decree with almost the same wording. And, of course, we see this in the New Testament epistles as well.
So this is news that Nebuchadnezzar wants spread far and wide—“to all peoples, nations and languages, that dwell in all the earth.” Like a newborn Christian, Nebuchadnezzar wants the whole world to know what God has done for him.
Wherever Babylon had influence, the tale would be told. He wants everyone in his kingdom (and even beyond) to know what Most High God had done for him! That’s pretty amazing. He is being an evangelist here! Even more amazing is that this story is not flattering to Nebuchadnezzar at all!
But, as we saw in chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar was not afraid to humble himself when confronted with power greater than his own. As Warren Wiersbe notes: “That Nebuchadnezzar should openly admit his pride, his temporary insanity, and his beastly behavior, and then give glory to the God of Israel for his recovery, is indeed a remarkable thing” (Warren Wiersbe, The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: Old Testament, p. 1356).
Now “peace be multiplied to you” would surely stick in the craw of most of those nations who had been subjugated to Babylon’s military might, especially the Jews. Psalm 137 paints a vivid picture of how nations, ground beneath the Babylonian juggernaut, felt toward imperial Babylon. Peace? You’ve got to be kidding!
This was either cruel hyperbole, or evidence of a glorious change of heart!
This benediction upon them shows awareness of his responsibility as God’s instrument on their behalf to further their prosperity and security, as any God-fearing king would do.
Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon and its empire, yet his message’s recipients extended far beyond his empire. The purpose of his account was “to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me” (v. 2).
It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. (Dan. 4:2)
These verses (vv. 2-3) introduce the central concern of this story: the kingship of Nebuchadnezzar and the kingship of the Most High God. What God had done to him and for him served to convince him that God alone is the source of power and authority and that any power and authority he possessed he now acknowledges as being by God’s permission (Romans 13:1, 4). As the book of Daniel constantly emphasizes, and something we do well to remember even today, is that any position of power and authority is a gift from God; it is given to them by God (cf. Rom. 13:1-4).
The words “seemed good to” declares to others his experience because it is good to declare this truth. It was good news! David Guzik says, “It is good to declare what God has done for us. Satan has a huge interest in keeping us unnaturally silent about the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for us.” But we should be excited and bold to share it with whomever might listen!
Remember the song Blessed Assurance? “This is my story, this is my song…” We should be constantly voicing our praise of this great God who has saved us from our sins and eternal punishment.
So these words became the introduction to a Babylonian state document and “God did something with this proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar that the emperor could not have imagined: He picked it up and incorporated it into His own deathless Word, which can never pass away” (John Phillips, Exploring Daniel, p. 70).
Matthew Henry says, “Nebuchadnezzar was now old, had reigned above forty years, and had seen much of the world and revolutions, yet never till now was he brought to admire God’s signs and his wonders” (Commentary on the Whole Bible p. 1089).
These wonders include a vision and an interpretation of the vision (vv. 4-27), a judgment involving beastly behavior (vv. 28-33), a restoration of his reason (vv. 34-35), then after that an increase of his greatness (vv. 36-37). Due to the emphasis on God’s granting the kingdoms of men to whomever he will (vv. 17, 25-26, 32), the king’s humiliation and restoration are especially in view. As Nebuchadnezzar made clear, he attributes these wonders to “Most High God” (v. 2; cf. 3:26). His gratitude overwhelms his soul and he can’t help praising the Most High God.
David Jeremiah, in his book Handwriting on the Wall, calls this chapter “The Gospel according to Nebuchadnezzar.”
As others read this letter, many might have wondered at this point, “Who is this Most High God?” Is he more powerful than Marduk or Nabu? Is he more deserving of worship than that giant golden idol erected by the king on the plains of Dura? Is he worthy of the worship I’ve given to my gods throughout the years? Who is this Most High God?
Then there was the group of Jewish exiles. They knew who this “Most High God” was, but why was Nebuchadnezzar now praising him?
With two pairs of parallel statements, Nebuchadnezzar extolled God’s deeds and rule (4:3).
How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation. (Dan. 4:3).
Nebuchadnzzar is extolling God’s greatness and goodness to him, the true King, the ultimate King who reigns forever. His kingdom will never end and never be taken away from Him.
The content of the first line in each pair is repeated in the second line. His deeds are “great” and “mighty” and are called “signs” and “wonders.” God’s rule is synonymous with “kingdom” and “dominion,” and its duration is “everlasting” and “from generation to generation.” The hymn-like nature of verse 3 resembles the acclaim of Yahweh voiced by his prophets, but the words did not imply true worship from Babylon’s king. To him, “God Most High” was real, but he was not God alone. At least not yet, but he does seem to get there by the end of this chapter. Of course, these opening sentences are giving us “The Rest of the Story.”
Now, notice that this letter is addressed to “peoples, nations and men of every language,” the same group summoned in the previous chapter to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s image (4:1; 3:7). It was like Nebuchadnezzar was now, to his credit, trying to reverse a past mistake. Whereas he had formerly called all these people to worship the idol, he tells that same group of people now to worship, not the idol, but the true God, God Most High, the God of the Jews.
Also, the “miraculous signs and wonders” would certainly fit the deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the fiery furnace. The key difference, however, is that now Nebuchadnezzar speaks of “signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me” (4:2). From being a persecutor of the faithful in the previous chapter, Nebuchadnezzar has now himself become a loud witness to the power of the true God.
Iain Duguid points out: “This is a striking shift in the life of the most powerful man in the world. It is as dramatic as the transformation in the New Testament of Saul, the persecuting Pharisee, to Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. How did such an incredible change take place? In both cases, the change was not wrought by witnessing the power of God as an observer. King Nebuchadnezzar watched Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego emerge unscathed from the fiery furnace (Dan. 3) even as Saul saw the Lord’s grace sustain Stephen through his violent death (Acts 8:1), yet neither man was immediately converted by the experience. Miraculous demonstrations of God’s power can certainly stop people in their tracks and make them think, but true conversion can only be accomplished by a personal experience of God’s power and grace” (Daniel in Reformed Expository Commentary, pp. 63-64).
Writing in the aftermath of the First Great Awakening in New England, Jonathan Edwards wrote one book defending the signs and wonders attending the revival and then a second book A Treatise on Religious Affections he meticulously explores the nature of true religious conversion, distinguishing it from mere emotional experiences or outward displays of piety. He emphasizes that while intense feelings and observable actions can sometimes accompany genuine conversion, they are not, in themselves, sufficient proof of a transformed heart. In other words, miracles, or extraordinary events and experiences, do not necessarily equate to genuine conversion.
For conversion to happen, there must be a divine work of a change of heart, or a new birth or resurrection which enables one to believe.
In each of our lives we must be exposed to the mighty power and amazing grace of God and be humbled before him in order for that miraculous conversion to happen to us. The Holy Spirit must open our spiritual eyes and ears to behold the beauty, sufficiency and supremacy of Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Although Nebuchadnezzar would not have welcomed the notion at this point that his earthly reign would end, he opened his account declaring that God’s kingdom is the one that truly is an everlasting kingdom. Since unending dominion belonged to God, it did not belong to the king of Babylon. This admission is both true and shocking because of Nebuchadnezzar’s attitude and actions that we’ve observed in chapters 1–3.
Throughout the first three chapters of Daniel, we have seen God working in the king’s life to teach him humility. In chapter 2, God sends a vision to Nebuchadnezzar of the statue. The purpose of that vision was to remind him that even the most powerful human civilizations would all eventually fall, and only God’s kingdom would endure forever. But instead of responding with humility and submitting himself to this God, Nebuchadnezzar built an idol (reminiscent of the golden head, but this time made completely of gold) and demanded everyone in his empire to worship it. Needless to say, the vision went to his head!
God therefore used the occasion of the dedication of the image to remind Nebuchadnezzar of who was really on the throne. The Lord crashed the party. His three chosen instruments would not bow down to his idol. So, the king grew furious and had them thrown into the fiery furnace. He definitely thought that his power was absolute and that he had the final word. But God protected their lives and once again demonstrated that He, not Nebuchadnezzar, was the King of Kings.
While Nebuchadnezzar did make a perfunctory statement about God’s greatness at the end of chapter 3, it was possibly just a temporary blip and soon he regressed to his old arrogant ways. Unfortunately, we see that happen all too often, even in our own lives, how we get excited about God and make grand promises to him and then a few weeks later we slide back into old bad habits. But God wasn’t finished with Nebuchadnezzar, as the events of this chapter show.
Some, however, do believe that Nebuchadnezzar’s spiritual turning point came in chapter 3. Bill Wenstrom that Nebuchadnezzar’s praise of God in Daniel 3:28 came from the mouth of a true believer. He goes on to say: “The king’s praise is an expression of his faith in the God of Israel. The Aramaic verb berǎḵ which we translated “worthy to be praised” appears only once in the book of Daniel. However, its Hebrew equivalent bā∙rǎḵ (בָּרַךְ) (baw-rak´) appears 75 times in the Old Testament. When the word is used of praising God, the individual praising God is always a believer and never an unbeliever. Thus, Daniel 3:28 is recording for us the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar.
Therefore, if Nebuchadnezzar was not yet a believer at the end of chapter 3, chapter 4 is God’s further work in humbling him so that he does finally come to commit himself to the worship of the true God in chapter 4. On the other hand, if Nebuchadnezzar’s spiritual birth happened in chapter 3, then chapter 4 points out to us believers the reality that sometimes God may have to deal with us ever so severely to rid of our sins, particularly the insidious sin of pride.
Normally a doxology like this comes at the end of the events to which it refers. Some have compared these three verses to a movie or television episode which shows the ending first, then backs up to a previous time and describes what brings about such a surprising ending.
God had to do something pretty drastic to get Nebuchadnezzar’s attention. This time, God deals with him personally. He doesn’t just show him a vision (chapter 2), or do something miraculous for someone else (chapter 3), but he directly shows Nebuchadnezzar who’s really the boss.
What happened to Nebuchadnezzar happens to all of us sooner or later. And we can thank God when it does.
Grace Still Amazes 