“As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people from this time forth and forevermore.” – Psalm 125:2
In today’s devo, let’s take a look at a few important points from the life of King Nebuchadnezzar, one of the other main characters in the book of Daniel.
At the end of Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar sees the power of the Lord, but by the beginning of chapter 3, he’s back to his old tricks. This is about 17 years later, and Daniel is likely in his late 30s. The king has a 90-foot statue of himself made and calls for a national ceremony and holiday for everyone to show up and bow down to the statue. Again, he’s setting himself up as a counterfeit king with a counterfeit kingdom. He wants to eradicate the freedom of religion and bring church and state together under his total control. That’s what a dictator does.
Nebuchadnezzar is really good at self-esteem. He woke up one day and was like, “You know what the world needs? A 90-foot me – that’s what’s missing. And it should be made out of gold.” The statue might have been made out of the gold stolen from Israel in an attempt to show that he thinks he’s more powerful than the God of Israel. This statue is essentially him seeking to undo the prophecy from Daniel 2, where Daniel told him other kingdoms of the world would ultimately topple his kingdom. He’s trying to set up Heaven on earth. He’s trying to undo history as God reveals it and rewrite his own history.
We can notice three things in this scene:
- Only the real king knows and controls the future. In chapter 2, God says, through Daniel, “Here’s the future.” In chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar has an alternate rendering for the future. Even though Nebuchadnezzar is the most powerful dictator on earth, he doesn’t have the power to change history because nothing can overcome an all-powerful God in His intent for the future.
- Everyone wants to be a king with a kingdom they can control. If you had his power and money, would you do the same thing? He wants everyone and everything to do things the way he wants. Don’t we all do this to some extent? Some of us try this at work; we try to set things up so we’re in control. It doesn’t work, so we come home. We try to set that up so we’re in control. That doesn’t work, so we coach our kids’ sports team and bully 10-year-old boys so we’re the king and they’re under our dominion and we have control, or we get a pet that will obey our commands.
- People who don’t know God end up worshiping other people. That’s what he’s saying here – he wants everyone to bow down and worship an image of him. If you want to worship someone, worship Jesus. As Colossians 1:15 says, He’s the “image of the invisible God.” Worshiping other people may not look like bowing down, but it may look like fear of man, people-pleasing, or co-dependent relationships. This is not just a Babylonian problem; this is a human problem.
Tomorrow we will see what happens to Daniel’s friends when they choose God over government.
If you’re being honest, where in your life are you like Nebuchadnezzar? Are you trying to control the future or other people? Are you worshiping someone other than God?
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