Nebuchadnezzar’s praise to God is truly inspiring. Unless I’m mistaken, he would be a modern day Iraqi. And Darius or Cyrus would be Iranians. It’s evidence that God has come to rescue all nations, and that any nation, or any person can find favor with Him if the truly wish. But be careful you don’t make this fatal mistake….
Whenever God blesses you, and however He chooses to bless you, don’t become proud or arrogant. Pride and hubris led to the downfall of both Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar (which is almost exactly like Daniels Iranian name “Belteshazzar”)
I have learned that Babylon was beautiful city to behold. Many of the buildings had been overlaid with gold! In fact, Nebuchadnezzar had accumulated enormous amounts of gold, and had constructed many beautiful buildings, palaces, walkways and other edifices. God had allowed him to be so successful, and there wasn’t anything inherently sinful in having wealth, or being successful in battle…but Nebuchadnezzar made several mistakes. 1. He became ruthless and cruel in his victories (God punishes him and his nation for that) 2. He became proud and arrogant.
He knew how wise Daniel was, and yet he didn’t heed his advice and humble himself. Here’s a man who knew that he had defeated Israel because they had begun worshipping other gods, and that God had sent him to punish them….and he still didn’t believe in Him. He continued to brag and boast and take credit for everything he had…and gave no credit to God at all…even after he was warned.
The 7 seasons were probably 2 per year (summer and winter) which would mean 3 1/2 years. I wonder if this is a foreshadowing of anything in Revelation? In that book the tribulation is 7 years, but is cut short to 3 1/2. Will the church still be here, persecuted and “cut down” but still with roots? Maybe the two aren’t related, but it does intrigue me. I did some quick research that revealed to me some interesting things I didn’t know. Apparently there are other texts from Nebuchadnezzar’s reign that suggest he had a 4 year “blue period” where he didn’t care for his family, talk to his god, build and buildings or care for himself. The script doesn’t go into detail about him crawling around like a cow…but I doubt that any author would have risked writing that down anyway! I mention it to underscore that secular history and biblical history seem to agree on this point.
Then our friend Belshazzar falls into the same hole….He forgets to honor God and uses the temple artifacts for his common use. The problem is that the cups and other things are holy, or are supposed to be holy. Holy means “set apart” not be used for common uses. Belshazzar could have extended his reign by simply treating God’s holy things with respect…but he didn’t. And to make it worse, he invoked the names of false gods while using the holy items. In the New Testament we learn that we are holy people…I wonder how that translates into how we spend our time and what we do to our body? Could we be guilty of making the same mistake as Belshazzar, treating what is holy as common?
I notice also in these passages that Daniel is unyielding in his devotion to God. When God give him a message for the king, he shares it, even though it’s bad news and could cost him dearly. Daniel appeared before two different kings with bad news and lived to tell the tale. He never flinches in his worship either…60 some years in captivity and he is faithful the whole time. I thought of the exiles as slaves, and I’m sure some of them were…but not Daniel. He was running the empire! It’s likely that Daniel would never had risen to such prominence if he had stayed in Israel. Even in captivity God is able to bless people and cause them to prosper. I wonder if the same sort of thing could happen during the tribulation? It will clearly be a time of persecution and desperation… but I wonder if there will be a few that prosper…..just a thought.
Faithfulness regardless of threats and consequences is the theme here. Blessing for obedience, rescue from all troubles and trials because of faithful. worship over the “long haul”. That’s what Daniel stands for. And add to that the way that God communicated to a whole nation through him…..who would ever believe that you would hear the king of Babylon praise God is such a powerful way! And it’s all because Daniel was faithful in the everyday routines of prayer and devotion.
In fact, these few key events are the “15 minutes of glory” in Daniel’s life. Most of his days appear to have been spent in administration and paperwork, conducting meetings and coordinating and organizing government affairs. You wouldn’t think that would make him much of a missionary, would you? But apparently Daniel had chosen to excel in whatever God allowed him to do….so instead of plotting to overthrow the government, or conducting rallies to protest working conditions or spending time trying to undermine the existing government…. he did his absolute best to be the most effective and productive worker…continually improving himself.
One more good role model for us to follow. People like Daniel are in short supply in every culture.
Faithfully,
PR