“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”
~ Daniel 4:37
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like to go to botanical gardens? When your dad was a little kid and because going there was free, your grandmaa and grandpaa would take your dad to Longwood Gardens. Your grandmaa or grandpaa would push your dad around in a stroller through the different Longwood Garden’s flower filled greenhouses. Do you like to go to forts? When your grandmaa and grandpaa take a short term ministry team to the town of Rio Dulce, Guatemala, your grandmaa and grandpaa will take the young guys and gals who are on the short term ministry team to an old Spanish fort that is called El Castillo de San Felipe. El Castillo de San Felipe is located where Lake Izabel – which is Guatemala’s largest inland lake, enters out into the Rio Dulce river. The building of El Castillo de San Felipe began in 1595. The Spanish constructed El Castillo de San Felipe to keep pirates from sailing down the Rio Dulce into Lake Izabel. Your grandmaa and grandpaa like touring a place like an old fort because of all the history that is in and attached to places like an old fort. Do you like to go to historic sites? The morning after your grandmaa and grandpaa were married, your grandmaa and grandpaa took your grandpaa’s ma to Philadelphia so that she could get on a bus that would begin to take her on the long trip back to her Volga, South Dakota home. Your grandpaa’s ma had taken a bus from Volga to Philadelphia so that she could watch her oldest kid get married to your grandmaa. Because the bus in Philadelphia that your grandpaa’s ma was to get on to begin her long ride back to Volga was not going to leave for at least another hour or so, your grandmaa asked your grandpaa’s ma if she would like to go see the Liberty Bell. The bus station where your grandpaa’s ma was leaving from on a bus to begin her long trip back to where she lived on a farm that is located a mile west and two miles north of Volga was near where the Liberty Bell is on display in Philadelphia. When your grandpaa’s ma saw the Liberty Bell, she told your grandmaa and grandpaa that the Liberty Bell is nothing more than just an old bell with a crack in it. Has your dad and/or ma ever taken you to Philadelphia so that you could see the Liberty Bell? Is there one specific place that you would really like to go to someday?
If you were kids living around 2570 years ago – and if your dad and ma had the wherewithal to take you to wherever you wanted to go, which one of the seven wonders of the world 2570 years ago would you like your dad and ma to take you? The seven wonders of the world 2570 years ago were the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the Colossus at Rhodes, Halicarnassus Mausoleum in Asia Minor, the Egyptian Pyramids, Babylon’s Hanging Gardens, the Statute of Zeus in Olympus and Pharos Lighthouse in Alexandra. How would you like to be the guy or gal who was behind the designing or creating of something that every guy, gal and kids thinks is really super-duper? A guy by the name of Nebuchadnezzar – around 2570 years ago, was behind building up the country of Babylonia into being a mighty superpower. Nebuchadnezzar was an extremely ambitious guy. As Nebuchadnezzar was ruling over his domain from the city of Babylon, the Neo-Babylonian empire’s king oversaw the digging of a series of canals around and through the city of Babylon, the high hundred-gated walls that surrounded the city of Babylon, the construction of monuments in the city of Babylon, the 295 foot high temple tower in the city of Babylon, a pair of colossal gold statues in the city of Babylon and the city of Babylon’s hanging gardens. While Nebuchadnezzar was one day walking on the roof of his royal palace in the city of Babylon and as he was ruminating about all the great and wonderful things that he had accomplished through his mighty power and perceived majesty, a voice from heaven told Nebuchadnezzar that his royal authority is going to be taken away from him, that he is going live like a wild animal and that he is going to survive by eating grass like cattle.
Nebuchadnezzar recounts in Daniel 4 what transpired that stripped him of all the wealth and prestige that he had acquired to where he had to survive out in open fields eating grass like an animal and having long, shaggy hair and claw like fingernails. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream twelve months earlier. When no one among his diviners, magicians, enchanters and astrologers could interpret or explain his dream to him – which had a massive tree in it that touched the heavens, that had beautiful leaves, that had abundant fruit and that was located in the center of the country of Babylonia and which was suddenly cut down, its branched stripped if their leaves and its fruit scattered, Nebuchadnezzar called in Belteshazzar – who was his chief magician, to explain to him the meaning of the dream that he had. Even though Belteshazzar was very reticent to explain to Nebuchadnezzar – in fear of being killed, the meaning of the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, Belteshazzar told Nebuchadnezzar that the tree that had been in his dream was he – Nebuchadnezzar, and that one day that he would be no more than a stump. How do you think that Nebuchadnezzar felt after God – as God the Father, had finished disgracing him by having him become animal-like? Verse 37 says, “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” Nebuchadnezzar was a powerful, proud guy before God – as God the Father, humbled him. If God can do this to Nebuchadnezzar, pulling a Belteshazzar – whose God-given name was Daniel, is the way to go as Daniel always trusted in God to help him.
Daniel 4 (903)