So I've been reading through the book of Daniel lately and chapter 4 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture in recent memory. It's just really intriguing to me-the whole thing.
King Nebuchadnezzar does not give God the credit He deserves. He thinks too much of himself and in return, God takes away, of all things, his sanity. This great king of Babylon, king of a thriving people group, is scrounging around like a wild animal for 7 years eating grass. 7...YEARS. And finally he realizes that only God is great. This whole thing went down in verse 29-30.
"...he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. The King reflected and said 'Is this not Babylon the great, which i myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty."
Immediately, he lost it-went crazy and was eating grass. Interesting because it doesn't say that he was proclaiming this to anyone in great number. He didn'y write about it in the Babylonian newspaper...he merely reflected on this idea...this idea that he built this great kingdom. He was just making an observation, possibly to himself. Maybe no one else was even around. But his observation was that he was awesome and that God was not the source of his power and wealth and greatness. He didn't exactly say that; but he said it by the refrain of saying it.
God took away everything that King Nebuchadnezzar had and that is when the king finally got sense knocked into him. It took him acting like an animal for 7 years before he finally realized that only God deserves words like that.
The scary thing about this is that I believe God will do whatever he has to do in order to get our attention. When we don't see our own errors in life, God will eventually help us see them with more clarity than we probably needed. And it doesn't have to just be this issue of self-glorification. It can be a continuous life of a sin, a continuous life of gossip, a life consumed of only apathy, a life of lies, a life of double standards, a life of hypocrisy, a life of judgmentalism, a life of pride.
But could it also be smaller issues also? Issues not seen by others? Personal issues? Mental issues? Issues that people don't see; but maybe God notices.
A life of continuous missed opportunities of evangelism, a life of carelessness, a life of conforming to cultural normality, a life of shallow friendships, a life of no accountability, a life that is comfortable with not growing spiritually.
I believe that God reacted this way towards Nebuchadnezzar because the king essentially declared himself as greater than God-and God's just not going to live with that. But how long until God decides that you or I need a wake up call as well? How long until we just need a little "prodding"?
Is it possible that eventually God will wake me up? Wake you up?
I believe that God will do anything it takes to get our attention.
I'd like to keep my sanity...
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