God Opposes The Proud Series

Introduction

According to the Bible, the root problem at the very core of all of our lives is pride.

Now I know that’s nothing new.

This problem first surfaced in the Garden of Eden.

The problem with pride is that it robs us not only of a full and meaningful relationship with other people but, even more so, it robs us of a full and meaningful relationship with God.

Throughout Scripture, we find the same theme repeatedly: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (cf. James 4:6).

But I’m afraid that most of us today are unaware of our problem with pride.

C. S. Lewis once wrote, “If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud.”

Let me share a working definition of pride with you: Pride is simply our refusal to acknowledge God as we should. It is failing to realize fully that all of our abilities, achievements, possessions, and relationships are not due ultimately to our sound judgment or superior wisdom, but to the gifts and grace of a sovereign God.

God has declared himself in Scripture as the active antagonist of the proud. God is adamantly opposed to those who set themselves up in proud self-sufficiency.

In Daniel 4, we find an incredible story about the extent to which God will go to humble those who walk in pride.

The key verse for this narrative is verse 37, where we find the final words, “And those who walk in pride he [that is, God] is able to humble.”

The first three verses of Daniel 4 are the end of the story. Before this, King Nebuchadnezzar had always been supremely arrogant and proud.

So what happened to bring about such a radical change?

Let’s see the dramatic story of how God humbled King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:4-37.

Scripture

Let us read Daniel 4:1-37:

1 King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! 2 It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.

3 How great are his signs,

how mighty his wonders!

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. 5 I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. 6 So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. 7 Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation. 8 At last Daniel came in before me—he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods—and I told him the dream, saying, 9 “O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation. 10 The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. 11 The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. 12 Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

13 “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. 14 He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. 15 But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. 16 Let his mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. 17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’ 18 This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”