While not everyone will immediately recognize the name Chan Gailey, Gailey was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys in the late 1990s. He had also been the coach at Alabama’s Troy State University. His Troy State team was gearing up to lead his team to play for the Division II National Championship. The week before the game, Gailey was headed to the practice field to prepare for the big game. It was then a secretary called him back to take a phone call. Somewhat irritated, Gailey told her to take a message because he was on his way to practice. She responded, “But it’s Sports Illustrated.” “I’ll be right there,” Gailey replied. As he hustled to the phone, he began to think about the upcoming article they certainly wanted to write about him and the school. The closer to the building he got, the more excited he got. A Featured article in SI would be great publicity for a small school like Troy State. He knew that a simple three-page article would not be enough to tell the whole story. As he got even closer to his office, he started thinking that he might be on the cover. “Should I pose or go with an action shot,” he wondered. His head was spinning with all of the possibilities. When he picked up the phone and said hello, the person asked, “Is this Chan Gailey?” “Yes, it is,” he replied confidently. “This is Sports Illustrated … and we’re calling to let you know that your subscription is running out. Are you interested in renewing?” Perhaps you can relate to Coach Gailey.
In the moments to come, I want to share with you a story about another man whose lesson in humility wasn’t quite as humorous. I invite you to find Daniel 4 with me. We continue a series entitled Unshakable Hope by looking at one of the most intriguing stories in all of Scripture. Pick up reading with me about King Nebuchadnezzar in verse 29.
Today’s Scripture
29 At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” 31 While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from Heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, 32 and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. 33 Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.
34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to Heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever…” (Daniel 4:29-34).
Pride and humility sit opposed to one another as if they were sitting on a see-saw on a playground. And many of us see-saw between pride and humility for much of our lives. The Bible’s message is consistent: beware of the spiritual cancer called pride.
Jesus told a short story about two men who went into the Temple to pray. One man stood by himself and prayed this, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men,” and he named off some big-time sinful people he saw in the Temple that day. This man then ticked off some of his impressive religious resumé before God, telling God just how righteous he was. But there was another man in the Temple who prayed like this, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” This second man would not even lift his eyes up. Jesus concluded this parable with these words: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14b). Can we say that together? “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14b).
To show you the importance of humility, the Bible offers you, King Nebuchadnezzar. I want you to see a pathway that King Nebuchadnezzar takes that every one of us needs to travel in this life. This pathway is like the swing of a sickle of old or the swing of a golf club. If you are going to be a godly person, every one of us needs to travel this path.
1. Stage One: The Mountain of Pride
“At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 and the king answered and said, ‘Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty’” (Daniel 4:29-30)?
Nebuchadnezzar is walking around on the roof of his royal palace, and the longer he thinks about it, the more impressed he is with himself!
1.1 Who is Nebuchadnezzar?
Nebuchadnezzar dominates the first several stories of the book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar is the architect of the Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. He’s a real person, and in the sixth century BC, he was the absolute monarch of the empire of Babylonia. He thinks highly of himself – not only does he put up a statue of himself, but his statue is 90 feet high and 9 feet wide (Daniel 3:1). A real subtle reminder of who was in charge! Remember, Nebuchadnezzar is the one who throws Daniel and his friends in the furnace with no compassion. So, 2,600 years ago, Nebuchadnezzar ruled the world for more than forty years. Throughout the early parts of the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and Daniel was able to tell him what the dreams meant. This is Nebuchadnezzar.
1.2 Background
Let me give you a little background to the story. Nebuchadnezzar has a mysterious dream which alarmed the king and mystified his expert interpreters (Daniel 4:4–18). Nebuchadnezzar says this about his dream: “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” (Daniel 4:4-5). We sense a change in Babylon’s monarch because Daniel seems to incorporate a story that Nebuchadnezzar tells about himself against himself. This is a story that comes directly from the pen of Nebuchadnezzar himself. Now, the dream so bothered the king that he brings in all the talking heads, the experts, “but they could not make known to me its interpretation” (Daniel 4:7b). Lastly, Daniel is brought in before the king to interpret the dream as Daniel is known as someone who is really skilled at telling people the meaning of their dream. It was a dream that featured a tree, and the king was the tree in the dream (Daniel 4:21-22). Daniel reluctantly tells the king what the dream meant (Daniel 4:19–27). Twelve months went by, and the king was suddenly taken ill with a strange mental illness.
1.3 Pride
Just before his episode of mental illness, Nebuchadnezzar confesses his thinking: “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty” (Daniel 4:30b)?
Pride gets its pleasure from being independent, self-determining, and self-sufficient. Again, this is a pathway, and you don’t have to be a king to be on this pathway. You can be a student who barely cracks a book, but you excel at everything you put your hand to. Scholarships come in the mail to you in droves. You’re an athlete where your speed in the forty beats everyone else, and your strength is effortless. You can be a mother whose children all turn out to be high-functioning adults with beautiful families of their own, and you’re the envy of every mother in the town. You’re a woman who's won the genetic lottery, and beauty attracts everyone to you. Or, you can be a Wal-Street tycoon who can buy and sell, and lives are upended.
1.3.1 Masters of the Universe
Tom Wolfe, in The Bonfire of the Vanities, coined the phrase “masters of the universe.” This, of course, was a name he put in the mind of some big Wall Street guy who thought he was on top of the world because he made seven figures. Tom Wolfe said in effect, “I am of an elite group of people, masters of the universe. I have gotten on top of the world by my intelligence and quick thinking.” No, you don’t have to be the king of Babylon to be tempted to be independent, self-determining, and self-sufficient.
1.3.2 BY and For
Nebuchadnezzar says in effect, “I have built this great Babylon BY my power and FOR my glory.” He was full of himself. A spiritual cancer was growing inside the king, and it had spread throughout every inch of Nebuchadnezzar’s body.
1.3.3 Pride in the Bible
The Bible says God hates pride over and over again. Let me offer you a sample. “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5). “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him” (Proverbs 6:16). So says wise old Solomon, and heading up the list of these seven deadly sins is “haughty eyes.” It is synonymous in Scripture with scoffing, arrogance, foolishness, evil, and wickedness. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6b).
1.4 The Blinders Called Pride
New York Times best-selling author David Brooks tells us that pride blinds us to our weaknesses and makes us think we are better than we are. Pride acts like carbon monoxide. Pride will destroy you, and don’t even know it. Pride hides itself from you – it is odorless.
1.5 The Essence of Pride
Again, you don’t have to be a world dictator to be arrogant. Pride says, “I’m doing better than other people because I’m working better than other people or I’m worker smarter than other people or harder, and therefore, I’m owed this.” And when life is hard, pride speaks into your inner psyche and says, “I deserve more than I’m getting. I’m suffering more than other people. Things aren’t fair. I’m having a harder life than other people. Therefore, I’m owed more than this.” Pride is that which claims to be the author of what is really a gift.
1. Stage One: The Mountain of Pride
2. Stage Two: The Valley of Humiliation
“While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from Heaven, ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, 32 and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will’” (Daniel 4:31-32).
If stage one is the mountain of pride, then stage two is the valley of humiliation. The second stage, by the grace of God, is the valley of humiliation. In the dream, Nebuchadnezzar saw a tree that reached to the heavens, and it was so large that everything on the earth was under the tree. All the creatures of Heaven, everything in the whole world, sheltered under the tree, and it was magnificent in every possible way. But suddenly, in the dream, a voice from Heaven comes and says, “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” (Daniel 4:14-15a). Nebuchadnezzar is humiliated like few people in history.
2.1 Karate Kid
Sometimes we want to see someone humiliated in the worst possible way. The classic 1984 film The Karate Kid has been told again and again through sequels and remakes to this day. It has all the elements of a great story: a young boy, a wise mentor, a villain, a damsel in distress, culminating in nothing less than a battle between good and evil. But throughout the whole movie, we witness young Daniel motivated to rid himself of the humiliation of being bullied. If you’ve seen any version of the movie and now the series, we all long for Daniel to stick in the face of Johnny Lawrence and his Cobra Kai buddies. There’s that moment when the karate match is tied 2-2, and Johnny seizes Daniel’s legs and deals a vicious blow. We all fear the damage is too much as Daniel is taken to the locker room. Alas, evil, arrogant Johnny will get away with it again! But then Daniel returns to the karate tourney and does his famous “Crane” stance. He kicks Johnny in the face, and we all leap for joy. Why? Why are we so elated at the movie? Because Johnny was arrogant and he has been humiliated.
2.2 Pride vs. Humility
Pride is what makes you look at your life and say, “I’m the author of it,” when it’s a sheer gift. Pride is a form of cosmic plagiarism. Something else has been brought into your life, something has been given to you, and you say, “I wrote it. I composed it. I did it.” Humility says, “Life is a gift. I don’t deserve this.” Humility looks at everything, “I don’t deserve this. If God gave me what I deserve, I’d be lost.”
2.3 British poet W. E. Henley
The British poet W. E. Henley had a leg amputated as a teenager. Yet, he went on to have a career as a critic and author. As a young man, Henley defiantly penned the famous “Invictus,” Latin for “unconquered.”
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
This is an enormous exaggeration, a view of reality distorted and “infected with the sin of pride.” No one wants to minimize the importance of learning to overcome obstacles in one’s life, but Henley’s success would have been impossible had he been born without literary talent, or with a below-average IQ, or with different parents and social connections. You and I have very little real power over their lives. 95% of what sets the course of their lives is completely outside our control. This includes the century and place we are born in, who our parents and family are, our childhood environment, physical stature, genetically hardwired talents, and many of the circumstances that we find ourselves in. All we are and have is what is given to us by God.
2.4 Nebuchadnezzar’s Humiliation
Unfortunately, we are not all given the gift of mental illness as Nebuchadnezzar was. It was his mental illness that taught him to remove the spiritual cancer called pride. Interestingly, psychiatrists talk about the illness that plagued Nebuchadnezzar as a well-attested illness in pre-scientific times. It was a depressive illness that oftentimes had a spontaneous remission within a period of a couple of years. I’ll not go into more details as you can read this kind of thing on your own. Note carefully the text of Scripture puts his mental illness as a weapon in the hands of God Himself. The Bible succinctly says, “O king: It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, 25 that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (Daniel 4:24b-25).
2.5 Zacchaeus
In some ways, the New Testament’s version of Nebuchadnezzar is a wee little man named Zacchaeus. I’ll swing back to our friend Nebuchadnezzar in a moment. Jesus told us about a man in his day that humbled himself – Zacchaeus. The Bible tells us three things about Zacchaeus. 1. He was not only a tax collector but the chief tax collector; 2. He was rich; and 3. He was short.
2.5.1 Chief Tax Collector
Again, he was the chief tax collector. Zacchaeus is the kingpin of the Jericho tax cartel. Tax collection was a pyramid scheme. The Roman Empire stood at the top, and at each level, everyone took a cut. As a chief tax collector, Zacchaeus took a cut from those underneath him as he passed the taxes onto his superiors. This was a system that ensured taking advantage of people on the bottom of the pyramid – the common people who hated the empire and tax collectors by extension.
2.5.2 Climbing a Tree
He was so short, and the crowd was so large that Zacchaeus was forced to climb up a tree to see Jesus (Luke 19:3).
The moment Zacchaeus went up a tree, he left his dignity below. Think about this for a moment. Can you imagine seeing anyone of importance up in a tree? Can you see the camera panning the crowds of Las Angeles or Houston or Atlanta and seeing important people up in a tree to watch a parade? Can you imagine seeing the governor of Texas climbing a tree or the mayor of Fort Worth? Climbing up a tree isn’t dignified… it’s silly. Yet, he climbed the tree to get a good glimpse of Jesus. A life-changing encounter with God happens when you lower yourself. Jesus says to you, “Come down out of that tree. I want to go to your house.” Zacchaeus did not approach Jesus with pride but with humility. He did not stand on his dignity and wealth. Instead, Zacchaeus was willing to be ridiculed in order to get a glimpse of Jesus. The Bible repeatedly says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6b).
2.5 Return to Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar becomes an animal. It was a brain chemistry thing. Nebuchadnezzar began to live as an animal for seven times, which probably means seven months or maybe seven seasons, which would’ve been a year and a half or so. For a period of time, he thought he was an animal. God’s punishment isn’t random here – it’s not arbitrary. Pride, where you aspire to be more than a man, makes you less than a man. God says, “To get through to you, I’ll turn you into an animal for a season.”
1. Stage One: The Mountain of Pride
2. Stage Two: The Valley of Humiliation
3. Stage Three: The Worship of God
“At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever…” (Daniel 4:34).
The pathway to life leads from the pride of self through the valley of humiliation to the praise and worship of God. The only way to be healed of pride is the worship of God. The only way to be healed of pride is the worship of God. Like the swing of a sickle in ancient times or the swing of a golf club in the modern-day, Nebuchadnezzar went through 3 stages.
Stage #1: The Mountain of Pride
Stage #2: The Valley of Humiliation
And Stage #3: The Worship of God.
At the end of this weird psychotic episode, Nebuchadnezzar worships the God of the Bible! I like how Pastor John Piper describes two revolutions that happen in us when we worship the Lord.
3.1 An Intellectual Revolution
The king hears a voice from Heaven that says: “and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (Daniel 4:32).
The embraces this central thought: the Lord controls my life. The Lord controls everything in this world. Woody Allen is credited with saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” We could add to it, “If you want to hear him laugh even louder, tell him how much you know.” Among believers, this is known as the sovereignty of God. Your brain needs to embrace the thought that God controls everything.
3.2 An Emotional Revolution
But it doesn’t stop there because there is a second revolution that needs to take place for you to properly worship the Lord: “I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever…” (Daniel 4:34b).
Nebuchadnezzar isn’t a prophet or a patriarch. He isn’t an apostle or even the son of a prophet. But He does want to strike up the band. He does want to lead the congregation in a hymn of praise of God. But Nebuchadnezzar didn’t just learn it in his head; he felt it in his heart. That’s the point of verse 34, “I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him.” The only person who does justice to the sovereignty of God is the person who sings about it. Beware of the person who only talks about God’s sovereignty but does not rest in His sovereignty and marvel in His sovereignty. Nebuchadnezzar relishes in the sovereignty of God. It puts him at ease and at rest. Knowing God controls the world gives him rest.
Spiritual pride is the illusion that we are competent to run our own lives. Spiritual pride is the illusion that we achieve our own sense of self-worth. Spiritual pride is the illusion that we find a purpose big enough to give us meaning in life without God.
I think if a reporter had found the king some years later and asked him to reflect on his whole ordeal, Nebuchadnezzar would have said, “There was a spiritual cancer in me. There was something in me that was so bad, it was so dangerous, it had poisoned my soul so deeply that even as drastic as the treatment was, it was worth it to get it out of my soul.”
3.3 Your Step Along the Path
I hope this is the story of your journey this morning. I hope you will walk from the Mountain of Pride to the Valley of Humiliation and, lastly, the Worship of God. It’s the only journey that leads toward Heaven. Three stages: from the pride of man through the valley of humiliation to the praise and praise of God. Wherever you are on the road, take another step toward God and away from pride.
3.4 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
One of the most perplexing things in recent days was Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The Boeing 777 was more than 200 feet long and carried a 200-foot wingspan. But this large commercial airliner just vanished on March 8, 2014, as it took off from Kula Lumpur. Right up the road from us in Keller is Aubrey Wood, and her son, Philip, was on this flight. Now, picture the 239 people aboard the missing plane from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Before the crash, there was a noted politician on board. You have a millionaire corporate executive, a playboy and playmate, and a missionary kid on the way back from visiting his grandparents. After the crash, they each stand before God, stripped of credit cards, offshore bank accounts, the latest clothes, their how-to-succeed books, and Marriot reservations. Here they all are – the politician, the corporate executive, the playboy, and his playmate, and the missionary kid – all on ground level with nothing in their hands. They only possess what they brought with them in their hearts.
You don’t control your life. Embrace Christ by faith today and trust your life into the hands of your loving Creator and Redeemer.
