Nebuchadnezzar:
Pride’s Proud Prisoner
Text: Dan.4: 8-18; Prov.16: 18
Intro: One need not go far in God’s Word to find the sin of pride rearing its ugly head. Genesis 3: 4-5 recounts for us the fall of Adam and Eve. Their fall was the direct result of pride having taken root in their hearts. Satan tempted them with the same idea and lie that had caused his own fall. He told Eve, “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen.3: 5b).
In Isaiah 14: 12-15 we are given the account of the fall of Lucifer, who was one of God’s most beautiful creations. After his fall, Lucifer (“Son of the Morning”) became known as Satan (“Adversary”). This passage vividly points out the core issue in the sin of pride. Five times, in verses 13 and 14, we find the words “I will.” Satan had an “I” problem. And so it is with the sin of pride—the individual is always the focus. Just as a matter of interest, if you’ll look at the words “sin” and “pride,” you will notice that “I” is in the center of both.
Pride has been wreaking havoc with men and women ever since the fall of Satan. Even Christians are not immune to the ravages of this wicked sin. F.J. Huegel said,
Just remember that more Christians go on the rocks, defeated, over the nasty little thing we call “hurt feelings” than over the so-called great crises which test the very fiber of the soul.
F.J. Huegel, quoted in “Our Daily Bread,” December 6, 1986.
Pride affects people in a strange way, for “pride is the only disease known to man that makes everyone sick except the one who has it” (“Our Daily Bread,” December, 1986). We must learn to recognize this sin in our own lives in all of its ugliness. If we don’t, God may have to knock the props out from under us. Believe me, He knows just how to do that.
Nebuchadnezzar is a prime example of a man who thought everything revolved around him. He felt there was no one to thank for his accomplishments but himself. But God took him down more than a notch or two to show him differently. At the end of it all, Nebuchadnezzar learned that God is supreme in all things.
Theme: In God’s dealings with Nebuchadnezzar, we notice:
I. NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PRIDE
A. He Took Pride In His Position.
1. Nebuchadnezzar saw himself at the center of everything.
Dan.4: 10 “Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great.”
NOTE: Someone once wisely noticed: “God pickles the proud and preserves the foolish” (Source Unknown). The way I see it, either way you wind up canned.
2. Nebuchadnezzar saw himself in control of everything.
Dan.4: 20 “The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth;
21 Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation:
22 It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.”
B. He Took Pride In His Power.
Dan.4: 29 “At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.
30 The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?”
C. He Took Pride In His Prosperity.
Dan.4: 4 “I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace:”
NOTE: The idea here is that “outwardly all was prosperous” (Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison, Editors, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, published by Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois; pg. 783).
Dan.4: 12a “The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all…”
D. He Took Pride In His Productivity.
Dan.4: 30a “The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built…”
NOTE: Nebuchadnezzar mistakenly believed that he was solely responsible for the greatness and productivity of Babylon. This is the same shape America is in today. There is no doubt that America is a great nation. But I’m afraid that she has forgotten Who made her great. Abraham Lincoln once made the same observation.
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
A. Lincoln, Proclamation of a day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, 1863.
II. NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PRUNING
A. This Took Place Via God’s Decree.
Dan.4: 23 “And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him;
24 This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the king:”
B. This Took Place Via Nebuchadnezzar’s Demotion.
Dan.4: 30 “The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?
31 While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.”
NOTE: [1] Nebuchadnezzar thought he was in control. And that may have been the way it appeared. But ultimately, God is in charge of all things.
II Chron.20: 5 “And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court,
6 And said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?”
[2] Nebuchadnezzar was a man caught up in self-deception. In his mind, he was the sole source of Babylon’s greatness. He saw himself as having to answer to no one—he was a legend in his own mind. We humans are really good at self-deception. If we try hard enough, we can color our world any way we want in order to make ourselves appear right.
Jessica Hawn, former church secretary who committed immoral acts with Jim Bakker (former host of the PTL Club), and later brought down the PTL Empire, said today (9-28-87) that God gave her “real peace” about granting an interview to Playboy magazine and posing for topless pictures.
On 9-29-87 the news reports that she still considers herself a Christian, but goes to God “one-on-one,” not through any church or organization. Also: she doesn’t consider herself a “bimbo.” But her mother does.
Source Unknown
C. This Took Place Via Nebuchadnezzar’s Dementia.
Dan.4: 16 “Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him.
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32 And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
33 The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.”
III. NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PRAISE
A. He Recognized God’s Position.
Dan.4: 34a-b “And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever…”
B. He Recognized God’s Power.
Dan.4: 34c “…whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:
35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?”
C. He Recognized God’s Point.
Dan.4: 37 “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.”
NOTE: When God got through with Nebuchadnezzar’s haughty heart, believe me, he was a different man. He got God’s point.
Theme: In God’s dealings with Nebuchadnezzar, we notice:
I. NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PRIDE
II. NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PRUNING
III. NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S PRAISE
