“At the end of that time, I Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praise the Most High; I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; His kingdom endures from generation to generation.” (Daniel 5:34 NIV)
Nebuchadnezzar had regular encounters with God’s glory, yet he still struggled to abdicate his own throne to an all-powerful God. He first encountered the Almighty though a dream interpretation with Daniel. Then he witnessed the Lord’s power through his own personal furnace with Shadrach, Meshak and Abednego. Lastly, he had another dream and interpretation sequence with Daniel. At the conclusion of each encounter, he declared the glory of God, yet one day he woke up and started singing the praises of himself. As the Lord had warned; Nebuchadnezzar lost everything, including his mind. He did not come back to his senses until he acknowledged God Almighty as the true King.
Nebuchadnezzar’s sin is obvious: grossly exaggerated so we can easily see it. He is a character of pride and self-congradulation. But before we discount him completely, we must look within for similar self-talk. The same arrogance in our own lives tends to be much more subtle.
Our flesh fights for credit, doesn’t it? We tend to be glory hogs. We work hard and at the end of the day, we want to believe we have something to do with our position or accomplishment or influence. But the truth is clear: all glory belongs to God alone. We must be careful to continually dethrone ourselves and assign glory and honor the One who is truly deserving.
“Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled us, but Your name alone do we honor.” (Isaiah 26:13 NIV)
Other gods will always vie for our attention: most concernedly the god of Self. We must learn to live in continual awareness of our tendency and systematically dethrone anything that attempts to set itself up as a god in our story. We pay attention to the places that perk up under praise or clamor for the applause of others. We surrender those strongholds in confession. We swap out our pride for humility.
We don’t want to learn the truth about God’s singular majesty the way Nebuchadnezzar did: in the wilderness without a mind or food or shelter. We do far better to go ahead and place Him on the throne of our lives once and for all and to remind ourselves of that truth each and every day, lest we stray. God alone deserves the honor and glory.
“Not to us, Lord, not to us bu to Your name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 115:1 NIV)
Perhaps we could personalize Nebuchadnezzar’s final prayer, slipping our own name in place of his?
“Now, I, __________ , 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 NIV)
Humbling is God’s act of mercy on our behalf. Of course, it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like pain and humiliation. But all that mortification reveals an opportunity for transformation. We can begin to proclaim Him as Lord, instead of ourselves, and that proclamation is critical to our salvation.
Lord, we are so glad for Your glory. It shows us our rightful place. Like Paul, we are merely servants of God. May we be a happy handmaid in Your household, understanding the extraordinary privilege of belonging to You. Please forgive us for the times we’ve attempted to steal credit or worse, set ourselves against You. Reign supreme in our stories. Teach our flesh to acquiesce to Your majesty as many times as necessary. Humble us in Your presence that we might proclaim You ask King. All the glory rightly belongs to You. Amen.