SAVED BY GRASS? YES, OLD KING NEBBY
WAS SAVED FROM INSOLENCE AND PRIDE...... Dan 4:31-35
King Nebuchadnezzar was King of
Babylon when God's people, because of their persistent sin, were horrendously
taken into captivity by him. Jerusalem was destroyed and many, many taken from
their homeland. Daniel was one of them. Nebuchadnezzar was most proud and God
decided to uniquely humble him. Immediately, after a boastful spat of
self-extolling, we read this in Scripture:
"While the word was in the
king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it
is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you, and you will be driven away
from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. YOU
WILL BE GIVEN GRASS to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass
over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of
mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.’ Immediately the word concerning
Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began
eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until
his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’
claws."
Then, after the ordeal,
Nebuchadnezzar gives his testimony:
“But at the end of that period, I,
Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and
I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His
dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to
generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but
He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants
of earth; And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You
done?’"
When God truly moves into a life He
effects radical change. He specializes in that! He makes saints out of sinners.
He humbles the proud. He puts repentance in an unbelieving heart. God
dynamically does such! He most certainly did it to a boastful and arrogant
Babylonian king.
Perhaps after his humbling episode
Nebuchadnezzar had a saying, like, "There go I except for the GRASS of
God." He needed this experience to humble him and bring him to the place
of fully realizing his need for God and God's GRACE. Some believe that he was
saved. At the very least, he sure came to an acknowledgment of Who the true God
is.
Every believer in Jesus Christ says,
often, "Apart from grace my heart would be estranged, wayward, rebellious,
faithless and lost. But, oh, my God in grace has arranged to rescue my soul at
infinite cost."
- Dick D. Christen
