Day 8 – A Journey from Pride to repentance

Read Daniel 4: 1 – 37

God has been dealing with Nebuchadnezzar throughout the early part of the book but each time he acknowledges that Daniel’s king is a great and mighty God, he falls back into old habits and never makes a true conversion. In a demonstration of unbounded grace, God decides to deal once again with the Babylonian king by sending him a dream and a trial. God showed his mercy by sending an angel to warn the king and give him a full year to change his ways and repent. He even promises to restore him to the throne if he is sensitive to the message of God. But as often happens, God gives man space, and he uses it to harden his heart and forget the warnings.

One year later as the king walks along the palace terrace, viewing the magnificent city, he is overwhelmed with pride and selfishness. The very next moment he was reduced to an animal with the mind of a beast. It is a fearful thing to be arrogant in the face of God. At the end of the decreed seven years of insanity, God once again shows incredible mercy and grace to Nebuchadnezzar and restored both his sanity and his throne. The restored king lifted up his eyes to heaven and blessed and praised the one true God who lives on high and reigns sovereign over all earthly kingdoms. To prove he is truly repentant, Nebuchadnezzar testifies “Those who walk in pride He is able to put down.”

Q1. Chapter 4 of Daniel can be viewed as a very early version of a gospel tract. Nebuchadnezzar gives a personal testimony to confess how God dealt with him and took him from foolish pride to repentant confession. Take some time to reflect on your path to faith in Jesus as your savior. Would your story make a good gospel tract? If the gospel story still doesn’t make sense to you, take some time to register your doubts and talk to a trusted Christ follower who could help Jesus make sense to you.

Q2. God uses trials in our lives to bring us to faith in Christ or perhaps to take us to a deeper, more mature faith. As you reflect on your life, how has God used trials in your life to bring you to a deeper, more mature faith? Have you reached the point where you count trials as “pure joy”?

Q3. What sin is Nebuchadnezzar’s downfall? What sin is the most difficult one you deal with, and how do you overcome it?

Final thought: Pride is perhaps the most fundamental of all sins and it is the sin that God says he hates more than any other. A prideful person wants to be noticed and admired; a prideful person puts himself in the place of God. Ask God to help you replace your pride with true humility.