Introduction:
There has never been a time in history when people had more opportunity for self-importance and self-absorption.
Of course pride is as old as time itself with Satan being the first being to be gripped and destroyed by it, but few have had the resources and opportunities to live out this vice in the way we do today:
Internet
Social Media
Selfies
Blogs
We have two choices. We can either humble ourselves or be humiliated.
“There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault that makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.
The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility…
According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. – C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity), 121-22)
A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. –C.S. Lewis
Jesus came into the world to convert people from God-like dependence on self to child-like dependence on God. And then he died to pay the penalty for our pride and to show us the way to humility and to send all our boasting toward God and not toward ourselves. –John Piper “Believing God on Election Day,” 1988
Proverbs 8:31
Proverbs 16:5 & 18
Proverbs 18:12
James 4:6-10
Pride challenges the sovereignty and goodness of God. It cannot stand that God is in control and I am not. (4:17,25,32)
Nebuchadnezzar’s Worship of the Living God
Daniel 4:1-3
Nebuchadnezzar’s 2nd Dream
Daniel 4:4-18
Another Dream - another display of impotence by the magicians
The Dream’s Interpretation
Daniel 4:19-27
You, O King, are the great tree, and it symbolizes your greatness (w. 20-22).
You are the tree chopped down with only a stump remaining (v. 23).
You will live like an animal outdoors in the fields until “seven periods of time” pass (v. 23-25).
All of this will happen to teach you a valuable lesson: “that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants” (v. 25).
When you come to your spiritual senses, you will get your kingdom back (v. 26).
God is a gracious and loving God who is quick to forgive and show mercy. So (a) listen to my counsel. (b) stop your sinning and start doing the right thing, and (c) stop your wicked injustices and show mercy to the oppressed (v. 27). If you do, God may be kind and “perhaps there will be an extension of your prosperity.
Consider David Helm’s insights into Daniel’s interpretation:
“We must be willing to share the bad news with people that they are out of sorts with God, even as our heart breaks for them while saying it. We must be willing to tell others that God is not pleased with this pride–the human tendency to push him aside, and think that we are the measure of all things. We must be willing to call for repentance and offer hope.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Pride and Humiliation
Daniel 4:28-33
God gave the king a whole year to repent…
Continuing Pride = Judgment
Judgment is coming whether fast or slow!
v.31 - Voice from heaven
The kingdom is taken from you (v. 31).
You will be driven away from humanity (v. 32).
You will live with animals, act like an animal, and eat like an animal (v. 32).
This will last as long as it takes (“seven periods of time,” i.e., seven years or symbolic of the perfect time needed to do the trick), “until you acknowledge that the Most High is ruler over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants” (v. 32).
Immediately “the message [of the Most High God] against
Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled” (v. 33). He was struck by what was probably a behavioral disorder called boanthropy, where “one imagines oneself a cow or bull and acts accordingly” (Davis, Message of Daniel, 59).
It is also referred to as lycanthropy, where a person believes he or she is an animal and behaves like an animal. The one who saw himself as superman became subman. The one who thought he was superhuman became subhuman. He lived with animals instead of with men. He ate grass like an ox, not food like a man. He lived and slept in the field, not in the home and bed of a man. He had fingernails and toenails like the claws of a bird and not those of a human.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Restoration
Daniel 4:34-37
Nebuchadnezzar looks to God
Nebuchadnezzar repents
Nebuchadnezzar is restored to sanity and the throne
The Handwriting on the Wall
Daniel 5:1-31
Medo Persian Conquest of Babylon:
Reported by Xenophon (434-355 BC) the Persian army did not attempt to storm the impregnable walls of Babylon which Herodotus (500 BC) reports to be of staggering proportions: “Babylon surpasses in wonder any city in the known world.”
He said the walls were fifty-six miles long, eighty feet thick, and three hundred twenty feet high! While this may have been an exaggeration, no one denies their magnificence.
Archeologists and Historians estimate the walls at 40 feet high and 25 feet in width.
So how did the Medo-Persians get into the city?
They diverted water from the Euphrates River (which ran under the walls of Babylon) into a marsh. With the level of the water lowered, the soldiers were able to wade the river under the walls and enter the city. Xenophon added that the city was invaded while the Babylonians were feasting in a time of drunken revelry…. As a matter of fact, Xenophon cited the festival as the reason the Persians chose to attack Babylon on that particular night. (Miller, Daniel, 167) The dates were October 11-12, 539 BC (ibid.).
Belshazzar is killed that very night, “and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of sixty-two” (v. 31). Belshazzar mocked the Most High God, and he reaped what he had sown (Galatians 6:7).
NEBUCHADNEZZAR AND BELSHAZZAR:
Nebuchadnezzar —— Belshazzar:
Supreme King of Babylon —— Second in Command
Conqueror of Nations —— Spoiled rich kid
At ease in his palace —— Party in Babylon
Pride in his accomplishments —— Pride in his position
Threat of loosing the kingdom Threat of the armies of Persia
Trust in his ability, power, wealth, etc. —— Trust in his walls
Called to repentance —— Confronted with his sin
Humiliated —— Humiliated
Repentance —— Hard Heart
Restoration —— Destruction
APPLICATION:
Humility vs Pride
Repentance vs Stubbornness
Grace vs Judgment
Restoration vs Destruction
Scales of Justice