Friday
Then Daniel answered the king, “You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to someone else. Nevertheless, I will read the writing for the king and tell him what it means. “O king, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor. Because of the high position he gave him, all the peoples and nations and men of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like cattle; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and sets over them anyone he wishes. “But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. - Daniel 5:17-23
It is interesting to note that before Daniel interprets the writing on the wall for King Belshazzar, he gives this comparison between the king and his ancestor, Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was the step-grandfather of Belshazzar, and he was the greatest ruler in the Neo-Babylonian dynasty. Nebuchadnezzar had his own struggle with pride and arrogance, but he ended up humbling himself before God and acknowledging God’s sovereignty over all people and nations. Belshazzar (Daniel points out) knows about all of this, yet will not humble himself. He remains defiant, proud and arrogant right up to the end.
This is the primary message God sends through Daniel (and through all of the prophets) humble yourself before God, or be humbled by him! There are really only two choices.
Earlier in the story of Daniel (ch. 2), Daniel interprets a dream for king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of his interpretation, he gives a very interesting prophetic reference to the eventual coming of God’s kingdom in Christ.
“In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands — a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.” - Daniel 2:44-45
The two images in this passage that we must see in light of Jesus are; the kingdom that will never end, and the rock not cut by human hands. Jesus is the rock not made by human hands and it is His Kingdom that will never end! Jesus refers to this same imagery...
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” - Matthew 21:42-44
We can either fall upon the Rock, Jesus Christ, and be broken of our pride so that we can be restored to life with Him -or- we can cling to our pride and need to control and we will eventually be crushed.
In the case of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar; both men were kings, both men ruled over a large and powerful empire, both men struggled with their own pride, both men heard the message from God’s servant (Daniel). One of them eventually humbled himself before God, was broken of his pride and was restored, while the other was crushed in judgment for his proud and arrogant heart.
Now we don’t like to think of ourselves as being proud or arrogant, and we certainly don’t think of ourselves like King Belshazzar, toasting pagan gods and defying the Lord of heaven. However, the truth is that at the deepest level of our hearts, our issue is the same as that of Belshazzar, it is our pride. C.S. Lewis calls pride “the great sin”, in fact he has a whole chapter devoted to it in his classic work Mere Christianity. Lewis does a brilliant job of showing us just what pride really is and what it does in us.
In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that - and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison - you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. 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
Of course Lewis is right about this and he is only echoing what the Scripture says over and over again - you cannot truly know GOd until you deal with your pride.
Psalm 40:4 - Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.
Psalm 138:6 - Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.
Proverbs 16:5 - The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 18:12 - Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.
James 4:6 - But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5 - All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
The Biblical antidote to pride is of course humility. But humility is an often misunderstood term. Humility is not weakness, it is not getting walked on and abused by other people (although a humble person will sometimes endure insults and injustice). Humility is fundamentally an attitude or inclination of the heart toward God. Here again, the insights of Mr. Lewis are helpful...”If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.” - C.S. Lewis
You do not achieve humility by trying hard to be more humble. If it worked that way, you would eventually become proud of how humble you had become (ridiculous). You grow in humility by recognizing the sin of your own pride and by falling on the mercy of Jesus.
Jeff Frazier
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