God will humble the Proud

In His sovereignty, God allows humans to go their own way, but in His mercy He gives warnings. ()

Explanation: Nebuchadnezzar gives a first hand account of his prideful actions and God’s corresponding judgment. He relates how he was enjoying all the things that he had accomplished. (At least in his mind he was the one who did all these things). At that point, God brings a dream to the king to get his attention.

Neb understood the dream was 1) important; 2) it had something to do with him personally; and 3) its message was not good. In v. 5 Neb declares he was afraid, and that what he had seen alarmed him. The king had previous experience with dreams so he calls in the Magi for round two. This time he gives them the details of the dream, but “they could not make known” its interpretation.

Interesting that Neb called them first as Daniel was the top wise man (v. 9). Why wait to call Daniel when he was #1? It could very well be that Neb wanted an encouraging answer. He had enough insight through the dream to be troubled, and maybe wanted to hear a good word.

King Ahab listened eagerly to all his false prophets, but had no desire to hear the truth from God’s man Micaiah. ()

As Believers, we are called on to share God’s message of judgment on Pride ()

Explanation: Daniel, through God’s insight, understood the meaning of the dream. After Neb shared the details, Daniel was in a bit of shock because he clearly saw God’s hand of Judgment against the pride of Nebuchadnezzar. Even though Neb was not a believer, Daniel had compassion for him, and had no joy at the thought of sharing bad news with the king.

Man can ignore the warning, but God’s judgment on pride will come ()

Explanation: Nebuchadnezzar received the dream, heard the interpretation, and presumably took note of Daniel’s plea for him to repent. It is most likely that Neb cleaned up his act for about 1 year. His “change of heart” was based upon the fear of being punished so he decided to change, to turn over a new leaf so to speak. Human-based change is short-lived because it has no real depth.

Neb

When Neb did not see judgment come in the short-term, he mistook God’s mercy for simple sentimentality, and went back to his own arrogant ways of living. He returned to being an “eye - atollah”

Illustrate: the arrogance of human centered achievement in the poem, Invictus