King Nebby Goes Wild

Happy Wednesday to you! Might want a fresh cup of joe for today’s study.

Yesterday we looked at how Daniel’s testimony elevated him to influence, power, and authority. Today we will look at what he does with it.

Let me say right here that Daniel had amazing faith! Already he has not only interpreted King Nebby’s previous dream, but he told the king what it was before he interpreted it. I’m not sure I have that kind of faith.

I mean, good night, he just knew what the dream was through the power of God. He prayed that God would reveal the mystery of the dream, walked back into the king and told him the dream he had! For cryin’ out loud, that is extreme faith.

And here he is doing it again. This time he doesn’t have to tell the king the dream first. Nope, King Nebby cuts him a break and tells Daniel the dream. Whew! Read the dream in chapter 4: 9-17 when you get a chance.

In verse 19 we read that Daniel was “greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him.”

I find it kind of funny that King Nebby tells Daniel to not let the dream upset him. Why would he say that to Daniel? Nebby must have been confident that the dream was a good thing. Hmmm, let’s see…

Sum up: Daniel basically says that if you don’t turn from your wicked ways that you’ll be “driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.”

Personally? I think I would have listened. Nebby didn’t. Sure enough one year later King Nebby’s prancing around thinking he’s all that, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”

Them’s fightin’ words.

Verse 31 says that the words were still on his lips when God spoke and reminds him of what Daniel had said.

Seriously, it’s kinda gross. He turns into a wild man and lives out in the fields. He had rejected the word of the Lord there were serious consequences for it.

It’s the same reason the Israelites went into captivity: they rejected the word of the Lord.

Our consequences might not be the same, but whenever I have just flat out rejected His Word, There. Have. Been. Consequences.

So, whenever we receive instruction from personal study, in church, on the world wide web, on the radio, wherever, we have a choice. We can either humbly accept the word as instructed in James 1:21, or we can pridefully reject it.

I looked up that word pride from a Bible dictionary and it means a couple of things. It means what you think it does, first of all, but what I want us to capture is this:

“Highminded”
“to wrap in smoke”

That’s interesting isn’t it?

God can speak through our highminded ideas of ourselves. However, it might be like trying to walk through and get through smoke. And vice-versa. If we are so sure of what we can or cannot learn or believe then we have wrapped ourselves in smoke.

I’m not talking about being foolish and believing every wind of fancy, I’m talking about having either an arrogance that says, “I already got this, God.” OR, rejection of the word that comes from insecurity like, “He can’t change me,” or “I’ll never get it.” Either way, it’s still an idea that you know more than He does.

Let him clear the air. What does that get us back to?

Humility.

The Bible says that God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

Many times I have been prideful and rejected the word. Other times I have foolishly thought that I wasn’t good enough to receive such truth for myself. A false humility, if you will.

But, when I humble myself to His truth, He gives grace beyond measure. Accompanied with that grace is wisdom, knowledge, peace, and security.

Same thing with Nebby. When he acknowledged that God was God everything was restored to him.

Vs 36, “At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom…I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before.”

This can be true for us. We can humbly acknowledge God is any area of our life and He will lift us up. He will restore us. He will give honor to us. He will change us for the better.

2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we…are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory…”

He changes us in increasing measure. We don’t go backwards in Jesus when we humbly accept the word as it comes.

Be like Nebby: Receive the word, be changed by it, and show off because of it.