The Sin of Nebuchadnezzar

I. Introduction
A. It’s so fitting that we end our summer series on Great Sin of the OT with Nebuchadnezzar.
1. Not only are we near the end of the OT (not the book but the history),
2. But this story also points us forward to the NT in a striking way.
B. Daniel 4:28–37 All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” 31 While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, 32 and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” 33 Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws. 34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” 36 At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
II. Explanation
A. Seven periods of time — “seven years” in the LXX
B. “At the end of 12 months”: What does this refer to?
1. Twelve months before this, as we read earlier in this chapter, Nebuchadnezzar was relaxing in his palace, and he fell asleep and had a terrifying dream. In his dream he saw a giant tree, so big that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the whole earth. “Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.” (12) And then he saw in his dream a heavenly being coming down, who commanding the tree be chopped down and its branches removed, its leaves be stripped and its fruit scattered. ‘Put an iron band around the stump and let it sit in the field among the beasts, wet with the dew of heaven. Let his mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’
a. Fortunately, Daniel was able to interpret the dream, “The tree you saw is you, O king. Your greatness reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth. And the command for the tree to be cut down means that you shall be cut down and driven from among men, so that your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. ‘You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, UNTIL you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.’ (25) And then your kingdom shall be returned for you. Therefore, O king, here is my counsel to you: break off your sins and practice righteousness, showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be an extension of your prosperity.”
b. But Nebuchadnezzar did not take Daniel’s counsel. He continued down his same path – unswayed by the dream. Instead of honoring God as the ultimate king, he glories in himself.
c. And then 12 months later the dream came true. That’s what v.28 means, “All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.” It means that all that was in the dream actually happened to Nebuchadnezzar.
C. Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful man in the world.
1. He had the kind of power that only a handful of people have had in all of history.
2. And so, like so many others, he thought he was top dog, top banana, the master of the universe.
3. Here’s a man who had nothing to fear. There was no job to lose, no boss to fire him, there was no threat to worry about — or so he thought.
4. And yet his mind was so clouded he couldn’t see what he was doing.
a. Even a young child can hear the story and know that Nebuchadnezzar was sinning in his attitude.
b. But Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t see it. He was just so impressed by all that he had accomplished.
D. And so God gave Nebuchadnezzar a taste of what he could do on his own.
III. Nebuchadnezzar’s sin
A. The sin of Nebuchadnezzar was the sin of pride, the sin of boasting in himself and in his accomplishments. He took credit for things he didn’t do.
B. You see, God is the one who put Nebuchadnezzar in his position of power.
1. He makes nations great and he destroys them; he enlarges nations and leads them away. Job 12:23
2. He removes kings and sets up kings. (Daniel 2:21, Cf. Daniel 5:21)
C. God deserves the credit for everything. Every opportunity, every accomplishment is a gift of God.
1. We didn’t choose who are parents are.
2. We didn’t choose our genetic make-up.
3. We didn’t choose our IQ.
4. We didn’t choose our childhood experiences.
5. We didn’t choose the nation we were born in.
6. We didn’t choose our gender.
7. We didn’t choose what era we were born in.
8. We didn’t provide ourselves with air to breath or a heart to pump blood to our organs,
9. We didn’t provide ourselves with a mind to think or with teachers to teach us.
D. These are all gifts of God! So how can we take credit for our accomplishments?
E. But that’s exactly what Nebuchadnezzar did. And he did it big time!
F. He thought his life was all about him. But everything he had was given by God.
1. Sennacherib was the king of Assyria a little more than 100 years before Nebuchadnezzar . He also thought he had become so great as a result of his own ingenuity and effort. But God says to him in Isaiah 37:26–27a, “Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins, while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded.”
G. Nebuchadnezzar is thinking only about himself.
1. He’s not thinking about the slaves who did most of the work to build the city.
2. He’s not thinking about his father who handed him such a great kingdom.
3. He’s not thinking about his teachers who taught him to be who he was and to do what he did.
4. He’s not thinking about the citizens of his kingdom who are suffering and desperate right now.
5. He’s certainly not thinking about God from whom all blessings flow.
6. He’s only thinking about one person: himself. He was so impressed by his own accomplishments.
IV. An important part of this story is how God deals with Nebuchadnezzar ’s sin.
A. First He warned him. He sent him the dream about the tree being cut down, and gave Daniel the interpretation. But it didn’t really sink in to Nebuchadnezzar’s thick skull.
1. You know, we fear theoretical hardship, but often it’s not enough to change us.
2. Many people don’t listen to warnings. Nebuchadnezzar had the dream and heard the interpretation, but it wasn’t enough to change his heart. He had to learn the lesson the hard way.
B. Then God humbled Nebuchadnezzar. He took away his sanity for seven years.
1. Nebuchadnezzar didn’t listen to the first shot across his bow, but he did listen to the second one.
2. Some people don’t listen to any of them, and then there comes a shot which is not across the bow but right into their side, and they are sunk.
3. God doesn’t play games. He means business. He’s not about tweaking and tidying up our lives. He wants to break us down and put us together again.
4. Some might read this story and feel like the king was treated too roughly, too harshly. Seven years of insanity, seven years of living like an animal, is just too much.
5. But from the eyes of a believer, this story is about the amazing grace of God. (Sometimes God lets people go through their whole lives in prosperity and success, and not until it’s all over are they shown the great emptiness of it all.)
a. Seven years of discomfort and disorientation are so worth it – for eternal life.
b. Seven years of lost productivity is so worth it. This is severe but it’s what was needed.
6. Calamities like this make us feel like we’re dying. But we’re actually being brought to life.
a. God knows what He’s doing.
V. This brings us to Nebuchadnezzar’s response to his seven years of insanity.
A. The story ends with worship. The one who began the story worshiping himself and ignoring God is now worshiping God and ignoring himself.
B. Nebuchadnezzar did not resent God’s act of removing his sanity. He didn’t interpret it as a harmful thing but as a blessing. “I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever...Now I praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just.” (34, 37)
C. This is a beautiful thing. Nebuchadnezzar was grateful for seven years of living with the animals out in the wild.
D. He saw the blessing of a rebuke, and the blessing of a disruptive interruption.
1. He knew it was just what he needed. He knew it was a blessing from God.
2. He recognized that there was something so evil in him that it took seven years of insanity and wildness to burn it out of him.
E. His repentance starts with, “I am nothing.” He doesn’t say, “I didn’t deserve this hardship.”
1. He implies that he did deserve it, and now because of it he sees that in himself he is nothing.
2. And he likes it that way! He has learned who he is, by learning who God is.
3. He saw that everything God did was right!
F. You could read this story and focus on the tragedy of this fallen tree, or you could read it and focus on the blessing of the stump: it meant that he was cut down but not destroyed.
1. There is a perishing of a tree, when it ceases to exist.
a. A giant oak tree, hundreds of years old, used to stand in the middle of the playground there.
b. But it is no more. It is dead. No shoots grow up in the playground. It was glorious, but it is gone.
2. But Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t gone. He was cut down to size, just like sometimes we get cut down to size. But God was merciful to Nebuchadnezzar. He spared his life; He left the stump.
3. He could have killed Nebuchadnezzar. He could waited until Nebuchadnezzar died as an old man, only to discover that it was all over for him.
4. And in the end Nebuchadnezzar is thankful, not just for his survival, but that he had learned that God is the king, that He rules over all. He had learned about the One who makes everything click.
VI. Obviously, there is a lot for us to ponder and learn from this.
A. We can learn about the destructiveness of pride.
1. We can so easily end up in this same ditch, the ditch of self-absorption: everything’s all about me.
2. The human heart wants to say, “It’s me, me, me!”
3. Many times the only reason we don’t boast like Nebuchadnezzar is because we don’t have a great city to boast in. We wish we did. We’re ready to boast, we just don’t have anything tangible to boast in. And so we feel deprived or cheated, like we are owed a glorious city to boast in.
4. I’ve been down this road as well. The story of my life is a story of being humbled. And, like Nebuchadnezzar, I praise God for the hard things He’s used to and is using to humble me.
5. How about you? Do you interpret the hard things God allows you to go through as sent in love to humble you? Do you thank Him for insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities? (2Cor.12:10)
B. We can learn about God’s warnings.
1. We can see that people often don’t listen to God’s warnings. How about me? Am I the kind of person who has to learn things the hard way, who won’t listen to warnings?
2. In a sense this sermon is a warning, but some still won’t pay attention to what it’s saying, just as I failed to listen to many similar warnings in my past.
3. There have been a lot of people who have heard this kind of warning, but it didn’t really register.
4. And then the hurricane came, and they were left wishing they had paid attention, as they survey the damage done to themselves and to others.
5. When we won’t listen to God’s words, He has to send disasters and calamities to knock us down.
C. And in this story we can learn about how we should view calamities when God sends them.
1. Calamities like this have happened to people in this congregation.
2. God sends us times of humbling. I think we’re in one now with Covid-19.
3. In fact, there are people in this congregation who would trade what they have gone through for seven years of insanity. But ultimately, it is such a good thing for us.
4. Once an older farmer was asked to close a sharing time in prayer. "Lord, I hate buttermilk, I hate lard. And Lord, I don't much care for raw, white flour. But Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love warm fresh biscuits. So Lord, when things come up that we don't like, when life gets hard, when we don't understand what you're doing with us, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing. It will probably be even better than biscuits! Amen."
5. What a beautiful thing it is to see Nebuchadnezzar praising God at the end! And what a beautiful thing it is when people are thankful for what God sends instead of resenting it – not just accepting, not just enduring it, but grateful for all the benefits they’ve received from it.
6. Are you afraid of God bringing some terrible calamity upon you? I think that’s a little messed up.
a. Sometimes parents of prodigal children will pray that the Lord will do whatever is necessary to get through to their child, and legitimately so.
b. But why don’t we have the same zeal for our own faith as we do for our children’s?
c. Why don’t we pray, Lord, do whatever you need to do to get through to me, to open my eyes to see You?
7. We shouldn’t imagine ourselves in the pain; we should imagine ourselves in the worship!
a. Imagine yourself saying, “Now I praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” (37)
b. At the end (36-37) Nebuchadnezzar is so grateful. He’s in awe. That’s the way it is when God moves, when God acts, when God redeems. It’s always better than it was before. It always ends with joy, praise and gratitude.
D. Imagine two pictures: one of Nebuchadnezzar on his roof, with swagger in his step and a smirk on his face, and one of Nebuchadnezzar wild and insane, unwashed and crazed, with long hair/nails.
1. And now let me ask this: in which picture is he better off?
2. In which picture is he experiencing the grace of God?
3. Which picture would he be embarrassed about and which would he be thankful for?
4. We think if we could just have what Nebuchadnezzar had, we would be happy. But this story shows us in all his wealth and success Nebuchadnezzar didn’t have enough to be happy.
5. And losing it all was well worth it because he found the treasure he lacked: he found the Lord.
VII. Let’s end by talking about how this story foreshadows the NT.
A. This story is shocking, just like the story of the conversion of Nineveh in the days of Jonah.
1. This never happened to Pharaoh. This never happened to Sennacherib. Nor to Herod or Caesar.
B. There are many who are proud, many who boast about their achievements, many who elevate themselves over God. The vast majority of them have a big surprise waiting for them at the end.
C. Why would God care about this proud king? Nebuchadnezzar had done nothing to attract God’s favor, nothing to deserve God’s kindness.
D. But, as we learn in the NT, God desires all kinds of people to be saved – even kings and those in high positions (1Timothy 2:2–4). And God desired this king to come to know Him.
E. In the 18th century there was a member of the English royal family named Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon. She played a prominent role in the Great Awakening. She is famous for a comment she made on 1Cor.1:26 which says: “Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.”
1. She said: Blessed be God, it does not say “any mighty,” “any noble”; it says “many mighty,” “many noble.” I owe my salvation to the letter “m.”
F. In the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation, we see a foreshadowing of the grace of the Christ who was to come 500 years later.
G. Just over 100 years before this event, the prophet Isaiah prophesied about the coming of Christ.
1. And one of the things in the prophecy was this: “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and exalted. 15 Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. – Is.52:13, 15
2. It’s as if in the story of Nebuchadnezzar we get the first glimpse of this beginning to take place.
3. God shuts the king’s mouth from his boasting, and then God opens the king’s mouth in worship.
H. And that’s exactly what God wants to do with us. he wants to shut our mouths from boasting and dwelling upon ourselves and He wants to open our mouths to worship and praise to Him.
1. His business is turning self-absorbed people into self-forgetful worshipers of Christ, worshipers who are so much happier than when they were self-centered.
2. And the tools He uses to do so are His powerful word and the arranging of our circumstances.
I. Nebuchadnezzar is spoken of as a great tree which got cut down. Is.53 speaks of Christ in very opposite language: “He grew up like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground...He was despised and rejected by men...But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities... All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” – Isaiah 53:2-6 That’s how Nebuchadnezzar came to find grace.
J. This brings our series on Great Sins of the OT to an end — with the gospel.
1. We can’t be faithful to the Bible if we focus on sins in the Bible – or sins in our lives – and leave out the gospel, and the Savior.
2. As we see in this story, the sins of the OT are great. But the grace of God is greater.
3. Your sins and my sins are great. But the grace of God for us in Christ is greater.