At the End of the Story
By Lillian Howard
Nebuchadnezzar is not the worst king the Bible talks about. Admittedly, it isn’t hard to be “not the worst,” when up against such contenders as Ahab, Herod, and the Pharaohs discussed in Exodus, but we give credit where credit is due: Nebuchadnezzar is not the worst. None the less, for most of the Biblical record, he’s a less than admirable figure.
For instance, the prince of the eunuchs was afraid for his head, if Nebuchadnezzar should find Daniel and his friends less healthy than the rest (Daniel 1:10). In Daniel 2:1-12, the king ordered all the wise men of Babylon killed, because a few of them could not tell him his dream, much less what it meant. He had a furnace prepared to execute anyone who would not worship when and how the king demanded (Daniel chapter 3). He was a man of harsh temper (Dan. 2:12; 3:13, 19), arrogant (Dan. 4:30) and he despised being disobeyed, even when his requests were unreasonable (again, Dan. 2:12).
As you can see, he was not a nice man. But in those same chapters where we can see the king’s harshness, we can also see him learning.
In Daniel 2:46-47, we read, “Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.”
Daniel reveals not only the king’s dream, but also its meaning, and Nebuchadnezzar’s first response is to worship him. Obviously the incorrect response, but our focus is on the next section. He acknowledges Daniel’s God as just that – Daniel’s God. Not his own God, not the God, but Daniel’s God. Superior to other gods, superior even to kings like himself, but still, Nebuchadnezzar thinks, only one god among many, one lord out of a pantheon.
Slight acknowledgment, but there none the less. It does not stop him from building his own god in chapter 3, nor from challenging God to stop him if He can. “… But if ye worship not ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” Daniel 3:15
God, of course, proves Himself real and powerful in a way Nebuchadnezzar cannot ignore. In Daniel 3:28-29, Nebuchadnezzar not only acknowledges God, but blesses Him, and makes it illegal to speak ill of Him. No other God, he says, can deliver after this sort – implying that as impressive as this God is, he still thinks there are others.
Chapter 4 begins like a letter, with the writer introducing himself and blessing his audience. Much of this chapter is written in first person – a record of the king’s experience in his own words. (Whether he was inspired when he spoke these, or whether it is merely an inspired account of what he did say, I can’t be sure.)
The king’s pride gets the better of him in this chapter, though he is forewarned in a dream, and though Daniel pleads with him to change (Dan. 4:1-27). In verse 30, he claims the kingdom of Babylon as his own, built by his own power, to the glory of his own name, and in verse 31, that illusion is allowed to shatter. “The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; the kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven time shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.” (verses 30-32)
If that were the end of the story, it would be a tragedy. Fortunately, there is more. Daniel 4:34-37 reads, “And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.”
Here, at the end, Nebuchadnezzar blesses the most High. The King of heaven. Not Daniel’s God, not Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s God, but theGod, and a King even above his own throne. At the end of the story, he is wiser and better, and isn’t it the ending that counts?