Tuesday, January 28
Despite his being told to repent and seek God’s forgiveness, Nebuchadnezzar’s unrelenting pride causes the heavenly decree to be executed (Daniel 4:28-33). While the king is walking in his palace and praising himself for what he has accomplished, he is afflicted with a mental condition that forces his expulsion from the royal palace. He may have experienced a pathological mental condition called clinical lycanthropy or zoanthropy. Such a condition leads the patient to act like an animal. In modern times this disease has been called “species dysphoria”, the feeling that one’s body is of the wrong species and, hence, the desire to be an animal.
Read 2 Kings 20:2-5; Jonah 3:10; and Jeremiah 18:7, 8. What do these texts tell us about the king’s chance to have averted the punishment?
Unfortunately, Nebuchadnezzar has to learn the hard way. When invested with royal power, Nebuchadnezzar has no ability to reflect on his relationship with God. Thus, by depriving the king of royal authority and sending him to live with the beasts of the field, God gives the king an opportunity to acknowledge his total dependence on Him. In fact, the ultimate lesson God wants to teach to the arrogant king is that “Heaven rules” (Daniel 4:26). Indeed, the judgment upon the king has an even larger purpose in God’s design, as so clearly expressed in the decree of the heavenly beings: “In order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men” (Daniel 4:17).
In other words, the discipline applied to Nebuchadnezzar should be a lesson for all of us as well. Because we belong to the group of “the living”, we should pay better attention to the main lesson we are supposed to learn that “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men”.
Why is knowing that the Most High rules so important a lesson for us to learn? How should this knowledge, for instance, impact how we treat those over whom we have power?
