Worship Re-oriented: Out of the Mouths of Pagans “… those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” Daniel 4:37

Over the last month, we learned that: if we intentionally engage the culture around us by taking calculated risks based on the assumption that God is active in our world, then God will put us in the right place at the right time and equip us properly to participate in His activity in the lives of people. we’ll often be called to speak tough truth in love and three reactions can follow – “Nebuchadnezzar moments” “rich young man moments” “fiery furnace moments” in each of these situations, we need to be assured that God is at work. pride often prevents us from receiving much needed tough truth.

Daniel 4:28-37 Recap: we learned that Nebuchadnezzar has yet another troubling dream and calls upon Daniel for an interpretation. Through God’s power, Daniel gives him one, outlining that Nebuchadnezzar is in store for a terrible fall – a seven year period of difficulty. Twelve months after this, Nebuchadnezzar is surveying his beautiful kingdom from the rooftop of his palace and utters these prideful words: “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (4:30).

As soon as these words pass from his lips, heaven responds, notifying the king that the decree communicated in his dream will now be imposed. Immediately, Nebuchadnezzar is driven from his kingdom, spending seven years in insanity, living among the animals.

Those who study this account from a historical perspective conclude that since there is no record of Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity, then it obviously didn’t happen. The writings of Berossus, a Babylonian priest and astronomer of the third century B.C. and a tablet housed in the British Museum corroborate the idea that Nebuchadnezzar went through a period where he was unable to carry out his duties as king, experiencing a period of isolation from others, until he mysteriously returned to power. Perhaps the scriptural account isn’t so fanciful.

The story of Nebuchadnezzar does not end with his insanity, however The story of Nebuchadnezzar does not end with his insanity, however. At the end of seven years, a change begins for Nebuchadnezzar. It is only as Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges God for who He is and what He has done and as he humbles himself before this God, that his sanity is restored and his kingdom is reestablished. Nebuchadnezzar closes with this testimony to his new way of living in the world: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” (Daniel 4:37)

Some Applications … First, I believe this chapter challenges our cultural view of success, that those who no longer need to depend upon others in any way are truly the most successful. This has crept into our cultural religious understandings, that through the application of the right religious practices, we too can transcend this existence, disengaging from the muck and mire of ordinary existence, rising above the mundane, becoming our own spiritual authorities.

Ultimately, this way of thinking comes into confrontation with the truth of Scripture. God makes it very clear in Scripture that is it only He who is “untouchable”; yet far from independent, God exhibits interdependence within the Trinity and show a desire for relationship with us as humans. For the early Christians religious “success” looked like this: dynamic engagement with God and others while modeling humility and an understanding that it is God who is sovereign.

John 13:1-17 “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” The extension of this scripture is that there is no place for pride when it comes to relationship with God. Humility is core to following Jesus.

According to scripture, pride is a very destructive thing, but pride is much more than an undesirably destructive quality – it is behaviour that runs contrary and in opposition to the nature of God revealed to us. “[He], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8) Christ chose to come in humility to our world. He came inauspiciously, lived humbly, and died in absolute submission to God the Father. As followers of Christ, humility should define us, pride must not!

This scripture should cause us to ask whether we will surrender willingly to the authority of God in our lives or whether our surrender will be more compulsive. We each have the choice to submit God in our lives willingly, responding to him with appropriate praise or we can choose not to, glorifying ourselves with praise that should be reserved only for God. The truth is that one day, whether in our lifetime or the next, God will receive the praise he is due. Christ came in humility, but God highly exalted him, ensuring that at his name “every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. (Philippians 2:9-11)

This passage urges us to ask whether we admire God for what He can do for us or whether we admire Him for who He is and what He has done. Whereas Nebuchadnezzar initially admired God for his power, he didn’t really care to acknowledge God for who He is. God was like a secret weapon who could be called upon when needed. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego honoured God regardless of how He intervened in the circumstances. Worship is most pleasing to God when it comes from a place of acknowledging God for who He is and what He has done. Think of your own relationship with God for a moment. Do you hold God in regard for what he can do for you or do you love God because of who he is?

Praise of God should not cease at the doors of the church, but should extend into our community. “The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless” (Billy Graham) May each of us evidence authentic faith in the real world in this manner.