The King's Testimony

Read Ezekiel 29:17-21, Daniel 4, Jeremiah 52:31-34
 
Daniel 4:1-3 King Nebuchadnezzar sent this message to the people of every race and nation and language throughout the world: “Peace and prosperity to you! 2 I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me. 3 How great are his signs, how powerful his wonders! His kingdom will last forever, his rule through all generations.”
 
YOU could say Daniel 4 is the epistle of Nebuchadnezzar. An epistle is a teaching letter, and Nebuchadnezzar had much to teach Babylon about God’s miraculous, transforming power. His praise to God is such that it may remind us of the apostle Paul’s letters, often beginning with, “Grace and peace to you…Praise be to God.”
   As Jesus transformed Paul from a murderous persecutor of Christians, it seems
God has transformed the king.
   Daniel 4 tells the king’s story and it tells the king’s joy. Think of how God humbled this prideful monarch to live as an animal for seven years! Would you want to talk about God humbling you? Usually we’re too prideful to say, “God humbled me. He took everything away to teach me about him, to help me know him.” But the king said,  “I want you all to know about the miraculous signs and wonders the Most High God has performed for me.” He wants to glorify God and magnify his name to Babylon! What blessed assurance this is to know what God has done for even such a great sinner as King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
   In the three readings from Daniel to this point, we have seen God three times display his sovereign authority through a dream’s interpretation, a deliverance from fire and this humility lesson. God has used Nebuchadnezzar to punish Israel and other pagan nations. God’s purpose is to make his name known in these personal displays of his power, so the exiled Jews will believe who he is and what he says.
   As God made himself known in Egypt before the exodus, he is doing the same here to prepare Israel to return to Jerusalem and Judah. God is good at preparing us to be in his home. He’s doing the same now through powerful transformations of many lives from sin into salvation. Are you one he has saved? Then be joyful to tell God’s story to change your life. 1 Peter 3:15 Instead, you must worship Christ as LORD of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.