Pride
Daniel
4. It would seem that God conspires
against me to focus on Nebuchadnezzar again!
But that is okay. For tomorrow’s story
is not about Nebuchadnezzar at all. So
let’s get all we can out of him today.
In fact, the only thing I will say about Daniel today is this: Kudos to
him for having the guts to proclaim this message to someone who has already
tried to kill his friends in a fiery furnace!
Praise be to God!
I
love the nature of this story. The
chapter begins with King Nebuchadnezzar giving praise to God before the whole
of Babylon. A period of time – at least
twelve months, see Daniel 4:29 – goes by and King Nebuchadnezzar finds himself
focusing on himself and his pride again.
Oh how the mighty have fallen!
Nebuchadnezzar becomes like the beasts of the earth in order to complete
the fall. But, God sees it fit to
restore Nebuchadnezzar and in that restoration Nebuchadnezzar is given another
reminder that it is God that our life should revolve around, not ourselves.
Here
again in Daniel we have the rearing of the ugly head of pride. C.S. Lewis has a saying that pride is the
favorite sin that the Devil uses. You
see, when the devil uses other sins against us they are simply disobedience
against God’s commands. But when the
devil uses pride against us, it is not a rebellion against God’s commands but
rebellion against the very person and nature of God! Pride is the removal of God’s central nature
in our life and the replacing of God with the self. When the devil uses pride, he has completely
won – until God sees it fit to humble our pride and drive it out of us as He
did here with Nebuchadnezzar.
So
I am left to ponder this sin of pride.
How often do I think like Nebuchadnezzar in that I desire to build great
things? How often do I convince myself
that those great things are good because I can use them to make the name of the
Lord great? How good have I gotten at
lying to myself and convincing myself that my self-centered designs are about
God when they are really all about me? Rather
I should desire that God should use me to build His kingdom – whether my
contribution is great or small.
How
often have I been so proud as to think that I don’t need the help of
others? Rather I should be humble and
acknowledge that when I do not accept the help of others I am denying my belief
that God has equipped them with the very skills that I need to compliment my
own.
Do
you see how pride works? Do even I really
see how pride works? Do you see how easy
it is to be blind-sided by pride when we don’t even recognize that it is
coming?
Oh,
this wretched and infernal thing called pride.
I can erect wall after wall – safeguard after safeguard – and yet I find
that pride is still standing there beside me.
To mix Science Fiction with Theology it feels as though every time I
have established a new pattern of life to help shut out pride, I discover that
pride has already teleported within me and is actually the one who is telling
me how to establish this new pattern so that I think I have won against
pride. Pride is a vile and abject enemy
of God. Even in the matter of confession
– public or private – pride can come in and convince me of just how righteous
my confession is! Is there no escape
from pride?
Turn
to God, Nebuchadnezzar. Turn to God, sinner
wrenched with pride. The only escape
from pride is to focus on God. Focusing
on God’s majesty and removing ourselves from the center of our own world will
defeat pride. So let’s turn. Let’s repent.
In the Greek, I would say “Metanoeite!”
That’s the Greek work John the Baptizer uses when he says “Repent!” as a
command. O God, reveal your majesty to us
that I might see just how little the works of my hands are without you as the
Creator behind the operation of my hands.
Only when you are the source of glory is true glory found.
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