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Daniel 5
gives us a really neat look into the heart of God. We hear about King Nebuchadnezzar much like
we hear about king David, King Hezekiah, or even King Josiah. These are kings that loved God, who stumbled
occasionally, but who generally did the things that pleased God. These are kings who repented when they erred.
Naturally,
pleased don’t hear me trying to equate Nebuchadnezzar with David or the other
Hebrew kings. David’s heart was purely with
God. Nebuchadnezzar respected God, but
he did not follow God as his only God.
But we can
learn a lesson from Nebuchadnezzar, and it is the same lesson as the other
kings. God respects those who have the
ability to repent. God respects those
people who show Him humbleness.
Nebuchadnezzar was a Babylonian king who took His people into
captivity. But God still cared for him
because he went about his leadership with respect for God and the people of
God.
On the other
hand, we hear about Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Belshazzar. He has no respect for God or God’s
people. He has no knowledge of Daniel or
the things that God did through Daniel.
He is not humble. He thinks that
he is the master of his own world and doesn’t respect that there might just be higher
powers at work.
Belshazzar
didn’t learn from the people who came before him. He wasn’t interested in following in the ways
of Nebuchadnezzar and respecting the God of the Hebrew people. He was interested in being the master of his
own life and doing what he wanted. He
did what was right in his own eyes, not what was right in the eyes of God.
That is God’s
message to Belshazzar. The very night
that Belshazzar heard God’s proclamation against his arrogance, he was killed
at the hands of Darius, king of Persia.
What is interesting is that God arranges to take an arrogant leader out
so that he can put in a leader who does respect Him and His people. God begins the plan of saving His people out
of the Babylonian captivity by making a point about arrogance in leadership.
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