“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, … you shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2). This is the first of the ten commandments that God gave to the Israelites through Moses. While the commandments continue to be laid, we hear the words, “for I am a jealous God” as God instructs the Israelites to not worship anything that He made or other gods made by their hands. To be a jealous God means that God does not share His glory with anyone, He is God alone and the only one to receive power, honour, praise, glory for evermore. What He rightfully deserves, He will not share, nor will He allow it to be given to someone else. In several parts of the bible, this concept is reiterated in different ways. For example, in 1 Samuel 5, when the ark of the Lord is captured by the Philistines and brought into the house of one of their gods (Dagon), the statue of their god keeps falling and breaking before the ark of the Lord. Or take the story of the tower of babel because people wanted to elevate themselves above God, God had to confuse their language so they would not build a tower that would reach up to the sky! What a ludicrous project it was but then again, pride has a way of blinding us to reason. Pride does not do us good because it makes us enemies of God. As James says, God opposes the proud (James 4:6). One of the best examples of how He does that is in the book of Daniel.
From the very beginning of the book of Daniel, we are introduced to king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who is powerful. He subdued Juda, and captured it including its people. Nebuchadnezzar was not only about conquering a land, but also using its resources to his benefit. That is why, he made sure the best of the best was sent for training among the captives to be used for his service. What we learn about Nebuchadnezzar is that apart from being very powerful and above many nations, he was also very irritable and irrational at times. This is well portrayed in the incident relayed in Daniel 2 where Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that he cannot understand, and it troubles him greatly. He summons all the wise men including magicians and astrologers of his kingdom and ordains that they first, tell him what he dreamt and second, that they interpret that dream for him. Indeed, such a request is impossible for man but because Nebuchadnezzar is king and above all, it is permissible for him. When the request is not able to be granted, he orders that all wise men of the kingdom be killed. Can you imagine what sort of person this was? What kind of leader would he have been? Moreover, we are told in Daniel 3 that Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold of about 90 feet of himself to be worshipped by all inhabitants of his kingdom. He definitely ensured citizen of his kingdom revered him. It is very easy to see how Nebuchadnezzar thought he was the giver of life and the maker of everything. Any defiance to the worship of the statue of his image was to be punished by being thrown in the blazing furnace which led to death. Well, as we know three of Daniel’s friends (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) disobeyed him and were sent to the blazing furnace. However, God miraculously saved them, and the fire did not affect them at all. At this, Nebuchadnezzar realized that the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is very powerful, and he decreed that no one in his kingdom should say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Notice here that Nebuchadnezzar did not think this God of Israel was powerful enough to be feared and submitted to.
Some years later, Nebuchadnezzar has another dreadful vision and in this one, as interpreted by Daniel, we are told that the Lord had declared to remove Nebuchadnezzar from his palace and strip him off his privileges. Furthermore, the Lord was set remove from Nebuchadnezzar, the influence, the power and everything that he had and was relying upon if he did not humble himself before the Lord. Upon hearing the interpretation of the dream, Nebuchadnezzar did not act upon it quickly, in fact, it seems he continued to live his selfish and pride filled life as normal until a year later when God enacted the vision he had sent to him. Nebuchadnezzar’s life changed in a split of a second, he went from glory to ashes, from having abundantly to having nothing, from being the head to being worse than the tail. Nebuchadnezzar was so low that he was not fit to live among humans and was living among animals; he even ate grass! See how low Nebuchadnezzar had to be brought for him to realize that the God of heaven is not to be played with, that He alone deserves the glory, that He alone has an eternal dominion and that His kingdom endures from generation to generation. This is how much it took for Nebuchadnezzar to finally humble himself before the Lord.
Although Nebuchadnezzar is certainly not an example to follow I do believe, we can learn from his sin and refrain from it. In everything we do, we ought to remember that we are not God and that we are simply his servants. Unlike Nebuchadnezzar who thought everything came from him, we ought to remember as James tells us that “every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). Indeed, what we have comes from God, what we enjoy comes from Him and we should not fall into our selfish thinking and believe that it is our doing. This sounds simple and easy, but it is very difficult because often when our heavenly Father decides to lavish us with his good gifts, we forget the gift giver and only focus on the gifts and the fame that they can bring. My prayer is that we will be so humble and heed Paul’s instruction to think of others more significant than one’s self (Philippians 2:3) in order to not fall into the trap of elevating ourselves.
A Word Aptly Spoken 