There is certainly the message in Daniel 4 of God’s sovereign ability to humble the proud. But there is also the message of Daniel 4 that we must not miss. Daniel 4 was written by King Nebuchadnezzar. That might fail to land on us as it should, being so far removed from this historic time. To give it a freshening up for us, imagine a pastor asking you to turn to a particular chapter in the Bible and informing you that it was written by Hitler.
Nebuchadnezzar was an awful oppressive dictator that conquered nations, took slaves, oppressed people, practiced human sacrifices, slaughtered mass numbers of God’s people, and led so many into all kinds of wickedness. That guy is included in the select group of human authors of the Word of God.
Now we don’t know if Nebuchadnezzar was actually saved, with Daniel 4 being his testimony. Certainly he has shown in the first four chapters of Daniel the ability to make some accurate statements about God only to continue in a life that shows he doesn’t really get it. Maybe chapter 4 is just another chapter in that same old story. Maybe, but whatever the actual state of Nebuchadnezzar’s soul was, there does seem to be a literary point being made to the reader. The last we hear about Nebuchadnezzar is his confession of faith after an act of God humbles him successfully. He praises and acknowledges God. And the point is clear—God is able to humble even the most proud. To which I would include, God is able to save even the most lost.
Perhaps if we knew Nebuchadnezzar better, chapter 4 would bother us more. I can only imagine how it might have affected its earliest readers. Perhaps they weren’t quite ready for that. He was responsible for too much trauma. It was still too deeply offensive. But isn’t that also the point?
God’s grace is amazing and far reaching, able to draw back to himself the worst of people. Is that hard for you? Can you stomach the grace of God being extended to certain people? We might be quick to confess that we are not saved by works but want to hold on to the idea that some works put you outside of the reach of grace. If anyone, Nebuchadnezzar seems like someone who should be cancelled. Disqualified. Even if we accept that God did something in his life, why does he get to be a contributor to God’s Holy Scriptures? It’s too much. But isn’t that the good news? God’s grace is lavished upon us.
Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony is not really about Nebuchadnezzar, it’s about God. How better to show the power of God, the grace of God, the authority of God than to take the most powerful man on earth and bring him to his knees, and then bring him to worship.
In our own lifetime we have witnessed one of the most prolific serial killers, Jeffery Dahmer, profess faith in Jesus Christ. For some, the thought of Jeffery Dahmer enjoying the presence of God as a new creation doesn’t sit well. We feel a lack of justice. How could someone so evil actually be forgiven? But if Jeffery Dahmer truly is saved, it’s not really about Jeffery Dahmer, it’s about God. How better to show the power of God, the grace of God, the authority of God than to take such an awful sinner and bring him to his knees professing Christ.
God does as he wills and saves as he wills, and his grace goes well beyond our comfort zones.
Nebuchadnezzar writing chapter 4 in the book of Daniel confronts us with the radicalness of God’s grace. But it’s not just a grace that can reach even the Nebuchadnezzars and Jeffery Dahmers, it can also reach the religiously proud, and porn-watching teens, and arrogant men, and insecure, self-centered moms. It applies to even a wretch like me.
When we are confronted with the radicalness of God’s grace it should remind us of the severity of sin, all sin. Not because of the different acts of sin, and which one is worst in the list of sins, but because of who those acts of sin are ultimately against. Sin is awful, all sin is awful, because God is holy. There is no such thing as small sins, because we don’t sin against a small God. But also, grace is sufficient, not just because a sacrifice was made, but because who the sacrifice was—the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. The holiness of God was confronted with the severity of sin, which was dealt with by the severity of grace.
God's grace is amazing, and it is a grace that goes beyond our own comfort zones, and for our own sake, praise God that it does. Let’s not miss the lesson in Daniel 4, that God is able to humble the proud. And let’s not miss the lesson of Daniel 4, that God is able to humble the most proud and save the most awful. If the extent of God’s grace doesn’t frustrate us a bit, maybe we are also failing to be truly amazed by it.