They shall make thee to eat grass
as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know
that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth
it to whomsoever he will. Now verse 34. And at the end
of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven,
and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most
High. And I praised and honored him
that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and
his kingdom is from generation to generation." Now, the fact
of the matter is, Nebuchadnezzar had already used this expression
himself. And he used it earlier in the
previous chapter in connection with those three Hebrew men Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, and you know about that story, and we'll
deal with it another time. Nebuchadnezzar built this idol,
this image, demanded them to bow down. They wouldn't bow down,
to kind of make a long story short, and he threw them in the
fiery furnace, and then he made it even hotter, and he saw a
fourth one in the furnace, and he said, that looks like the
son of man. And so we read in chapter three
in verse 26. Then Nebuchadnezzar, he came
to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace. Chapter three of Daniel,
verse 26. He spake and said, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth
and come hither. And then Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego came forth, of the midst of the fire." These are words
that he used himself, acknowledging at least to a degree at that
point the greatness of the God of Israel, the God of Daniel. Now, no doubt here in Daniel
chapter three that this great king still clings to his God's
but he's merely acknowledging the God of these three men, the
Hebrew men, their God is greater than his God's. But at this point,
he hasn't given up his God's yet. He has not been convinced
that the God of heaven and earth rules over all and gives it to
whomsoever he will. He hasn't learned that, but he
will because the Lord is going to deal with him. Now, as we
get to chapter 4, I think it's very important that we notice
this. This entire chapter is related,
is stated, was written by Nebuchadnezzar himself. And God used Daniel
to record the words of Nebuchadnezzar and put it in Holy Scripture,
and it is here forever and ever. These are the words of the king.
And I'll show you that. Look at chapter four, verse one.
Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, Chapter 4, verse
1, Nebuchadnezzar the king unto all people, nations, and languages
that dwell on the earth. Peace be multiplied unto you. Remember, this is the most powerful
man at that time in the world. Of all the kingdoms of the world,
all the nations acknowledge the greatness of this man. And they were all serving him. He had authority over all of
them. And so he writes this letter This great king does. And he
sends it out by his ambassadors to all of these nations that
he's conquered them. And they pay tribute to him. And he says in the second verse,
I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high
God hath wrought toward me. I want to tell you what God has
done for me. Verse three, how great are his
signs, and how mighty are his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar. And then he
begins to give his testimony. This is a marvelous testimony
recorded in scripture. Now, several years ago, I offended
a family in the church that I was pastoring, because the man of
the family, he said, I think we ought to, every once in a
while, just have a testimony meeting and not have a preaching
service. And I disagreed with that because I said, the Bible
doesn't say it pleased God by having a testimony meeting to
save sinners. It says it pleased God through
the preaching of the gospel to save them that believe. And he
got quite offended. And I said, listen, I was raised
in religion. I've been to a lot of testimony
meetings. And I said, we had another word
for it. We call them bragamony meetings. braggamony meetings,
and people would get up and they'd talk about what they'd done,
how they'd been a rascal, and then how they'd let God do this,
and they'd let God do that, and what they did, and it was all
about them. And they would say, I did this
and I did that. It was all about I. And I said,
I'm not going to have that. I'm not going to have a testimony
meeting. And I told him, I said, as far as I can find, one of
the best testimonies ever is in Daniel chapter four. Because
that's what this is. This is a man giving a witness
of that which God had done for him, how God brought him down. Here's an arrogant man. Here's
a boastful man. Here's a man who's filled with
pride. He thought he was the greatest
man in the whole world. And then he has this very troubling
dream that he couldn't understand. And he called all of his soothsayers
and wise men and astrologers and so forth in, and they couldn't
interpret the dream. And then Daniel did. And as I've
already read to you, Daniel told him, this is what the dream means.
Now let me show you how it comes to pass. So I'll read again,
beginning at verse 28 of Daniel 4. All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. In other words, everything happened
just as Daniel said it would. Because this was indeed the decree
of the watchers. This is what God had decreed. I know there are a lot of people
who don't think anything about the decrees of God. But Nebuchadnezzar
did. And Daniel did. And Nebuchadnezzar,
he came to find out that everything Almighty God has decreed always
comes to pass. This was God's decreed will for
him. And he tells the story. And as
it unfolds, we see the mercy of God, the grace of God in dealing
with a man in a way of compassion. And the man doesn't deserve any
mercy, but nobody does. But God showed him mercy for
Christ's sake. And so we read in verse 28, And
all of this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar, At the end of 12 months, he walked
in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. A whole year had
gone by. Nothing happened. Nothing happened
for a year. He probably just kind of forgot
about it. Well, I know Daniel interpreted, but hey, a whole
year's gone by. That's all water under the bridge. He keeps on expanding his kingdom. And verse 30, the king spake
and said, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house
of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of
my majesty? It's all about him. And verse 31 says, and while
the word was in the king's mouth, There fell a voice from heaven
saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken. The kingdom is departed from
thee as of right now. And they shall drive thee from
men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.
They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times, seven
years is what most commentators believe, seven years shall pass
over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom
of men, and giveth to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the
thing fulfilled. Fulfilled. Everything God has
decreed is fulfilled. It always comes to pass. Fulfilled
upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men. He did eat grass
as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till
his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird
claws. At the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me." His sanity came back. Now listen, all men without Christ
Jesus are spiritually insane. insanity rules over the world
in the spiritual realm. And this man is brought down
low to show us that we are little better than beasts of the field
because we know nothing of the spiritual things of God. We know
nothing of Christ Jesus. We know nothing of our own thought.
We know nothing of the greatness of God that the Most High ruleth
over all. People, and this is all of us
by nature, we're just insane. We don't know. We're ignorant. We're ignorant. And then understanding
returned unto him. Well, how can it be returned
unto him? We became insane through Adam's
fall. We lost all spiritual intelligence
in Adam's transgression. And we've been spiritually insane
from birth. And the Lord has to do something
for us. He has to give us understanding.
And when He does, when He shows us what we are, He shows us the
Savior, He shows us salvation, He shows us the importance of
the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, God is then blessing us
and we in turn bless Him. He said, I bless the Most High. You won't find Nebuchadnezzar
saying, oh, this is all due to my will. No, He knows who it
is who has dealt with Him, who has dealt with Him in grace.
He deserved to be put into hell. So did we. So did we. But God spared Him. It's a blessed
day when God dresses us down. When He brings us down to see
we are nothing and He is everything and the only way we can come
to Him is through Christ Jesus, the Lord. He brings us down,
brings us low. How low does He bring us? Low
enough that we make the dust our headquarters. And that's
the way it was with Nebuchadnezzar. And then God gave him understanding. He opened his mind, he opened
his heart, and he began to grasp the greatness of God. And undoubtedly,
he remembered the preaching of Daniel and the preaching of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego about Messiah coming. And all of these things
began to surge into his mind and surge into his heart as God
gave him understanding. He knew why Daniel prayed. He knew why Daniel looked toward
Jerusalem. He's looking toward Jerusalem
where Messiah will come, who will come suddenly to his temple,
as it says in the book of Malachi. Nebuchadnezzar knew these things. And he says, I bless the Most
High. Oh, he's not an infidel anymore. He's not a hater of God anymore. He's casting away his own gods. And he's bowing before the God
who is God, who rules over all. He says, I praised and honored
him that liveth forever. whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation and
all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. It's
just like God said in his word, we're nothing. You show me a
man or a woman or a boy or a girl who understands that they are
nothing, I'll show you somebody the Lord is teaching. and that he doeth according to
his will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand, none can say unto him,
what are you doing? At the same time, verse 36, my
reason returned unto me. For the glory of my kingdom,
mine honor and brightness returned unto me. and my counselors and
my Lord sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and
excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are
truth, and his ways judgment. He's a God of righteousness.
That's what Nebuchadnezzar is saying. He's a God who demands
righteousness, who gives righteousness, and who provided righteousness
in his Son, who is the Lord our righteousness. And those that
walk in pride, he's able to abase. And I'll give you six things
real quick that Nebuchadnezzar learned. He learned that God lives forever.
Verse 34. I lifted up mine eyes into heaven,
mine understanding returned unto me. I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored Him that liveth forever." Nebuchadnezzar
could mark his birthdays, but he said, this God, He doesn't
have any birthdays. He lives forever and ever. He's
without beginning, He's without ending, and He's absolutely independent. And Nebuchadnezzar came to understand
he was dependent upon this God. This God didn't need him, this
God is independent. In fact, this is how we define
sovereignty, God's independent right. Independent right to rule
things according to his own pleasure. He's influenced by nobody. You're
influenced by a lot of people and in all things you're influenced
by God. God's not influenced by anything
or anybody. He's absolutely independent.
He doesn't need anybody. He doesn't need you and He doesn't
need me. But we sure do need Him. So he
learned God is everlasting. Number two, he learned that God's
dominion has no boundaries. That same verse, God's dominion
have no boundaries. All people, all nations, all
countries, his dominions over all of them. Number three, he
learned that all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. We have nothing, we know nothing,
we can contribute nothing. And we are nothing when compared
to God. He's everything and we're nothing. And when we make ourselves to
be something, then we necessarily detract from the fact that God
is everything. You see, if he's everything,
there's no room for us to be anything. But if we are something,
then to that degree, we bring God down. And that's what religion
is about today. It's about bringing God down.
But you can't bring God down. Only in your own corrupt mind
can you bring God down. But God, He's the Most High who
reigneth over all. And we're nothing. We're nothing. And then fourthly, he learned
that God exerts his power over all his creation because he says
in verse 35, he doeth his will. Nebuchadnezzar, he's not talking
about his will, he's talking about God's will. He's not bragging
about his own will, he's talking about God's will. He doeth his
will everywhere, all time. The will of God. And number five, he learned that
the will of God is irresistible. Irresistible. What he wants to do is exactly
what he does. And he doesn't ask your permission,
and he doesn't need it. And sixthly, He learned that
God is able to abase anybody. Because he says in the last verse,
and you'll notice that in verse four he said, I am Nebuchadnezzar. I was at rest. In other words,
I was secure. I was at ease. I was untroubled. I didn't have a care, didn't
have a worry. He's the most powerful man in
the world. But God brought him down. And he says in verse 37,
now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King
of heaven. I love that language, the King
of heaven. Who is Christ Jesus? He's the
King of kings and he's the Lord of lords. How'd he get those
titles? By way of a bloody cross. That's his exaltation. He says,
I praise and extol and honor the King, the King of heaven.
All whose works are true. Everything he does is in truth.
His name is truth. And his ways judgment or righteousness. And this is what he learned,
and those that walk in pride, he's able to abase. And he will abase all men and
women someday. He'll either abase you and me
in this life and bring us down, or he'll abase us after death. and will be forced to come down
and acknowledge his lordship. As it says in Philippians chapter
two, that every knee will bow, every tongue shall confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I tell you,
the most high ruling. And I love that ETH. If you have
a new King James Version, Maybe some of you do, and that's okay.
There are some people who use the New King James Version, and
I understand. But they take that ETH away and
say he reigns. But that ETH gives us the idea
he's always reigning. That's the beauty of it. He's
always reigning. He never gave up his throne.
Never has, never will. He reigns over everything in
heaven. Among all the armies of heaven. How many armies are there in
heaven? Armies of his angels. How many are the armies of the
evil one? A lot of those too. He reigns
over all of them. And all the inhabitants of the
earth. How many billions of people live
on the earth? I don't know. But He rules over
every one of them. Every one of them. And you and
I who know Him through Christ Jesus, we should be at ease in
this world, knowing that our God reigns over all things. He is the Most High. who ruleth." He ruleth. He doesn't want to. It isn't
that he's going to. He does. He always has and he
always will.