So, I was reading today about a mental health advisory board that had one of its members who identifies as, ‘They/Them/Turtle’! Yes, you read that correctly, ‘Turtle’. Anyhow, when I read this I thought to myself, “What is our world coming to?” This would be the same day that a committee in the Congress of the United States made the news for a dispute in a session where one congressman called another out for not having any ‘decency’ because the other referred to a sitting congressman, who is a man claiming to identify as a woman, as ‘Mr. So and so’: the committee had to be closed and now it is a major news item. I wonder how you would correctly address a ‘turtle person’, “I now call on ‘Them turtle”? As I pondered my question about the state of the world I was reminded of what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun”, Eccl. 1:9, and sure enough I remembered the story in Daniel about Nebuchadnezzar.
Albeit, Nebuchadnezzar’s (Neb’s) situation that we are going to look at has a much different lesson for us than what the ‘world’ would want us to think today, it is nevertheless a very good lesson for those of us who they would call, ‘extremist’, or ‘right wing fanatics’, or, ‘the Christian right’, yada-yada. You see, what is happening in the world today by those who think of themselves as ‘progressive’, or, ‘enlightened’, is in the same vein as Neb’s dilemma he found himself in. Let’s take a look at the account from Daniel as King Neb has had a dream and has called in Daniel to interpret it for him:
Dan 4:24-37 (LSB) “this is the interpretation, O king, and this is the resolution of the Most High, which has reached my lord the king: [25] that you be driven away from mankind and your place of habitation be with the beasts of the field, and you be given grass to eat like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven; and seven periods of time will pass over you, until you know that the Most High is the powerful ruler over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever He wishes. [26] ‘And in that they said to leave the stump with the roots of the tree, your kingdom will endure for you after you know that it is Heaven that rules with power. [27] ‘Therefore, O king, may my advice seem good to you: break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.’ [28] “All this reached Nebuchadnezzar the king. [29] “At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. [30] “The king answered and said, ‘Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal house by the strength of my power and for the glory of my majesty?’ [31] “While the word was in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is said: the kingdom has been removed from you, [32] and you will be driven away from mankind, and your place of habitation will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you know that the Most High is the powerful ruler over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever He wishes.’ [33] “Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was accomplished; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws. [34] “But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes toward heaven, and my knowledge returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. [35] “And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can strike against His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ [36] “At that time my knowledge returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my high officials and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my kingdom, and extraordinary greatness was added to me. [37] “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”’
So, there is the account from Daniel about what happened to the King and I hope you can see a couple of things that I believe are so pertinent to what we are looking at today.
First is that the King was warned by a well meaning, yet ‘truth’ telling government official. Oh, yes, for those unfamiliar with the book of Daniel, he was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar as a head of state earlier in Neb’s reign. So, this head of state, who has the ‘floor’ of the King’s palace, states truthfully what is going to happen to the King if he doesn’t turn, repent, and do right things so maybe the judgment on his sin won’t happen. Wow! I’m sure if Daniel had been in the session of congress we spoke about he would have been severely reprimanded and ‘censured’ for his ‘insensitive’ and blatantly ‘un-decent’ words! But, not in King Neb’s court. No, the King listens but forgets (or ignores) the warnings, sends Daniel back to his job, and after a year we find him walking on his palace roof, admiring all that ‘he’ has accomplished with words that would have sounded like, ‘Me, Myself, and I, have done all this!” Tune up the praise band, “Me,me, me,..” And then the next thing happened.
Due to King Neb’s highly developed sense of self-esteem, and his low developed sense of esteem for anyone else- even God Himself- we see that “as the word was in the kings mouth”, he heard a voice from heaven pronounce the judgment of the dream and immediately he was ‘driven’ away from mankind and became ‘like’ a beast of the field, eating straw and living in the grasslands. His hair grew long and his nails became like eagle talons (it seems that I remember an eccentric rich American years ago whose nails did this!). I thought it interesting that the word used for ‘cattle’ is actually used for ‘bull’ in the plural- so, I wonder if Neb’s ‘pronouns’ would have been Bull/they? Anyhow, I’m not sure, but it appears that Nebuchadnezzar stayed in his cognizant ‘mind’ during this time because he remembers all that happened to him, he was simply a human that was driven from humankind and was identified with the cattle on the hills. Today this would probably be celebrated and actually used as an example of what it means to ‘really find your true self’, but not in Neb’s day, and what we are going to see, it wasn’t thought of as good by Neb either!
So what is it that King Nebuchadnezzar learned from this dream turned into reality? And what can we learn from it? It’s all in Nebuchadnezzar’s words after he is ‘restored’ to his throne, just listen to verse 47 again:
Dan 4:37 (LSB) “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”
Do you see it? The reason that he was torn from his position and fell into a state of ‘false identity’ with the bulls on the hills, was that he was full of pride and he didn’t recognize and honor the King of Heaven as God! And notice the warning that we can end with, it applies to all of us, “He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” You see, it isn’t that only those mentioned in the beginning of this post are the only prideful ones that are shaking their fists at God- whether, like Neb, they acknowledge it or not- all of us at times can slip into that kind of rebellion. And it isn’t only ‘those’ sinful acts that are called into account, all types of sin are despicable before the King of Heaven! However, the difference is the repentant and believing heart. If someone believes in the King of Heaven through Jesus His Son, then he will confess his sin, repent of his sin, and return to obedience of the faith found in scripture that Yahweh calls for. Now, there may be times or seasons of sin for some, but the unbelieving, flagrantly rebellious, who flaunt their sin as a badge of honor and by virtue, shake it in the face of Yahweh God, these shall be held accountable just as Nebuchadnezzar was.
Now, we don’t know if Nebuchadnezzar ended up as a committed believer in Yahweh- history doesn’t seem to show this; however, if you are reading this and are in your own ‘grassland’ with ‘dew’ on your back, then there is still time for even a ‘bull’ or a ‘turtle’ to repent before the King of Heaven and become the actual Man or Woman that God designed you from the womb to be.
Randy
