Posted: 9/13/07
Bible Studies for Life Series for September 23
Handling success successfully
• Daniel 4:4-5,28-37
First Baptist Church, Gatesville
The story of the transformation of Nebuchadnezzar is at least in part the story of what it means to be human. At the heart of Nebuchadnezzar’s fall from the heights of power is his pride and ego. Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of the royal palace surveying Babylon and said, “Is this not Babylon the great which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory my majesty?” Three times Nebuchadnezzar refers to his own accomplishments without any recognition that he might not have been solely responsible for all he surveyed.
To be human is to be created in the image of God. Genesis 1:27 affirms, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Innumerable attempts have been made to define or identify the image of God in humans. One aspect of the image of God should not be isolated and identified as the image. Whatever the image is, it involves the whole person.
While we can’t define the image of God as any one aspect or component inherent within humanity, we can say the image of God is at least in part our capacity for relationship with God. We are relational beings and created for a relationship of loving trust and faithful obedience to our Creator. It is within this relationship that we fulfill what it means to be human. It is only as we live in relationship with, and in response to, God that we are fully human.
Inherent in any gift of God is the danger of using it improperly. The worst of our sin is taking something God intended for good and distorting it into something evil, using it in a manner completely inconsistent with God’s intentions. The danger of being created in the image of God is that we can all too quickly perceive the image as reality. In other words, we perceive we are God rather than his creation. Genesis 3:5 reveals this was at the heart of the first sin, “You will be like God.”
Nebuchadnezzar’s descent to an animal was precipitated by his attention on self rather than God. His proclamation of his power, his might and his glory is evidence that God was nowhere to be found and not needed. Nebuchadnezzar’s pride was his downfall. He took God’s place at the center of his own existence and believed he had become the master of his own destiny. In doing so, he exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God, and much like a dog chases his own tail, chased after an image he could not attain.
When Nebuchadnezzar succumbed to the temptation of pride, he became less than human. In fact, Daniel makes it clear in very vivid terms that Nebuchadnezzar became like an animal. This text is a warning that we are not far from that. The step from human to animal is not a great one.
When we ignore or abandon relationship with God, we become more animal than human. Now, it is highly unlikely our fall will be as great as Nebuchadnezzar’s, but any time we reject God’s sovereignty, we lean more towards the animal than human.
We can see this in some of history’s great acts of inhumanity—the Holocaust, Stalin’s reign of terror, Pol Pot in Cambodia—and these are just some of the recent acts. To call them inhuman is correct; they are less than human. If we stay with the theme of this text in Daniel, it is fair to call these atrocities more animal than human.
Nebuchadnezzar’s success led to his downfall. Success heightens the temptation to pride because it places us in a position of power, praise and accolade. The danger comes when we start to believe everything said about us. Instead of driving us to our knees in humility and praise, we place ourselves a little bit above everyone around us, and much like the situation at Babel, raise our own tower equal to God.
The sin of pride occurs when we focus our attention on ourselves rather than God. In pride, we take the place of God and attempt to become the masters’ of our own destinies. Pride is the seed of a multitude of other sins because it becomes necessary in order to maintain our supposed position and feed our ego. Pride grows into cruelty, greed, selfishness, self-righteousness and insensitivity to others. All of this is evident in the story of Nebuchadnezzar in the first four chapters of Daniel.
Among the problems with pride is the hurt that comes when we are humbled. None of us is exempt from this; all of us have been humbled at some point or another. While it is not easy to endure, our humiliation often leads to our restoration. This certainly was the case with Nebuchadnezzar: “But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever” (Daniel 5:34).
It took a great fall for Nebuchadnezzar to recognize the kingdom of God is the only kingdom that will endure. It took the humiliation of falling from the position of the king to living like an animal for Nebuchadnezzar to recognize God is sovereign and not the king of Babylon.
Wisdom is being able to learn from the mistakes of others without having to commit those mistakes ourselves. We should learn from Nebuchadnezzar that whatever it is in our lives that makes us think we are in charge and in control is tenuous at best. This story should be a reminder to us of the difference between a fully human life lived under the authority of Christ and to the praise of Christ, and living like an animal.
Discussion questions
• Why is success such a hard thing to handle?
• What are some consequences of pride that you have witnessed?
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