Nebuchadnezzar's Fall (part 6)

Of course, something like this has been previously heard from Nebuchadnezzar, when, following Daniel’s revelation and interpretation of the king’s dream about the great statue, Nebuchadnezzar responded by saying to Daniel, “Certainly your God is a God of gods and Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery” (2:47).  Interestingly, Nebuchadnezzar’s reported response to the telling of the prophecy of the statue was to build a statue of himself, though made entirely out of gold, whereas in the dream, only the head of the statue of himself was gold, while the rest was composed of different materials. 

In the Daniel story, the prophet informs the king that the various materials used from top to bottom represented kingdoms that would rise up and pass away, beginning with his own kingdom of Babylon.  Nebuchadnezzar’s response, after speaking quite highly of Daniel’s God because of the revelation and interpretation, was to construct the previously referenced image, doing so completely from gold.  This would seem to be an indication that it was his belief that it was in fact the kingdom that he himself had assembled that would never pass away. 

To the construction of the statue Nebuchadnezzar added the requirement for all peoples to bow down and worship the image, doing so as an act of worship towards him and presumably in recognition of what he had now come to think of as his own eternal kingdom.  This, of course, is what precipitated the “fiery furnace incident”, which in turn engendered his proclamation that is recorded at the beginning of the fourth chapter of Daniel.  So it seems reasonable to surmise that there may have been a small bit of disingenuousness in Nebuchadnezzar’s great proclamation concerning Daniel’s God, so the Creator God that had been so gloriously referenced by this great king, seemingly took it upon Himself to make Nebuchadnezzar into a true believer, with the thoughts of his heart eventually coming to match up with the words of his lips. 

Moving on to the thirty-fourth verse of the fourth chapter of Daniel, the reader finds the Creator God’s words to Nebuchadnezzar ringing true.  There it can be read, “But at the end of the appointed time I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up toward heaven, and my sanity returned to me” (4:34a).  Remember, he had been judged and driven from human society.  He had lost his sanity.  He had become, for a specified and appointed time, something less than human. 

These words from Nebuchadnezzar force a consideration of Adam, a recall of his being driven out and his loss of sanity (in a way), as he became (along with all those that followed in his wake) something less than human.  This is said, of course, as one continually bears in mind that man was made as and to be the image of the Creator God, that he might be the reflection of His glory into the world, as well as the being that gathered up the praises of the creation and returned them to their Creator.  Considering this the, truly the failure to rightly bear the divine image---the failure to be truly human---is what it means to fall short of the glory of God.