Open letter from Nebuchadnezzar

I once stood as the supreme ruler of all I saw.  Nothing was denied me.  My word was law and my desires were reality — until I encountered the God of Heaven.  While I was master of all that I saw, I was warned in a dream, and its interpretation, that my pride would be my downfall.  I was warned, and for one year I did not change a thing.  And in one moment, I went from exalting in all that I had done and all that was mine, to eating grass like an ox.  I had thought that nothing could touch me , threaten me, or diminish me or my accomplishments.

But God did.

I had a dream before all this happened in which God showed me the great empires that would rule this world.  Mine, the Babylonian, followed by the Persians, the Greeks and finally the Romans.  And God showed that they would all fall; be crushed and swept away from the face of the earth.  So many of you, great and small, are intent on building empires or kingdoms where you rule, where you look and say, as I did, “Look at all I have done.  At all that I have.”  And we think we are good.  But my friend, I have learned and I encourage you to learn from me.  All that you have came because God gave it to you or allowed you to have it.  And He will judge pride and selfishness.  Oh, that I had listened the first time I was told about humbling myself before Him.  But like many of you, the school of hard knocks is the only one that might get our attention.  

All your efforts at kingdom and empire building will fail eventually.  There is a kingdom you can be a part of, though, that never fails and never falters.  But you cannot be king there.  Instead, you must be a servant; you can enter only by humbleness, acknowledging you need of Him.  It does not matter if you are leader of the free world, dictator of a country or Joe the Plumber. The God of Heaven is approachable only through humility, given willingly or forced like me.  And let me tell you, grass may look nice, but it tastes horrible!  

If you want to read my story for yourself, you will find it in Daniel 4 in the Bible.  And lastly, many years later, the Apostle Paul tells us — warns us in Philippians 2:5-11 — about your humbling to come.

Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of the mighty Babylonian Empire, 605 BC – 562 BC

Pressing on…

Senior Pastor Ron Tipton